Camera for Interpretation (Sean Strelow)

I really loved this reading. I’ve been into film for a long time now and this reading reminded me why I love it so much. Little things, like the telephoto shot towards the end of The Graduate where he seems to take forever to get towards the camera, are why I love film and got into it in the first place. I always have trouble remembering the specifics of depth-of-field and the kinds of lenses, but this article articulated very well exactly what each means and does and did it very succinctly. One of my favorite lines was right at the end, when the author says, “camera technique, then, is not simply a matter of recording subjects and action on film or video, nor is it a matter of creating pretty pictures. Camera technique is the creation of an illusion of reality that exists on the screen” (192).

The concept that the article really seems to want to hammer home is that, in watching a film, we as an audience are inherently looking through a camera. Thus, manipulating the way that we perceive images as such is a necessary aspect of filmmaking and is, in fact, the crux of filmmaking as an art. I can dig it.

I’m going to analyze the opening scene of Drive for this post. In it, Ryan Gosling provides the getaway car for two burglars. The only problem is, one of them takes a little bit too long, and the police are on the chase. The director, Nicolas Winding Refn, makes heavy use of telephoto lenses and carefully placed shots to place us in the mind of Ryan Gosling’s character, the Driver. As the Driver finds himself behind a cop car, he slows down. We find ourselves looking in a tight over-the-shoulder shot of him looking at the cop car. The telephoto lens blurs everything that is in the car; we are only focused on the cop car, just as the Driver is. When the car makes a turn, the camera racks focus to Gosling’s face in the mirror. He’s safe, and the focus of the scene has shifted from that car back to our main character. This rack focus takes us from the subjective point-of-view of the Driver back to a more objective point-of-view of watching the scene, or perhaps to one of the burglars backseat. When the helicopter flying overhead spots the Driver, we cut between shots of his face with extreme lead room and speeding shots with the camera attached to the car. The moving shots allow us to feel the intensity of the moment as he rushes to try to escape the police’s gaze, while the shots of his face looking intently ahead are made more powerful by the lead room provided. We get to see the space that he is staring into. When the Driver encounters a cop car across the intersection staring at him, Winding Refn provides us with a canted angle inside the car. Not only does this allow us to see both the Driver and one of the burglars backseat, it also makes the viewer uncomfortable, due to its skewing of horizon lines. We are made to feel uncomfortable, just like everyone else in the car. The scene uses the radio dialogue along with a faint bass humming sound to heighten tension without any actual dialogue, and we understand that the cop car is a danger to the Driver and the burglars simply by the over-the-shoulder shots of the car (giving us the Driver’s point-of-view) and the canted angle, tension building shots. The camera slowly moves closer to the Driver’s face in one shot, again, slowly building tension as he waits at the red light, and highlighting the stress he feels, which we can see in this close-up even more clearly the closer it gets. The ending of the scene, where the Driver reveals that the game he put on the radio was all part of his backup plan, is just icing on the cake. A dope scene from a dope movie.

Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdqbdEKeJ_4

On Media (Sean Strelow)

One thing that stuck out to me in Hovagimyan’s piece is the part where he mentions that the invention of photography brought about a decline in the paintings of heroic battle scenes. This was due to how people could see what battle actually looked like, namely, grimy, bloody, and not fun. I find it interesting, then, that photography has been used, through film, to make many films that glorify war in spite of its grimy reality. Our perception of war may have changed, but we still have war heroes. We still draw glory out of war despite the grimy truth we have learned about it with the aid of photography. This idea has carried through to the development of film as well. Post 9/11, the War on Terror has brought about a new, especially grimy reality of war, and films nowadays such as The Hurt Locker and American Sniper depict that, while at the same time making heroes out of the soldiers who fight. For example, this clip from American Sniper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF40oKgQ9Jg

In it, the cinematography highlights the grittiness of the moment. We see the rival sniper through cracks in the net of tarps covering him. Close-ups of Bradley Cooper and the other sniper heighten the tension, as does the rhythmic editing. The shot sizes get closer and closer, making the audience almost uncomfortable. The palette is a drab brown and gray. The grittiness is embedded in the heroism; emerging from this, Cooper shoots the bullet, and in slow motion we see it travel through the air and hit his target. Cooper, or Chris Kyle, is a hero, as a result of the grittiness of war. This is how we still draw glory out of war despite knowing its reality: we embrace that reality, and play it up in a heroic way.

