Description
Birdman (2014) is notable for the way that the cinematography is designed to look and feel like one long take. (In truth there are cuts – around 30 of them – but the film nevertheless has a very high ASL with a number of individual long takes that are each 10+ minutes in duration.) As you watch the film, pay especially close attention to these long takes.
For your Screening Journal, choose one long take to analyze closely, clearly addressing all three of the following questions in your response.
First, identify the timecodes where you think the shot begins and ends (hint: the edits are often hidden in whip pans, zooms, time lapses, or black screens and objects moving through the foreground that obscure the frame)
. Second, determine the type of camera movement used throughout this long take, explaining whether you think this tracking movement is the product of a handheld camera, a body-mounted camera (Steadicam), or a dolly (or a mixture of these methods, or another type of mobile framing entirely like a crane or a zoom).
Third, describe whether this mobile framing is motivated or unmotivated, and what function(s) this mobile framing is serving in the sequence (narrative, expressive, symbolic, aesthetic).
Throughout your journal entry, use the film language you’ve learned in Weeks 5 and 6, incorporating as many elements of cinematography as possible into your analysis (i.e. issues of lenses, depth of field and focus, camera position, onscreen and offscreen space).
Instructions: Your journal entry must be between 250 and 500 words long. Do not summarize the film’s story or premise; focus on making an original, concentrated analysis. Choose only a couple key points to discuss, and examine them in close detail (identifying particular shots or segments with precision, including providing timecodes from the video, e.g. “the tracking shot at 1:23:15…”).
