Skip to main content

Famous Film Shots that have Stayed with me over the years

Spider-Man 2 (2004, Sam Raimi): 



This film has been a favorite of mine for fifteen years. Specifically describing this scene, Peter Parkers life is crashing down. Peter just found out Mary Jane is marrying someone else and he just lost Harry as a friend. The actual scene is Peter as Spider-Man swinging throughout New York City, trying to clear his mind. It is close-up, and eye-level shot of Spider-man's mask, you can see the reflection of the city through the lenses of his mask. The camera slowly moves side to side of his face, so we can get an understanding of the setting, and the emotion of Spider-Man The Camera is just focused on him and blurred out the setting behind Peter. It's pace of the movement slowed down with somber music and him breathing, so we are focused on his emotion as Spider-man. This shot selection works fantastic because most of time we never seen a superhero struggle as much as Peter is at the time. It could've been a medium shot, with no focus on Peter. It could've been simply a transition shot but Raimi wanted the viewers to feel Peter's pain. I don't think I would have changed much in the scene but instead of it being a close up, it could've been a medium shot. So we could see Peter in his full suit, to feel his body language. 
 Clip of where to watch (1:41-1:53)





Rocky IV (1985, Sylvester Stallone):


This is another classic flim watched in my family's household since I can remember. The specific shot that intrigued me the most is the end of the Training Montage where Rocky is standing on top of the Mountain. It is long and High angle shot to show the largeness of the mountain with him reaching the top of it. The physical external viewing shows the completion of Rocky's training. The score of this film also helps the viewers understand that Rocky is ready to fight Ivan Drago in honor of Apollo. The camera lets you focus on Rocky (Even though he is far away) and the scenery of the Soviet Union's landscape. The camera is also spinning around Rocky with the long shot still, to engage of the view Rocky is surrounded by. The reason is works, is because it helps close off this part of the movie before leading up to the next scene, the end of the climax of Rocky's training. How it could have been differently is having a medium shot so you can see Rocky and how he is feeling but still being able to see the surrounding setting. I would have shot it with a zoom out of Rocky reaching the the top of the mountain and then showing how large it is, so the viewers can have a feeling shock by the determination of Rocky. 
Clip of where to watch (1:17-1:28)





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Get Out (2017) with Chapter 5 terms: The Sunken Place

After reviewing chapter 5 about Cinematography and watching Get Out in class last week, I can use some of the terms to describe one of my favorite scenes from the film. This conventional thriller film pushed new waves on our interpretation of this genre. Diving into the iconic scene where Chris goes into the "sunken place" after Missy hypnotizes him. Popular director Jordan Peele and cinematographer Toby Oliver carefully crafted the stylistic choices with Chris and the setting. The main characteristic of lighting is Artificial lighting with fill. The lighting was established when Chris was sinking into the darkness and the light was from the viewpoint of what he was seeing beforehand.  It casted the dark void Chris was slipping into gradually losing light. The depth of field was chosen to be casted far away from our character to establish the "sunken place" idea with a high angle far shot on Chris. The slow movements the chracter was making created a vision of him b...

Jaws Review and Scene Study

Heres the scene I picked!  What is the Story?  The “heart” of Jaws occurs at the beach when the mayor and tourists finally get a glimpse of the shark. When the reports of the shark were coming in Brody wanted to shut the beaches down but the mayor was persistent in keeping the beaches open because it was the busiest time of the year for Amity.  From any audience perspective, you could relate to the actors on the beaches becoming terrified of being hurt by the great white. Speilberg carefully selected his shots to be more up close with the shark instead of it being from the sand. I believe this was for the audience to understand the magnitude of the shark and the fear he possessed. Once people were out on the beaches and saw the shark with their own eyes the island collectively knew Brody, Quint, and Matt had to go kill it.  What is the camera doing?  As mentioned before, most of the shots are mid-level or close up with eye-level shots with cuts of Brody on the b...

Cars...a childhood favorite of mine!

  Somehow in our film class, Cars was selcted to be viewed for the last week. I've seen this film countless times throughout my life and love watching it everytime. However, it decided to watch and pay attention to more of cinematography rather than story...because I can pretty much quote the entire movie (I know it's sad). Since this is an animated movie, the shot types and lighting choices are way more flexiable or acessible to use because the animators can make it any way they want to. Looking at this film again and  outside of the story, I believe the cinematography and soundtrack boosted the overall enjoyment.  You need to watch this clip...simply awesome! A lot of the enjoyment of the shot types came from the opening race scene and intro monologue by McQueen. The cuts between the dark trailer McQueen and the cars/sounds racing. You feel the intense shift of quiet to loud sound and I was really intrugued by the choices Pixar made. In terms of shot angles stuck out to...