On Fri, 23 Dec 2005, Henry Taylor wrote:
> On this point however, another query. We also some time ago discussed that
> famous effect that John Frankenheimer achieves in SECONDS (1966), a "camera
> body-mount" which has the actors appear stiff and lifeless while they're
> moving. It is an effect that is also used in Aronofsky's PI.
> 3 questions: is it identical with the "Spike Lee" effect? How exactly is it
> achieved? And did we at the time come up with a satisfactory term for this
> procedure? Perhaps there is a term for it used by filmmakers.
Henry--
I showed SECONDS this past semester as part of a unit on cinematography in
my introduction-to-film class, and my students and I were wondering the
same thing. (By the way, what a terrific film with which to illustrate
B&W cinematography! James Wong Howe's work in this production is a
veritable grab-bag of different visual styles -- its look is by turns
Bergmanesque, Felliniesque, and German expressionistic, to name the more
prominent. I also love Saul Bass's title design, with its Cubist-like
fragmentation of facial features and suggestion of the "identity
fragmentation" to come.)
On the director's commentary track for the DVD of SECONDS, Frankenheimer
claims that, for the frontal shots, the actors actually "wore" the camera
on a harness as they walked (i.e., the camera body mount that you
mentioned). I don't believe he discussed the rear-view shots, but it
sure looks to me as if the camera and the actors were "mounted" on the
same dolly and then wheeled through Grand Central Station, etc. Though we
see the actors moving through their environment, they don't display any
arm or leg movements and the distance between the actors and the camera
remains constant in the shots. It's an effect partially echoed near the
end of the film, when the Rock Hudson character is literally wheeled down
a hallway while strapped to a gurney. I have never heard of a term for
this filmic procedure, but it certainly leads to the stiff and lifeless
effect that you noted. Intriguing stuff!
--Marty Norden
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Martin F. Norden
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