A saxophone solo provides the background music as the title screen spells out the words “Do the Right Thing” in tribal colors and font. Suddenly, a burst of tempo transforms the music into “Fight the Power” by Public Enemy as Rosie Perez is shown dancing in a street. The colors used in the scene provide the sense that she is on fire. This fire is a symbol for her power and her pride, which she must use, as quoted by the lyrics of the music playing, to “fight the power that be”. Her dancing is a demonstration of this strength, as she throws her arms, jumps, and fights against an invisible enemy. Overall, this scene is a depiction of Perez’s character’s fight for justice and representation.
Rosie Perez’s dance scene begins with a montage of the actress in several poses along the street, as music dictates the speed at which she moves around the set. These poses are strong and animalistic. For a split second she stands upright flexing her biceps; the next she is crouched on the ground as if ready to pounce. Together, these frames form an idea of the strength and power within Perez. She then begins to dance, dressed in all red. Her clothing sticks close to her body so that you can see the strength that lies in the motion of her arms, legs, and body as a whole. The stoop behind her is illuminated with orange light to further add to the fiery hue of the scene. She throws out her arms and kicks her legs as Public Enemy sings “Our freedom of speech is freedom or death / We got to fight the powers that be”. Her dancing is an expression of her strength that enables her to fight the power of oppression.
The introductory scene of “Do the Right Thing” is roughly four minutes of Rosie Perez dancing. However, it’s so much more than that in that it’s also her expression of her power and her struggle. Spike Lee uses dancing in this opening scene primarily as an allusion to a primary theme of the film to follow. Perez’s dancing is an illustration of the strength each character must have within in order to overcome his or her personal issues and tragedies.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Do the Right THANG
The use of contrasting color as a formal element in the intro of Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” creates a remarkable narrative composition. The opening credits scripted in neon pink, blue, and green popped against a dull background. Also, Rosie Parks 80’s styled outfits created a pop effect against a monotonous background scene. She first wore a skintight, brilliant red dress with a shiny black belt, then a bright blue leotard with tights, and finally flashy silver boxing shorts. Not only was her dancing enough to stand out against the grey and tan backdrop, but also her ostentatious clothes drew the attention of the viewers and left a lasting impression. A muted backdrop in which things like neon scripts and flashy outfits emerge represented the overall color scheme of the opening credits.
Another contrast in the intro of the film was the diverse song selection. The first song to play even before the open credits began was “Lift Every Voice and Sing”. This version of the notorious black national anthem was played on a solo saxophone to provoke an almost solemn ambiance. But as soon as the first credit scrolled, Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” blasted in sync with Rosie’s risqué dance moves. As another infamous black national anthem, this song perfectly added to the “pop” attitude of the film’s intro. As the tempo of the song speeds up, so does the rhythm of her dance moves as well as the progression of her outfit changes.
Another interesting characteristic of the opening credits was the wide variety of camera angels. For example, the camera would begin at a full body shot with a focused attention on Rosie and gradually zoom to a medium shot with a focus point on her outfit and then finally to a close-up that centered on her intense facial expression.
Another contrast in the intro of the film was the diverse song selection. The first song to play even before the open credits began was “Lift Every Voice and Sing”. This version of the notorious black national anthem was played on a solo saxophone to provoke an almost solemn ambiance. But as soon as the first credit scrolled, Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” blasted in sync with Rosie’s risqué dance moves. As another infamous black national anthem, this song perfectly added to the “pop” attitude of the film’s intro. As the tempo of the song speeds up, so does the rhythm of her dance moves as well as the progression of her outfit changes.
Another interesting characteristic of the opening credits was the wide variety of camera angels. For example, the camera would begin at a full body shot with a focused attention on Rosie and gradually zoom to a medium shot with a focus point on her outfit and then finally to a close-up that centered on her intense facial expression.
"Do the Right Thing" Intro Analysis
The intro to "Do the Right Thing" features actress Rosie Perez dancing to the music of "Fight the Power" by Public Enemy. The first few shots are jump cuts that make Rosie flash across the screen in a manner somewhat similar to cartoon animation, all synchronized with the beginning of the song's beat. Rosie starts out in a red dress with a black belt and black shoes, but she also wears a blue leotard outfit as well as a boxing outfit with silver shorts and a black sports bra. Rosie dances and moves around to the music, mirroring the energy of the song.
Rosie seems to dance freely instead of scripted dance moves. This reflects the message of the song to "Fight the Power." Medium and full body shots are used throughout to capture the energy of her dancing in conjunction with the movement and energy of the music. Rosie's dancing gives her a sense of strength and independence. A close up reveals a look of anger or defiance on Rosie's face. The close up captures her emotion, showing that her dancing isn't for recreation but to prove a point or to send a message.
