#2 Deconstruction
Breaking Bad – ‘Crawl Space’ – Season 4, episode 11
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf8GaDkFm3E
- Find a scene from a film and deconstruct it on the topics of actor performance size, vocal choices, shot choices, production design, costume design and any other facets of the production related to character and performance you would like to discuss.
For context, prior to this scene the episode establishes that our protagonist Walter White, is experiencing life at his lowest; he’s just killed a man, his only work companion Jesse has joined forces with a competitor named Gus, who is threatening to kill Walt, and his brother in laws, Ted, police investigation is coming closer to unravelling the entire operation under which the drug cartels (inclusive of Walt’s) are competing.
This sequence takes place in the White family household, more specifically ‘the crawl space,’ a tight area that exists underneath the house in which Walt and his wife Skylar have been known to keep valuables. Multiple times throughout the show we have seen Walt hide cash here, meaning the audience is privy to the area. This is important to know as previously we have seen it act as a sanctuary to Walt’s illegal lifestyle. This scene juxtaposes the previous ones as the safe space is unknowingly invaded by Skylar, creating a building tension between the audience and Walt, inducing panic in all.
The mise-en-scene situates Walt in the dirt ridden, enclosed crawl space, injured, bloodied, and unkempt. Meanwhile Skyler, neatly dressed, looks at Walt from a bird’s eye view above the crawl space as Walt frantically tries to gather the money. Upon realising there’s nothing left, and being told much of the money was given to Ted, Walt begins screaming in frustration and stress. Situating Walt at the bottom of the crawl space, and Skyler at the top signifies how far Walt’s morality and life has fallen. The camera conversely shoots Walt at a high angle from above, and Skyler at a low angle from underneath her waist up to further amplify the divide between the two. As Walter fully breaks down, a dolly shot slowly moves away from him, emphasising how alone, vulnerable and small Walt feels.
The soundtrack throughout this scene is a long droning composition moulded around Skyler and Walt’s interaction. It works around the dialogue, building constant tension and creating discomfort for the audience as Walt’s cash lifeline becomes impossibly out of reach.