Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > IMDb Remarkable Writings Rewound
Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move-- by CaseyCornelius
TOoP/Bruce:
Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - CaseyCornelius (Sun Jan 1 2006 22:37:20 )
UPDATED Mon Jan 2 2006 13:36:48
POSSIBLE SPOILER
Several threads on the site have debated Jack's and Ennis's last meeting in the film and whether it presents the possibility that Jack has had enough and is ready to 'move on' out of frustration with Ennis's inability to commit. One can speculate strongly that Jack has already initiated another affair with Randall, the Childress ranch foreman with the talkative wife who essentially propositions Jack outside the dance - an elaborate topic already taking up a number of threads.
Ang Lee, however, is able to suggest it with a unique camera move I have never previously seen used in film. For those who have seen the film, remember that as Jack faces the mountain lake and listens to Ennis's litany of excuses, at this point familiar to Jack, why he can't meet in August the camera is focused on Jack, 'hiding' Ennis behind him. Then the camera begins to track to the left holding Jack stationary in the foreground as Ennis in the background, but still in focus, emerges into the frame listing his options. I was reminded of a scale tipping to one side, as if Jack is weighing the discussion and how he will react to it. The camera even seems to oscillate or quiver hesitantly from the momentum as it is poised on the image including both of them - foreground and background. Then, the camera reverses direction and tracks back across Jack to the right [ the scale allusion confirmed ] as Ennis 'disappears' once more behind Jack to eventually emerge to Jack's right, this time blurred and SLIGHTLY OUT OF FOCUS.
What more economical way for Lee to show Jack's decision, in 'weighing' the options, to finally in exasperation give up on the excuses Ennis offers and lose Ennis as his sole emotional 'focus'. I know the scene ends with the two of them seeming to 'torque' things back to the way they were. However, I can't help but think that Ang Lee has shown his hand as far as he's concerned with this elaborate CONTINUOUS camera move.
I was so taken with the dialogue in the scene and the emotional content in my first few viewings of the film that I completely missed this. A complex camera move which would have required a great deal of planning, experimentation, and rehearsal with the actors, and demanded considerable expertise in order to show Ennis emerging out from behind Jack both in focus and out of focus within the same continuous shot.
But, it's there, clear as day. A subtle but brilliant camera move by Ang Lee and Director of Photography, Rodrigo Prieto, as innovative and revealing as other of the greatest camera moves used by Michelangelo Antonioni, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Ingmar Bergman.
If someone else knows of this being used previously in film history, let's talk.
I am astonished more and more with every viewing of this miracle of a film.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Last Meeting and a Unique Camera Move
by - madhatters1983 (Sun Jan 1 2006 22:40:32 )
Ang Lee is a genius. Throughout the entire movie the cinematography was astonishing
Re: Jack and Ennis - Last Meeting and a Unique Camera Move
by - retropian (Sun Jan 1 2006 22:49:17 )
Wow, Casey, you are effing brilliant in your observations! I didn't catch that at all and probably would not have if you hadn't pointed it out. I'm blown away. I've seen BBM 3 times so far. I'll probably go again tommorrow, and every time new details emerge. Ang lee is a cinematic genius. I thought Crouching Tiger was a masterpiece, but this movie exceeds even that.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - CaseyCornelius (Sun Jan 1 2006 23:16:54 )
UPDATED Mon Jan 2 2006 07:30:23
retropian:
Amen! I'm all for including Ang Lee in the pantheon of directors. Having seen the film [only!] five times, I'm struck by how Lee's positioning and juxtaposition of visual material within the frame to symbolically express so much more than the narrative is exactly like that of Michelangelo Antonioni. So much of the film reminded me of early Antonioni, expecially L'Avventura.
One instance is the way in the opening, 'silent' sequence where the two men wait in front of Aguirre's trailer, Lee's hommage to a typical Western showdown, Ennis is always framed surrounded by a wall - suggesting his
hemmed-in personality - while Jack is shot with half of the frame showing a landscape in the distance - his freer, more liberated spirit.
Reliving the film in my mind's eye, I remember that throughout the film whenever they are in conversation Ennis is always looking away, positioned in the frame at 'right angles' to Jack facing toward or away from the camera, while Jack is invariably in direct profile, facing and addressing Ennis directly. To me this reinforces the constant tension between the two of them in how they see their relationship, Ennis always deflecting and never able to admit the depth of emotion he feels for Jack.
Ennis rarely embraces Jack in a full frontal embrace, unless he's wrestling or fighting with him, except for the reunion embrace/kiss where he is clearly 'out of control' - that 'thing grabbing a hold of us' - which terrifies him. Aided by info from Proulx's original story, the viewer is aware that even in that wonderful, tender flashback moment from their first summer on Brokeback inserted into the scene of their final meeting Ennis is always incapable of willingly embracing Jack "because he did not want to see nor feel that it was Jack he held". His only willing, intentional, loving full-frontal embrace of Jack is the symbolic one of Ennis embracing the bloodied shirts after discovering them in Jack's family home.
And the final shot of the whole film is pure Antonioni. The closed closet door containing the cult objects-the shirts and mountain postcard-in the left half of the frame juxtaposed with the open window looking out on the blue sky, green corn stalks and ripening golden grain on the right implying the freedom of multi-seasonal nature . What more perfect summation could there for the contrasting personalities of Ennis and Jack. OR the larger theme of the conflict between having to hide the true nature of your love from the larger world and the freedom afforded by being in the scenic natural world, apart from societal prejudice. It's a final shot which has numerous parallels to their first scene together and summarizes the visual symbolism throughout.
