Mis-En-Scene: "Glory Road"

I was trying to think of a montage that really influenced me, but nothing really came to mind. So then I thought of what movie influences me or brings out emotions. One of the movies that tends to my emotions is "Glory Road" directed by James Gartner but I want to take a lot at the cinematography by Jeffrey Kimball and John Toon.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385726/?ref_=nv_sr_1

I was unable find the clips of the movies I wanted to share, but the link ahead goes to the trailer. 

I am unsure if the two scenes I want to share or a montage, but I like that they show opposites in the emotions felt in this movie and the aid of cinematography. 

Below I have shared just a few of my favorite frames from the scenes.. and hopefully will be able to share the scenes in class today thanks to the courtesy of YouTube rentals.  

The first scene starts at 32:50 and sets up the scene to be character led for a short period of time. The character followed is Harry  Flournoy. 

 Text in the beginning sets the scene. 

The Law of Pragnanz or Law of  Closure helps to build the scene and dominate role of the Harry's mom as she is pieced together between different cuts. She is build vertical giving you the sense of power and authority forcing you to look up at her as her whole image is created. 

                                     

This frame plays into the how negative space is used in cinematography for anticipation. I think you mostly see this is horror films, but is done well here to entice the humor within the scene. 

The next scene is also character led through Nevil Shed and starts at 36:20. This mini montage plays to entices a serious tone to setting.This first frame is a beautiful shot. The natural framing of the door helps produce the motion vector of the extra light spilling in, hinting at possible foreshadow as Shed is faced with being kicked off the team. The patterns of the bleachers and tile create great texture withing the frame. Where Nevil sits adds harmony to the frame.

In this scene vectors play a huge role. The first frame uses Shed's nose as a index vector toward the door seen in the previous frame deciding whether he should leave Texas.Then the same vector of his nose points toward the audience looking at the court, shown to the audience in the next frame. The two different angles of the index vector helps tell the story as Nevil debates between leaving and continuing to play basketball.

Great use of two-thirds here with the placement of the ball and another example of vectors using the lights as a graphic vector. The reflecting light off the dust on the court also adds beautiful texture.

Again, just another incredible shot where figure to ground is used as the subject fills and pushes against the frame, helping to capture that human emotion and drive the story.

Conclusion

The film of Glory Road is story driven rather than character driven, but is crafted so that pieces of character drive scenes piece together the story of the team. Gartner and Toon do a remarkable job of capturing human emotion and character personality as they use the Gestalt principle figure-to-ground and frame character by using other characters to place the audience within the characters view. I have always loved this film and now love it a little more consciously thanks to visual design and cinematography.