Origins

The Dolly Zoom technique, also known as the Hitchcock Zoom, originated in the Alfred Hitchcock film Vertigo. The visual illusion was used in this film to highlight the character’s… well, vertigo. To understand how this technique creates a unique effect that’s different from a normal zoom, imagine you’re at the end of a hallway and at the opposite end there’s a door that leads outside. The further away from the door you are, the less of the outside world you’ll be able to see. Even if you take out your camera and zoom in, the door will appear closer to you but you’ll still only be able to see the same amount of the outside world. If, however, you walk toward the door you will gradually be able to see more and more of the world outside. A zoom executed using a dolly will, therefore, look slightly different than one merely using a camera and not moving through space.

Understanding this idea is how the Dolly Zoom was created, a technique that involves simultaneously zooming in while dollying out (or vice versa) while focusing on a single point in space. Using the doorway as our example again, if you dolly in while you zoom out on it you would create the visual illusion that the archway is the same size, but that the outside world is moving closer.

Uses

As stated previously, this shot can be accomplished in two different ways and each creates a different visual illusion. And each of those illusions can be used to highlight different aspects of plot or character. For example, when you dolly out and zooms in it creates the illusion that the world is closing in around the audience. This can be used as a visual metaphor for impending danger or character paranoia. On the opposite end, when you dolly in and zoom out, it creates the visual effect of the world pushing away from us. This can visually illustrate feelings of isolation or that one’s goal or destination is perpetually out of reach.

Execution

The Dolly Zoom has been used several times in films since Alfred Hitchcock brought the technique to life. Similar to the Dutch Tilt, this technique is visually unsettling and can immediately grab your audience’s attention when executed correctly. To pull this effect off, you will need a smooth dolly track, a slider can work but it will restrict your range of movement as the slider is likely to appear in the shot. You’ll also need a fast zoom lens as you don’t want the F-stop to be moving up or down as you zoom in or out. The zoom lens is best accompanied by servo zoom gear for precise control and a follow focus to keep your subject clear and crisp. Aside from the preferred equipment, this technique also requires practicing your movement and timing.

The post Evolution of the Dolly Zoom appeared first on George Davison Studios.

1) What is the tone?

When writing and filming a scene about family, one needs to first decide on the tone. Does the scene match the tone of the rest of your film or does it starkly contrast it? For example, if your film is a rom-com and is generally more upbeat, does it take a dark turn during this family scene? Or does the opposite occur and a darker movie has a nice uplifting and hopeful moment in this setting? If that is the case, then the tone would be more ‘hopeful’ than an outright ‘happy’ tone you may find in a more fun and lighthearted film. Figure out what the scene will contain, what the tone will be, and make sure it doesn’t feel out of place with the rest of your film.

2) Use lighting, filters, and colors

Now that you have a general idea of what the tone will be, you’ll use your camerawork, lighting, and colors to signal to the audience how they should be feeling in this scene. For example, let’s take our earlier example of a film that is a darker or sad story, but contains a hopeful moment within this familial scene. Having it become suddenly brightly colors and filtered akin to a hallmark movie will be too striking a contrast and may take the edge off of the audience too much.

However, having a movie that is mostly gray or darkly colored and then having a scene where we can see a pop of color like a blue wallpaper in the background or a little red stuffed animal in the corner will give the correct impression of the tone. And, if we’re meant to anticipate something bad happening in the scene, darkening the colors or making the colors look off making the characters look paler, using dutch angles, etc. can help alert the audience that this scene will be more disturbing.

3) Individual moments

When writing a scene with a myriad of different familial characters, it’s important that we gain all of the important insights we need to for the plot to move forward. Your film has a time limit so you likely won’t need to dive into every single familial relationship in this scene unless the family is the crux of the whole script. Instead, choose one or two family members or groupings for the audience to see individual conversations between two people. Make sure these conversations are important and give the audience crucial information that will move the plot forward.

For example, perhaps we overhear two family members talking about how silly it is that our protagonist is going to art school, shortly after they complimented and encouraged him to do so. Then, in the next shot, we are shown that he has overheard them. This not only gives us some insight into the protagonist’s family dynamic and how they aren’t always honest with one another, but it also adds to their dilemma over the choices they’re making in their life.

