The Look
WALKING TOWARD CAMERA
FOLLOWING FROM BEHIND
USING ANGLES, SYMMETRY OF THE SPACE
FRAME THE PROFILE
LINGER ON HANDS
MAKE THE CLOSEUP EARNED
STARTING WIDE
FOREGROUND OBSTRUCTION
MOVE IN CLOSER AND CLOSER
SHOT FROM BEHIND
FRAME WITHIN A FRAME
PLAY WITH SHADOWS
LEADING LINES
DELIBERATE BACKGROUND ELEMENTS
LONG, WIDE SHOTS
THE HANDS
TELL A STORY
OF THEIR OWN
Long shots emphasize tension, establish sense of place within the environment and allow you to experience time without manipulation.
Without cuts, there is no exit: not for Tyler, the teenager stumbling through new emotional terrain, and not for the audience, as it sits in the same tension he does.
The camera becomes a silent witness caught in Mrs. Mulligan’s orbit, circling down fluoresced aisles, catching gestures and glances. By the end, we feel as though we’ve intruded on something private.
The one-shot approach forces the audience to live inside each beat, to experience the uncertainty without relief. I’m not aiming for spectacle, but instead intimacy: the way a glance across a grocery aisle can feel both intoxicating and bewildering, exciting and forbidden.