Cinematography-Theory-And-Practice

Figure 4.11. (top) A visually powerfulpunch-in from Gladiator, as themain characters rise into the arenafrom the underground space in awide shot.Figure 4.12. (bottom) The switch toa very long lens (the punch-in) punctuatesthe moment and intensifiesthe drama as well as simply beingdramatic and visually striking.place mysterious and foreboding. First, the motivated light from theaquarium backlights them dramatically in a classic film noir fashion.As the Welles character begins to realize the danger of the situationhe is in, they move to a spot where they are completely in silhouette.When he goes in for coverage, Welles doesn’t chicken out. The motivatedlighting is also a water effect so the ripples play across theirfaces. These devices subtly suggest that the character is out of hisdepth, underwater, which is exactly the point of the scene.The third trick is even more clever. In the wide shots, we see thefish in the aquarium: ordinary fish and turtles of one or two feet inlength. In the close-ups, however, Welles had film of the fish backprojectedat a greatly enlarged size. As a result, the fish are nowgigantic. Although just barely seen behind their heads, the effect ismysterious and a little frightening. In combination with the silhouetteand the rippling water effects, the subtext is clear: the characteris out of his depth, his head is underwater, and he may not survive.It is a masterful stroke that is completely unnoticed by most of theaudience. Like all the best techniques, it is seamless and invisible.Kurosawa uses very long lenses in a way that is stylistically distinctive.See Figure 4.14 for an example of how he uses lenses toachieve certain compositional perspectives and character relationships.Another example of lens use is the punch-in, shown in Figures4.11 and 4.12.cinematography60