unusual shot composition

helen · May 29, 2004

i'm doing an english project on unusual shot composition in cinematography. such as in the new zealand movie 'rain' by christene jeffs where the protaginists tend to be on the edge of all the shots.

any suggestions of movies would b great

thanks

Mitch Gross · May 29, 2004

A quick few off the top of my head.

Sweetie

The Spider's Stratege

The Conformist (of course)

any film by Orson Welles (check out Mr. Arkadin)

painfulcrash · May 29, 2004

do you mean : one unusual shot ?

or the consistant unusual style in a single project ?

there is billions of unusual shots (at least thats what i would like to believe)

hm .. as far as the unusual style in projects; there is thousands of them (at least thats what i would like to believe :)

check out ,

emmanuel lubezki - Great Expectations (1998)

he didnt leave any headroom for charecters, which forces you to look them in the eye. i thought it was pretty genius.

-aydin (crash) ozer

helen · May 29, 2004

thanks those sound great.

i was looking for movies that have unusual cinematography not just one shot. also for any movies that have a particular artistic influence (other than the obvious such as girl with a pearl earring using vermeer)

stijnbarbe · May 29, 2004

I'd look at Storare's work on Dick Tracy, allthough that's more of a color experiment in stead of composition.

There is a videocli by 'cinematic orchestra' that experimented with a, how to say this, upright aspect ratio. What you see on tv is a pillarboxed image with greater height than depth. weird, but interesting. doesn't look very good on standard 4:3 TV but if you put a widescreen TV on it's side and you could also turn the video by 90° perhaps it would have some charme.

An of course multilayer, there's something in every corner, Peter Greenaway's films are usually an experiment in filmmaking.

Michael Nash · May 29, 2004

thanks those sound great.
i was looking for movies that have unusual cinematography not just one shot. also for any movies that have a particular artistic influence (other than the obvious such as girl with a pearl earring using vermeer)

What movie DOESN'T have a particular artistic influence? It's just that most films are influenced by a combination of other sources.

"Seven" was highly influenced by the photographs of Robert Frank, for instance. The DVD for "The Yards" includes a gallery of paintings that influenced that film. "Barry Lyndon" is another good one. The list goes on and on. Pick any film with a strong visual style and you'll be able to trace the influences if you look hard enough.

Phil Rhodes · May 30, 2004

Hi,

You might call "Festen" unconventional and unusually composed. You might also call it an insult to anyone who's ever tried to put any craft into a film. Or you might just call it "crap."

Phil

David Mullen ASC · May 30, 2004

Mitch's suggestion of Jane Campion's "Sweetie" is a good one -- the arch compositions still stick in my mind, like that strange close-up of the Indian instructor framed really low, eyes near the bottom of the frame.

Any of the super wide-angle directors like Welles, Frankenheimer (look at "Seconds" in particular), Gilliam, Polanski. For the telephoto directors, look at Kurosawa's work in widescreen from the 1960's (like "Yojimbo.")

Fredrik Backar FSF · May 30, 2004

Any work of Michael Mann. Though especially the insider and Ali.

Believe him to be the most recent one to ad a new layer to the visual style of overall cinema.

So many have followed in that path, or I should say tried to follow.

Sadly the old man has fallen for the viper....

Wendell_Greene · May 31, 2004

Any work of Michael Mann. Though especially the Insider and Ali. Believe him to be the most recent one to ad a new layer to the visual style of overall cinema. Sadly the old man has fallen for the viper....

Why are you sadden by his use of the Viper? I'm actually looking forward to seeing his work on "Collateral".

David Beier · May 31, 2004

As many mentioned, "unusual" is rather hard to find as pretty much any director of worth should be able to compose shots in an interesting fashon. Personally, I found Bergman's Persona to be a really striking film in the composition of its closeups.

Fredrik Backar FSF · May 31, 2004

I much look forward to seeing the film as it probably is very good I would guess.

The videoformat on the big screen does not excite me though.... as does nothing in the videorealm right now..... Bergmans Saraband looked awful... It will be good to see for knowlege though. Thought even a small quicktime of collateral on the net poured with video 2-d and terrible skintones! Cheers/FREDRIK

Rachel Oliver · May 31, 2004

also for any movies that have a particular artistic influence (other than the obvious such as girl with a pearl earring using vermeer)

Hi,

David Lynch's film Blue Velvet has been influenced by Edward Hopper paintings along with countless other films. The 1990 film Dick Tracey with Warren Beatty has also referenced Edward Hopper. Hope that helps.