Where can I see it?
In Children of Men, we watch a character through a pane of broken glass that is used as an Interior Frame. In Signs, we see the family eating dinner through the door of a restaurant. This is also seen in The Last Wave. In 13 Tzameti, the Interior Frame is a window pane as a roof worker watches a couple talking below. In 8 1/2, a child is framed by the raised arms of a statue.
In Winter Light, we see a woman in her classroom as if standing outside in the hall. In The Silence, Interior Framing is used to show a woman in the bathroom through the bathroom door. In Dirty Harry, we see Clint through a broken window. Dustin Hoffman is framed through Mrs Robinson’s arched leg in The Graduate. Interior Framing is used in Nevada Smith as the character approaches the house where his parents have been killed.
We see a dead agent framed through a light shade in The Ipcress File. A sequence is framed by a windshield as a character searches for a kidnapped boy in Shoot the Piano Player.
Interior Frames
LAYERS
What does it look like?
Within every shot and every scene, the director has the opportunity to compositionally build up his scene in Layers. Background objects can add hints or details to what is going on in the midground. Foreground objects can appear to emphasize depth. Midground objects can be used to separate the foreground and background Layers.
This technique is useful in building up detail in a scene. Remember, a cinematic shot is more than simply pointing a camera at a face or an object and rolling the camera. Every detail within the scene can be used to alter the audience’s perception of the story and/or cinematic context.
Layers
Where can I see it?
In Gloria, a woman shoots through a car full of men. The bullets speed from the background, through the midground, through the foreground, toward us. This use of Layers is very effective in emphasizing the impact her actions have by stacking several actions into one frame. In Cast Away, Tom Hanks loses his precious volleyball. Director Robert Zemeckis uses Layers to show the audience where the volleyball is, but not the character. In Cast Away, we see a picture of a wife marrying her new husband in the background Layer of a scene after Chuck Noland comes back from the island. In Titanic, Layers are used to show a whistle in the foreground. This whistle doesn’t seem important at first, but later on it will be crucial to ensuring Rose’s survival.
In The Yakuza Papers, many Yakuza are Layered in groups throughout the scenes. In The Eagle Has Landed, portraits of Hitler face the camera in a foreground Layer. In Bonfire of the Vanities, we see a gargoyle head in the foreground layer, and New York in the background far away. In Do the Right Thing, characters move between the foreground Layer (inside the restaurant) and the backgound Layer (outside, seen through the restaurant window) without cutting.
A scene in Paper Moon has three Layers: a ticket salesman in foreground, Ryan O’Neal in the midground, and Tatum O’Neal in the background.
MULTI-LAYER ACTION
What does it look like?
With Multi-Layer Action, the audience watches one scene occur in the foreground while another occurs in the background.
This can be an exciting way to bring together storylines or to show the relationships between multiple story paths in a film.
Where can I see it?
In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, we see two pirates with a chest, a woman, and three men fighting with swords. Each of these character groups is acting in a separate layer of the scene.
In Shoot the Piano Player, three people argue in the background while the main character stands in the foreground and we hear a voiceover of his thoughts.
In Red, the camera focuses on two layers of an exterior scene. In the foreground is a man’s girlfriend, walking toward his apartment. In the background, a model runs outside to turn off her car alarm.
In Touch of Evil, Vargas is on the phone in the foreground. A cop and a gangster in custody stand outside, seen through the window.
Multi-Layer Action
EXERCISES
• Read a few good books on composition. You can find this information in books about photography, fine arts, graphic design, and more. Composition has been studied for thousands of years. There is plenty of material on the subject.
• Visit an art gallery or read a photography book. Try to identify the compositional techniques you have learned within a work of art. Use these techniques in any films you direct.
• Watch some movies and concentrate on how the director composes objects in a scene. Skilled directors will use every cinematic technique available to them, including composition.
• Practice composition. You don’t need an expensive film camera to do this. You can practice with pencil and paper, or by simply observing the composition of objects in the world around you. Also look at magazines, billboards, logos, and any kind of graphic design to see composition at work.
CRANE TECHNIQUES
Cranes and jibs are mechanical devices, commonly used in filmmaking (see the “Mechanical” technique for more information). These machines can range in size from something that fits in the back of a truck to cranes that tower high into the air. The largest cranes are used to create very wide, sweeping camera movements.
A crane movement often adds a certain dramatic impact to a scene. Because of its grand nature, a crane technique will always be noticed by an audience. When used in combination with a dolly movement or a camera technique, a crane movement can provide an effect even greater than the sum of its parts.
