Cinematography technique · used in 3 films
Mounting the camera on a body, vehicle or inside an object so it travels with the subject. The attached view puts you inside the ride or the container.
Examples
Quentin Tarantino · 1994
Tarantino uses the trunk shot (the camera looks up from inside a car trunk) whenever contraband or a captive is being retrieved. The camera sits where the dangerous thing is, so you passively occupy the most morally compromised spot in the scene.
Where to see it: Jules and Vincent taking their guns from the trunk. They are on their way to retrieve the briefcase.
Martin Scorsese · 1999
Cinematographer Robert Richardson used cameras mounted on the ambulance, and reviewers note the speeded-up motion. One long crane shot starts low behind the ambulance and rises over it. The streets rush by like a fever.
Where to see it: An ambulance run: the camera rides on the ambulance as it speeds through Manhattan at night.
Darren Aronofsky · 2000
A Snorricam is a camera strapped to the actor's body and pointed back at them. The rig is named after the Snorri Bros, the Icelandic filmmakers who built it in the 1990s. Aronofsky used it in Pi and pushed it further here. In Sara's scenes, the camera is rigged to Ellen Burstyn, so her face stays fixed in the frame while the world warps behind her. I feel like this is what lets you see her state of mind. The camera shows you what it feels like inside her failing perception.
Where to see it: Sara's scenes during her amphetamine psychosis. Her face stays still and the world warps around her. The Snorricam puts her state of mind directly on screen.
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