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    The Dolly Zoom

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    FERRAN ORTEGA BRIZ
    The dolly zoom, also known as the Vertigo effect, is a cinematic technique where the camera dollies in or out while zooming in an opposite direction, so that the foreground subject remains the same size while the background perspective appears to radically change. It was first used by Alfred Hitchcock in his 1958 film Vertigo to create a disorienting effect. Since then, it has been used in many other films to emphasize changing perspectives or isolate characters amidst their shifting surroundings, such as in Jaws and Goodfellas. The dolly zoom works by manipulating the perspective distortion that occurs when changing the camera's position relative to the subject while zooming. It requires a camera with a smooth zoom lens and

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    The Dolly Zoom

    Uploaded by

    FERRAN ORTEGA BRIZ
    81 views4 pages
    The dolly zoom, also known as the Vertigo effect, is a cinematic technique where the camera dollies in or out while zooming in an opposite direction, so that the foreground subject remains the same size while the background perspective appears to radically change. It was first used by Alfred Hitchcock in his 1958 film Vertigo to create a disorienting effect. Since then, it has been used in many other films to emphasize changing perspectives or isolate characters amidst their shifting surroundings, such as in Jaws and Goodfellas. The dolly zoom works by manipulating the perspective distortion that occurs when changing the camera's position relative to the subject while zooming. It requires a camera with a smooth zoom lens and

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    THE DOLLY ZOOM

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    The dolly zoom, also known as the Vertigo effect, is a cinematic technique where the camera dollies in or out while zooming in an opposite direction, so that the foreground subject remains the same size while the background perspective appears to radically change. It was first used by Alfred Hitchcock in his 1958 film Vertigo to create a disorienting effect. Since then, it has been used in many other films to emphasize changing perspectives or isolate characters amidst their shifting surroundings, such as in Jaws and Goodfellas. The dolly zoom works by manipulating the perspective distortion that occurs when changing the camera's position relative to the subject while zooming. It requires a camera with a smooth zoom lens and

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    81 views4 pages

    The Dolly Zoom

    Uploaded by

    FERRAN ORTEGA BRIZ
    The dolly zoom, also known as the Vertigo effect, is a cinematic technique where the camera dollies in or out while zooming in an opposite direction, so that the foreground subject remains the same size while the background perspective appears to radically change. It was first used by Alfred Hitchcock in his 1958 film Vertigo to create a disorienting effect. Since then, it has been used in many other films to emphasize changing perspectives or isolate characters amidst their shifting surroundings, such as in Jaws and Goodfellas. The dolly zoom works by manipulating the perspective distortion that occurs when changing the camera's position relative to the subject while zooming. It requires a camera with a smooth zoom lens and

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    THE DOLLY ZOOM (ZOLLY)

    INTRODUCTION TO THE DOLLY


    ZOOM
    If you have watched film and television you have probably seen the dolly zoom. It’s when
    the foreground element stays the same size while the background elements grow or shrink.
    It goes by all sorts of different names such as the The Reverse Tracking Shoot, Zolly, the
    Stretch Shoot, Forward zoom Reverse Tracking, Trombone Shot, Contra-Zoom,
    Telescoping… or The Vertigo Effect.

    In fact it was Alfred Hitchcock who first implemented this technique in his 1958 film Vertigo.
    According to legend Alfred Hitchcock got this idea when he fainted at a party. It was a
    Paramount second unit cameraman Irmin Roberts who developed it with Hitchcock for the
    film Vertigo.
    Since Vertigo, the Dolly Zoom has been used in many other productions – including by
    Hitchcock himself in Marnie. Steven Spielberg utilized this effect in Jaws in 1975 in a
    sudden distortion of perspective isolates and zeroes in on Chief Brody – his worst fears
    have become true.

    The Dolly Zoom was also used in Martin Scorsese’s 1990 film Goodfellas. Near the end of
    the film, in a conversation between Ray Liotta and Robert Deniro where everything seems
    normal on the surface, the dolly zoom emphasizes the world is slowly changing around
    them. Henry Hill has come to the realization that his best friend has just put a hit on him
    and there really are no goodfellas in a life of crime.

    WHY DOES IT WORK?


    It all boils down to the basics of photography – we’re taking a 3 Dimensional World and
    reducing it down to 2.

    Let’s imagine a Camera Obscura – a pinhole camera. We have a subject, an aperture and
    an imaging plane. The light rays from the subject travel through the aperture in straight line
    and onto the imaging plane. We if we draw a straight line from each edge of the image
    plane through the aperture we get an angle. This is our field of view.
    With a pinhole camera, there’s no way to increase or decrease our field view without
    moving the image plane.
    But we can use lenses with different focal lengths (or zoom power) to bend the light. Now
    we can see more of what’s around- get a wider field of view or zoom closer to get a
    narrower field of view.
    By bending the light we introduce a phenomenon called perspective distortion which is the
    warping of objects based on the distance from the camera.
    Perspective distortion does not change by simply increasing or decreasing the focal length
    or zoom. If you sit in one spot and zoom in you won’t notice and shifting of perspective. But
    it does change based on the relative position of the camera to the subject.
    And this is how the magic of the Dolly Zoom works: We increase the focal length (zoom in)
    as we simultaneously move the camera out or vice versa. The zoom keeps the frame crop
    the same so the foreground stays the same through out the move – this isolates the effect
    of the perspective distortion caused by the dolly motion so we see that shifting of
    perspective.

    DOLLY ZOOM IN PRODUCTION


    Theory is all well and good but it takes a bit of effort to actually get a decent dolly zoom in
    production. You’re going to need two things – a dolly and a zoom – that should be obvious.
    You can try to do it on a slider but you might run into the problem of having the slider in
    your shot and that’s not good.
    As far as the zoom goes – you really need to have a camera with a smooth zoom
    preferably a motorized servo controlled zoom. It’s nearly impossible to pull it off with a
    photograph lens zoom. After all, that’s why it took till 1958 to achieve the effect – they
    needed smooth mechanics to pull it off.
    To demonstrate I have a cut of the maestro himself – Mr Hitchcock. I’ll start the shot dollied
    all the way in and zoom out. I’ll keep the aperture stopped down so I get a deep depth of
    field so I’m not fighting with focus during this move.
    Now as I pull the dolly out, I will zoom in at the same time trying to match the speed of the
    zoom with the speed of my dolly.
    Now if I want the opposite effect, I’ll dolly in from here while zooming out. Either way, I like
    to start with the dolly all the way in to get an idea of what zoom I want to start with or end
    with.
    Getting this effect takes a lot of practice to get just right as the speed which you need to
    dolly will change depending on where you are in the focal length range. Just keep doing the
    shot over and over again untill you get it right – just know that it takes a bit of time.

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