First, a synopsis by the IMDB: "After
a painful breakup, Ben develops insomnia. To kill time, he starts
working the late night shift at the local supermarket, where his
artistic imagination runs wild."
Cashback is a British Romance/ Comedy. The protagonist Ben working on night shift, falls in love with one of his co-workers, Sharon. At some point in the film, his boss is about to give himself a surprise birthday party and delivers to Ben the job of finding a stripper for the party. Ben doesn't know where he can find a stripper, but his long time friend knows. Here's what follows:
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Ben and his friend
enters in the strip club. It's the first time that we're in this
place, so the environment is introduced with Wide Angle Lenses
(Deep Depth of Field)
(we can see a slight distortion at the edges of the frame) for our
eyes to catch everything on focus. Still, We can notice that Ben is
positioned in the frame following The Rule of Thirds. Also, the
lighting coming by the windows traces diagonal lines towards Ben. The
cinematography is guiding our eyes to the protagonist.
(Img 1) Medium Long Shot
In
the next shot, with Wide Angle Lenses (Deep Depth of Field) we
see the main attention to the two girls from the club: One with red
underwear that briefly passes by, and the main attraction stripper.
The red underwear girl starts at the Rule of Thirds, but leaves the
frame while the main stripper stays at the center of it. Again, our
eyes are guided by the composition of the frame: the (bored) stripper
has lines granted from the depth of field towards her (both lights
from the window and from the local architecture), not to mention the
disparity of the colors.
(Img 2) Very Long Shot
Next,
we come back to the previous frame, but as Ben and his friend walks
to the bar, the camera Pulls Back
and Pans Left,
resulting in the image below. The thinking is the same as the
stripper's frame, but in addition to the guiding lines, we have Ben
still on the Rule of Thirds instead of a centered, end of Depth of
Field girl. We're also introduced to the bartender, who's Ben's
friend ask for two drinks.
(Img 3) Medium Shot
Next
shot, now the stripper is following the Rule of Thirds and we got
close to her. We're still on Wide Angle Lenses to the details around her, like the public with a lame atmosphere.
(Img 4) Long Shot
Following
Hitchcock's rule with the size, we have one drink delivered by the
bartender. Now we change a Telephoto
Lens (Shallow Depth of Field),
the drink it's the only thing that matters on the shot right now. The
camera Tilts Up
and he asks what was the other drink. This shot serves like a
punchline for a joke.
(Img 5) Close-Up on the drink...
(Img 6) Tilt Up to Medium Close-Up
Ben's friend remembers the bartender that he was supposed to bring
two drinks. In counterpart, the bartender responds and goes away. Ben
and his friend chat a bit and then turn their heads to the right. We
have a repetition of the Image 4, where they're looking at, followed
by a shot of one of the spectators, showing how lame the public is.
We come back to the duo, as they leave the frame.
(Img 7) Medium Close-Up: Telephoto on the duo, we already know the place so lets focus on
characters
(Img 8) Medium Close-Up
(Img 9) Medium Close-Up
(Img 10) Long Shot
(Img 11) Medium Close-Up
(Img 12) Medium Close-Up
We're back again with the image 4, but Ben and his friend enters in
the shot, looking for a place to seat. The stripper has a toy gun,
and shoots to something out of her frame. By the position of the
characters in both shots, we can tell that she could be aiming at the
two, predicting the future conversation.
(Img 13) Medium Close-Up/ Long Shot
(Img 14) Close-Up
They sit and watch the stripper do her performance. Ben is positioned
on the left side of the frame, a little bit obscured and out of focus
while his friend has the center, light and focus in his favor.
They're looking to opposite directions, telling us how much each one
is comfortable there.
(Img 15) Medium Close-Up/ Medium Shot
We
have a Low Angle of the stripper in the center, giving her the
position of power between the three. Overall she doesn't seem to
care. Then we come closer to her, in a MCU shot. With a Tilt
Down
we're supposed to follow her body, but she squats, “cutting the
crap” and facing the duo to the conversation.
(Img 16) Medium Shot
(Img 17) Medium Close-Up
(Img 18) Tilt Down
She enters in the frame of Image 15, on the right corner. We don't
see her face, only her body as she extends a cup of tip towards the
boys. Then, we cut to her expression as she asks for tips in Low
Angle. The contrast between the light on her face with the shadow in
her eyes put emphasis on her skeptical look. She asks a tip to Ben
too.
(Img 19)
(Img 20) Over the Shoulder, Medium Close-Up
(Img 21)
Now we have a really shallow depth of field when Ben gives his tip (Notice his position on the Rule of Thirds stressing his eyes towards the stripper, the light on his face and the line made with the stripper's arm).
The camera pans to the right and we stay on Ben's friend frame. The
negotiation is mainly between him and the stripper.
(Img 22) Close-Up
(Img 23) Close-Up, "Over the Shoulder"
While this happens, Ben has no interest in the conversation and turns
into his own fantasy with Sharon. Ben
is almost in the center of the shot, but his friend is also in the
frame, completely out of focus with the Telephoto Lens (Shallow Depth of Field).
This with the slow motion effect, shows that Ben is in his own world,
disconnected to everything around him.
