Why the constant zooming?

He's not talking about the quick handheld camera zooms in the battles, he's talking about the slow zooms that constantly occur in simple scenes of characters talking. I for one agree with LandoGriffin122 on the subject and noticed the strange amount of zooms in AOTC when it first came out.

Here's some advice, go put on your AOTC dvd's and watch the first scene in Palp's office where he meets the Jedi...EVERY single shot is slowly zooming in on whoever is talking. I cant watch that scene now without noticing it.

 

Hmm, I'll have to check those out again.
They are indeed very subtle as far as I can remember.

And as far as I can say, this is more of David Tattersall's choice rather than George Lucas.

Another reason I could think is because of space constraint. Everything is shot on digital backdrop, so there *could* be limited space to dolly the camera (its not camera pans as some of you put it. In fact, pans are seldom used in Hollywood cinematography as well). That and the cameras are very expensive, so they are taking extra cautious.

Steven Spielberg's DP, Janusz Kaminski recently has a habit of having EXTREMELY long shots without a single cut. Watch War of the Worlds and you'll find shots of that are WAY much longer than the opening space battle of ROTS.
Two of which I couldnt believe my eyes were (I'm trying to keep it as spoiler free as possible)
1. When the tripods first appeared and started blowing things up.
2. When the whole family is arguing in the van and running away from home.

Oh, and they definitely very very seldom use zoom.

 

I like the zooms.

 

I know the exact zooms you're talking about, because they bugged the heck out of me, too. What really got to me was that most of them were so obviously done digitally in post. A good one to differentiate on is in the opera scene. On the wide shot where we can see both of the characters, that's actually the camera moving. But when we cut in close, especially on Palp's "abilities some consider unnatural" line, that zoom is done digitally. You can tell because there is no change in depth between him and the background, unlike the telltale signs that a practical zoom-in or camera truck-in would create. FWIW.

Sly

 

yeah i hate the digital zooms, lucas thinks its neat though

 

It was different than the OT. I dunno if it was different for the BETTER though.

 

I dig it.

 

There's zooms in all the movies. The establishing shot of ben's place on tatooine, cloud city, all over the place.

There's even a couple shaky smash zooms in the battle of Hoth, and one of them is very similar to the oft-derided zoom in AOTC.

Those shots I don't mind because they are a star wars tradition. However the shots I don't like are the ultra-fast shots of expansive areas which Peter Jackson used all over the LOTR films, and in the King Kong trailer, which Lucas used a couple times in ROTS.

For instance, Boga's entrance is just a little too "Quicktime VR" for me. The way the camera moves, it is impossible to imagine that it is being filmed. I think the shot where Obi jumps on Boga to chase grievous is twice as cool, and it's a fairly static shot. Those just look too much like a pre-viz.

 

Inspiration from Akira Kurosawa.

 

camera technology. Very difficult to do a zoom and stay in focus in the seventies. Easy peezy now.

Camera styles of ANH, ESB and ROTJ are all different, as is the general cinamtography. PT are pretty consistent - perhaps the "handicam" in AOTC is a bit bloke with a new toy (its a plug in in 3DS), but still - its all cool. Looks great to me....

 

Yes, in most scenes, I thought the zooms were used excellently. And it is pretty difficult to use zoom and pull it off without looking hokey. But at other times I found it somewhat distracting (moreso in AOTC, though).

 

I thought they were a nice touch.

 

The zooming at the start of the Obi-Wan v. Grievous fight was a very sleek touch. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

 

the slow zooming adds to the suspense and intensity of the situation. It slowly blocks out everthing else in the shot and makes you concentrate on the actor or whatever the subject of the zoom is.

A lot of zooming shows confidence in your actors. Bravo to Lucas. I was captivated by this style in RotS.

 

right on BothofUs , thats exactly why GL Zoomed, and its exactly why Akira Kurosawa did it aswell.
you more or less posted exactly what i was going to say BothofUs. i agree with ya, its all about intensity

 

The Zooms represent everything thats wrong with the PT.

 

You mean nothing?

 

Why does it really matter? Is it really that serious?

This was his last SW film and he wanted to take chances and do some things different. Is that good enough? Or would you rather a answer that a Film school Professor would give you?

In the end...it really doesn't matter and it isnt all that serious.

 

The zooms on the battle of geonosis wear great. Revenge of the Sith had zooms that I liked even better. It's good to do things differently every once and a while.

 

the best zoom by far, and again one of the more subtle, is the one after Anakin wakes up from his nightmare. After you see Anakin walk away we get a fantastic close up of Padme, confused as to why her husband is troubled. It may be digital, it might be authentic but either way it's very powerful. There may even be a camera tilt also. It certainly makes the viewer feel uneasy and for me, really adds to the mood the scene is trying to set.

 

It's strange, I first noticed this in TPM....at the beginning there's a really slow zoom in on Nute Gunray and co. as they discuss Jedi. I thought it was strange.

 

I remember the zooming in AOTC. In the arena, you see the clones fighting, then it slowly zooms up to the republic gunship what obi wan, anakin, and padme are on. In ROTS, i didn't really notice any big zooms.

 

I just think it has more to do with the environment. Perhaps Lucas feels that there is alot that can be shown when two characters are simply talking. For instance, when Anakin and Obi-Wan are walking/talking right before Obi-Wan leaves for Utapau, we get a great view of the ship yard and what ships look like docked. I personally believe that the environments are so rich (richer then the ones in the OT and TPM for that matter) that it adds alot to a scene that's as simple as two characters talking.

 

I've woundered this too and I was thinking that he might have been playing tribute to some film of director, but I don't know which film or director.