Movement in Movies

Movement

            For the chapter on movement our class watched two movies, Hero and Three Kings.  Both were very good movies but, Hero had more lyrical movement while Three Kings was more literal movement.  Although the movies are placed in different categories of movement they had a number of shots in common.

Movement is shown in many movies and is important in connecting the actions of one character to another in the scene.  There are different types of movement which are as follows lyrical and literal movement.  Literal movement in a movie is when the dialogue and actions are more preserved and intact.  Lyrical movement over emphasizes emotions given off by the subject in the frame.  But most of the movement is shown thanks to the different spots the camera can be moved to in order to get all the different shots needed to create an exciting scene or movie.  The different shots include the pan shot, the hand held shot, and the zoom shot.

            The Pan shot is when the camera is placed stationary to where the action is happening in the frame.  Then it is moved left to right, down to up and vice versa.  The pan shot connects the movie in different ways.  For example in Three Kings the pan shot is used in the middle of a conversation instead of a cut.  This pan shot connects the characters in the scene to show that they are a group.  Another pan takes the perspective of Troy Barlow when he has his collapsed lung.  The Pan shot in that scene is also a reaction shot; a shot that takes away from the action of his collapsed lung to show the more important part of his comrade dying. Hero had a pan shot when the arrow were being fired on broken sword and Flying Snow’s city.  The pan helped to show the direction in which the arrows were aimed for.  The shot is also used in the pond battle when Broken Sword wipes the water off of Flying Snow’s face.  The Pan shows that Flying snow and Broken Sword are a group and care for each other. 

            Three Kings used a lot of hand held shots in order to take the perspectives of the American Soldiers.  The shots were used to emphasize the adrenaline that the Americans had when they were stealing the gold from the bunker.  The shakiness of the camera suggested that they were giddy with excitement.  The hand held shots were useful and helped to feel like you were really in the movie watching it from your own perspective. 

            Hero was a more lyrical movements and didn’t require hand held shots because they would have been too shaky and made the movie less dramatic.  The zoom shot was used heavily during the war scenes and also during the one on one battles. The zoom shot was mostly used as a cut when the arrows of the Qin army were raining down on the city and also down on Nameless. The zoom cut shot was used to show how many arrows were coming into play and also to emphasize the speed at which each one traveled.  It added a mix of anger to the already lyrical movie.

            Hero and Three Kings were both good movies and both have great examples of movement in them.  Hero the more lyrical movie and Three Kings the more literal movie.