How Alfonso Cuarón Makes Every Shot Count

Regarding camera movement, Cuarón says:

“For Children of Men, we wanted to take advantage of the element of real time. It’s a documentary approach. As if you were just following characters around with your own digital camera in the year 2027.” 

When we sit down to watch a video, we typically understand that what we are seeing is artificial. There is no dinosaur or gargantuan boulder that is in danger of killing us. In essence, we experience thrills without the threat of physical harm.

For Cuarón though, the primary objective is to conceal this artifice. Perhaps most importantly, Alfonso Cuarón movies turn the viewer into an active participant in the narrative.  

When Theo Faron dodges an explosion, or fends off angry transients, the audience is right by his side.

The shake and hesitation of the camera movement enhances the suspense of the scenes. Instead of keeping the audience at a distance, Cuarón makes us feel like one of Faron’s accomplices.

This is a story of escape, where danger literally lurks behind every corner. Ultimately for Cuarón, if an audience is going to engage with a narrative, they need to feel as if they are a part of it.

To learn more about Alfonso Cuarón's "oners", just take a look below:

Right from the get go, Cuarón makes it known that the long take will be essential to the structuring of the story.

The film opens up with a 17-minute unbroken shot.

Amidst the chaos of the out-of-control spaceship, astronaut Ryan Stone dodges debris until spinning off into the dark void.

Although the film takes place in orbit above Earth, it still maintains the familiar themes of a classic survival story. Mainly, the psychological stress and physical resilience one must endure in a hostile environment.

Unlike an Earth-based landscape though, there is no cavern to take shelter in, or ground to rest on. Here, there is only perpetual drift. If a character is caught in the currents of space, there’s a real chance that refuge will forever be out of reach.

The Gravity director uses this uncertainty to his advantage, designing long takes that give no indication of when they might end. 

Again, for Cuarón it’s about finding a method for the character to reflect the environment, and the environment to reflect the character.  And it’s these extreme long takes that make these compelling worlds evermore immersive.

Here, we have Cuarón’s updated take on the classic Hollywood road movie. As Julio Zapata and Tenoch Iturbide progress on their journey, they come face-to-face with the economic and political issues facing Mexico.

These young men are moving out of the safety of adolescence, and into the frequent uncertainty of adulthood. For the longest time they focused on their own problems, and only saw what was right in front of their faces. But now, things are quickly changing. No longer is there only one right answer, and one point-of-view.  

Time is a human construct. And with Y Tu Mamá También, Cuarón wants us to know that within every moment there is an endless number of interpretations. To help the audience in recognizing this, he allows his shot sequence to mimic the complexities of perspective.  

Like all of Cuarón’s techniques, elastic shots provide a more engaging experience for the viewer. In this particular case, the shot design enables a country’s geographical, cultural and political landscapes to be seamlessly investigated.