The Power of the Camera

    I love the technical aspect of filming with a camera. The ability to create a story simply by moving the point of view is unique, and entirely amazing. As the article says well, a movie would be completely boring if the camera stayed in the same place and used the same lens. You need a wider and a narrower field of vision, and sometimes distorted images are invaluable to a story.

A good example is the final scene of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. The scene last for about five minutes, and if you think about it, its just three dudes standing around and looking at each other. And yet it is considered a great scene. The way which the camera increases the proximity of the shots while also increasing the speed with which the shot changes. The five minutes of three dudes standing around becomes a thrilling ride. Its like being excited about waiting in line for something. It doesn't really make sense, and yet that is the unique power of the camera; not only to bring fantasy into reality, but also to turn the completely boring into fun.

Another scene which masterfully uses the camera is the Breakfast Scene in Pulp Fiction. The scene employs more exciting dialogue then the prior one, but the camera does a lot of the heavy lifting. We are set to focus on one character, Jules, but are broken away from him in rather abrupt way several times i.e when he kills one of Brett's associates. These jaring intrusions from our central character provide a sort of edge to the scene. We are slightly uncomfortable, which only adds to the tension. The way the camera controls our view makes it so that while we expect something to happen, we are frightened of it because we know it will not coincide with our comfort. To be cliche, we expect the unexpected.