SCARFACE-OPENING SCENE-INTERROGATION

After going to the Astor theatre the other night and seeing ‘Scarface’ for the first time I thought that it would be fitting to write on a scene that particularly intrigued me with its camera coverage. I chose the opening scene of the film due to the amount of different shots that were used within the one confined room. The scene reminded me of the task that we did in class as we were similarly restricted to the one location within our scenes.

The opening shot is a medium close-up of ‘Tony Montana’ (Al Pacino). Tony is at first blocked by one of the immigration officers who is situated on the left side of the frame. As the camera rotates to the right, around Tony, his face is revealed and he becomes framed between two officers in the middle of the screen. This framing essentially sets him up as the central character within the film and allows the audience to see that Tony is being interrogated by the officers.

The rotating hand-held camera stays focussed on Tony as it slowly and steadily tracks around him. Within the frame we see the officers walking in the background and in front of Tony, however despite being disrupted, our focus is still on him. The camera rotating around Tony is observant and makes us feel as though we are an immigration officer, part of the interrogation. The blocking of the actors is smooth and fluid as they enter the frame, leave the frame and sit down. We cannot see the officers’ face as Tony is being questioned by him which allows us to focus on Tony’s facial expressions and reactions as he listens.

The slow paced rotating camera suddenly speeds up as Tony starts to feel more anxious and stressed. We see Tony place his hand on the back of his head and the frame becomes cluttered with more officers. This further accentuates and heightens the tension of the interrogation. The camera is still and steady in a medium close-up shot of Tony as soon as the officer touches his scar.

The scene cuts to a close-up, profile shot of Tony as the officer grabs his hand. The camera then tracks out into a medium shot of Tony where we see an officer to the right of the frame, an officer to the left of the frame which once again frames Tony as the centre of our attention. The officers are looking down on Tony which helps to establish their authority over Tony, however the camera doesn’t show Tony from a high angle shot, looking down at him, which suggests that he doesn’t feel intimidated by them. The hand-held camera tracks Tony as the men pick him up off the chair.

The scene cuts to a long shot of the officers and Tony. The head officer is positioned in the foreground of the frame, on the right, which still reflects him as the dominating authority figure. The camera cuts to a medium close-up from behind Tony and another officer, framing the head officer in the centre. Another cut is used to show Tony in a medium close-up with slightly shaky hand-held camera. The camera cuts to a medium close-up of Tony as he talks down to the officer. It then cuts to a medium shot of two officers. The camera is steady and still which is employed to reflect the composed and civilised nature of the officers in juxtaposition to the shifty, chaotic character of Tony. In the final cut within the scene the officer is framed in the left-hand bottom corner of the screen. The camera pans to the right as the officers take Tony out of the room.

We jumped straight back into the swing of things in our first class. Setting up the camera seemed like a pretty daunting task considering the long holiday we have just come back from. Despite feeling as though we were being thrown in the deep end I found it really useful in refreshing my memory on the camera and the processes of production.

My expectations for the Scene in Cinema were very similar to my expectations for Film-TV in which I thought that there was going to be a lot of group work and particularly collaboration with other students. On the contrary, Paul made it clear that the Scene in Cinema is going focussed more specifically on the individual and their production of a scene. Within this course I am expecting to create scenes in different ways by taking a strong focus on particular aspects of a scene such as the camera movements. I feel as though we will be working with the space and time within a scene, concentrating on the camera movements and how the actors move around the space. I’m hoping that throughout the course we will be shown various successful scenes throughout films which will help to further my understanding of what is considered to be good camera coverage.

Within this first class we were given the task of creating a short scene within a small group. The purpose of the task was to focus on the blocking of the characters and the camera coverage. Each student within the group was meant to rotate roles from acting, to filming and directing. I enjoyed the simplicity of this task-just being able to focus on the one scene rather than an entire narrative. There was a restriction placed upon the camera movements as we were only allowed to use the tripod, tilt and pan the camera. Furthermore, there was a central focus on the camera coverage and the blocking of the characters rather than the acting. In terms of my goals, I am aiming to work with the camera more often and practice my skills in directing. It would be a really successful course for me if by the end I had a clearer understanding of what my distinct individual style is when covering a scene and approaching actors.

Epiphany:

My epiphany for this week lies within the simplicity of the task. It is this simplicity which allows such depth of focus for the camera coverage. I realised that having a specific focus on a simple and restricted task can result in something that is quite intricately planned and aesthetic. Paul mentioned that most of the time in films, a task that has time constraint, involves a lot of money and is too ambitious can often prevent you from getting amazing coverage. He said that it ends up being pragmatic and not creative in practice.