Are ND grads only used for static shots?

[Peter Ralph]

[Leo Ticheli] “the effect tends to draw immediate attention to itself and takes the viewer out of the story.”

zooms are way over-used by home movie makers, no argument. It is much safer to avoid zooms 100% of the time.

But on a purely aesthetic level – is that pont about meta-awareness really valid? Many years ago people fled movie houses because a train on the screen was about to run them over . But today? Does obvious artifice really detract from the experience? With certain movies yes – just as a Picasso profile would look out of place in a Rembrandt canvas.

the Irish movie “Intermission” is testament to the notion that turning awareness towards the camera can enhance dramatic impact. The artifice is registered on a conscious level, it is not subliminal.

“Jimi – turn the volume down. No-one wants to listen to feedback and distortion”

[Leo Ticheli]

Golly, I must have cut class the day we discussed, “meta-awareness.”

The very simple reality is that any move which draws attention to the camera screams, “look at me, I’m a camera, this is being photographed, forget about being involved in the story!” If that’s what you’re trying to say, fine. Zoom away. If you want your film to look like a bad home movie or an equally bad Kung Fu movie, zoom away. If you want to be avant-garde, zoom away. If you simply want to be perverse, zoom away until you break the rocker switch or your audience throws shoes at the screen. Otherwise, avoid obvious zooms.

Look, the art component of this business is about a lot more than just breaking rules; it’s knowing when and how to break them.

Good shooting,

Leo
Director/Cinematographer
Southeast USA

[Richard Blakeslee]

Hello Bob.

I think you mean ‘dolly’ down the table. In a ‘trucking’, shot both the subject and the camera move,(truck along with the action) in a ‘dolly’ shot the subject stays still and the camera moves. (dolly in or out on the subject)

I’ve been a cameraman since getting out of the Air Force motion picture camera school in 1962. And yes I use a lot of zooms. I do a lot of 16mm production for television, a lot of it in a ‘documentary’ style. During an interview I always have my hand on the Micro Force. A very slow and suttle move in at the right moment can really bring out the emotion in the scene. It’s risky at times because one doesn’t want to be caught in the ‘middle’ of a zoom , making the editor’s life hell, but I found it’s worth it to take the chance and 95 per cent of the prodcuers/directors I work with agree. Some will say ‘never’. Others let me try to ‘feel’ the situation and use my experience and talent to capture that moment that they are after.

Cheers,

Richard

[Bob Cole]

I stand corrected about truck/dolly terminology. I think you have a good point about the whole zoom discussion. It’s very risky, but I think a nice slow zoom, perfectly timed, in a key point of an interview can be dramatic. As Leo remarks, it does call attention to the camera, but that can actually be useful, for example as a “cue” that the film is over. I recently used a slow dramatic zoom-in interiew bite as the last shot in a small museum piece, and it works great.

— BC

[Jaanjaan]

leo, thanks for the kind words. i took a look at your site, and zoom or not, you’ve obviously been doing things right to have built such a successful company.

i think the real conceptual base of this whole arguement can be boiled down to this:
way back in the day, some artist/philosopher was trying to determine what it was about art that made it such a powerful phenomena. what he (forgot who it was) came up with was that if a person views a painting depicting a wolf in its natural setting, that person can then look at the wolf, studying any and all details of it, while being freed from the instinctual need to flee or kill the wolf– thus allowing that person to see a wolf in a way that would be impossible in real life.

i think some of us in this arguement want to show people the wolf as they could never see it, while others are more concerned with harnessing people’s innate fear of wolves and appropriating it as part of a larger story. i definitely would be of the former, and there’s nothing wrong with those who choose the latter. but they’re definitely different approaches, and the “awareness” that a zoom creates is a powerful tool for those who feel the same as i.

thanks,
jaan

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jaanshen.com