Trunk shot

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A trunk shot in Reservoir Dogs

The trunk shot is a cinematic camera angle which captures film from inside the

trunk of a car. Though the trunk shot can be produced by placing the camera inside the trunk, the considerable bulk of a conventional movie camera and camera operator makes this difficult. Therefore, the shot is usually "cheated" by having the art department place a trunk door and some of the trunk frame close enough to the camera to make it appear to be shot from within a car. The trunk shot is a specialized type of low-angle shot
.

In film

This camera angle is often noted to be the trademark of filmmaker

From Dusk Till Dawn, Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Inglourious Basterds. In Death Proof, Tarantino's traditional shot looking up at the actors from the trunk of a car is replaced by one looking up from under the hood.[2]

The earliest trunk shot can be noted in the 1948 movie by

George Miller's 1985 movie Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome when Max, Master and the savage children are following Jedediah's son while escaping from their chasers guided by Entity. It is also used in the John Hughes film Uncle Buck (1989), wherein Buck (John Candy) opens his trunk to reveal a tied up teenager who cheated on Buck's niece. Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead has a trunk shot where the kids are discussing whether the babysitter's body will fit. The 1992 film Sneakers contains a trunk shot when Robert Redford's character is kidnapped. There is also a trunk shot used in A Good Day to Die Hard, when John McClane and his son Jack find a trunk full of guns and ammo in a car they are about to steal. Paul Thomas Anderson used the shot in his short film Cigarettes & Coffee (1993). In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
(2006), there is a scene with a similar perspective, where Jack Sparrow, Elizabeth and Norrington find a buried chest and the camera looks up to them from inside the hole in the ground that the chest is in.

In television

In episode 11 of the first season of

Supernatural and The Boys were developed by Eric Kripke. The trunk shot is also used several times in AMC's Breaking Bad. A trunk shot can be seen in the episode 18 Miles Out (episode 10) from the second season of The Walking Dead. On The Andy Griffith Show season 8 episode 18, "Emmett's Brother-In-Law", Andy, Howard, and Goober are seen looking under the hood of Emmett's brother-in-law's car. In the Netflix series The Umbrella Academy
, season 1 episode 3, a trunk shot is seen when the two hitmen open the car to reveal Klaus in the trunk.

In music videos

  • In Colombian pop-singer Shakira's music video "Objection (Tango)", Shakira is shown from a trunk shot, smiling sadistically at her ex-boyfriend and his mistress, who are bound and gagged in the trunk of her car, which she then slams shut.
  • In Axelle Red's 1998 music video "Rester Femme", Axelle is shown from a trunk shot looking at her husband, who is bound and gagged in the trunk of her car, which she then slams shut and blasts off.[4]

Other uses

The trunk shot was used in the 2002 video game

Ricardo Diaz
's mansion.

References

  1. ^ Reitman, Matthew (May 17, 2016). "Tarantino's Signature 'Trunk Shots'". InsideHook.
  2. ^ "8 of Quentin Tarantino's Famous Trunk Shots (Photos)". The Hollywood Reporter. 27 March 2015. Retrieved 2019-06-06.
  3. ^ "Eight great uses of POV perspective in movies". Little White Lies. Retrieved 2019-06-06.
  4. ^ Axelle Red (2011-03-22), Axelle Red - Rester femme (Clip Officiel), archived from the original on 2021-12-22, retrieved 2019-06-06
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