Shot for Shot: Analysis Part 1, Warrior

The Original Scene from the film

Begins after the opening title to the line "Just twelve", 4:54 time

This is the opening shot of the scene. Tommy has entered his dad’s house. He hasn’t been there for twelve years. The lighting establishes the low key lighting throughout the whole scene. Heavy shadows are in this scene. The camera movement will be a tilt up.

This is the end of the tilt up at Tommy. We see Tommy look around the house like a visitor would. Tommy is barely in the light to even show that he has been in the shadows for the past years. There is an orange/green tint as well. Also, we need to make sure that light is hitting the door and creating that nice texture on the wall to his right. We are still getting detail in his jacket though so we need to bounce just enough light onto his front.

This is the first cut we get onto the dad in the scene. He is in the kitchen making coffee for Tommy. This is important because he is not making Tommy or himself a drink because the dad has been sober for a long time. We establish the kitchen and there is another tilt down in this scene. We see the dad and then we see the coffee. The low key lighting is still present and we keep his face in the shadows like Tommy’s.

The camera follows Tommy’s back in most of the shots. We follow him look around his dad’s house. In this scene, the camera and the lighting hide both subjects’ faces a lot which is symbolic. Their relationship isn’t strong. There is much tension between them right now. Forgiveness still needs to be made from Tommy’s end to his dad.

This shot is important because we understand more about the dad. We see the glasses on the Bible which says so much. This image says that the dad has been reading the Bible and has been trying to get closer to God. This is a great shot because this sets up Tommy accusing Paddy, the dad, for reaching out to God and not out to him or his mother. They talk about that later in the scene. The power of art in film is incredible and how it helps the story. We still have the low key lighting and this is still handheld.

This a shot on Tommy staring at the Bible and the pictures of his brother on the table. We see that he is still not fully lit. We have a nice practical in the shot from the lamp. The curtains create some great flat space. This shot is still handheld.

This a fantastic wide shot of the place. We get more established of where this is happening. We see the kitchen and we see the living room where Tommy is walking. We see Paddy in the background. We see how dark the rooms are which says much about their relationship and also how Paddy is a single man. The house is quiet and they are alone. This helps us see the low key lighting. This is a static shot.

We are still in low key lighting. We now see the frames that Tommy is seeing. We are handheld. We are getting some nice hair light on him and we get some light on the frames. Tommy is now reminded of his brother. His brother, he would say, is the better half and he has the better life. This starts to build the relationship status of Tommy and his brother.

Here are the pictures that Tommy is looking at. We are handheld and we are right by Tommy. The wrestling picture establishes that they are both fighters which the title is The Warrior. Having the two pictures of the brothers right next to each other is smart because as a viewer we compare the two, which this whole movie you are doing that very thing. We need light right on the pictures and that’s pretty much it for lighting.

This is Paddy’s entrance with the coffee. We see has two coffees. He is trying to be a nice father and share with his son which sets up how the dad will share his talents and train Tommy later in the story. We see more of the house. The low key lighting is still present.

We are handheld and we are right by Paddy. We see the coffee clearly and we see how it is not an alcoholic drink. Paddy is trying to share with Tommy. We get some variety from the other shots so we are tight on the coffee. Only the coffee and hand are lit.

We get Tommy’s reaction to the coffee. He is upset. He thinks he should get offered an alcoholic drink. He tries to rub the pain in his dad’s face. We have some key light coming in from the right and the left is very dark. We still have that green tint. We are handheld here.

The handheld shot becomes a OTS on Tommy. We get Paddy’s shoulder in frame. This is a nice framed shot. The lighting is similar to the last shot. He expresses his frustration with him as he holds his own drink in a sack next to his waist.

Now we a reverse shot on Paddy. The key light is in the same place for Paddy. We will fill the right side just a little. This is when Paddy says he has been sober. This dialogue is important so we are nice and tight. They are face to face like fighters are in a ring.

Here, Tommy gets closer in the OTS like a fighter does in the ring. He is only lit on the key side and that’s it. We have a little hot spot on the eyebrow which I want to recreate. Paddy is very dark. We are still handheld here.

