Quentin Tarantino is a master in many ways. He is good at creating tension, suspense, shocking moments, dazzling dialogue scenes, and has a good sense of humor. He has a deep understanding of film language, which allows him to tell stories more efficiently than most directors.
How to make a 25-minute scene tense and beautiful? This is a test of the skill and level of a director.
Let's focus on the scene in the underground tavern in "Inglourious Basterds". This is Tarantino's masterpiece, with weapons far exceeding excellent scripts and performances.
Throughout the whole scene, there is always a kind of visual invation , which can also be called visual intrusion. It symbolically reflects the situation of the Second World War and also reflects the mission of several major figures. When applied to film creation, this is also a unique technique for creating a continuous and tense atmosphere.
Throughout the scene, several characters are constantly invading each other's space, the rhythm has not changed, but the sense of tension has been rising. In the shot above, a group of people disguised as German soldiers are seated, and the bartender is standing among them. This picture alone may not explain any problems, but when the invasion occurs repeatedly, it creates a suffocating tension.
Visual interruption, that is, letting an unwelcome character invade the space of the main character you care about, helps to create tension and maintain it in a long scene.
There is not much camera movement in this scene, and most of the scenes are done by panning and cutting. Even when using a mobile camera, it moves very slowly and must be purposeful.
Starting from the close shots of Fassbinder and Diane Kruger, the camera slowly pulled back, and Burkhard entered the painting and joined the conversation. This shot gives us a slight sense of comfort, as if everything is going well, and the planned secret meeting is going on as scheduled.
A slow backward movement of the camera to present the characters present can establish the tone for a group of people to gather together. Maybe they have some secret purpose!
As soon as this tone was established, we immediately saw another visual invasion-a bartender without a face leaned over to pour the wine! At this time you have to be vigilant!
The effect of this invasion is subtle, so it needs to happen at the moment when a specific secret conversation is going on. In order to emphasize this action, Fassbender deliberately exaggerated the extent of turning sideways to let the bartender open, and Kruger lit a cigarette.
Visual intrusion can be very obscure, but you have to arrange the time at the beginning of the scene. The timing of the intrusion should coincide with the tense or hidden moments in the conversation.
After this scene, there was another use of the right timing to improve the effect. Fassbender's party got together, the three of them were in the picture at the same time, looking relaxed, Kruger was about to disclose a key message. At this moment, quickly cut into a series of shots.
The first shot cuts behind Kruger and Fassbinder, and the focus is on a German guard approaching them. When he stepped forward to interrupt, he not only took away his sight and caused our hero and heroine to be out of focus, but he also stepped from the edge of the picture to the middle, and finally stood between the two of them. Visually, he dominates the entire picture!
When someone interrupts a scene, try to show it as visually as possible. Ways that can be taken include making other characters out of focus, or letting the person move directly into the middle of other characters.
The next shot was cut to the side of Kruger. Although the shot lasted for a short time, it showed her sudden isolation. She is still in a crowded room, but the position of the camera prevents the audience from seeing anyone except her.
If you want to express a person's fear, especially when his fear should not be noticed by other people in the scene, you can let this person appear alone in the picture.
The next shot is a low camera lens, and Fassbinder has been squeezed out of the frame. Even Thiel Schweiger-who usually appears tall in movies-looks much smaller because the camera is looking up at the German guard. Kruger has almost no sense of presence in the imaginary spot on the right side of the screen. All the information in this scene showed that the guard, although drunk and weak, had distracted the secret gang at this moment.
Shooting from a low angle will make the intruder look more domineering. Trying to make other characters appear smaller and more scattered in the picture can also increase tension.
When a dispute was about to erupt, this shot had a movement of the camera pulling backwards away from the crowd. And this is the first time that we have been able to see all the characters appearing in the picture at the same time. The panoramic shot of the entire scene allows us to faintly perceive what is going to happen...
Then we heard a human voice outside the painting, and the camera quickly cut to August Dier. At the moment we don't know exactly where he is sitting, but the interruption of this respite dispute is confusing and effective.
When a threatening new character comes on stage, it can also play a role to leave the audience with some confusion. We don't need to know where he is, we just need to know that he has decided to join the "battle"!
Dill stood up slowly, and the camera panned to the right until the panoramic picture we had just seen appeared behind him, although it was out of focus, it was still vaguely discernible.
Here, the director asks Dier to walk into a scene we have seen before, so that his appearance interrupts the development of the scene and makes him start to dominate. In fact, Tarantino asked him to stop and fiddle with the record player, as if the visual impact we felt was set aside, and it also made us more patiently looking forward to what would happen.
It is crucial that there is no cut at the moment! Dill turned his back to the camera, walked into the front scene, and easily connected to another space! If we simply cut to the shot of him walking into a crowded room, he might be swallowed by the crowd. Tarantino's scheduling here ensures that Dill will become the most powerful presence in the scene at this moment.
Letting a powerful and frightening character appear alone makes him even more daunting. Let him move to a scene we have seen, the effect is particularly outstanding.
In fact, the scene is impressive from beginning to end, with countless physical, visual and symbolic blockages, which maintains a high level of tension throughout the scene. Please study it carefully.
The film examples explored in the book "Master Lens Quentin" show that no matter how good the script is and how powerful the actors are, you need to use the magic of the lens to make your story vividly presented on the big screen.
After reading this book, I hope you will understand that great directors do much more than just take pictures of the scene in front of them. The details in these scenes will show Tarantino's perseverance-it is bound to make every scene the best. He cares about movies. He is very patient and willing to take the time to ensure that every lens angle, every look, every action, and every movement of the camera can meet the needs of the story.
The above content is excerpted from "Master Lens Quentin"
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