In blog post #64 (The Flaw’s the Thing, March 9, 2021), I deconstructed a shot from Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde (1967; Burnett Guffey, ASC) in which a moving cloud formation radically changes the lighting conditions during a shot of the main characters as they run across a cornfield.
Here’s another example of the same effect in essentially the same situation, though as part of a less well-known movie. While Dillinger (1973; John Milius\Jules Brenner) may not have risen to the significance of the earlier film, for my money it’s the best cinematic treatment of the famous bank robber’s life to date. I don’t know what it was about Depression-era criminals that inspired the skies to behave so meaningfully on these two occasions, but it sure makes for interesting speculation about the movie gods and the final destinations of these doomed characters.
If you pour your passion, your sweat and your soul into movies, movie gods will reward you.
I went back and looked at the post from March 9th, as well. I do find it interesting that we can try and plan for perfection, but the imperfections that escape our grasp are the things that can at times connect us to the audience in a better way. We can’t but help get in our own way.
and of course don’t forget the famous shot from “Barry Lyndon” overlooking the hillside as the clouds passed through. It was said that Kubrick and John Alcott waited hours (or was it days?) to get the correct weather conditions for that scene.
As I have learned over the many decades, in order to get those “lucky” shots into the final film/documentary, the editor/director have to have the cajones to include them in the cut, or the best, it’s the only take and it has to be used!