Trunk shot
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Trunk shot is a camera angle used in cinema when one or more characters need to retrieve something or someone from the trunk of a car. Though the trunk shot can be produced with great difficulty by placing the camera inside the trunk of a car and filming the action outside the trunk of the car, it usually is "cheated" by the art department by placing a trunk door and some of the trunk frame close enough to the camera to make it appear to be shot from within the trunk. This allows the considerable bulk of a movie camera and camera operator to have a free range of movement without risk of damage to the camera or operator, makes the shot logistically easier, and allows the normal crew and equipment used in filmmaking to be utilized.
This camera angle is often noted to be the trademark of film maker Quentin Tarantino who disputes that he puts the shot in his films as a trademark and simply asks "Where would you put the camera?".[citation needed]
Possibly the earliest trunk shot can be noted in the 1972 movie by Wes Craven, The Last House on the Left when the two kidnapped teenagers have been stuffed into the trunk by their captors. The technique also has been used in the film Goodfellas in 1990 where the characters of Liotta, De Niro and Pesci opening the trunk of their car, ready to kill the man within.
