How To Create Conflict Without Dialogue

thanks to mubi for sponsoring this video get your 30 day free trial at movie.com thomasflight i like chess and i find it interesting and engaging so i hope i'm not offending anyone when i say that it is not a cinematic game actually on one level it mimics one of the most cinematic things we portray on screen two people in conflict sitting down across from each other having a conversation but what i mean is that the game itself what's happening on the board is not easily conveyed visually it takes at least a moderate knowledge of what is a pretty complex game to understand the significance of the individual moves and the position of the pieces on the board and even if you could expect an audience to know what's going on on a chessboard portraying those moves clearly on screen would be very visually awkward and boring but queen's gambit isn't really about games of chess anyway the chess games simply set the stage for dramatic conflict between elizabeth harmon and her opponents and beth's own internal conflict with herself in the second episode of queen's gamut there's a climactic scene where very few words are spoken and yet there's drama conflict and a story arc that we can clearly follow since the filmmakers couldn't rely on the action on the board or dialogue to supply the drama they had to create it entirely through physical performance cinematography editing and score first let's look through the conflict and the story that's established in the scene and then we can examine the techniques used to create these story beats visually [Music] the main conflict in the first half of the scene is between beltick and beth's emotional approaches to the game harry beltik what's your name beth harmon beth is taking things very seriously and is slightly unsure of things because it's her first tournament beltic doesn't see beth as a real threat and is behaving overly casually arriving late after she's made the first move having run down his own clock beth is put off by his casual demeanor and becomes frustrated when she's unable to make a move that makes him take the game more seriously she tries to focus and get the upper hand but she's emotionally shaken when she's unable to be right back she excuses herself to the bathroom where she takes the drug she uses to enhance her cognitive performance while playing chess when she returns she's more focused and makes decisive moves that give her the upper hand an unsettled belt tick he's forced to play more seriously but it's too late and beth is able to win the opening shot seems to establish beth as having the upper hand over the chessboard the low angle makes her tower over the board and she appears confidently angry harry beltic's lateness is established clearly through the empty seat the sound of the ticking clock beth's annoyance and the clock in the background but when harry enters so casually next cup of coffee he towers over beth the cinematography subtly indicates that beth might have command of the board but for now harry has commanded the scene i think the choice here not to shoot down on beth for shadows her win but the camera is still conveying the temporary upper hand that harry has by letting him loom even larger on screen harry beltic what's your name beth harmon from here the drama is defined through performance actor harry melling shows us the casualness and ease of harry's first move and anja taylor joy shows us how beth's annoyance and anger at his lateness melts into surprise that he's so casually confident her focus here as it's portrayed by taylor joy seems to be on shaking harry's attitude and not on the game itself this is portrayed through beth's glares at harry but also through how the emphasis is placed on him and not the board in both the cinematography and the editing for example this cut into a close-up of his yawn especially emphasizes where beth's focus lies meanwhile you may notice that harry barely acknowledges or looks at beth he keeps his attention on the board and continues to quickly and casually respond to each of her moves without dialogue the actor's physical performances have to do a lot of the heavy lifting to convey the dramatic conflict look at how taylor joy uses this quick glance to convey how beth is checking in with beltick to see if his demeanor has been shaken after a move or how her shoulders fall subtly and disappointment when he is able to respond to yet another move quickly and decisively this back and forth continues for a while beginning to build suspense in the scene the cinematography and rhythm of the editing at this point portrays the characters as fairly evenly matched they're framed equally in the profile and over the shoulder angles because most viewers won't be able to tell by the board how the game is progressing this equality of framing helps convey that neither player is decisively winning the game at this point and a break in cinematography from the over-the-shoulder angles to this more straight-on shot as well as from the faster back and forth editing rhythm to a longer hold on this shot combined together with beth's change in posture visually indicates a shift in beth's thinking and approach to the game she's trying to focus to find a move that will break harry's casual attitude this cutaway to the audience and then back to beth in the same position helps signify that time is passing we feel innately that she's probably been mulling over this move longer than we actually see her