While filming the shower scene during Production Day 2, we did a tracking shot that has no meaning to it. You can't have a shot just because it looks nice and cool. Every shot and frame needs to communicate with your audience, providing messages through the visuals. This reminded me of this video essay about lateral tracking shots.
Lateral tracking shots is one of the least subjective shots in cinema but it is one of the most objective. It doesn't suggest the characters' point of view. The shot is also very literal. What you see is what you get. It can be used as a quick establishing move. War movies sometimes use this technique to show the vastness of the army and the world around the soldiers like a camp or a war zone. Some film makers make it a personal statement. Stanley Kubrik loved the shot because it shows the things they were, not how we imagined them to be. It is everywhere in Kubrik's The Shining (1980).
Here are some other examples of lateral tracking shot done by film makers:
- Running and walking
- Horse riding
- Car chase
- Framing a scene like a moving painting
- Fight scenes where the character is fighting waves of enemies
- Physical comedy
- Mass execution
- Tracking away from the character to create a sense of sadness and emptiness
The shot can be used to imply time has past and can never go back. The opening scene in Pixar's Up (2009) did this very well. But the best example I've seen is a scene from Wolf Children (2012). It shows kids growing up right before your eyes. But unlike any other shot in this post, it is actually physically impossible to film. It moves back and forth through time and space. All it does is to tell the story of these kids growing up.
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