I believe that Hovagimyan’s point about how photography could capture the “actuality” of war ties into his larger idea that in the modern, “Post Media” days, media seems to interact with art at an almost seemless level in the technological space. Photography seems like the beginning of that idea, providing reproducible art that portrayed stark reality.

Jack Scardino Re: Camera for Interpretation / In-camera editing

The discussion of in-camera editing and use of the camera makes me think of the new film Birdman.  The film is very technical, and exemplifies many cinematic aspects discussed in this article.  Point-of-view, angles, and focal length are critical to how Birdman tells its story.  The wide angle lenses are very noticeable when the camera films in close-up or extreme long shots.  In these instances, the distortion of the image creates a massive depth of field, making faces appear to jump out of the frame at times, and at others making hallways seem long and vast.  Birdman also relies heavily on handheld shots to follow characters in the scenes.  This is because the film is composed as being a single fluid shot from start to finish.

This is probably Birdman's most popular (and successful) technical aspect.  The performances in the film are theatrical, fitting because the story has to do with an actor putting together a Broadway show.  The use of the camera therefore is also somewhat meta in this way, and quickly calls attention to its own use due to the tracking shots and editing.  I wish I could post the Times Square scene from the movie here for reference, because it is an excellent example of in-camera editing and cinematography.  Birdman is too recent a release, however it does remind me of the famous Copacabana long take from Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas.  The camera is used flawlessly in conjunction with mise-en-scene to create an incredibly impressive scene with totally authentic atmosphere.  The positioning of the camera in relation to its subjects and framing in such an exciting environment is highly effective in creating a fly-on-the-wall feel, and of course the direction of all actors and actions in the scene is also very impressive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=OJEEVtqXdK8#t=8

Danielle Rennalls: Camera Interpretation

The video I choose to analyze is that of Beyoncé’s entitled XO that was released in 2013. In this video, Beyoncé not only uses various camera interpretations to enthrall her audience, but she challenges several issues surrounding the topic of media, ranging from the incorporation of the an audio clip from NASA’s Challenger shuttle disaster to clips from interactions with her fans.  Though I will not analyze the entire video, I will choose parts that illustrate the various camera interpretations the director chose to specifically captivate us as an audience.

At the start of Beyoncé’s XO, the first glimpse we get of her is through that of a close up showing us only her head along with her neck and shoulders. The camera then switches to a wide shot giving us a sense of Beyoncé’s environment, then switching to a medium close up while simultaneously changing the angle of the shot in order to exhibit her facial expression to the audience. At twenty-one seconds we are also given a view of Coney Island through the use of a wide and high angle shot. When Beyoncé enters through the door into the bumper car zone, the concept of motivating the move comes into play for we can see the camera panning as to give the audience a sense of sharing this moment with Beyoncé and being in the same space. At forty-four seconds we see a trucking movement, moving sideways to grab our attention to an image on the side of a boardwalk stall. At forty-seven seconds when Beyoncé is on the roller coaster, we get to experience her fear through a medium low angle shot. Furthermore, at a minute and eleven seconds we see a crane shot, taking the viewer on another ride within the park.

Two shots that I was unsure of how to categorize are located at a minute and sixteen seconds and a minute and fifty-nine seconds. In the case of the former, since the camera was exhibiting a rotating form, I was unsure of the type of movement it could be categorized as. Though my instinct tells me that it is a pan, I believe it could also be a tilt of a zoom movement. Furthermore, in the case of the latter, we are given a view of a man dancing on the boardwalk, which I believe is a trucking shot, however I also think it could be a pan shot.

Though I only analyzed about a minute and half of the entire video in this post, it alone demonstrates the vast amounts of camera interpretations located in this video. Though majority of Beyoncé’s XO is done through a medium or close up shot, there are various different camera movements and angles demonstrated throughout the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xUfCUFPL-8

Camera for Interpretation-Anna L.

