The Visual Language of Steven Spielberg

    In 1969, a young Steven Spielberg walked into the office of director John Ford. Spielberg, a fan of Ford’s, asked the veteran filmmaker what it takes to be a talented filmmaker. Supposedly, Ford pointed to a series of paintings on the wall behind him and asked Spielberg to determine what it was that he saw; inevitably, the novice Spielberg pointed out the subjects in the center-frame. At this, John Ford shook his head and imparted upon Spielberg what he would later call some of the most valuable advice he’d ever been given: “When you’re able to distinguish the art of the horizon at the top and the bottom...able to appreciate why it’s [there], then you might make a good [motion] picture maker” (Favreau). In the subsequent forty years since that anecdotal meeting, Spielberg has undeniably cemented himself as one of the world’s most prolific filmmakers.

    Spielberg’s films vary in subject matter, his works focusing upon stories of wonder and fantasy in addition to those based in drama and history. All of his films, however fantastical, attract audiences because Spielberg’s true mastery lies in the manipulation and evocation of emotion within his audiences. He gives us a sense of immersion with extended takes and tracking shots, heightens suspense by focusing upon relevant objects, and creates an empathic bond with evocative close-ups. In Spielberg’s style, nothing shown within the frame is wasted.

    With over seven billion dollars in box office returns, and multiple Oscars for both himself and his films, he is without question one of the most successful filmmakers of the last several decades. Yet while Spielberg’s success may be unprecedented, his technique and style are anything but.

    If Spielberg’s means and methods are by no means revolutionary, why then, is his financial success and popularity so much more so than those from whom he draws them? It has been expressed, with much aplomb, that the “Movie Brat” clique of the 1970’s is to be credited with revolutionizing the Hollywood film, however, their efforts (Spielberg’s included) should instead be viewed as the culmination of the Classical Hollywood style. Spielberg’s films are able to engage with such a broad audience because he has taken the tried-and-true methods used by those who came before in order to form an emotional link with the audience -- and combines and refines all of these aspects with almost mathematical precision.

    In the article Digesting Spielberg, author Murray Pomerance states: “If the body in and of the narrative is to be taken to be in a pleasurable state, there must be a legible expression which can be apprehended and treasured by those who watch: watch not in order to judge or evaluate but in order to ratify and make a rounding toward completion” (Pomerance). Understanding this, Spielberg’s meticulous attention to detail in regards to framing is entirely in the service of visual storytelling, no real estate is wasted, no placement is superfluous, efficiency in the distribution of information is paramount.

    This can be recognized in a number of techniques that film enthusiasts and scholars have attributed as being particularly “Spielbergian.” Spielberg frequently makes use of horizontal dolly shots and panning shots as means of revealing information in an almost literary sensation akin to reading lines of text. As stated in his biographical HBO documentary: “The camera was my pen. I wrote my stories through the lens” (HBO). In this method, Spielberg uses camera movement similar to moving a magnifying glass over a finely detailed map -- it sweeps over the scene in order to gather all of the relevant and necessary information.     

    We see an example of this in the film Munich (2005), when a sequence begins with a wide shot of an individual gathering items from his car. The slow, dragging dolly of the camera to the left revealing a group of men, seated within a car in the foreground -- the tight, claustrophobic framing of the now previously spacious shot allowing us to share a perspective with the men within the car, hinting to the audience that these are the characters with whom our alignment resides. The camera continues its lateral dolly until our eyes meet the rear-view mirror, giving the audience a glimpse of the eyes of Eric Bana, who plays Avner, our protagonist. Avner then hands the driver a photograph, from off-screen, confirming that their surveillance subject is, indeed, the man they’re looking for. The camera makes yet another turn to the left, this time via a pan, to get our first real look at Avner seated in the back. Every lateral movement of the camera gradually revealing more and more information until, at the end of the sequence, we have everything we need to know to find ourselves immersed in the scene.

  In instances where the focus of the scene is centered less upon the gathering of expository information, Spielberg instead fixates the camera upon a particular object, while the action of the actors continues on around it. In E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), a shot begins with Elliot and his mother framed by the arm of a lamp. As Elliot’s mother exits, the camera pans to the right to follow her movement, with the head of the lamp maintaining a prominent place in the lower left foreground. Elliot then grabs the lamp and swings it back toward him, and, as if attached by an invisible thread, the camera follows the head of the lamp back toward the bed. This subtle foreshadowing establishes the importance of the lamp well before Elliot makes use of the hot light bulb to fake a fever. Once the lamp is returned to its original placement, the camera pans back to the right, just in time for Elliot’s mother to return. Another example can be seen in Minority Report (2002), when a suspect is apprehended by the authorities. After being read his rights, an actor in the foreground activates the sinister looking halo device, which frames the terrified detainee who begs for mercy as we follow him, the arresting officers, and the halo in a tracking shot out the door. From this simple shot, we establish the importance of the halo within the narrative, and the fear that it elicits in those it is used upon.

