Sherlock Jr.

First off, I would like to say that I did not have high hopes for this movie.  Knowing it would be a silent film turned me off big time because I have seen them before and had found them very boring.  However, this film did the exact opposite, the film brought my attention to the acting styles, and the different camera shots required to make it.  I will be analyzing one of the scenes that particularly caught my attention.  When Keaton himself is running away from the antagonist and hops on a motorcycle.

The way Buster Keaton uses a combination of pan, long and close, establishing, and tracking shots is what makes this scene so special.  He starts it off with an establishing shot to show the audience the lay of the land.  He then goes to a tracking shot and then quickly back to another establishing/long shot to show that the motorcycle is moving at a fast speed and that he is headed off into the distance.  To me it seems that Keaton does this intermission of medium/close shots and establishing/long shots to get a look at what the actor is going through, showing the landscape before the reaction of the actor.  What was also interesting was the use of background images and scenes that were used in during this scene.  I thought it was humorous that a group of men would be in the middle of a park playing tug of war.  It really strikes me and I wonder why Keaton chose to use such an odd background scene in this movie.  Even so with not only that background but also the rest of the scene, the way that Keaton was able to mix these different backgrounds into this scene and make them work for the film is what really caught my eye.