David Yates and the Straight-on Shot: Video Essay on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

This is video essay about director David Yates' use of what I call "straight-on shots" in "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." It makes "fair use" of copyrighted material as deemed by U.S. Copyright Law.

Of note is the fact that some of the sequences in the film were edited down slightly. Also, the aspect ratio of both "The Order of the Phoenix" and "The Half-Blood Prince" is 2.35:1, but they're mostly viewed in a 4:3 aspect ratio here. Additionally, I realize that not all of the shots I discuss are purely straight-on shots, many of them being slightly angled. This makes me feel that commiting many straight-on shots to film was not a conscious effort on the part of Yates and his colleagues, but rather came about organically.

Here's a link to the blog post by the film studies professor David Bordwell, which was the only discussion I could find about this kind of shot. http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/?p=275

Feedback and further discussion are very welcome!

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• harry potter
• order of the phoenix
• david yates
• video essay
• cinematography
• shot composition
• planimetric
• auteur theory
• slawomir idziak
• mark day
• daniel radcliffe
• j. k. rowling
• wes anderson
• half-blood prince
• reverse shot
• hog's head
• dumbledore's army
• hogwarts
• critical theory
• analysis
• critique
• criticism
• review

[Roubiere]

Great work. While watching your essay, I was reminded of Greenaway's A Zed and Two Noughts. It uses this sort of shot very frequently. Greenaway was trying to approximate Vermeer's style in cinema. Incidentally, Vermeer and similar artists (e.g. Jan van Eyck) use this 'shot' a lot too.

[CogsnCave]

I haven't seen any Greenaway before, but after a brief browse through YouTube videos of his work, I'm surprised by how much of his filmmaking is purely tableau compositions. As a mainstream film with requisite action scenes, "Order of the Phoenix" obviously has nothing on Greenaway's employment of this technique, but it's enough to titilate me with what Harry Potter would look like if filmed as art cinema. ZOO looks fascinating. Thanks for the recommendation.

[LeftHandOfLink]

Dude, you rock! That was amazing! Learned so much about how camera styles can show different meanings. It seems logical and right, anyways. Everything you said is very relevant and agreeable. Keep it up, man!

[CogsnCave]

Thanks! It's great to hear someone getting something out of the video essay.

[SnitchSeeker]

:).Bravo,bravo.A very interesting essay. I hadn't notised all these "straight - on shots",whne watching the movie the first time around, but now I realize how much they develope the characters and Rowling's storylines. Looking forward to hear more on such topics from you.:)

[CogsnCave]

Thanks very much for the encouraging feedback! I hope to do more video essays in the future.

[cinemaker006]

The final shot of the final film is a straight-on shot of Harry. How perfect haha.

[347UMOM]

I think some of the guys before me said it pretty well, but I found your video very entertaining and inspiring as a cinematographer. I'm now looking forward to see more of your videos. It's a shame that Bordwell doesn't do vlogs this way, having the images rolling with the text being narrated. Anyway, thanks, keep it up, etc. I wish the best for you!

[Grissha]

That's really interesting. I hadn't noticed that Yates used this composition so often. I'm not very fond of over the shoulder shots, so I quite like that Yates mostly avoids it. He's a good thing that happened to Harry Potter.