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
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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
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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
In Goodfellas, tracking is used as an introduction to the scene. in this famous scene its used to show the audience who Henry is with and to introduce the environment and the characters at the same time. this is done so the audience can focus on the whole shot at the same time instead of looking at different things that are happening in the shot.
a steady cam shot is used in the shinning to make the audience feel uneasy. Due to the camera angle and the camera movement of the shaky camera, it makes it seem like were seeing someone else’s perspective and due to what we know about the hotel, it implies that it could be something paranormal following him which creates tension and makes us uncomfortable because we cant help Danny.A dolly zoom is used here to make us focus on the characters reaction and bring attention to it to make us aware of how they feel and sometimes bring us the same emotion such as fear.
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
Milk Bar, A Clockwork Orange (1971)
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
Twins, The Shining (1980)
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
Dr Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
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
Ax scene, The Shining (1982)
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?
Hyperdrive, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
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 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
one point perspective- Kubrick uses a one point perspective to create symmetry within the shot. This is used to make the walls seem like they’re closing in and therefore it makes the audience feel claustrophobic. It also gives us a point to look at on the screen which creates the idea that there’s an infinite journey beyond what we can see and everything’s bigger and more important than just whats in the shot.
Kubrick uses a long steady cam take to show us Danny’s perspective but from behind him. this can hint that something is following him because its not from our eye level and the shaky camera movements. this builds tension because it gives us ideas that something paranormal is following him. it also makes us uncomfortable and anxious because we cant help him from behind the screen but we know something is following him due to the steady cam effect of another person moving.Kubrick uses deep focus to show us the environment and its relationship with the character. its also used to show us the whole picture so we can focus on more than 1 thing. showing everything sometimes makes use feel like walls are closed in and it makes us feel claustrophobic.Symmetrical Composition is used to make it seem like the walls are moving in to make the audience claustrophobic and uncomfortable. it makes it unnatural making the audience feel uneasy.
One point Perspective – Kubrick uses this because it shows the audience that things appear to get smaller the further away they are.Long Steadicam – It mechanically isolates the camera from the operator’s movement, allowing for a smooth shot, even when the operator moves over an irregular surface.Deep Focus – A camera angle that allows the Cinematographer to keep everything in perspective without favoring foreground, mid-ground, or background.Symmetrical Composition – The two halves of the image are mirror images of each other.
One-Point Perspective – Makes Danny feel trapped because the carpet is similar to a maze.Long Steadicam Takes – Makes it feel like we’re following Danny through the hotel and makes the viewer anxious as we turn around corners.Deep Focus – Allows the closest character to remain the main character but also allows the viewer to view the facial expressions of the other characters.Symmetrical Composition – Aesthetically pleasing but also makes the reader feel uneasy.
Create a blog post demonstrating your understanding of the following cinematographic techniques and explain why you think Kubrick uses them in his films:
One-Point Perspective
Long Steadicam Takes
Deep Focus
Symmetrical Composition
Try to illustrate your post with images where you can.
Note that the examples don’t all need to come from “The Shining” alone
