This is the big one.
Drawn-out zooms have been used to immerse an audience in a character’s inner turmoil since the early days of cinema. It’s ingrained in our collective film psyche as a signal that something is amiss. Knowing these spots are only 15s, I worry that whip transitions might create a feeling of disorientation, never allowing the audience to settle into what we’re inviting them to experience.
Instead, I’d have our character simply going about their day...
Until they stop... distracted by something...
The zoom starts. Something is amiss.
Only then do we cut to that first trigger.
It’s vague, but that’s okay, because it’s interesting, and naturally occurring within the scene.
We cut back to our character. Something new catches their attention. We’re still slowly zooming.
We cut, still zooming, to the second trigger. It’s even closer to that iconic shape.
Back to our character. We’re close now. We see the panic building in their eyes.
Now a new eyeline.
We hold on their face before cutting to something even more excruciating.
Our final trigger. The one that most closely resembles the iconic KD shape.
Still zooming.
The exact moment the audience realizes it’s about KD is the same moment we match cut to an extreme close-up of the noodles.
That’s when we finally relieve the tension. We begin to zoom out. The fork enters frame.
We see the bite. Finally, our character is satisfied.
Excited to discuss these together. I feel strongly that anything we add to this idea should be refinement, not needless addition. Everything should serve to elevate the creative, never distract from it — and I think these techniques do exactly that.
🎥