The background to Rosie's dancing is a typical New York apartment building with its stoop. This sets the tone for the setting of the movie: the streets of Brooklyn. The color of the background is dull or muted, and Rosie stands out with her brightly colored outfits and energetic dancing. Red and blue lights create different moods. The red gives the viewer a sense of heat or tension, which is built upon in the movie with the high heat of the city. The bluish lights create a feeling of the mystery of a New York City night. Overall, I believe the purpose of the intro is to set the tone of defiance and tension that will be explored in the movie.
Rosie seems to dance freely instead of scripted dance moves. This reflects the message of the song to "Fight the Power." Medium and full body shots are used throughout to capture the energy of her dancing in conjunction with the movement and energy of the music. Rosie's dancing gives her a sense of strength and independence. A close up reveals a look of anger or defiance on Rosie's face. The close up captures her emotion, showing that her dancing isn't for recreation but to prove a point or to send a message.
The background to Rosie's dancing is a typical New York apartment building with its stoop. This sets the tone for the setting of the movie: the streets of Brooklyn. The color of the background is dull or muted, and Rosie stands out with her brightly colored outfits and energetic dancing. Red and blue lights create different moods. The red gives the viewer a sense of heat or tension, which is built upon in the movie with the high heat of the city. The bluish lights create a feeling of the mystery of a New York City night. Overall, I believe the purpose of the intro is to set the tone of defiance and tension that will be explored in the movie.
Analysis of "Do The Right Thing" Intro
Spike Lee's "Do The Right Thing" opens with a loud, attention-deserving, and action-filled scene with Rosie Perez, one of the actresses in the movie, dancing. She's not dancing a formal or choreographed dance. Instead, she's dancing in a loose and almost angry manner. As she dances, the camera zooms in and out and all around her body, providing the viewer with varying views of her body and face. As the camera zooms in and focuses on her face, you see her angry and intense expression become more and more severe as her dancing becomes more erratic and powerful. As the camera zooms out, you can see her arms and legs moving with the music as she dances, and it's clear that as the music intensifies, her movements become more and more expressive. The camera also moves above and below her to provide the viewer with unusual views of her body and face as she dances.
In addition to having varying camera movements throughout the opening scene, Rosie's outfits change three times with three obvious color schemes. In the beginning, she's wearing a short but simple red dress with a black belt. The next minute, she's wearing a blue leotard, and then she's seen wearing a boxing outfit complete with a black sports bra and silver boxing shorts. Her outfits continuously change among the three color schemes as she dances to the opening songs. Her outfit changes become more rapid as her dancing becomes more intense, and perhaps the obvious color changes indicate clear divides among the characters in the movie or a theme of division and seperation.
As her outfits and colors of the outfits change during the opening scene, so do the background colors of the three different places where she's dancing. When she wears red, the background has a red tint. When she wears blue, the background has a blue tint, and when she wears the silver boxing shorts, the background is a white-ish silver color. The lighting is continuously changing, and it seems like she's almost dancing in an oven or in some sort of hot and firey place. Perhaps this is an indication of a theme of heat or fire that will be prevelent in the movie.
In addition to having varying camera movements throughout the opening scene, Rosie's outfits change three times with three obvious color schemes. In the beginning, she's wearing a short but simple red dress with a black belt. The next minute, she's wearing a blue leotard, and then she's seen wearing a boxing outfit complete with a black sports bra and silver boxing shorts. Her outfits continuously change among the three color schemes as she dances to the opening songs. Her outfit changes become more rapid as her dancing becomes more intense, and perhaps the obvious color changes indicate clear divides among the characters in the movie or a theme of division and seperation.
As her outfits and colors of the outfits change during the opening scene, so do the background colors of the three different places where she's dancing. When she wears red, the background has a red tint. When she wears blue, the background has a blue tint, and when she wears the silver boxing shorts, the background is a white-ish silver color. The lighting is continuously changing, and it seems like she's almost dancing in an oven or in some sort of hot and firey place. Perhaps this is an indication of a theme of heat or fire that will be prevelent in the movie.
Analysis "Do the Right Thing" Intro
Rosie Perez’s intro in Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” some very interesting characteristics. The camerawork was one of the first significant things that I noticed. The montage in the very beginning serves to capture the attention of the audience. The majority of the time thereafter she appears on camera in a mid to full body shot against a rather dull background to accentuate her and her dancing. At least twice the camera panned all the way in to her face to highlight her very serious and almost angry expression. This expression matches the seriousness of the music “Fight the Power.”
