Skip to main content

Something Musical...

          The more I watch countless music videos, movies, tv shows, there are things which stand out as themes that I love. Past your simple in-jokes and nice sepia tones, I've found cinematographical (sp?) techniques which always draw me in- The un-cut tracking long-shot is unquestionably my favourite of these in the world of film. Though I'm not entirely certain of the name, this involves an extended shot, usually following just one character, over the course of a few minutes with absolutely no cutting away, no extra angles, no funny business. Just a clean, long shot, and a lot of good timing and, presumably, luck on the part of the director.
     Most recently I've found it on YouTube with Walk off the Earth's Gianni and Sarah Blackwood with a rendition of Love Sponge. The slow-motion sections add an extra something-something too. 


Of course, your standard point-and-shoot youtuber vlog will be in this same format, but when we up the quality of post the editing also takes a step up, as we filter out the dull bits and just get the funny (for reference, see My Drunk Kitchen, Jenna Marbles and other hilarious Americans). The fact that professional productions opt for the long-shot is telling of an artistic vision and confidence outside the norm.
     One of the best ways of doing this I've seen is present in Coldplay's video for Yellow, which features only a (particularly young-looking) Chris Martin making his way down a beach as the sun slowly rises behind him. 


A sunrise in real-time, or, slightly slower than real time. Do people simply look better when walking in slow-motion?
     The music industry is not the only one to have created wonderful cinematographical pieces. Though YouTube won't allow me to link you to it, the first scene of the movie Serenity sees us go from outside a spaceship to the bridge, all along the characteristically homely deck and into the engine room, panning all around the interior of the ship, until we climb right up to the face of River Tam, the resident crazy. And, in one episode of the first series of Scrubs, all those years ago, the opening scene sees our three medical interns come from the parking lot, across a basketball court, into the hospital and up to the ICU- it reportedly took Donald Faison 21 takes to make the basketball shot on the court, let alone all the other would-be mistakes that made such a shot taxing to say the least.
     But why do directors continue to do it? Well, quite simply, because it looks stunning.
Elsewhere, the West Wing, Christina Aguilera's The Voice Within video and quite a few adverts, too-

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Populaire - film review

     In the 50s, having a job as a secretary may have been considered modern, or even empowering, but mostly, as Rose Pamphyle (Déborah Francois) says in her job interview, it's the chance to work for an important man. Seen in this light, the rise and fall of a Speed-Typing champion is just as much to do with a woman's personal victory as it is to do with her boss' encouragement and coaching, as well as the freedom he allows her to have.      In the film, and in life, the Speed-Typing Championship probably stemmed from a cigar-fuelled "I bet my secretary types faster than yours" argument, and the exclusively female competitors inhabit a space somewhere between real sportsman(woman?)ship and simply being allowed to play. The rocky ground of post-war sexual power-play is tested with bright colours and the happy clack-clack of a typewriter, and leads us somewhere a little more patronising than first-time director Regis Roinsard may have been hoping for. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Edinburgh Sustainability Awards

(originally published by The Student )      THE UNIVERSITY is set to launch its first Sustainability Awards to help reduce its environmental impact. A ceremony later in the year will see awards given to the teams which complete the most environmentally friendly challenges in an online workbook provided by the Edinburgh University Students' Association (EUSA).      Last year the University of Edinburgh was accredited Gold in the NUS' Environmental Impact Awards, and was the overall UK winner. This, the two-year-old Green Impact Scheme, compared Universities from across the country in terms of sustainability and global awareness. EUSA's newest venture is a similar scheme within the University itself, encouraging teams to think of new ways to reduce our effect on the world outside of Edinburgh.      Teams can be made up of staff and students in every part of the University, and will be accredited with Bronze, Silver or Go...
Post a Comment
Read more

The "9ème art" of the Graphic Novel

Images from the Cité du Livre website Festival de Bande Dessinée, Cité du Livre, Aix-en-Provence For some reason I've never been here before. For some reason it's taken this bibliophile seven months to figure out that there is a place in Aix-en-Provence devoted to literature, a place whose name in Google Translate produces variations on the theme of Book City, Book Estate and Book Ghetto. The books, they are huge. We have discussed before how I feel about books. Books which I recently blabbered about in a vlog are here reproduced in thirty-foot-high concrete form and act as a simple external wall to the Book Ghetto. They are huge. I felt a few tears when I first saw them. Hidden unjustly away behind the gare routière , the Cité du Livre played host this month to a graphic novel festival whose speakers ranged from authors to graffiti artists, and whose slightly shabby walls were transformed into booths full of first drafts, coloured panels and authors' not...
2 comments
Read more