Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Frontline

Frontline is probably the most well shot show news program on tv. Most of their stories are document heavy and they have to "invent" most of their b-roll. I especially like (and have stolen liberally) the "superslow-push with out of focus foreground" shots. They also do creative stuff with documents, stuff I would like to try to copy once we get our new editing setup.

They also are using shots before one might normally use them. That is to say, they use the shot set-up or camera adjustment, or a whip pan for various effect.

The Tank Man episode is a really great example of this.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tankman/view/
They start out the show with stylized, ominous video of tiananman square. The tripod is unlocked and the camera whip pans, with a nat cue of the 1989 video. It's jarring and effective.

The new episode, Bush's War has one of my favorite shots though. In part one, chapter 5, at 3:44 is, I think, a great shot. It's just a simple push on a helicopter through the trees. The combination of the push through the trees, with the lens flare from the sun, and the smooth motion is almost magical.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/bushswar/

This is a compilation show of all their Iraq shows, the first time they used this shot, they just used the push part. Here, they use the shot set up too, which is sort of informative and kinda cool to see. This episode is 4 hours, but it's got all their best stuff since the war began.


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