Movie Technique: Dropping
Pretty random topic, but a question. Okay, sometimes you/I would remember a certain scene in a movie, or watch it over and over because it has such a great effect. Maybe the camera zooms out in such a neat way, or maybe the character spoke some very moving dialogue.
This technique, I have seen and liked in two pieces of work; first, it was in FACE/OFF, in the first 20 minutes; and now it’s in Gankutsuou episode 21. They are scenes of about 3 seconds long, and for some reason… it’s so strong. What is it?
Dropping. Letting go of something that’s important. In FACE/OFF, when Nicolas Cage was in the hangar, he took a guard’s shotgun, and later there was a scene where he was walking and he held it sideways (so from atop you can see the whole shotgun, side view) and then he dropped it straight down. Afterwards he reached for his second pistol and started firing.
Anyway, so… he dropped his gun quite gracefully. He just… dropped something, and for some reason that seemed like a very powerful piece of art.
In Gankutsuou (I’ll be very non descript, so I don’t spoil anything), this guy was holding a very important cloth with a family insignia on it to prove that he was indeed his father’s son; and then when he went to hug him, he walked, and slowly dropped it out of his hand and reached for something else.
Dropping… such a powerful technique – I don’t fully understand why – but it’s so graceful. I guess it’s something about the peacefulness of letting go. Do you… think that this “dropping/letting go” thing is powerful? Do you feel it?
::edit - I think it also has to do with the motion of the object. Because it was in slow motion in FACE/OFF, the shotgun had a gracefully slow acceleration, almost constant speed - but very slow, like it was flying down. In Gankutsuou, it was a piece of cloth and naturally floated slowly down. I guess this freedom, plus this slow movement together feels more... graceful.
This technique, I have seen and liked in two pieces of work; first, it was in FACE/OFF, in the first 20 minutes; and now it’s in Gankutsuou episode 21. They are scenes of about 3 seconds long, and for some reason… it’s so strong. What is it?
Dropping. Letting go of something that’s important. In FACE/OFF, when Nicolas Cage was in the hangar, he took a guard’s shotgun, and later there was a scene where he was walking and he held it sideways (so from atop you can see the whole shotgun, side view) and then he dropped it straight down. Afterwards he reached for his second pistol and started firing.
Anyway, so… he dropped his gun quite gracefully. He just… dropped something, and for some reason that seemed like a very powerful piece of art.
In Gankutsuou (I’ll be very non descript, so I don’t spoil anything), this guy was holding a very important cloth with a family insignia on it to prove that he was indeed his father’s son; and then when he went to hug him, he walked, and slowly dropped it out of his hand and reached for something else.
Dropping… such a powerful technique – I don’t fully understand why – but it’s so graceful. I guess it’s something about the peacefulness of letting go. Do you… think that this “dropping/letting go” thing is powerful? Do you feel it?
::edit - I think it also has to do with the motion of the object. Because it was in slow motion in FACE/OFF, the shotgun had a gracefully slow acceleration, almost constant speed - but very slow, like it was flying down. In Gankutsuou, it was a piece of cloth and naturally floated slowly down. I guess this freedom, plus this slow movement together feels more... graceful.
posted by Unknown at 11:03 AM
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