In class we watched a scene from Goodfellas, the scene where all of the crew are introduced in one continuous long shot. After watching this scene, I decided to watch it, I had been meaning to anyway! I felt quite inspired by what we watched in class actually. I really enjoyed that particular scene, it was so smooth and flawless. I really enjoyed the way that the camera became its own person and was used to introduce the group. Usually having the characters look at the camera isn’t particularly natural and slightly surprising to see, but this was perfect and felt almost natural!

I took a screen shot of my favourite shots for no reason, but to have a compilation of shots I like! Here they are.

I really love the use of silhouette in the first shot and the symmetry in the second. I think they’re wonderful!

Something I noticed a lot in this film is that there was a lot of use of slight zooms onto characters faces. I can’t remember exactly where, but I do remember reading at some point about how a zoom onto a characters face usually is used to make the audience focus more on their expression. Which definitely makes a lot of sense! If I remember back to when these slight zooms happened, it was when a character was taking in information that they had just received or reacting to things in general.

I really enjoyed the story and character development in this film as well. I suppose in such a lengthy film, it would need to have that kind of advanced development. The development of the characters from almost no bodies to gangsters happens slowly but seems very authentic and realistic. If you saw the outcome of their lives without all of the backstories, it would seem almost unbelievable, but I think the length in this film is needed to develop them.

I’d say my other favourite scene in the film is when Henry brings Karen to the Copacabana and there is a long shot from when they leave the car to when they sit down at the table, it is quite impressive! They so flawlessly walk into the venue through the back entrance and walk past the lines and people waiting to then have a table be set up for them to sit at. It is a wonderful long shot that must have taken quite a few rehearsals and shots! But it is beautiful. I definitely enjoyed this film and think I should have a second watch to see what I missed in my first viewing.