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This instructional uses a scene from "The Best Years of Our Lives" to cover the follwoing cinematography terms: crane shot, tracking shot, tilt, racking focus, and pan.
Introduction: Cinematography in The Best Years of Our Lives
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A crane shot involves a change in framing accomplished by placing the camera above the subject and moving through the air in any direction. Whatch how the camera begins to move in this scene from ground level up into the air.
Definition: Crane Shot
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In this second example of a crane shot we start above the character and follow his movements from a high vantage point.
Example of Crane Shot
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A tracking shot is a mobile framing in which the camera travels through space forward, backward, or laterally. Watch how the camera moves to keep Fred in the center of the frame.
Definition: Tracking Shot
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A tracking shot can also move forward in space. Note how the camera moves towards the plane in this short clip.
Example of Tracking Shot
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A tilt is a camera movement in which the camera body swivels upwards or downards, scanning the space vertically. At the end of our track in towards the plane, the camera tilts up.
Definition: Tilt
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Racking focus invovles shifting the area of sharp focus from one plane to another during a shot. In the beginning of this clip, the outside of the window is in focus, but after the focus is racked Fred's face is in focus.
Definition: Racking Focus
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In a pan, the camera body turns to the right or two the left, this produces a mobile framing that scans the space horizontally.
Definition: Pan
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Now that we've gone over some individual terms, rewatch the scene as a whole. How does the cinematography in this scene serve to underscore the emotional state of Fred?
Question: Cinematography
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You might consider: How the crane shots at the beginning affect our understanding of space and relate the experience of Fred to the broader historical context, how the camera movements change from the beginning of the scene to the end, how the tilt up to look at the airplane affects our understanding of Fred’s subjective state.
Possible Discussion Topics: Cinematography