Bellarke Crossfades & Film Technique

Okay, so, first off, this is entirely my friend Danni’s fault. She’s gotten me obsessed with the cinematography of the show and how it supports the narrative and so I decided to dig into how that applies to the patented Bellarke Crossfades™ and how they’re narratively significant. Disclaimer, this is built on my own long ago history with video editing and a bunch of reading I’ve been doing recently. It’s not like I’m an expert in this field.

Alright, now that we’ve all been thoroughly disclaimed, WHEEEEE! Here we go.

Okay so there’s two levels to them, right? The film techniques and their generally accepted meanings and then how all three of them thematically relate to each other and the characters. On a filming/editing level, it’s not just the dissolve fade but a number of other techniques combined that really highlight that of the several different things each could mean on their own, when you put them all together the meaning becomes pretty damn explicit.

First thing to understand is there’s a difference between cuts and montage transitions. Cuts generally tend to be more subtle, or are done in a way to make them seem seamless/unobtrusive and natural to the audience. By contrast, montage transitions are intentionally jarring to draw attention to the connection between subjects. There are a bunch of different montage transition techniques, but the one that is applicable here are dissolves, where subject A fades into subject B.

It’s interesting to note that while dissolves were pretty much a staple of classic cinema, they’ve been largely phased out and at this point, dissolves are a rarity. When they are used (unless it’s an editor that has no idea what they’re doing and just slaps a dissolve in there, which clearly doesn’t apply to the 100 because their editing team is very, very good) they’re used with intention and meaning.

Dissolves are basically visual ellipses, they’re a sustained visual link, you don’t lose sight of subject A until subject B is visible. They’re generally used for one of two reasons: to depict the passage of time/location or to emphasize an emotional component of the story and establish a strong relationship between subject A and B (in the case of the bellarke transitions, I think it’s pretty clear which one they’re going for).

COMPOUNDING TECHNIQUES OF NOTE

Let’s look at the framing/cropping of the connected shots. A close up is a head and shoulders shot focusing on the character’s face and usually used to indicate their emotions and reactions are what you’re supposed to be paying attention to. A big close up is when you cut in really tight on the subject’s face, so chin to forehead. It’s generally used to emphasize tension and is often a visual cue that the audience is supposed to read the character as lying or at odds with what they or the narrative is directly saying (fun fact, news programs generally don’t use those because they’re trying to stay impartial on the subject).

So, it’s interesting to note that the first bellarke crossfade goes from a big close up of Clarke talking about love is weakness to Bellamy. The slow dissolve transition indicates emotional importance and connecting what she’s talking about (love, in context of L’s tragic romantic history and by extension Clarke’s own) to Bellamy. BUT the big close up (as opposed to a regular head and shoulders close up) is indicating that love is weakness is a lie (sticking a pin in this for now because that all relates to the thematic resonance I’m going to get into once i’ve established the techniques). You see this again in the third crossfade. In 3x15, the shot fades from a big close up of Clarke’s face, grappling with the idea of having to let Bellamy die to save the world. It’s kind of interesting to combine that narrative context with the idea that a super close up is a lie/something the character is at odds with (so, it’s kind of like the camera work is indicating that though Clarke may be trying to steal herself to that outcome, it’s a lie and she wouldn’t be able to let Bellamy die, even with the world on the line).

Another thing the show adds is a match cut/match dissolve. This means that they keep the two connecting shots visually similar to really drive home that they’re connected. In all three cases, they’re transitioning between close ups of Clarke and Bellamy’s faces. Match dissolves between faces are usually used to indicate narrative significance between characters. So, heyo, it’s almost like the camera work is telling us that Clarke and Bellamy are the main characters and that their relationship is paramount to the narrative oh wait no, that’s literally what the camera work and editing is telling us.

Taking it one step further, the cropping/framing tells us this is about an emotional reaction and the visual alignment of shot a to shot b reaffirms that yes you are definitely supposed to be connecting these characters, these scenes and seeing them and their connection as significant and emotional.

The timing is also telling. The speed of the transition means something.a standard dissolve transition is usually one second. The slower the dissolve, the more emphasis the connection is given. It’s giving the audience time to not only make the connection but let it resonate. It’s a soft, drawn out transition, making sure the audience gets the full emotional impact of the connection (often used in a romantic context, time slows, etc but obviously that’s not the case here because, as we all know, bellarke is ~platonic). It’s super interesting that of the three crossfades, the first and last ones are the slowest (ie the one that first introduces the love is weakness/I’d do anything to protect her arc, the moment that kicks off the watershed of all of the dissonance in Clarke and Bellamy’s relationship, and the one that comes after their dissonance has been resolved and they’re recommitted to working together and staying together).

To summarize part one of the meta: the crossfades themselves, on a technical level are basically screaming CLARKE AND BELLAMY ARE IMPORTANT, THEIR RELATIONSHIP IS IMPORTANT, THERE IS A TON OF EMOTION HERE. Furthermore, unless I have blocked something out, they are the ONLY characters the show has ever used this kind of transition for, which is basically the show drawing a massive underline under all of the importance indicated above.

