Both of the film extracts had Bruce MacCallum as a camera man.
Sleepy hollow - hessian horseman
Camera operator: New York
The begining of the extract zooms in on the man speaking to draw focus but then slowly moves down towards the fire, the fire is representative of chaos and war so it gives a good effect considering the man is speaking about a murderer.
Throughout the sequence the only face that can be seen clearly is the hessian horseman in order to show his ferocity, by not showing the faces of the other people in close up it shows how insignifigant they are and that they are not important characters.
Unlike in older films, where the convention is to not show the violence and make the viewer think they saw it, the violence is the main part that is shown in fast shots so it is hardly noticed with all the carnage around it. The shots are fast but have little movement during the battle scene, there is some movement in following the movements of the horseman which, again, is effective in giving him focus. The end of the battle scene is a close up showing his sharpened teeth in detail as the man is talking about them.
After the battle the shots are longer and slower giving an eery calmness to the scene, and also helps show how the horseman is slowly reaching his end.
As the people move through the forest the camera follows them through the trees which helps show that the characters are somewhat lost in this forest as it all looks the same. Despite the intensity of him bieng chased the movement is still quite slow.
As the camera spins around the horseman, the audience can see essentially what he sees without a point of view shot, this is effective in showing the two girls as the viewer doesn't see them until he does.
Before the flashback cuts away the audience can see the man about to cut of his head which is effective as we can see it but the character can't see it. The way it cuts at the end is effective as it doesn't show his death, in comparison it always showed the death of the others.
The final shot of Ichabod shows his cup shaking which shows how scared he really is but when the camera moves up it shows the front he's putting on in pretending not to be afraid.
Across the universe - Hey Jude
- Camera operator: "b" camera
The first shot moves fluently and shows the drink before showing the man drinking it, this gives us a quick impression of that character. The next shot almost looks like somebody is watching him and shows how empty the bar is.
The shot through the mirror is effective, it is an over the shoulder shot so it seems like Jude is facing the man in the mirror. All the shots are quite long and move slowly, if at all, which helps fit with he music which (at this point) is slow.
The slow zoom on both of them keeps the focus on the two characters and as Jude is looking away and it zooms towards his head it gives the impression of him thinking.
As Jude starts to leave the bar the camera follows his every movement, when he sits up slightly it moves up and when he stands up and leaves it goes with him. As he is packing the camera moves up and the audience starts to see the woman in shot whom that hadn't seen before making her introduction almost a surprise.
There are a couple of shots themed around looking down streets that recede far into the distance, this is effective in showing him walking away from his home as the distance seems greater. A particularily good shot is when the camera moves backwards as Jude moves away from the screen making it seem like he travels faster as the music speeds up.
With the man drinking the camera moves with his bottle which puts the focus on what he is doing and gives a quick idea of the man.
The whole extract contains alot of camera movement all on moving around the character in focus, the man playing the garbage bins, Jude, whoever is important at that point the camera will follow them.Labels: Bruce MacCallum, Inspirations, Vonnie |
