Pan shots

[Mark Nornes]

On Jul 30, 2004, at 5:24 AM, tim.iles at utoronto.ca wrote:

>
> But I don't think this is particularly "Japanese"--this seems to be a
> technique I can recall from American or even European films, where the
> return to the character gives us the character's reaction to the POV 
> pan.
>

Just as you are careful not to attribute a particular Japanese-ness to 
that technique, you should be careful about accepting O'Leary's 
argument. It's basically using an essentialized Western-ness "based on 
the left/right writing system of western languages," to analyze a 
common camera technique. Remember, this is where Burch got into 
trouble. Joanne is right on to ask us to think about cultural and 
historical context. I don't know about her own question, but I can give 
you one that shows how it might work. The cameramen that photographed 
the remains of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945-1946 shot many pans. They 
clearly felt the pan was the best way to capture the astounding 
spectacle of a leveled city. Being a westerner myself, I'd suggest that 
the reason you find pans in westerns has to do with the sense of space 
you have in the West. It's different. It's typical to be able to see 
tens of miles, sometimes a hundred miles, wherever you stand. I get 
nervous whenever I cross the Mississippi. Japan drives me nuts!

Markus