Honestly, this is all stuff that can be picked up from the storytelling but it’s really awesome and validating to see it reinforced in the technical work.

Okay. So. Film techniques and traditional meanings down, let’s talk about the thematic connections between the crossfades.

1. 2x09: “Love is weakness.”/”He’d do anything for her.”

The cropping indicates this first part isn’t necessarily true/something Clarke is comfortable with/really believes before making an emotional connection between Clarke and Bellamy. The shot transitions to Bellamy talking about how Lexa and Gustav on the surface, but the camera work, dissolve (and common sense applied to watching the show because it’s fucking obvious) tells us that this is actually about Clarke and saying “he’d do anything for her, to protect her.”

It’s an interesting and hugely significant encapsulation of how the two of them approach love both in general and for each other (as of this point, they start to grow out of it but I’m getting ahead of myself). Clarke closes herself off, shuts down/refuses to demonstrate her emotions on a truly open and vulnerable level until forced to whereas Bellamy throws all of his emotional intensity into protecting the people he loves, he loves with his entire being, often at the expense of himself (and then also, drawing the obvious connection between "love is weakness” and later “I was being weak”, a strong, textual acknowledgement that Clarke loves Bellamy).

ALSO. Keep in mind that from the very first, the camera work sneakily tells us that love is weakness is a lie, which is later reinforced by, among other things, L’s deathbed reversal and Javi, the s3 executive producer, tweeting that “love is strength” is the ultimate point they want to make with the show. But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself.

2. 3x02

We start with Clarke and Roan’s conversation where he basically hits all of her fears and insecurities around her people and leaving: that she’s a coward, that her people hate her, that no one is looking about her and they’re better off with her gone. Looking at this gif, once again, Clarke’s face is framed in a big close up, telling us that all of that is a lie. The shot dissolves to Bellamy, vibrating at the edge of the cave, the human personification of anxiety and desperation to get to Clarke, confirming that lie with the narrative. Later on, after the connection between the two of them and Clarke’s fears and Bellamy’s desperation has been made, Bellamy flings himself into the thick of a vicious and hostile army with no actual plan or back up because he can’t wait anymore and he’d do anything to protect her, it just makes sense.

So, crossfade one to two thematic commonalities, Clarke’s fear of the people she loves, fear that they don’t love her (REMEMBER, SEASON ONE, DOWN HERE FEAR IS WEAKNESS AND WEAKNESS IS DEATH) and Bellamy using his love as strength, determined to do whatever he has to to save Clarke (though they’re both in the midst of self destructive cycles and that was a really stupid, dangerous plan that ultimately didn’t work).

3. 3x15 “Start with Bellamy Blake”

We fade from “her friends are her weakness” (there’s that love is weakness, love making you vulnerable cue again) and “start with Bellamy Blake” (the most important and closest to her heart, her ultimate weakness, the key to getting to her and literally everybody knows it) and Clarke’s horrified, completely unable to deal face, looking down struggling to process what her mother just said and dissolving to Bellamy, who while currently in a bad situation, is immediately rescued by Murphy (reformed-ish by love, as evidenced by the elevator conversation where he admits he’s doing this to save someone he cares about, love is strength) and refuses to leave Polis without Clarke (because he loves Clarke too much to even consider leaving without her and then Bellamy and Murphy, it’s notable that the two characters most directly motivated by love are the ones that fight their way up the tower in this ep, credit to my friend Pear for catching that, love is strength once again).

It’s also notable that the previous example of love motivating Bellamy have him throwing himself into danger without back up for love, whereas by 3x15, the love is strength concept has been introduced more explicitly into the narrative and this time Bellamy is throwing himself into danger with back up, with a plan, confident that he’s doing the right thing but that’s kind of a sidebar. The show is transitioning over from the love is weakness decoy and getting more fully into the message it actually wants to leave the narrative with, that our emotions aren’t weakness, that they’re important, that our love for each other is what keeps us going and gives us the strength to fight and gives surviving meaning meaning (life should be about more than just survival).

So, yeah, basically, once you put all of the pieces together it’s pretty hard to ignore how loudly the show is screaming BELLARKE BELLARKE BELLARKE no matter what we’re being explicitly told.

The cinematography and thematic storytelling symbolizes, highlights and reinforces each of Clarke and Bellamy’s overall character arcs (Clarke learning to let people in, to not be such a loner/bulldozer, to not be afraid to love; Bellamy draw strength from his connections with others, not letting those connections wear him down, learning to not lose himself for the people he cares about) and reinforces over and over again that their relationship is significant.

The show may claim to be telling one story on the surface, but taking a step back and looking at what the editing has been saying underneath the surface stuff, it all comes back to Clarke and Bellamy’s connection with each other and how important that connection is to them, their world and the story.

(gif credit to @misctrucs)