3 best camera move scenes?

Untouchables - Train Station Steps

It's like 9 minutes all together, there's several smaller clips within it that would work by themselves but the scene as a whole is done brilliantly.
 
Layer Cake - cafe scene, the music, sound effects and filming was brilliant, got me to sit up anyway.

Some great stuff in The Shining following Danny down the corridors and round the maze.
 
There is one that always sticks in my mind, and I cannot remember the exacts of it, other than that it was in an episode of dr who (matt smith era), which I believe was done with a stills camera, starting with an extreme close up, then slowly zooming out while doing a 360 pan.. then when stitched and played back, made for quite the effect... I know that one episode of confidential explained it, but I cannot remember the episode

I could be wrong though, often am..
 
Vonhelmet said:
It depends on how it's used. And not everything has to add to a film's narrative. A well shot car chase doesn't add anything much to the narrative of a film, per se, but if it looks good and it's exhilarating, then that's a good thing.
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I disagree. Every frame goes towards telling the story of the film, or for some directors each shot tells a story in itself. I think a lot of "cool" shots are superfluous, particularly when you consider how every aspect of the mise-en-scene in every shot contributes to the narrative and feel of the film. It's like, why spend so much time planning set design, costume, props, actors and positioning them so that each has its own narrative meaning, then go and ruin it by chucking in a shot which just looks "cool" and adds nothing to the story?

A well shot car chase should tell a story in itself, though. If it was just a bunch of cool shots thrown together then it'd be really confusing for the viewer. A car chase might be an integral part of the story of an action film, so a good director will use that to create something that is exhilarating, good looking, dramatic and drives forward story. Like in Bullitt, for example.
 
Woody__ said:
I disagree. Every frame goes towards telling the story of the film, or for some directors each shot tells a story in itself. I think a lot of "cool" shots are superfluous, particularly when you consider how every aspect of the mise-en-scene in every shot contributes to the narrative and feel of the film. It's like, why spend so much time planning set design, costume, props, actors and positioning them so that each has its own narrative meaning, then go and ruin it by chucking in a shot which just looks "cool" and adds nothing to the story?

A well shot car chase should tell a story in itself, though. If it was just a bunch of cool shots thrown together then it'd be really confusing for the viewer. A car chase might be an integral part of the story of an action film, so a good director will use that to create something that is exhilarating, good looking, dramatic and drives forward story. Like in Bullitt, for example.
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I think it would help my understanding of your point if you could give examples of good and bad shots.

Thinking back I would defend the shot under the truck in Matrix Reloaded. Sure, it looks cool, but it does also add to the chase. It enhances the sense of speed and weight, and in particular it helps to foreshadow the trucks which are integral to the denouement of the scene.

Now a scene I'd be much more hesitant to defend is the burly brawl in reloaded. It's way too long and ultimately pointless. The cgi isn't great either so you end up with something adding very little to the story, trying to look cool with slow mo cgi neo and actually not looking that great.
 
Vonhelmet said:
I think it would help my understanding of your point if you could give examples of good and bad shots.

Thinking back I would defend the shot under the truck in Matrix Reloaded. Sure, it looks cool, but it does also add to the chase. It enhances the sense of speed and weight, and in particular it helps to foreshadow the trucks which are integral to the denouement of the scene.

Now a scene I'd be much more hesitant to defend is the burly brawl in reloaded. It's way too long and ultimately pointless. The cgi isn't great either so you end up with something adding very little to the story, trying to look cool with slow mo cgi neo and actually not looking that great.
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The article I posted earlier has some good discussion on what I mean. Explains my point a bit better than I'm doing at the moment!
 
Kevin Clark said:
I've always thought this was a very clever shot.
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Isn't there another excellent shot like that in Contact, the zoom right in at the start? Some stunning camera work in that film.... the scene you've posted is amazing. Quite a few exposition pieces on the DVD extras IIRC.
 
Kevin Clark said:
I've always thought this was a very clever shot.

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I've seen this movie twice and hadn't noticed that! Oh dear! But thanks for introducing me to it.

Eames said:
Its called panning the camera or just pan/camera pan.

Might help you in your search :D

And the best use of camera pan I've seen is in the movie Oldboy the hammer fight scene.
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It's actually a tracking shot. Panning is moving the camera left or right via it's vertical axis.
 
I don't really know what you are looking for in this thread, but would the opening scene of Lord of War be worthy? Its where the camera follows the bullet from the factory to the skull of the target.
 
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