For my film analysis I’ve decided to use an opening scene from one of my favourite films The Devil Wears Prada. Originally a New York Times best-selling novel, The Devil Wears Prada was adapted as a film in 2006 with its killer line up of Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt. The film follows our protagonist Andy and her journey through a popular New York fashion magazine company known as “Runway” as the editor in chiefs second assistant. Throughout the film we watch her grow and evolve, as well as make decisions that inevitably ended up costing her within her professional or personal life. This particular scene is early on in the film and it introduces us to our antagonist Miranda, as well as many other important characters that are relevant to the plot later throughout the film.
Throughout the scene there are a variety of locations and quick shots as Miranda (Meryl Streep) moves into the building where Andy (Anne Hathaway) and Emily (Emily Blunt) are. It’s edited at a quick pace and it’s important to note that Miranda moves from the exterior street, through the lobby into an elevator and finally to the interior office space. The scene is edited to quickly shift between Miranda walking out of her car into the office building, whilst simultaneously showing the pandemonium of preparation happening in anticipation of her impending arrival. This scene establishes Mirandas power and position as editor-in-chief of the magazine but also her incredible influence and rein she holds in the circles around her as well.
Because there are so many different shots within this scene, both interior and exterior I thought the lighting would be interesting to dissect. In all exterior shots there is a soft light that fills the space, which leads me to believe that it was shot on a dimly lit overcast day as there is are little to no shadows created from buildings, cars or people. There is a reflection of people walking into the building which has been created because the minimal light in this shot is being bounced up by the wet side pavement and therefore creating reflections. There are also reflections bouncing off the windows of the office building, and because of the quantity of windows on the building it would have created issues for the crew if an extensive amount of artificial lighting was needed.
The interior shots are all within the same office, clear glass walls around certain rooms whereas the rest of the office is almost wholly white, accented with neutral furniture. The set design is created this way to introduce to the audience not only the type of magazine and company that ‘Runway’ is but also the people that are expected to work in high-fashion. The Runway office is filled with light from known light sources and this is bounced off the white walls and floor to create a fill throughout all areas of the office. It emulates a soft light source and creates consistency throughout the scene despite moving throughout various spaces in the office. The use of glass however does create reflections which is showcased as Miranda and Emily move through the hallway and other staff turn in the other direction (where you see their reflections.) Another thing to note is that the top lights that are visually seen by the audience creates silhouettes on the ground throughout the scene as the workers hustle throughout the hallways.
Some key challenges in lighting the interior scenes would be creating consistency across the whole space as it moves so quickly throughout it. Utilising the natural bounce of the walls and flooring are one of the ways that the gaffers could of achieved this consistent look, another would be by bouncing artificial lighting above and around the set to create a very flat light to fill the space holistically rather than in directionally. Another challenge would be to match the right amount of luminance in the exterior shots with the interior shots so that they look consistently the same without causing a disturbance to the viewer as they see the cut together sequence moving them from the exterior to the interior.