First time director by Gil Bettman

This is a great book, probably the best presentation of mainstream camera and actor blocking I've found. Bettman divides films into two categories—pre-Spielberg and post-Spielberg. In the pre-Spielberg era, directors shot mostly static masters and close ups cutting them together in the edit. In the post-Spielberg era, directors keep their camera and actors moving, transforming one shot into another and still another while using various lenses to add dynamism by "forcing perspective."

In most ways, noise film is pre-Spielberg. Consider the dead bird sequence. As Ben sees the dead bird we see his reaction. Then there's a high angle shot of Ben looking into the sky. Then wide on the dead bird. Then close on the dead bird. Four shots. The post-Spielberg approach would be different. We might still see Ben's reaction and then cut to a high angle shot of Ben looking into the sky. But then the camera would swoop down past Ben toward the truck and start traveling slowly along the truck's body toward the door building anticipation. Then the camera would enter the door and we'd see a first glimpse of the bird. What is that? we'd think. The camera travels closer and then tilts down as we see the bird sprawled out below us in blood. Then, with the bird centered in frame, the camera would begin to rotate to convey disorientation.

It's easy to see why this approach has become the standard for mainstream filmmaking. First, it is highly technological. It expresses production value—money—in its virtuostic use of the camera (which requires a certain size crew and certain investment in hardware). I still believe that the hallmark of certain institutions is their merging of financial clout with aesthetics to provide a competitive advantage. Second, the style exagerrates the emotional content of the scene. We know Ben has seen something terrible. As the camera creeps up on the door, suspense/anticipation builds. Once we enter the car door, more suspense. We see some weird shadowy shape in the light. Then we get closer. Still the same shot. Yes, it IS a bird. As we pull out slightly, the camera rotates expressing Ben's confused emotional state and changing world view. This style is particularly appropriate for the nature of the medium. As I described in my post on Basic Instinct, building anticipation and jerking people around constitutes perhaps the purest substance of narrative film.

There's one part of me that thinks it would be fun to shoot in the Spielberg-ian way. I'm sure that for a lot of directors, this is directing—choreographing the camera in a dance with the subject matter. But the other part of me feels that this style takes away from the story. It's like dressing up something that doesn't need to be dressed up. It's like writing in all caps and exclamation points or substituting suspense for wonder (see earlier post). And yet, noise film is a post-Spielberg film. My dislike of editing cutaways into a master is likely an acknowledgment of mainstream film style. Noise film's camera blocking is simplistic, but it's post-Spielberg simplistic—almost as if it was shot like the storyboards for a mainstream film.