360 degree pans
- Andrey Rublyov (1969, Andrei Tarkovsky. "A 360-degree pan around a primitive stable conveys the wonder of existence.") [Thanks to lukeprog]
- Animal Factory (2000, Steve Buscemi. Scene not described by source.) [Thanks to lukeprog]
- Broken Flowers (2005, Jim Jarmusch. The movie's final shot. "...an existential, revelatory 360 degree panning shot..." around Bill Murray. I can't wait :-D [Thanks to lukeprog]
- Death Rides a Horse (1968, Guilio Petroni. A pan around the faces at a poker table.) [Thanks to grandpa_chum]
- Gerry (2002, Gus Van Sant. Two guys named Gerry are lost in the desert. 360 degree pans show their isolation.) [Thanks to stumpy]
- Hannah and Her Sisters (1986, Woody Allen. A tracking-panning shot around a dinner table.) [Thanks to lbangs]
- High Sierra (1941, John Huston. When Roy Earle is cornered on the mountain.)
- The Hitcher (1986, Robert Harmon. When Jim, the hitcher's victim, is interrogated by the police. [Thanks to grandpa_chum]
- Jackie Brown (1997, Quentin Tarantino. During the Del Amo Mall sequence.) [Thanks to Penny]
- Keoma (1976, Enzo G. Castellari. Two 360 pans: first, around Keoma's head as he sizes up his opponent in a gunfight; second, during a political speech to a crowd.) [Thanks to grandpa_chum]
- Madame Bovary (1949, Vincente Minnelli. During the ballroom sequence.)
- The Manchurian Candidate (1962, John Frankenheimer. During the "Ladies Floral Society Meeting" sequence.)
- On the Beach (1959, Stanley Kramer. A shot including Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner in a bedroom of a mountain hotel.)
- Panic in the Streets (1950, Elia Kazan. "There's a brilliant 360-degree pan around Blackie when he's trapped in the middle of a dock rooftop." [Thanks to lukeprog]
- Red River (1948, Howard Hawks. The shot immediately before the cattle drive begins.)
- Show Boat (1936, James Whale. As Paul Robeson finishes the song "Ol' Man River".)
- Tosca (2001, Benoit Jacquot. During Scarpia's 'rage' scene.) [Thanks to lukeprog]
- Wake in Fright (1971, Ted Kotcheff. The opening shot.)
- Week End (1967, Jean-Luc Goddard. The camera pans around a piano player.) [Thanks to pianoshootis]
Help me collect 360 degree panning shots from the movies. Suggestions welcome.
Technical terms:
A panning shot is one for which the camera turns on an axis. A 360 degree panning shot is one for which the camera makes a complete 360 degree turn on its axis.
A tracking shot is one for which the camera moves along a linear path - often literally a rail-track laid for the purpose. Alfred Hitchcock made very effective use of tracking shots in his movies.
A tracking-panning shot is one for which the camera turns on its axis at the same time as it moves along a linear path. Of course, if the path is circular then the camera won't have to turn: it will pan 360 degrees purely because of the circularity of the path (assuming it completes a full circle on the path).
My favorite 360 pan is the opening shot of Wake in Fright, made in Australia in 1971. See this list for a description.
And then there's Disney's Circle-Vision Movies .
"Early in his career, Oliver Stone, now better known for his obsession with political themes, exhibited identifiable stylistic obsessions, including, most memorably, a signature infatuation with 360 degree pans, which appear in all of his early films Platoon (1986), Salvador (1986), Wall Street (1987), Talk Radio (1988), Born on the Fourth of July (1989)."
Jackie Brown (1997, Quentin Tarantino. In the Del Amo mall.)
Lola Montes (1955, Max Ophüls.) Isn't there one in the circus, and again in the palace?
I couldn't find out enough about Lola Montez to include it. But from what I read about Ophuls' style, I'm sure you're right. Can you provide more detail?
One of my faves is a scene around a table which serves as the centerpiece for Hannah and Her Sisters. The pan moves with the tracking, so the the line of sight travels an interior circle facing the table, so I'm not sure if that counts, but the camera certainly pans 360 in the process.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Interesting. I'll have to keep my eyes open. To clarify, you're not looking for circular tracking shots that move around a single, unmoving subject 360 degrees, right? You're looking for the inverse, where the camera stays still and spins in a circle to look at everything around it in 360 degrees.
Another interesting list might be one of "vertigo" shots. I know I've seen it in a dozen other movies besides Vertigo, but the only one that comes to mind right now is Fellowship of the Ring (when Frodo is standing on the path and the black rider is approaching, I believe).
A quick Google search turned up the following reviews that cite 360 pans in films:
Tosca
Animal Factory
Broken Flowers
Andrei Rublev
Panic in the Streets
And isn't there one in Resevoir Dogs?
Sorry to take this long getting back to you. I've added a section on technical terms in "Author Comments" to explain exactly what I'm looking for.
