American Gangster's co-star - the Boom Mic
I just watched American Gangster and all I need to say is that I counted about 12 appearances by the boom mic. Comical at some moments when I shouldn't be cracking a smile or laughing. Usually when a "boom is in the shot" - as the DP would yell out - the take would stop and you do another take. But for whatever reason, most of the final takes included the boom mic at the top of the frame in some scenes. I can recall some of those scenes: the family gathering at the dining table scene (early in the movie when Frank's large family move in to their new mansion), when Frank (played by Denzel Washington if you haven't caught on that yet) threw the fur coat into the fireplace; when Denzel Washington and Armand Assante are in the study room and in a wide shot the boom mic appears. Oh my God, there were so many more but I'll end up spoiling the rest of the movie to those who haven't seen it yet. Its not a bad film. But I'm not convinced that it will be the clear cut winner come Oscar time. The season is still young.
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As someone who has projected 35mm film for years, I can attest to the fact that this may not be the fault of the filmmakers. Often, when this happens, it is the result of bad projection. The film might have been framed poorly, or worse still, projected in the wrong aspect ratio.
Posted by: gabe on November 06, 2007 at 11:20 AM
I just got home from seeing this film, and the presence of the mic and in at least one instance the boom totally took me out of this picture. I found myself searching for some kind of reason the mic would be in so many shots. There were numerous amounts of mics, recording instruments, surveillance cameras, and other devices related to image and sound capture. If the presence or the mic was a conscious decision of the director, it was a poor one.
Posted by: Ben on November 08, 2007 at 05:06 AM
I saw this films twice. The first time around, the projectionist framed the picture correctly (centering and cropping the frame so that the boom was not visible); during the second viewing, the picture was placed too low on the screen, as a result, the boom was present in 60% of the scenes (and fully visible, pole and all, in at least 4 scenes).
Posted by: KingKong on November 13, 2007 at 11:10 PM