Post by: Joey, Brian, Matt, Nick, Derek, Jack, John (The group in the back)

The scene we chose went from 55:22-56:05. This part of the movie was pivotal because Chris was meeting Rose’s family and things are getting even more strange than they already were since Chris arrived at Rose’s parents’ house. Towards the end of the party Chris was asked a question about the African American experience and Chris thought he would let Logan take that question because he was walking by with his wife. This scene was shot outside, but it seemed like there was no way out of Rose’s parents’ house and the yard because of how large the property was. The frame was full, but anything behind the characters speaking or focused on in the scene, was blurred out. The background didn’t matter in this scene, Peele wanted us to focus on the characters, especially the conversation between Chris and Logan, but Rose’s other family members were in focus for the most part. As Chris took the picture the camera panned out to a long over the shoulder shot and everything was clear for the eye to see, like the flash of the camera on Chris’s phone grasped everyone and everything's attention in the scene. Then Logan attacked Chris making it seem like the flash put him into a trance of some kind.  

We are meant to have harsh feelings towards the Asian character because he made Chris think about how he is perceived in this world as an African American man. He asked him if he feels that being an African American is an advantage or disadvantage in the world, and there were some laughs, and Rose’s dad added “That’s a tough one”. Like how can you ask someone that question and feel good about yourself? As an audience we feel bad for Chris because he didn’t defend himself because he doesn’t want to be on the wrong side of the family, but he wanted to fight back it seemed by the shocked and disgusted look on his face. The audience wanted Chris to say something back at Rose’s family because it was inappropriate for them to act like that, and no one should get away with asking something like that. Then we feel bad for Logan and Chris because they had the power to be heard by white people, because some of them were listening, but some were in their own conversation in the background not paying attention until Logan attacked Chris. Unfortunately, that power was lost because Chris took a picture of Logan to send to his friend because Chris thinks he recognizes him, but really it made Logan and Chris look foolish because they lived up to the stereotype of how African Americans resolve conflict. There is a racist message within this scene, because the looks on everyone in Rose’s family's face says it all, and Rose’s family seems like they don’t want anything to do with Chris as they look at him with disgust but wanted to tame Logan to see if he's okay. The characters were wearing similar outfits, but they were all dressed very clean and proper, and it made Chris look out of place in his jean jacket, white shirt, and black cargo pants. Logan was dressed in a tan suit jacket, gold pants, white undershirt, a collared shirt, and a nice hat that matched his suit. So, Chris looked underdressed compared to everyone else. Everyone seemed to be wealthy by what they wore (men suits, women nice dresses) and Chris seemed to be looked down upon as the poor person at the party for what he wore. 

Peele is an auteur because he has probably experienced racial discrimination in his life as an African American man. Peele in his own life may have not had the opportunity to have the power to speak in front of a large number of people like Logan did for a short period of time before Chris snapped a picture of him. We live through the lens of a Black man in a white dominated world in this film as Chris in this scene is one of the two Black men surrounded by his white counterparts. In the scene we chose, Chris takes a picture of Logan to send to his friend who is part of the TSA to see if he recognized him because Chris believed that they all went to school together. As Logan continues to explain the story of how him and his wife are doing, and the camera shot as Chris had his camera ready was a close up and after the flash goes off, the camera switches back at Logan at a medium close up shot really depicting his teary eyes and the trance he seemed to be put in from the flash. Peele may have used a close up on Chris’s camera to show that the flash played an important role for Chris at the end of the film. Peele also made it seem like it was just Logan, his wife, and Chris were having a conversation because the camera was switching back and forth with medium close ups with just Chris and then with just Logan and his wife and anyone in the background was blurred out. After the picture was taken the camera went out into a longer ranged over the shoulder shot and we could see now who was paying attention to Logan as he was talking. Rose’s dad looked disgusted at Chris as he is the only one besides Logan who is looking at him. The group Logan was talking to was in a circle showing us that these were the only people listening, but Peele only included Chris and Logan as the main characters for most of this scene because Peele wanted to show us that Black people didn't have a lot of power unfortunately. When Chris took the picture and Logan started bleeding, that blood symbolized them losing their power over Rose’s family at that moment. Logan had almost everyone's attention at the party as he explained how the African American Experience was for him, but the power was short lived. Those who were outside of the circle as Logan talked were in their own world until Logan started to attack Chris, because now they had everyone's attention, but that was because they were fighting. The stereotype used here is that Black people resolve things with violence and that is just “how it is” no one really cared to stop it besides Jeremy, everyone else was just staring because it seemed normal to them that Black people act out.