Monday 8 October 2012

Robert Bresson use of camera

I have now witnessed two of Bresson's films. They are both too negative and boring to be popularly successful. However, I must say I very much admire his use of camera. Basically, it never moves, except for small movements. This is great in my view, because it leaves room for the decor, and the actors, to take the forefront in the audiences minds and imaginations. Otherwise it is like the camera is an actor, thus giving a lot of acting space and time to a machine, which compromises meaningful artistic effect and expressiveness. I would say, based on first impressions, that the only kind of shots I would add to my film technique would be very long lasting shots which kind of go on for a very long time which certainly can move; shots involving scenery where pass-throughs are wholly acceptable; long very slow zooms/dollies à la Judi Dench's speech in Henry V; and shots that are literally fixed to the floor of something moving, such as a boat or a car. To not be limiting in my range, I would permit any old camera technique for Animation. Explanation? Well since it is not real in the first place, adding character to the camera is okay, because in making such an artificial world come to life, one will need all the life and characters you can muster. Probably part of why music for animation is full of 'Mickey Mousing' mimicking real movement, because it is probably a frequent struggle to make animation seem ALIVE.

1 comment:

  1. Most of that post is above my head. My philosophy is that if I don't think about the camera, it must have been good. For example, the last Bourne movie made me nauseous because of all the camera motion, and I don't like that.

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