Week 62: Socials Roundup
Posts from 4th March through 10th March 2024
Week 62 saw posts on Maigret (2022); Pan’s Labyrinth (2006); and The Marvelous Mrs Maisel (2017-2023).
Over on TheXFormerlyKnownAsTwitter, we’re @_shotzero — besides posting the shots handily rounded up below, we RT and talk about things like this great video on The Holdovers (2023) and Greig Fraser on What’s Real and What’s Not in Dune 2, if that’s your jam.
Maigret
When you only have a short amount of time to introduce characters not just to each other but the audience, camera and editing techniques can say as much about them as their dialogue.
This scene from Maigret (2022) uses J cuts and quick cuts contrasted with a slow dolly to emphasise and contrast the different approaches of its two characters, Maigret (Gérard Depardieu) and Betty (Jade Labeste).
Maigret and Betty begin the scene asking and parrying questions. At 0:36 Betty abruptly avoids further probing by requesting dessert. When the waitress refers to Maigret as “chief,” the cut to Betty's eyes tell us she’s alarmed before her words do.
Betty asks "Chief. Of police!?" and Maigret slowly answers with his name, rank, and station. The next shot is back on Betty's face, and there's a J-cut — we hear a chair rattle but don’t actually see movement until the next cuts, into two quick closeups of her hands grabbing her belongings.
These are followed by a return to Maigret, Betty's body wiping the frame immediately at the top of the shot; we then linger on his face watching her go, sipping his wine.
The scene ends with a slow dolly out showing Maigret alone in the empty dining room.
The shots on Maigret are longer, involve less camera movement, and use more room on either side of his dialogue. Meanwhile the shots on Betty are slightly more frenetic, with J-cuts leading quickly into other shots, and the last three shots of her avoid her face altogether, showing only her hurried movements.
The framing, camera movements, and editing of each of their 'side' of the scene matches the characters' feelings in the scene as well as their overall approach to life; Maigret measured and confident in his position, Betty frenetic and (justifiably) nervous of strange men and authority figures.
Pan’s Labyrinth
This unusual match cut from Pan’s Labyrinth works in many ways.
- the closeup - with only the saw gleaming and moving - keeps us looking at that specific place in screen
- the book moving in a R-L line makes what the saw's second movement would be
- it connects the physical (saw / surgery) to the etherial (book magic / knowledge)
- it contrasts the spaces with orange in one and blue in the other
- editing to something 'mundane' instead of showing expected del Toro gruesomeness breaks the incredible tension
The Marvelous Mrs Maisel
We did a longer breakdown of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel oner this clip comes from, but we HAVE to shout-out this lil no-look assist to get Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) and her rolly-chair into the exact right position.
It comes about halfway through the shot and missing it would mean a whole reset from 1.
Not all heroes wear capes!