Goodfellas Reverse-Tracking Shot

[word2yourmogwai]

that is really disorienting

[90zlaya]

I discover this effect with my Sony Ericsson k800i camera before I ever seen something like this. 

[flounderize]

How about Push in - Zoom out? I like it

[therealdjcammONUTUBE]

To be fair this isn't the best use of this type of shot. It's overused quite a lot, and there are only a few scenes in history that really warrant this effect. There's one scene where i think it worked quite well in Event Horizon where Sam Neil's character is in duct/vent type thing on a spacecraft and the ship starts malfunctioning. It kinda looks over dramatic but if your really focusing on a psychological meltdown of a charter then you can pull it off without it looking like a gimmick.

[DonRMB]

@therealdjcammONUTUBE Oh yeah I loved that shot! But in here I think is used perfectly too. Its slow as HELL and it made me kinda confused/disoriented/nauseus when I first saw Goodfellas. What Scorsese is trying to Achieve here is for the Audience to feel what Henry is feeling. Remember Henry is strung out on Cocaine and has no money left, he knows he´s about to get killed by one of his best friends(Jimmy),etc. The shot tries to visually portray all of that.

[annehely]

Anyone know how it's done?

[TheKirkYates]

@annehely zoom in whilst moving the camera back at the same speed

[annehely]

Thank you @TheKirkYates, but in this shot, do you focus on the background or actors, it seems the background is only moving? Thanks for your advice.

[TheKirkYates]

@annehely well you can try either doing what i told you, or zooming out while moving forward with the camera at the same speed. and see which you like more

[Mxsmanic]

What was the director's purpose with this zoom and camera movement? Was there something important about what was happening outside the restaurant?

[meNtor890]

@Mxsmanic it shows the feeling, mood. The main character Henry Hill felt there was something very odd about Jimmy Conway's behaviour and intentions. "He was jumpy, he hadn't touched a thing." Jimmy was also nervous and stressed out. He planned to get rid of Henry Hill, the possible rat. Henry was suspicious and probably got a bit scared when he realized Jimmy was trying to set him up for an assassination. The zoom basically strengthens the message or understanding viewers get from this scene.

[Mxsmanic]

@meNtor890 Hmm, okay. The actors don't get any larger in the shot, so it puzzled me. I noticed the background outside the window getting bigger and bigger, so I looked for some sort of significant action there but saw none. It was a neat optical effect, though.

[Gaston088able]

@Mxsmanic Watch the scene again! LISTEN what LIOTTA characters is saying. the tecnique is use for one as a viewer to fell the....paranoia or suspense of being watch from the outside. Scorsese really knows how and WHY use tecniques, many direcotrs just usit to look cool. FOr ex. the copacabana shot(steady cam) really has a purpose in this film, not just to show off like many directors do in other movies!

[Mxsmanic]

@Gaston088able In that case, maybe it had its desired effect. When I saw the scene, I looked for something in the background because it was getting larger, as if the guy getting out of the car might be an FBI agent or something. So it did kind of imply paranoia. If that's what Scorsese wanted, mission accomplished! (At least for me when I watched it.)

[DonRMB]

Best use of vertigo ever.. Makes me fucking dizzy

[ewanmcfadyen]

I always thought it was a reverse dolly zoom (most famously from Jaws)

[DreHectik]

Hey... I'm not convinced this is a vertigo...contrazoom shot.... it looks like the back ground behind the window is growing only instead of all the background.... as if behind the window is a screen of a parking lot that is enlarging..

[DonRMB]

@DreHectik Thats becuase the effect of the background moving was MAGNIFIED by how SLOW the effect was executed.... Scorsese= Master

[OrmerodJ]

It's known popularly as the "Trombone Shot" notice the camera slowly moving backwards in the foreground, with a slow zoom on the background setting.

[MDMart]

People please stop saying it's called something else. It's called so many things it's insane. Dolly in, reverse dolly, reverse tracking, reverse zoom, dolly out, zolly, zoom dolly, Virtigo effect, Jaws effect, Hitchcock effect, Spielberg effect, trombone effect,, uhh. I can't remember the rest. But it was first used in Virtigo by Hitchcock. And it was invented/discoveret a camera guy (of Hitchcock's) named Irmin Roberts

[KillBrownFictionDogs]

In the mean time, you stop calling Vertigo "Virtigo".

