#BACK TO THE FUTURE THEME PROFESSIONAL#

Once they are inside the Delorean, they are no longer part of the average suburban neighborhood with which they are familiar, and framing them within the border of the windshield makes this particularly apparent. This is appropriate since in the next shot, these three will literally leave their present environment and travel into the future via the Delorean/time-machine. The subtle reflections of the neighborhood trees on the glass further emphasize this barrier. This serves to contain our three subjects within the vehicle and separate them from the rest of the landscape. In this frame, the windshield of the Delorean dominates the shot, creating a slightly smaller frame within the overall frame of the cameraвЂ™s field of view. We can break this particular frame into several elements, beginning with the overall composition and placement of the characters. To get started, letвЂ™s take a look at an iconic scene from the ending of вЂњBack to the FutureвЂќ (Zemeckis, 1985) - the scene in which Doc Brown delivers the famous line, вЂњWhere weвЂ™re going, we donвЂ™t need roads.вЂќ Specifically, weвЂ™ll take apart a particular frame showing all three characters - Doc Brown, Marty McFly and Jennifer Parker - squeezed together into the Delorean just before being propelled into the future for the next installment of the series. This exercise not only exposes the techniques other directors and cinematographers have used in their work it forces us to think about the demands of storytelling so that we may come up with our own solutions to creative problems we encounter on set.

Taking the time to examine a film shot by shot is one way to improve our own work.

To discover what matters in an image and to understand why particular images work the way they do, it helps to take a closer look at films we admire - to learn by example.

#BACK TO THE FUTURE THEME PROFESSIONAL#

With quality cameras readily available to even the most novice shooter, what sets great storytellers apart from the average video producer is not superior image quality resulting from professional gear, but the attention to detail required to make meaningful images.

Back to the future theme