The Cinemas Best Tracking Shots, You asked for it... Options

[KarinaMePlease]

Rashomon
Miyagawa's opening tracking shot of the woodcutter into the forrest is on of the most beautiful moments in all of cinema. The camera is so fluid and steady and controlled. The light is broken by the trees on the woodcutters body and the shot itself is so symbolic.

GoodFellas
The tracking shot into the Restaurant is famous, but my favorite is the 1st person introduction to all of the gangsters. It's absolutely classic.

Pulp Fiction
Not technically a great tracking shot, but I have always loved Mia and Vincent's entrance into Jack Rabbit Slim's. He is so spaced out and the setting is so surreal and weird that it all mixes together perfectly.

My Life to Live
I think this is cinematographer Raoul Coutard's best film. It is simply amazing from beginning to end. I have always cherished his shot of Anna working in the record store. She starts moving and the camera glides behind her. It almost seems as if she is connected to the camera, only is always slightly ahead. So she stops and the camera continues for and extra split second until it catches up.

Amarcord
The setting for this shot is amazing. Middle of town, after a blizzard. The snow is 5 or 6 feet deep and the villagers have cut paths to connect the buildings. The camera follows as the beautiful woman in red walks through downtown and it is absolutely amazing.

Elephant
A beautiful film. The most amazing shot is one of the first ones. The camera is sitting, watching a group of guys play football. A girl comes, stands in front of the camera and looks to the sky. The camera then follows one of the guys from outside and into the school. This shot really sets up the film and adds to the overall tension.

Taxi Driver
The overhead track of the destruction caused by Travis is absolutely epic.

Magnolia
P.T. Anderson has a brilliant sense for camerawork and my favorite is the entrance of Stanley into 'What Do Kids Know?'. It covers at least 3 main chracters, moves up a couple stories, is packed with plot, and is flat out amazing.

[Thunder Chunky]

awesome list

I am also a big fan of the tracking shot in Boogie Nights when the camera goes into the club Marky Mark works at.

Love the film or hate the film the tracking shot in Kill Bill when the Bride goes into the house of blue leaves is also amazing, as is teh tracking shot in Jackie Brown

[Thunder Chunky]

While on tarantino, the tracking shot in Resevoir Dogs is also great. Im talking about when Mr Blonde goes out of the warehouse and gets the gas can and then walks back inside and begins to pur it on the cop.

Love him or hate him Tarantino does have his great tracking shots (which he most likely stole from other films)

[Inc]

Love him or hate him Tarantino does have his great tracking shots (which he most likely stole from other films)

I hate this vendette that classic film buffs have agianst QT. You realize on that logic anyone who has MADE A MOVIE is basiclly ripping the idea of making a movie off from thomas edison. the bastards. Whats the first film to have an extrme close up. Well every film after that "Stole" it from that film.

its so damn flawed.

[Maniac]

I used to be a huge fan of Tarantino. Now I'm just a fan.

I now have learned that Tarantino is more of a scriptwriter than a director. (Atleast that's my opinion.)

Once you learn about other film makers besides Taratino. His style of directing ends up looking rather plan.

I discovered Kubrick...I cannot see any director surpassing him. I personally think the man was the best director there has been in the 100 or so years of filmmaking.

[monolith94]

Part one of a series:

The Thief of Bagdad - 1924

First of all, we must understand the difficulty and rarity of tracking shots in the silent era. Metropolis really broke through with them, but here we see two parallel tracking shots that really open up the world of the film.

We find our hero melancholy, outside of the palace, holding the Princess' shoe. His friend asks him, what's up? or so we assume. In response, he walks away.

Now, we track alongside him, and watch him from his left side as he walks through the city. This was one of the largest sets ever constructed, and while we had seen its impressive detail before, this tracking shot is marvelous in the way that it reveals the intricacy and depth of the world they created. We see markets, merchants, homes, alleys, a whole arabian nights fantasy. It raises the so-far 2-dimensional film and brings it into a 3-dimensional tangibility. The shot is so good, that after realizing what his friend is up to, his evil associate follows behind him, making the same journey - the same shot. It's just so damn good, and energetic in its speed.

Also, there's a great tracking shot near the end, when the mongol army storms Bagdad.

