Thursday, January 7, 2010

Cinema Studies 101: The Tracking Shot.

I had friends who went to film school years back. I got to thinking just how many posters for Antonioni's "Blow Up"(perhaps the quintessential choice for wall decor) must be on film students dorm room walls which lead me to this post some how, some way. A stream of consciousness tracking shot if you will...
Below, some of the more note-worthy examples I could find.
(the audio on "Boogie Nights" was changed. Mute it)









10 comments:

  1. Love this post, James. I can't tell you how many times I've used that photography scene from "Blow-Up" as a music video reference.

    One of the all time tracking shots they make you study at NYU is the 8 minute opening of Robert Altman's "The Player." Fifteen takes paying homage to "Touch of Evil" and Hitchcock's "Rope."

    Great stuff!

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  2. How about the tracking shot at the end of The 400 Blows? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVp9HtYoLE8

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  3. Great post. And reminds me of one of my favorite tracking shots which you forgot, the Copacabana tracking shot from Goodfellas:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWYe-Ef3u5M

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  4. Art of the Title Sequence just concluded a 4-parter on single-take titles. Dig:

    http://www.artofthetitle.com/

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  5. love that i am cuba shot. in the commentary for boogie nights, anderson talks about how he totally cribbed that shot for the pool party scene at jack horner's house.

    great stuff!!

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  6. Great choice!

    But do not forget the world-champion,
    "Russian Ark" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Ark), an incredible experience!

    Cordialement, G.

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  7. Love the Goodfellas scene:
    I always loved the tracking shot in Rashomon. Figure 8 path with camera on straight tracks. Brilliant and gorgeous.

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  8. The tracking shot that opens "Bound for Glory", Hal Ashby's Woody Guthrie bio, is one of my favorites.

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  9. the tracking shot from Old Boy is very very cool

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CKxDMOF4EI

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