Just some intial thoughts. I know that this film will be studied for years to come and that Ang Lee is destined to join the pantheon of truly great and accomplished film artists.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - starboardlight (Sun Jan 1 2006 23:23:57 )
wow. Casey, another brilliant post. Like you, I've seen this five times, and I have yet to scratch the surface of that scene. I guess I have to give it up for the power of the acting, the writing, and the direction, that I didn't notice the camera move. I did begin to take note of Ennis emerging behind Jack, but every time, my emotions takes over and I simply follow the story. Thank you for this insightful observation.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - CaseyCornelius (Sun Jan 1 2006 23:31:39 )
starboardlight:
Every time I've seen the film, I've been alone and been so overwhelmed by this scene that I break into tears. But, this last time, I tried to hold myself together as I was with someone else, and forced myself to concentrate on the craft of the scene. Otherwise, I, like you, have been unable to see much else than the pure essence of Ang Lee's vision from an emotional and visceral perspective.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - BannerHill (Mon Jan 2 2006 02:38:54 )
I noticed the unusual camera move but couldn't figure out what it meant. Thank you for the remarkable insight
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - spottedreptile (Mon Jan 2 2006 02:54:48 )
UPDATED Mon Jan 2 2006 03:07:51
oh wow I can't wait to see that shot. Thanks so much for describing it so beautifully. I can see it now!
Ang Lee's use of form is so fascinating to any film student. I too love Antonioni - are you thinking of The Passenger and that shot going through the prison bars?
I loved so many of the shots in Ice Storm that really explained the movie in subtle ways the dialogue didn't. That scene where Kevin Kline is walking through the wood holding Christina Ricci in his arms, he marching forward to his troubled marriage, she looking back over his shoulder at her disappearing childhood.
I can only go on the trailer for this scene: I remember that after Ennis breaks down, Jack grabs him and holds him as Ennis sobs. It always struck me as the kind of embrace that two people make when they're about to break up. There are tears, but no words, because there's nothing left to be said. It's all so sad.
And then Jack watches Ennis go away, again, just like the first summer when he had to watch Ennis leave, and say goodbye silently. This time it's for good. I think you are right. Jack had made his decision and it was heartbreaking for him.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - naun (Mon Jan 2 2006 04:21:31 )
Casey, thanks for yet another illuminating post. Your postings and the discussions you've initiated have added a whole dimension to my understanding of this film, and of filmmaking in general.
I'm struck by how Lee's positioning and juxtaposition of visual material within the frame to symbolically express so much more than the narrative is exactly like that of Michelangelo Antonioni.
I remember reading somewhere that Lee has cited Antonioni as one of his strongest influences. I have not seen any of Antonioni's films, but I guess I will have to now.
And the final shot of the whole film is pure Antonioni. The closed closet door containing the cult objects-the shirts and mountain postcard-in the left half of the frame juxtaposed with the open window looking out on the blue sky, green corn stalks and ripening golden grain on the right implying the freedom of multi-seasonal nature.
There's yet another interpretation of this shot that comes to my mind. In the scene leading up to this shot, Alma Jr talks to her father about her plans to marry. Alma Jr, who already understands her father better than her mother did, is engaged to a boy named "Curt", a word that describes Ennis' demeanour. Ennis' one question about her intentions is to ask if Curt loves her -- as though wishing for reassurance that his own mistakes will not be repeated. It strikes me that there is a theme of generational renewal here, and I wonder if it is symbolically tied to the idea of the cyclical renewal of nature implied by the shot of the window.
There's another literary/musical reference that this closing shot irresistibly brings to mind for me, although I have no reason to think that it's anything other than coincidental. It's from The Song of the Earth, a setting by the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler of a collection of Chinese poems (in German translation). These (in English) are the words that end the work:
He alighted from his horse and handed
him the drink of farewell.
He asked him whither he was going,
And also why it had to be.
He spoke, his voice was veiled:
You, my friend --
Fortune was not kind to me in this world!
Whither I go? I go,
I wander in the mountains,
I seek rest for my lonely heart!
I journey to the homeland,
to my resting-place;
I shall never again go seeking the far distance.
My heart is still and awaits its hour!
The dear earth everywhere
Blossoms in spring and grows green again!
Everywhere and eternally the distance
shines bright and blue!
Eternally ... eternally ...
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - CaseyCornelius (Mon Jan 2 2006 08:03:12 )
UPDATED Mon Jan 2 2006 13:44:47
naun:
Thank so much for adding your thoughts regarding the photography and the invoking of Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde".
I've yet to read anything that's been written about the filmic influences on Ang Lee, so I was heartened by your stating that he's cited Antonioni as a major influence. From my second viewing of the film, the Antonioni-esque camera work and blocking of various objects within the frame was always nagging at me as familiar.
I love your analysis of the final shot as well. It's a wonderful layering to what's there and I can't see why that final, richly detailed and considered shot cannot carry a numer of symbolic intentions. Good observation of the emotive name of 'Curt' to describe Alma, Jr.'s betrothed.
I'm floored by the Mahler reference and your invoking the lines, by either Mong Koo Yen or Wang Wei, from 'Der Abschied' - The Farewell with reference to the final shot. Anywhere you know if we can find out if it might have been an influence - either via an Ang Lee interest in Mahler OR, and more likely, from his familiar with the original poetry? One of the threads on the Dave Cullen site, with which I know you're familiar as you consulted it for one of your replies to the Deliberate Classical References thread, has someone talking about the influence of Chinese poetic and mythic symbolism on Brokeback Mountain. Somewhere around pages 35-45 of the
General Discussion thread an astute poster mentions that the image of a full moon invokes union with a faithful lover and/or friend either in close proximity or from a distance, where both regard the same moon.
I'm struck by the number of times in the film that 'the boys' are together juxtaposed with that prominent image. The kicker is that, in addition to the same leave-taking which you quote, earlier in the same poem, 'Der Abschied' that very moon and the constant images of sunset throughout the film are invoked as well [translation from the Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Book of Lieder]:
The sun departs behind the hills,
into all valleys descends the evening
with its shadows full of freshness.
