The Techniques Used in the Movie Fargo

In the film Fargo, The unforgettable dark neo-noir thriller, A sleazy man of Minneapolis that is a car salesman Jerry Lundegaard and pragmatic small town Police Chief Marge Gunderson. In a wild attempt to swindle money out of his wealthy father in law, Jerry gos to Fargo, North Dakota, to hire a pair of thugs to kidnap his wife and ask for a ransom that leads to a load of trouble.

The movie is set entirely in Minneapolis and rural central Minnesota, and it was filmed almost right on location in Minnesota and neighboring North Dakota, which received more snow during the winter when the film was shot. Written, directed, edited, and produced by Joel and Ethan Coen, Fargo an unforgiving Midwestern winter. We watched the film to see how the Coen Brothers and cinema photographer Roger Deakins go together shooting on location in the snow.

First technique Snow, Snow is a pervasive or a perswasive in Fargo’s exterior shots and serves to either obscure or show objects and actions, depending on the scene. Most of the exterior sequences were shot on cloudy days or during snow storms, and, because the landscape is so flat, the whiteness of the ground blends into the sky at the horizon. If snow is falling, moving objects such as cars appear from a bright white as they approach the camera. Fargo uses snow settings to effectively complement its plot and mood, a close examination reveals some potential drawbacks. The snow also really gives you the feel of year and time things are happening at.

Second method, the film's legendary cinematographer used. Once said that framing was the most important aspect of what he does, and in this film, especially, as Bond puts it, 'everything we need to know about the relationships of these characters is told through the framing.' for example when Macy comes home to discover that the kidnapping plot he has set into motion, he is filmed with a telephoto lens that frames him. Everything is focused on him and you can tell almost exactly how the character is feeling from his whole body reaction. If you watch the film there are multiple times a person was framed to express the characters all reaction.

Thirdly, another strat that they mentioned in (cinemanbeyond.com), while on location shooting somewhat limits the ability for filmmakers to control their scenes, a film like Fargo works rather against these environmental conditions to achieve a desired artistic effect. By using brightened on set lights and natural daylight to illuminate the majority of the movie’s scenes, the filmmakers enhance the realism of the banal setting. At the same time, this sparse, selective lighting, coupled with the deliberate use of the snowy exteriors to establish settings, hide, and expose contributes to the film’s uneasy mood. This Film is Themes of isolation, suffocation, desperation, violence are as apparent in Fargo as they are in any more traditional film noir.

Next was the use of mise-en-scene. There was a lot in the film that represented more value meaning that the audience was able to feel the vibe during some scenes. An example I thought and people say that the colour red had value, It is used commonly throughout the film. Red means danger, blood, pain and death, and this is fully exposed for the mise en scene. As the kidnappers were driving away, they get pulled over by a police car. This is shown by the bright sirens and the mass of red light that floods the car from behind. He then shoots the policeman, and consequently the white snow is splattered with red. As another car, with two people in, see what they did, the meaner of the accomplices turns the car around to follow the two red lights from the escaping car. He loses sight of the car and only sees it again when his own car floods with red again because the escaped car has turned over to the side. We know where it goes from there, more red on the snow. This was only one of the main examples listed.

Lastly, Editing was a big piece in the film. It stated that The brothers had “many different kinds of shots such as the eyeline match, parallel editing and cut editing(steedproductions.com)”. An example of Parallel editing is in the scene when the smaller criminal, Carl, is hitting the TV in anger trying to make it work. During this scene it cuts from Carl to Jean tied up in the kitchen and then to the bigger criminal, sitting with a stern look and back to the Carl hitting the TV and again is it shows three strands of simultaneous action, and each emotion shown more than two times. The build up to the TV finally working gives the feelings of anxiety. The silence from two of the three characters in the scene with a voice over of the one screaming while the screaming gets louder and more intense. The cuts from scene to scene and back were used to show the different emotions in the room. Also another form of editing the Coen brothers used was a cut to black. This cut to black appeared in the scene where Jerry Lundegaard returns home after finding his father-in-law Wade Gustafson, and the night parking attendant dead. He has a conversation with his son Scotty Lundegaard and ends it with Jerry saying “well I’m… I’m going to bed now”. This is a cut to black because there is no fade or a slide or a push. It simply cuts straight to black and soon after the next scene in another day and location appears.

In conclusion, In the article of (jocelynnorangio.com) said that Fargo from the Coen Brothers which is ‘universally rated as one of their best and considered their peak cinematic achievement, this far by a huge number of fans and critics’. Frances McDormand one of the main characters received her first Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as a pregnant police officer investigating multiple murders and the kidnapping of the wife of a local car salesman. Fargo was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Cinematography and Best Editing. In addition to a nomination for Best Director. Cinematography Is all connected on with the editing, sound, mise-en-scene and i.e. These all make up on how unique the film is. All this may seem easy but it really takes a lot of knowledge and risk to create a film difficult as Fargo.