Hidden Figures in Film Tactics

                Within any culture, there are a variety of ways in which people express their thoughts and emotions regarding the many prejudices and inequalities that are seen.  Artistic expression is one way in which these thoughts can be expressed in deep and thoughtful ways that evoke strong emotion from an audience.  Film, is one specific art form that is used to show an audience, whether it is subversive or not, certain injustices within our culture and how to adequately acknowledge and mitigate them.  In order to understand this concept better, I looked to a clip from the move Hidden Figures.  This movie is a historical account of the African-American women who played a crucial, and hidden, role in the 1960s space race and getting our men to the moon.  The specific clip I chose is when one of the main characters, Katherine, was being scolded by her boss for being late; him failing to realize that she had to walk a ridiculous length to use a ‘colored’ bathroom.  It was a contentious point in the movie in which the character stood up for herself and the film used specific tactics for evoking particular emotions.
                At this point in the movie, Katherine was feeling very overwhelmed by the amount of work she was being given without receiving adequate praise.  This contributed to her emotions of reacting against her boss, who came to represent all the oppression she was experiencing in society all the time.  This counter-hegemonic approach demonstrates how Katherine’s character represented a challenge to the status quo of the time (Whalen, 11/28/17); she would not be subjected to the same racism if she was contributing so much for the betterment of society.  What was also interesting was the purposeful way in which the movie evokes a certain emotion through sound.  For example, throughout most of Katherine’s speech, there is no sound other than her voice.  This absence of both diegetic and non-diegetic sound allows the audience to become more focused on the words being spoken and the emotion behind them, then, once the audience is invested in the character’s stance, the non-diegetic soundtrack kicks in to encourage the emotions you are feeling (Whalen, 2017).
                Overall, the view used in this clip is a romantic realism, or a view in which the camera movement follows a character’s emotions.  As Katherine enters the scene, she is clearly ravaged by emotion and rain and as the scene progresses, the audience can see how the camera is following her progressing emotions.  Furthermore, the use of sound throughout the scene helps to attach the emotion that helps the audience become more invested in the overall thought behind the scene.

Comments

Popular Posts