Sunday, April 20, 2014

Cinematography on The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Overall Look

The cinematographic aspects of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford add up to the over look of the film.  Throughout the film we see certain shots that have a greater depth of field and where the subject is more focused than his background.  The whole film gives off a great look.  The film looks old style because they used a old lens to record the movie.  Another quality that adds to the overall look is the use of still shots.  The camera will be fixed on one shot for a while before finally changing to the next shot.  This happens throughout the whole film, which makes it a key quality in the overall look and feel of the movie.



Images
            This lighting technique is used throughout the film.  It is used to signify the importance of the subject in the scene.  In this image we see Jessie James.


In this image you can see that the subjects are is in focus while the rest of the background is out of focus, a quality used throughout the movie.






Shot Lengths


            The shots that I noticed most often in this film were long takes and medium close ups.  In many scenes they were long takes of the same thing



Shot Types
            Some shots used throughout the film are medium close up and close ups to show how the character is feeling at that current moment.  These are important because it shows us how that character is feeling in that scene.




Camera Angles
            Most of the shots that I remember were low-level shots like the image shown below of Jessie James.





Composition
            The composition seems to be fairly balanced throughout the film.  The subject is the main focus of all the scenes throughout the film.   In the images below you can see that Jessie is the main focus of the shot. 





Camera Movement
            Some scenes throughout the movie feel like the camera is hardly moving at all, very little.  There are some scenes where the camera seems to not move at all. In the snake scene the camera moves very little. Here is a link to it.  In the other scenes like the “you ever considered suicide” scene, the camera does not move at all.







Cinematography Style
             I think the scenes where it shows scenery is where the cinematography calls to itself, throughout the movie it felt really slow but it built up as it progressed.  I think the scenes where it shows symbols is where it really shows the style.  Like the snake scene, the snakes represent Jessie's enemies.


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