If we were to reduce crane movement to its basic forms, we might say that there are only two crane techniques: crane up and crane down. However, there are many factors involved with crane techniques that allow each of these simple movements to convey a wide variety of expressions and emotions to an audience.
CRANE UP, MOVE AWAY,
CRANE DOWN, MOVE TOWARD
What does it look like?
With Crane Up, Move Away, the camera starts at “eye level” with a scene that contains moving objects. For example: an actor on horseback or in a vehicle. As the actor, or object, moves away from us into the background, the camera cranes up. This combination of movements intensifies the action.
Crane Down, Move Toward is just the opposite. The subject starts far away from the crane and moves toward the camera. As the object gets closer, the camera cranes down until its height is at ground level.
Where can I see it?
Both of these techniques are evident in Thelma and Louise and The Untouchables. Crane Up, Move Away can be seen when Harry and Sally drive away from college in When Harry Met Sally, and when Matilda walks away from a gunfight at the end of The Professional.
Crane Up, Move Away
Crane Down, Move Toward
SEARCHING CRANE
What does it look like?
Searching Crane is a specialized crane technique. As a character onscreen searches for something, the camera slowly cranes upward, gradually revealing the magnitude of the search.
Where can I see it?
The camera cranes up high above a field of bodies in Gone With the Wind as Scarlett searches for a man.
In The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, the camera cranes back slightly to reveal the extent of a graveyard that must be searched to find the gold. In House, the camera cranes up from the pool as the main character searches for his son. Labyrinth uses a Searching Crane as Sarah searches through the labyrinth.
Searching Crane
RISE UP
What does it look like?
With Rise Up, the camera rises vertically. It rises toward something — a character’s close-up, for example. Rise Up is often used to look over an obstruction — a railing or a fence — from the perspective of someone standing up.
Where can I see it?
At the end of Batman, the camera Rises Up through the city to reveal Batman standing at the top. At the end of Batman Returns, the camera Rises Up through the city superstructures to
reveal Catwoman at the top. In Desperado, the camera Rises Up from the bar after El Mariachi reloads his gun in a shoot-out scene.
Rise Up
FALL DOWN
What does it look like?
Fall Down involves moving the camera vertically downward. Sometimes used to look at something on the ground by lowering the camera to ground level, Fall Down can also create a hiding effect. When the camera moves vertically behind an object, the effect is that the audience’s perspective is hidden.
Where can I see it?
In Red, the camera Falls Down to reveal a man hiding, behind a lower wall, from his ex-girlfriend. The camera Falls Down through the city in The Matrix.
Fall Down
CRANE FRONT-TO-TOP
What does it look like?
For Crane Front-to-Top, the camera starts out directly in front of a character or an object. The camera begins to move forward and rises up at the same time, pivoting downward to keep the subject in frame. When the movement is finished, the camera sits directly above the subject, looking down from above.
Crane Front-to-Top is a nice dramatic movement that can add character to a scene.
Where can I see it?
Check out the meditation scene in Hellraiser. You can also see this in the temple scene at the beginning of The Fifth Element, where the focus of the camera movement is a statue of the perfect being.
Crane Front-To-Top
CRANE UP ENTRANCE
What does it look like?
Crane Up Entrance is often seen in explorer/adventure films, used when characters enter a town, village, or habitation. As the characters enter, the camera stops at the entrance and cranes upward. A view of the entire city is revealed to the audience as the camera rises. This can provide the audience with clues about what the characters will be facing on their journey.
Where can I see it?
The camera cranes up above a man on a hill to reveal a bustling railroad camp in the pilot for the television series Kung Fu.
In the beginning of Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, Crane Up Entrance focuses on a group of horse riders as they enter the Earl’s courtyard. In King Solomon’s Mines, Crane Up Entrance is used as the characters enter a village. In Once Upon a Time in the West, the camera cranes up from a train station to reveal a bustling western town.
Crane Up Entrance
CRANE UP EXPRESSION
What does it look like?
In addition to emphasizing depth, movement, and perspective, the camera can be moved in such a way that it invokes a purely emotional response.
Crane Up Expression works by craning the camera quickly upward during a time of a character’s emotional distress.
This upward ascension can invoke a kind of psychological detachment or an expression of the grand nature of life.
Where can I see it?
In The Crow, Crane Up Expression is used as Eric Draven crawls out from his grave. In the ‘90s remake of Great Expectations, the camera cranes up quickly to express Finnegan’s sorrow. In Pleasantville, the camera cranes up as Bud celebrates the newly born rain.