What we see next is Sharon as a stripper. Wrapped in darkness, it
seems that her only source of light is the pole which she is dancing
in slow motion, revealing a black curtain instead of purple one from
the original stripper. The distant shots shows her form defined, but
the close shots shows Sharon a little bit blurred: as an
illusion/fantasy, we can't get too close.
After the last shot, we come back to Ben from the Image 25 while the
camera does a Character Dolly towards him. We can notice that this
vision has an effect on him as we watch the movement and the light
increases, illuminating his face.
(Img 24) Close-Up
(Img 25) Medium Shot
(Img 26) Close-Up
(Img 27) Medium Shot
(Img 28)
(Img 29) Big Close-Up
(Img 30) Medium Shot
(Img 31) Medium Close-Up
(Img 32) Medium Shot
(Img 33) Big Close-Up
(Img 34) Character Dolly, resulting on a Big Close-Up in Low Angle
I think this scene uses well the concept of Spin Look movement. In the middle of the chaos of a battle, we can’t predict how things will turn out. The camera keeps following Owen’s character all the time, making us have an almost (it’s still not a POV) direct perspective from him. Everything that gets him by surprise, will get us by surprise. The public and the character share the same tension.
2- Cashback
I love this scene. The music, the pace… But speaking about movement, we have a sort of Pull Back reveal, perpendicular camera movements with the drawings, a final dolly towards the character Ben in his corridor, although the main attention for me stays with the movements of the extremes close-ups of the models: sometimes like drawing pencil, sometimes like a delayed glance.
3- The Lord of The Rings
The LOTR is full of panoramic shots and movements but I would also point to the character dolly. There are two kinds: the named Character Dolly and the Contract Dolly. The Character Dolly is more conventional and can be not noticed by the audience, but it definitely helps to create a dramatic tension. The Contract Dolly has more of a surprise effect, but also creates dramatic intensity (in a more immediate way even).
They're not my favorite scenes of all time or something like that, it's already impossible for me to choose consciously the favorite movie of all time! But I can definitely watch these in looping for a while... Ah, before I forget: watch out for...
!!!SPOILERS!!!
1- There Will Be Blood - Baptism Scene
We start with a LONG SHOT of Daniel and Eli in front of the “public", as Daniel is playing theater to get what he wants. This is followed by a DOLLY MOVEMENT to get us closer to the duo.
Then there’s a cut to a CLOSE UP of Daniel. Eli is above him and we only hear his voice, the main focus is Daniel’s expression as he listen to the accusations towards him.
Now we have a Medium close up of Eli, in low angle. The camera follows him (him handheld or stead cam, not sure) as he keep wandering around Daniel like a vulture. He is dominating the current situation, telling Daniel what to say.
We’re back at the CU of Daniel’s expression. He gets angrier and angrier, and looks off frame towards Eli/God until he explodes and starts getting slaps.
With a Big Close-up in low angle, we see Eli satisfaction as Daniel loses his temperament.
Long Shot again. There’s no public this time. This is between Daniel and Eli only. As Eli keeps hitting Daniel, the protagonist loses his anger and regain his skepticism.
CU of Daniel. With a skeptical smile, he accepts baptism. He got what he wanted.
Medium Long Shot: Daniel stands up, greets Eli and comes closer to a CU again as everybody in the church greets him too.
2- Se7en - The Box
Pitt’s and Freeman’s characters are really distant from each other and from the helicopter, so there are many Wide Shots and Very Long Shots to settle point of view.
Before the surprise of Freeman for opening the box, Space’s character is out of focus and almost talks offscreen, but after that, he’s suddenly on a low angle with an aura provided by the Sun (and lot of CU and BCU) . He has control over the situation now.
Then we also have some handheld/steadycam shaky shots in Long Shot, with some Medium Shots.
Before announcement of Paltrow’s pregnancy, Pitt’s has mainly Medium Shots and Medium Close-Ups. With the announcement, we jump to XCUs and BCUs of Pitt’s painful eyes and the serene eyes of Space, as Freeman watches everything in a low angle, impotent.
3- The Departed - Cellphone
The tension already begins with Damon’s BCU, and XCU of the cellphone. DiCaprio starts with a MS but quickly assumes the same position as Damon. And they stay like that for a LONG time. At least until DiCaprio turn off the the phone (!) causing an Arc Movement with the confused/dazed/OMG expression on Damon’s face.
This scene is so absurdly tense that becomes kinda comic!
4- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - The End of All Things
The One Ring is destroyed. We start with a XLS and come closer and closer to CUs of Frodo and Sam stating that everything is done.
We have some more LS and VLS informing their position in relationship to the lava, and showing the solitude. Then we go back to CUs, a Two Shot and XCUs of them remembering the good times at the Shire.
Finally, we have an Arc Movement putting the duo in a Two Shot again, with Frodo’s declaration and a composition of his face in profile and Sam’s on frontal until we fade to black...
5- Oldboy - Corridor Fight
One of the Korean Gangsters stare in BCU. Dae Su stares back with his hostage in CU. Then we have a tilt movement revealing the corridor full of obstacles that he has to face in a High Angle.
Dae Su releases his victim. Some of his comrades drag him outside. Dae Su drops his knife (BCU) and goes towards his enemies with a hammer (MS with Tracking Movement).
We follow the fight in the corridor with only one continuous shot, a LS with Tracking Movement. At the end, we have a High Angle of Dae Su, showing the defeated enemies behind him. Just awesome.
