Early Zoom Shot?


I could swear that one of the shots in "Love Me Tonight" (near the film's opening) is a zoom-in. This is plausible because zoom lenses for movie cameras were invented circa 1932. But zooms didn't become part of a cinematographer's usual arsenal until the 1960s.

Can anyone tell me more about this? And if the shot is indeed a zoom, why did Hollywood take so long to use zoom shots regularly?

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Yes, there are a couple of early zoom shots in "Love Me Tonight". Why didn't they catch on right away? People weren't used to working with them and they weren't sure what to do with the invention.

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Thanks for your reply. 'Preciate it.

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Yeah, I noticed that right away! And there's another zoom shot later on. Decades would go by before it became part of regular film language.

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Not only zooms, but also some early whip pans. Mamoulian was way ahead of his time.

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