Scene changes that will give you Whiplash

In the film, Whiplash, released in 2014, there are many brilliant scenes that involve clever camera work. This clever work was rewarded as the film received 3 Oscars, including best performance by an actor, which was awarded to J.K. Simmons. Comparing this film to the article, Assembling the Shots, by Dick, there are lots of comparisons between the concepts discussed in the article and the various scenes in the film.

One of the topics discussed by Dick is the concept of Rythm in a movie scene and says "The best filmmakers vary Rhythm". The movie, Whiplash, has a very tense aspect to it, and several scenes throughout the film have a large amount of tension between characters and how they interact. This creation of tension is very important to the film, as it resembles the intensity of the music industry and the environment of a renowned music school.

One of the ways this tension and intensity in various scenes is created is through the variation of rhythm throughout each scene. As seen in the scene below, the director started the scene with slower frame changes and the start of the scene is some what more relaxed, or less stressful.

After the drummer carries on with the song, the teacher, J.K. Simmons, stops him as well as the rest of the band to point out mistakes. He asks him try again, and with that the drummer continues to make mistakes and doesn't go at the teachers desired tempo. With each restart of the song, the teacher cuts of the drummer, and the frame changes are drastically more rapid, switching back and forth between the teacher becoming increasingly more angered, and the nervous drummer.

These rapid frame changes create the sense of tension that is growing between the two characters and shows the increase in emotion throughout the scene. Finally, when tension is visibly high, the teacher, out of frustration, throws a chair at the drummer, and all of a sudden the tension has exploded and the frames go back to slower switches between the characters interactions. It is in the variation of rhythm that the tension is created to express the scene and its intensity.