One Perfect Shot Trailer: The Popular Film Twitter Account Becomes A Docuseries
One Perfect Shot. Unless you're a complete newcomer to movie-related spaces on social media, chances are you've come across (or even follow) that popular Twitter account. The purpose of the account is to single-out noteworthy movie shots over the years and celebrate the all-important visual quality of what we commonly refer to as motion pictures. In my experience with seeing how cinematography tends to be discussed online, I've found that it becomes a little too easy to merely gravitate towards surface-level and aesthetically pleasing shots without actually talking about the things that actually matter. You know, like the filmmaker's intention behind them, the actual placement of the camera, deceptively simple camera movements such as dollying and pans, and — most importantly of all — how taking full advantage of the visual medium can evoke character, emotions, drama, and everything else that makes movies ... movies!
In other words, it's certainly admirable to capture select images from various movies and give them a spotlight for the film community to further analyze. That said, there's just nothing better than taking that general concept and dedicating an entire special to breaking down movie shots and discussing all the various concerns that went into crafting them. HBO Max must have heard my grousing, because that's exactly what their series "One Perfect Shot" is set to do. The streaming service first announced this project in August of 2020 and has now released a brand-new trailer for the documentary series, hosted by director Ava DuVernay and featuring six talented filmmakers to add their perspectives to recent movies that we're all at least familiar with. Check out the footage below.
One Perfect Shot trailer
For as much as streaming services have fully made their mark on the studio landscape in recent years, the actual depth and breadth of their libraries and their focus on actually making movies available that speak to the history of movies and shows over the decades have been ... lacking, to say the least. It's as if these subscription services are all too happy to take advantage of our natural instinct to seek out quality and entertaining storytelling, but without doing their part to further educate general audiences and keep that flame burning to help inspire a whole new generation of filmmakers. Perhaps that's finally beginning to change. Netflix and director David Fincher's "Voir" gathered together some of the most insightful and knowledgeable minds in the industry to shine a much-needed light on film history. Now it's HBO Max's turn to do something similar.
"One Perfect Shot" will feature filmmakers Jon Chu, Kasi Lemmons, Patty Jenkins, Malcolm Lee, Michael Mann, and Aaron Sorkin talking about specific shots and sequences and moments from recent movies like "Crazy Rich Asians," "Heat," "Wonder Woman," "Girls Trip," "Harriet," and "The Trial of the Chicago 7." Granted, not all of these seemingly randomly selected movies are all that representative of what the art form has to offer (there are many more movies out there made before the 1990s, people!) and not all of these filmmakers are particularly known for their visual strengths (isn't there a good reason why most people tend to be familiar with Sorkin for his scriptwriting?), but I suppose we're operating on a curve that accounts for baby steps.
But don't let me get you fully down about this! Any effort to raise awareness about the technical merits that go on beneath the surface of the movies we watch is well worth paying attention to. At a time when so many movie fans will insist that any criticism of fundamental moviemaking aspects like lighting or cinematography is little more than "nitpicking" (check out some of the angry responses to this tweet if you want to lose a little faith in humanity), we could use more of these types of specials, not less.
"One Perfect Shot" will begin streaming on HBO Max on March 24, 2022.