I'm not sure because it's been so long since i've seen it and i have no way of checking but i swear there could have been a 360 or at the least close to it pan in the town meeting scene in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
I haven't been able to confirm this one yet.
IIRC, Whale's Frankenstein is often credited with having the first 360 pan shot.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
I don't recall it. But I wouldn't be at all surprised, since Whale uses one in 1936's Show Boat. I have the dvd, and I'll re-watch it to confirm this one.
I believe the pan is near the end while the monster is in the mill.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Just watched Gus Van Sant's Gerry from 2002. At about the 70-minute mark there are two 360-degree pans, one directly following the other. The first focuses on the upper torso of Casey Affleck's character, and the second pans just above his head to show his remote surroundings.
edit - Now that I read your definitions above, I am not sure whether a camera spun around a central object counts as a "pan" shot. The first rotation around the character’s face would be defined differently than the second, long-range shot of a distant background. And does hand-held place the camera's axis out of sync with the true definition.
Ahh! Too much thinking for a Sunday night. You've got me on the lookout for 360 shots, though.
Have added Gerry. Have added to my definition of a tracking-panning shot. But even if, as you point out, there are complications in the definition of a tracking-panning shot, it doesn't bother me regarding this list, because what I'm mainly after are 360 degree panning shots. No tracking necessary.
From the 'just seen' category - Broken Flowers.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Thanks, but lukeprog already cited this one.
Whoops! How did I miss that?
Sorry!
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
There is a great slow suspenseful 360 degree pan of players at a poker table just before a shootout(of course cheating is involved) in Death Rides A Horse(1968, Giulio Petroni)... I'm not sure, but I think it is actually a sequence of 6 shots with disguised edits, I can't really tell because of the shitty quality of the dvd so I'm not sure it technically counts.
Quote: The only interesting photographic flourish is a suspenseful 360-degree pan of the faces around a poker table, like in the "That 70s Show" intros. Unfortunately this shot is spliced four times, which might somehow be a result of adapting the film for TV format, because I can’t imagine it being physically impossible in 1968 to slowly spin a camera around once - Unquote. - Jonathan of the UK
Hmmm, does it matter, I ask myself, if the 360 pan is made up of several shots? And I answer that I do prefer unbroken pans [feeble joke edited out here], but I'll accept broken ones if they are well done.
my guess would actual be that it is a function of the pan and scan process now that you mentioned that quote, because although the cuts seem to happen when there is just a dark colored wall in the background on the full screen version, i'm sure the previous face would still be in frame on the widescreen ratio, and disguising the cut with a face in it would be ridiculous... then again editing a 360 degree pan on a pan and scan version so that the time between the faces isn't so long and awkward seems only slightly less ridiculous... and for the record, i couldn't disagree more with that guy, there are a few additional interesting photographic flourishes, surprisingly enough both of them involve grave markers of sorts.
On another note I happen to just be sitting down in the hands of another italian maestro that I recall may have used a pan, of interest, to cook up another fine spaghetti... western that is.
Boy was my recollection right, it seems Castellari was about as obsessed with extensive pans when filming 'Keoma' as Stone was back in the day. There were 2 360 degree pans, one was of the same variety as the broken flowers one, rotating around the main characters head, this time sizing up his oppenent for a shootout, and stopping about 3/4 of the way through so the character could turn to the side and watch another character pass through the background, then it continued on another 180 degrees or so for more than a full turn. The second one was during a political speech to a crowd surrounding the speaker, the camera spinning around as he walks in a circle to address them all.
there was also a 180 degree pan that slowly rotated for a 2min50sec single-shot conversation between a father and a son that would fit nicely on your 'long time between edits' list.
I guess it's a good(or bad, depending on how you look at it) thing that I saw this list and have an obsessive compulsive personality... I watch way too many movies in genres that specialize in extremes, and now every time I see an extensive pan, I start thinking 360?... when a week ago I wasn't even aware of such a thing. I am curious if I was the only one that at one point in the not so distant past would have answered no to the question 'are there 360 degree pans in movies?'
I had never heard of Keoma , nor its a.k.a.s, and from what I read it looks like it might be worth seeing. Thanks again.
Yes, it's remarkable how we can fail to notice what's right before our eyes. For example, I have watched Hitchcock's Rope with others who failed to notice how few edits there were until I pointed it out.
I think you'd appreciate the 360 pan in Red River - it's a good one.
oh i do appreciate it... in fact it was the first one I was aware of, when i heard there were such things i went and popped in the red river dvd and was amazed.
Why are Platoon (1986), Salvador (1986), Wall Street (1987), Talk Radio (1988), and Born on the Fourth of July (1989) in the author comments but not on the list?
Good question. And the answer is that I came across that quote during a 'Google' but it didn't have any descriptions of any of the pans mentioned, so I took the quote to perhaps jog someone's memory into providing me with a description(s). Can you?