Oh see, like a silver bark,
the moon slips over the sky's blue lake.
I feel the wafting of a gentle breeze beyond the sombre spruces!
***
I long, O friend, at your side
to enjoy the beauty of this evening,--
where are you? You leave me long alone!
I love the Mahler setting of that fantastic poetry and it's wonderful to have it linked thematically to this film. My inner sense is that it cannot be a co-incidence as NOTHING and NONE of the details of this minutely considered film could possibly be accidental or arbitrary.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - seanhartley (Mon Jan 2 2006 09:03:43 )
the thought of them breaking up is too much for me to bear!!! maybe they didn't...after all, Ennis still went on to send Jack that final postcard about November, planning on meeting like usual. its just too sad.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - CaseyCornelius (Mon Jan 2 2006 11:56:50 )
UPDATED Mon Jan 2 2006 13:48:32
naun:
Thought of another aspect regarding the final shot and your observation that it might suggest a 'cyclical renewal'.
Another Antoninoi-esque device is the use of color symbolism which Ang Lee uses throughout the film by constantly identifying a 'wheat / brown' color with Ennis and a 'sky / indigo / aqua blue' with Jack. I knocked myself on the head upon realizing that those two colors are layered in that final shot - from the top of the window down - the sky, the golden grain, with, may I suggest [?], the green of the ripening corn stalks suggesting the generational renewal of Alma, Jr.'s betrothal and the shattering sea-change in Ennis's behavior which it connotes.
The contrasting parallels with Ennis's earlier life are unmistakable:
1] She's pledging her love to another man who, she assures Ennis, loves her in return. Contrast that with Ennis's incessant inability to ever openly pledge the same to Jack.
[I get teary at the thought that this is the first time we EVER hear Ennis speak the word 'love' in the film. The only other character to verbalize it is Cassie with - "Ennis, girls don't fall in love with fun."]
2] Ennis, after his initial 'humming and hawing' and starting to give one of his habitual reticent excuses as to why he won't be able to attend her wedding, demonstratively relents and toasts her.
3] He uses for the first time the phatic, chatty language we always associate with Jack in the film - his use of the phrase "You know what?" is unmistakably more Jack-like and a 'wastage of words' not indicative of the previously taciturn Ennis.
TOoP/Bruce:
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - Wooski (Mon Jan 2 2006 12:30:02 )
I'm not so sure Jack had given up on Ennis. When youre in love with someone its so difficult to walk away. Who knows what would have happenned if Jack had not died. I'm sure Annie Proulx doesnt know either.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - Julie01 (Mon Jan 2 2006 12:48:35 )
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I have not yet cried in the film, but the intelligence and sensitivity of the men discussing it in this thread...brought me pretty close.
We see those in the light,
But those in darkness,
We don't see,
Bertolt Brecht
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - Belindah (Mon Jan 2 2006 13:05:05 )
Anybody else get the impression that Prieto's out of work? He's posting way too much here.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - ayang71 (Mon Jan 2 2006 13:16:08 )
Wang Wei is a very famous Chinese poet around 1000 years ago. ALmost every elementary school in Taiwan teaches one or two of his poems. It's very possible Ang Lee is inspired by Wang Wei's poem for the setting or simply just for his personal homage to his lost father or friend. Now you mentioned, I think it's a very interesting and muti-layered reading of the film.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - starboardlight (Mon Jan 2 2006 14:05:10 )
I'm sure Annie Proulx doesnt know either.
actually, in the short story, they don't break up. "Ennis was back on his feet and somehow, as a coat hanger is straightened to open a locked car and then bent again to its original shape, they torqued things almost to where they had been, for what they'd said was no news. Nothing ended, nothing begun, nothing resolved."
Despite Casey's brilliant observation, I prefer to hang on to these lines, and believe that had Jack had not decided to leave Ennis.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - GregoriusInLA (Mon Jan 2 2006 14:31:34 )
"There's another literary/musical reference that this closing shot irresistibly brings to mind for me, although I have no reason to think that it's anything other than coincidental. It's from The Song of the Earth, a setting by the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler of a collection of Chinese poems (in German translation)."
Wow! I love your observation--incredibly astute.
I always felt that Mahler's text for "Das Lied," which was drawn from Hans Bethge's "Chinese Flute," was more of a stylization, rather than an actual translation, of poems by Li-Tai-Po.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - Julie01 (Mon Jan 2 2006 14:52:12 )
They are NOT "breaking up," but Jack is, in the future, going to allow himself a deeper level of sexual attachment to other men--that's what all the out-of-focus jazz is all about. If Ennis would call, he'd still come running! And, apparently, it was his somewhat more open lifestyle with the neighboring rancher that--got him killed. (For those who have still not read the book, it's much clearer there--already discussed).
We see those in the light,
But those in darkness,
We don't see,
Bertolt Brecht
Hey---read...I ordered Proulx' Close Range; Story to Screenplay: Brokeback Mountain; Hain's Mysterious Skin--and I'm going to buy the Shipping News once my finances have recovered. For the price of one viewing of BBM, for you non-youths and non-old folks (like me!), you can buy the short story--the way Proulx wanted it to be origionally, not the way the New Yorker insisterd on printing it (I think I'll get myself one of those, too, though...)
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - littledarlin (Mon Jan 2 2006 14:52:53 )
i have to go see this again. now. i really appreciate your points of view. you definitely have an eye. this is something i'm going to be looking out for, but as others have said, by that point into the movie you're so involved with the plot and characters it's hard to think about anything else. it's just such a moving film. i'm getting nauseated just thinking about it. in the best way possible, though. lol
Brokeback Mountain got me good
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - CaseyCornelius (Mon Jan 2 2006 15:09:07 )
UPDATED Mon Jan 2 2006 15:11:27
tomwspoon:
I may have overstated it when I referred to Jack as 'moving on' from Ennis. I don't think he ever really could have abandoned Ennis and I'll admit agreeing with rvognar01 in the post immediately preceding this one who suggests that the 'out of focus' characteristic alludes to Jack allowing a deeper level of sexual attachment to other men, specifically Randall as it turns out. Thanks rovgnar01, I am more sympathetic with your interpretation.
