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The film I have chosen is Cinderella Man, directed by Ron Howard.  This movie is based on a true story of a man (James Braddock) who was a boxer that watched his prime come and go.  Once he was washed up, the great depression hit.  He had to beg for work at a nearby dock everyday, and somedays he didn't get picked.  Life got really hard, until he got a second chance to get into the ring.  This time, he literally was fighting for his life, and his children's as well.  He eventually comes out on top by beating the champion of the world, Max Baer.

In the scene above, the boxing commissioner and a lawyer are showing Jimmy Braddock and his coach some film from Max's previous fights.  It depicts the vicious fighting style of Baer, and discusses how he even was responsible for the death of another boxer in the ring. The commissioner is trying to talk Braddock out of fighting, but he emphatically defends wanting to fight against Baer.

The scope I looked through to view this scene was the director himself, Ron Howard and the cinematographer, Salvatore Totino.  In order to capture the emotion and the distinct drive that James Braddock had, Howard had to do a bit of homework.  Howard was interviewed about the movie and cited that his father growing up in the depression was a huge boxing fan, and he had heard of Braddock from his father.  Thus, when coming up with the script and screenplay, Howard had to find notes, journals, and photographs of Braddock.  Hence, this is how Ron Howard, as director, was able to keenly hone in on the fine details for a visual depiction of the drive, courage, and loyalty that the late James J. Braddock had.

In this scene specifically there are 3 main things that pulled the scene together for me. First it was the lighting and shadow.  Salvatore Totino used the shadowing and figure ground relationship in this scene, along with the film as a whole, to capture the era and the depression itself. Totino wanted to capture the emotion and feeling that came with such a time, thus he used the shadowing to his advantage. The use of film from that era in the scene is complete genius in my opinion.  The contrast of the light and dark of the room brings you into the setting as it were.  He used an older camera to make the color and texture grainy so it would pull you into the time.

Shooting in such a small room make the proximity law bring out the similarity in the actors themselves; this is the genius done by Ron Howard to pull together the scene from the surrounding area through the actors themselves.  You can see that contrast by viewing the skepticism of the commissioner and the lawyer on one side with their auditory as well as the shadows where they reside, while a type of faith and obligation of duty rested on the other side with Braddock and his coach and the shadows, or lack thereof, are dispelled by bright light.  This also displays balance by the viewing of the film being run in the middle of the two groups, which is placed the end of the room for viewing.  This triangle of sorts, with its varying 'degrees' of emotion and lighting shows a closure, a knitting together for the eye to be pleased.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpmLSGixYwMhttps