What Is the Busiest Shot in Movie History?
A video essay about a random question I once asked myself: what is the busiest shot in movie history?
So random in fact that I had to make up a whole bunch of definitions and limitations to answer it (and so a long and complex tracking shot wouldn't just kill all the fun).
I came up with four rules to narrow it down. Rule number one: Geography. The shot must use as much of the screen as possible. Every side and layer.
Two: Consistency. The camera can never completely abandon the initial angle. It can approach and pull back and pan and tilt, up to a point, but we must remain in the same spot throughout. Arcing motions are out the window.
Three: Internal Movement. Elements on-screen cannot remain still; they must change positions. And because of the Consistency rule, they must move more than the camera.
And four: Story. We must be able to witness a full storyline developing on screen.
Thus specified I arrived at an extraordinary (as should be expected) shot from "War and Peace" (1965-1967), the monumental Soviet epic by Sergei Bondarchuk. It deals with Pierre's unintentional marriage proposal to Hélène. It's an extraordinary use of depth and the width of the scope aspect ratio. The amount of story and information on screen is astounding! This is, after all, one of the greatest masterpieces of Russian cinema.
#videoessay #filmmaking #cinematography
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If you'd like to know how faithful the shot/scene is to the original novel, I included below the specific paragraphs it adapts.
War and Peace: Book 3, Chapter 2 (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/...)
“The step must be taken but I cannot, I cannot!” thought Pierre, and he again began speaking about indifferent matters, about Sergéy Kuzmích, asking what the point of the story was as he had not heard it properly. Hélène answered with a smile that she too had missed it.
When Prince Vasíli returned to the drawing room, the princess, his wife, was talking in low tones to the elderly lady about Pierre.
“Of course, it is a very brilliant match, but happiness, my dear...”
“Marriages are made in heaven,” replied the elderly lady.
Prince Vasíli passed by, seeming not to hear the ladies, and sat down on a sofa in a far corner of the room. He closed his eyes and seemed to be dozing. His head sank forward and then he roused himself.
“Aline,” he said to his wife, “go and see what they are about.”
The princess went up to the door, passed by it with a dignified and indifferent air, and glanced into the little drawing room. Pierre and Hélène still sat talking just as before.
“Still the same,” she said to her husband.
Prince Vasíli frowned, twisting his mouth, his cheeks quivered and his face assumed the coarse, unpleasant expression peculiar to him. Shaking himself, he rose, threw back his head, and with resolute steps went past the ladies into the little drawing room. With quick steps he went joyfully up to Pierre. His face was so unusually triumphant that Pierre rose in alarm on seeing it.
“Thank God!” said Prince Vasíli. “My wife has told me everything!” (He put one arm around Pierre and the other around his daughter.)—“My dear boy... Lëlya... I am very pleased.” (His voice trembled.) “I loved your father... and she will make you a good wife... God bless you!...”
He embraced his daughter, and then again Pierre, and kissed him with his malodorous mouth. Tears actually moistened his cheeks.
“Princess, come here!” he shouted.
The old princess came in and also wept. The elderly lady was using her handkerchief too. Pierre was kissed, and he kissed the beautiful Hélène’s hand several times. After a while they were left alone again.
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Call to Adventure - Comedy by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: http://incompetech.com/