I will, tomwspoon, maintain that the 'weight in the balance' camera move is meant to show us something of Jack's internal state, so whether Ennis is aware of it or not is a moot point. It's also striking that it's a filmic device that deliberately implies, for the first time in the film, some psychic separation, 'a fork in the road', between the two of them. Though, I want to maintain with Annie Proulx, that they do manage by the end of this scene to 'torque' things back to where they were.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - jsreeniv (Mon Jan 2 2006 15:10:46 )
I noticed that shot too, and it was one of my favorites in the movie. I interpreted the camera oscillation as Jack's reaction to Ennis's words, the same words and excuses he's heard over and over again - were I subtitling Jack's thoughts at that moment, I would choose, "blah, blah, blah...here goes Ennis again." Even though J and E are both standing STILL, the optical illusion is of Ennis moving, or of Jack literally "turning Ennis around" in his mind, assessing his commitment and coming out disappointed.
Some other great shots were those of Ennis scrambling through his apartment getting ready to take off with Jack. I can't remember if those were long tracking shots or not, but they seemed very fluid and well-choreographed.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - CaseyCornelius (Mon Jan 2 2006 15:20:00 )
UPDATED Mon Jan 2 2006 15:32:26
jsreeniv:
You're spot on with your phrase "Jack literally 'turning Ennis around' in his mind".
Makes the affective content of the image clearer and even more compelling to me. Thank you.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - naun (Mon Jan 2 2006 15:44:29 )
UPDATED Mon Jan 2 2006 18:13:43
It's very possible Ang Lee is inspired by Wang Wei's poem for the setting or simply just for his personal homage to his lost father or friend.
Homage to his father -- what a striking thought. Annie Proulx said herself in an interview that she thought Ang Lee had put some of his grief for his recently deceased father, with whom he had had a difficult relationship, into the making of this film. It is just conceivable that there is an autobiographical element in the film's closing image. The "shrine" on the left-hand side could be seen as a symbol of reconciliation between father and son. Could it be significant that Taiwan is extremely mountainous just like the picture on the postcard, and that when Ang Lee first left Taiwan to study in America, he came to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which is surrounded for miles and miles by exactly the kind of crop fields you see through the window on the right-hand side? (There is also a historic experimental crop field right in the middle of campus; I know because I happen to work at this university.)
Am I getting carried away?
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - mlewisusc (Mon Jan 2 2006 16:16:58 )
Could this "psychic separation" also be seen as a foreshadowing of Jack's impending demise? Unquestionably an important "fork" in their road together - more significant that Jack opening himself up to deeper involvment with other men. I am very attracted to your argument that it shows Jack's point of view in weighing Ennis and their relationship at that point in his mind, but perhaps the symbol is from the silent, omniscient "narrator" of the film directly to the audience?
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - naun (Mon Jan 2 2006 16:27:45 )
UPDATED Mon Jan 2 2006 20:50:37
Thanks for these further thoughts. I'm glad I wasn't totally off the mark with these speculations!
Anywhere you know if we can find out if it might have been an influence - either via an Ang Lee interest in Mahler OR, and more likely, from his familiar with the original poetry?
I would assume it would have had to come from Mahler, since (at least according to my CD booklet) the last few lines evoking the green earth and the blue sky were added by him -- clearly in order to recapitulate the lines from the first song in the cycle (by a different poet) which contain the same images.
I have no idea what Ang Lee's musical interests are, and there's no way you could tell from his films, which have soundtracks that are as various as their settings. But even if the reference isn't deliberate, the image could still be part of an ancestral stock of cultural images that Ang Lee carries around in his head; ayang71 mentions that Wang Wei is taught in Taiwanese schools. And of course, Ang Lee must be a person who can digest a vast amount of cultural information of all kinds, otherwise he couldn't possibly make the films that he does.
I'd love to have a more definite answer, though.
Somewhere around pages 35-45 of the General Discussion thread [on the Dave Cullen site] an astute poster mentions that the image of a full moon invokes union with a faithful lover and/or friend either in close proximity or from a distance, where both regard the same moon.
Originally I had assumed that the shots of the moon in BBM were a remnant of the line in the short story, much discussed on this board, where Ennis feels like "pawing the white out of the moon". But of course if the Das Lied reference holds up, the image assumes a further layer of significance.
I've come across that idea of two people regarding the same moon only once before, in Elizabeth Jolley's novel "My Father's Moon", but evidently it's had wider currency than that. It's certainly a very powerful reading of that image.
Several other things struck me about the passage from Das Lied that I quoted: the mention of the horseman, the farewell, and the wish (like Jack's) for a final resting-place in the mountains.
I haven't looked at the Dave Cullen site for a while. It sounds like it would be worth spending some time there.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - naun (Mon Jan 2 2006 16:41:07 )
A couple more thoughts on the "sea-change" theory:
1] She's pledging her love to another man who, she assures Ennis, loves her in return. Contrast that with Ennis's incessant inability to ever openly pledge the same to Jack.
[I get teary at the thought that this is the first time we EVER hear Ennis speak the word 'love' in the film. The only other character to verbalize it is Cassie with - "Ennis, girls don't fall in love with fun."]
Locksley_Hall made what struck me (and others) as an inspired observation in another thread when she likened Ennis' "I swear", in the light of the Alma Jr scene, to a marriage vow. That would be the biggest change of all.
