SSC Film Studies

Whiplash Rushing or dragging scene

Fletcher (J.K. simmons)    Andrew Neyman (Miles Teller)

This scene is very shocking for a number of reasons one of the main reasons 

I believe this is a shocking scene is because it gives the audience an a central response to this scene because we have all had that teacher who wants to get everything perfect but can be very unfair. The director uses that to his advantage in this scene very well. Because J.k. Simmons starts off acting like this very nice teacher who understands people can make mistakes. So we don't believe that J.K Simmons would be capable of hurting anyone. He then gives the audience a false sense of security making us think that Neyman is finally getting the tempo right then he suddenly throws a chair at Neyman. This passive aggressive nature shocks us a lot because from this point on we believe that Fletcher could be capable of anything.

The camera is very affective in this scene as well because when Fletcher is being nice and calm it is filmed at a medium close-up over the should shot from Neyman showing that this is not usual for Fletcher as the framing because of Neyman in the right and the end of the camera at the left. Gives a claustrophobic feel to the this part of the scene and shows it is not natural for Fletcher to be so calm. This is shown when Fletcher throws a chair at Neyman it is a ver wide shot showing how natural this sort of behaviour is by hime because he is open to do it when he wants.

There is a shot before this scene where Fletcher is talking to Neyman and actually calming him down giving him support and asking about his family.