In Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, he decides to use many filming techniques; two of them including having background actors cut in front of the camera and the slow zoom in towards a character’s face.
The first technique used makes the audience feel as they apart of this scene of the movie. One technique that Coppola used while directing The Godfather is to have background characters quickly pass in front of the camera fast enough so the audience doesn't get distracted, but for the audience to feel as they are in the scene. During the wedding reception, Michael Corleone was having a conversation with his girlfriend, Kay, about the Corleone's family business. While the audience is watching this scene, they may notice some background actors passing in front of and behind the conversation. From the audience's perspective, the passing of characters makes the scene much more realistic and convinces the audience they are apart of the scene, listening to the conversation.
The second technique that Francis Ford Coppola includes is the technique of zooming in closely to the characters’ faces. During the scene when Jack Woltz wakes up with blood all over his hands and legs and finds his horse's head in his bed, the director slowly zooms to Jack Woltz, which builds suspense as to what may happen next. Because of the slow zooming camerawork, audience members may also feel that they are slowly walking towards Jack Woltz.
With the technique of zooming in closely and slowly into the characters, Francis Ford Coppola makes the scene much more suspenseful ,which sets the mood and uncertainty for this scene.
The first filming technique is certainly noticeable and evident in family events and I agree with your statement that it is done to make the viewer feel as though they are part of this close knit family and to make them feel like insiders. Copolla did a very good job in making all the scenes very realistic; maybe with the exception of the fight scene between Carlo and Sonny.
ReplyDeleteI would like to add on to your second filming technique. While I agree that zooming into a character's face in a moment of suspense only adds to this effect and sets the mood of uncertainty, I think there is more to be noticed. In the scene of Jack Woltz waking up with the horse head in his bed, the camera slowly zooms in, looks around then quickly jumps out. The important thing to notice is that it does start to zoom back in. This is almost identical to what the camera does to Kay when Michael is telling her about the mafia family and almost identical to what our minds are thinking. When we are curious about something shady, we approach the subject gingerly and once we find out that it is something repulsive, we tend to jump back. But for some reason, in the end, our curious and outgoing side always lures us back in. Copolla did a very good job in making our emotions a parallel to what the camera does.
Thanks for sharing this is an enhancement in my filming techniques. I also have observed this aspect in "Five Cs' of cinematography" but you elaborated in such a real understandable way.
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