Best Camera Shots ever..

[Richard Ragon]

Unofficial poll:

It is widely known that directors like Orson Welles, and Alfred Hitchcock were the masters of the camera shot. These masters saw it in their heads, and did whatever it took to make the audience understand what the characters 'felt' to the audience, using the Shot.

What do you guys think is the best camera shot ever?  I'm not asking a style shot like 'long lens or shaky cam', but a shot from a film that conveys the maximum amount of 'words' with out actual saying anything.

So, with this in mind.. here's my top 3.

#1) Cashback (Sean Ellis).  The single shot showing our heros level of depression, in his break up with his girlfriend.  The single shot goes from him on the phone, to his bed in one take.. It conveys our hero as both imprisoned by and held hostage by TIME. Our hero starts to loose track of reality, and not even knowing how he gets from one location to the next. I look at this, and think to myself.. "How the hell did they do that?".

http://banglabs.com/videos/?v=Cashback_Clip_01

#2) Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron).  The war scene.. a single long, mesmerizing shot. All though this film has more then one amazing sequence in it.

#3) American Beauty (Sam Mendes).  Lester Burmen sitting in the office of his employer, alone, isolated..  This one is more of the lighting, I'm sure..  But the placement of the office.. he looks so small to the camera.. cinema history.

I'm sure I'll think up more.. Anyone else?

-Richard

[jason porter]

3 that come to mind immediately, couldn't find any clips...sorry

1.- Color of Money, the scene just before Eddie (Newman) forfeits- camera 360's around him, Eddie subtly rotates with the camera to stay "square" to the lens.

2. - Manchurian Candidate, Senator Jordan (John McGiver) monologue/speech about freedom he gives to Laurence Harveys character.  The scene ends with McGiver standing in front of a statue that has wings, making it appear  that HE has wings (like an angels, or whatever)

3.- Manchurian Candidate (again)  press conference with Senator Iselin (James Gregory)  nice use of monitors etc...JUST GO WATCH IT!!

[RadoStefanov]

Just watched Harry Brown.

I really enjoyed the movie.

Sometimes the Brits make some amazing movies.

[RadoStefanov]

Children of man -  one of the best movies ever made in my book!

War scene is amazing.

The general Idea of the movie is amazing.

Especially immigration.

Unofficial poll:

#2) Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron).  The war scene.. a single long, mesmerizing shot. All though this film has more then one amazing sequence in it.

-Richard

[David Waelder]

Others will, no doubt, occur to me and I'll amend my post. But, off the top of my head, one of the all-time best shots is the camel charge into Aqaba in "Lawrence of Arabia." The camera pans with Faisal's army, led at that time by Lawrence, past the defending Turks to show the fortress of Aqaba and the big guns pointed uselessly out into the Gulf. It eloquently demonstrates the futility of the efforts at defense and the daring and brilliance of the attack.

Of course, although the movie generally makes a pretty accurate account of Lawrence and his actions, nothing of the sort ever happened, The Aqaba campaign was actually more complicated than the movie shows and took place over several months. Lawrence did lead a cavalry charge but at the Dar-es-Lissan outpost about 50 miles (a guess) east of Aqaba. With Dar-es-Lissan (sp? working from memory here) in Allied hands, the position at Aqaba became untenable for the Turks and they surrendered the fort soon after.

Still, a fabulous shot in the movie.

David

[Kevin Sorensen]

The opening shot of " Catch 22" is brillant.

I also like the slingle, steady cam scene in " The Atonement " at the beach.

[RPSharman]

I love the closing shot of "Big Night", mixed by our very own Billy Sarokin.

[Peter Mega]

"Goodfellas" is one of the greatest films ever IMO.

This steadicam shot is brilliantly done. There is dialog in it although the OP mentions conveying words wthout words etc.

Its still a great shot in a great movie either way.

Ray Liotta and his lady walk from their car, down the "back" stairs, through corridors, then through the kitchen and into the club, sit down then the camera goes over to the stage peformer.

Love this movie...Cheers

Peter Mega

[Peter Mega]

Just tried testing the embedded video and it wont work for some reason. I didn't make the request to disable BTW.

You'll have to watch it at youtube, sorry

But please watch the shot and the whole movie if you haven't seen it

"Goodfellas" is one of the greatest films ever IMO.

This steadicam shot is brilliantly done. There is dialog in it although the OP mentions conveying words wthout words etc.

Its still a great shot in a great movie either way.

Ray Liotta and his lady walk from their car, down the "back" stairs, through corridors, then through the kitchen and into the club, sit down then the camera goes over to the stage peformer.

Love this movie...Cheers

Peter Mega

[Izen Ears]

  There is something about this shot that I keep coming back to for some reason.  In T2 when Eddie Furlong is riding his bike right before getting chased by Arnold in a semi.  He's just riding in a ditch with the camera leading him, close enough that you can see his expression.  No dialog.

It's weird I know but I was 19, just becoming a young man when I saw this in the theater and somehow that shot made me think about becoming an adult, being independent, riding a bike into freedom.  In the movie the kid wants to run away from home.  I didn't want to do that I just didn't want to have to grow up!  Luckily I've avoided that so far.

  About 2 years ago I watched the movie again and again that shot stood out to me, and also the cool dolly zoom when he sees Arnold in the semi crash through the barrier of the overpass right at him.

