Goodfellas - Cinematography

Whilst watching Goodfellas, we were asked to take notes on several cinematography techniques within the film. This included camera shots, camera movement, camera angles, focusing and framing.
Here are the notes i took whilst watching the film..

The film starts with a scene where a speeding car is being tracked by the camera along a dark road. It's night and the main features of the car are the head lights. This imeadiately grabs the audience's attention as their eyes are forced to focus on the moving car.

The scene is then cut to the inside of the car, showing 3 men, 2 seem to be asleep. The driver, Henry, is shown using a close up shot, it reveals that he looks exhausted as he rubs his eyes. He looks like he is about to fall asleep. 

Henry stops the car after he thinks he's "hit something". A long shot is used to show the three guys walk to the back of the car. The camera then moves to a close up of the boot of the car, this allows the audience to understand that the noise is in fact coming from the boot.

                                             

  A pan shot is then used to show the three men who have surrounded the boot of the car. All of whom seem to be holding different objects.

Starting with Jimmy who is holding what looks like a baseball bat, then to Tommy who pulls out a knife from his jacket, ending finally with Henry, who is keeping hold of the car keys.








The techniques used in just the first 1/2 minutes have already done their job at drawing in the audience. The close up of the car, the close up of Henry and the pan of the 3 men, have left the viewers guessing and wanting more.

Here are some examples of other cinematography techniques used throughout the film.

Extreme Close-up
These shots are usually used to show a particular object up close or a part of the face. This technique can be seen when young Henry is shown looking out of his window at the "gangsters". This allows the audience to observe and interpret his expression, from what is seen it looks plain and blank, yet you can see the longingness in his eyes, his hunger to be with the "gangsters"

Medium Shot - Low Angle Shot
A scene near the beginning of the film shows Henry's father talking down to him. The use of the low angled camera, captures and portrays this as his father looks taller, powerful and exceedingly stronger compared to Henry. It captures his expression of anger and disappointment as he learns his son has been skipping school to help run a taxi company.

Long Shot
The explosion in the screen shot below shows Henry, a mere silohuete compared to the bright flames, burning behind him, he has just blown up Paulie's taxi company, at Paulie's request. Whilst the screen shows the build up of events, a voice over is heard, it is the voice of the older Henry, narrating the film. As the explosion occurs, the camera is frozen, showing Henry running and the flames building up. All that is heard is Henry's voice.

Henry states; "One day, some kids from the neighbourhood carried my mothers groceries all the way home, you know why? it was out of respect"
This shows that not only is Henry fearless, running from a huge explosion, but he is also extremely well respected in the community he lives in.

Steady Camera Shot
A scene later on in the movie shows Henry taking his new girl Karen to the Copacabana. During the whole build up of entering the club, they are both followed by the camera man, starting in the street, through the short-cut entrance, through the kitchen straight into the main club.

As they move deeper into the club, you can see that Henry has many connections and is well respected by people, and also has a high status in the area.