[MDMart]

@KillBrownFictionDogs aww, did i misspell a word? Did that hurt your feelings, mr. troll?

[KillBrownFictionDogs]

No but I obviously hurt yours. Anyway, it's just oh so ironic that you make a mistake in a post where you call out on other people who made one. Thence, I thought I'd give you a cookie made from your own dough.

Now shut up and eat it.

[MDMart]

@KillBrownFictionDogs Dear Mr. Troll. The mistake is not the same, dude. Mine was a spelling mistake, their's was a knowledgable mistake, which woulda been ok if they didn't continually argue about which one it's actually called.

[KillBrownFictionDogs]

Alright buddy, let me shoot you dead with this post.

Type in "dolly zoom" in Wikipedia. There's a paragraph titled Alternative Names and among the many listed are all of the ones that you mentioned being "incorrect".

So, so long and keep eating that cookie Marty.

[facecheek]

@MDMart actually, it's really called, "that one weird 3-d looking thing that they do"

[jmh90]

Its actually a Dolly-In. And this isn't the final scene.

[SpawnPirate]

@jmh90 Quoting: "(...) in a final scene of Goodfellas.(..)" See anything different?

[jmh90]

@SpawnPirate

Oh, my mistake.

[theguycalledtom]

This kind of shot is actually known among professionals as the "Georgian Spread".

[eyeqew]

It's actually neither. Set was mounted on wheels and pushed towards the background. Camera doesn't zoom, and it stays still relative to the actors.

[drummerjoe2610]

@eyeqew ur joking right? it's obviously a dolly zoom, do u have some kind of source for ur claim

[eyeqew]

@drummerjoe2610 Camera zooms-pans slightly. Set (with camera) is pushed towards background. I saw Scorcese or someone explaining it on TV years ago.

[alphabetla6]

hey retard, this isn't a reverse tracking shot, it's a dolly out zoom in, like in jaws

[drummerjoe2610]

@alphabetla6 in jaws, they dollied in and zoomed out

[drummerjoe2610]

@alphabetla6 and technically it is a reverse tracking shot, accompanied by a zoom-in

[silentassassin125]

Its actually called a reverse tracking shot, and is one of Stanley Kubrick's signature shot methods

[NielDaRebelde]

@silentassassin125 Stanley Kubrick is dead. I killed him.

[ryanaircaughtnapping]

@silentassassin125 Actually, it wasn't Stanley Kubrick's signature shot, his was just the slow zoom. Is was Hitchcock's signature shot method, hence the reason its nickname is the "Hitchcockian" or "Vertigo" shot =)

[rdecredico]

@silentassassin125 I would say that Kubrick did not have a signature shot method. If anything, it was his major use of wide angle lensing that was a signature along with a slow zoom. This type of veritgo shot wasn't used nearly as much by him as it has been by others.

[NiccKovacs]

this effect is called vertigo.

[FrankSlade1983]

I think I noticed this technique in Scarface just after Pacino and Michelle Pfieffer leave the car shop and get into the Cadillac (before he tries to kiss her and she rejects him). The background seems to be moving, but the foreground doesn't. The effect surprised me the first time i saw it. I guess it must have been this reverse tracking technique.

Any thoughts?

[Garretron]

@FrankSlade1983 there's no way that's correct

[FrankSlade1983]

@Garretron,

go fuck yourself

[Garretron]

@FrankSlade1983 LOL, ...will do

[lemexican]

Its a trombone shot. It is created by zooming in on the camera and tracking back at the same time.

[drummerjoe2610]

@lemexican never heard that term before

[oldiesfan91]

jewpiles and popou are right. Hitchcock created it, and it's called the Hitchcock zoom but it's also called a dolly zoom

[packe777]

@oldiesfan91 I thought Kubrick inovated the tracking shot first?

[5pid3y]

aka vertigo...

[MinamuTV]

@oldiesfan91 Hitchcock didn't actually create or invent it, but he did use it. The actual effect was made by one of his cameramen.

