"- Every leap of civilization
was built off the back of a disposable workforce."
Something is wrong in these images.
You can't quite put a finger on it.
"- Fire."
But when we watch the movies of Denis Villeneuve
they have a way of making us
uncomfortable.
Uneasy.
And сonfused.
Here's is a world without answers.
"- Tell me where they are."
I like movies
that are staying with me
for days or weeks.
You know, that's the beauty of cinema
when you create images
and those images create emotions
are questions inside yourself.
That's why I would like to do as a filmmaker."
In this video, we're going to explore
how Denis Villeneuve
tells stories about ambiguity
by manipulating the music.
Color.
Editing.
Cinematography and more.
He creates a cinematic experience
built on the notion of uncertainty.
♪ Directing Styles Intro ♪
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Watching a Denis Villeneuve film
makes you ask a single question.
"- What's going on?
- I have no idea."
He would take that answer
as a compliment.
The subject matter of Denis Villeneuve movies
can be quite graphic.
Prepare yourselves.
"- It'll make you feel better.
- You hate that book.
- I don't want to read either."
Let's begin with story.
♪ ♪
Ambiguity is a heart of Denis Villeneuve films.
He often places his protagonist
in world's filled with questions
and ultimately lacking an answers.
"- I think those are their names."
Characters looking into the past
to understand their family history.
Survivors searching for purpose
after a tragedy.
An idealistic field agent
navigating uncharted moral territory.
"- But you don't want to, do you?
- I just wanna know what I'm getting into."
In Villeneuve's films
identity is in question.
Certainty is elusive.
And morality is slippery.
"- But it's work.
It's work that molds them into a child worth havin'."
if you want to build a story like Villeneuve
place your protagonist
in a position of deep uncertainty.
"- Why did you come looking for me? - I do-- I don't know."
And follow their search for answers
no matter how dark
or dangerous the journey.
Our second subject.
Production design.
♪ ♪
How does Villeneuve
capture such deep levels
of ambiguity in his films?
Sets?
Props?
Wardrobe?
The world itself becomes questionable.
In "Sicario",
Kate's first glimpse
at the dark world around her
comes in the opening scene.
A suburban house.
An icon of normalcy.
"- What the fuck?"
Has corpses sealed within its walls.
"- How many total?
We've got 15 in this hall here, about 20 in the back bedroom.
We haven't even checked the attic or under the crawl space."
This juxtaposition of unexpected elements
puts the audience in the place of unease.
Villeneuve echoes this idea in "Prisoners".
Where a nondescript exterior
is contrasted within interior filled with
venomous snakes.
And decorated with a scratchings
of a madman.
If you want to use production design, like Villeneuve
use ambiguous and symbolic imagery
to create unsettling worlds.
In our blog,
we take a closer look at how costumes
are used to separate the doppelgangers in "Enemy".
The link is below.
"- I'm fuckin' crazy?"
Next up.
Color.
Villeneuve uses color
in many ways to maintain this sense of ambiguity.
In "Polytechnique"
the entire film is shot without color.
Which detaches the audience
from the true-life horrors of a mass shooting.
When Villeneuve does use color
he either chooses a single overwhelming color
to create slightly unreal spaces.
Or he uses contrasting colors
to interrupt that consistency
and throw us off balance.
In "Sicario",
we have the grainy green of night vision
intercut with the negative cinematography
of the thermal cameras.
And "Blade Runner 2049"
wraps a number of locations
in overwhelming and distinct color palettes.
The brownish-yellow zen
qualities of Wallace Corp.
The white sterility of Doctor Steline lab.
And, of course,
drowning in irradiated Las Vegas
in bright orange.
But Villeneuve
also uses contrast
to interrupt this consistency.
In "Enemy",
Anthony's blue motorcycle and red helmet
invade Adam's jaundice complacency.
The hazmat suits in "Arrival"
provide extreme contrast
inside the alien ship.
Where we are the ones who don't belong.
"- I'm human."
If you want to approach color like Villeneuve
use a single color
to elevate a location past normal.
And find isolated pockets in the frame
to let a contrasting color pop.
We put together a collection of images
from "Blade Runner 2049"
that demonstrates how Villeneuve uses color
to define the various locations.
Our next subject.
Cinematography.
"- Danny makes the kinds of films
that drew me into filmmaking in the first place
when I was a kid."
As we've seen,
Villeneuve adds elements of ambiguity
to create an unsettling experience for the audience.
Villeneuve achieves this with
off-center framing,
inverted camera angles
and lighting that obscures the subject
rather than illuminating them.
