Your Top Shots Okay, so me and my aforementioned friend are having another debate on MySpace, this time trying to figure out the top twenty shots from any film, ever. Actually, it's more like our top twenty favourite shots to be honest, but anyway... What are your Top Twenty Shots? The Rules: For anyone who doesn't know, a shot is not a scene, only part of a scene, where the camera angle does not change. They can range from a couple of milliseconds to shots that are three or four minutes long, such as the shot in Goodfellas. As long as the camera angle does not change, it is considered a shot for the purpose of this list. You must give a justifyable reason for each of your top twenty, simply saying "That scene from Goodfellas because I like it" is not sufficient. The reason you give can be any reason, if the shot has had a lasting effect on you. The preferable reason would usually have something to do with how the shot is put together, but you don't have to stick to that. And... that's it! If you want to include an images of your top four (as that's all that you'll be allowed) then you can if you want. I'll start: 1. Golden Globe – The Pink Panther. Reason: The funniest introduction to a main character, ever. 2. Holding Hands – WALL-E. Reason: Possibly the best romantic shot ever, that involves no dialogue or humans. 3. Reaver Spotlight – Serenity. Reason: Both my favourite shot of any Sci-Fi film, and also uses both the music and the use of lighting to make the audience feel as helpless as the characters. 4. The Debris Field – Star Trek XI. Reason: Favourite use of CGI in a space environment. 5. The Local People Rising – League of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse. Reason: Possibly the darkest and funniest comedy shot ever. 6. The Bridge Stunt – Blue Streak. Reason: A fairly cool stunt shot, however, it is completely irrelevant to the rest of the scene without being a scene-filler. I like that. 7. The Joker’s Capture – The Dark Knight. Reason: I love how the camera turns upside to show the Joker the right way up, as if to demonstrate how upside down his POV on the world really is. 8. NSEA Protector II’s Introduction – Galaxy Quest. Reason: At the time of development, the CGI of the shot was awe-inspiring, especially for a spoof film. 9. Donning The Suit – Iron Man. Reason: The shot represents how Tony Stark is now ‘becoming’ Iron Man, instead of just putting on a suit and dicking around. Plus, the music is awesome too. 10. Opening the Trunk – Big Nothing. Reason: Gets the audience’s attention at the very beginning of the film, with connotations of Gangster films leading to speculation on the audience’s part. 11. Passing the Change – Hot Fuzz. Reason: Manages to make a ****ing hilarious shot out of something humdrum and overlooked, i.e. passing change across a counter. 12. The Bridge – Tropic Thunder. (When Speedman runs back over the bridge, chased by the whole village) Reason: A toddler with a knife. Enough said. 13. The Aston Crash – Casino Royale. Reason: An Aston Martin being destroyed. This shot makes me feel ten years old whenever I watch it. 14. Opening Shot – I Am Legend. Reason: Manages to pretty much give you the basic plot within a few seconds. City deserted. One man left. Awesomeness. 15. The Final Shot – 21. Reason: Shows how the film has been told like a story, rather than witnessing an event. 16. Corridor of Bodies – The Prestige. Reason: Finally reveals the true darkness of Angier, like each body is one of his sins. 17. “Considerably” – Casino Royale. Reason: Put simply, Bond is BACK. 18. The Aircraft Museum – the Italian Job. Reason: The scale of the shot is immense, considering none of it is faked. 19. Malcom runs from the White House – In The Loop. Reason: Both funny, and shows the hectic life of politics at the same time. 20. Corridor bending – The Matrix. Reason: It’s just a ****ing awesome shot.
I doubt I will come up with ten of them, but.... 1) ALIENS ~ Ripley finds herself in the egg field and the Queen Alien stretches up and over her in all its nightmarish glory. Ripley tips her head to one side in an odd gesture which for me always invokes the idea that Ripley is saying to herself, "Hm. Yes. I shall kill very much right now." 2) The Chest Burster shot. By today's standards, no big deal, but in 1979, it sent many a person to therapy. The rest of the cast was unaware of what the effect would be and their reaction shots are viscerally personal and real. 3) The first shot of the Space Jockey. Everyone knows H.R. Geiger's work today, but in 1979, not so much. Science Fiction up to that point had never really deviated from a rather Star Trekian look of clean interiors with rather stark and modernistic design. This shot of the interior of the Space Jockey's ship was really the first to question, visually, the fact that alien creatures would build anything even remotely like what we ourselves would think of. 4) And no list of favorite shots which all come from the Alien movies could be complete without this one: "Get away from her you bi......!!" Notice that I only draw from the first two movies. The third was the-travesty-of-which-we-do-not-speak, and while I did like the fourth movie... the style was so very different and full of visuals that were obviously trying to grab my attention, they distracted me from the movie proper. The hyper-saturation of color and shifting of contrast ratio in the opening scenes, the reflected ring lights in Winona Ryder's eyes in the chapel scene (Winona Ryder? What were they thinking?), the strange delivery of lines like, "So, Ripley, I heard you like, ran into these things before. What did you do?" to which she replies, "I died." That was just godawful and made no sense because Ron Pearlman's character had never met Ripley before; there was no reason for him to have that information. As soon as I saw Ron Pearlman and Dominique Pinon I though, "Oh great. This is going to be City of Lost Aliens." And sure enough. It was. If a movie can have a visual version of purple prosiness, this move did. Blech! Oh, and then there was this thing: Alien Newborn It wasn't even scary, just gross and obscene. I felt strangely offended after seeing it.
I have a real soft spot for the scene where Darth Vader is introduced in The Empire Strikes Back. The camera angles around the Imperial fleet... The Imperial March... The unveiling of the Super Star Destroyer... Then the sight of the back of Vader's helmet looking over his command and the first asthmatic breath. At this point you're thinking: "Oh. Him. Nuts." Each individual shot has the build up to the unveiling of the SSD and Darth himself, each one teasing a little more than the last. Each shot perhaps doesn't work on its own, but as a sequence of shots, they each have that 'Oomph' factor. If I had to go for a favourite shot from the scene, it'd be when the bridge of a Star Destroyer is put in shadow by the SSD. It leaves you thinking that this is something new, ominous and exciting for the film. From the same film, the closing scene is also a bit special. Luke, Leia, C-3PO and R2-D2 on the medical deck watching as the Millennium Falcon flies off while a galaxy turns in the background, leaving a cliffhanger for the final instalment of the trilogy.
I love this scene in 'Pulp fiction' - their influences are so charmingly displayed...for example, Mia Wallace's dance was apparently inspired by the way 'Dutchess' dances in the disney film 'The Aristocats', which I think is really well displayed in both these shots.
The long, continuous tracking shot through the school that shows all the characters in slow motion all to the soundtrack of 'Head Over Heels' by Tears For Fears. Epic. Also, virtually every single shot from Survive Style 5+.
I have to say that one of my favorites is the ending shot in Fight Club, where Marla and the narrator hold hands as they watch the buildings around them crumble (Chuck Palahniuk said in an interview that he actually liked the movie ending better than the one he had written in the book).
