22 Moving Images: Making Movies, Understanding MediaDepth of View
Relationships between two or more characters can be powerfully enhanced
by placement in the foreground or background of a shot. Th e foreground of a
shot refers to whatever subjects are closer to the camera, and the background
is composed of the visual elements and setting that are at the rear of the image.
If there is enough depth to what is seen in the shot, the people and things
that are placed in between these two planes are in the middle ground or at
middle distance. For example, in the opening dramatic scene of the fi lm Th e
Graduate (directed by Mike Nichols, 1967), Benjamin Braddock, played by
Dustin Hoff man, is towards the background of the scene, his head framed
by an aquarium, and his father sits in the foreground in the left part of the
screen (see Figure 1-28). Th e depth of the shot communicates a great deal
to the viewer: Benjamin is in focus, drawing our attention to him, while his
father, representing Benjamin’s adult life, is fuzzy, out of focus and out of
sync with his son visually. He constantly obscures Benjamin who is framed
by the tank, examined and peered at like the fi sh and stuck in a situation
that feels artifi cial to him.
In O Brother, Where Art Th ou? (2000), a comedy by the Coen Brothers,
three convicts have just escaped from a chain gang and then a fi ery trap in a
barn. Th ey are in the woods trying to fi gure out their next move when two
of them, Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney) and Pete (John Turturro),
get into an argument because Everett has stolen a watch from Pete’s cousin
(who subsequently betrayed them). Th e shots cut back and forth following
their dialogue, and in an over-the-shoulder shot of Pete that puts Everett
in close shot, we begin to perceive characters clad in white walking in the
woods behind Everett (see Figure 1-29). In this way, the fi lmmakers useFigure 1-28 Frame from The Graduate, directed by Mike Nichols, with William
Daniels as Mr. Braddock and Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddock. (Courtesy
Embassy Pictures/Photofest).Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).