Fight Club - Coursework Essay Draft

The scene from fight club is where Edward Norton is having the acid poured onto his hand by Tyler as a lecture or a right of passage.  Straight away and instantly into the scene we can tell the tone and atmosphere because of the lighting. It also helps us distinguish between the two halves of Tyler’s personality. It’s very dark, bleak and low key lighting. This isn’t a happy cheery story and nothing funny or bright is happening. There are certain places where there is absence of light so that the Edwards features are darkened and hard to see, his expression is unreadable, this reflects his suffer in silence character. The same goes for Tyler, his expression is also hidden due to the lighting, this tells us that certain parts of them are both hidden and they aren’t completely whole, because they’re separate parts of one person and aren’t complete.

Although they are the same person the camera angles tell the audience who is the superior personality and who is in control. The high angle camera looking up at Tyler from over Norton’s out of focus should tells us that Tyler is the dominant personality at this moment in time and he’s more powerful. With Norton being out of focus it tells us that he is not the subject even though Tyler is him, the same person, he still see’s anyone else as more important and stronger. This is reinforced as when the camera is shot-reverse-shot and we see Norton, he is at a low angle and is put in a child’s position, weak and pathetic as if Tyler is lecturing him, as he is given the position of authority.

A lot of the framing in this scene are medium shots and close ups. This is important so we can see the expression, or lack there of, and also the basics of Norton’s face as it is distorted with pain.  With the framing being so small for Norton it tells us that he is being caged, trapped in this pain against his will. In each frame they are both in the shot even if they are out of focus, this reinforces the idea that they are whole and can’t be without each other. Also the close ups with the back light means we can see the sweat coming down Tyler’s face, so that when he puts up his hand shows his scar, the audience knows that Tyler can feel what Norton is going through and he also knows the pain.

The majority of the background is unfocused which tells us that this is not the subject of the scene, however we can still see the setting and what surrounds them, which provides the audience with a lot of information about their personality.  The out of focus and blurry shots of the background tells us that it is not important and the subject is what Tyler is doing. We can see that there is just a mess of things, pots, pans, buckets and dirty litter on the floor. This tells us a lot about Tyler's personality, although as said earlier in the film we're not sure if he has actually paid for this house or he is just squatting, it shoes that he doesn't have the money or time to fix it up. It tells us that he doesn't really care. He's too care free and has other things on his mind and he doesn't like to work. And the fact we know that Norton has the insurance money and could leave it tells us a lot about his personality that he wants to stay, that he finds the place endearing like Tyler and he might be starting to care less.

The appearances of both of the characters tell us a lot about them and we can see that they are polar opposites. Edward Norton's character is in grey block dark colours. His hear is short and very 'corporate' typical of a working office man. He's clean-shaven which could show he's structured and organised. This gives Norton an overall ordinary and boring tone, and with dark colours associated with unhappiness this could tell us about how Norton is feeling and reflects his situations in the film. Where as Tyler looks the complete opposite, we can tell straight away when looking at them both in the frame that they are different personalities. Tyler's longer slightly spiked hair and light stubble reinforces his carefree personality. He is going against the convention of society, this shows he likes to break the rules, which is earlier shown true as he does take part in crime. Tyler's costume being brightly patterned, with his shirt connoting fun and him being interesting shows that he is a loud character. He likes to be seen, known and have fun. This is shown all throughout the film and it shows that he, again like the opposite of Norton, is essentially happy. He doesn't care enough to be unhappy about anything.

The editing and cuts throughout the burn scene are very important as the pace and certain cut ins influence the tone and feel of the scene. The fast paced cut ins going between Tyler and Norton, the shot reverse shot, show the pain and chaos going through Norton's head, the adrenaline rush that he is feeling. When flicking to the cut ins of 'sear' and 'flesh' this is what he is thinking although he says 'do not think about searing flesh'. This tells us that he doesn't want to think of his hand of being seared and his flesh burning but he can not help it. Giving emphasise on the pain building it up and up. The shots of the words with definitions have an evil tone about them because of the font used as if from an ancient book used for dark things. This is reinforced when these shots are coupled with shots of fire and burning, associated with hell. There is a juxtaposition of this earlier on when theres a wide shot of a forest of trees and this gives us contrast between the two cut ins, and shows that Norton is trying to not think about it, like he was trying not to think of 'searing' and 'flesh'.  Each different cut in when it switches to a different setting is in Edward's head and is telling us that he's trying to think of anything but the burn. We can see this when it comes to the shot of his 'cave' which earlier in the movie we know he uses as a sort of 'happy place' and its where he goes to think, which is in an ice cave with the intruding Marla Singer. However even in this cut scene it cuts back to reality and cannot last, because nothing is working.