2] Ennis, after his initial 'humming and hawing' and starting to give one of his habitual reticent excuses as to why he won't be able to attend her wedding, demonstratively relents and toasts her.
In all the other scenes his excuses are about work commitments. Here he says, astonishingly for him, "They'll have to find themselves another cowboy".
I'm no optimist by nature, but I would dearly like to find positive connotations in the closing scenes of this film.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - CaseyCornelius (Mon Jan 2 2006 20:07:48 )
nene2:
If you're a fan of the closet shot, check out the extensive Deliberate Classical References thread where a number of posters have had pertinent, perceptive observations and interpretations of that scene.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - CaseyCornelius (Mon Jan 2 2006 21:31:34 )
UPDATED Mon Jan 2 2006 21:33:21
naun:
Wonderful your suggesting an auto-biographical intent and a hommage to Lee's father in that final shot. I'd read that quote from Proulx, but hadn't considered that Lee might have integrated his grief in the process of making the film in some tangible form.
Of course you're not getting carried away. Who cares if it's a 'stretch'. This whole thread is such and it's inspiring to banter and juggle such thoughts.
To quote Risely in Merchant/Ivory's 'Maurice' [I don't believe the line is from E.M. Forster's novel.] --"Talk, Talk, Talk. Only by talking will we caper upon the summit."
And thanks for bringing to mind the corn fields of Illinois. I'm Canadian, but did graduate work at Urbana-Champaign in the mid-1980s. I was mindful that Lee had studied Theater there, but had not considered that singular landscape as applicable to the film - possibly because I know it was shot within an hour's drive of where I now live.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - Ellemeno (Mon Jan 2 2006 22:17:24 )
Thank you. Because I had read this thread, I was able to observe and appreciate the camera angles when I saw it for a second time tonight. I was also able to wow the people in front of me by telling them about them. I was clear with them that these were not my own original insights. :)
peace on earth, goodwill to all
TOoP/Bruce:
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - bradford-5 (Mon Jan 2 2006 22:52:26 )
I noticed that move too, though I hadn't analysed its meaning yet, as deeply as you have. very good.
I'll probably use this scene in future film classes.
I'm glad that so many people are seeing this film multiple times, and picking up on the rest of the artistry that goes into the making of a great film, besides the performances.
Steven Bradford
Tempe Arizona
(Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - pkdetroit (Tue Jan 3 2006 08:56:16 )
Thank you all for such an intelligent and insightful discussion.
Let me add my take on the significance of the full moon...it makes a lot of people crazy enough to do what they normally would not.
"It was the Summer that Sebastian and I went to the Incantadas"
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - Wooski (Tue Jan 3 2006 11:55:50 )
I didnt think they did.
I still dont think Annie would know what would have happenned if Jack had not died. I'd like to think that sitting in that little trailer Ennis would have come round to spending more time with Jack. However I think Ennis only really understood what he had with Jack when he lost him forever. Too late then. For me having regrets like that must be unbearable.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - CaseyCornelius (Tue Jan 3 2006 21:47:29 )
naun:
Forgot to mention the most obvious parallel between Ennis and Alma, Jr..
She has found true love at the age of 19, the same age he did with Jack.
The contrast is that she can express it openly and self-assuredly -- he never could, except for that final "Jack, I swear--" to his closet door. Heart-breaking !!
Ennis/Alma Scene
by - Lurcher-2 (Tue Jan 3 2006 22:23:53 )
"I'm no optimist by nature, but I would dearly like to find positive connotations in the closing scenes of this film." - Naun
Ang Lee said he put this scene in because he wanted to end with something "redemptive."
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - CaseyCornelius (Wed Jan 4 2006 14:31:31 )
UPDATED Wed Jan 4 2006 14:37:31
spottedreptile:
Glad that you're an Antonioni fan -- seems that the majority of flm buffs today have a only a cursory knowledge of his incredible revamping of cinematic technique in the early '60s..
I wasn't really thinking of The Passenger and that final historic 9 minute [?] long tracking shot through the bars of the hotel/pensione [I believe]. So much of the camera work in that is employed to deal with the larger themes of identity, consciousness, personality, and its transference.
Ang Lee's 'Antonioni-esque' qualities seemed to me employ effects from Antonioni's earlier work, most noticeably L'Avventura and The Red Desert: the former for the way Lee places actors, building, objects within the frame and the latter for use of pure color symbolism, both with regard to identifying traits of Ennis and Jack and the color contrasts between civilization and nature.
In addition to the Antonioni moments I've indicated in previous posts, I recall the use of the passing train in the the 8th or 9th shot of the film, the camera 'peering' between the cars at Ennis, as a means of showing the passing of time, perhaps framing and defining Ennis as a contemporary, habitual, work-a-day, mechanized individual -- a similar famous train shot is for the same purpose in L'Avventura.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - naun (Wed Jan 4 2006 15:11:51 )
And wasn't Alma Jr's previous boyfriend named Troy? There's another classical reference for you: the love that led to tragic conflict. Smart girl, young Alma.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - retropian (Wed Jan 4 2006 16:02:51 )
In regards to this scene, another poster elsewhere on the board suggested that it also symbolised how Jack is the Sun around which Ennis is in helpless orbit. I though that was pretty cool. I think in that scene Jack has come to the end of his rope with Ennis and is seriously contempating leaving him. Had he lived he may have done so at some point in the future.
Re: Ennis/Alma Scene
by - naun (Wed Jan 4 2006 16:28:48 )
UPDATED Wed Jan 4 2006 17:12:46
Ang Lee said he put this scene in because he wanted to end with something "redemptive."
