Every Frame A Painting Explores Character Reverse Shots With Joel & Ethan Coen

Even a naif like me found this interesting.

Every Frame A Painting Explores Character Reverse Shots With Joel & Ethan Coen

It was quite interesting. I had not noticed how the Coens used the wide screen so well for reverse shots in dialogue and close ups. That clip showed just what great directors they are.

In the old 4:3 format, it was nearly always necessary to use reverse shots in dialogue. When wide screen first became widely used (yes, I am old enough to remember the transition), one of the more obvious things the photographers and directors did was to include both actors in a dialogue shot. It made for plain vanilla, boring shots. Kudos to the Coens.

"A deep dive"?  No, not exactly. Pretty basic filmmaking actually.  What Zhu is describing here is called "the rule of thirds" where your character takes up 1/3 of the shot, and the identifying background scene takes up the other 2/3.  Unless you're shooting a strictly character-and-dialog based scene, you want some context around your characters.  The "deep deep background" with identifiable elements way behind the characters -- like the body in the snow behind McDormand in the "Fargo" scene, or the iconic tree behind Tommy Lee Jones in "No Country" -- is kind of a Coen signature but it's by no means unique to them.

Hitchcock, Wilder, Bergman, all great filmmakers use this technique frequently.  Think of the scene in "Casablanca" where Ugarte (Lorre) is dragged from his cafe while Rick (Bogart) smokes a cigarette facing the camera.  Two actions, one scene, emphasizing the disconnect between the two men.
.