Nolley-Beowulf

The scene in Beowulf that I feel needs the most editing is the one where Beowulf fights Grendel. In this scene, the lighting is constantly flashing, similar to a strobe light. While this style of lighting can be effective in showing a fast paced sequence, this scene was a bit too intense. The constant flashing made it hard to make out what was actually happening and was distracting from the meat of the scene. The overall effect of this style is lost in the drawbacks of using the technique. It seemed like during the scene the viewer never got a decent look at what was happening and it created a lot of confusion. In order to fix these problems, I would either abandon the idea for good or greatly reduce the speed at which the light flashed. The first option is the most desirable and the most effective in producing a straightforward scene. This scene is also the first turning point in the movie which makes it a pretty important event. In order for the viewer to absorb the whole point of the scene, they would need to be able to see it clearly and accurately. There were several times when I found myself questioning who was attempting to fight Grendel at one particular time or another, and couldn’t make out the face in the awkward lighting. In order to remedy the problem a montage of Beowulf and Grendel fighting could be put in place of the strobe light effect. This would still give the impression of a rapid time sequence, but would be easier for the viewer to enjoy. It seems that a lot of techniques used in Beowulf were experimental and exciting, but techniques like this are not always the most appropriate to use in a movie.

The mise en scene of the above still points out a few of the flaws of the scene. The dominant is Grendel, but he is very blurry and a little washed out. This gives an idea of how hard it is to make out the actual scene. The lighting key is high directly on Grendel, but becomes low as you look to the corners. During the actual scene there are a lot of flashes of high lighting, but no lighting key is used consistently which can become very tiresome to watch. The camera proxemic is personal with Grendel's hand almost touching the viewer. While this is creepy, it loses it's edge because of the low quality of the image. For those not viewing the movie in 3D the effect is totally lost.