Camera Shots

In the northern Chinese city of Manzhouli, they say there is an elephant that simply sits and ignores the world. Manzhouli becomes an obsession for the protagonists of this film, a longed-for escape from the downward spiral in which they find themselves. Among them is schoolboy Bu, on the run after pushing Shuai down the stairs, who was bullying him previously. Bu's classmate Ling has run away from her mother and fallen for the charms of her teacher. Shuai's older brother Cheng feels responsible for the suicide of a friend. And finally, along with many other characters whose fates are inextricably bound together, there's Mr. Wang, a sprightly pensioner whose son wants to offload him onto a home. In virtuoso visual compositions, the film tells the story of one single suspenseful day from dawn to dusk, when the train to Manzhouli is set to depart.

Welcome to Zambia's Luangwa Valley, where large carnivores like leopards, lions, and hyenas are in constant competition for their next meal. In the heart of Luangwa National Park, this ferocity manifests itself in stolen kills, intimidation, and even cub-snatching. Join us as we shine a light on the round-the-clock challenges of some of Africa's fiercest predators.

Cameras are getting smaller, lighter, more powerful, and can be secured in all sorts of places. In this documentary, camera traps, drones and wearable cameras put viewers directly into the world of animals, recording new and insightful images. But sometimes, those same cameras also capture some purely funny moments. We’ve gathered a few of our favourites from the web. Trail cameras are set up to record pictures automatically when they sense motion. Here’s a video that weaves together some of the more unusual and candid shots found online. The Nature of Things is one of the most successful series in the history of Canadian television.

Beginning with a dramatization of the nightly work of an astronomer at the David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill, Ontario, the documentary film shifts to focus on the workings of the universe. A journey to the stars is depicted in animation and takes the viewer to the boundaries of the heavenly bodies: the Moon, Mars, Venus, Mercury, Pluto, to the farthest regions of space beyond the reach of the strongest telescope, past the Sun and the Milky Way into unfathomed galaxies. NASA alone ordered over 300 prints of the film.

Filmed in the heart of Beijing, in front of the gateway to the Forbidden City, the program was originally broadcast live on Chinese television, and as such is professionally produced, with lots of fine camera work, including many aerial shots of the parade and the central city itself. The first part covers the daytime parade, featuring military displays and floats highlighting successes and achievements over the previous six decades. An amazing number of people present, including the full panoply of official and governmental observers.

Once Upon a Time In the West demonstrates how precision craftsmanship can elevate a picture from "good" to "legendary." With a sound but not necessarily all that original story and a quartet of fine acting performances up its sleeve, it's not a wonder that this is a quality film, but add to that Director Sergio Leone's and Cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli's breathtaking cinematic framing, pacing, and emotional and thematic manipulation through moving imagery, and suddenly that quality picture becomes something else altogether, in essence yielding a masterwork within not only …

The empathetic, hard-hitting tales told in Die Verrufenene (Der fünfte Stand) (a.k.a. The Slums of Berlin) and Die Unehelichen (a.k.a. Children of No Importance) deal with Germany's disenfranchised in a realistic, gritty manner while still adhering to the melodramatic conventions of the day. Although Lamprect enjoyed a long and varied career behind the camera, he was most active as a passionate movie collector and champion of film preservation. The liner notes accompanying this set make it clear that it's hard to apply the auteur theory to someone like Lamprecht, but these particular films demonstrate handily that the director had a keen interest in the medium. As message pictures, they tend towards the preachy and sentimental, and yet there's also a "try something and see if it works" mentality at play here that makes them of great interest to silent fans.

The show focuses on the most secretive missions that have been undertaken by the US and have now come to light. We had complete freedom with our approach. We decided to use a CRT Monitor as inspiration and the acting vehicle for the title sequence. The close up shots depict little glimpses of the secrets that are hidden out of sight, as the camera erratically moves up and down the monitor. We chose a CRT monitor as a reference to the time period in which the secret missions were taking place. We kept the visuals abstract and veered away from showing anything specifically, to add to the intrigue and nature of the show.