Pro video blog…Produced by Philip Johnston DoP/Editor

Jaws

I found this fascinating from a professional point of view, interestingly Spielberg never uses any hand held shots in Jaws, which may be a lesson many of you could bear in mind.

I thought this was going to be boring at first but you get “hooked” by the sheer genius of Spielberg’s directing skills and the amount of thought that goes into what looks like a simple shot that is contained by complex acting movements.

Take the time to watch this and learn from a true cinematic master.

STEVEN SPIELBERG Shot By Shot from Antonios Papantoniou on Vimeo.

author

Having been working in the video business since 1988 I have amassed a great amount of knowledge of both the kit and production values over the last 30 years.

3 thoughts on “Back to basics…Steven Spielberg “Shot by Shot”

  1. We KNOW the man’s a genius. To be shown step by step, how, almost simply but with incredible skill how this genius operates is something, we can all learn so much.
    Thank you for this one.

  2. According to the making-of documentary on the laserdisc, and DVD (and I presume bluray), there was A LOT of handheld shooting once they started shooting on The Orca. Practicality required it. It’s just not the kind of “handheld” which draws attention to itself.

  3. I have to agree with Jude. This is about DoP Bill Butler shooting JAWS. “When they arrived on Martha’s Vineyard, Butler showed Spielberg how he could brace a handheld Panaflex camera and take the roll out of the boat rocking on the waves with his knees instead of using a 400-pound gimbal. Spielberg embraced the idea. “About 90 percent of the shots on the boat were handheld,” Butler says” Taking nothing away from Spielberg’s talent, I’ve learnt after the 35 years of film making that a Directors ‘Vision’ is only as good as his visual collaboration with a skilled and talented Director of Photography.

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