Fine idea... I panned The Dukes of Hazzard all the way round. Does that count?
The Dukes of Hazzard (2005, Jay Chandrasekhar. Somehow this movie fails to live up to its pathetic source material even as it stops to give a lift to Burt Reynolds only to drive his career even further down the road to nowhere. The only tumbleweed in this dust bowl of a film is the dual casting of Jessica Simpson's buttocks which have very prominent non-speaking roles. This movie will leave your head spinning in addition to turning your stomach.)
Good joke, but I know you can pan better than that.
Several chefs have sent me e-mail complaints about the misleading title of this list :-D Sorry, that's as funny as I feel today. Not exactly piping hot.
That's still pretty funny. Not searingly funny (but then again.) I'm irked that I didn't think of it...
[I am desperately trying to cook up some pun involving crock pots, crackpots and pot shots... but the soufflé, it is flat. Pot-au-fooey!]
...and the "piping" pun was the icing on the cake.
I was confident that someone styled "Odysseus" would make the connection to the musical instrument favored by the satyrical Greek god.
wow! that was clever... gotta say something; thinkingthinkingthinking... help me Athena in my hour of need DON'T PANIC how 'bout horns? NO what about hooves? NO well... I'm gonna have to go with fawning praise YOU KNOW YOU DON'T MEAN THAT well.. it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick YOUR COPING SKILLS STILL NEED SOME WORK
That was BRILLIANT! (and pretty darn funny.) And so artful that I almost didn't get your goat. I got the "piping" and satyr cultural references right away but I forgot about the title of your list. I am truly agape.
Please accept this crispy tasty burnt offering. I am truly humble in your presence.
WHAT DID YOU SAY?!
[ strike 0dysseus down ]
I like your panic and your fawn. Love your agape.
Didn't know a burnt offering was at stake; I too prefer it to a sharp stick.
Does the "strike Odysseus down" link do anything? I haven't been game to try it.
I am desperately trying to come up with a Joan of Arc joke... I'll have to get back to you.
In the meantime, please accept this large wooden horse as our gift to you.
That link was designed to be a simple way for Athena to reply to my post. Feel free to click away.
[ Trojan Horse ]
A good Arc joke shall weld you to me, or at least throw me a curve. Yet I should be wary of a Greek bearing gifts, lest his S prove hollow. [That was meant to be a large 's'.]
the hitcher, police interrogation scene takes it a good 3/4 over the full 360 degrees
Added. It's good to know you keep a lookout for these scenes. Thanks.
I can't help but notice now... it's the main character that is being interrogated not the hitcher btw, i didn't mention that.
Corrected.
There's one in Weekend while a guy practices on the piano and discusses Mozart.
Also, I think there's one near the beginning of Taxi Driver when Travis is hired and is looking around the garage. I have to doublecheck to make sure it's a complete 360.
Thanks for these suggestions. By coincidence I've got my DVD copy of Taxi Driver scheduled for viewing quite soon, so I'll look for that scene.
Unfortunately I don't have Weekend and I'm not sure I've ever seen it.
You know, just before I started writing this reply to you I was talking to my brother about a newspaper article about the history of the planet Mars, and it occurs to me that there is an amusing comparison to be drawn between cinematography and astronomy. As follows:
Consider the two main motions of a planet: orbit and rotation. Both involve 360 degree turns. My original notion for this list was 360 rotation of the camera rather than 360 orbit of the camera around something, but I have accepted both :-)
I love this list! I'll definitely keep my eyes open. And if you see any baguette movies (where a baguette is sticking out of a paper bag), let me know.
The Four Seasons
I don't know which is more disturbing - you collecting 'baguette in bag' scenes, or Odysseus immediately nominating one :-)
The list is about cliches in movies. You know if a flying vehicle runs out of fuel and crashes, it still explodes as if the tank were full? I wanted to document these cliches but the list is huge so I decided to focus on the baguette cliche.
Btw, thanks Odysseus!
Why go from one extreme to the other? I mean if there are too many cliches to list them all, why not select, say, five of the most abused?
Some of my favorite movie cliches are, 1, running down the middle of the road when being chased by a vehicle, 2, cars that leap over other cars when they rear-end them, 3, the good guy/gal gets the better of the baddie then ignores them, letting them recover for a final attack and defeat (so predictable), 4, a car is parked, the motor is turned off, but the headlights are left on (used to be very common), 5, "Oh my God!" (this line is such a common cliche that it would be easier to count movies that *don't* include it). I have concentrated on action-movie cliches because that is arguably the most cliche-ridden genre.
I just wanted to pick one cliche and make a list. I liked baguettes so...
And the absurdity is hilarious. I mean, that's the most random cliche imaginable.
And it doesn't surpirise me that Odysseus immediately nominated one. That's typically Odysseus.