Kick-Ass Scene Review

Film: Kick-Ass
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Time: 1:27:00 – 1:29.50

In this scene, the character Hit-Girl interrupts the execution of her father, Big Daddy, and ally & protagonist Kick-Ass from the antagonist, Frank D’Amico’s, henchmen.

Previously, one of the executors had been shot in the head and the lights turned off. This is where this extract begins. This extract is a very good scene, because it has various different filming and editing techniques which are really enjoyable to the audience. The diegetic sounds in this scene are the gunshots, voices and props like the lighter etc. The non-diegetic sounds are the music.

 From a black screen, a ‘night vision’ HUD comes on the screen, this particular shot is a point of view/POV shot from Hit-Girl’s perspective. We can see her hands move as if we were her hands behind the night vision goggles. When the camera is like this, it moves rather quickly but steadily, which I presume was done via the use of steady-cam. Director Matthew Vaughn said that he wanted this bit to look like a first person video game, much like the game ‘Doom’. Also, the music begins, albeit very slowly and quietly whilst she walks around undetected with the goggles on, however, once she shoots and kills he first enemy, the music instantaneously increases in both tempo and volume, letting the audience know that now things are going to get more intense. This music is non-diegetic.

The night vision HUD from Hit-Girl's POV

The scene also switches between the night-vision and the dark room being lit up by gun fire. In these shots, the only source of light in the scene is the gunfire. From then on, the scene switches between shots of Hit-Girls POV and quick changing cuts of gunfire, which switch shot almost on time with every gunshot heard.

Now the music begins to decrease in volume, but you can hear faint voices from the enemies like, “Get the lighter” etc, then they set Big-Daddy on fire, and this creates a source of light for the scene, as Hit-Girl has now taken off her night vision goggles, it makes it easier for the audience to see what is happening on screen.

Now, another light source is introduced, it is a strobe light. This means that the lighting is frequently and extremely quickly being turned on and off. This is effective because it allows the audience to feel disorientated like the villains and this scene are, struggling to see exactly what is going on. After a few moments of switching between POV shots of the disorientated villains, tracking shots on Hit-Girl hidden behind a wall, and close ups of Big-Daddy on fire, a slow-motion shot takes place. In this moment, the music begins to slow down, matching the speed of the action, however it is rather calm and peaceful, very contrapuntal, but I feel that it is used to show that she is going to end her father’s suffering, and bring him to peace. In this shot, the strobe light is still in use, but due to it being in slow motion it is clearer to see exactly what is happening on screen, at first the shot takes place at this angle, her running up on her enemies and shooting mid-air (the shot seen below), and then the shot is switched to the POV of the camera recording the whole thing, again switching between being lit up and pitch black and switching back to the previous shot. Then an eye level shot is taken place as she looks at something and shoots it, and then we can see that it is the strobe light by switching shot. The shot switches to her placing a blanket over her flaming father, which kills the flame, and fades the screen to black. The camera then switches to a close up of the camera lense, which we can see her reflection in, then finally, we are switched to the POV of the camera recording the event. She walks up to the camera, says: “show’s over mother f-----s” and shoots the lense (or at the audience), breaking the camera and clearly ending the scene.

  

The slow-motion strobe light effect