4) Group moments

In addition to little individual moments, you’ll want to create a few moments with the larger group as well. This is where you can give lines to some of the family members that aren’t as crucial to the plot, while also highlighting the family dynamic in a group vs. individually. If you’re writing a familial scene that brews conflict, you could have the group get into a heated fight- highlighting the different relationships at strain within the family. If you’re creating a more picturesque moment, you can have them talk about some part of the protagonist’s past or the family’s past that the viewer will need to be aware of in order to understand the protagonist’s current circumstances.

The post Screenwriting and Filming Familial Scenes appeared first on George Davison Studios.

1) iPhone:

The movie Unsane, which recently hit theaters, is gaining public attention as it was solely filmed using an iPhone camera. The film follows a young woman who is trying to escape a stalker and ends up questioning her own sanity. This is hardly the first successful film to use the iPhone technique, but the film’s release has people turning their attention to the iPhone as a possible future for film. The film was made using an iPhone 7 camera and was shot over the period of just 10 days.

One movie that’s recognized as pioneering this movement is the 2015 film, Tangerine. This was the first film shot entirely using an iPhone camera, specifically the iPhone 5s. Reportedly, the film had a very tiny budget to work with, but when it premiered in 2015 it received critical acclaim. According to The Verge, James Ransone, an actor in the film, said making a good film isn’t about having the proper equipment, but rather understanding film as a whole. According to Ransone, “You still need to know how editing works. You still need to know how sound works. You still need to know how a camera works. You can’t just go out and shoot. Yes, you can make a beautiful-looking film on a shoestring budget. But you have to know 100 years worth of filmmaking.”

2) Drone:

Drones are being used more frequently in film as a way of acquiring unique aerial shots from lower heights than a helicopter could achieve. One film that used this technique was the 2012 film Skyfall, becoming the first James Bond movie to use drones for aerial footage. Flying-Cam Drones were used in the opening shot as James Bond chases a terrorist across a rooftop of the Grand Bazaar on a motorbike.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JuITWX871M

Another recent film that utilized this technique was the 2014 film The Expendables 3, which used drones to capture high-intensity action sequences. They shot a total of 30 scenes in the film using drones, including the opening sequence. On the subject, Ziv Marom, ZM Interactive’s pilot and owner, said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter: “We flew right next to a train and helicopter. We shot everything from chasing tanks to explosions to flying over buildings and motorcycle jumps. We can also do shots that a real helicopter can’t do. We can do lower altitudes.”

Other well-known films that used drones to capture significant wide shots include Captain America: Civil War and Jurassic World.

3) GoPro:

One of the more interesting films that was made using exclusively GoPros is the documentary Leviathan. It is interesting, in part, because this wasn’t actually a deliberate choice, but rather an accident. The filmmakers Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verene Paravel originally set out on a sea voyage with the intent make a niche documentary about life on a fishing vessel. What they didn’t account for was all of their equipment being swept overboard shortly after they set sail.

In an attempt to salvage their project, each of the crew members strapped on a GoPro camera. They also strapped GoPros to everything from the fishing equipment to actual fish. The downside to this was that they couldn’t see what they were recording, so there was the risk that they’d spend all this time at sea and come home without any valuable footage. The film they ended up with was a chilling first person perspective that included a brush with death, violent sea sickness, and even one of the filmmakers being hospitalized.

Documentaries aren’t the only films that have adopted the GoPro style. The 2015 movie The Martian starring Matt Damon used a total of 28 GoPro Cameras on set, to get several different angles. There’s also the movie Hardcore Henry, the world’s first action movie solely filmed using a GoPro. The plot begins with a man waking up in a Moscow laboratory and learning he’s been brought back to life as a half-human, half-robot hybrid. The GoPro style filming lets the viewer experience this action thriller as Henry, rather than through Henry. Though the film didn’t receive critical acclaim, it was well-received by the public as 93% of Google users liked the movie.

All in all, this movement is causing a big change in the movie industry- hopefully for the better. These new filming methods give people who may not otherwise have the means the ability to create beautiful works of art. So movie on over, big shots. The little guys can go pro, too.

The post Movies Shot in New & Interesting Ways appeared first on George Davison Studios.