Cinematic Style
Brooklyn's Representation
Do The Right Thing (1989)
Spike Lee was born and raised in Brooklyn and loves where he is from. He tributes a lot of his movie in his neighbourhood where he shows and celebrates the culture and the way of life it had. But Spike Lee explains and is not shy to talk about the gentrification Brooklyn has had over the last years, where you see fewer black people and more white people arriving in these neighbourhoods. So, when Spike Lee celebrates the past and history of Brooklyn, he also wants people to realize that times have changed and that the culture that his neighbourhood has had disappeared. He wants people to respect the culture and history and seems very engaged when talking about it.
Do The Right Thing (1989)
Double Dolly Shot
Spike Lee uses the double dolly shot to make his characters appear like they are getting pulled physically and figuratively trough the narrative. This technique makes the character appear like they are living an "out of body experience" because of the emphasis it creates on the subject's emotions.
To execute the double dolly shot the subject has to be placed on a dolly in front of a camera progressing through a straight path. Spike Lee's characteristic in his double dolly shot is his use of wide angle lenses that bring the subject closer to the viewer.
Blackkklansman (2018)
Malcom X (1993)
Breaking the 4th wall
She's Got to Have it (1986)
Da 5 Bloods (2020)
Spike Lee is no stranger to breaking the 4th wall he has done it in basically every movie he has ever directed. The reasoning behind him doing this is that he does not want to create a comfortable cinematic experience, what he wants to do is make the audience provoked and confronted to the situation. Spike is compared to the theater Bertolt Brecht because both wanted to make the audience or crowd aware that this is a play or movie so that people could have a critical perspective and enact change. In Spike Lee's joints we see that his movies talk about real life issues that he wants people to initiate a call to action.
Oversaturated Colors
Spike Lee uses oversaturated colours in his films to express the emotions of the characters. This technique, added to the actor's capacity to portray emotions brings the character's sentiment outside, in their environment, therefore making the message even more striking. This technique brings an appropriate atmosphere to certain scene where the elements are not enough to support the emotion.
Girl 6 (1996)
