the greatest tracking shot of all time....

[Keith Mottram]

After reading through the last thread i started thinking (only happens about once a week) and this topic flashed like a cartoon lightbulb in my head. My vote goes to the intro shot in "Touch of Evil' (also possibly my favourite crane). Anyone care to differ? or offer the number two?

 

Keith

[Rachel Oliver]

Hi;

 

My all time favourite would be the final sequence to "The 400 Blows" by Francois Truffot..... Now that is sublime.

 

Olly

[Chris Keth]

I rather like the one from "Pulp Fiction" when Travolta and Samuel Jackson are walking in the appt. building near the beginning.

[Mike Welle]

My vote would be the opening shot in "The Player" around the movie studio--all done without a cut. By the way, they cite that very scene from TOE in the dialogue of "The Player" and for obvious reasons. :D

 

 

After reading through the last thread i started thinking (only happens about once a week) and this topic flashed like a cartoon lightbulb in my head.  My vote goes to the intro shot in "Touch of Evil' (also possibly my favourite crane). Anyone care to differ? or offer the number two?

 

Keith

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Edited December 9, 2004 by Mike Welle

[Guest fstop]

Olly said it.

 

Actually, I love the tracking shot from Monty Python and The Meaning of Life!

 

For the ultimate tracking shot- I'm talking 100% BEST EVER, it would have to be one of the third person shots from Hitchcock's UNDER CAPRICORN shot by Jack Cardiff. Infact, if you consider yourself SERIOUSLY into cinematography, you MUST hcekc out these tracking shots to be believed- all dolly and crane and achieved using breaway and foldapart sets to fake movement in places. As for the film, it's an unwatchable, wooden, phoney pile of uninteresting dung and certainly among Hitch's WORST.

[jasarsenault]

Club shot in Goodfellas is good. The stuff in i am Cuba is interesting. '

 

Jason

[Laurent Andrieux]

Opening scene of "the touch of evil" by Orson Welles

[Adam Frisch FSF]

My vote would be the opening shot in "The Player" around the movie studio--all done without a cut.

 

Actually, there is a cut in it. It's very well done, so I won't reveal it here.

[DavidSloan]

No one mentioned Russian Ark?!?!?!?!?!

[jeff striker]

touch of evil opening shot.

 

 

for modern cinematography my vote would go to the skipping stones scene in Amelie. its just absolutely breathtaking

[Shawn Mielke]

Russian Ark IS a tracking shot, it's true, with more speed changes than any other tracking shot, probably. From stopped to a light jog.

Tarkovsky's films have some of the most soulful tracking shots I've ever seen, but there's a particularly lovely one in his The Sacrifice that makes for the first seven to ten minutes of the film. A whole scene of two men and a child walking (in a straight line) and talking occurs. A few pauses in their pace, a casual conversation about Nietzche and this and that, with the actors and the camera not quite parallel, so that the actors begin at a distance and, very gradually come quite close in view. The shot doesn't scream "clever" the way the one in Touch of Evil might, but instead streamlines the viewer's consciousness into the piece via real time. Really nice. You can pretty much do with your audience what you will once you've assumed their sense of reality and time.

 

I also love the tracking shot in Cocteau's Orpheus, where Orpheus and his guide make their way along a corridor in the underworld. The backdrop is the floor, the camera is mounted from above, actors are desperately trying to keep their feet on the "ground" and guide their own bodies along the "wall" with the strength of their arms, and it's all just pretty cool if you ask me.

[Mike Welle]

Another vote would be the opening shot in "The Birdcage" with the camera flying in on a helicopter, landing on the beach and entering the crowded nighclub. I did not know that there was a cut in "The Player." However, I can see the transition in "The Birdcage" tracking shot, but most people probably don't notice it.

[DavidSloan]

I don't know what film has "the best tracking shot EVER," but it has to be either in a Bela Tarr, Milkos Jansco, or Angelopolous film, I'm sure. Has anyone seen Angelopolous's new one The Weeping Meadow...it's incredible.

 

I almost forgot the amazing tracking shot at the begining of Code Unknown by Hanake.

Edited December 10, 2004 by DavidSloan

[Guest lonedog]

A couple of faves.

Jaws, when the girl runs along the fence at the beach.

Once upon a time in the west, following Claudia Cardinale along the station.

Clockwork Orange, i think from memory it's a 360 degree shot when he's in the record shop.

There's a couple of beauties in John Carpenters The Thing.

[David Mullen ASC]

I'd vote for the opening shot of "Touch of Evil".

 

Other favorites of mine:

 

Kubrick: Tracking through the trenches in "Paths of Glory" / Alex walking through the music stalls in "Clockwork Orange" / the snow maze chase at the end of "The Shining" (that may be #2 of all time after "Touch of Evil"...) / the push-in to black of the Monolith in front of the bed at the end of "2001"

 

Spielberg: Christie running along the sand dunes in "Jaws" / the pullback through the helicopter as Roy is escorted into it in "Close Encounters", also the crane up revealing Devil's Tower, the whole India sequence following the crowds

 

Fellini: many scenes in "8 1/2" especially at the end, one of my all-time favorite endings to a movie

 

Bertolluci: too many to name...

