Chernobyl - A Masterclass in Perspective

Perspective is a powerful tool for telling stories in film and television. You can control

perspective

with writing through the stories you choose to focus on and how you tell them. You can control it with cinematography and how you frame an event visually. You can control it. In the edit where you place the focus of the scene, one of the things that makes the Chernobyl miniseries so powerful is its use of

perspective

, let's look at how the creators of Chernobyl, from the writers to the editors, shaped the perspective of each scene in the episode and the show as a whole and how that impacts the story.

This video was featured by the movie. What is perspective in film and television? I'm not talking about point-of-view shots where we see what the character sees, although that is a helpful tool. establishing the perspective of a scene perspective is the point of view from which the audience experiences the scene emotionally and dramatically. I will show some of the tools Chernobyl uses to establish its perspective as we go Chernobyl chooses a more subjective approach to telling its story using the perspective of individuals in many scenes subjective here does not mean less factual, just that the goal is to tell the story as those characters experienced it instead of trying to give the clearest account possible.

The story is more personal and aims to convey emotionally. event as experienced a perfect example of this is episode 4, the cleanup of the Chernobyl area was a massive project that spanned years and involved thousands of people, but to tell this story the series chooses to focus primarily on a group of three men who do a job. and then within that group, the experience of a young person it is extremely difficult to make a story about many people that impact emotionally, psychologically, humans are more likely to empathize with individuals than with groups, so center the story on one individual allows for maximum emotional impact, all you need.

Then there are some visual cues to show the audience that this individual's experience can be multiplied by thousands. By taking a more subjective perspective like this, you'll sacrifice some information in the show - we don't learn many details about everyone else. jobs that were being done but it allows us to become more emotionally invested in the characters the show focuses on. I thought, well, that's all about you, you put a bullet in someone, they're not you anymore, they'll never be you again, but then you wake up the next morning and you're still you. Not only is it important to choose between subjective and objective perspectives for your story or scene, but choosing a more subjective perspective whose perspective you choose for each scene is incredibly important throughout the entire first episode.

The perspective changes in each scene, usually toward the person in that scene encountering the disaster for the first time. We see the disaster first from the perspective of the plant workers as they deal with the initial consequences from the perspective of the political figures as they learn about the disaster. disaster when the firefighters arrive on the scene, the show switches to the perspective of an individual firefighter as he wakes up and arrives at the disaster, but when the firefighters are taken to the hospital, we see that scene from the perspective of a single nurse who wakes up and sees The effects of the disaster for the first time put us in the perspective of each character at the moment of maximum surprise.

It is part of what gives the first episode such a sustained sense of tension as the perspective of each scene varies the primary perspective of the The story as a whole is that Lagasse loves, although many scenes are not from his perspective, most of the scenes he is in are framed from his perspective, the show establishes this by starting with his suicide and him recording himself Telling the story, what does that mean? Nobody knows. Never mind showing us this event largely through the eyes of someone who ultimately committed suicide because it sets the tone throughout the show, when we see their reactions to everything that's happening we know that what drives the show is, of course.

In fact, increase suspense by showing a reaction and then showing what caused that reaction. This is a technique the show will use again to dramatize the exposition, as if this firefighter was severely burned on the hand by a log of smooth black mineral on the ground outside the reactor building. Blackmun smooth graphite. there is graphite on the floor this exposition is dramatically powerful because we saw the gas reaction a few minutes before lacrosse teacher can also use perspective to make the revelation of information feel more meaningful he can do this by showing it to the audience from the person's perspective to which information would be most meaningful if you want to dramatize the firefighters' medical situation, construct those scenes from the perspective of one of the firefighters' wives trying to get to her husband and watching him deteriorate while here if you want to show how widespread the disaster shows that this information was discovered by someone who is far away and who understands the implications of the disaster and how far it is reaching.

