LoPretzel Productions
Cinematography Portfolio

The December 2014 film, Selma, directed by Ava DuVernay, is based

on the historical voting rights marches lead by Martin Luther King Jr., James Bevel, Hosea Williams, and John Lewis in 1965. This marches lead protesters from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. The movie starts with King going to Selma, speaking out to the community and working hard to get the citizens the right to vote. The movie follows King's journey to win voting rights, facing challenges while keeping strong morals. 

This movie is so powerful, not just because of the topic and

historical events if covers, but also because of the acting, music (it actually won a Golden Globe award for Best Original Song), and cinematography. About 4 minutes in, the scene switches from Martin Luther King Jr. accepting his Nobel Peace Prize, to 5 african american girls walking down the stairs. Viewers can assume that they're in a church, due to the stained glass windows and the topic of the girls conversations. They're talking about what could be assumed is baptism, making light conversation about how they do their hair and such. Suddenly, one girl stops on the stairs. About 3 seconds later, a large explosion, and what we could assume is 5 dead girls. I was actually so shaken up, that I jumped when I first heard the explosion. For a few seconds, the explosion is seen in slow motion, with dresses and shoes floating across. The scene changes to the rubble, covering up the girls. This scene is so powerful, showing how hatred and racism can ruin the lives of even 5 little girls who were on their way to church. The music accompanying the pan out from the rubble is a solemn orchestra, giving the audience time to take in what they just saw. From this scene forwards, I was prepared to watch a very realistic take on what happened during this time period. It cuts to Annie Lee Cooper filling out a sheet, registering to vote. The next cut is a view from up the stairs, down to where Cooper is sitting. This angle makes her look small, even insignificant against the marble flooring (sidenote: the lense they used is so pretty, the focus on Cooper when everything else behind her is basically unrecognizable is so cool!! anyways back to the review). The next conversation, between Cooper and the man working the register is so powerful. It's the first real showing of racism in the movie. He asks her to recite the preamble of the United States Constitution, then asks how many county judges in Alabama. When she answers these two questions right, he asks her to name ALL 67 judges in Alabama. She sighs and he stamps "DENIED" across her paper. The script was written so well for this part, as when she comes up he says shes making a fuss, then later she states that "it's all right this time" and he says "its right when I say its right" (I know somehow I'm writing so much, but everything in this movie is just so well done in my opinion). In class we talked about how in the West Wing, they have "walk and talk scenes" where two characters talk and well... walk! they did one of these about 9 minutes in, however they didn't use a steadicam (they did use a steadicam about 41 minutes in for a "walk and talk").  It cuts into the oval office in the white house, with a wide shot. I'm assuming this is to show how much stuff the president had in his office, two couches, portraits, bookshelves full of expensive things. It really plays into the difference in lives between people such as the president and poor african americans during the time. Another scene I thought was important was at 11:50. Instead of talking about King's proposed plan, the president changes the topic to the War on Poverty. At this point, the president is standing up, high above King. He then reaches down, and pats King on the back. This illustrates how the African American peoples were looked down upon my powerful white men. Throughout the whole movie, the dialect is very different than it is today, what I could only assume is accurate to the time, especially in the southern United States. 18 minutes in, we arrive back at King's house. There, it's obvious the time period. The set design decorated the house very well, and it was obvious when I saw it of the time period. Often, when King is practicing or writing a speech, he says it outloud, and then the line he was saying either is repeated in a few minutes or leads directly into the next seek, which I thought was an interesting way to show a transition of time. Throughout the whole movie, especially during the outdoor scenes, I could see their color correction. The scenes had a very sepia toned vibe to them, washed out with brown hues. I thought it was interesting, and a really nice touch that added a lot of feel to the movie. The protest scenes were definitely the most powerful to me, especially when the African Americans that were peacefully protesting were being attacked and hurt by the white police forces, and even white locals in Alabama. There was a scene where police bombarded into a diner, continued to assault a family that was at the protest and kill one of the men. It was so powerful to see his mom hold his head, crying and screaming while is grandfather was beaten in the background. The MOST powerful moment in this movie, is the march on the bridge. The violence depicted, the descriptions gave by the voiceover of the journalist, over the sounds of the screaming and horses and whips, I started crying. This movie didn't hold back, and I think thats so important. Shielding people from what truly happened would be a disgrace. The short time between cuts, the sound effects, the movement of the camera, it all added together to create this powerful feeling of just fear and sympathy. There was another scene that was just heartbreaking, two white men who participated were walking out of a building, and were attacked, and bludgeoned. To death. Towards the end, the final scenes where they got their rights and they were walking along the bridge in triumph, the song they used was beautiful and they used actual footage from that victory march and it just adds an effect that THIS IS REAL. At the end, they had little bios of characters, and what they continued on to do in life. I thought it was really interesting to see how this affected life RIGHT AWAY and how it really made some of the things King talked about in the beginning came true. I want to talk about each and every scene, but I dont want to bombard you with too much. Even when watching tv shows now, I keep a close eye on the character's eyes to see if I can see the key light, but throughout most of the movie I didn't notice any straight up light reflections, but I could definitely tell now when there were lights added to make sure the characters were seeable even in dark moments. 

I would absolutely recommend this movie. To everyone. There is

not a person that should not see this movie. It is able to show the awful effects of racism, hatred, and not being able to accept differences. It shows the journey that many groups of people had to take to be able to get the rights they deserve. This movie was made so well, and the whole time I was just shocked, I had never imagined how insanely difficult this must have been. Being brought up, my parents would always take my sister and I to any museum in the state we were in, and often times they would be historical museums. I saw Little Rock High School and the museum that went with it, we saw historical museums where I saw a picture of african americans being dumped into a mass grave. Even when we visited the Alabama state capitol building, our tour guide was on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. He showed us the horse hoofprints still scarred into his back. Even then, I still had a hard time imagining all the tragedy. This movie allowed me to see it, and understand it in a way I hadn't before. This movie is so powerful, and I think it's such an important topic that hadn't been brought into the limelight in such a gigantic way before. I watched it with my parents and they thought it was spectacular as well. Though its a historical movie, so we already know how it ends, I still recommend that you watch it (if you haven't already), Muench!