Blog Post #3: Motivated Camera Movement

1. American Beauty: The Most Beautiful Thing scene

I couldn't embed the video but here is a picture, and a link to the video on YouTube. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu8_8TJC9E8

The longest shot in this scene, with Jane and Ricky's heads looking at a TV screen, has a slow but constant zoom. I didn't even notice it at first, and I think that's what makes it so brilliant. I'll give you a little back story. Ricky just moved in next door to Jane and he's incredibly strange and films dead birds and has a reputation of being a drug addict. Jane, however, is not afraid, but interested in him. She goes over to his house this one day after school and he invites her to his room to watch "the most beautiful thing" he's ever filmed. This shot is brilliant. It completely focuses the audience's attention to the floating bag on the screen while very subtly moving inward until the two people are the majority of the frame. This is symbolic of Jane's entrance into Ricky's world as well as the viewer's entrance. We are told that we are about to see something beautiful and this shot holds for so long that we find a way to feel the beauty in it, while slowly being pulled in by the zoom.


2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1: Dobby's Death

I'm going to apologize for choosing such a sad scene but it really has great camera movement. The camera follows Harry around in this scene, opening very crooked and moving around a bunch as if hand held (it probably is). This adds a sort of chaotic, scrambling to grasp onto normality again after these 3 experienced some horrific stuff at the Malfoy mansion. Had this scene had a still camera, it definitely would not have had nearly the same effect. It's almost like waking up and not really realizing where you are or what is going on for a while. This is until it is apparent that Dobby is going to die, then more steady frames are used as Harry realizes what is happening.


3. Whip It: Meet the Hurl Scouts scene

This scene is filled with a lot of camera movement, giving it a sporting event edge. There isn't constant movement, however, so it's not overwhelming. The entrance of each girl on the team had the camera following them, giving them proper time on screen to be introduced.