How does a simple gradual movement help create incredible emotion?
When a film camera is a viewer's portal into a movie's world, the way we look through that window, even if it's subtle, matters.
Pushing or pulling the camera from one point to the next literally changes the perspective of what we as viewers see, it alters how we interpret the story, and "Golden Era" Hollywood really began to put this notion to sophisticated use.
The technique is called a "Dolly Move." You got a platform on wheels (a dolly), you put a camera on it, and you roll it. Pretty simple, eh? But how, when, and why you decide to move is important.
Our favorite example of this is from (and what the producers have admitted was) a slap-dash-B-movie. You may have heard of it? It's called "Casablanca."
Believe it or not, the film was a bit of an unorganized rush job by the studio. Nevertheless, the filmmakers created emotional alchemy. It's really quite remarkable, even unexpected.
Take a look at the famous scene where Rick remembers Ilsa and Paris. At 2:05 of the clip the camera moves towards him and stops when Rick gets overwhelmed with emotion. It then moves again and helps initiate Rick's Paris flash back. The pause helps tell us about the heaviness of his heartache. So simple, but so profound. Iconic.
While our film is much more cheerful than this "Casablanca" scene, we eagerly put this "double push" into A Gift For All Ages as well. When certain moments matter and we really want you to take it in and savor it, this is a great technique to use.
By the way, it's not the only visual technique we borrowed. Have you been paying attention to our website and our posts? If you're familiar with "Casablanca," you can probably figure out what other sly crafts from that movie are a part of our film... but that's a blog post for another day!
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We want you to be amazed at or new classic Christmas movie "A Gift For All Ages"!
Let's "roll" with it!