Leary-Good Night and Good Luck

Three cinematic techniques used in Good Night and Good Luck that really caught my attention were black and white photography, close up shots/tight frames, and all the indoor shots. Personally, I think it was a great idea to film the movie in black and white because it makes the audience feel more like they are actually in 1953, watching this as it is happening. If the movie was in color, I feel like it wouldn’t seem as realistic and would make you feel like you are just watching what happened back then which isn’t as exciting as watching an event as it occurs. The black and white photography also seems to say that this movie is actually “black and white”, meaning that McCarthy is black because he is doing wrong and Murrow is white because he is doing what is right. McCarthy is doing wrong in this movie by accusing innocent people of being communists when he has no actual proof. Murrow and the news crew are doing the right thing by standing up to McCarthy when no one else will and showing the viewers why/how what he is doing is wrong. Black and white photography seemed to really make the movie. It actually made me more alert to what was going on in the movie because since black and white seems boring and dull, the message the movie is trying to make really stands out.

The second cinematic technique I chose was how this movie has a lot of close up shots and tight frames. Every time the camera zooms in on a persons face, you actually feel like you are right in front of that person, actually talking to them, which makes it so much more personal. It makes the audience feel like they are dealing with the conflict with the person whose face is zoomed in on. Each time the camera does a close up, it seems to also have a tight frame. This tight framing shows that whoever is zoomed in on is in a very tight position and doesn’t have much room to move. I saw many tight frames where the person was in a very difficult situation where they didn’t really know what they should do and what was right or wrong (black and white). I think using tight framing was a very smart idea that also made the audience feel the stress that the characters were feeling which made the movie very relatable.

The last technique I chose was the indoor shots. The shots in this movie were all indoor shots that were pretty much all in the television-recording studio. The indoor shots make the characters in the movie seem trapped in one area. These shots also make the characters not have much room to move since they are taking on such a serious issue that will affect everyone watching their television show. Since they are never outside, it may seem like they will never see daylight. What I mean by this is that they are trapped indoors with the communist issue and since the shots are never outside, they might never see the sunlight as in happiness or peace. This relates to the plot of the movie because the characters are taking on a very serious issue that the characters feel troubled by. I think the indoor shots were a very good, creative idea. I would of never thought about the relationship between the shots being in doors and the struggle for room to move. It is a very interesting idea that makes the movie even better.

Overall, I believe that all three of these cinematic techniques were great ideas that helped the movie prove its point. All of these techniques sent out the message that Murrow and the television crew were trying to do what was right but ended up with tough decisions that trapped them between what is right and what is wrong.