- [Narrator] The opening shot of El Camino
is not of Jesse Pinkman, but of what he's looking at.
When he does step into the frame, he remains out of focus.
A shot like this puts the audience
into the character's perspective.
We see the character we're supposed to be connecting with;
but the focus isn't on them, it's on their point of view.
El Camino elevates Jesse Pinkman from his position
as iconic supporting character in Breaking Bad
to leading man.
The approach to the world
of Breaking Bad in El Camino shifts from
a broader story that contains Jesse,
to Jesse's perspective as the story.
In this video, I want to examine the techniques
used by the filmmakers of El Camino to show that shift.
Placing us inside Jesse's perspective
throughout the film.
(serious music)
El Camino abandons the sixteen by nine aspect ratio
common in TV, and used on Breaking Bad,
for a 2.39:1 aspect ratio, more common in cinema.
Director Vince Gilligan and cinematographer Marshall Adams
put this wider aspect ratio to good use to place
Jesse front and center in the film.
One of the ways they do this is to use the edges
of the wider frame to keep Jesse in shots
even when he's not the main focus.
This keeps Jesse as a constant visual presence
in many scenes, and the focus for the audience overall.
Let's look at this scene with Badger,
Skinny Pete, and Jesse.
In scenes with the three of them from Breaking Bad,
visually, they are all treated with similar emphasis,
as you can see here.
But in El Camino, Jesse is the obvious emphasis
in the frame, even when he's not speaking.
In scenes like this one, there's almost never
a shot without Jesse present in the frame.
- A shower will make you feel a whole lot better!
Truth be told, you look like you're hurting for one.
- Church, no offense.
- [Narrator] One of the interesting things
about El Camino is even though the story centers on Jesse,
and he's the film's main character,
he doesn't do most of the talking.
Much of the film is Jesse listening and reacting
to other characters.
- Yo, I got Axe body spray, I got Obsession for men,
I got Tommy Hilfinger.
Feel free to use any of them you want, you know?
Use 'em all.
- Obsession's the bomb, yo.
I got it for him for Christmas.
- [Narrator] So in many scenes, even when other
characters are saying important or pivotal lines,
the camera lingers on Jesse and his reaction
as he's listening.
- She brought it straight in here to show me.
She actually thought I didn't know it was there.
- [Narrator] But besides the wider aspect ratio,
shallow depth of field is also used to
emphasize Jesse within the frame.
In many shots, Jesse is in focus while the other characters
around him blur into the background.
The composition and blocking of characters in shots
also places focus on Jesse.
Shots like this.
- The news that bad?
- There's just a whole lot of it.
- [Narrator] And this, frame Jesse clearly at the center
of the image and the story.
And even when he's not in the shot,
composition is used to keep the focus on Jesse
in the audience's mind.
In this shot of Todd, the emphasis is actually on
Jesse's absence from the frame.
Our attention is drawn to Jesse's absence
by a composition that seems to be deliberately
cutting him out of the shot.
When the shot pans over, revealing that he
wasn't cut out of the shot,
but not present in the front seat at all,
the emphasis of the entire moment becomes not Todd's
behavior, but Jesse's experience of the situation.
This shot uses the actual shift in angle of
Jesse's point of view to literally portray his perspective.
Another example of using blocking and composition
to create perspective is found in this scene from
El Camino of Jesse in the cage.
Throughout the scene, the camera, and therefore
the viewers, stay inside the cage with Jesse.
Only catching a glimpse of Todd through the bars,
the same way Jesse does.
(lighter clicking)
In similar scenes from Breaking Bad,
like you see here,
the camera moves more freely in and out of the cage,
establishing the scenes from outside the cage.
Because in those scenes, the emphasis isn't on
Jesse's perspective as a character as much as
the progression of all the characters within the story.
Notice the difference in perspective in these
two shots of Todd lowering items into the cage.
The shot from Breaking Bad is from Todd's perspective,
and the shot in El Camino is clearly from Jesse's.
In El Camino, the camera only gets to be outside the cage
when Jesse himself is on the outside.
We'll also notice, if we look at the beginning
of this scene.
- [Todd] Jesse?
- [Jesse] Yeah?
- [Narrator] How Todd is introduced by voice
while the camera lingers visually on Jesse.
This places the emphasis of the scene clearly
on Jesse, instead of Todd.
- [Todd] Everything good?
- Yeah.
- [Narrator] We can also see the same technique used
at the beginning of the film,
where Mike is introduced by his voice,
while Jesse's face is on screen.
- [Jesse] You know he's not gonna be happy.
- [Mike] No, I suspect he won't.
- [Narrator] Long takes, like this one
are also used in the movie
to place us in Jesse's perspective.
By staying with a character without cutting
over a long period of time, we experience the moment
in an unbroken manner.
Close to what the character experiences in real time.
(suspenseful music)
In this shot, the sound design and score
also play a role in establishing the perspective.
We hear what sounds like Jesse's heartbeats
as tension mounts.
(suspenseful music)
- [Man] Yeah, yeah.
And after that just turn off Broadway.
- [Narrator] Narratively, the use of editing and flashbacks
is also important to crafting the overall
perspective of the film.
Quick cross-cuts, like this one,
and this one,
(yelling)
to moments that Jesse is remembering
essentially place us inside Jesse's mind.
We're seeing what he's visualizing as a memory.
The longer flashbacks also reflect this approach.
Each flashback is a specific memory of Jesse's,
and we see them through his eyes, so to speak.
These memories are triggered by what he's
experiencing in the present narrative.
In this way, the flashbacks don't just act as a tool
to drive the plot forward, but a tool to place us deeper
inside Jesse's mind and his experience.
All of these techniques working together
put the audience inside the mind and experience
of Jesse Pinkman.
And it's an important part of what makes this film work.
With this shift in perspective, El Camino
becomes a fresh view into the world of Breaking Bad
and the character of Jesse Pinkman.
We get a closer look at the supporting character
who grew into a central part of what made
Breaking Bad so great.