Killing Them Softly - Screen Sides
A quick post about a simple little dialogue scene from Killing Them Softly (2012). Jackie Cogan (played by Brad Pitt) and mob affiliate 'Driver' sit in Driver's car and talk about a card game that got robbed. A scene that I find very interesting.
It's a simple enough scene. And the editing is also pretty standard, we cut from a medium close of Cogan to a medium close of Driver, as the camera slowly pushes in, in both shots. But I find the composition very interesting. First of all when doing shot reverse shot with two characters in a car, the obvious choice would be to have the driver on the left side of the frame, and the passenger on the right. It would make most sense since the driver is sitting on the left of the passenger.
Only if the camera would be shooting from the front of the car, through the windshield would it make more sense to flip the driver to the right side of the screen. But here the driver is kept on the right of the frame, and it works just fine.
Also I noticed that Jackie and Driver are almost in each other's space. If you look at the last two stills you can see that the back of their heads are almost on the same location in the frame. It makes sense to me, since they are in a car and when sitting next to someone in a car you are really close. Also these characters have never met before and are trying to get a read each other.
The negative space being behind the characters, pushes them towards the edge of the frame. Again underlining the cramped feeling of being in a car. To me the composition of these shots also gives a feeling of slight unease. Appropriate for a first meeting between criminals.
Director Andrew Domnik works with the best cinematographers. You might also have seen his The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which was shot by Roger deakins and probably is one of the most beautiful shot films ever made. Cinematographer Greig Fraser, who shot Killing Them Softly, would later go on to shoot a little SiFi film called Rogue One.
