Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Deconstruction: The Busby Berkeley Shot

A split second after LEVI-STRAUSS finishes speaking...

CUT TO

TOP-DOWN SHOT at ceiling level of the auditorium, of Levi-Strauss surrounded by his fans.

Over the next beats, him move about him while LEVI-STRAUSS is the FIXED POLE. What we see should be evocative in some form, even shamelessly, of a classic BUSBY BERKELEY shot of a musical stage number, found in many of his movies, but instead of dancers moving in delightful coordinated movements, it should have a feeling that is beehive-like, spontaneous, glacially chaotic and not at all frenzied, tantalizingly close at some points, with certain pairs or triplets of individuals, to something that might possibly be a jovial medieval dance, and the negative black-for-white of the conventional Berkeley shot in that the we dark clothed people moving againt a light background of the floor.

During this we hear the same music continue from the zoetrope montage of Levi-Strauss.


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