Cinematography technique · used in 4 films
Changing the camera's shutter setting to control motion blur. A narrower, faster shutter makes movement look choppy and hyper-real, which suits the chaos of combat.
Examples
Martin Scorsese · 1980
Scorsese and cinematographer Michael Chapman change the camera speed within single fights. Slow motion shows the brutality, and overcranked chaos shows the confusion. Each bout feels like a different emotional experience.
Where to see it: The Janiro fight. The punches are filmed at several frame rates within seconds of each other.
Mel Gibson · 1995
The battle sequences use a shorter shutter angle, which cuts down the motion blur in each frame. Sword strikes and arrow hits get a sharp, stuttering quality. Movement becomes a series of frozen impressions and loses its smoothness. As a result, the violence feels immediate and physical.
Where to see it: The close-quarters fighting at Falkirk. The shutter trick makes each impact land with a sharp, almost painterly intensity.
Steven Spielberg · 1998
Kamiński used a 45-degree and sometimes a 90-degree shutter angle for the D-Day sequence (the standard is 180 degrees). The narrower shutter produces the sharp, stuttering motion you associate with World War II combat footage. The camera looks like it is struggling to keep up with events.
Where to see it: The Omaha Beach landing. You see the strobing motion of men running and falling under fire.
Ridley Scott · 2001
Slawomir Idziak shoots the battle sequences with a narrow shutter angle, a camera setting that changes how motion is captured in each frame. It gives the violence a choppy, strobing quality. The motion is slightly wrong and the image skips frames. Combat comes across as a distortion of your senses and you never get a clear look at it.
Where to see it: The street battle sequences. The shutter setting makes the firefights feel too fast and too slow at the same time. That wrongness in the image matches how sustained gunfire scrambles your thinking.
Questions