MovieChat Forums > Cop Car (2015) Discussion > ehh the Cinematography was impressive.

ehh the Cinematography was impressive.

posted 10 years ago by Hurry_up_N_buy
5 replies | jump to latest

In this movie I think the director did a great job in creating a both vast and empty world in which a scenario presents itself to these two little players (the child stars). The shots seem to be widely and perfectly panned out but remain focused on the boys. Most of the early scenes are met with ambiguity and foreboding which is great because that is basically a day in the life of 10 year old children, there is always the wonder of if their going to push it too far and hurt themselves or someone else. It's also great because I love movies with atmospheric tension, a kind of quietness that makes the setting ominous and this film did that well.

The problem is, it seemed to me like all the moving parts did not work cohesively with the atmosphere. Often times this movie comes off as humorous through dialogue or character action. It worked a couples times and then ruined the tone in scenes that it didn't. The story is also completely overly basic. I am a big fan of 'less is more' in some instances but I mean, c'mon, the trailer is the movie, little more, nothing less.

At any rate, it's always a pleasure to see Kevin Bacon in anything semi-decent, as Mystic River is one of my favorite movies and performances from him, and he did what Kevin Bacon does in a movie like this, which is give you Kevin Bacon as a dirty cop, so there's that.

People hate what's popular and people jump on bandwagons. The rest of us are in the middle. Done.

[–] mcmingus 10 years ago

Yes, top notch cinematography, but not just for the nicely composed shots and pretty scenery.

For Example: Recall the sequence as the boys approach the fence in the opening scene.

This is basic cinematography/visual storytelling. Can you name the technical shot and describe how it advances the story because it's shot that way? Hint: It's not a pan.

*Danny's not here, Mrs. Torrance*

[–] Hurry_up_N_buy 9 years ago

Not exactly, I can tell you it was probably the most impressive shot in the movie. But do tell.

People hate what's popular and people jump on bandwagons. The rest of us are in the middle. Done.

[–] mcmingus 9 years ago

Okay, since nobody's replied after all this time, I might as well get in to it.

I believe it's called a tracking shot. Here it makes a very simple thematic point.

As they approach the fence, the moving camera parallels their progress (from left to right in frame) from a point to their right until it pauses at the fence when they must pass through it with the nearest fencepost dominating mid-frame in the foreground, making the boys look like miniatures on the horizon. There's a brief pause right there, then a cut to a series of utility shots of the boys negotiating their way through the barbed wire.

Visually it makes the fence big, for a moment bigger than the boys, and calling attention to the event of their passing over, or through it.

It says they're passing beyond the limits of their childhood experience into unprotected territory.

*Danny's not here, Mrs. Torrance*

[–] Hurry_up_N_buy 9 years ago

Ahh very nice, when you mentioned that the shot might have had significance, when I thought about it to respond to your question, I pretty much came up with that kind of theory in my mind, but at the time of my post I was in sort of a rush and there was no way I could quickly articulate it as well as you did, so yeah, I'll just copy off of your paper. Great stuff.

People hate what's popular and people jump on bandwagons. The rest of us are in the middle. Done.

[–] b_baixa 9 years ago

Agree!