Cinematography In The Help

Spike Lee does many fascinating things from a directorial standpoint, which makes his film (dare I say, joint), Do the Right Thing so interesting to watch. Writer, director Lee makes much use of the high and low angle shots. He does this to draw clear contrasts between the two elders of the block, Da Mayor and Mother Sister and to make conflict more apparent.

The film “The Help” (2011), is a story based on the daily lives of prominent white women and the relationships with their African-American housemaids in Jackson, Mississippi, during the 1960s Civil Rights movement in America. A well-to-do white woman and central character in this film, Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, aspires to be a journalist and decides to write and publish an exposé of the stories of the housemaids in Jackson to achieve this goal, however, only two maids, Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson are willing to discuss their experiences with her. The other maid’s in Jackson resist telling Skeeter their stories, fearing the punishments they would endure if the authorities were to find out. In spite of this, after the malicious arrest of one of their befriended maids, all of the maids begin to share their experiences, which consist of racial hostility and being treated as intrinsically subservient to white people. The story Skeeter publishes entitled The Help, creates a disturbance among the white families in Jackson, by exposing the racism the maids are faced with, forcing the white families to reflect upon how they have treated their maids. The storyline represented in The Help exhibits examples of the primordial approach to race and ethnicity, as well as numerous sociological concepts including segregation, internalized oppression, and white privilege, which will be exemplified in this paper in order to uncover the race relations evident within this film.

The Help chronicles a recent college graduate named Skeeter, who secretly writes a book exposing the treatment of black maids by white affluent women. The story takes place in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, during the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. The death of Medgar Evers triggers racial tension and gives the maids of Jackson the courage to retell their personal stories of injustice endured over the years. The movie depicts the frustration of the maids with their female employers and what their lives were like cleaning, cooking, and raising their bosses’ children. The Help shines a light on the racial and social injustice of maids during the era of Jim Crow Laws, illustrating how white women of a privileged

It goes through the childhood of Jean-Louise Finch, known as Scout, and how she learns about the world. The Help is a movie directed by Tate Taylor set in 1960’s Jackson, Mississippi. It is about a young lady named Eugenia Phelan, known as Skeeter, coming back from college and writing a book about how maids (The Help) are treated. Both characters believe that

The Help is an inspiring movie, centralized on themes of showing courage in the midst of adversity and racial desegregation. The selection of actors with specific attributes, lighting/camera angles, and music, allows the movie to entertain in detail, and highlight the prime issues of the 1960s. With the movie being directed with these specifities in mind, the author, Kathryn Stockett, is able to successfully relay her message in the screenplay.

She begins to notice that people are being treated unfairly just because they are different, and starts to become uncomfortable with it. Likewise, in the movie “The Help”, Skeeter’s intelligence also contributes to her beliefs, because she is curious about her maid Constantine. Skeeter’s mother says Constantine quit, which leads Skeeter to state “I don’t believe you. She would have written and told me” (Taylor, The Help).

In the film ‘the help’ directed by Tate Taylor who uses film techniques such as dialogue, costume, cinematography, and narration/voiceover to help exemplify the relationships between the characters, skeeter and her mother charlotte, skeeter and hilly and skeeter and the help which include Aibileen and Minnie

“ The Help” is about the lives of black maids and how they were treated in society in a time of segregation. Many of the Maids were treated badly and not treated as equal just because of the sake of their color. The Protagonist of the story, Skeeter, then takes on the challenge to write a book that will inform others about the lives of the maids and to make people respect them more. In the Novel of To Kill A Mockingbird, there is a trial that takes place of a man named Tom Robinson who’s accused of rape, which really changes on how the main character and others around her perceive the segregation and racism going on that time.  

In regards to “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett, I found Skeeter’s childhood and interactions with Constantine especially accurate for the book. The movie really portrays the connection and mother-daughter-like relationship between Skeeter and Constantine. Constantine has been working as a maid for over 25 years for the Phelan’s. The book repeatedly refers to how Constantine would always bring Skeeter up when she was falling down, and how although she was a maid, she was always there for Skeeter. The book and the movie really show how Constantine raised Skeeter, and she cared for Skeeter as if she was her own daughter.

In the film The Help, directed by Tate Taylor, an important scene included is when Eugenia, mostly known as Skeeter, confronts her mother Charlotte about her childhood maid Constantine. The main purpose of this scene within the film is to help Skeeter find the truth of why Constantine had left Skeeter and her family after all the things they had been through, for the audience watching this answers the story created within the film. Four significant aspects in this scene are dialogue, voice overs, cinematography and the use of sound effects.

Based off of Kathryn Stockett’s 2009 novel, The Help is a movie told from an African American’s point of view during the early 1960’s in Jackson, Mississippi. The three main characters include, Aibileen Clark, Minny Jackson, and Eugenia (Skeeter) Phelan. Skeeter is a young writer who has recently returned from the University of Mississippi. She has been advised by the Elaine Stein, who is the head editor at Harper & Row, to write about a topic she is passionate about, that way she can continue her dream of becoming a serious writer. In addition, Skeeter accepts a writing job down at the Jackson Journal where she writes a housekeeping column. Ironically, she has no housekeeping experience as she grew up with in house help. In order to keep her job she goes to Aibileen, her friend Elizabeth Leefolt’s housekeeper. At this point in her life, Aibileen is just trying to get by. She writes out her prayers on a daily basis as a way to clear her mind since she is fairly reserved on the outside. On the contrary, Aibileen’s friend Minny is also a housekeeper, but she has a rather sharp tongue which doesn’t usually work in her favor. Consequently, she is trying to find a new employer, but is having trouble since there is a bit of discord between her and the most influential socialite in Jackson, Mississippi.

The movie The Help was a valuable experience for a future Human Services worker because it establishes a need for human services workers even back in the 1960’s and 70’s. Throughout the movie, you may put yourself in the place of each of the characters including those characters that you may dislike oh so much. But, being a good human services worker the task is to always try to understand everything that’s going on even if you’re trying to understand a racist, narcissistic, privileged person you may not always relate to them or even like them but that’s not the goal the goal is to help them no matter who they are. In lecture’s and readings we reviewed communication style, cultural norms for each group, and even the development of racial maturity

The movie The Help has changed my view on the Native American slavery. Native American is a member of any indigenous people of north and south America and the Caribbean islands.

The body language of Mr. Constantine is casual. Speaking at a pulpit, he is almost slouched over it. The body language connotes comfort, and in part this can be explained by the fact that the speech is to welcome the return of the water taxi service, so victory in this 'battle' has already been achieved. Thus, it is reasonable that the body language convey that relief. He also raises his arm when welcoming the water taxi, something that not only connotes openness to the water taxi but implores the audience to do the same.

The style of edit for this sequence and entire film is continuity editing which produces a logical and straightforward narrative. The sequence begins with an establishing shot of the city road setting, orienting the viewer. The editing follows real-time human experiences, for example, the Tramp enters the paddy wagon then it cuts to him sitting down on the benches with the rest of the convicted, minimizing the perception of breaks between cuts (invisible editing).