Thanks, I hadn't read that. Just this morning I put on a scene from "The Ice Storm" that another poster mentioned, the one where the father and daughter walk home after the infamous Nixon mask scene where they catch each other fooling around at the neighbours'. "Redemptive" is just the right word to describe it. Almost nothing happens on the screen, just a couple of lines of dialogue and a glance exchanged, then the father picks up the daughter, and yet the mood of recrimination is transformed into a kind of sublimated regret.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - lemonadestand2003 (Wed Jan 4 2006 16:49:47 )
UPDATED Wed Jan 4 2006 17:00:02
I had read in an interesting interview that Ang said what he liked about American actors ( I am sure he meant Australian also) is that they seem more comfortable with close penetrating camera angles. He said the British actors were better and more comfortable with dialogue but sometimes felt Ang's camera angles were intrusive.
I think both Heath and Jake let him do what he needed to do to tell the story because I notice many shots were the kind of camera angles that would make an actor uncomfortable. Ang knows why they work.
The one that stands out for me is when Ennis says "this is a one shot deal" and he is shot from the back and not the front. So much more powerful than if he had shot the scene with the camera facing him.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - CaseyCornelius (Wed Jan 4 2006 21:12:45 )
UPDATED Wed Jan 4 2006 21:15:07
retropian:
Part of the brilliance of the camera movement under discussion is that it can convincingly suggest all of the images which posters have conceived:
1] Ennis in helpless orbit, uncontrollable really, around Jack - hence his desparate plea later on in the scene for Jack to just let him be, not being able to stand it.
2] Jack weighing what Ennis is saying to him as a prelude to having to possibly make a decision regarding him - though it turns out later in the scene that Jack is not capable of 'quitting him' in any way. Both of them have been bound together from their first encounter on Brokeback into a 'blood-brotherhood' - symbolized in the talisman of the shirts which Jack guards.
3] Jack turning Ennis around in his mind, similarly to number 2, but reacting as if to say "same old, same old".
and more. It's so organic and wonderfully ambiguous in suggeting all of the above.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - The_Naked_Librarian (Thu Jan 5 2006 16:44:25 )
Casey, I've learned a lesson from this movie, and I'm going to say what Ennis and Jack couldn't: I love you.
Wanna go fishing?
TOoP/Bruce:
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - spottedreptile (Thu Jan 5 2006 20:25:04 )
this is the most beautiful thread on this board. Love all the insights and am amazed by everybody's attention to detail. I plan on seeing it 4 times the first day, just to absorb all I can before I go totally gaga.
I guess nobody agrees with me that Jack was considering breaking up with Ennis. Fair enough. It definitely doesn't suggest it in the book, just a thought of mine that came from watching the trailer and reading what others had said about that scene. I'll see if I feel the same when seeing the film.
The train shot of Ennis at the start, Casey, is really interesting to me, and a few discussed this on another thread about the symbolism of it. But another idea popped into my head about the final shot where the screen is split between the waving grass and the trailer. Ang does use a lot of split screens. I wonder if this one could be referring to the last sentence in the book, the one about the space between what Ennis knew and what he tried to believe.
Could 'what he knew' be the shirts/trailer (i.e. their relationship, Ennis finally figured out what he and Jack were about), and 'what he tried to believe' be the grassy field and the sky (the image of a perfect nature - the land, the reference to the beginning of the film with the waving grass, iow, that life just goes on as usual.)
The relationship - the reality; the perfect landscape - the illusion of life. Ennis' connection with the land, and his connection with Jack. In the beginning on Brokeback, the two things were part of each other, but now they are separated. The West, and the people in it, have drifted apart from each other.
I'm starting to babble. Someone help me out here?
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - mlewisusc (Thu Jan 5 2006 20:32:32 )
Keep babbling. Love it. Really tried to think through what "what he knew" and "what he believed" was. Your post helped.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - naun (Thu Jan 5 2006 21:07:49 )
But another idea popped into my head about the final shot where the screen is split between the waving grass and the trailer. Ang does use a lot of split screens. I wonder if this one could be referring to the last sentence in the book, the one about the space between what Ennis knew and what he tried to believe.
Wow.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - retropian (Fri Jan 6 2006 02:07:11 )
Casy.
I concur. A film that will be studied as long as cinema exists. This is IMHO, the most artistically successful film in many years. Actually I can't think of a film that has ever moved me as this one has. Many people are admitting that even though they were not overly impressed or moved after leaving the theater, BBM haunts them for days until they are forced to confront the feelings it has evoked. The impact of great art.
I enjoy your posts Casy. Insightful and erudite.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - flashframe777 (Fri Jan 6 2006 03:45:42 )
UPDATED Fri Jan 6 2006 03:47:03
I agree, great camera move most likely on Rodrigo Prieto's part as the DP. But I've seen this shot and technique many times before in the works of Vittorio Storaro, Jean-Jacques Castres, early shorts by David Fincher, Michael Bay, Gerard de Thame, and a few others.
But Ang's use was no less brilliant.
"You bet." --Ennis del Mar
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - CaseyCornelius (Wed Jan 11 2006 12:40:53 )
UPDATED Wed Jan 11 2006 12:45:56
flashframe777:
Would you remember which film photographed by Storaro the same camera effect is used? I'm a huge fan of his work and can't recall it being used - one of the Bertolucci films? The execution of it seems so seamless and unobtrusive in Brokeback, I'd missed 'noticing' it until I'd seen the film for the 4th time and was able to take in the photography details. It was so perfectly done that I thought the image of Ennis appearing out of focus on the right side of Jack might have been a lab of CGI effect. But, no, a more recent viewing confirmed that it's all amazing 'manual' focus and depth of field effect.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - flashframe777 (Wed Jan 11 2006 12:48:34 )
UPDATED Wed Jan 11 2006 12:49:36
I can't remember which film shot by Storaro it was. But I did work with Jean-Jacques Castres (a popular french shorts/commercial director) who employed that shot in a commercial he did about eyeglasses...which made perfect sense back the (about 1993). I've seen similar shots like this before on the reels of many DPs like Gerard de Thame and Pascal LeBeque.