   However, it is important to note that Spielberg’s primary focus lies within the capturing of subjects, not merely objects. Considered nearly cliché by some, the “Spielberg shot” (also known as the “Spielberg face”) is a shot used in all of Spielberg’s films, without exception. In his popular YouTube video, film enthusiast and vlogger Kevin B. Lee, says of the Spielberg Face: “If there is one recurring image that defines the cinema of Steven Spielberg, it is ‘The Spielberg Face.’ Eyes open, staring in wordless wonder in a moment where time stands still. But above all, a childlike surrender in the act of watching, both theirs and ours. It's as if their total submission to what they are seeing mirrors our own.  

   The face tells us that a monumental event is happening; in doing so, it also tells us how we should feel” (Lee). It’s worth noting, though not a formal scholar, himself, Lee’s analysis has been featured within the New York Times among other publications (Fortunato). In contrast to the horizontal dolly or pan, Spielberg’s inward pushes or outward pulls produces the sensation of internalized emotion. The actor’s face often an uncertain or even neutral mask (easily attributable to awe, wonder, fear, apprehension, or contemplation,) a slow, steady dolly inward reduces all of the subject’s surroundings as immaterial, mirroring the “tunnel-vision” the character experiences as their emotions threaten to overtake them. Alternatively, the camera may pull outward from a close-up to reveal the reason for the subject’s emotional state -- which more than likely results from the circumstances of their surroundings.

    With so many shots and styles attributed to the man to the degree that they bear his namesake, it is easy to believe how Spielberg could have come to pioneer these techniques. However this is far from the case. The use of revelatory lateral camera movements to reveal information is certainly nothing new, with examples dating back to F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise (1929) or Alfred Hitchcock’s iconic opening to Rear Window (1954). Indeed, even the informally named “Jaws shot” is a direct allusion to Hitchcock’s own memorable usage of the technique in Vertigo (1958). Even the apocryphal “Spielberg Shot” and object framing has its origins in John Ford’s The Searchers (1964). As Ford himself is said to have stated to Spielberg’s contemporary, Martin Scorsese: “the most interesting and exciting thing in the whole world (is) a human face.” This is a sentiment which clearly resonates with Spielberg.

    Spielberg himself has made no such claims of ownership or ingenuity, however, and in fact has been rather vocal about his own influences. “I’ve been so influenced by craft,” Spielberg said of Hitchcock. “Why is it that British film is so marvelous for me? I think it’s because they’re careful...as carefully made as a fine shotgun from Purdey. Every part is hand-tooled” (Taylor 23). Of Lawrence of Arabia, Spielberg stated “David Lean created a portraiture and surrounded the portrait with a mural of epic action and violence” (HBO), a statement that can be seen in Spielberg’s films Saving Private Ryan (1998), and War Horse (2010). “All the movie brats learned from the masters,” Spielberg has commented to a group of up-and-coming film students. “We are all handing influences down and inspiring generation-to-generation” (AFI).

As such, it is a disservice to dismiss Spielberg’s works merely because they are not innovative -- nor should they be mistaken for being derivative. Steven Spielberg was not and should not be considered a Hollywood wunderkind because he brought anything new to the studio scene, but instead, because he, like many of the Film Brat generation, are perhaps some of the first filmmakers to be born, grow and mature while inundated with the works of Classical Hollywood. Spielberg has not so much re-invented the wheel, but rather, has merely rounded the curve.

    Such refinement can be seen in the long take, as favored by both Spielberg and Hitchcock. In Rope (1948), Hitchcock uses the long-take to give the film a sense of temporal realism, as we watch all of the events, seemingly, in real time. As is similar to film’s such as modern films such as Goodfellas (1990) and Birdman (2014), the long-take is used as a gimmick. This differs from Spielberg’s use of the long-take, in that he largely desires for it to remain unobtrusive and seamless with the rest of the film. As evident with a scene from Jurassic Park (1993) when Dr. Alan Grant converses with young, overbearing Tim. Every movement of the camera is done in time with the actors, providing the illusion of being embedded within the scene, itself. Spielberg has even cheated intensified continuity in scenes such as the sequence in Jaws (1975) when Chief Brody and the Mayor have a discussion upon a ferry. The scene, roughly two minutes long, features no cutting and the camera moves only on a technicality. “By shooting on a real ferry, Spielberg can use the background action to keep the film snappy” (Ramos/Zhou).