I thought Rosie was an interesting choice for the dance because the song that plays for most of the scene is about being “black and proud” while Rosie is Latina. It’s possible he did this to speak to minority groups outside of blacks to tell them to fight their own issues as well. The streets of Brooklyn where the scene is set are mainly home to blacks and Puerto Ricans so it's also likely that he wanted to represent the community. He may have also chosen her simply because of the energy she brings to scene and her ability to command the audience’s attention. She goes though three different outfits, but has the same expression and demeanor in all of them. The boxing one is especially indicative of the angry undertones of the scene.
From only the first few minutes of the movie we can already tell that Rosie will be a character with a very strong personality who is probably also very stubborn and independent. It is made obvious race will be a theme explored, most likely from the perspective of this minority community. It seems evident that this community will face some conflict because of racial tensions and they will work against these forces to overcome them.
Analysis of opening scenes – Do the Right Thing - Kenneth
The beginning sequence shows Rosie Perez dancing to “Fight the Power.” Spike Lee’s use of color, as seen in the title, costuming and lighting, highlights some of the themes to be explored in the movie.
The film’s title at the beginning is written white bold letters and outlined with colorful border. The title appears like a mural, similar to those found on the sides of buildings in certain neighborhoods. This is relevant since the setting of much of the movie is in neighborhood that has seen better days. The colorful border is also typical of the 1980s when bright multi-colored pieces were the trend. I also think that it was a conscious decision to write “do the right thing” in white bold letters and surround these words with color to compliment them. Perhaps it’s a stretch but this color choice seems like an exact parallel of society especially in the late ‘80s when the film was released. This society is predominantly white with a many other different peoples from Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America. So the title design represents artistically the make-up and status of our society
Rosie Perez’s costumes were also typical in the ‘80s. She changes from a red dress, to blue tights and finally to a boxing outfit complete with boxing gloves. The red dress matched the red hue lighting theme Lee used. The color red often evokes ideas such as danger, love, and anger and I’m sure those emotions are rampart throughout the film. Rosie Perez also captures those feelings as seen during the close-up shots. She appears heated while dancing and she dances with such passion and zest that it hits at how strong a character she is. And of course the dancing is provocative at times which would get a reaction from a male audience. The boxing outfit of course correlates perfectly with the song “Fight the power.” About the blue tights, blue evokes similar emotions but also has a calming effect. This interesting because every cut where Perez is in the blue costume, she is clearly enraged. Maybe Spike Lee wanted the contrast between what the color blue evokes and what someone might be feeling.
In terms of lighting, Lee maintains are reddish hue throughout the scene which brings up feelings of anger, love, and danger. First, the setting, the neighborhood, is probably not safe. Also, judging from the musical lyrics, and Perez’s expressions, the people living in this neighborhood probably hold some anger against some injustices they feel they might have suffered. And finally, there is probably a lot of love in that neighborhood – there is a strong sense of community since everyone knows everyone else. At times, Lee switches to a different lighting technique that gives a film-noir kind of feel to the set yet something always remains red or flashes red be it the street or the girl’s dress. This technique I think is simply emphasizing the ideas that color red is supposed to portray.
The film’s title at the beginning is written white bold letters and outlined with colorful border. The title appears like a mural, similar to those found on the sides of buildings in certain neighborhoods. This is relevant since the setting of much of the movie is in neighborhood that has seen better days. The colorful border is also typical of the 1980s when bright multi-colored pieces were the trend. I also think that it was a conscious decision to write “do the right thing” in white bold letters and surround these words with color to compliment them. Perhaps it’s a stretch but this color choice seems like an exact parallel of society especially in the late ‘80s when the film was released. This society is predominantly white with a many other different peoples from Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America. So the title design represents artistically the make-up and status of our society
Rosie Perez’s costumes were also typical in the ‘80s. She changes from a red dress, to blue tights and finally to a boxing outfit complete with boxing gloves. The red dress matched the red hue lighting theme Lee used. The color red often evokes ideas such as danger, love, and anger and I’m sure those emotions are rampart throughout the film. Rosie Perez also captures those feelings as seen during the close-up shots. She appears heated while dancing and she dances with such passion and zest that it hits at how strong a character she is. And of course the dancing is provocative at times which would get a reaction from a male audience. The boxing outfit of course correlates perfectly with the song “Fight the power.” About the blue tights, blue evokes similar emotions but also has a calming effect. This interesting because every cut where Perez is in the blue costume, she is clearly enraged. Maybe Spike Lee wanted the contrast between what the color blue evokes and what someone might be feeling.
