For my whole life,
I didn't know if I even really existed.
But I do,
and people are starting to notice.
Directed by Todd Phillips of The Hangover trilogy,
Joker is based on the iconic DC Comics villain.
In the bleak, decaying Gotham City,
Arthur wishes to be a stand-up comedian,
but he is rejected from society
and eventually turns into Joker.
Since its first appearance at the Venice Film Festival,
Joker received a huge amount of attention,
breaking various records that
even Todd Phillips did not expect.
In the Venice Film Festival's competitve category,
Joker became the first comic book film
to win the Golden Lion award.
Joker became the the highest-grossing
R-rated films ever,
setting a new box office record.
Joker was highly priased for
Joaquin Phoenix's performance that captures
Arthur Fleck's transformation into Joker.
Along with this performance,
one of the elements that led to Joker's success was
the detailed, thoughtfully crafted cinematography.
Todd Phillips and the Director of Photography Lawrence Sher
wanted to gradually change how the audience and the city
looks at Phoenix's Joker
over the course of the film.
In this episode, I will be looking at how Lawrence Sher
made the audience perceive Joker in a specific way,
how his choice of framing and lens
influenced the audience's gaze towards Joker,
and how he engaged in visual storytelling.
Please note that this video contains spoilers to the film.
Interestingly, the first thing that Lawrence Sher discussed
with Todd Phillips regarding the production of this film
the aspect ratio.
Aspect ratio plays an interesting role in this film.
Both agreed that 1.85:1 is
the best fit for Joker.
1.85:1 is one of the most common
widescreen aspect ratios along with 2.39:1.
But Todd Phillips has not used
1.85:1 aspect ratio in his films
except his debut feature.
Moreover, 1.85:1 was not an aspect ratio
often used by Lawrence Sher.
So why would they introduce
1.85:1 aspect ratio in Joker?
It was important
for Lawrence Sher and Todd Phillips
that early in the film,
both the audience and Gotham City
sees Arthur as a small, insignificant being.
Using 1.85:1 instead of 2.39:1,
the film could expand the space around Arthur.
So the film shot in 1.85:1
made Arthur smaller
by making the dirt and grime of the city
surround him from all sides.
In addition, with 1.85:1,
Arthur's figure is able to fully fill the frame
without being cropped in close-ups,
making the audience feel more connected to him.
I will take the second scene of the film
to look into Lawrence Sher's plan of
making Joker seen as an insignificant being.
Shot on wide lenses, Arthur looks
like a mere part of
the Gotham City landscape.
But Lawrence Sher also uses long lenses
to show Arthur in a close-up.
The choice of using long lenses may look contradictory,
but contains a very interesting meaning.
In films, long lenses blur the background
so they are mainly used to
separate the subject from the background.
So long lenses can express
the alienation of a protagonist.
In romantic films, they express
the dreamlike moment for characters
who are thinking of each other and nothing else.
However, in the thriller genre, the perspective of long lens
is used to express observation and surveillance.
A notable example is the Jason Bourne trilogy
which was released in the 2000s.
Jason Bourne, who was mainly shot with long and zoom lens,
looks close to the audience,
but is actually far from the camera.
Therefore, rather than being connected to Jason Bourne,
the audience feels as if they are
observing or monitoring him from a distance.
Since audience is not yet privileged to know Arthur,
Lawrence Sher wanted to physically and psychologically
distance the audience from him.
So the audience has no choice but to
see Arthur from afar if they are secretly observing him.
Between Arthur and the audience,
obstacles such as people and cars continue to appear,
reminding the audience of the sense of distance
Lawrence Sher wanted to create.
And when Arthur is left alone in the alley
after being beaten up by teenagers,
the camera interestingly
shows him up close in a wider lens,
instead of the voyeuristic long lens.
With the camera's gaze,
the audience finally sees Arthur unobstructed.
Here, the wide lens looks at him
as human eyes might see him,
instead of showing him
buried in the city earlier in the film.
And the title of the film, Joker, fills the frame.
The intention to make Arthur look small and unimportant
can also be found in the very next scene
where Arthur meets a social worker.
The first shot of this scene is of Arthur,
but it is still taken with a long lens.
And like the previous scene that had many obstacles,
the blurred figure of the social worker
creates a barrier between Arthur and the audience.
Even when it cuts to a wider shot,
Arthur is still blocked by various office supplies.
Arthur even looks smaller than the typewriter.
By showing Arthur in the midst of documents and office supplies,
the camera also implies that
Arthur is only a small part of the work
that the social worker has to deal with.
Also, Lawrence Sher intentionally left
a lot of extra headroom in this scene.
He minimized Arthur's presence in the frame,
while also showing the pressure
that he is under.
As the subject's size in the frame decreades,
so does his impact in the scene.
If you are interested in knowing more about
how the subject's size in the frame influences the story,
check out my analysis on Whiplash.
As the film progresses,
the audience witnesses Arthur's misfortunes
and gets to know what kind of person he is.
To achieve this, Lawrence Sher's
top priority was to make the audience feel
emotionally connected to Arthur through the camera
and make them feel one with him.
As Arthur enters his home,
the distanced cinematography towards him changes.
When we're at home with him,
we can be on wider lenses
because now we have the ability to be close to him,
and we're in a place that the rest of the world doesn't see.
Using various elements of cinematography such as
lens, composition, and lighting, Lawrence Sher planned
how he would visually express the emotional and narrative arc.
During the film Arthur works as a clown
until he is abruptly fired.
You're fired.
Still in his clown makeup, Arthur is beaten up
by three drunk men in suits on the subway,
until he shoots all of them and flees.
The story of a clown killing three men from Wall Street
sparks massive clown demonstrations
against Gotham's rich.
Arthur tells the social worker that
he didn't know if he even really existed,
for his whole life, and that people are
starting to notice him.
So one of Lawrence Sher's plan
across various scenes was
juxtaposing very wide shots of
Arthur being small and invisible
with intense close-ups for
emotional connection to the audience.
Arthur's desire of wanting to be seen by the world
is visually fulfilled
when he is in the police car.
Earlier in the film
when Arthur is on the bus,
the camera chooses to focus on
the exterior of the bus.
But in the film's climax when Arthur sees
from the car the chaos that he created,
the camera now focuses on Arthur's face instead of the window.
The cinematography of Joker, while subtle,
greatly influences the audience's emotions
using careful planning that delivered a specific viewpoint and gaze.
In addition, Lawrence Sher has said that in addition to the overarching vision,
he was trying to roll all the time while on set
to capture the raw, improvisational performance of Joaquin Phoenix.
Joker is a visually interesting work,
combining the artful use of techniques
and filming that reflected the performer's senses.
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This was Show Me the Director's Mind,
당감마.