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What are your favorite shots in a movie?


John

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Subjective camera is a a POV shot where a character is walking, pointing or looking into the camera.

 

I've attached an image of Gandalf that does that. The famous shots of HAL-9000 do it. And of course, The Silence of the Lambs traffics in that kind of imagery all the time. It can be very effective!

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When it's done too much it loses its effect because the audience gets used to it. But in Sunset Boulevard I really felt she was suddenly looking at me. It gave me a strange feeling.

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1 minute ago, Alexcremers said:

When it's done too much it loses its effect because the audience gets used to it

 

Its true of anything, in any film, always. You get supersaturated in drama, in musical themes, in effects, in large-scale action, in camera movement, etc...

 

But, regardless, POV shots are always tricky. Done wrong, they can feel very contrived and jarring. Other than the camera being in eye-level height, its a form of photography that's entirely suggested by the editing.

 

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2 hours ago, Alexcremers said:

 

One of the most extraordinary endings ever.

 

Really, it's the only way it could end.

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Chen G. said:

Subjective camera is a a POV shot where a character is walking, pointing or looking into the camera.

 

I've attached an image of Gandalf that does that. The famous shots of HAL-9000 do it. And of course, The Silence of the Lambs traffics in that kind of imagery all the time. It can be very effective!

 

The "POVs" in SILENCE...are not quite at camera, but as near as. It's a nice technique, that Demme  uses on THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE.

 

I'd say the best use of POV, is the eye, from BLADE RUNNER. It turns the film on its head; are we watching the film, or is the film watching us?

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3 hours ago, Richard said:

 

I'd say the best use of POV, is the eye, from BLADE RUNNER. It turns the film on its head; are we watching the film, or is the film watching us?

 

 

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Did you know that, Richard?

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4 hours ago, Chen G. said:

Wasn't it Spielberg himself who thought that the Raiders' theme was used too often in Raiders of the Lost Ark?

 

I don't remember him saying that (and I doubt he would) but I seem to remember him talking about the Indy scores in either the behind-the-scenes or maybe the AFI Masterclass where he made note that there's less of it in Temple of Doom compared to Raiders and Last Crusade. But if I recall he was just praising Williams's originality in TOD, not necessarily criticizing the use of the Raiders march in the others.

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And of course:

 

image.png

 

The use of atmospherics (smoke, torch light) is beyond incredible. Its a historical epic, yes, but those kinds of shots - along with the beatiful vistas and majestic score - make it feel mythic, in the best sense possible.

 

There are other magical shots in the film, but they're way too many to mention: Murron picking up the thistle looks like a renaissance painting. William's figure looking across the Scottish landscape really puts it in perspective, and than there's the shot of his father and brother's final return: he walks around minding his chores, but the camera is following him from such an angle that the carriage is always there in the background.

 

A huge boon for this film, which is all the more pronounced given the time of its release, is how damn lush it looks. Films in the 90's tended to have something of a washed-out palette.

 

Words fail me in describing how much I love that movie.

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9 minutes ago, Nick1066 said:

Now that's a first. ;)

 

I know!

 

It might the biggest testament to the marvel of this film's artistry.

 

And all of this is coming from someone who had a terrible childhood memory of this film and rewatched it last year looking to tear it apart. I just couldn't. It was incredible.

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While we're on the topic...

 

image.png

 

This shot begins the longest take of the series: about 1:30 worth. This different style of photography continues throughout the trilogy: A a long-take through the streets of bree here, an establishing long take through Beorn's House there, and finaly a long take (around 50 seconds) through the streets of Dale as Bard returns to the city after the battle has begun - and all of these are done with practical camerawork.

 

Since the whole point of the long take is to allow you to take the world of the film in, they're really effective in this, and form a nice constrast to the more lively camerawork of the action climaxes or to The Lord of the Rings. Bag End, in particular, is also subject to some great framing. In yet another long take, Bilbo is framed within the passageway into his own parlour, but with the door outside of his house fully in focus.

 

And than there's the scene from my avatar: very atmospheric, dim lighting, constrasted by the more high-key - but never flat - lighting earlier in the Bag End setpiece. The lighting really communicates the warmness of the place, and since this trilogy is going down a darker path than its written counterpart, this period of warmth is nice.

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Bilbo doesn't communicate this to the audience (no doubt in the interest of contrasting him from the Dwarves) as, say, Merry and Pippin do, but as I'm sure you're well aware - Hobbits are quite prone to gluttony, too.

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Bilbo's quite fit! And it looks like he eats healthy at home...fresh fish & vegetables!  

 

I think all that cheese and bread must be for when Fatty Bolger stops by.

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He does withhold one piece of bread from Dwalin, but it doesn’t come across as more than him being stingy. He should have started eating it as he was going to the door after Fili and Kili arrive: another long take, by the way.

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14 hours ago, Nick1066 said:

 

Mate, there's no backing up liking or disliking a film. If you like it, that's it. Your liking it is all you need. No one can dispute whether you like a film or not. De gustibus non est disputandum.

 

However if you said The Hobbit was a nuanced cinematic masterpiece of plot and character, that you'd need to back up. ☺

 

 

 

Dunno, have you ever seen the way people react when you say you didn't like a film? They usually get really stern and demand to know why, and your reasons must be well thought out, or else it means you secretly liked the movie by default. But usually no such demands are placed on someone who claims to have liked a film - they're left alone and they can get away with it.

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9 hours ago, Nick1066 said:

Bilbo's quite fit! And it looks like he eats healthy at home...fresh fish & vegetables!  

 

I think all that cheese and bread must be for when Fatty Bolger stops by.

 

Thank you, I have been working out lately. 

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That’s good mate. But you’re looking a little old these days to me...like Nutella spread over too much crepe.

 

And let’s face it, you need to work on your anger issues.

 

Bilbo_I_Want_it_back.gif

 

 

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5 hours ago, Margo Channing said:

But usually no such demands are placed on someone who claims to have liked a film - they're left alone and they can get away with it.

 

Not if the film they like is generally badly recieved. Try defending Kingdom of the Crystal Skull or Attack of the Clones....

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5 hours ago, Margo Channing said:

 

Dunno, have you ever seen the way people react when you say you didn't like a film? They usually get really stern and demand to know why, and your reasons must be well thought out, or else it means you secretly liked the movie by default. But usually no such demands are placed on someone who claims to have liked a film - they're left alone and they can get away with it.

 

The difference between their taste in art and mine is that I have some.

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18 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

 

Not if the film they like is generally badly recieved. Try defending Kingdom of the Crystal Skull or Attack of the Clones....

 

If that's the case, they're exceptions to the rule.

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125959fd0.jpg

 

This isn't the best still from that brief shot (or if it is, it simply doesn't work as well as a still). But Aragorn, devastated yet determined and basically accepting the state of things, i.e. the failure of the Fellowship, Boromir's death and his own responsibility to Gondor, has always been one of my favourite moments in these films. It rings true, emotionally, and is fully earned by the scope (and length) of the film up to that point. Mortensen truly was an excellent casting choice.

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I think everyone is pretty much using whatever criteria they wish.  

 

For example, I'd never nominate a shot that was purely CGI.  

 

There are also some great moments that look spectacular in motion but lose quite a bit as a still...for example I love the the "you bow to no one" shot in ROTK, but when you look at it as a still, you really can't tell what's going on and it's not that impressive.

 

There's a lot of "oh, doesn't that look really cool" shots posted here, and those are great, but personally I prefer the ones that have meaning for someone.

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