Cinematography-Theory-And-Practice

Figure 2.29. (top) The Lady in theLake is one of the very rare examplesof truly subjective point of viewsustained throughout the entirefilm. Although the entire film is seenthrough the detective's subjectivePOV, the director cheats a bit to geta few shots of the detective as in thismirror shot. It's a cheat because thatis not how the scene would actuallyappear to the character as he is lookingin a mirror.Figure 2.30. (bottom) The reactionshot of the crowd as the detectiveenters is very awkward because all ofthe actors need to look directly intothe lens, which makes the audienceaware of the camera.MontageThere is a special form of editing used in dramatic narrative filmmakingthat does not aim for continuity at all; this is called montage.A montage is simply a series of shots related by theme. Say the themeis “Springtime in the city” — you might have a series of shots of theflowers blooming, gentle rain showers, the sun breaking through theclouds, that sort of thing.Some kinds of montage advance the story but without linear continuity.For example, Rocky prepares for the big fight: we see himworking out, punching the bag, running on the streets of Philly,then finally running up the stairs to triumph. It is not real-time continuity— it takes place over months — but we see the story develop.It’s a series of related shots, not scenes with linear continuity.All of these methods share one common goal: to be invisible. Wedon’t want the audience to be aware they are a movie because thiswould distract them from the story. There are some exceptions tothis of course, such as when Ferris Bueller addresses the audiencedirectly; at times such as this all conventions of fiction are tossedaside, generally for comic effect (Figure 2.31).cinematography32