It could have been done optically by magnifying and moving into parts of the frame, but in the very begining of the film the camera starts on the sign of the department store, pulls back a bit, and then tilts down and "zooms" into the entrance of the department store. It sure didn't look like a crane or dolly shot and I thought that zoom lenses were invented long after this film in the 50's. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
shareNot sure when zooms were invented but I had the same thought. There's a moment later in the picture where this happens as well. I assumed in both cases that they were tracking the camera forward in some modified way.
shareFrom an article entitled "Silents Please" by Kevin Brownlow in the NY Times on March 24, 2007:
"The zoom lens made its appearance in American films with the Clara Bow comedy It (1927). The film opens with a shot from the top of a department store and zooms down to the street."
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article1552932.ece
It really is a zoom.
--
Charlie
I guess I had to go to silents to get intelligent conversation!
Bravo and thanks for the information.
The zoom lens dose not appear until the year 1960, so this opening shot is an elaborate crane/dolly arrangement.
various films including "The last laugh" and "Robin Hood " used use cable cars or downward sloping ramps to achieve such shots.The zoom/track in as they are in the restaurant was commonplace in high end productions all over the world Fritz Langs "Metropolis" as well as Hitchcock s "Farmers Wife"(both 1927)Not forgetting E.A.Dupont's "Moulon Rouge"& "Piccadilly"(GB 1928 and 1929 respectively).Fritz Lang & Abel Gance both used Pendulums for effect as well.
I beg to differ; in his book-length interview by Peter Bogdanovich ("The Last Pioneer"), silent-era director Allan Dwan recalled briefly using a zoom lens as early as 1929, just two years after "It." The zoom he remembered was a cumbersome object as long as a telescope, which required an additional operator besides the person working the camera, and had to have its own leg holding it up because it was so heavy it couldn't just be mounted to the camera like a normal lens. Small wonder that zooms didn't last long and weren't used regularly until they were made smaller and more practical in the late 1950's, when Hitchcock used one in "Vertigo" (he shot the scenes of James Stewart experiencing vertigo by tracking the camera in one direction and simultaneously zooming in the other).
shareInteresting discussion on this thread. That zoom shot really surprised me. If I didn't know better, I would have said the opening was a scene from the 1950s.
...Justin
Zoom lenses were invented in the late 1920's, both for cameras and projectors. In their constant trolling for new ideas to bring in the public, some films were presented in "Magnavision" - meaning that the image, when projected could magicaly grow to a greater size on an expanded screen (made by opening the curtains), all achieved by a zoom lens in the projector. "IT" certainly had an early, striking use of a zoom lens in the opening; but it was not widely used until the 1960's. I could be wrong, but I believe this is when the term 'zoom' was used -- I don't think it was before; I am pretty sure Abel Gance used it in the 1920s and called it something very Gancian like "auto-perspecikon"). Then zoom lenses became so prevalent in cameras that hardly a shot could be made without them. With the advent of television production and RCA studio cameras that made it easier to shoot to tape with zooms instead of prime lenses on a turret, zooming was like breathing, and was much abused. "It" does remain a good example of one of the earliest uses, if not the earliest use of zooming.
shareamazing conversation going on here. thanks guys
shareYes, this really proves that there are things to learn about the Silents and Talkies alike, with this amazing conversation going on here.
Perhaps next time around, we shall study Clara's close-ups because they probably were not taken at the same time as the action in the reel. Even in the Talkies, close-ups were generally edited in to the film afterward.
Thanks, guys.