Dy-no-mite!

I’ve always been much more of a TV person than a movie buff, so there are tons of movies that my friends are shocked to hear that I haven’t seen. This week, I crossed one of those movies off my list by watching Scott Sanders’s 2009 film Black Dynamite.

Black Dynamite is an action/blaxploitation film set in the 1970’s. It follows former CIA agent Black Dynamite, played by Michael Jai White, as he works to clean the streets from drugs and gangs after his brother is killed on the streets. Full of spoof-like camera movements and actor blocking, Black Dynamite delivers just as much comedy as action. From the nunchuck wearing, afro sporting, kung fu fighting CIA agent to one of the most absurd logical deductions probably ever made, Black Dynamite was an entertaining watch all the way through.

Through watching Black Dynamite, I gained some insight on ways to use camera movements to induce laughter. There are many times throughout the film that multiple consecutive dramatic zooms caused me to laugh while the character on screen did nothing but stare into the camera. I personally usually try to avoid zooming during a shot; i generally set the zoom beforehand and will just scale the shot in post to assure a consistent zoom speed. However, since this does cause a reduction in image quality, I generally just try to dolly instead of zooming when I am shoots. This movie showed me how planning out camera movements beforehand can add bits of comedy to scenes that may otherwise be dull at times. Between the entertaining 90 minutes of watching, and the insight on spoof-like zooms, Black Dynamite was definitely a good choice for a boring Monday night.

The Dolly Zoom

While watching Season 1 Episode 3 of The Wire this week, I noticed a camera movement that made me feel slightly uneasy. The scene shows a group of drug dealers sitting around in the projects, and one of them is telling a story.

In order to capture the perspective of each person listening to the story, the camera was trucked right while panning left to make the audience feel like they are rotating around the scene’s main character. However, as the story progressed and the situation he was describing got worse, a slow dolly zoom was introduced. This camera movement stood out to me for two reasons: first, it stood out to me because I can appreciate how difficult it must have been to accomplish this. Trucking right and panning left while dollying out and zooming in is not something that just anyone can pick up a camera and do. I was really impressed with the shot and the work of cinematographer Uta Briesewitz. As impressive as the shot was though, I felt it stood out to me because it wasn’t really necessary. The dolly zoom is a very dramatic effect, and can be great for communicating disorder or chaos when used correctly. But while simply telling a story like this scene in The Wire, it struck me as odd and out of place.

With my interests regarding dolly zooms piqued, I took to the internet to find more examples of times that dolly zooms were used effectively. I ended up finding this video on Vimeo that takes a look at the history of dolly zooms in movies, starting with Vertigo in 1958 and continuing to a couple films from 2005. Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo was one of the first times, if not the first time, that a dolly zoom was used in a widely popular movie. Because of this, the combination of dollying in/out and zooming the opposite way was was given the nickname “The Vertigo Effect”. The dolly zoom’s second most famous appearance come in 1975 with Jaws, giving it another nickname: “The Jaws Effect”.

After seeing all these cool examples of dolly zooms, I decided to take out my camera and try it for myself. Seven takes later, I came to a conclusion: a dolly zoom is tough to pull off (without tracks to smoothly dolly on). And although it might not have fit very well in the scene I first saw it in on The Wire, it made me appreciate the experimental camera work that past cinematographers have done to get the dolly zoom to where it is today.

Sports Media

Over the break, a father asked me to videotape his son's football game and edit the good plays he makes into a high-light real. He gave me a hand held camera and told me the different angles to shoot at for where his son would be on the field, whether it was defense or offense. This was by far the hardest event I ever shoot at. Football is such a quick game and i was constantly losing concept of where the ball and Jon were. Jon played the running back position so he was pretty much on every play. Jon's father wanted me too be zoomed in as much as possible and to always have his son on camera.

Towards the second quarter, my hand was already starting to get tired, and there was nothing i could really do about it. A tripod would have rally been handy. After halftime, Jon rushed for a 47 yard touchdown, breaking three tackles and diving into the end zone. The best part was that he was running towards me the entire time, so the shoot does like pretty cool as i zoom out and refocus during the play.

In post, I added some music and labeled what each short bit was before playing it. Mr Struss, Jon's father, was very please with what I accomplished and said that if Jon's team makes it to the championship, he would ask me to do the same thing again. Then it hit me. There are so many parents that spend a tremendous amount of money to have highlight tapes shoot for their son or daughter. So currently, I am making a website that will be linked on my old school's website for parents interested in a highlight tape for their child's college resume. I already have gotten few phone calls, and have 3 jobs for when I go back home after christmas. I think I might really have something here. Once the site is finished, I'll post again and have a link to the main page.

Museo Del Prado

I was researching Google Earth when I ran across an article about the Prado Museum in Spain using Extremely high resolution cameras to photograph 14 of the most famous works in its collection and include them in their Google Earth building. The image posted is a screenshot of a detail from Hieronymus Bosch's triptych entitled "The Garden of Earthly Delights". I thought how appropriate it is to have this particular artist's work displayed in this way, since his was a virtual world of his own creation which was far ahead of his time. The incredible zoom capabilities offered by this technology make it possible to see every tiny detail, which is especially useful in a painting replete with them.