For this blog post, when given the prompt of finding a moment in a film that I thought was shot beautifully, I chose a moment from The Young Victoria. I primarily chose it for the transition into this scene that unfortunately I couldn’t find anywhere so I’ll have to describe: Victoria steps onto the dance floor, in a medium shot, with the camera placed in what feels like the middle of the floor and Victoria seems to magically float to meet Albert there. We can tell that she isn’t walking, and based on the reading I’m guessing that ratchet might be the best way to describe the focus since Victoria stays in focus as she pulls forward and the audience is blurred in the background. Up until this moment the film is shot in a way that seems realistic, and while this article gave me a deeper level of appreciation for how any minute decision impacts the viewer’s perception, this moment stood out as a moment when I “saw” the camera, but in a way that I thought beautifully reflected how we experience time during adrenaline-filled landmark moments-like like time is suspended but whooshing past you simultaneously.

Another prominent technique is the moving shot that rotates around Victoria and Albert as they themselves rotate, and I felt that this successfully engaged me in the feeling of the waltz. At the very end of this clip it seems like the director plays with time by showing one moment (when Victoria drops her arm to Albert’s shoulder) multiple times from different angles around them. From Victoria’s perspective, this could be another sign of time seeming to stretch, or it could also be a commentary on how the audience viewing her all take different active stances on criticizing her?  In any event, I feel like the risks paid off in this scene and stood out as special, and the content and placement in the storyline allowed it to work well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiuloBasqf4

Using the Camera for Interpretation Yukun Liu

The video I want to analyses is the music video of the song, XO by Beyoncé.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xUfCUFPL-8

For this clip, most scenes were filmed on Coney Island's Cyclone roller coaster, the rest were from Beyoncé's concert at the Brazilian festival Rock in Rio at Rio de Janeiro in 2013. For all the scenes include only Beyoncé are with medium close-up shots. All these shots focused her face and the camera moves as she moves to keep her face in the middle of the lens. The shots are perfectly matched to the rhythm of the song. The clip starts with some medium close-up shots of Beyoncé. As the rhythm became high, the scene of the clip changes to be on a roller coaster with some combination of low-angle shots and high-angle shots. These shots exaggerate both the height and the inclination of the roller coaster to reflect the rhythm of the song. For the scenes filmed from Beyoncé's concert at the Brazilian festival, there are two impressive scenes. The first one is a low-angle shot from the ground to Beyoncé on the stage. This shot makes her looks taller and also like a god (idol) for the audience. The other scene was shot right behind her on the stage when she was interacting with the audience. This one is more like shooting straight against a wall that consisted by her fans which produces flat compositions with little sense of depth in the frame. I feel like this one kind of drag the crowd closer to her to interact with her. There is also a scene that shot a boy dancing from the ground. It used two angles, one was a reverse angle from a position that even shorter than the boy, and then moved to the ground as a low-angle shot to change the perspective to show the boy as the core of the scene. 

Camera for Interpretation - Karina Banda

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpMxpzfSRUA

I choose to analyze the scene from the film Pulp Fiction where they have to give Mia the adrenaline shot because she overdosed. As the scene starts, the camera is at a frontal medium close up shot which enables us to see the facial emotion contrast from the frantic jesus looking drug dealer and his calm girlfriend. Once he gets into the living room, the camera for the majority of the time stays at a low angle wide shot next to Mia's head near the floor. By having the camera in this position, we can see how everyone is reacting and get everyone to fit in the shot because since it is at a low-angle, it catches John Travolta and the dealer kneeling but can also capture the standing girlfriend and her farther away sitting friend. This is a very smart decision because it really displays the craziness of this scene. It highlights the franticness and worry from the two males in the foreground but also the very out of place calmness from the drugged up girls and their very calm motions. This shot is also cut with close ups of their actions such as opening her shirt or filling up the syringe to add action to the scene and brings attention to the timeline of what's going on by highlighting such events with a close up shot.

 The low angle wide shot turns into an almost eye level medium close up shot on John Travolta when they argue over who should do it. This adds to the drama of their bickering because the camera puts us closer to their arguing and less focus on Mia on the ground since she has disappeared from view. All the shots of Mia's face is done over her head but still below her chin in a low angle position rather than completely above of her face as to show that this is from the perspective of the guys and adds dimension to the shot. Once John Travolta is about to inject her, all the shots turn into either close up or extreme close ups adding to the tension of what's about to happen but also highlighting the different emotions on everyone. Since these close up shots are extremely different than all the other shots of the scene, you get immediately focused in as well. Once she's awake, the scene ends with them again by the floor in a low angle wide shot letting you see all of them react to her at once.