Staging

[Chayse Irvin ASC, CSC]

http://www.chayseirvin.com/video/stageing.mov

 

I was going over some of the clips i've saved on this computer and I came across this scene from The Thin Red Line and I find the scene so inspirational. The staging is amazing, and John Toll exposes it perfectly. I love the anamorphic lens choice and the stop he shots it at. The DOF seems to hold the character and the interior surroundings while the exterior BG just falls out. The camera work is impeccable. At first I found this scene staged very objectively as if the viewer were the camera standing in the room tracking the characters. But after watching it again, I see it as a subjectively shot scene as James Caviezel character, Pvt. Witt, travels room to room the camera follows him tracking and experiencing the same moments he sees them in as he experiences the setting; the slow floating camera work really reflects that characters state and calmness and we see it through out the film. When the camera is on Sean Penn, Sgt. Welsh, the camera is static from Pvt. Witt's POV or constantly moving into the closest point of Welsh's eye line. The coverage of one of the characters is really different then the others and I find is so dynamic and interesting yet seen from the POV of Pvt. Witt. What do you guys think?