The Graduate (Mike Nichols 1968) Screening Assignment
Contents
TOC o “1-3” h z u HYPERLINK l “_Toc379186185” Introduction PAGEREF _Toc379186185 h 1
HYPERLINK l “_Toc379186186” 1. Zoom in PAGEREF _Toc379186186 h 1
HYPERLINK l “_Toc379186187” 2. Selective focus PAGEREF _Toc379186187 h 2
HYPERLINK l “_Toc379186188” 3. Camera and dolly shot: PAGEREF _Toc379186188 h 2
HYPERLINK l “_Toc379186189” 4. Zoom out PAGEREF _Toc379186189 h 3
HYPERLINK l “_Toc379186190” 5. Helicopter shot PAGEREF _Toc379186190 h 3
HYPERLINK l “_Toc379186191” 6. Telephoto lens PAGEREF _Toc379186191 h 4
HYPERLINK l “_Toc379186192” 7. Racking focus PAGEREF _Toc379186192 h 4
HYPERLINK l “_Toc379186193” 8. Hand held camera shots PAGEREF _Toc379186193 h 5
IntroductionThe graduate is a film about Benjamin Braddock who is a recent graduate with no better career objective or goals in life moves from his parent’s posh home. He finds himself in love with the wife of his father’s business associate and just before, he knows it, he fall in love with the daughter called Elaine too. Things get out of hand for him as he finds himself unable to choose between the two. Therefore, he sees the daughter in public and the mother in private. The affair stats on the homecoming party of Benjamin Braddock, his father celebrates his graduation and Catherine Ross invites him to her house and seduces him, this affair end abruptly and he manages to forget about this, until he fall in love with the daughter and the affair starts haunting him.
1. Zoom in
This is mainly useful in microphotography to provide the best close-up shot of a scene; this makes the scene appear prominently in the picture. The lens is varied to increase the clarity of the picture or make it blurred.
2. Selective focus
Selective focus ensures that only the object of interest is focused on and the other images are blurred. This includes selecting the aperture to control the actual depth of the total field of focus or the amount of sharp focus and the effects on the total exposure.
3. Camera and dolly shot:
A dolly shot is taken when the object is in motions; it is like mounting a camera onto a trolley and shooting a moving object or in a car taking shots of a moving object in another car. For example, the camera above is of Braddock and his bride, Elaine. The camera was taken when they were in motion and the camera had to move too. This is done to get a steady shot.
4. Zoom out
This is very useful while trying to embed still photographs in the actual motion pictures; the pictures above were displayed with very slow zooming, which also involved panning effects. However, this is also possible with fading transition in between the frames.
5. Helicopter shot
A helicopter shot is taken when viewing the object from the top, just like a bird’s eye view, it also covers a large surface areas and provides good view of the shooting area as the one shown bellow. It is also important for providing a shot in places that are not accessible.
6. Telephoto lens
The perspectives of the images were determined by the focal length. For example, in the picture of Benjamin Braddock and Ross above, there is a wide distance in between them, this is easy to achieve by use of telephoto lens as this is shown according to the location of the photographer. The photographer tried to fill the whole frame with three objects by use of wide angled telephoto as the focus (Ross) has moved closer to the less
7. Racking focus
In racking focus the attention of the audience is shifted from one scene to another by varying the focus of the lens used
8. Hand held camera shots
The pictures above appear as they were taken when the camera was held in the hands. In addition, the shots were actually limited to the area the cinematographer was interested in
