Charlie Parker, or the ‘Bird’, was one of the best saxophone players in the world. His unique style of playing combined with this ability to combine chords rarely used in jazz, flowing seamlessly between them made Parker one of the greats. As a teenager, Parker was allowed the opportunity to play with the famous drummer Jo Jones, drummer of the Count Basie band, a most popular swing bands of the time. Parker enters his solo and starts to show off his unique style, but then he messes up, losses the beat, and stops dead in his tracks. Angered, Jones throws a cymbal at Parker and laughs him off stage. Parker then practices for a year, comes back, and plays an amazing solo. This story is used multiple times in the 2014 movie: Whiplash, as the movie’s
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The cinematography paints this piece as a thriller, and an exceptional thriller it is. A thriller is characterized as a movie filled with suspense, intensity, anticipation, and building the tension of the main conflict. To say Fletcher is intense would be a vast understatement. One of the moments of his intensity would be the first rehearsal that Andrew is a part of. About halfway through the movie, the studio band starts playing Whiplash, a song purposely made to be impossibly hard and crazy, due to the uncommon time signatures and the overlapping rhythms. A little bit into the song, Fletcher stops the band in its tracks and questions the members about being out of tune. He finds that the out of tune player in the trombone section. He approaches the fourth player and asks him if he is out of tune. The player responds, not aware of his tune. Fletcher insults him on his weight and ability as a player and kicks him out of the band. In the end, the fourth chair wasn’t even out of tune, but in Fletcher's words,” He didn’t know, and that’s even worse.” Another example of his intensity is the first time Andrew plays Whiplash. Being that Andrew is a new player, he hasn’t fully grasped the chart yet and messes up a little bit. Fletcher starts to pick on Andrew for not being exact on the tempo. Try after try Andrew cannot get the tempo correct. Fletcher throws a chair at Andrew’s head, almost hitting him, and runs up to his face only inches away. Fletcher screams at him, attacking him personally, causing Andrew to cry like the trombone player before him, but Andrew is allowed to stay. Most shots are of close-ups, where the audience is brought right into the action, building the tension. When Andrew is in the practice room, the camera is placed to center on his face, showing the physical strain and effort he’s putting in. There are other shots of Andrew’s bleeding hands, from playing so much, as he shoves them into
The cinematography paints this piece as a thriller, and an exceptional thriller it is. A thriller is characterized as a movie filled with suspense, intensity, anticipation, and building the tension of the main conflict. To say Fletcher is intense would be a vast understatement. One of the moments of his intensity would be the first rehearsal that Andrew is a part of. About halfway through the movie, the studio band starts playing Whiplash, a song purposely made to be impossibly hard and crazy, due to the uncommon time signatures and the overlapping rhythms. A little bit into the song, Fletcher stops the band in its tracks and questions the members about being out of tune. He finds that the out of tune player in the trombone section. He approaches the fourth player and asks him if he is out of tune. The player responds, not aware of his tune. Fletcher insults him on his weight and ability as a player and kicks him out of the band. In the end, the fourth chair wasn’t even out of tune, but in Fletcher's words,” He didn’t know, and that’s even worse.” Another example of his intensity is the first time Andrew plays Whiplash. Being that Andrew is a new player, he hasn’t fully grasped the chart yet and messes up a little bit. Fletcher starts to pick on Andrew for not being exact on the tempo. Try after try Andrew cannot get the tempo correct. Fletcher throws a chair at Andrew’s head, almost hitting him, and runs up to his face only inches away. Fletcher screams at him, attacking him personally, causing Andrew to cry like the trombone player before him, but Andrew is allowed to stay. Most shots are of close-ups, where the audience is brought right into the action, building the tension. When Andrew is in the practice room, the camera is placed to center on his face, showing the physical strain and effort he’s putting in. There are other shots of Andrew’s bleeding hands, from playing so much, as he shoves them into