The rule of thirds
is a principle in which subjects
are placed along planes and axes.
♪ ♪
But in many instances,
he ignores the rule of thirds...
...to create frames
with an excess of empty space
either above
or behind the subject.
Like in this shot from "Enemy"
as Adam grapples with the idea of calling his double.
In "Incendies",
the frame is empty behind Simon
as he is blindfolded and vulnerable.
In "Arrival"
Villeneuve takes this idea to the extreme
as the world is literally turned upside down.
If you want to approach cinematography like Villeneuve
break traditional composition rules
to put characters off-center and off-balance.
Follow the link in the description
for a storyboard of this scene from "Sicario"
to see how light and shadow
are used to represent character and theme.
Moving on.
Editing.
Villeneuve keeps the audience guessing at every turn
by constructing nonlinear timelines
and by using collision montage.
In "Arrival",
Louise's contact with the aliens
is fundamentally changing her perspective.
She has visions and dreams
that blur the line between reality,
fantasy,
flashback
and flash forward.
"- Believe it or not
I know something that's going to happen.
I can't explain how I know. I just do."
In "Prisoners'"
Villeneuve uses editing
to create doubt in the viewers.
Detective Loki questions Alex
about the missing girls.
"- Don't recognize these girls? - I didn't see them. May I sit down?
- What do you do in the RV?
- Answer my questions. - Sleep there.
- You sleep in there? You were sleeping out there? In the day?
Why was the RV parked outside the house?"
We intercut between the interrogation
and the forensic team examining the RV.
Villeneuve knows
that when you intercut like this
the audience will make connections
between the elements we're seeing.
"- Were you planning on taking two little girls?
- No.
- Have you done that before? - No."
He wants us to imagine Alex taking the girls.
So if you're editing like Villeneuve
construct nonlinear timelines
and use collision montage
to keep the audience guessing.
We've made a storyboard breakdown
of this interrogation scene.
Head over to our blog on "Villeneuve Directing Style".
Link below.
Moving on.
Sound design.
Villeneuve uses sound
to blur the lines
between fantasy and reality.
Listen to the alien vocalization in "Arrival".
Their praying
and fluttering are distorted.
We can imagine animals on Earth
making similar sounds,
like large underwater beasts
pitch down a few octaves.
The collision between what we expect
and what we receive
is exactly the effect
Villeneuve is going for.
In "Blade Runner 2049",
K has tracked down Deckard
to an abandoned and ancient casino in Las Vegas.
Their confrontation spills into a showroom
where a hologram Elvis performance cuts in and out.
When it's off
K is vulnerable.
When it's on
K can make his move.
"- Look, I don't want to hurt you.
But you're not making it easy."
The randomness of when the music comes in and cuts out
denies our expectations
and creates a tension
that would be absent from the scene otherwise.
If you want to approach sound design, like Villeneuve
find a middle ground
between real and unreal sounds.
And between what we expect
and what we receive.
"- I like this song."
♪ ♪
Our final category.
Music.
Villeneuve blurs the line
between real and unreal.
In "Blade Runner 2049",
we hear this
as K flies into the city.
♪ Hans Zimmer & Benjamin Wallfisch - "Flight to LAPD" ♪
Is that a part of the musical score
or is it a revving engine?
♪ Hans Zimmer & Benjamin Wallfisch - "Flight to LAPD" ♪
In some cases,
the overlap between sound design and music
is nearly indistinguishable.
Listen to this cue from "Sicario".
♪ Jóhann Jóhannson - "The Beast" ♪
When the helicopter finally comes into frame
the sound effects and music
blend together into a single barrage of audio.
♪ Jóhann Jóhannson - "The Beast" ♪
We lose our ability
to distinguish between the two.
Villeneuve keeps us guessing.
♪ Jóhann Jóhannson - "First Encounter" ♪
Is this non-diegetic music
or diegetic sound?
It sounds like an alarm.
A warning.
If you want to use music, like Villeneuve,
blur the lines between Music and Sound.
Use instruments
that sound both exotic
and familiar.
So how does Villeneuve build films
that are so unsettling?
He's drawn to stories
where characters are searching for answers.
As they pass through uncertain world's.
Colored to separate them from reality.
And shot with off-center
or inverted frames.
He manipulates time and space with editing
and creates doubt in our minds.
With sounds that defy expectations
and music that blurs definitions
and makes you question your own ears.
This is the unique style
of Denis Villeneuve.
Check the description for a link
where we dive even deeper into the technicals.
"- Okay."
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