[tomasmesen]

in fact the cinematographical term for this is a trombone shot

[I4gotmyMANTRA]

Its called push/pull, as a bunch of people have said. Obviously, its a very effective way of making the audience squirm. Most people won't evan notice it inless they are paying close attention. I think Hitchcock was the first one to use it. Great technique.

[lloicles]

From what I understand the technical term for this is a dolly zoom

[Soundstage8]

Woa thats pretty weird :P Almost looks as if the backround is a green screen effect :P

[jewpiles]

Hitchcock was the one to come up with this trick in teh first place. Used it first tiem in "Vertigo" i think.

It's a keen effect. And low-tech.

[xzillo40]

i believe it was psycho

[Edington]

Changing perspective in the depth of field

[jomigirock]

It's called a "pull push", where you dolly back and then zoom in.

[riazomonero]

I don't know whether you have seen it, but E.T has a dolly zoom.

Its when you see the whole suburban neighbourhood and it seems to pull back as the camera tracks toward the edge of the cliff.

[Xtronticus]

See, this might not be the "zoom in and track out" shot. It can be a fake set on a dolly. Or even a back projected background. Easier for this as the background is distinctly separate, unlike in Jaws "zoom in and track out" shot.

[popou]

no, its a dolly zoom

[Fughedabouitpal]

this is to show some kind of tension or add dramatic effect. In film terminology this is called the Push/Pull or Pull/Push

[Wartler]

I don't understand what was the point of a contrazoom in this part.

[wikum3]

"he was jumpy, he hadn't touched a thing"

"on the surface of course everything was supposed to be fine"

It's a subtle way of showing that something's not quite right.

[okee9]

If you watch the whole film, that scene is uncomfortable, henry arrives early for the meeting only to find jimmy is there before him and also his chances of getting whacked are very high, theres also the scene after it where jimmy is calling him into the warehouse

[tialeetull]

hitchcock did this too - guess which film(s)

this was also done in jaws - guess which scene

good luck

[Boringcizz]

This shots awesome ^_^ i learnt about this shot on my media course :P il try n do this shot on my next vid...i doubt il do it as well tho lol

[tardfarms]

how is this a tracking shot? It's just a basic zolly

[marty129]

basic dolly?!!!! you stupid fag go watch your ashton kutcher movies.

[tylerwiegand33111]

he said zolly susan,

i am not positive, but i am guessing he combined the words dolly and zoom (dolly zoom)

which is another term for the vertigo effect

[tjwoods11]

how do you do that?

[marty129]

as you dolly the camera back on a track, you zoom in. When done both at the same time, it produces the vertigo effect as shown here.

[kareem222]

Does doing the opposite, dollying in while zooming out, create that effect in Jaws?

[SuicidalSpider]

It does indeed and is the same effect.

[hanshotfirst1138]

In which scene?

[SuicidalSpider]

You mean in Jaws? It's a shot of Officer Brody, right after the shark attack in the tourist-infested sea. AWESOME SHOT

[jomigirock]

In jaws that is called "push/pull".

[SamHusseini]

why does this make sense?

[COJONESDELOSO]

come on you are just envious there =)

[Cloak87]

This is why I'm not shelling out 30G a year for NYU. To learn a contra-zoom? LMAO.

[sbilfer]

I am not a film student and even I know you learn a hell of allot more than just trick camera shots in film school.

[yakuzafreak]

loved the technique..good example is the shot in that french film La Haine,when the three guys are on the building and the background is the traffic of vehicles..beautiful...

[okee9]

Yeah, La Haine has a very extreme example of this. search for la haine dolly here.

[caliphornia]

it's a very simple technique to pull off.

[virnalisi]

absolutely...it's known as the 'VERTIGO SHOT'.

[cosmokramer]

It's in alot of Hitchcock's films. I think he first used this kind of shot in Vertigo.

[jackal9188]

yeah, thats sort of hard to do actually lol

[AGamba987]

You know, I have seen that movie a million times and I never noticed that.

[SeymourBeavers]

That's one of the first things they teach at NYU film school.

[marty129]

did you go to nyu?