Crane Up Expression
CRANE UP, LOOK DOWN
What does it look like?
With Crane Up, Look Down, the camera rises above the subjects onscreen and tilts down.
The camera ends up looking down from a dramatic angle above. As an added benefit, this technique allows the audience to see what is on the ground below.
Where can I see it?
The camera Cranes Up high above a woman on a park bench in winter in A Girl Called Rosemarie. The camera cranes high above a cotton field in Places in the Heart to reveal the huge task of harvesting ahead.
In The Matrix, Crane Up, Look Down shows us Neo standing on a skyscraper ledge. The camera cranes up to show how far the drop is to the ground below.
Crane Up, Look Down
CRANE DOWN, LOOK UP
What does it look like?
Crane Down, Look Up starts out with a level camera angle, facing the subject onscreen. The camera then moves down as it tilts up.
The scene transitions from a static angle to an exciting, dramatic angle from below.
Where can I see it?
In Labyrinth, Crane Down, Look Up is used when Sarah looks down over a precipice inside of the castle. In Ed Wood, the camera cranes down to look up at Bela Lugosi as he delivers a dramatic monologue. In Jurassic Park, the camera cranes down to look up at a cow being hoisted over the Raptor pen.
Crane Down, Look Up
EXERCISES
• Visualize crane techniques. You probably won’t be able to get your hands on a crane, but you might be able to simulate the experience by finding a platform that moves in a similar way. Something as simple as a see-saw could be used to visualize small crane movements.
• Read a book that talks about the mechanics of cranes, jibs, and other equipment. Learn what they look like so that you can identify them as you study filmmaking.
• Watch for crane movements in films. Observe how the director uses a simple crane up or crane down to express an idea, an emotion, or a plot point. Observe how the camera moves forward, tilts, or zooms during a crane movement for more variety.
TECHNIQUES OF MOVEMENT
This section contains a collection of techniques for moving the camera through space. A camera can be dollied. It can be flown through the air. Tracking shots can be combined with the movement of characters in a scene.
Movement of the camera or the lack thereof is essential to cinema. A moving camera alters an audience’s perspective — making viewers feel as if they are taking a journey through the scene. A still camera allows the audience to focus on the dramatic rather than the cinematic aspects of a sequence.
There are many devices that can move the camera. Each supplies its own unique kinetic energy to a moving camera technique. For those described as “dolly” techniques, the director doesn’t have to use an actual dolly. He might use a Steadicam, shoot the scene handheld, or place the camera in a moving vehicle.
CHARACTER DOLLY
What does it look like?
A Character Dolly is a forward camera movement that focuses on one or more characters in a scene. It is commonly noted in screenplays as “Push In.”
The camera starts out with a wide shot of an actor and is pushed forward, reaching for the actor’s close-up and beyond. This cinematic technique adds tension to the scene, acting like a magnifying glass on the character’s emotional state. The actor doesn’t have to be saying anything for the Character Dolly to be effective.
The speed of camera movement can greatly alter the emotional effect of this technique. A very slow Character Dolly will subtly highlight the scene’s emotional qualities. More flamboyant films use a faster version for a comic or exciting effect.
Where can I see it?
Perhaps the most recognizable example of the Character Dolly is in The Godfather: Part II. To end the film, Coppola simply moves the camera slowly towards a contemplative Michael Corleone, leaving the audience with a lasting impression of the character. Spielberg uses this technique in many of his films.
Character Dolly
DISCOVERY
What does it look like?
A Discovery includes any shot that begins away from the action and then a camera movement that reveals a scene.
A common example of this technique occurs when the camera begins behind an obstacle that obscures an audience’s view. The camera then moves out from behind that obstacle to discover the true subject of interest.
Another example of Discovery is a camera shot that starts out looking at nothing in particular; then, gradual movement reveals the action.
Where can I see it?
In The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, the camera discovers Clint Eastwood by moving across the barrel of his rifle to his face. In Four Weddings and a Funeral, the camera reveals a bedroom and then moves to discover the lovers in bed. In Goodfellas, the camera swings around fr
om the back of Ray Liotta’s head to discover his face as he testifies in court.
Discovery
PULL BACK RETRACTION
What does it look like?
With Pull Back Retraction, the camera faces a scene and moves backwards. The purpose of the camera movement is not to reveal anything new, but to distance the audience emotionally from the actions occurring onscreen. Pull Back Retraction can be also used to indicate an emotional state, such as surprise or sudden knowledge.
Where can I see it?
Setting Up Your Shots Page 3