I chose to analyse the opening clip of Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run. The reason why I chose this particular video is because I really like its cinematography — the movie as a whole experiments with the conventional film form and is still effective in conveying a narrative scene.
The video starts off with a Medium Close-Up Shot of Manni in the telephone booth, then cuts to a Full Shot/Long Shot of a clock and then back to Manni's Medium Close-Up. It then cuts to a Medium Close-Up of a credit card/phone booth card then to a Close-Up of Manni with a shallow depth of field. The choice of moving the camera's placement from a Medium Close-Up to a Close-Up shot, as well as changing the camera's depth of field to a shallower one, portrays the stress that Manni feels when he realises his phone call got cut off. His frustration is further emphasised when the camera placement moves to a bird's-eye-view shot of him, creating a confined and claustrophobic space.
The movie then cuts to Lola's apartment and we see the camera dollying/zooming in on the television, on Lola's face and then on her clock. The pace of the camera movement is quick, portraying Lola's worry for Manni. We also get a lot of jump cuts, particularly the leap-frogging cuts. This kind of jump cut creates a jittery/jumpy effect, which adds to the worry and stress that Lola feels. Just like the scene in the telephone booth, the scene in Lola's apartment is also shot in a shallow depth of field. At around 0:43, we can see that there is a wipe transition. I believe that this was used to show Lola's mental shift from worry to reasoning. The camera is then on a Medium Close-Up Shot of Lola and rotates around her in a fast-motion effect while she thinks about who to turn to for help/advice. As she lists the names, we get fast cuts of the people's faces she names, portraying her train of thought. The camera movement gradually slows down as she narrows down the names, until it lands on her face in a straight-on frontal angle. We then get a match-on cut of her father's face (the person she eventually decides to seek help from), and as she leaves the shot we get another match-on cut of her father's face frowning and shaking his head. This makes it look like her father is in the same room as her and is interacting/responding to her actions. However, this is not the case — Lola's dad is not in the same space as she is, therefore this again is supposed to show her thoughts. She could be thinking about how disappointed her father might be when he finds out about the trouble she has been in.
As Lola runs out of her apartment, the camera follows her by panning across the apartment's hallway and into her landlord's/neighbour's apartment (the movie uses both types of pan shots: dollying and tracking). After the camera pans across the hallway and into the neighbour's apartment, it rotates around the neighbour herself. This whole scene is shot in one take (also called a "long take"), and then the camera dollies into the neighbour's TV screen and we get a cartoon animation of Lola running down the stairs.
The video starts off with a Medium Close-Up Shot of Manni in the telephone booth, then cuts to a Full Shot/Long Shot of a clock and then back to Manni's Medium Close-Up. It then cuts to a Medium Close-Up of a credit card/phone booth card then to a Close-Up of Manni with a shallow depth of field. The choice of moving the camera's placement from a Medium Close-Up to a Close-Up shot, as well as changing the camera's depth of field to a shallower one, portrays the stress that Manni feels when he realises his phone call got cut off. His frustration is further emphasised when the camera placement moves to a bird's-eye-view shot of him, creating a confined and claustrophobic space.
The movie then cuts to Lola's apartment and we see the camera dollying/zooming in on the television, on Lola's face and then on her clock. The pace of the camera movement is quick, portraying Lola's worry for Manni. We also get a lot of jump cuts, particularly the leap-frogging cuts. This kind of jump cut creates a jittery/jumpy effect, which adds to the worry and stress that Lola feels. Just like the scene in the telephone booth, the scene in Lola's apartment is also shot in a shallow depth of field. At around 0:43, we can see that there is a wipe transition. I believe that this was used to show Lola's mental shift from worry to reasoning. The camera is then on a Medium Close-Up Shot of Lola and rotates around her in a fast-motion effect while she thinks about who to turn to for help/advice. As she lists the names, we get fast cuts of the people's faces she names, portraying her train of thought. The camera movement gradually slows down as she narrows down the names, until it lands on her face in a straight-on frontal angle. We then get a match-on cut of her father's face (the person she eventually decides to seek help from), and as she leaves the shot we get another match-on cut of her father's face frowning and shaking his head. This makes it look like her father is in the same room as her and is interacting/responding to her actions. However, this is not the case — Lola's dad is not in the same space as she is, therefore this again is supposed to show her thoughts. She could be thinking about how disappointed her father might be when he finds out about the trouble she has been in.
As Lola runs out of her apartment, the camera follows her by panning across the apartment's hallway and into her landlord's/neighbour's apartment (the movie uses both types of pan shots: dollying and tracking). After the camera pans across the hallway and into the neighbour's apartment, it rotates around the neighbour herself. This whole scene is shot in one take (also called a "long take"), and then the camera dollies into the neighbour's TV screen and we get a cartoon animation of Lola running down the stairs.
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