#spielberg

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Once you start noticing the blocking in Spielberg films, you realize his shots are often carefully designed arrangements of people, objects, and space. The actors aren’t standing wherever they happened to land. Every position, every crossing movement, every grouping of people has been carefully considered. Looking at these Close Encounters shots, Roy isn’t just randomly surrxounded by neighbors. Spielberg has distributed people across the frame to create balance, depth, and relationships between people.

What’s remarkable is that it doesn’t feel staged while you’re watching it. It just feels natural. That’s the trick. The design is often invisible on first viewing because it serves the story so cleanly, but it’s there in almost every scene.

I seldom venture into first-run cinemas any more these days, but this one was my Father’s Day present, which I very much appreciated! I was especially keen to see the film on account of my youthful enthusiasm for Close Encounters of the Third Kind (chronicled here) and Steven Spielberg’s recent spate of interviews about the new movie, which still have me wondering if he isn’t playing us all a…

Film composer Billy Goldenberg wrote a masterful score for "Duel" (Steven Spielberg-.