    The “Spielberg shot” similarly, may also have its ancestry traceable to Ford and even Kuleshov, Spielberg experiments with the techniques laid out by both by condensing spatial relations even further. By using reflections, shadow, or other visual cues, Spielberg allows for the audience to see both the witness and what is witnessed, within the same frame. “With great economy, we see what the character is looking at, the expression on their face...and we feel what they feel” (Benedict).

    To reiterate, Steven Spielberg cannot be credited as an innovator, however in spite of what others may perceive as a lack of originality, it cannot be denied that his movies succeed in finding an audience. Does this, therefore, imply that audience’s do not desire originality? Spielberg confessed to his own adherence to formula during a discussion at the AFI conservatory: “[We’re] not going to be bringing anything new to American cinema. What [we’re] going to be doing is bringing audiences back to American cinema, by making popular entertainment” (AFI Conservatory).

    Where Steven Spielberg has succeeded, however, is in combining the best efforts of those who came before and curating those which have provided the most emotional effect. It is, perhaps, in Jurassic Park that Spielberg’s characters delivers the most appropriate line: “You read what others had done and you took the next step... You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could and before you even knew what you had you patented it and packaged it and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now you’re selling it, you want to sell it.”

   

WORK CITED

AFI Archive, “Steven Spielberg.” YouTube, American Film Institute, 6 May 2011, www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdoC-5OI2xY.

AFI Conservatory, “Steven Spielberg, A Discussion.” AFI Conservatory Seminar, American Film Institute, 1978.

Benedict, Steven. Steven Spielberg's Techniques and Themes. YouTube, 7 July 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uCBYFHRHU0

Favreau, Jon. Spielberg/Grazer/Howard -- the Cowboys and Aliens inverviews. HuffPost, 5 Sept. 2011, www.huffpost.com/entry/the-cowboys-aliens-interviews-spielberg-grazer-howard_b_891458.

Fortunato, Joseph. The Gaze and The Spielberg Face: Steven Spielberg's Application of Lacan's Mirror Stage and Audience Response, Visual Communication Quarterly, 21:1, 40-53, 2014

Kenworthy, Christopher. Shoot like Spielberg: the Visual Secrets of Action, Wonder and Emotional Adventure. Michael Wiese Productions, 2015.

Lacy, Susan, director. Spielberg. HBO Documentary Picturers/Pomerinto Productions, 2017.

Lee, Kevin B. The Spielberg Face. Vimeo, 13 Dec. 2011, vimeo.com/199572277.

Pomerance, Murray. (2008). Digesting Steven Spielberg. Film International. 2008.

Ramos, Taylor, and Tony Zhou. Every Film a Painting: The Spielberg Oner, YouTube, 6 May 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q4X2vDRfRk.

Taylor, Philip M. Steven Spielberg: the Man, His Movies and Their Meaning. Batsford, 1999.

 FILMOGRAPHY

Spielberg, Steven, and David Franzoni. Amistad. DreamWorks Entertainment, 1997.

Spielberg, Steven, director. Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Columbia/EMI, 1977.

Spielberg, Steven, director. E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial. Amblin Entertainment, Universal Studios, 1982.

Spielberg, Steven, director. Jaws. Universal Studios, 1974.

Spielberg, Steven, director. Jurassic Park. Universal Studios, 1993.

Spielberg, Steven, director. Minority Report. DreamWorks Entertainment, 2002.

Spielberg, Steven, director. Munich. Universal Pictures, 2005.

Spielberg, Steven, director. Raiders of the Lost Ark. Lucasfilm, Paramount, 1981.

Spielberg, Steven, director. Ready Player One. Warner Bros., 2018.

Spielberg, Steven, director. Saving Private Ryan. Paramount Pictures, 1998.

Spielberg, Steven, director. War Horse. DreamWorks Entertainment, 2012.

Steven Spielberg, director. Kennedy, Kathleen, et al. War of the Worlds. Paramount Pictures, 2005.

Murnau, F.W., director. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. Fox Film Corporation, 1927.

Ford, John., Hoch, Winton C., and Max Steiner. The Searchers. Warner Bros. Pictures, 1964.

Hitchcock, Alfred, director. Rear Window. Paramount Pictures, 1954.

Hitchcock, Alfred, director. Vertigo. Paramount Pictures Corp., 1958.

Hitchcock, Alfred, director. Rope. Paramount Pictures. 1948.

Iñárritu Alejandro González, et al. Birdman, or, (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2014.

Scorsese, Martin, director. GoodFellas. Warner Bros., 1990.