Reflection
“Focal length”, the word is famous and familiar with everyone, but not every people can utilise it properly. For this week, we were discovering more about the thoughts of focal length in the group, as usual, it supposed to be done by practically and pragmatically if we were in class, but at this situation, we were only able to do more analysis in investigating the different scene. In the clip provided by Robin, “To Each His Own” (1967) by Elio Petri, represented many approaches to describe a less non-fictional single scene happened by switching shallow and wide depth of field, even zooming in and out. As a result, it was clear to see the relationship of depth of field and focal length in this clip.
In terms of the clip, “Property Is No Longer Theft” (1973) by Elio Petri as well, ideally manifested the functional usage of shallow depth of field. It was involved three actors which repeatedly in and out within a single shot. Through the execution of switching focal length, I could completely feel the spatial sense and it just successfully expressed a brilliant example of “decoupage” in this scene.
Reading: “The absolute brilliance of the single master shot“
It is interesting that Tom mentioned “covering a lot of scenes in a single shot gave director pre-edit much of the film in his head”. In other words, if you get lots of coverage, get every possible shot, which allows you to assemble each sequence in the editing room. Conversely, if the scene were not planned precisely, the final look will limit your productivity in the editing room.
To sum up, once you have planned a number of scenes in your master shot, you have already had the “cut-together” scene. Which helps you avoid spend on a lot of unnecessary footages, also money goes with it.