Blog #6: Storyboard Imitation

This scene was shot very well. The director did indeed follow the rule of thirds, 180 degree rule and both of the 30 rules. When Jules walks into the room, it's very easy to tell right away that the director wanted him to be the point of interest. This is because the rule of thirds - Jules walks directly to the top left of the screen and that is where we tend to first focus our eyes. This is used in just about every shot of Jules during this scene and eventually (once he starts reciting bible passages) gives him a great feeling of power and superiority. The director followed the 180 degree rule at all times excluding exceptions such as another character entering the room, if the camera cuts away to another object, or if the characters on screen are moving. Although they takes advantage of these exceptions, the rule is never broken and therefore they avoid jump cuts. They also payed attention to the rules of 30 because you can tell just by the first five scenes that many different shots are used. The first one is an over the shoulder shot which cuts to a long shot from the complete opposite side of the room, meaning the angle changed by more than 30 degrees. The shot after this one is a close up of the guy on the couch, meaning the image size increased by at least 30 percent. Every single shot differs either in angle or image size by 30 degrees or 30 percent. Although the director broke the 180 degree rule on occasion, he did so with exceptions to avoid a jump cut so no harm was done. He also portrayed great use of angles to show who was the more powerful character. Shots of Jules and Vincent are low angles to make it feel like the other characters have to look up to them, while shots of Brett look down on him and make him look cowardly. This is great use of angles because it really gives Jules a sense of power and authority which is important to the overall feeling of this scene.