Tommy is disappointed in Paddy’s response. The lighting is the same from the last shots except we need more light on Tommy. He has some hair light on his hoody. Paddy explains why he is sober. We are still handheld.

This shot is important because Tommy drinks right in front of his dad right when he just said that he is sober. Tommy has the hard key light on the right and then very dark on the the left. The drink does not get that much light. This is one of the most powerful shots for the story.

Tommy puts his liquor right next to the pictures. He drinks because of his past. There are the two brothers next to the liquor so now we compare all three. All three are lit. We are hotter onthe left side. We are handheld here.

Paddy is disappointed in his son. This is a great reaction shot to Tommy. Paddy shares info on his brother’s success. We have the nice practical again. Here, we have more light on the fill side. We have a nice shadow from the hat on Paddy’s face. We have a shallow depth of field with these two shots.

Here is the brother now with his family in this shot. We see more frames. There are nicely lit. We still have dark on the sides of frame. We are handheld here and we need to be eye level on the pictures so that our eyes go right to the pictures.

I love this shot. The lighting is awesome. We barely light Tommy so that we get detail of his front and we light his back more. The nice light in his eye is just enough to see. I know this will take time to recreate. We are still handheld here.

Here is another two shot and it is very similar to the last two shot of them. The lighting is similar. Paddy now covers more of the lamp. The background is darker than the foreground. We are handheld here.

Tommy picks up the frame of his brother’s family. The lighting is more on the frame and the hand instead of his arm. The low key lighting is present. We are handheld still. We see the picture come closer to Tommy.

Now in this scene there is some fun with the 180 line. We have a two shot of Paddy in the background and Tommy staring at the frames. We have the practical light hitting Paddy’s face and we have a practical hitting Tommy’s face in the front. Here we are nice and wide. We get the door line splitting up the two to create that separation.

The pictures of the past hit Tommy in the face. His memories come back to him and he sees his wrestling pictures. We are handheld here and we create an OTS. We have harsh shadows coming from the frames so we need to have the light coming from the bottom left.

Same concept here with the pictures in front of Tommy. We get a sense of the family from the pictures. We are handheld still and these pictures do not have as much light on them.

Here we are back on the wide two shot of the two. The light from the practicals help us here. We still need to fill in the middle so we get the detail of the separation. Tommy’s face is down once again which reflects his attitude towards his brother.

Tommy picks up the picture of his mom and him. We are handheld still and the lighting is pretty dark. We have the green tint still. We need to be careful with the reflections coming from the pictures.

We see Tommy turn towards Paddy. We see the practical and we have nice levels here. Tommy is standing and Paddy is sitting. Tommy holds the picture of his mom and here he talks about his mom.

Here we have the two face lighting, the low key lighting. We have a hotspot on the picture on the right. This is a great reaction to his mom’s death. The key light is coming from the left. We are handheld still.

Here we have the two shot again but we are not as wide as we usually are on the two shots. The camera will be further back from the subjects. We have a nice warm patch of light hitting Tommy’s face and ear. The practical of the lamp really helps us with Paddy.

We jump the 180 line! But since we are well established in the room and we are handheld, it is not very distracting. Tommy confronts his father for being a drunk and being out of his life. The light still hits that frame with his brother which is is nice because its like if the brother is there.

To recreate this OTS we need to be a shallow depth of field, look at that shoulder. Crazy. The practical works nicely for key light and then we need to fill on the right a bit. We are handheld here. Paddy is apologizing. We are at a high angle to show the power of Tommy.

We have the nice low key lighting. We are low angle now and still shallow depth of field. The key is on the right side of Tommy and the light is wrapping around his face. We will have some fill on the left side.

We move in a little tighter on Tommy when he takes a drink. He still doesn’t care that his dad is trying to stay sober. Tommy is bitter. The light isn’t as harsh on Tommy. He is coming more in the light. We still need to have a shallow depth of field because of Paddy’s shoulder.

We move in tighter on Paddy. We still have a shallow depth of field. The practical light is our key light. We will bounce a little on the right side. Paddy stays sitting and shares with Tommy that him being sober is real to him and it matters to him. We are at a high angle.