Films, TV, games and the rest - give us your best shot.

[Barbas]

Got a favourite shot from a film, television show or video game that you'd like to share? Perhaps a long take, or just a short moment of character expression or a speech from a pivotal scene that you feel has a particular power to it; martial arts scenes, shaky camera usage (please be gentle) or maybe even something that you've gone out and filmed yourself!

Here's an example of a long tale - a scene from The Longest Day, featuring an impressively long crane shot:


...And here's a fight scene from The Protector - everybody likes fighting!


A lot of the appeal of this scene lies in the impressive amount of co-ordination between the cast and crew, though that can be said for a lot of shots of its type.

To finish off, here's a terrifying shot from The Two Towers:


I particularly like that last one for how foreboding it is; we see the black fortress of Barad-dûr in all its malevolent splendour.

 

[Sean Hollyman]

The ending of Gangs of New York. I don't know exactly why but it just seems really powerful to me and the music just fits so well.

 

[Tom_green_day]

When people say they put no effort into ripping of Friends, all one shot:

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I can think of a number of classics. The opening tracking shots of Touch of Evil, Psycho & The Player, the entirety of Rope (I know it's chopped into 8 or 10 segments but you get the idea), the "vertigo effect" in Vertigo or the trunk shots from Goodfellas and a bunch of Tarantino movies.

Too keep it fresh I'll nominate the uninterrupted 6 minute tracking shot of what sometimes appears to be a steadicam, sometimes a handheld camera from episode 4 of True Detective... which apparently I can't post here, so I'll just provide a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_HuFuKiq8U.

I just love this bit in Goodfellas as well. It's just a 24 second slow travelling shot from a medium frame to a close-up of De Niro's character. What I actually love about this bit is that De Niro is acting an entire monologue through body language alone. If you want to count them, he gives 4 different kinds of stares that seamlessly go from boredom to worry, glee and finally an attempt to mask all of these. He gets away with running all those emotions by tilting his head and re-directing his gaze every time he's going through a transition. It all comes out very organically and doesn't feel forced at all. You can almost hear his thoughts.

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To make the scene even better, Cream's Sunshine of Your Love starts playing exactly as De Niro goes through his internal monologue: "It's getting near dawn and lights close their tired eyes..."

 

[Cowabungaa]

Oh there's so much I'd want to share, but the first one that came into my head was this particular scene in Mad Men:


It shows what fascinated me about advertising when I still did a college course related to it. That and it really ties into the show's story as well. It's brilliantly written and somehow it really tugs at my heartstrings.

The ending of Gangs of New York.

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Good pick, I love that movie regardless but that final scene does really stand out, mainly because it's such a sudden shift in tone. It really hits you in the face.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Feast your eyes on these beauties...

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Major spoilers for Neon Genesis Evangelion.

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And just to throw in a video game...

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Major spoilers for The Last os Us

 

[shootthebandit]

I cant find a video but the line in pirates where jack sparrow is trying to convince will turner that he is a pirate by saying he is obsessed with treasure. He then says "not all treasure is silver and gold mate". I always loved that line. The sentiment behind it is so true

 

[Avaholic03]

Even though the ending was ultimately disappointing, that one scene in Children of Men towards the end was impressive and perfectly shot. Of course Alfonso Cuarón is now famous of those long scenes, but IMO that was one of his best.

 

[florgeeblorgee]

It's probably because I only saw it over the weekend, but of all the great cinematography in The Grand Budapest Hotel, one really stuck with me.

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One of the first shots of the movie where the camera pans up and shows the whole hotel and the surrounding area as paper cut-outs was absolutely beautiful. I love how it shows how whimsical and odd the personality of the movie and Wes Anderson as a whole is. It's just so great.

Oh, and of course, the opening scene of Touch of Evil. Absolutely brilliant, that was.

 

[Vicarious Reality]

True blood is one corny yet violently addicting series

Spoiler: Godric burns

Very fun to see this back in the day, i also watched a documentary about early CGI animation which detailed this scene

Spoiler: Spaceships

This scene from 007 Goldeneye is tight, enjoy it in a mirror

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