Whose Credit?

I haven't watch any new movies recently. So I tried to recall the last movie I watched.
I couldn't.
Neither can V.

However, when I try to remember a movie, there are certain scenes that I particularly remember. Those scenes are usually over the top and quite difficult to forget. Best example is the scene in Titanic where Jack tells Rose that "I'm the king of the world!" at the ship's bow and that "flying" scene happens. *retch*
This post isn't about scenes. Instead, it's something more subtle. It's some technique that is used by directors to achieve some form of communication with the audience. If we use Titanic as an example again, I'd say that what I'm talking about is how James Cameron wanted to show how time Jack was having with Rose in the car with the steamy wound up windows. Instead of having Jack vigorously humping Rose, he has Kate Winslet flail a hand and wipe off some of the condensate.

There are a number of cinematic techniques used by directors to create a mood, put emphasis on a particular scene or to put a point across. I'm just gonna share a few I have noticed. These are really really simple stuff and appear regularly in movies so much so that people usually won't consider them special anymore. I'm just wondering when did these things that we take for granted now started? I do not know which movie first featured such a technique or the director that started all this. Any information is much welcomed.

1) Tumbleweed rolling
This immediately conjures up some deserted cowboy town. Or can be the prelude to an old fashion quick draw duel between the sheriff and the outlaw. A number of directors must have used this technique to show some form of desolation.





2) Slow-motion
Slow motion can be used in a variety of ways. It can be used to showcase a particularly difficult stunt that was just performed. Jackie Chan and Jet Li movies always have this. Slow-mo is also featured in death scenes especially when the bad guy is falling off a precipice or the hero takes a fatal shot to the heart. Slo-mo has such a wide-ranging usage I know it's used for other stuff as well. This is not exhaustive.

3) Silence
Of course in the the days of silent cinema, this is not a technique, rather it is a technological limitation. These days however, there are scenes whereby the sound is completely muted to add scale to the particular scene. I remember a number of war movies where the hero will suddenly hear nothing at all and have things happen slo-mo. Slo-mo technique seems to go hand in hand with this technique.

4) Blurry/shimmering effects to show character is trying to re-enact scenes from memory
You know this effect is so effective when the movie's character is trying to speak from memory. I have seen many Ben Stiller movies using this technique. This effect is usually accompanied with stirrings of harp or some stringed-instrument.







5) Blurring of lights or streaked lights to show motion












Zoom! Zoom! Zoom!

6) Black and white to show the past
Of course, this is not effective when everything was in black and white. But these days, the past seems to be painted in shades of grey.


















7) Rotating hour/minute hands of a clock

This is always used when the movie needs to show the passing of time. Sometimes is it modified with crossing out dates on a calendar to show passing of days.

8) Growing pile of cigarette butts in ash tray
Favoured technique used from Hong Kong cinema to Hollywood to show that a person has been waiting at a certain spot for a very long time.

From the looks of this pile, somebody must have been waiting long time.

9) Thunderclap
It's been relegated to B-Grade horror flicks but there was a time when Hong Kong vampire movies or some Hollywood productions will have a thunderclap to go along with the discovery of the whereabouts or identity of the main bad guy/ghost/vampire etc.


10) Music/songs to go along with movie
What I am interested in is, what is the first movie soundtrack. what is the first song specially written for a movie. who first had the great idea to want to put some form of music/score to bring out the movie. was it an adaptation to the western musicals and operas?


It's late. I'd better sleep.