My film professor Bear Brown would always say “Never stop learning.” We do this by practicing the craft of cinematography, reading about it, learning new technologies, and dissecting movies and TV to understand what was achieved.
Let’s look at the shot design of M Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin together!
While vacationing at a remote cabin, a young girl and her parents are taken hostage by four armed strangers who demand that the family make an unthinkable choice to avert the apocalypse. With limited access to the outside world, the family must decide what they believe before all is lost.
Anamorphic Lenses
Let’s dig into how I knew this film was shot on anamorphic lenses even though I can’t find any solid info on which camera or lenses were used.
All I could find was that Shyamalan wanted a 90s horror-thriller vibe and filmed with lenses from the 90s. These were used in flashbacks primarily. We could have had a mix of lenses and cameras for different scenes. That’s something the Directors of Photography (2 in this case) and the director would hash out. Ultimately it boils down to what the right tool is to tell your story. Given the unsettling feeling of the narrative, using anamorphics does make sense.
Anamorphic lenses capture twice the amount of horizontal image as a traditional spherical lens. that image is then de-squeezed in post production editing to get the final image. I’ve done a couple Steadicam gigs on anamorphic lenses now and it’s always a weird feeling seeing that strangely square image squished onto your monitor. (You then of course go through the monitor settings and get it de-squeezed so you can see what the final image would be).
Anamorphic lenses have unique properties. You can get fun J. J. Abrams style lens flare, oval-shaped bokeh (instead of the usual circular bokeh). They also feature reduced sharpness (focus is not always perfect!) and increased distortion of the image around the edges.
I mention all this not just because of the beautiful bokeh I witness in the background of certain shots….
look at those pretty bokeh ovals
… I also say that because it motivates the characters to be up front and center-framed more often than on the sides. There are a lot of shots where characters are center framed. The viewer’s focus goes to the center and everything else is set dressing for whatever the center of attention is.
You also notice distortion if you look at any straight lines, such as doorways, bookshelves, etc. The lenses make them bend away at an unnatural angle. As you’re watching a film with this lens, you don’t typically notice this if you’re not looking for it. Your mind is focused on the story and characters and subtly translating this background information to be a little unsettling or off-putting.
A lot of other shots, however, were framed predominantly on the right. This is interesting because assuming you read left to right, you would look at the image from left to right, even if it happens in an instant. Often times, an important character will be on the left of the screen. Or you may have an equal distribution of shots that are framed left, right, and center. What made these right framed shots stand out was the sheer number of them. When things weren’t centered, they were right of frame.
I believe this was to keep things off-balance and to give the viewer time to scan the image before settling on the subject in frame.
Camera Movement
The use of camera movement was very intentional in this film. Most of the time, it felt like the camera was attached to whatever it was following, like Leonard’s low shot of his feet walking in the woods.
You can see that walking shot in the beginning of this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgk1VGlWiDI
Another great shot, which I can’t find a clip of, is when the parents are confronting the people who invaded the cabin. the camera is basically stuck to a close-up on the parent’s face as he circles in the cabin. It was probably accomplished using a snorricam technique. A snorricam is a device that mounts a camera directly to an actor. Think “way too much effort for a selfie.”
Even better was this really cool shot of Leonard swinging his weapon. The camera movement is perfectly timed and matching the angle of the axe coming down.
Big spoiler if you see the video of this scene, but here’s Leonard swinging that axe: https://youtu.be/p3Zth0YEn5A?si=07_S3tmxakWRlmrF&t=147
The DP’s also used a famous technique of a zoom-dolly (ala the famous beach scene in Jaws) to underscore when Leonard is proving that his doomsday story is real. The technique is achieved by utilizing a zoom and pushing in or away from an actor at the same time. The resulting distortion creates an uncomfortable feel that warps reality around the character. Pretty cool!
Look at how the perspective of the TV behind him changes over the course of this shot.
See that zoom-dolly in action here: https://youtu.be/xf8ILZnoSr4?si=wDYOefTrl0ymYX_n&t=74
Details hidden in the background
There’s a flashback to when Andrew and Eric adopt Wen from China. I used Google Lens to translate this text: “Children, when we love others, we should not only love them with words and tongues, but also show them in actions and sincerity.” It directly ties into what Leonard says about this couple having to choose who should die in order to save the world.
The blackboard in the cabin had a few questions on it. I started looking at it but didn’t really think about them until I came across this screenshot.
The questions are:
- Who invented chess?
- The first color named?
- Why school buses don’t have seatbelts?
The answers to those questions, when searched are:
- Uncertain. The origin is unknown though it likely originated from the Indian game of chaturanga.
- Light and Dark (White and Black). In almost all languages this is the case.
- They are bigger, heavier, and sit off the ground. Buses protect kids through compartmentalization.
In this small detail, we see nods to our Indian director (Shyamalan), the concept of light and dark (good and evil) and the safety of many. It directly speaks to the film’s themes and it’s just a thing in the background you might miss as you’re watching the action of the film take place.
Credit to the DP’s Jarin Blaschke and Lowell A Meyer for some really interesting work.
So is the movie worth watching?
Eh, well that’s up to you. For the purpose of seeing these shots in action? Sure. I like the unique way this film was shot, obviously enough to write about. But upon finishing the movie with a friend, we were both left with a bunch of questions and a puzzling sense of “was this movie good or not?” The movie both under- and over-explains the premise. I don’t get answers I want. I’m left wondering if certain actions were necessary. I think the bones of a good story are there, probably present from its beginning as the 2018 novel Cabin at the End of the World by Paul G. Tremblay. Shyamalan’s script version is reminiscent of the awkward dialogue I don’t like in his other movies. Maybe I’m biased. I’m still mad about The Last Airbender and annoyed that I wasted time watching trees blow gently in the breeze in The Happening.
Sources:
Knock at the Cabin – Prime
What are Anamorphic Lenses? – PhotographyLife.com
Anamorphic Lenses: The Key to Widescreen Cinematic Imagery – BHPhoto
Bridget LaMonica 