In Moonlight Black Looks Blue

So far in my project, I have only talked about my excursions to film promotional pieces for various organizations. Because of my limited access to the footage that we shot, I have not been able to link that description of how it was shot with how it will look when it finally ends up on a television screen. Furthermore, the pieces that I have helped film have not been artistic in nature. Intent in a commercial is wildly different from that on the set of narrative film. As I haven't had the opportunity to film a narrative film, I'll just have to talk about what I saw on the screen.

It only seems fitting to talk about the movie nominated Best Picture for 2016. So let's talk about La La Land. Oh wait a second, I mean Moonlight.

Before we go into scenes from the movie, I think we should briefly talk about what it's about. At this point it would be fair to inform you that this post will contain spoilers about the movie. Duh.

Moonlight is the story of Chiron's struggle with his own sexuality and self-identity told in three distinct chapters of his life: his childhood, his adolescence, and his adulthood. Each of these phases of his life are separated into distinct chapters: i. little, ii. chiron, and iii. black respectively. Each of the chapters is titled with Chiron's nickname at that point in his life. In the beginning, Chiron was pinned with the nickname "little" by his peers as a insult to his size and a greater reminder of his inability to control his own destiny. The second chapter shows Chiron's sense of self identity sharpening after a homosexual encounter with his long time childhood friend opens up the possibility of Chiron opening up to another. However, Kevin's, his childhood friend, caves in to peer pressure and tramples the bond he had created with Chiron. This brings us into the third chapter of Chiron's life in which he rebuilds himself in the image of his childhood mentor, Juan, a notable drug dealer in Miami. Here he takes on the persona of "Black", burying his true self under a hard facade.

Just like the poster above, each of these segments is filmed in a different filter. Furthermore, it seems that the quality of the film matures throughout the whole film. As Chiron becomes more sure in his identity, the camera becomes more focused. The camera work of the first chapter echoes the chaos and tramua that swirls around in the mind of young Chiron. There are a few segments in which a handheld camera follows young Chiron, shaking as he flees the torment of his peers. However, by chapter three, this handheld camerawork is changed out for mounted and fixed cameras. One of my favorite scenes shows Black picking up a corner boy. As the cornerboy opens the door the camera swings with the door as it opens and closes. The scene never changing from the camera mounted in the door. Though Black is repressing his true-self, he is finally the one controlling how he is perceived by his community. He carefully crafted a persona for himself knowing full well that it represses his homosexuality and his deeply sensitive personality and in that way, Black understands himself but chooses to portray a persona that can prosper in his environment.

Every movie shares the same basic "vocabulary" of camera shots and cuts. Director's usually chose to close in to show intense emotion or a detail that is important. Panning can be used instead of cuts to show a relationship between two objects as they share control of the shot. However, movie makers have the ability to redefine shots in the context of their own movies and change the meaning of these norms. Moonlight is really good at immersing the viewer in Chiron's world. There are a lot of moments in the movie in which Barry Jenkins uses creative camera work to help drive the narrative in novel and compelling ways but I would rather have you watch the movie than try and interpret my verbose analysis of a visual art form.

Instead, I'm gonna focus on two scenes that disconnect the audio from what is happening on screen.

In one scene during chapter two, Chiron's mother has locked herself outside of the house. As Chiron returns home to find her outside, the camera closes in on only a single of his mother. She begins to ask him where he has been but the shot doesn't actually show her asking him where he's been or explain how she was worried about him. Instead, the shot shows her glancing about and messing with her hair in a somewhat sporadic manner.

The shot along with the knowledge that Paula, Chiron's mother, is a drug addict clues us in that she is high and explains her somewhat clingy behavior. Most importantly, the disjointedness of the audio and the image presented makes the audience feel uneasy. Transiting nicely into Paula's descent from her high and immediate aggression towards Chiron.

Jenkins uses this shot again when Black runs into Kevin, his childhood friend, again at the diner that Kevin works at. When Kevin recognizes Chiron, the camera pauses on a close up of his face while he says "Chiron?". His lips never moving.

This time the effect isn't discomforting. Instead, the scene emphasis the connection between the two characters and the gravity of the situation in where they are once again face to face. The feeling is intimate but warm. It is only made more so by how tight the camera stays on Black's face in the reverse shot.

By closing in so tight the space between them is compressed and by choosing to hold on the expression they both make after seeing each other for the first time in a decade rather than keep rolling the footage in real time, the importance of this encounter is shared with the audience.

The use of this disjointedness of visual and sound in two distinct situations only served to greater emphasize the fact that in the movie, certain people that cared about Chiron were able to bring his true self to the surface. Though both scenes were close up and intimate, the one with Paula set both Chiron and the audience on edge, aware that something was wrong. While the scene between Kevin and Chiron is open and inviting.

Moonlight is a movie that has the ambition and wit to keep exchanges like this terse. The movie takes no time to congratulate itself for expertly weaving so many layers of storytelling into a simple shot-reverse-shot but drives forward to keep telling that story.

Moonlight hails form a class of films that know exactly what they are. What I mean by this is that every aspect of this film contributes in some way to telling the life story of Chiron. The filmmakers never lost focus of the original intent and I hope that Moonlight's designation as Best Picture encourages other filmmakers to not only tell stories this compelling but to look for novel and captivating ways to tell those tales.