"You bet." --Ennis del Mar
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - Flickfan-3 (Wed Jan 11 2006 12:56:18 )
glad to see your reference to their reunions and the full moon--I too noticed that the second time around--full moon is usually described as lovers' moon because you can sneak around outside w/o need for lights and it is symbolically the most fruitful time of the month, reflecting the full-body of harvest grain or pregnant women.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - flashframe777 (Wed Jan 11 2006 13:01:48 )
Flickfan-3...that full moon tent scene kind of replaces for me the missing passage from the book about Ennis feeling as though he could paw the moon. So what we see in some odd sequence is a shot of the full moon, immediately followed by Jack taking Ennis' paw, and placing it on his hot spot. It's a stretch...but still I think of that.
"You bet." --Ennis del Mar
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - CaseyCornelius (Wed Jan 11 2006 21:33:42 )
UPDATED Wed Jan 11 2006 21:54:02
flashframe777:
I'm interested in this particular camera move as it seems to be the only technically complex effect in the film, as far as I can see. Would you agree? The rest of the film has magnificent, subtle work, but nothing drawing attention to itself per se. I'm not saying that Lee and Prieto were striving for an 'arty' effect, but the lake scene struck me, befitting the emotional climax of the film, as having the most complex work. Or am I wrong in assuming that the use of the figure of Jack to 'wipe' the screen essentially with the two views of Ennis in and out of focus to either side would be a particularly tricky effect to execute. I'd value your professional opinion.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - spottedreptile (Wed Jan 11 2006 21:44:02 )
I saw the film the other night and looked for this shot in particular. I must say it's very well done, so subtle it's easy to miss. But in terms of the subtext it adds to the story I think it's brilliant and so appropriate. Not a flashy effect for its own sake, but a crucial addition to the inner workings of Jack's mind, whatever you think they are.
I'm so glad it wasn't a post-production effect. That would have disappointed me so much.
But I'd be very interested in how it was done technically and if it has been used before, if it has a name i.e. the Bertolucci [insert name] effect or something like that.
I have a 6 month digital subscription to American Cinematographer and there is a really nice (long) article on Rodrigo Prieto and the work he did on Brokeback. No mention of that shot, but I can email a copy to anyone who is particularly interested in finding out more about his work on BBM. PM me if you like.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - CaseyCornelius (Wed Jan 11 2006 21:58:22 )
UPDATED Wed Jan 11 2006 21:59:04
spottedreptile:
Pleased that we share the same high opinion of the subtle work in Brokeback. flashframe777 would seem to the person to ask about the specific effect and it's name, if it has one, which we're discussing. I'm hoping they'll continue to respond. I, for one, would be grateful for the article on Prieto if you wouldn't mind sending it.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - spottedreptile (Wed Jan 11 2006 22:01:23 )
no probs Casey. If you PM me your email address I'll send it on.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - flashframe777 (Wed Jan 11 2006 22:16:21 )
Hey Casey,
I think you are right about the lake scene being the most complex, in terms of camera work. That move is not too tricky to coordinate if you're a great cinematographer, and you really know how to pull focus or have a good focus puller. It came across as a subtle visual narrative to me, as opposed to and "arty" thing. There are some other well executed shots in the movie too - particularly the "day for night" effect used when Ennis tells Jack "we got a one shot thing going on here", Prieto had to expose for the brightest objects in the scene, then close the shutter down a few stops. I am sure they darkened the frame even more in post-production on Flame or Inferno. Also, one really simple effect happened when Lee cuts from the intimate darkness of the two around the campfire to an intrusive glaring full noon sun in the irrigation ditch scene. That was the most effective to me for sentimental reasons. The first movie I can remember seeing at the theater was "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", and the thing I remember the most about it is how bright the light was after I walked out of the dark theater into the afternoon sun. The jolt of the hot sun in that transition brings this memory back every time I see it.
"You bet." --Ennis del Mar
TOoP/Bruce:
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - CaseyCornelius (Wed Jan 11 2006 22:31:55 )
UPDATED Wed Jan 11 2006 22:37:37
flashframe 777:
Thanks for the further thoughts. I'd caught that the 'we got a one shot thing' must have been shot day for night as the publicity still is obviously shot in bright sun. But, it's great to read your further insights into the film.
A tangential note. The wonderful work in the lake scene has distracted me from the fact - in six viewings - that the lake background locale is a very popular day-hike area in Kananaskis Country, about a 1 hour drive west of Calgary. I hadn't realized it until someone behind me at my last screening said non-chalantly -"It's Barrier Lake". I could scarcely believe it, as I'd walked over that very spot not 4 months ago, back in September. The parking lot in which Jack and Ennis are packing up is normally filled with 20-30 vehicles on a typical weekend. The film's Brokeback is also one of the favorite hikes - Moose Mountain - in a different part of the Kananaskis. It has a fire-lookout as the hike's summit, which you can just barely see as a structure on top of the mountain at dusk, just prior to the 'first' tent scene.
Just an indication of how magical and elusive Lee and Prieto have been able to make the very familiar country in which I live seem fresh and newly beautiful.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - flashframe777 (Wed Jan 11 2006 22:41:40 )
UPDATED Wed Jan 11 2006 22:42:29
Casey,
How cool is that - to know that they shot that scene in a familiar space? It's great to know the names of those places. I have been to Calgary once, and I really thought it was magical.
I was surprised that you noticed the publicity still used for the same scene was exposed normally. I was going to write that.
I too, like spottedreptile, like it best when all the work is done in camera as opposed to post-production. It not only looks more "real", but it saves tons of time and money, not to mention it shows everyone else that you know your craft.
"You bet." --Ennis del Mar
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - pbwriter (Wed Jan 11 2006 23:32:58 )
casey - considering what you said below, wanted to mention it reminds me of the movie's poster - Ennis looking away, Jack facing more towards the front, and at right angles to each other....
