Overview

Whiplash, Chazelle’s first feature film in LA, follows Andrew Neiman, an aspiring drummer, in his struggles against his teacher Terence Fletcher to become the greatest drummer of his time. This film was inspired by Chazelle’s experiences as a drummer competing in his college years. The core DNA of this film is the jazz music such as Caravan and Whiplash that the studio band plays as it impacts on the pacing and cinematography. Whiplash is a 15 so is allowed to lean into the extremes of toxic relationships and pains endured during intense drumming practice. This is a film that establishes Chazelle’s core theme of dreamers. Andrew is a dreamer who loses himself in his obsession and drive for legacy rather than appreciating domestic life. Fletcher has a flawed but beneficial ideology in pushing potential for success but with no boundaries. In this film, Jazz is a fundamental aspect that influences several montages the film is structured around. The strong and grungy yellow/ red colour palette brings out the brass and percussion and reflects Andrew’s mood as the story progresses, presenting Chazelle’s priorities of character built tales rather than grand features. For whiplash, I expanded on these points further in a review for my YouTube page.

COMPARISON

Whiplash and Devil Wears Prada both follow similar plotlines in terms of theme and character but are shot in different styles to reflect their separate industries and target demographics. In my YouTube video essay, I go into more detail on their similarities and differences.

Influences

As Chazelle is a more modern director who graduated at the turn of the 2000s, he was influenced by many highly influential figures from the early days of cinema. For Whiplash, he draws heavily from Alfred Hitchcock’s psychological features such as Psycho and the Birds while also putting his own spin on framing and shot composition. Through the influence of Hitchcock, Chazelle invents a new genre, blending psychological with musical theatre to create a musical thriller. The most notable connections with Hitchcock are the uses of a gritty palatte and set design. Chazelle wanted to show the dedication that goes into the craft of music making and the pain someone endures, using Hitchcock’s array of shots to achieve more horrific details without them clearly being seen on screen. For example, in Psycho, there is the iconic shower scene where the lead character is stabbed to death while taking a shower. However, in the scene itself, you never see the blade hit the body and we as the audience are forced to put that picture together in our minds, convincing ourselves that we viewed the entire event. In Whiplash, Chazelle commonly builds up a scene with musicians by focusing on aspects of instruments, tapping feet, the music on stands, etc. Once this picture is built up with the stress and anticipation of the musicians being felt by the audience, Chazelle opens the frame and presents this energy in its true group environment. This is an element of Chazelle’s work that I will take forward to my short film, slowly establishing the instrument piece by piece and well as the location before opening to a wide shot towards the end.

Scene Analysis

For each of Chazelle’s major films, I have chosen a scene I wish to draw inspiration from directly. In the case of Whiplash, this is one of Andrew’s solo rehearsal scenes during which he pushes himself to limits, causing his knuckles to bleed. Of Sergei Eisenstein’s 5 types of montage, I would say this montage is metric as the cuts lineup to the pace of the music. This a rare case during the film of the track and what’s being played on screen not lining up as to only intensify the visuals. Throughout the scene, the background music acts as a pulse and ticking clock which is then overlayed with Andrew’s frantic playing. What is interesting to note here with sound is that the drumming has taken over andrews life to a point where his voice isn’t heard at any point during the scene, even when he’s in pain. The sound of drums overshadows his emotions and exaggerates the noise in his head. For my short film, I must focus on sound design, putting the sounds of the instrument, however uncomfortable, before the noises of the player. I believe my scene will be without dialogue and instead only pick up audio from the instrument and ambience, analysing the stages of assembling and adjusting the instrument before playing.

Furthermore, the montage deals with Andrew’s domestic life being moved around by the music. As the metronomic pulse plays throughout, drumming is always on his mind when moving around his dorm and schedule in order for more practice. His music is creased in the few shots after it is printed to highlight his constant playing and an element of drumming makes its way into every shot. For example, a panning shot of his room begins on a drumming poster before moving to Andrew, the focus is pulled to the sticks even when Andrew is relaxing in the background and a Buddy Rich CD is seen on the side. Additionally, during shots of Andrew playing, the drums take up the majority of the frame over Andrew, swamping him in the music. Andrew’s apartment is grungy and unkempt, providing reference to Hitchcock. From this element of the montage, I have decided that the shots in my montage must focus on close ups of my chosen instrument over the siting of my actor who is only a vessel for the music to be carried by. 

Finally on Whiplash, I must take influence from the colour palette, particularly in his clothing. In this scene, Andrew wears blue as a mid point between where he starts the film (in white) and ends the film (in black). This basic colour shift is important as it signifies his fall into obsession. By this point in the film, there is still the potential of Andrew getting out and pursuing a domestic life, as seen in the following scene, but his trajectory is in place. In my short film, I plan on inverting this shift, with my character beginning in black before removing it to reveal white underneath, representing his struggle and acceptance of who he is to ultimately achieve.