Monday, 15 October 2012

The Dolly Zoom/Hitchcock Shot

The 'Dolly Zoom', or Hitchcock Shot, is an unsettling in-camera effect that appears to undermine normal visual perspective. The effect is achieved by using the setting of a zoom lens to adjust the angle of view (often referred to as field of view or FOV) while the camera dollies (or moves) towards or away from the subject in such a way as to keep the subject the same size in the frame throughout.  In its classic form, the camera angle is pulled away from a subject while the lens zooms in, or vice-versa. Therefore, during the zoom, there is a continuous perspective distortion, the most directly noticeable feature being that the background appears to change size relative to the subject.

For example:


 
The 'Dolly Zoom' has many different names:
  • The "Hitchcock zoom" or the "Vertigo effect"
  • "Hitchcock shot" or "Vertigo shot"
  • Triple Reverse Zoom
  • Reverse Tracking Shot
  • Back Zoom Travelling
  • Retrograde zoom
  • "Smash Zoom" or "Smash Shot"
  • Vertigo zoom
  • A "Jaws shot"
  • A "zido"
  • A "zolly"
  • Telescoping
  • Trombone shot
  • Push/pull
  • The Trombone Effect
  • A Stretch shot
  • Reverse Pull
  • More technically as forward zoom / reverse tracking or zoom in / dolly out
  • Trans-trav (in Romanian), from trans-focal length operation and travelling movement
  • Contra-zoom 

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