Scene Analysis: Jiff Ramsey

This scene is can be broken up into four parts; the dialogue, the prep, the run and the return. Each of these parts makes use of different lens and sense of space.

In the introduction of the scene they use a lens with a “normal” focal length, not too wide and not too tight. This normalizes the scene’s space which is played up later for comedy. They show Jiff Ramsey (Eddie Murphy) standing in front of the cars on the highway and use a small depth of field to separate the two, again, reminding the viewer of the space within the scene.

In the second part of the scene, Jiff is on the far side of the highway and has to run across. To make the audience really feel the danger of the situation, they used long focal lengths that cause the fast cars to completely block the frame in rapid succession. Another effect the long lens has is the flattening of the image making the scene feel more claustrophobic which is a feeling that Jiff is feeling. In this same part of the scene, they use reverse point of view shots (POV) to show what Jiff is looking at and what Bowfinger (Steve Martin) is seeing. …show more content…
To start this off, there is a close up of Kit using the existing setup they had before, but now they zoom it out as he runs. This gives the audience a comedic reminder of the dangerous space they are in. The zoom is a POV of the camera that the crew is using within the movie. The audience can make this connection since zooms are typically not associated with high production value films. They also hold on the long shot of Jiff trying to run across but as he approaches, they cut in more closer shots to show his face and body movement to further the