Camera Movement

I love camera movement.  To me, it's just as important in achieving aesthetics as color pallete and lighting.  I'm excited to learn how to use the dolly.  I've never see one, and definitely haven't used it yet, but some of my favorite shots are smooth moving dollies. I've come to realize that I like messing with some handheld stuff too, especially after doing Scott's portrait completely handheld.  The first thing that comes to mind when I think of effective movement is the opening scene to Quentin Tarantino's "Resevoir Dogs".  It appears to be a 360 degree dolly around the table of characters.  It has medium close ups and close ups of each character which helps you relate to them.  Take a look.

Shot by Shot

So it took me a while to find something that I felt would work well for this post.  I didn't want to use a completely random scene because I was looking for something that I thought had meaning.  I ended up going with the opening scene from The Departed directed by Martin Scorsese.  One reason that made me watch this film again was the fact that I wanted to decide for myself what made Scorsese such a master of his work.  I know his earlier works are in leagues of their own, but I realized from watching this film that he uses camera movement so effectively to bring about mood and tone.  Almost all of his shots have some sort of movement to them.  The opening scene sums this up pretty nicely.  Another reason I chose this scene was that it goes along nicely with what we're talking about in class; lighting.  On a side note, besides the long list of A-list cast in the film like Dicaprio and Nicholson, I thought it was interesting to see that Brad Pitt was credited as a producer.

The very first shot is a long smooth dolly that lasts about 30 seconds.  It introduces one of the main characters, Frank Costello (Nicholson), with a voiceover to setup what the movie is basically about.  It is set in a dark warehouse that comes back into play toward the end of the scene.

When I mentioned lighting being a key factor, here is the start of it.  The character is completely dark the entire time to make him appear mysterious and mischievous.  The shot starts as a wide angle full body and slowly zooms into the characters profile in a close-up.  Something to take note of in the opening voiceover are Costellos last words in this profile shot.  He says you have to take from people to get what you want.

This is an establishing shot of a middle class Boston grocery store that Costello owns and runs illegally.  This is another long 23 second continuous shot.  I don't think this could be done by a dolly, it has the feel of a crane shot and by the time the camera makes it into the store it seems as if it's hand held.  It sets up the little boy in the green in the frames because he is an important character too.  Notice again how the main character is completely facing away from the camera.  We're still clueless to what he looks like.

Next shot is a quick cut to a close-up of the cashier handing over money.  Symbolizes that Costello takes all that he can even if it's only a few dollars.

Then followed by a medium shot of the main character and a 3/4 of the cashier.  The only light in the shot is coming through the window in the back left sweet spot.  It draws your attention away from Nicholson but you still try to look at him because he's still dark.

3/4 panning shot of the young girl walking over to Costello.

A quick cut to a medium close-up of the boy watching Costello.

All of these shots flow together quickly into sharp cuts.  Notice how the little boy watches Costello closely.  It ends with this dark, MCU of Costello.

Then it cuts into this Close-up of the boy.  This establishes a relationship between the two characters because it becomes more personal.  He is also framed up nicely using the Rule of Thirds.

Here the relationship is established with a wide shot.  Costello proceeds to buy groceries for the kid as he talks about how the boys dad is dead.

Several quick coverage shots.  Into an ECU of the little boy.

Now we can relate to the boy.  Notice the difference once again in contrast of light between the two.

 Here is a significant CU shot after establishing the relationship between the characters.  Costello is now giving away money to help the boy instead of taking it like earlier from the cashier.  This symbolizes a Father-Son relationship that begins to form.

 A nice OTS MCU of the boy getting a few last words of encouragement from Costello.

 P.O.V of the boy leaving then Costello steps into frame.  Right next to the sweet spot.

 This sequence is how the first 4 minutes of the film start out, but I would like to point out a few more that I like and think are important.

Several minutes later we're placed back into the warehouse from the very beginning.  The lighting scheme is basically the same except now the little boy is present and being "coached" by Costello.  I like this because Costello is so dark he appears to be just a shadow.

 A couple of minutes later, a nice OTS dolly shot of Costello talking to the boy again.

Then finally, the main character finally steps into the light.  He starts off to the side from the left then walks straight into the middle of the frame, all attention on him.  This is a nice way to end the mysterious feel of who the guy may be.  Of course, Nicholoson leaves us with a sly grin.
I enjoyed this assignment because it makes me think about all the things we're learning.  It's a nice feeling to actually understand a lot of the thoughts and processes that go into filmmaking.