May 11, 2013

"Every filmmaker in Hollywood worth his final cut has a signature visual flourish that functions something like a filmic fingerprint."

"For Martin Scorsese, it’s the long, uninterrupted tracking shot. For John Woo, the balletic deployment of two-handed gun violence. Wes Anderson never met a painterly tableau he didn’t like. And Steven Spielberg favors the slow zoom in just about every one of his movies. J.J. Abrams, meanwhile...."

20 comments:

Unknown said...

For my mom it's the finger in front of the lens.
She was before her time it seems.

Icepick said...

For Michael Bay, it's blowing stuff the hell up! Yeah, baby!

For Kevin Smith it's the camera that never moves.

Icepick said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
cubanbob said...

Farts. In every zero gee shot there should be an audible fart. Get to it JJ.

cubanbob said...

Farts. In every zero gee shot there should be an audible fart. Get to it JJ.

cubanbob said...

Or magical weightoss. In every shot of someone being beamed here or there if at the point of being beamed they are over a certain BMI when they rematerialized they get rematerialized at the approved BMI. Same for zits, moles, stretch marks and tattoos, scars, cellulite, varicose veins etc. Think about it, if you're nuts enough to be first killed and then de materialized wouldn't you to be re materialized with improvements? Throw in cancer, viruses and other infectious organisms, clots and plaques it might be worth it.

edutcher said...

Funny how most people just watch the movie.

Bender said...

For Martin Scorsese, it’s the long, uninterrupted tracking shot.

You learn something new all the time. I've seen a few of his movies, and I've never noticed this. Never.

Meanwhile, you want a long shot, watch the battle scene in Children of Men.

Anonymous said...

Long tracking shots and zoom-ins are pretty standard, however much Scorcese and Speilberg might use them.

Scorcese did have great tracking shots in Goodfellas and Casino. I can't remember any others.

Baron Zemo said...

One of the best endings of a movie can be found at the end of John Ford's
classic "The Searchers."

You see Ethan Edwards standing in the doorway. A doorway to family life and the embrace of civilization. Debbie is brought back to the embrace of her family and Martin and Laurie skirt around him to come in the house. He is fated to always be the outsider as he framed in this shot as being on the outside looking in.

He turns and walks back into the wilderness where he belongs.

eddie willers said...

Warner Brothers used "T-T-That's all folks!"

SteveBrooklineMA said...

The Munsters had fast motion in every episode. Now that's comedy!

Charlie Martin said...

I know I know. It's the goddamn lens flare!

Left Bank of the Charles said...

The 3-D preview of the new Star Trek does pretty much blow your mind.

ed said...

"Hard Boiled" hospital shootout scene.

How could you not like that?

lemondog said...

ET final scene:

ET: Come

Boy: Stay

ET: Ouch

Boy: Ouch

ET with glowing finger to boys head: I'll Be Right Here.

ET picks up flower pot and walks up ramp. Dog tries to follow and comes back.

Unfortunately the clip cuts off before the ending showing ET standing in the doorway with his heart glowing red as the ramp is slowly raised and the doors close.

veni vidi vici said...

About two years ago John Woo, along with a cast of great favorites including Chow Yun Fat and others from the estimable Woo catalog, directed a magnificent historical epic entitled "Beginning of the Great Revival" about the early 20th century political upheavals in China which ultimately led to the Maoist revolution decades later. It is great cinema, based on significant and timely history of a great nation and people, and yet few stateside will have heard of it (I found it by chance in a used record/DVD store).

And not a single "double gun balletic" gunfire blowout to be found.

So much for this journalist's theory of "signature flourishes"; just another very shallow thinker posing as an expert journo. What's wrong with this self-congratulatory class that fancies themselves "journalists" in our time? I've never seen such lazy (and unearned) entitlement played as a coin of the realm as it is in that guild.

Astro said...

Ahh, yes. J J Abrams. I think the tub of popcorn I ate during Star Trek had more substance to it than his movie.

His comment, "But I love the idea that the future was so bright..." deserves a salute from:
Timbuk 3

Known Unknown said...

For Martin Scorsese, it’s the long, uninterrupted tracking shot.


And P.T. Anderson, too.

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