I, Tonya
The plot of this movie is about a “trashy” girl who comes from a low income family who becomes a competitive figure skater. This movie is based on a true story of Tonya Harding becoming the first American woman to complete a triple axel. The movie shows Tonya growing up in a home with an aggressive mother and as she gets older, she moves in with her abusive on- and-off husband. SPOILER ( kind of) Tonya’s husband plots the bashing of Nancy Kerrigan, Tonya’s hardest competitor's, knee.
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Pre Production:
Because this movie was based on a true story, there was not a lot of room for interpretation. To plan out this movie they first had to get the exact details on what happened so all of the facts were right. Next, they had to figure out someone who resembled Tonya. They needed someone who figure skated and looked enough like the actress to do all the stunts ( unless the actress could). The producers had to find the supporting roles, Nancy Kerrigan, the instructor, her mother, her father, and her boyfriend/husband. They had to get every skating outfit right.
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Image one shows how large the story telling screen is compared to image two where her mother is sitting in a box shaped focus in the center of the screen as well as image four where Tonya is sitting in her kitchen.
In picture three you can see the old-timey video tape scratchiness.
In the fifth and sixth picture shows a difference in light and color hues.
The final few pictures show the similarities of Margot Robbie and Tonya Harding.
While Shooting:
One of my favorite cinematic aspects of this movie was the use of center screen. It gave a different feel to the movie which made it memorable.I think the DP decided to do this to show a difference between when each character ( as they were older looking back on the story) was talking verse the event that was actually taking place. It was a way to separate between past and present. Another thing that I loved about this movie was the sense of the 90’s even though they filmed in 2017. I also noticed the scenes are not very lit. This is intentional because when she is on the ice it is lit much brighter. There is a scene at approximately 55:38 where Tonya is visiting her mother at work. While this technique is done quite frequently, I noticed that they are in the rule of thirds. They are on opposite thirds which makes sense because they are talking. They cut even while the other one is talking to show movement between the two characters.
The color tones are yellow and tan and green for the home, and very vibrant colors for her skating outfits.
Some difficulties the DP might have faced was while Tonya was on the ice, filming her, unless there was a crane or they were on the ice with her. The DP also faced multiple pairs of glasses and was able to keep the light out of the glasses.
The acting in this movie was as spot on as it could get. This film is quite violent and required a lot of great acting skills which I think portrayed in the final result. The attention to detail is amazing, when looking at pictures of comparisons of skating dresses, they are basically identical.
I would recommend this movie to almost everyone. It is rater R so that is taken into consideration. I think this movie was not only intense but also very interesting. This was a national and partially global event that not many people know about who are my age ( due to the fact we weren't born yet). I think this movie is almost empowering, Tonya who grew up in a terrible home situation made it very far in her career and faced challenges of discrimination because of her social status. This can be argued against the fact that her husband conspired and went through with bashing her competitor's knee, although Tonya claims to have not know about the attack before it happened.