Category: Film/Book Analysis

The iconic Clint Eastwood may have more close up shots than any other film actor in history. How can any director resist taking advantage of those intense, piercing eyes? (Image from Sergio Leone’s The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.)

We continue our discussion of Joseph Mascelli’s Five C’s of Cinematography, with the focus on Part 4 of the series: close-ups. (To begin at the start of the series with Part 1, visit here).

4. CLOSE-UPS:

A series of close up shots of the legendary actor, Toshiro Mifune, in Akira Kurasawa’s Rashoman.

The close up shot is pretty much a staple of modern day drama. Arguably the most powerful advantage that film has over the live stage actor, the cut into a close up of an actor’s face can evoke an intensity or subtlety of emotion that can rarely be surpassed. A held stare into the eyes or face of an actor allows an audience to get right inside the mind and heart of the character, creating a most direct and intense connection.

Tom Cruise experiences a very personal and painful moment in P.T. Anderson’s magnetic drama, Magnolia. This director’s deeply-penetrating themes require the use of close ups as a main staple for getting us “inside” the character’s head.

In the words of Mascelli:

“Audience involvement is most successful when the viewers are brought into the picture … A sequence may be built to move towards cinematic close-ups. A sequence may (even) open with a close-up that surprises, startles or shocks an audience into attention.”

An example of opening a film with a close-up shot, seen in Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece, The Godfather. Read up on the power of this sequence here.

He adds:

“Close-ups provide dramatic punch; point up story highlights; depict related action; comment on principal action; emphasize narrative by isolation of subject, and elimination of unwanted matter; or distract the audience to cover jump-cuts.”

Extreme close-up shot depicting the trauma Malcolm McDowell’s character experiences in Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 dystopian film A Clockwork Orange.

The chapter on close-ups is incredibly detailed. Each section clarifies every use and style of the close-up shot; from over-the-shoulder close-ups and transitional close-ups, to cut-ins (which need to be established in a preceding wider shot) and cut-aways (which show vantage points, like an observer from a distance).

A cut-away (med) close up shot, from Kevin Costner’s Dances With Wolves — a shot that doesn’t have to be established because it is not part of the main event.

Now, not all films require extensive use of close ups. You have to pick your spots. Master film-maker Woody Allen was notorious for not using them. In Richard Lucks’ excellent article on the history of film close-ups, he noted how actor Michael Caine was deeply concerned over Woody Allen’s preference to be mostly “close-up” free during shooting. The actor reminisces:

“I was always told to save my best work for my close-ups,” the great Sir Michael Caine remembers. “Which was a big problem when I came to work with Woody Allen on Hannah And Her Sisters in the mid-’80s, because he doesn’t cutaway to close-ups at all – the only close-ups you get come organically out of the master.”

Michael Caine ponders carefully his next move, in Woody Allen’s 1986 classic, Hannah and Her Sisters. Despite the lack of close-ups, Caine still won an Oscar for his marvelously poignant performance.

But just because it isn’t absolutely necessary, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have its place. When used properly and judiciously, the close-up shot adds information, texture and style.

Mascelli concludes:

“Close-ups add spice, the ingredient that enhances dramatic flavor of the finished film.”

The ultimate reveal in Bryan Singer’s wicked-cool 1995 cops and robbers mystery caper, The Usual Suspects.

In our next post, we’ll conclude our series on the Five C’s of Cinematography, as we discuss Part 5: composition.

This very creative sequence of images in the opening credits of Martin Scorcese’s 1976 classic, Taxi Driver, create a sense of tension and atmosphere right from the get go.

We continue our discussion of Joseph Mascelli’s Five C’s of Cinematography, with the focus on cutting. (To begin at the start of the series with Part 1, visit here).

3. CUTTING

The chase sequence from Nick Park’s Oscar-winning stop-motion animated short, The Wrong Trousers, is a tour-de-force of cutting and directing applied in a comical yet exciting cartoon setting.

When it comes to cutting, animators often feel like they’ve got no real control over the layout and flow of their scenes. True, the final work of any animator is always subject to editing. But so is everyone else’s work. The interesting fact in this art form is that cutting is often planned far ahead in comparison to live action. Due to the immense costs of animated productions, sequences and shots are timed to the frame (but of course, still subject to editing). We don’t shoot eight hours of animation and then decipher it. In fact, the animation artist has, in comparison, actually a lot of control and foreknowledge of the flow between cuts. Therefore, knowledge of cutting/editing is a mandatory prerequisite for all animators.

Mascelli writes:

“The film editor strives to impart visual variety to the picture by skillful shot selection, arrangement and timing. He recreates rather than reproduces the photography to achieve a cumulative effect often greater than all the action in individual scenes put together.”

A thorough knowledge of cutting in continuity such as timing static shots and moving shots, or knowing where dissolves or other camera transitions might play out, can heavily effect how an animator might set up his or her scene.

The finale from Sergio Leone’s The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. This marvelous sequence (beautifully complemented by Ennio Morricone’s timeless music) is one of the greatest displays of camera cutting ever.

On his advice to live action cameramen, Mascelli notes that they should learn from the cutting room, consider which camera angles and movements best portray particular situations, where to insert cut-ins, cut-aways or close-ups, and anticipate when it might be necessary for reaction shots and if, or when, shots might need to be shortened or lengthened.

A selection from the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock classic, Psycho. This remarkable scene continues to stand as the most dramatic sequence of images in film history.

Mascelli writes:

“(the cameraman) becomes more proficient (when) he’s thinking editorially before and as he films.”

Think of this when you’re animating any shot. Did you leave enough leeway at the beginning or end of the shot to give the director extra flexibility in the cutting room? Have you placed the characters in positions or in movement that will allow the cuts to read and flow beautifully and seamlessly with surrounding scenes, ensuring good continuity?

A section from one of my favorite animated films, Wes Anderson’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Anderson’s preference for centrally-focused, single point perspective forces him to make very precise, direct and interesting camera transitions to create fun and excitement. This very flat, graphic composition style has since become his signature.

I remember doing a shot in one feature film where the director only told me after I had it half-animated it, that the shot was going to be cross-dissolved into another (rather than match-cutting the movement, I needed to end the scene with the character standing still.) Proper direction and clear communication beforehand might’ve not only saved time, but alter my approach to the acting and animation. Still, it’s better late than never, because after the feedback, I understood the intentions behind that directing choice,  thus allowing me to change my approach midstream. Humility and hard work has rescued me on many occasions.

Mascelli concludes his take on cutting, saying:

“A motion picture is conceived in the camera and assembled in the cutting room. (But) the better the conception, the better the assembled picture. A well-scripted motion picture, minutely planned and carefully broken down with a definite editing pattern in mind, will generally cut together with minor, easy-to-solve editorial problems.”

In our next post, we’ll reveal Part 4 of the Five C’s of Cinematography, as we discuss; close-ups.