camera movement by Cameroon

Categories: Camera

Essay, Pages 6 (1434 words)

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A camera exists in three-dimensional world and can move anywhere along the XYZ axis. This means it can move from move up, down, left, right as well as forward and backward which is then regarded as camera movement. Therefore in this regard in movies like The Terminator, Titanic and Avatar director James Cameroon used different types of camera angles and movements to convey themes and subject intergral within the narratives.Avatar is more of a mystical universe with different creatures where the humans wanted to take over the land of the Avatar's,Titanic is based on a real event about a sinking ship and The Terminator is a movie about a robot that is sent back into the past to kill a woman by the name Sarah.

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By using many dramatic camera angles it is possible to involve the viewer in the scene as opposed from watching the film from a cinematic persepective. One is instantly drawn in to the scenery with the techinique of panning, tilting, dollying, zooming, trucking.

All these camera techniques where used in those three mentioned movies of James Cameroon where in Avatar they were themes of love, authority and power. Whilst in Titanic the camera movements brought out the themes of love, happiness and suicide when Rose wanted to end her life. Lastly in the movie The Terminator Cameroon through his style of movement the camera like panning and zooming he managed to bring out the theme of power where machines dominated the humans. To begin with, the style of camera movement to be dwelled upon firstly used by director James Cameroon in his movies is the panning style.

Panning is when the camera is moved horizontally, either left or right while its base is fixated on a certain point. With regard to the director of The Titanic, one is instantly drawn in to the scenery with the technique of panning. This camera movement was used in such a scene as the opening view of the ship and when the ship was departing, this was done to show the true size of the masterpiece titanic ship. Another theme within the movie is that of the huge of size of the Titanic which was one of a kind ever created by the human kind therefore Cameroon managed to illustrate out this theme through the use of panning as he was showcasing how big the ship was.In this regard, Cameroon managed again to bring out the theme of fear when Reese and Sarah where behind the steels running away from the terminator through panning in the movie The Terminator.Cameroon managed to show the movement of these two people from one point to behind the steels to the next as they were crawling since there was no space to walk or run.Lastly in Avatar Cameroon used the same style of camera movement of panning when the movie was at eleven minutes from the start when the commander was telling the freshmen soldiers about the Pandora rules they had to follow.The director panned the camera from the right to the left showing the soldiers on their seats paying attention to the commander where there is the theme of authority being illustrated because of the attentiveness of the freshman to their commander.Cameroon through the movies he directed is able to bring out different themes through the use of panning as a style of camera movement.Adding on, another style of camera movement used by Cameroon is the style of tilting.Tilting is referred to as moving the camera up or down without raising its position or moving the camera's lens up or down while keeping horizontal axis constant.Normally tilting is the fastest way to get from low to high or high to low when you want to show the action really transpiring.In the movie Titanic James Cameroon tilted the camera when Rose was about to commit suicide.The camera moves from below to the top as we notice Rose trying to throw herself in to the sea, therefore through this camera movement shows us the theme of suicide because there is no dialogue but because of camera move with how it was potrayed with action too the theme of wanting to commit suicide is brought about.Again tilting is established in the movie The Terminator when the machine was moving towards Sara and Reese.The camera tilted from a low angle going up in a manner of showing its powerfulness, thereby in this regard Cameroon shows the oppressive power of the machines over anything that stands in their way.Therefore it is in this regard that the director of titanic and terminator illustrates freely themes via the use of tilting as a camera move.Furthermore, a well developed style of camera movement by director Cameroon is that of zooming in and out.Zooming involves changing the focal length of the lens to make the subject appear closer or further away in the frame.Zooming is frequently used to reach the specific focus of the narrative.A theme of love is illustrated fully by the zooming in at Jack and Rose standing at the deck of the ship in the movie Titanic.How this happens is when the camera starts by showing the two in a long shot then moving the lenses up to showing Rose and Jack's close up with happy faces filled with love and joy, the director however emphasizes on bringing out this theme by the use of sound which is Celine Dion's love song.In Terminator As the Terminator pursues Kyle and Sarah through the factory, it is repeatedly zoomed in from medium close-ups to close-ups. Kyle and Sarah's reverse shots, by contrast, were photographed on much wider lenses. The sense we get from these long lens close-ups is one of detachment. These shots visually isolate the Terminator and separate it from the surrounding environment. In doing this, we understand that the theme being shown in this final scene that the terminator's existence is defined purely by its programmed objective, and the complete disengagement from its surroundings.Whilst in Avatar a theme of love is brought about through the aspect of zooming when Jack was introduced to the clan of Avatar's yet they wanted to kill him the girl was zoomed in as she looked at Jack with a sincere face and asked her people not to attack him.These three movies potrays how zoom helps in bringing out themes of film narratives.Moreover, crane is used for high sweeping shots or to follow the action of your subject which is one of the camera movement styles used by Cameroon in his movies.Crane gives a birds eye view, as it looks as if the camera is swooping down from above.The exact type of camera movement is then used by Cameroon in Avatar's opening scene.The Avatar's opening scene or shot shows the camera craning over the forest as it changes speed from slow to fast movement of the camera.Therefore one believes that crane was used by the director to tell the audience that this would be the world the movie will be dwelling and focusing on mostly', which is the major theme of the narrative of the Pandora's wanting to occupy the forest which belonged ti the Avatar's.In Titanic crane brought emphasized on the theme of the size and the speed of the sheep as it was used on a high angle showing the whole size of the ship Titanic and the high speed it moved at.Without much examples the two movies fully labels how crane as the style of camera movement helped the director express theme and subjects intergral of the narratives. In a nutshell, style of camera movement used by director James Cameroon paying attention to how he employs camera movement to express theme and subjects intergral to the film narrative is that of panning, tilting, crane and zooming. Cameroon in one of his movies Titanic he used panning and managed to manipulate the theme of showcasing the actual size of the large unsinkable ship'.Again in Avatar the director managed to use the camera movement style of zooming a theme of love is expressed as well as the subjects intergral to the film narrative.In movie the Terminator one of the style used in camera movement is that of tilting which engrosed the subject as powerful which was the machine chasing Sarah and Reese.Therefore all these movies clearly brings out themes through the camera movements employed by Cameroon the director.