The cinematography of Bird Man

I’m going to discuss and analyzed the relation between the film form and the film content from the aspect of cinematography. The function of long shots is present the story as realistic as possible. The special feature of cinematography of Bird Man is its cinematography. The director utilizes several high technically long shots through the almost whole setting. Bird Man has quite a lot scene that need to be shot on the opening stage and its narrative structure imitates a style of a theater which requires everything to be one take. Long shot also has a documentary specification which makes the film feel closer to the viewers because long shot keep a story represent as a truth situation. 

A long shot mobile frame often used on following to show a character passes through a long gloomy corridor. There are lots of information captured by the framing and those informations gave the audience a different experience. Framing’s cinematography involves careful construction by filmmaker and rewards close observation by viewers. (The Film Experience, 106)  )For example when Riggan passes through the narrow corridor, the camera turn to another side and close up to the woman that Riggan meets by. The scene has not been cut to give a close up shot on the woman separately. Seen from this aspect this framing develop a point of view and represent a realistic story in a lifelike way to the audience. Then the camera keep following and capturing Riggan’s shoulder or the back of him. Some extra actor will quickly appear in the frame but without disrupting the shot. This shows the reality of the sequence and give the audience a real experience. The color of the frame often presents a very gloomy and stuffy surrounds. This motivation behind the color tries to create a emotional effecting on the audience and make them empathize with Riggan’s depressed feeling.   

The camera is always in two positions which are following a person and spinning. The camera follows as soon as the person moves, the framing often gives lots of noisy and pointless background information to the audience. During the long take shot the cinematographer adjusts the the camera distance subtly without changing any depth of filed in order to slightly confuse the audience on what to focus on. As soon as the characters stop moving the camera will spin around them and the audience cannot receive the message that is shown in front of them. However when the camera stops moving, the things that the audience needs to be focus suddenly become clear. Then the camera distance will change from medium to a close up shot to make a clear point of view of the character’s perspective. 

For instance this camera is spinning around the table when four characters are having a conversation. 

The camera keep moving closer to develop a close up shot on Riggan to give the audience a expression of Riggan. This makes the audience extremely focused on Riggan and to empathize the isolation and the emotion of Riggan.  A long shot at the same time as close up shows a process of mood changing of the character. Between close-ups and long shots, a medium shot describes a middle ground in which we see the human body from the waist or hips up, as in The Maltese Fal-con(1941), while a medium long shot slightly increases the distance between the camera and the subject. (Corrigan and White, 110)In this case the combination of long shot and close-up help the film form describe the film content better than cut to close up shot because a close up shot just to show a character’s faces where a long take shows the process of changing expression.

For the entire film, long shot help the film perform as a real experience. It decreases the isolation between the film and the reality and imbued with strong artistry in the scene. The color in the frame are always dim and surrounding antiquated environment. This establishes a gloomy and anxious mood overall. On my perspective I think the setting can help the film perform a excellence representation. For instance the corridor always been shape by perpendicular line. They develop a expression of Riggan’s disturbing and his anxious depressed and struggling feeling. The whole film is in a perspective of Riggan and the gloomy pathetic style has shown.

Works Cited

Bird Man. Dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu. Regency Enterprises, 2014. Film.

Corrigan, Timothy and Patricia White. The Film Experience: An Introduction. Third Edition. New York: Bedford/St Martin’s, 2012. Print.