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Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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Thu, 25 Aug 2016 11:03:51 -0500
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Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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Kevin Mac Donnell <[log in to unmask]>
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That's exactly why I ask. I see no way that anyone could "zoom in" 
textually, without it sounding like some kind of chase scene. I was 
distantly involved in two films projects here in Austin, one in the 1980s, 
and one fifteen years ago, and picked up some jargon, mostly now forgotten, 
but I can say that there is no strong consensus on the terminology. I just 
glanced at some online glossaries and this lack of consensus is reflected 
there also, with online sources hilariously mistaken (cf wikipedia) but 
sometimes quite good. Somebody should consult Ken Burns and get an expert 
opinion.

Kevin
@
Mac Donnell Rare Books
9307 Glenlake Drive
Austin TX 78730
512-345-4139
Member: ABAA, ILAB
*************************
You may browse our books at:
www.macdonnellrarebooks.com


-----Original Message----- 
From: Wolfgang Hochbruck
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2016 10:09 AM
To: Mark Twain Forum ; Kevin Mac Donnell
Subject: Re: Life on the Mississippi passage

...true -- and the LoM passage might be read as sequential
jump-cuts alright. But a _really_ cameratic zoom-in is
difficult to do in literary fiction (and i am still trying
to figure out HOW Belasco did it at the beginning of _The
Girl of the Golden West_). It is possible and has been done
in stream-of-consciousness passages of modern novels, but
in the 19th c. conventional syntax structures would still
have blocked that route.

best,
w

On Thu, 25 Aug 2016 09:58:25 -0500
Kevin Mac Donnell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Are we talking about a zoom-in (a single camera moving
> in) or a sequence of
> jump cuts, each one closer to the scene of action? They
> are not the same.
>
> Kevin
> @
> Mac Donnell Rare Books
> 9307 Glenlake Drive
> Austin TX 78730
> 512-345-4139
> Member: ABAA, ILAB
> *************************
> You may browse our books at:
> www.macdonnellrarebooks.com
>
>
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: Hal Bush
> Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2016 7:56 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Life on the Mississippi passage
>
> Yes!  Joe & Wolfgang; even more specifically; a zoom-in,
> establishing shot.
>
> Psycho!  good one!  also thought of:  The Birdcage
> (terrific opening zoom
> right into the club); Saturday Night Fever (not exactly
> zoom in); The Dark
> Knight; (are there others?)
>
> Alternatively: there is the amazing scene in Gandhi
> zooming out from the
> funeral.
>
> -hb
>
> On Thu, Aug 25, 2016 at 4:08 AM, Wolfgang Hochbruck <
> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > ...actually, I feel like i should chime in here because
> Joe said "Zoom
> > in" first, and then "establishing shot", and he is
> right on both counts,
> > only that narratologically "establishing  shot" is the
> general category,
> > including also bird's eye, pan(orama) shot etc.  The
> really wild thing
> > is that what Twain uses here - and what Belasco adapted
> for the theatre
> > -- is really a cameratic technique before any camera
> could do something
> > like it. Like with a number of other developments, the
> technology here
> > followed the writer's imagination.
> >
> > best  wishes,
> > w
> >
> > Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hochbruck
> > Department of English /
> > Centre for Security and Society
> > Albert Ludwigs University
> > 15 Rempart St.
> > D- 79098 Freiburg
> >
> > Am 25.08.2016 08:18, schrieb Joe Alvarez:
> > > Establishing shot, that's probably the closest one
> yet. The description
> > from=
> > >   Life on the Mississippi reminds me of the
> opening--establishing
> > shot--of Al=
> > > fred Hitchcock's Psycho.
> > >
> > > Joe Alvarez
> > > 900 Havel Court
> > > Charlotte, NC 28211-4253
> > > Telephone: 704.364.2844
> > > FAX: 704.364.9348
> > >
> > > Sent from my iPad
> > >
> > >> On Aug 25, 2016, at 1:47 AM, Peter Salwen
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > >> =20
> > >> What you called the"birds-eye view" might also be
> called an
> > >> establishing
> > >> shot
> > >> Not by Twain, though.
> > >> =20
> > >> On Aug 25, 2016 1:27 AM, "Joe Alvarez"
> <[log in to unmask]>
> > wrote:
> > >> =20
> > >> How about "zoom in"? That is what is happening in
> your description.
> > >> =20
> > >> Joe Alvarez
> > >> 900 Havel Court
> > >> Charlotte, NC 28211-4253
> > >> Telephone: 704.364.2844
> > >> FAX: 704.364.9348
> > >> =20
> > >> Sent from my iPad
> > >> =20
> > >>> On Aug 24, 2016, at 8:33 PM, Wesley Britton
> <[log in to unmask]>
> > wrote:
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> I have a question about one passage in Life on the
> Mississippi. I
> > suspect=
> > >> i=3D
> > >> t
> > >>> will be very familiar to many of you.
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> It's the passage where we first get a birds-eye
> view of a place along
> > the=
> > >>> river before Twain narrows his focus to one town,
> then one street,
> > >>> then
> > >> on=3D
> > >> e
> > >>> house, then a sleeping man on a porch.
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> Back in grad school, a professor used a term to
> define this technique
> > of
> > >>> moving from the general to the specific, but I
> can't figure out now
> > what
> > >>> term he meant.
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> Any ideas?
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> Dr. Wesley Britton
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> Author, Beta-Earth Chronicles
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> www.drwesleybritton.com
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> >
>
>
>
> -- 
> Prof. Harold K. Bush
> Professor of English
> 3800 Lindell
> Saint Louis University
> St. Louis, MO  63108
> 314-977-3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h)
> <www.slu.edu/x23809.xml>

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hochbruck
Dept. of English / Centre for Security and Society
Albert Ludwigs University Freiburg
Rempart St. 15
D-79098 Freiburg
Germany 

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