one point perspective – the shot is set up to direct the viewers attention to a particular point (vanishing point). Kubrick used this to make things seem bigger and infinite.

“A one-point perspective shot is when all the horizontal lines in your frame, if you were to extend them infinitely, would disappear into a point, usually at the center of the frame. That’s the vanishing point.” – New York Film Academy (Feb 2018)

steady cam – use of a camera stabilizer, used to keep camera steady and allow for a smooth shot.

deep focus – everything within the shot is in focus. fore-ground , middle-ground and background in focus.

symmetrical composition – both sides of the shot are mirror images of each other or extremely similar. Creates aesthetically pleasing shots.

XCU

In The Good, The Bad and The Ugly a series of quickly changing shots from extreme close up to hip shot and back and forth quickly. The extreme close up heightens the tension between the characters

MS

In the shining Kubrick uses a medium shot as Jack chases Danny through the maze to make it feel like Jack is right behind Danny and the fact that he is this close means he takes up a lot of the frame which gives him this big formidable presence

XLS

In this scene from Blade Runner 2049 an extreme long shot is used to establish where K is and it is and it shows us this huge city with the orange hues across the sky

One point perspective:

Kubrick frequently uses one point perspective to give a sense of unease for the viewer, due to how unnatural it is. This perspective also helps draw the audience to something in particular, in this case that something being the door. Due to this, Danny looks vulnerable, as the empty space he is in is emphasized.

Long Steadicam takes

The use of the long Steadicam take here helps build tension as Danny rides his bike around the corridors. By using this take, the audience feels like they are following Danny, but cannot protect him from what he may encounter, highlighting Danny’s vulnerability. Kubrick also uses an intra-diegetic gaze to emphasise this, as you feel closer to him and therefore closer to the danger he comes across.

Deep Focus

The use of deep focus here helps draw the audience’s attention to what is happening through the window. It helps immerse the audience into the environment, assisted by the intra-diegetic gaze he uses here.

Symmetrical Composition

Due to how unnatural symmetry is in normal life, this composition creates a sense of unease for the audience. In this shot specifically, one point perspective is also used in conjunction to emphasise how unnatural they are.

Stanley Kubrick, as both a director and a photographer, has a very unique style to the way he directs. This is what is considered an ‘auteur’ style, as his own artistic flourish on the screen, along with the cinematographer’s work, of course.

ONE POINT PERSPECTIVE

Kubrick has a way of directing the eye to the most important thing on screen, through creating a single converging point in the center of the shot. This one specifically has an effective composition because the four characters which the eye is drawn to, along with the benches by their legs, create a horizon which draws together the vanishing point.

Alex’s face, despite being fairly plain, and half covered, is the main point of the screen our eye is drawn to, because every element of the shot points toward the centre of frame, even literally in some cases, such as the mannequins’ nipples. He uses this as a constant thru-line in all of his work, most notably in 2001 and The Shining, where corridors appear constantly through the film’s runtime.

SYMMETRICAL COMPOSITION

Directly related to Kubrick’s aptitude for one point perspective, is his love for symmetrical shot compositions; where the same image or images are replicated on both halves of a shot. This is often combined with the vanishing point, letting the converging elements frame the subject or subjects with a gaze which is drawn into the horizon through identical parts of the production design.

Making parts of a frame symmetrical in this way not only draws your eye into the centre frame, but allows for instances of uncanny, repeated subjects at the focal point of the shot composition; The Shining’s infamous twins, even the duo of Jack Torrance and Delbert Grady, or A Clockwork Orange’s uniform droogs, and many more. In all of these cases, the symmetry of a shot calls into attention not only the similarity between the subjects of a shot, but also the difference.

DEEP FOCUS

A holdover from Kubrick’s time as a photographer is his relationship with focus. Unlike more character-oriented directors like Fincher, Kubrick uses an extremely deep focus ‘wide-angle lens’ which keeps every element of the shot as clear and crisp as possible, which comes from his time in photography. Kubrick was heavily inspired by deep focus photographs from early wartime journalism, lending to his current style.

This feeds directly into the other parts of his auteur style, as he must use symmetry, lighting and perspective to highlight the important parts of the shot, as he can’t rely on simply sharpening and blurring points of the image.

LONG TAKES & STEADICAM

Another photographer-esque holdover that worms its way into Kubrick’s auteur director style is the use of a steadied, or tracking camera, often combined with the use of long, uninterrupted takes. His aptitude with both the still, framed and-painter-like shot and its moving, tracking counterpart both lend themselves to the lingering and voyeuristic presence of the camera inside his work – especially in films like The Shining where the watchful eye of the viewer goes an additional step to instill dread in the scenes.

The example above is perfect for this; as the camera swings back and forth, parallel to Jack’s ax as he breaks in the bathroom door to try and kill his wife and son. The motion in the long-take of the camera, coupled with Nicholson’s actual experience in ax-swinging from being a former firefighter, really immerses the viewer in the danger of Kubrick’s world, and lets us feel the ‘Shining’ that the hotel is manifesting against its residents.

CONCLUSIONS?

To capture Kubrick’s auteur style, or ‘Kubrickia’, as lovingly coined by film journalists the world over, would be to try and observe a pure and unadulterated experience. Kubrick’s style is at once a painting, panoramic and glorious, but also a stalking voyeur who follows the backs of real men and women. Kubrick’s camera is at once a phantom, and a living, breathing creature.

Kubrick’s style can be defined by turning the camera into a character in its film, giving the camera its own unique personality, way of moving, a more human way of seeing the world than most cameras are given – he lets the user fully enter the worlds he creates. The camera no longer simply views, but participates.

One Point Perspective

One-Point perspective leads the audiences eyes towards one point in the near the center of the screen (aka the horizon), this gives whatever is on the horizon (which in this case is the double doors) a distant far away presence

Long Steadicam Takes

Long Steadicam Takes to make it feel like you are chasing after Danny and this low angle also help obscure your view of whats ahead of Danny creating this fear of what could wait in front

Deep Focus

Deep Focus is used to make the audience not just focus on the actors but the whole frame, for instance in this scene Kubrick uses deep focus to show the audience not just the world leaders but also the countries they lead that are displayed behind them

Symmetrical Composition

Symmetrical Composition creates an unnerving presence and creates sinister undertones which is the exact effect Kubrick wants. In this scene the twins at the end of the hallway have a very eerie and unnatural aura because symmetry is unnatural which Kubrick uses here

 

this gives the scene a sense of claustrophobia as its leading Danny down the corridor.

makes the viewer feel as though they are following Danny through the corridors

Gives viewer a distorted view of reality as the human eye usually creates its own range of focus but Kubrick forces everything into focus

makes the audience feel trapped and distorted as the two are almost identical and dead center blocking the way through