Reliving the film in my mind's eye, I remember that throughout the film whenever they are in conversation Ennis is always looking away, positioned in the frame at 'right angles' to Jack facing toward or away from the camera, while Jack is invariably in direct profile, facing and addressing Ennis directly. To me this reinforces the constant tension between the two of them in how they see their relationship, Ennis always deflecting and never able to admit the depth of emotion he feels for Jack.
Thanks for your posts.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - spottedreptile (Wed Jan 11 2006 23:35:41 )
UPDATED Wed Jan 11 2006 23:45:00
Casey - thanks so much for the 'real Brokeback' location.
I googled it and came up with this image:
http://shakey.smugmug.com/photos/15160806-L.jpg
yep that's it. Wonderful.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - marquis4 (Wed Jan 11 2006 23:50:56 )
naun:
I enjoyed very much your reference to the Morrow Plots and the endless fields of central Illinois. I don't know if Lee used these places as inspiration for the film, but it's exciting to speculate on such ideas.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - loubyloo3 (Wed Jan 11 2006 23:56:26 )
Love this post!
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - CaseyCornelius (Wed Jan 11 2006 23:56:47 )
UPDATED Sat Feb 4 2006 00:13:23
spottedreptile:
Check this out -- several shots of Moose Mountain, the film's Brokeback location.
http://www.braggcreek.ca/kananaskis/trails/msmnt_photos.htm
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - CaseyCornelius (Thu Jan 12 2006 00:01:24 )
Check out the discussion in the numerous replies - you're missing a pile of gems if you don't - where several posters agree with you. I do as well - Jack and Ennis do manage to 'torque' things back to where they were.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - amonism (Thu Jan 12 2006 00:15:13 )
hey case thanks a lot for the analysis -- i caught that two and could not figure out why it was there -- it was so out of "character" from the rest of the film for the camera to move in such a way -- thanks for the truly enlightening and thought provoking posts -- and thanks for helping to keep these conversations on a higher intellectual level -- keep it up -- please!!! :-D
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - spottedreptile (Thu Jan 12 2006 03:31:54 )
UPDATED Thu Jan 12 2006 03:33:30
I still don't understand how this shot was done. How do you go from wide (big depth of field with Ennis in focus) to long (narrow depth of field putting Ennis out of focus) with the same lens, and KEEP JACK IN FOCUS in the foreground, without breaking the shot?
I might be dumb, but I just don't see how. It's probably a special lens or some really simple answer. I guess if it's been done before, then it's not a huge deal, but I'm mystified (and awed as well.)
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - naun (Thu Jan 12 2006 08:02:09 )
Also, one really simple effect happened when Lee cuts from the intimate darkness of the two around the campfire to an intrusive glaring full noon sun in the irrigation ditch scene.
The glaring light really feels ominous and oppressive in this scene. I was struck by something Heath Ledger said in an interview, that he wanted "the light always to be too bright and the world to be too loud" for Ennis, and it made me wonder if discussions about his character between the actor and director influenced the way this scene was shot. We see the young Ennis' eyes widen in horror; the grown Ennis squints, pulls his hat down low, and generally averts his gaze. Jack, by contrast, never loses his sense of childlike, wide-eyed wonderment.
The first movie I can remember seeing at the theater was "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"
One of my all time favourite movies! Reflecting on it now in the light of Brokeback, the most important relationship (I don't necessarily mean sexual) in the movie seems to be the one between the two men, representing the new west and the old west, just as Ang Lee says of Jack and Ennis in Brokeback.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - flashframe777 (Thu Jan 12 2006 08:46:59 )
UPDATED Thu Jan 12 2006 08:51:21
Hey Spotted,
It's really simple...it's called Pulling Focus. The Director of Photography aims and shoots, and someone else, usually an assistant, positioned beside him (or her) has a hand on the lens turning the F-Stop ring down or up. So what you see is the lens shutter getting wider (background goe out of focus) followed by the shutter getting smaller (background in sharp focus, foreground is blurred). The lens size matters - so using a large lense size would dramatize the effect. But it's done manually, which is really cool.
"You bet." --Ennis del Mar
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - CaseyCornelius (Thu Jan 12 2006 13:28:54 )
UPDATED Fri Jan 13 2006 22:44:17
flashframe777:
I'm not entirely positive, but two of my favorite shots near the begining of the film look to be composite images which they would have had to do in post-production. They are shots of what I assume to be an impressive, fantastically scenic Brokeback in the background of both Joe Aguirre's trailer and the morning scene following the employment interview where they are loading the sheep [Jack is checking his shotgun]. I have a suspicion from my experience of the local area [though I hate to admit it] that the mountain they used in the background would be nowhere in proximity to the foreground where the rest of the shots takes place - ie. it's in a completely different terrain.
The image [no matter how generated] of the idealized Brokeback Mountain is stunningly beautiful, an apt image full of portent for the impending love relationship and for what Brokeback will represent for Ennis and Jack.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - starboardlight (Thu Jan 12 2006 13:58:14 )
i need to go back and see this scene again. I don't remember exactly how it looks.
but you may not even need to pull the focus. camera depth of field have specific distance. If you set up the shot so that on one side, Heath is within the distance range, he'll be in focus. When you swing the camera to the other side, have the camera be further away, Heath will be out of focus. It's not that difficult, but does take some planning. Still a very effective technique.
Re: Jack and Ennis - Lake Scene and a Unique Camera Move
by - spottedreptile (Thu Jan 12 2006 15:31:22 )
UPDATED Thu Jan 12 2006 15:32:49
but flashframe, the foreground doesn't go out of focus. That's the thing. That's why it's such a hard shot to work out.
And also, the camera tracks not pans. So it remains the same distance away from Ennis.
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