Scene Analysis: "Breaking Bad": Crawl Space - Season 4, Episode 11
In this scene from "Breaking Bad", Walt is in the basement crawl space looking for his money to pay off to a drug kingpin that threatened to kill him and his family. While he's desperately looking for the money, his wife, Skylar heads over to his location to inquire about a mysterious phone call they received. When she sees him looking for this cash, she begins to worry. He angrily asks her where to money is. She tells him that she used the money to save her boss out of bankruptcy and potential tax evasion. Once Walt realizes that he and his family are in grave danger, he completely goes insane and loses his mind.
In the "Breaking Bad" series, one of the biggest cinematic techniques that is used is color. Color meaning plays a giant role on the show; it gives out information about mood, plot-lines, and character traits. This scene is no exception. One of the prominent colors in "Breaking Bad" is the color green. In this scene, Walt is seeing wearing a faded-out green jacket and Skylar is wearing a bright neon green top. The overall color palate of the scene can be described as a greenish-yellow tone. The green in this scene can be interpreted in many different ways. It can be seen as Walt and Skylar being sick of the situation their in, sick because it's possible that their lives might end, or it can be interpreted as Walt and Skylar being sick individuals themselves. On Walt's end, he can be seen as a sick individual because he decided to feed his ego and continue to be in the drug dealing game, despite putting his family in grave danger, and Skylar can be seen as sick, just for simply putting up with it and supporting her husband's drug dealing.
The way this scene, specifically the shots of Walt in the crawl space are fantastic! In most well crafted film and TV shows, the camera has it's own language and tends to clue the audience in on symbols or foreshadowing. When we see Walt, the camera is above on a extreme high angle, and we see the Walt's face within the square borders of the crawl space. This enunciates the fact that Walt is now trapped, alone and has no escape. He is isolated and no one can help him.
Another aspect that made this scene great was the music. The music adds to the feeling of fear and impending doom. The track has a grimacing base with a constant booming sound laced across the track. It really enhanced the feeling of desperation and insanity that Walt feels. The music did a extraordinary job of making the audience connect with Walt and his feelings of agony, despair and insanity. One of the things that make this scene and "Breaking Bad"great as a whole is the creators' knowledge of using camera and sound to convey the feeling they want, but also being consistent to the world and environment of the show.
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