We are learning to show understanding of visual texts through close viewing, using supporting evidence.

I analysed the sequence in the film Ready Player One (2018) directed by Steven Spielberg, from 1 hour 28 minutes to 1 hour 29:12 minutes into the film, which is the beginning of the final battle for the third key. In this scene, the director uses the techniques of crescendo, facial expressions, low angles, and diegetic sounds. I think the director’s aim for this scene was to spark a thrill and eagerness in you to see how the movie would conclude, as the whole movie Wade/Parzival has been thinking it was just a game until Armis/Samantha got taken, now he is realizing this isn’t a game and they need to beat Sorrento or more could be lost. So in the scene just before the battle he says a long speech explaining why they should help him, for example when he says, “Some of you already know this, and you’ve lost more than just your avatars, or your weapons. Some have lost their freedom. Some have lost their lives,” showing again that this is not a game and they need to fight against IOI and Sorrento or nothing will ever change. That’s why I think this scene is so strong in the movie not just because it was a battle scene but because the context is it was the scene where the community of Oasis woke up and realized this is not a game. It’s real people getting hurt because of IOI and they need to fight to fix the harm IOI is doing to the people of the Oasis.

The first technique I identified which the director used was the sound technique of crescendo. In the part where the army of citizens is arriving we hear the yells of everyone running up. They slowly get louder to show us that everyone is getting closer. The effect of this is to show everyone how many are coming to fight by Wade/Parzival’s side and how enthusiastic they are to be helping him and also standing by his side/ the good side. It also shows us how many people are against IOI as the only people fighting by Sorrento’s side are his workers and I-R0k (which he is paying). This scene sparked hope and excitement in me as I watched everyone come together and fight Sorrento as a team.

Another technique I identified was the acting technique of facial expression. We see F’Nale Zandor’s face while she’s driving the IOI van and slowly comes to realize that no one is on their side. Alongside this, they use a panning shot of the people on the sidewalk to show that she’s looking at the kids who are fighting back. The effect of this is to show how strong the community of the Oasis is and how absolutely no one likes IOI and would rather lose all their items, money, and time they’ve spent to gain it than fight for Sorrento and IOI. They know Sorrento wants only bad for Oasis and just wants it for a profit. This scene made me respect how strong the community of the Oasis is and how strong the bond is between everyone with their collective hate of Sorrento and IOI.

Another technique the director used was the camerawork technique of low angles. In the shot we are looking up; we see Sorrento’s character turn into this massive, tall metal mecha godzilla suit giving is a sense of worry as we ponder how they will be able to defeat this powerful suit.The effect of this is to show how in this scene Sorrento has power and authority over everyone else in the scene. This is because the mecha godzilla suit is a strong protection for him so he can’t get hurt or damaged which makes the scene so much more thrilling and intriguing to see how they’ll take him down. This scene sparked a slight nervousness in me as he became the godzilla since he had so much power over the scene.

A final technique Spielberg used was diegetic sounds. We see and hear as Wade/Parzival holds up the boombox and the song, “We’re not going to take it”, starts playing. The effect of this is to spark excitement in the scene as we hear the song start, he holds it up like it’s signifying the start of the fight like a battle cry. The song is an upbeat hype song to get not only the characters in the movie amped on fighting Sorrento but the audience amped on seeing the battle scene play out. In this scene I got an eagerness to see how the scene would play out, also an underlying happiness to see all the determination in the characters fighting against Sorrento. The lyrics of the song also support the idea of what the Oasis citizens are feeling as they come to the battle. As the lyrics state We’re not gonna take it “No, we ain’t gonna take it, We’re not gonna take it anymore, We’ve got the right to choose it, There ain’t no way we’ll lose it, This is our life.” which exactly correlates with what the people of Oasis are thinking and is also why they’re fighting because they won’t let this go on anymore, they’re not going to take it.

Steven Spielberg used the techniques of crescendo, facial expressions, low angle camera shot, and diegetic sounds in this sequence from Ready Player One. The effects of these four techniques in this scene is to show how the community of the Oasis works together. But this isn’t just about the Oasis or the movie; this scene is to show how strength, community, desire, and hard work can get you want. The battle scene is the fight of people believing in what they want for the Oasis and acting on it. Standing side by side and not stopping ’till they get it. The scene is strong and powerful even without dialogue. The facial expression, camera angles and sounds show the power that everyone has when they come together for one cause. I believe this scene wasn’t just in there to show a cool fight scene or to finish the movie but to show that people use the Oasis as an escape like how many people use similar games and social media to escape the world we’re living in right now; many people don’t like this reality and are looking for an escape. It also shows that we can do anything onto the internet without realizing the real world problems, like Wade saying his name and IOI finding him, or Sorrento using the Oasis to show his power and not caring that he’s hurting real people in the process. The battle scene is using the Oasis to connect everyone through the game and they’re all fighting against Sorrento because they have finally realised that he isn’t just killing avatars or taking people’s coins but hurting real people, with real lives and families.

It’s like how people cyberbully, they hide behind their screens saying whatever they want, things they wouldn’t even say face to face but they don’t care because you have the safety of the screen and people don’t see the person they’re cyberbullying as a real person, they don’t think about their feelings, how it affects them. New Zealand has the third highest rates of school bullying out of the thirty-six OECD countries. 19 percent of teens said they had experienced cyberbullying and forty-six percent of people have experienced harmful comments on the internet. This movie shows that even though you may not think it, the real world and digital world are still connected and your comments and actions in the digital world do have real world consequences whether you meant it to or not. 

In this film unit I have learned how to identify the camera work, acting, mise en scene, editing and lighting in films while I am watching them.

One thing I found interesting was looking at the scenes in a new light, finding the undertones of the movie and figuring out what the point behind the film was.