I have never hurt Malik no he would have shot me before he came from an outside perspective. It's established in the writing, but the entire production team must work together to create those perspectives and really sell the effect to the audience. Let's go back to the firefighter and his wife in the scene where she and the audience see her condition for the first time. I see it, but notice that most of what the camera focuses on is her face. The shot is an example of using cinematography to establish perspective. If you pay attention to the show's cinematography, especially in the first episode, you'll notice how much time passes. spent on close-ups of characters reacting to things, a shot like this of the firefighter reacting to his comrades being burned is just as dramatically important as showing the burn in some way, it's more important than actually seeing what's happening and throughout the episode As we barely see the details of the actual disaster, this plays an important role in keeping us in the perspectives of these characters, the characters cannot clearly see everything that is happening, so we, the audience, will not see an objective view of what is happening. which is happening because they do not have access to the socket used. establishing the Chernobyl area before the explosion at the beginning of the show is not a good establishing shot of the power plant, the focus of the show is some apartment buildings in Pripyat, we focus on one character and experience the explosion from his perspective as she would do it. having a slow motion sound design and strict and restrictive cinematography in the control room keeps us focused on the operators and their emotional state and reaction, a wide, stable and objective camera would distance us from the emotional state of the characters and outside of Your perspective is not like that. literally seeing what the characters see that puts us in their perspective when we can see their faces and reactions and connect with their emotions when the camera feels like it is in the room with them we are experiencing the scene from their perspective in a scene like this when we see a shot of Legis alone in the frame framed and framed by bodies around him, they were in his perspective, if the cinematographer had wanted to stay in a more objective perspective they could have shown a wider shot showing him more clearly with the characters surrounding him, this personal and individual perspective is consistently maintained for most of the first episode, only on rare occasions and quite late in the episode do we occasionally get wide, slow, steady shots that reveal more of the disaster itself and we only see this type of shots as the characters themselves win. these perspectives an explosion, a disaster or a monster on its own is not very scary it is in relation to the characters with whom we can sympathize that these things become terrifying look at this scene from Deepwater Horizon a film that dramatizes another real disaster we see certain moments from the characters' perspective but these are interspersed with very objective shots of the mechanics of the explosion, the audience is always aware in extreme detail of what is happening, even when the characters do not know what is happening, which creates a flashier emergency scene than the one we see in Chernobyl, but it eliminates much of the suspense in favor of showing the explosion in as much graphic detail as possible and confuses and shapes the perspective of the scene and that is often the mistake of many films.

It's not that they choose the wrong perspective, but that they don't use it. as a tool for their benefit and somewhat arbitrarily they seem to use whatever perspective is convenient. Take the helicopter crash as an example. Many shows or movies would not be able to withstand the maximum action and drama of watching the accident from inside the helicopter with the pilots screaming as it falls to the ground. Chernobyl instead only lets us see it from a distance from the perspective of those watching, It may not be as exciting, but excitement is not the goal here, instead we see and feel the crushing hopelessness and despair, it is not.

That Chernobyl is good because it uses a subjective perspective is that it knows when and how to use perspective effectively. The program uses a more objective perspective. In the last episode, we finally see the gory details of the explosion. We compare how stable it is objective and broad. The angles are and how much clearer the geography of the control room is in these episode 5 flashbacks compared to the scenes in the control room in episode 1. A different perspective is used because the intent of the scene is different. We see these flashbacks interspersed with telling what happened at the trial, the characters are now more objectively aware of what really happened and we are therefore able to view the event from a more objective perspective.

By keeping the cinematography more subjective and restricting the use of objective points of view, it also allows the show how to use these objective shots for maximum impact, the score plays an important role here, helping to give these slow, progressive shots a feel. of doom and dread, and by using the same style that he uses for a shot, this in a shot like this helps the audience. Infer the danger of this pile of clothes and the show doesn't have to explain with exposition how radioactive it is. Editing also plays a big role in building perspective and you can see good examples of this in little things in Chernobyl like intercutting a shot of the firefighter from life with a close up of her face as she approaches the reactor will put us in his mental perspective we know he is thinking about her in this scene we see the encounter from Lagasse's perspective this is largely established by him leaving the camera on in the edit, even while other people are talking, the military and civilian patrols have ensured the region, we see his reactions and stay at closer angles of him instead of showing the room as a whole.

Another way perspective is established through editing is by staying with the characters who lead. Before or during a significant action, establishing a scene by showing the characters walking to the location may seem unnecessary, but it helps place the audience in those characters' perspective for the upcoming scene, for example, in this scene we are mostly analogous to Assad's perspective because we are with him as he approaches the cell, if the editor had chosen to start the scene inside the cell and show it from inside the ligase entering, we would have felt more like the scene was from Alana's perspective , in this scene we stay with the ligase while they wait for a reconnaissance team. to come back, he's back, the show could have stayed with the team while they measured the radiation levels, but staying in Legolas' perspective while he, and therefore we, the audience, wait to find out, increases the suspense, doesn't last three again, the 15,000 prospect is an incredibly powerful tool.

Whether Chernobyl uses this kind of subjective perspective well isn't always the right choice for a story. More objective cinematography, writing and editing can also be used to powerful effect, but I think Chernobyl made the right decision here to maximize the dramatic impact of a story. We already know some details about Chernobyl, it is one of the most effective shows or movies I have ever seen and conveys a sense of desperation and doom. Their use of perspective to place us alongside the characters, as they feel those things, is an important part of their goal. Success thanks to Movie for sponsoring this video, Movie is an online movie download and streaming platform that focuses on a carefully curated library of 30 movies at a time, every day they add a new movie that you have 30 days to watch .

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