Essay About Level Shot And Camera Pans

The Pianst, Scene 15 (technical, Thematic, and Personal)
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Term Paper – The Pianist, Scene 15
Works that are a tribute to the will to live always touch our
emotions in a unique way and Roman Polanskis The Pianist definitely
strikes a chord with sentiment. I had originally imagined that a film
adapted from a memoir may have taken liberties in converting the
written work to script and in creating historical accuracy. However, I
was proven wrong as I watched Polanskis vivid directorship of this
war film about music. The Pianist is a good-history Shoah film that is
very humanizing and shows total war, compassion for the enemy, and
even heroism. And although it wasnt listed among the forms of war
films, I believe more than anything that this film is about survival
and the powerful will to live. In Polanskis own words, “The Pianist
is a testimony to the power of music, the will to live, and the
courage to stand against evil.”
And so, interestingly enough, the movie centers around an aspect that
is very unusual for the war film genre: music. When Wladyslaw
Szpilman, played by Adrien Brody, loses everything, the only thing he
has left to live for and hold on to is his passion for music. It is a
passion that he will hold on to for some six years while separated
from a piano until at last beckoned onto one by the Wehrmacht officer
Wilhelm Hosenfeld, played by Thomas Kretschmann.
This scene, in which the yet-unnamed German officer is finally seen,
begins during a frigid night with Szpilman looking for a can opener
around the house in which he is hiding. As the scene begins, Szpilman
enters from the left and the camera pans right and tilts down and up,
following him; there is no score, only silence and footsteps. He is
shown off-center to the right in a level shot at a medium close-up as
he fumbles with a can. But the can is dropped and rolls away and, from
Szpilmans POV, the camera tilts up to follow it rolling. The camera
then continues to tilt up revealing and centering on, from the boots
up, a German in a power shot at medium close-up.
Cutting the awkward silence, the German calmly begins to interrogate
the Jew and the camera cuts to a counter shot of Szpilman, who is on
the left-side of the axis of action. In his reaction shot, Szpilman is
shot off-center to the left in a level shot at medium range; the
camera perspective is from the left side of the Germans waist, where
just his pistol is visible. Dialogue continues and fast cutting is
used to cutaway and cutback between Szpilmans response and reactions
and the Germans questions, respectively. In the cutbacks, the German
is shot centered in a power shot at a medium close-up. As the dialogue
ends, the German walks off the screen to the right and is also seen
walking away from Szpilmans reaction shot angle.
A lengthy take then beings with a long shot first showing the German
continuing to the right towards a door as the camera pans right,
following him. At the Germans beckoning, Szpilman hobbles in from the
left creating a two shot. Maintaining the axis of action they turn
through the door, entering a room with a piano where a dolly shot is
employed. The dolly pulls in and everything of the German except is
pistol is lost as the shot focuses and revolves to the right around
Szpilman. As the shot trucks right, the camera angle also shifts
downward showing a better view of the piano keys. The two shot is
maintained as Szpilman begins playing while a soft moonlight filters
in from a window onto him.
While the piano play continues, a montage sequence begins as the
scene cuts away to the German who is centered for the first time in a
level shot at a medium close-up. The camera then pans right and tilts
down maintaining the shot as it follows the German who walks over to
the right to sit on a chair. The scene then cuts back to Szpilman
playing the piano who is shot off-center to the left in a level shot
at long range; the whole of the piano is visible along with the
moonlight illuminating