In terms of lighting, Lee maintains are reddish hue throughout the scene which brings up feelings of anger, love, and danger. First, the setting, the neighborhood, is probably not safe. Also, judging from the musical lyrics, and Perez’s expressions, the people living in this neighborhood probably hold some anger against some injustices they feel they might have suffered. And finally, there is probably a lot of love in that neighborhood – there is a strong sense of community since everyone knows everyone else. At times, Lee switches to a different lighting technique that gives a film-noir kind of feel to the set yet something always remains red or flashes red be it the street or the girl’s dress. This technique I think is simply emphasizing the ideas that color red is supposed to portray.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Now That's An Opening!
It is said that the opening credits of Spike Lee's film "Do The Right Thing" is one of the most memorable of all time. Lee draws upon the elements of music, color, heat, costume, and camera positions in order to convey the personal identity of his characters. These elements allow the audience to further understand the history of the urban community as well as the current state of the film's characters.
The film opens with the official song of the NAACP, "Lift Every Voice and Sing." A saxophone soloist delivers the hymn in a slow and somber manner. This calming effect is soon interrupted by the jarring rhythm of Public Enemy's "Fight the Power." Punctuated by the beat of the song, a montage of a dancer accompanies the sudden switch in tempo.
As far as color is concerned, the brightly dressed dancer performs in front of an almost muted background. A brownstone serves as her backdrop and is only illuminated by subtle flashing white lights in select shots; otherwise, the housing unit is either brown or black in color. However, the dancer's outfits sharply contrast this muted background. There are three different scenes in which she dons a red dress, a neon blue leotard, and a pair of silver boxing shorts. This fact that the dancer stands out so much adds to the idea that she is the most important aspect of the opening credits and all attention should be focused on her until the actual movie begins.
Much like music and color, heat has a large significance the opening of "Do the Right Thing." Emphasis on the temperature is heard and seen throughout the beginning of the film. Señor Love Daddy, the local radio DJ, comments on how young people should stay inside. Jade fights with her brother Mookie telling him that it is too hot to do anything.
The way in which characters are dressed in the opening speaks volumes to their individual identity. For example, Mookie wears a basketball jersey which emphasizes his young urban personality. Señor Love Daddy wears a colorful patterned shirt and hat with big sunglasses which matches his eccentric and loud personality. As far as the Sal and his son's, who are of Italian decent, light-colored pants and half-buttoned shirts with gold chains plays off of the stereotypical Italian in New York.
Last, but not least the camera angles of the opening scene hold great importance. High angle shots of the dancer when boxing/punching toward the camera match the impression given by the song "Fight the Power" - angry and menacing. Also, because the medium shots are short-lived it can be inferred that the larger picture of the dancer is most important, just as individuals of the neighborhood are not as important as the community as a whole.
These characteristics of the film "Do The Right Thing" offer a glimpse into the world of urban communities and bring attention to the many social problems that are present in these communities.
The film opens with the official song of the NAACP, "Lift Every Voice and Sing." A saxophone soloist delivers the hymn in a slow and somber manner. This calming effect is soon interrupted by the jarring rhythm of Public Enemy's "Fight the Power." Punctuated by the beat of the song, a montage of a dancer accompanies the sudden switch in tempo.
As far as color is concerned, the brightly dressed dancer performs in front of an almost muted background. A brownstone serves as her backdrop and is only illuminated by subtle flashing white lights in select shots; otherwise, the housing unit is either brown or black in color. However, the dancer's outfits sharply contrast this muted background. There are three different scenes in which she dons a red dress, a neon blue leotard, and a pair of silver boxing shorts. This fact that the dancer stands out so much adds to the idea that she is the most important aspect of the opening credits and all attention should be focused on her until the actual movie begins.
Much like music and color, heat has a large significance the opening of "Do the Right Thing." Emphasis on the temperature is heard and seen throughout the beginning of the film. Señor Love Daddy, the local radio DJ, comments on how young people should stay inside. Jade fights with her brother Mookie telling him that it is too hot to do anything.
The way in which characters are dressed in the opening speaks volumes to their individual identity. For example, Mookie wears a basketball jersey which emphasizes his young urban personality. Señor Love Daddy wears a colorful patterned shirt and hat with big sunglasses which matches his eccentric and loud personality. As far as the Sal and his son's, who are of Italian decent, light-colored pants and half-buttoned shirts with gold chains plays off of the stereotypical Italian in New York.
Last, but not least the camera angles of the opening scene hold great importance. High angle shots of the dancer when boxing/punching toward the camera match the impression given by the song "Fight the Power" - angry and menacing. Also, because the medium shots are short-lived it can be inferred that the larger picture of the dancer is most important, just as individuals of the neighborhood are not as important as the community as a whole.
These characteristics of the film "Do The Right Thing" offer a glimpse into the world of urban communities and bring attention to the many social problems that are present in these communities.
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