Film Essay
Essay Question: In visual texts, characters are developed through aspects such as set, props, positioning and movement of actors, costume/makeup, framing, lighting, camera techniques and sound. Analyze how a character is developed in a visual text you have studied.

In the film The Prestige directed by Christopher Nolan, the combined use of film techniques such as costume and mis-en-scene, camera movement, extensive use of close up, and editing show the character development of Robert Angier. The main theme is magic and illusion but there is a sub theme which involves obsession, deceit and jealousy arising from the professional magician rivalry between Angier and Borden. The destructive power of obsession and secrecy fuels the battle as both magicians contribute their fair share to a deadly duel of one-upmanship, with disastrous results. This leads either Borden or his twin being hanged and a duplicated copy of Angier shot at the end of the film. The bullet catch scene, Angier’s “The new transported man” trick and the meeting of Lord Caldlow and Jess at Borden’s cell are three key moments in the film that show the way the character of Angier develops.

The director uses costume and mis-en-scene to create the complex character of Angier. At the bullet catch scene, Borden is performing the bullet catch when Angier comes in disguise. The director uses close up focusing on the gun which Angier is holding in his hands. The gun dominates. The camera tilts up to show Angier’s determined expression. Angier aims the gun towards Borden and asks, “what knot did you tie Borden?” The fake beard and moustache Angier is wearing as a disguise resemble the real facial hair he grows at the end of the film as Lord Caldlow. This is significant because the fake beard and moustache enables him to fake his death and frame Borden for murder. They also act as symbols and foreshadow the gradual decline of Angier as an admirable person.

A variety of camera shots are used to show the development of a realistic and believable character. There is a rapid editing of shots of Borden in pain and then there is a cut to mid shot of Angier who is stepping backwards, away from the camera. Angier’s stiff performance shows how he didn’t really intend on killing Borden but his self control let him down into pulling the trigger and putting Borden’s life at risk. The use of close-ups on Angier’s face show how his motives have changed as he looks more serious and uncomfortable. His clothing has gotten evidentially darker as he has come to the bullet catch in disguise. At the beginning of the film, Angier was seen as an innocent and naïve character but because of his obsession and greed, his character has developed him into being consumed by his ambition for revenge.
The film makes extensive use of close-up techniques to heighten the dramatic conflict. Through the use of close up, we are watching one of the most familiar of magic tricks, palming, in the way that magicians always want us to see them: up close. So close that everything else is blotted out of our view. We watch closely—the first words of the film, spoken in voice-over, are: "Are you watching closely?” a mantra that is repeated several times during what follows. Like the audience of any magic show we watch, knowing that we are about to be tricked, wanting to be tricked, looking for the trickery but not really wanting to see it. We examine the close-up hands for any muscle contraction, but see none; we examine the film for any cut that might indicate camera trickery, but see none. And all the time we miss what is happening beyond the frame where the greater deception is being perpetrated.
Close up is also used in the confined and confining film set in narrow streets, in small, dark rooms, in prison cells, it directs where we look and so guides what we do not see. We watch a drama—at times violent, always compelling—but the real story is something we construct only later, when the mysteries of the plot slot neatly and satisfyingly into place. This places Angier right in the middle of the action. We are ever aware that he is a magician who is sliding away from himself.
The director uses editing to create the sense of dilemma and tragedy in Angier’s character. As his character descends so the tone of the film is appropriately dark and increasingly tragic. It began so innocently. As Borden says in voice-over early on: “We were two young men at the start of a great career. Two young men devoted to an illusion. Two young men who never intended to hurt anyone.” What ensues is a tale of obsession and revenge that shows, how despite nave beginnings and good intentions, careers and lives, often take their own unexpected paths–to some detrimental effects.
By using a series of unfolding flashbacks–and flashbacks within flashbacks, we see this decline in Angier from a number of perspectives or from multiple points of view. The transition among flashbacks is not always clear and occasionally it also disrupts the natural flow of events. We also get Angier's (and Borden's) point of view through the notebooks and diaries that each man keeps or tries to steal from the other.
This multi faceted approach creates parallels between his character as a magician and the filmmaker himself. Filmmakers like magicians, manipulate their audiences through the selective way they transmit information, using their own techniques, blind alleys, and red herrings to achieve their result-entertaining the viewers, even if it means cheating and fooling them. As an audience we are intrigued and horrifically amazed by the characters decline and tragic ending.