Simutaneous pan and zoom

V

VideoMaker

Well-known member
Is it generally considered bad practice to do a slow zoom during a pan. I know this is a technique that is at the core of the Ken Burns technique for animating stills, but what about as a shooting technique for video?

Jerry
 
I'll go with a very solid, it depends. Spielberg (a man that HATES zooms with a fiery passion most of the time) used the technique a lot in Sugarland Express and I think it worked very well. It certainly helps hide a zoom better than just a zoom-in or -out by itself.
 
Sergio Leone likes to do it (pan and zoom at the same time), although he does it quickly.
 
I think, like many things, it depends when you're using it, and what purpose it serves. For cheap quick videography work I use it quite a lot. But that's because it's just me on the shoot and I can't afford to spend time setting up a dolly, and also because most of these things are so dry that any movement you add to a shot helps.

However, when it comes to narrative film I think I'd be more prone to setting up a dolly unless it was for a very specific style or purpose. I seem to remember Kubrick used zoom-ins on Barry Lyndon.... and I can't remember exactly, but I think he wanted to reproduce the situation where someone stands in front of a painting and then their attention zones in to a very specific point of that painting. Like if you were at the Sistine Chapel and then you became very involved with the depiction of a particularly grotesque demon dragging someone down to hell.... Uhm, Barry Lyndon wasn't much like that visually, but with the art design it did resemble some later french paintings of the upper class.
 
VideoMaker said:
Is it generally considered bad practice to do a slow zoom during a pan. I know this is a technique that is at the core of the Ken Burns technique for animating stills, but what about as a shooting technique for video?

Jerry
Click to expand...

This is used in television all the time. Sometimes over-used even. So I guess a pan&zoom will have a high probability of looking like tv. Doesn't have to if done nicely, but the high probability is there...
 
typical tv style is a zoom out and no pan. zooming in is a nono unless neccessary. but thats the german rulez.....I think all rules are made to be broken if you know what yer doing ;-)
 
Altman does a lot of zoom/pans. I can think of at least a couple in Short Cuts. The pan helps disguise the zoom. Sideways dolly with a zoom is cool too. There's a good one in The Spy Who Came In From The Cold.
 
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