Movie ending crane shots to sky

Brian Derby · January 16, 2005

Does anyone remember some specfic older genre color movies with endings using a crane shot that goes up to the sky, signifying the end of the film? Daytime end shot preferable. I've tried contacting the Academy of Motion Pictures Library, several trivia forums and even a professional film critic. Everyone remembers this older style of movie endings, but can't remember a specific example. Little Women had a tilt-up to a dark sky with a rainbow. Thanks, in advance, for any suggestions.

David Mullen ASC · January 16, 2005

That's a good question. I remember "Casablanca" ends with a crane shot at the airport at Rick and Renaut walk away. I wonder if Curtiz used that trick earlier. "Singin in the Rain" ends with a crane backing away I believe (or was it a push in?) with Kelly and Reynolds in front of the billboard. So the finale crane shot move was established by the 1940's -- so I suspect you'd want to look into the late 1920's & 30's to find the earliest examples.

"Gone with the Wind" has the famous big dolly back from Scarlett at sunrise just before the intermission.

And there's Chaplin walking away from the camera at the end of some of his films, but with no crane shot.

There were crane-like elevating devices going back to "Intolerance" but the first camera crane boom arm was built for Paul Fejos for "Broadway" (1929). It was mainly used for musicals although movies like Curtiz' "Adventures if Robin Hood" was using it (but I don't recall the last shot, but I think it was Robin and Marion standing in the castle doorway waving goodbye). I'd look at 1930's musicals to see how they ended the movie -- I'm sure some of them use a crane shot.

It was hard to do crane shots in the days of hand-cranking because it required three hands -- one for panning, one for tilting, and one for cranking.

Looking at the end of "Gone with the Wind" it does end with a pull-back and slow rising crane shot -- but it's an optical effect combing Scarlett under the tree with a matte painting of Tara in the background.

January 16, 2005

I'm not 100% sure this is the type of shot you mean but at the end of "Leon" the camera pulls from ground level from looking at a subject, into the sky.

Bob Hayes · January 17, 2005

An interesting crane end shot is the end of Haskell Wexler?s ?Medium Cool?. Our Hero, Robert Forester is killed in a car accident and the camera pans to reveal Haskell behind the camera filming.