When you are bringing the viewer into a scene, you can think of it as bringing a stranger into a party. Some of the concepts have been mentioned before, but now let’s consider them in the context of narrative continuity. There are four basic introductions that need to be made: place, time, geography, and the main characters. Many aspects of introductions and transitions are in the script, but they must be actualized by the director and the cinematographer on the set. Some are improvised at the time of shooting because they may be based on some prop or aspect of the set or location that has not been apparent before, such as a perfect full moon just above the frame—an invitation to start on the moon and tilt down to the scene.
Figure 5.61. The opening frame of a very long, slow, deliberate zoom out from Barry Lyndon.
Figure 5.62. The last frame from that same zoom. Kubrick uses this type of slow disclosure thematically
throughout the film, always ending in a perfectly balanced formal composition, often based on a painting of the period. The slow zoom out works on many levels, both visually and storywise. It is an example of a scene as an in-one—the whole scene played out in one continuous shot.
THE PLACE & THE GEOGRAPHY
This was discussed previously, but it deserves mention here as there are several aspects to establishing the geography that relate to actual shooting on the set.
Establishing the place generally just serves the purpose of showing us where the scene will take place (Figures 5.1 and 5.2). This is just called the establishing shot. Establishing the geography is a bit different than just letting the viewer know where the action takes place. Where an establishing shot is generally an exterior view of the building, establishing the geography relates to the scene itself. In many scenes, it is also important that they have a general comprehension of the layout of the place—the overall geography.
Most of the time we start wide on a scene, and successive shots move in closer. An important exception to this is called slow disclosure. In this technique, instead of opening with a wide shot, the scene begins with a tight shot of a character or another scene element. Only as the scene progresses does the camera pull back to reveal where we are and what is going on. This is a variation of the basic reveal where the camera starts on something that either moves or the camera moves past it to show some other scene element. Stanley Kubrick uses slow disclosure masterfully in Barry Lyndon (Figures 5.61 and 5.62).
Throughout the film, one of the key formal devices is the very long, very slow zoom back. He starts with a telling detail of the scene and then very deliberately pulls back to reveal more and more. As with so many other aspects of the film (perfectly composed fixed frames based on paintings of the period, the emphasis on formal geometry), this slow pull back underlines the rigid formalism of society and culture at that time as well as the inevitability of Lyndon’s decline.
These long pullbacks also serve as editorial punctuation between sequences and contribute to the deliberate pace of the film. For these shots, Angenieux created a special lens—the Cine-Pro T/9 24–480mm with a far greater zoom range than any other lens available at the time. Famously, he also had an ultra-fast Zeiss F/0.7 still photo lens converted for use on a motion picture camera to shoot almost entirely with natural light and period sources such as candelabras and windows—which is an integral element of his overall plan to faithfully re-create the sense of life in the 18 th century, when the only lighting available was windows, fires, and candles.
Figure 5.63. Devices to convey a short passage of time are often more difficult than demonstrating a long passage of time between cuts. In Ronin, the director uses the fact that the Christmas tree is being decorated in one shot. The bellhops enter with a box of decorations for the tree.
Figure 5.64. (above, bottom) In the next shot, the tree is fully decorated. It is very subtle but the audience will subconsciously register that some short amount of time has passed between the two shots.
Figure 5.65. A dramatic and suspenseful introduction of the antagonist in High Noon. His arrival has been talked about and dreaded for the entire movie up until this point, but when he arrives on the noon train, the director delays showing his face until the most dramatic story moment. As he gets off the train, we see him only from the back.
Figure 5.66. (right, middle) As his former girlfriend is boarding the train to escape the coming violence, she turns to see him and their eyes meet.
Figure 5.67. (right, bottom) Our first view of him is both a dramatic reveal and her subjective POV: it makes for a powerful moment. Notice how their eyelines match; if they did not, it would not seem like they were looking at each other. In order to match, they need to be opposite: she is looking toward the left of the frame and he is looking toward the right side of frame.