  Dan Izen

[studiomprd]

" Color of Money, the scene just before Eddie (Newman) forfeits- camera 360's around him, Eddie subtly rotates with the camera to stay "square" to the lens. "

mentioned this in another thread; an excellent use of this special 360+ revolving shot...

speaking of the Manchurian Candidate (the original one, the remake was crap); how about the "panning" shots in the dream sequences?? the characters involved in the dreams change back and forth between  what they were, and what the character dreaming remembers of the situations...Vintage Frankenheimer

cut from pouring Ketchup onto eggs to: "there are exactly 57 card carrying communistists ..." 

[chrisnewton]

Opening shot of Robert Altman's "The Player". One take, no cuts. (Lots of discussion on this between film geeks). Over a few drinks etc. a bunch of us watched frame-by-frame, no discernible cuts, but a bit of a "bounce" at the bottom of the last crane shot. Dialogue throughout, lots of multi-track work which Altman apparently loved. Check it out. Chris Newton

[studiomprd]

and the opening shot of "A Touch of Evil", best enjoyed in the "restored version" of the film; the originally released version used the shot under opening credits!

[David Waelder]

It's hardly surprising that certain individuals seem to have a number of memorable shots in their films. I earlier mentioned the charge at Aqaba from Laurence of Arabia. From Dr. Zhivago, also by David Lean, there is an agonizing shot (at least I remember it as one shot) when Komorovsky (Rod Steiger) has come to Varikino to take Laura away to safety. Zhivago contrives to come later but actually intends to stay on in Russia. As Laura and Komorovsky get in the sleigh and ride away, Zhivago races upstairs and vigorously rubs the ice from the bedroom window, desperate to catch the last fleeting glimpses of Laura as she disappears from view. That single shot carries a lot of the emotional weight of the film; you are not likely to see a more romantic image.

From Olivier's Richard III: Richard has been conducting a show of piety to encourage the Mayor and burghers of London to endorse his plan to seize the throne. He is successful and they recognize him as king. As the townspeople melt away (with some perceived sense of disquiet), Buckingham comes forward to congratulate his co-conspirator. Richard extends his hand, claw-like, for Buckingham to kiss. As Buckingham reaches for the hand, Richard slowly lowers it, forcing Buckingham to go on his knees. He throws back his head in jubilation and the whole ambition of power is encapsulated in the single image of one man on his knees before another.

David

[al mcguire]

>Opening shot of Robert Altman's "The Player". One take, no cuts. (Lots of discussion on this between film geeks). Over a few drinks >etc. a bunch of us watched frame-by-frame, no discernible cuts, but a bit of a "bounce" at the bottom of the last crane shot. Dialogue >throughout, lots of multi-track work which Altman apparently loved. Check it out. Chris Newton

I absolutely agree

and

thank you robert altman for making the wiring and multitracking of actors so necessary

[John Blankenship]

In the "credit where credit is due" department:

Both the "Bonfire" sequence and the "Goodfellas" sequence were shot by Steadicam operator, Larry McConkey.

I had the pleasure of taking a Steadicam workshop from Larry, one of the best in the biz and a really cool guy.  It was just a partial-day thing, but I learned a lot.  (A local Steadicam op/DP friend of mine trained under Larry.)  After the workshop, both Larry and DP, Robert Primes joined us for supper -- a memorable day all around.

Larry said that for the "Goodfellas" sequence, Scorsese's instruction was simply, "Follow him in through the back of the restaurant."  Larry and Ray Liotta both knew that a shot of someone's back walking down a hallway was not the most scintillating cinema, so they worked out a sequence where Liotta's character would turn and gland-hand some of the restaurant workers, as well as the other bits of "business," so Larry could capture some face-time and reactions. 

In the sequence, it looks like they enter a decent-sized kitchen and exit through another door.  In actuality, the kitchen was really small and only had one entrance.  As they entered the kitchen, Larry swung the Steadicam around in such a way as to disorient the viewer to the extent that they then exited through the same door without the audience realizing it.

After hearing Larry talk about how the shot evolved, I commented, "And everyone talks about how this sequence is such a great example of Scorsese's brilliance." 

Larry responded, "It is; he hired me."

He said Scorsese did give one piece of direction.  He said he wanted to see the table "fly in."  He recalled how when he was a kid he remembered how a waiter brought a table in and it just seemed to "fly in!"

John B., CAS

[RPSharman]

Another great long shot without a cut is in "Raiders of The Lost Arc" as we are introduced to Karen Allen's character in a drinking contest with a large, local Nepalese man.

[Marc Wielage]

There is something about this shot that I keep coming back to for some reason.  In T2 when Eddie Furlong is riding his bike right before getting chased by Arnold in a semi.  He's just riding in a ditch with the camera leading him, close enough that you can see his expression.  No dialog.

Great sequence, and magnificent editing by Conrad Buff and cinematography by Adam Greenberg. A lot of the mall chase was shot close to where I live, by the Northridge Fashion Center, and the chase on the bike with the truck was done down the LA riverbed, right at Plummer & Havenhurst. They had to flip the angle because the truck actually jumped left to right instead of right to left, requiring that they reverse the truck logo and a bunch of other stuff. Amazing scene.

The most amazing single shot I saw recently was on a little movie that few people saw: the final shot of Leatherheads (starring George Clooney), which was absolutely beautiful. Even in dailies, it just knocked your socks off -- maybe not quite Touch of Evil, but still an amazing 2-minute shot.

--Marc W.