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Gotham Analysis

For my film studies written analysis I am going to be looking at the TV series “Gotham” and in particular the Episode 7 from Series 2. In this episode we follow a lot of characters and building on their character arc. Jim and Penguin have a massive action gun scene with it ending with Jim and Penguin heading face to face. As well as this massive fight there is a scene of Penguin and Jim fighting. But im going to look at the Edward Nygma scene where he accepts The Riddler. This is about how Nygma who is lonely guy wanting friends and love turns into a mastermind villain/ his evil nature. In this scene The Riddler is born.

The scene starts with Nygma at the door with his shadow in the window to show his darker personality. It is said that Nygma has Dissociative Identity Disorder as well as autism and textbook psychopathic behaviors. (Tracey, 2015) T All of these mental illnesses are shown throughout the scene using mainly mise en scene and editing to show this. As Nygma walks over to the cold chamber at the morgue he realizes what he’s done and that The Riddler is taking over because he killed his lover. The shot comes from inside the chamber which focuses the audience on dead body and Nygma’s face looking at his dead lover. The camera is angled at a low angle that Nygma look bigger and dominant, but he isn't as he's smaller and further away from the camera, suggesting that he can't control himself anymore and that he's delusional. When he gets closer to her, half of his face is shadowed due to split lighting which represents his split personality. As he stands up he starts to talk to himself or “The Riddler” He is sweating a lot and his hair is all messy but we cut to The Riddler all proper with looking put together. He also doesn’t have glasses on when he is The Riddler to show the use of props as a character change to show he is more powerful and doesn’t need glasses to be smart. The Riddler is shown from a low angle to show that he has power over Nygma. The Riddler is calm when speaking because he knows he is in control and will get the best of Nygma. It cuts to Nygma who gets angry and upset about what The Riddler is trying to say because he is confronting him about how he killed his lover. The camera stays completely still when cutting to Nygma from around 45 seconds in to 1:23. This is to show how he gives in to The Riddler. The scene relies a lot on editing, especially from 0:55 when The Riddler starts to blur in the back to show how he is Nygmas other, evil personality. He starts to walk up behind him giving Nygma slowly to show how Nygma is giving into The Riddler. We can see this in his facial expression because he just stays perfectly still, sweating and throughout the scene there’s a green tint to show the staple colour of The Riddler to show how the birth of The Riddler is happening. There is a lot of editing that went into this scene to make all the effects happen of when Nygma accepts The Riddler and becomes one as he accepts his evil self. As the effect is happening theres an eery echo with a distorted sound like he is morphing as Nygma accepts him. As he is a figure of Nygmas imagination it’s almost as if he cannot be bothered to make him into this other person and he gets weaker and weaker as he breaks down his walls and they become one and the morphing gets more intense as they start to merge until he gives in and becomes The Riddler. It cuts to a side shot to show the sweat in the light and his creepy smile as he says “beautiful”. It then cuts to a low angle shot to show his dominance now that he has accepted himself and his other personality. The song “The Closer to the Bone” by Louis Prima starts playing as he is going in to cut his former loved one with a medical tool as hes laughing to show how he has lost all empathy towards people showing these signs of being a psychopath.

(Tracey, 2015) Tracey, J. (2015). Psychiatrists Diagnose Gotham's Villains with Mental Illnesses. [online] Outerplaces.com. Available at: https://www.outerplaces.com/science-fiction/item/7680-psychiatrists-diagnose-gothams-villains-with-mental-illnesses

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Music Video Analysis

I am going to be looking at the video “Jumpsuit” by the band Twenty One Pilots. I figured this would be a good video to talk about because it’s a video with a lot of symbolism in it. Twenty One Pilots is a band from Ohio that is formed of two best friends, Tyler (the vocalist) and Josh (the drummer). They have been making music together since 2010 when Josh joined the band. They make music of varied genres that include of alternative hip hop, electropop, pop rock, rap rock and alternative rock. Twenty One Pilots are known for creating a whole world through their music and music videos.  

We see a long shot of Tyler standing on top of a car as he says “We’ve been here the whole time, you’ve been asleep. Time to wake up”. Which is implying that the hiatus that they went on for a couple years was one of their busiest years, getting their recent album, Trench, ready. The car scene is very cinematic, filmed in Iceland that looks very beautiful and scenic, using mise en scene to represent something bad but shows the journey Tyler goes on with mental health. The car is set on fire to show the struggles and the danger of himself which is seen in their previous video of Heavy Dirty Soul which was the last video of their last era ‘Blurryface’. The video cuts to an establishing shot of the hills and mountains, Tyler wakes up on the ground in the middle of a stream with a jacket on with the yellow tape which is some sort of protection highlighting his isolation and lack of help he is getting to cope. We then see a character that comes riding on a horse. This has religious connotations of revelation 6:8 in the bible where it says “I looked and behold a pale horse: and his name was Death, and Hell followed with him”. This character might be a representation of Tyler’s thoughts, feelings and anxieties that keep him in the valley and lead him to his death. Black, red and white all the exact colours of Twenty One Pilots’ previous album, Blurryface which leads us to believe that the character is the personification of the album and Tyler's mental illness. He is riding to the valleys to capture Tyler and take him back to the tower of silence. We then see an over the shoulder shot of Tyler looking up at the cliffsides where people come around. The shot is taken at a low angle to make it unclear about if these people are foes or friends. The rider comes along to try and consume him and take him back to his depression which is shown using a lot of tracking shots to show the speed that represents how fast depression and anxiety and other mental illnesses can hit. But when the shot is showing Tyler, it zooms in and then cuts to him on the car symbolizing the dangers that he faces and the struggles that are about to hit him. Tyler looks like he has already given up and is consumed by the hooded figure. The camera pans round and from a mid shot of both ‘Blurryface’ and Tyler to just showing Tylers neck and his hands putting black paint on. Tyler follows ‘Blurryface’ and sees a yellow flower on the floor reminding him of hope. The people at the top of the cliffs throw off the yellow petals when they see ‘Blurryface’ to offer Tyler help to show how there are those few people who are there for you when struggling. He starts to run and the video flashes from him on the car to him running, giving the sense of danger or worry for Tyler as he goes through this experience. Shots are only about 1-3 seconds long to also enhance this feeling of danger. As this happens the fire on the car gets bigger and bigger to symbolize those emotions that he is going through trying to combat mental illness. The song finishes by fading to black then showing a beautiful shot of Tyler lying down in a stream where you can hear the water rushing to show the sense of loneliness but also peace because it’s so quiet you can hear the water, The shot cuts to Tyler jumping off the burning car and putting on the jacket with the tape on as if he is ready to go on to the next chapter of his life.