Blog Post #3: Effective and Motivated Camera Movement

1. Jean Valjean's Solioquy- Les Miserables

When reading the topic of this week's blog, I immediately thought of this scene. This scene of Jean Valjean's decision to discard himself of the identity of Jean Valjean and create a better life for himself is powerful on it's own, but the choices made by Tom Hooper (director) and Danny Cohen (cinematographer) make this scene even more powerful. The scene opens with Jean Valjean on his knees in the church after just being saved by the bishop from having to return to jail. It is obvious that this scene is shot with a hand held camera (as is much of the film), which I found to help symbolize how unbalanced he feels at this point of the film. Hooper also uses various forms of the spin around technique to show how at this point in the movie Valjean feels his life is spinning out of control due to his confusion on where to go from here. The vast majority of this scene is shot as a close up to Valjean (Hugh Jackman)'s face, so that the audience can really see the emotion he is portraying. The only other time he is not using a close up, he puts Valjean at the bottom of the frame, which not only showcases the beautiful church's ceilings, but is also used to symbolize the idea that he feels trapped in his identity and the idea of leading a Christian life is weighing down on him. The scene ends with him running out of the church and throwing the shards of his yellow card into the air. At this point, Cohen uses pull back retraction to reveal that Valjean is standing on the edge of a cliff. This the furthest we get from Valjean's face in this scene, which symbolizes the fact that he has freed himself from his past and is ready to begin a new life for himself, making this important transition in the characterization of Valjean more powerful and visually compelling at the same time.

2. Daisy Visits Gatsby's Mansion for the First Time - The Great Gatsby

This scene is one of the pivotal points in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby,  for it is the first time in five years that Daisy and Jay have seen each other. I thought that cinematographer Simon Duggan and Luhrmann used the cinematography in order to cleverly recreate this scene in a powerful way. Gatsby has looked forward to the day that Daisy would come see all the wealth he has attained in order to make her happy and love him again for years at this point, so the fact that she is finally there is a dream come true for him. Thus, Luhrmann and Duggan make this scene very dream-like. Some of the cinematography appears to be shot hand held, making some of the shots shaky. This symbolizes the idea of how fragile this newfound reality is and the surreality of what is happening. They also use the shaky cinematography as a POV through the lens of the handheld camera Nick Carraway (Toby McGuire) uses to capture Gatsby and Daisy in a more realistic way. They also decided to use slow motion in some scenes. The slow motion they decided to use was subtle, again alluding to the dreamlike state Gatsby is in by having Daisy finally in his house. Duggan and Luhrmann also cleverly use the discovery method to not only show the beautiful chandelier in the great hall and how lavish Gatsby's mansion is, but to build up to the entrance of Daisy and how mesmerized she is by his wealth. In these ways, along with the echo-y and almost ghostly sounding recording of Lana Del Ray's "Young and Beautiful" help make this a dream-like scene as it would be seen through the eyes of Gatsby.

3. Run Forrest, Run! - Forrest Gump

This movie is one not only a classic but it's one of my all time favorites, as is this scene where the infamous phrase "Run Forrest, Run!" is first used. I loved the use of cinematography that director Robert Zemeckis and cinematographer Don Burgess used to help make this life-changing scene for Forrest so powerful. Impaired by his leg braces and mental state, Forrest is picked on in this scene by three boys on their bicycles. While Jenny tells him to run, Forrest struggles at first to try to get away from the boys. One of the things I love about the cinematography of this scene is it's use of depth. At first, Burgess uses depth to show that the boys are quickly catching up to Forrest. Then, Zemeckis uses slow motion as Jenny yells at Forrest and as he is running, his leg braces break into pieces and miraculously can use his legs properly and run away from the boys. The dramatic use of slow motion helps make this part of the scene almost dreamlike. From this point forward, Zemeckis and Burgess continue to use depth to show Forrest outrunning the boy's bicycles and also to show just how far he is able to run. They also use an expand dolly from an upward angle to show him quickly running across the field, which symbolizes the freedom being able to use his legs now gives him. In this way, Zemeckis and Burgess make this important scene in the movie more magical in a sense, which in my opinion makes the overall scene more powerful.