 

"Russian Ark"

Opening shot of "Bonfire of the Vanities"

The push-in to the blackness of the exhaust port of the jet in "The Right Stuff" cutting to the motorcade entering the Astrodome BBQ party

[Guest Aaron Slade]

Touch Of Evil is my favourite but i love Halloween's opening shot (who admitted to ripping of Touch Of Evil)........Boogie Nights poolside sequence where it ends up going in the pool and comes back up ( who ripped off I Am Cuba)...........Goodfellas restaurant entrance and all of the Shining

[Brad Grimmett]

Many of my favorites have already been mentioned.....Goodfellas, Birdcage, The Player, Russian Ark. Boogie Nights.....

A couple that I would add are Bound for Glory (the first steadicam shot ever done in a feature (Garrett Brown operating of course)) which is a crane dolly and then step off following David Carradine through a crowd of people.

Also, Elephant, where the camera is locked off for what seems like a few minutes and then follows a student from outside to inside the school. It's next to impossible to tell that the shot is steadicam until it starts moving and then goes through the doors into the school. It seems to be a lock off on sticks until the movement begins.

One more that I love is the long crane dolly at the end of Gerry. I love it not for any flashiness, but because it is so elegant.

[Jonathan Spear]

That chaotic tracking shot in the Shining (kudos to the steadycam operator) was intense.

 

I also loved the final fight sequence between Neo and Smith in the last Matrix movie, where they start running towards each other @60 fps while a legion of

Smiths stand lining the dark, damp city streets. The puddles splashing in slow motion and the frozen raindrops were pretty cool too. Water is a beautiful thing.

 

Crane shot?

I couldn't pin point exactly when and where but some of the snowy exteriors in Edward Scissorhands had some amazing crane shots.

 

Another awesome tracking shot: Kill Bill 1, right before Uma takes out about 100 bad guys in that ridiculousy awesome B&W fight scene.

[Marco Leavitt]

I'd have to say my favorite is the opening for Touch of Evil too, but easily the most elaborate tracking shot I've ever seen is the opening shot of the House of Blue Leaves segment of Kill Bill that was just mentioned. I have no idea how they did it.

Edited December 10, 2004 by Marco Leavitt

[Mike Welle]

The shot in "Raging Bull" which follows Jake LaMotta out of the training room into the hallway out to the cheering crowd and up into the ring. The only problem is at the very end of it the camera wobbles a little--not a big deal though. I heard that Scorsese had a better take of this scene but it got damaged--and he had to go with the second best take.

[Brad Grimmett]

but easily the most elaborate tracking shot I've ever seen is the opening shot of the House of Blue Leaves segment of Kill Bill that was just mentioned. I have no idea how they did it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Larry McConkey was the steadicam operator on this shot and he gave a very detailed description of the shot on the steadicam forum at the time the movie came out. Fascinating. Unfortunately, I can't find that particular post at the moment. Here's a part of another post he made in reference to that shot:

 

"On Kill Bill I did several crane shots, including the shot in the House Of Blue Leaves set that involved stepping on and off of first the overhead crane system and then a crane."

 

From what I remember, the key grip built a one of a kind overhead crane system that rode on rails and had a chair that Larry rode on for the part of the shot that is above Uma Thurman. He steps off of that in the bathroom. Another part of the shot involved a more standard crane step off, and once he stepped off the crane the crane was moved off the set and a wall was flown in so that they could shoot in that direction later in the shot. Pretty amazing. I guess I should add that to my favorites list.

Larry has done so many amazing (and famous) shots. You could make a favorites list consisting of only shots he's done. Carlito's Way, The Bonfire of the Vanities, Snake Eyes, and Goodfellas are just a few films that have amazing tracking shots that were done by Larry.

[Nate Downes]

Orson Welles' The Stranger had some memorable tracking shots as well.

[David Mullen ASC]

So does "The Trial" like when Anthony Perkins is fleeing through that tunnel of slatted wood with the kids chasing him.

 

It's often unnoticed but "Superman" has a great tracking shot playing a whole dialogue scene of Clark and Lois in one shot, walking from the newsroom, down to the lady's room entrance ("Not unless you can fly...") and then to the elevator lobby. There is also the shot of Superman flying off of Lois' balconey tracking Lois over to her front door, which she opens revealing Clark standing there.

 

"Minority Report" had a great overhead crane shot, looking through skylights, following the spider robots from room to room.

[Wendell_Greene]

The trolley scene in Murnau's "Sunrise" was pretty amazing. Always wondered how they did that until I watched the DVD. The opening scene of "La Ronde" on the merry go round is another one that's tight.

 

Someone mayhave been mentioned this one and I might have missed it, but jsut in case: the trench scenes in "Paths of Glory"

 

And although accomplished in CGI, I really enjoyed Fincher's tracking shot [aka "The Big Shot"] of the thieves breaking in the house in "Panic Room"