There Will Be Blood Cinematic Techniques Essay

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Cinematic techniques within a film can show more information to the audience sometimes more than the dialogue does. The cinematic techniques in There Will Be Blood help to establish the mood or tone in the scene and a sense of power and who has control of it. Paul Thomas Anderson helps to tell the story of There Will Be Blood with the use of many cinematic techniques. He shows us the story of a man overwhelmed with greed and the actions he commits afterwards. Anderson is a fan of using lighting and camera angles to give information to the audience. He did so strongly in the scene where Daniel is baptised. The scene starts with an image of Eli, natural light is shining onto him and it is a low angle shot. The low angle shot establishes power …show more content…
As Eli and Daniel meet again after many years, Eli brings Daniel a drink. During this scene, Eli is standing while Daniel is sitting showing how the power has shifted to be in Eli’s favor. But, Eli bends down to give Daniel his drink also showing that he still serves Daniel and thinks of him somewhat highly. When Daniel is yelling at Eli, the lighting is used to create shadows upon Daniel and give light to Eli. The shadows on Daniel show the evil inside of him and how he still has greed and cruelness within him. The light on Eli shows us how he has changed and become innocent in this scene. Daniel is also standing, which gives him more power as Eli is tilting his head down. This gives him a sense of vulnerability. Also, during the rest of the scene, the two are rarely in the same shot at once showing separation and distance among them throughout these years. It shows a sense of disliking between the two men and hostility.
Paul Thomas Anderson has a great way of conveying information without the use of dialogue at times. There Will Be Blood started with no dialogue for the first few minutes of it and was still able to establish ideas. He showing the meaning of the film and how a greedy man climbs his way up, growing with power. He shows us this through many cinematic techniques, but especially through camera angles, lighting, and through the composition within

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