[colliric]

Rashomon
Miyagawa's opening tracking shot of the woodcutter into the forrest is on of the most beautiful moments in all of cinema. The camera is so fluid and steady and controlled. The light is broken by the trees on the woodcutters body and the shot itself is so symbolic.

GoodFellas
The tracking shot into the Restaurant is famous, but my favorite is the 1st person introduction to all of the gangsters. It's absolutely classic.

Pulp Fiction
Not technically a great tracking shot, but I have always loved Mia and Vincent's entrance into Jack Rabbit Slim's. He is so spaced out and the setting is so surreal and weird that it all mixes together perfectly.

My Life to Live
I think this is cinematographer Raoul Coutard's best film. It is simply amazing from beginning to end. I have always cherished his shot of Anna working in the record store. She starts moving and the camera glides behind her. It almost seems as if she is connected to the camera, only is always slightly ahead. So she stops and the camera continues for and extra split second until it catches up.

Amarcord
The setting for this shot is amazing. Middle of town, after a blizzard. The snow is 5 or 6 feet deep and the villagers have cut paths to connect the buildings. The camera follows as the beautiful woman in red walks through downtown and it is absolutely amazing.

Elephant
A beautiful film. The most amazing shot is one of the first ones. The camera is sitting, watching a group of guys play football. A girl comes, stands in front of the camera and looks to the sky. The camera then follows one of the guys from outside and into the school. This shot really sets up the film and adds to the overall tension.

Taxi Driver
The overhead track of the destruction caused by Travis is absolutely epic.

Magnolia
P.T. Anderson has a brilliant sense for camerawork and my favorite is the entrance of Stanley into 'What Do Kids Know?'. It covers at least 3 main chracters, moves up a couple stories, is packed with plot, and is flat out amazing.

good list..

[Inc]

There is an AWESOME tracking shot, maybe my alltime favorite in a movie call Sword of Doom. Old Samurai movie in this scene the camera tracks him without flinching as he cuts through about 20 samurai Killers along a path.


cant find a picture of it but its on the cover of the movie

[iluv2viddyfilms]

I really like the one in The Shining, where Danny is on his toy tricycle thing whatever it's called and pedaling throughout the hotel. A nice low level shot so everything looks big and I love the sound as he goes from carpet to the floorboads.

And I'm trying to remember, but were the shots in Hard Boiled tracking shots when they get off the elevator and kill all those people?

[Mr. Lemming]

The shot in The Shawshank Redemption when it goes over the prison near the beginning is just about perfect. The music too.

[mark f]

Paths of Glory: The shot where General Mireau and Major Saint-Auben walk through the trenches "inspiring" all the men before the battle. It's reprised when Colonel Dax walks the same path before climbing up, blowing his whistle and leading the troops to charge. Then, later during the "attack", the camera follows the men in a harrowingly-sustained battle scene.

The War of the Worlds (2005): If it qualifies, the shot inside the SUV where Cruise is fleeing from the tripods with his kids. Mind-boggingly complex and beautiful.

Munich: There are so many shots in the film where all the protagonists are in different corners of the scene, but the camera just keeps following them and "running around" to each one all in one take, but the single shot which is the most memorable one is the one at the beginning where the Palestinians break in, and an Isreali escapes and is completely free. The camera follows him out into the courtyard as he escapes, but then he decides to go into the neighboring hotel room, get a huge kitchen knife and return to the room where the attackers are. What he does and what happens to him are extremely powerful, and unless I'm mistaken, it's all done in one shot.

[exponentory]

I agree with all said above, but two of my recent favorite shots are the intros to Snake Eyes (be it a few swish-pan cuts, and black cuts) and The Player.

Also Russian Ark is pretty amazing, but I honestly could not finish the movie.

[MadMan_731]

The opening tracking shot in Touch of Evil is pretty radical man. Poor Welles, the studio originally cut it......damn Hollywood exc's.

[mark f]

I don't think the bums cut it so much as they lessened its intent by pumping up the musical score and playing cheap-ass credits over it. Correct me, if I'm wrong, Holden, but they never cut out any of the beginning, did they? They just distracted you from the whole point.

[MadMan_731]

Oh......I was under the impression that they cut some of it. Still, messing with that scene in any fashion is just wrong, man.