Black Swan effectively utilises the convention of visual elements in the scene (at 1:33:31) where Nina gets ready to perform the final dance. Visual elements involve the shot sizes, transitions, camera angles, camera movement, special effects and editing pace.
At the start of the scene at 1:33:31 we see Nina in the black swan costume walking downstairs past all the white swans, showing the contrast between the two and showing that Nina is going deeper into her role and losing her sense of reality. The white tutus represent innocence and purity, while Nina's is wearing a black tutu, representing evil and darkness and she is wearing harsh dark eye makeup. The way she triumphantly marches down the stairs shows she's in control but walking away from the innocence and purity that the other ballerinas have. The use of a handheld camera shot as she's walking down makes the audience feel uneasy and nervous and makes them feel like they're there in the moment. We are able to sense Nina's hesitation as she walks down the stairs, showing that she doesn't want to change out of her black swan costume because she has become the black swan, and she feels most comfortable in that. Aronofsky has used a behind shot of Nina, highlighting her back and how her bones are very visible, showing her bad health and how she is experiencing anorexia or bulimia. It also makes Nina look more fragile and more bird-like, like a swan. When Nina enters her dressing room, it goes into a wide shot, showing the smashed mirror and the blood outside the door and Nina's face isn't shocked, showing she was involved and her poor mental state. When Nina covers up the blood with a towel, it shows Nina covering up what happened, much like how Nina is covering up and avoiding the reality that she is mentally unstable. The shot then fades into Nina putting white makeup on her face, representing innocence and purity and she's trying to cover up the negativity inside of her - the black swan - that made her 'kill' Lily. When Lily knocks on the door, it shows Nina in a three piece shot, with black on each side of Nina's pale face which is in the centre. The harshness of the sudden white against the dark and because its eye-level, it shows the darkness of the black swan slowly consuming Nina and causes the audience to feel trapped . The concrete brick walls make the scene feel unfriendly, gritty, cold and harsh. When Nina realises she has stabbed herself, the wound starts pulsating which is representing the evil inside of her, living in her and slowly taking over her. Her skirt around the wound looks like bandages, showing her trying to hide the evil but by visibly showing it coming out of the skirt, it shows the evil can't be contained and its consuming Nina. It's almost as if the white swan tried to save Nina, but it was too late. Nina's black swan crown is continually shown when she's in her dressing room, showing to the audience that Nina is after success and wants to be perfect but the black colour in the crown shows the negative effects that come with reaching perfection and success in the role. Aronofsky uses close up shots of the characters face to clearly show the audience the emotion and pain that Nina is experiencing.
The next shot is the final dance and a variety of shots are used, such as a low angle wide shot of the ballerinas feet dancing to show the technical elements the ballerinas are made to learn and perfect, much like how Nina is made to become the black swan. The performance in the final dance shows all the others Swans circling her while she spins centre stage in the opposite direction. This makes the audience feel disorientated and claustrophobic as the shot is in the middle closely following Nina and it gives the feeling that there's no way out for her. A long shot is used which makes the audience realise the enormity of the stage, the audience and the performance and this vastness makes the audience feel tense and belittled because in contrast Nina and her wound are tiny and may go unnoticed. We then see Nina running up the stairs which represents her going up to heaven, foreshadowing her inevitable death. She looks in control and powerful as she ascends the stairs. The camera then does a wide shot on Nina's wound and shows the blood stain increasing, showing the severity of the situation increasing as well. The sun behind Nina makes her look angelic and then there is a close up of Nina's face, showing her emotions of strained, desperate and despaired and then the shot switches to Nina's mother then back to Nina, showing the emotion on their faces, allowing the audience to realise that they both knows what's going to happen and makes the scene much more dramatic. When Nina jumps, slow editing motion is used to make the audience realise the intensity and drama of the scene and to think about what's going to happen next. As Nina hits the mat, Thomas leans over to congratulate Nina and the camera goes into a high angle shot where Thomas is covering Nina's wound as the white swan ballerinas surround them. It looks as if he is protecting her at first, but the contrast between Nina's white swan costume and Thomas' black suit shows the darkness taking over Nina as if it's his fault that all of this happened. The light brightens as Nina slowly dies, the spotlights on the ceiling getting brighter showing the success of her performance before the lights fade away into a white screen, rolling into the credits. The change in pace shows Nina savoring the moment she's desired and literally died for and although it was sad and tragic that she died for it, having the close-up of her facial expression looking so content as she said her last words "I was perfect" makes the audience feel satisfied for her and as it goes to a point of view shot of the ceiling fading to white, it was aesthetically pleasing to see as it was calm and the audience knows that she's free from all the pain she's endured to reach perfection.
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