Preliminary Exercise: Introduction To Camera Movement

Hello everyone,

   During Media Studies class I have been learning about camera movement. Camera movement refers to the way a camera shifts to visually narrate and shape a viewer's perspective of a scene in cinematography. This is used to shift the audience's view without cutting. This makes a film more engaging to watch. In film, the cinematographer is responsible for camera movement. I researched about two famous cinematographers: Robert Richardson and Dean Cundey.

      One famous cinematographer is Robert Richardson. Robert Richardson was the cinematographer for Salvador, Adrift, and Shutter Island. His work is truly incredible; my personal favorite is Shutter Island. Shutter Island is a thriller movie about a Marshall and his partner going to an asylum that’s on an island to fine an escaped murderess. As the movie continues on the Marshall (Leonardo DiCaprio) must overcome his dark secrets to figure out the mystery. A scene that really stuck to me is the “Where are the kids” scene. It’s starts off as the husband (the Marshall) going home and he goes outside to the backyard to meet his wife. The camera zooms in on his face as he realizes something is off. The wife goes over to him to greet him by giving him a hug and a kiss, during this scene the camera does an arc shot. When the camera finally comes back to his face he asks his wife “where are the kids”. At this moment the wife is acting weird which is emphasize when the camera zooms in on her face. When he realizes his kids are in the lake dead (the wife drowned them) the camera shifts to a static shot of the lake as he runs to his children. When he lefts up his kids the camera zooms in on their faces. When he swimming back while carrying his kids the camera does an overhead static shot. When he places his children on the ground the camera zooms out and remains as a static shot to show him mourning over his children death. The way camera movements emphasize each shot makes the scene so sad and frightening to see.

   Another famous cinematographer is Dean Cundey. He is mainly know for his work in Jurassic Park. But he has also done movies like Jack and Jill, Halloween, and Honey, we shrunk ourselves.  I love all of these movies, but I want to focus in on the techniques used for Halloween. For me the opening scene played a huge role throughout the movie. The scene starts of with a tracking shot to show a POV shot, when the character is walking to the front of the house. Then when he turns it’s mix with a pan and tracking shot. Throughout the beginning of the scene the shots our consisted of tracking and trucking shot so it can emphasize that the audience is watching from the character point of view. It includes some random movements to gain the audience attention back. When the killer finally kills the girl, the killer runs back downstairs and head out the front door. We can see a women and a man pulling up the front driveway. When they remove the mask it shifts from a POV shot to a shot showing the killer. The shot then continues to zoom out to provide context that the killer was the littler brother of the girl he killed and the women and man are there parents. For me I find it amazing how the scene was really long, but the cinematographer was able to gain the audience attention at the important parts.

Thank you for Reading!