think about it on screen but even after all this concerted effort harry's response is so quick and casual that it doesn't even warrant being shown on screen instead the focus remains on beth's mounting frustration and when harry continues in this attitude beth for the first time starts to look worried and her worry develops into fear she might lose the game be right back beth heads to the bathroom and takes the fictional tranquilizer that she used to help learn chess the shift in the scene and the onset of the drug is marked by the introduction of score [Music] score itself carries emotion in this case the triumphant score signals to us that beth is now confident she'll be able to win the game but aside from that the score's presence also works in contrast against the absence of score so far to indicate a shift in the scene the moment in the bathroom is composed as a single shot which contrasts the faster editing of most of the rest of the scene and it reflects the scene's opening shot these longer shots help to create a separation between best perspective when she's on her own and her perspective when she's facing an opponent the subtle downward movement of the camera in this moment serves the dual purpose of revealing the ceiling where beth visualizes the chess games and making beth look larger and therefore more dominant and confident on the screen when we return to the table it opens on harry's reaction and through melling's performance we see that he seems to be noticing something significant besides the score and the shifts and performances the other change you'll notice is the shift in cinematography the scene moves from the more conventional over the shoulder shots used earlier to these more direct centered and opposite close-ups it gives the feeling that beth's focus has narrowed these super close-up shots of the board also help indicate that her focus has shifted from harry's attitude to the board and the game itself the shallow depth of field and the camera's tight focus on the pieces conveys beth's type focus on those pieces and shifting her focus and gaining the upper hand in the game beth achieves her goal from the first half of the scene shaking harry's attitude and some of the conflict of the scene is resolved at this point even though someone not familiar with chess might not be able to know what's happening on the board the position of the pieces on the board does gain some symbolic significance the game in this scene is a recreation of a real game from 1955 played by rasheed nesmetanov and genre kasparian the specific game is one that ends with white's queen and black's king directly beside each other part of the narrative conflict of this scene this episode and the show as a whole is beth navigating a world that is dominated by men representing beth with the queen and baltic with the king allows the scene to end with the clear symbolism of the queen defeating the king the scene has resolved its immediate conflict of beth's confidence being shaken by harry's casual attitude but it leaves some unresolved conflict to build suspense for the rest of the show we're left with the question did beth win because of the effect of the drug itself or did the drugs simply restore her confidence so that she could win using her natural ability and we'll have to continue watching to find out it's not the lack of dialogue that makes this scene so great there's a lot of great scenes with dialogue throughout the show but when the dialogue is stripped away it helps us see clearly the elements of the show that i think make queen's gambit so great the writing and plot are compelling but it's the attention to detail to visually convey the story in both the filmmaking and performances that really makes it shine mubi is a hand curated online streaming cinema they have a huge selection in their library and the now showing section introduces a new film every day with an explanation of why it's worth your time recently in the library i watched the perverts guide to ideology directed by sophie fines this film is essentially a feature-length video essay sophie finds combines clips from films and other media and pop culture with the philosophical and political musings of slovenian philosopher slavoy zizek whether or not you agree with xi jiax politics it's a fascinating film and a great example of the potential of video essay on a larger scale check out this film or any of the others from mubi's selection of art house independent and farn films when you sign up for your extended 30-day free trial by going to movie.com thomasflight that's mubi.com thomasflight i love mubi and i want to thank them for their ongoing support of my channel thanks as well to my patrons for their ongoing support if you enjoyed this video i did a live stream of my editing process on my second channel check it out with the link in the description and subscribe to my second channel if you're interested in future editing and q a live streams isis for protection

Channel: Thomas Flight

Views: 285,225

Keywords: Video Essay, Thomas Flight, Queen's Gambit, Queen's Gambit Review, Queen's Gambit Analysis, Scene Breakdown, Queen's Gambit Scene Breakdown, Queen's Gambit Beltik Scene, Queen's Gambit Beltik and Beth, Anya Taylor Joy, Harry Melling, Beth Harmon, Chess, Conflict, Cinematography, Editing, Editing Breakdown, Queen's Gambit Behind the scenes, bts, Review

Id: iLS0vzockMc

Length: 11min 44sec (704 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 11 2020