Cinematography in GoodFellas (1990) Directed by Martin Scorsese

Camera Shots

Extreme Close-Up

Conway Currency: Money. Money plays a big part in GoodFellas; it’s a silent character, present in all scenes, propelling the narrative. There’s an extreme close up of money slipping into Henry’s awaiting pocket, where it slides from view. Conway is quick and manages the task with complete ease, revealing his habit is well honed from it simply being a habit he can afford.

Close-Up

“Thirty two hundred dollars for a lifetime”: Drugs have ruined everything. Henry has betrayed Paulie and dishonoured the family. Through a close up of Henry’s face, the audience can observe the defined shame in his drug-fueled wrong doing. Eyes damp and squinting from the spotlight-like light from the window, his shameful deviancy is put on show and his relationship with his second family (or first, perhaps?) is broken off forever.

Medium Close-Up/Medium Shot

Laying into Billy Batts: Shown in a medium shot, Jimmy wastes no time in battering Billy Batts through violent kicks. We can see his face, and his drastic body language; his face shows no remorse. He’s unmoved. He’s simply doing a job, whilst his legs obey his brain; kick, kick, kill, kill. It’s just another day for Jimmy Conway.

Medium Long Shot
All Grown Up: To show Henry's growth from a young kid into an older man with more experience, a medium long shot has been used to include how tall he is, how he's changed and what he wears. He looks more like a gangster now.

Long Shot
Kitsch Everything: Karen's new television and living room are shown through long shots because the new products she's obtained are through Henry's drug dealings. Karen's materialistic nature forgives the drug trading, which enables the audience to understand how Karen's mind works as she goes down a dark rabbit hole. It's also for comedic effect, seeing as the film was made in the 1990s - everything about her living room is kitsch and outdated, yet the characters (including Karen) marvel at it because they're from that era.



Extreme Long Shot
Boom: Through an extreme long shot of Henry running away from an explosion that he's caused, the audience get a grasp of the dangers involved with the gangster lifestyle, as well as how extreme this young kid's life is.

 
Camera Angles

High Angle

"Karen, take it easy...": Filming Henry from this high angle reduces his power; a power he's obtained throughout the film. To see it crumble at the hands of his wife of all people (even if only for a minute) is emphasized by the fact he is laying down - the camera shows he's in a tricky situation and is somewhat powerless to stop it.

Mid Angle

Meet Paulie: Paulie is one of the most respected gangsters in the neighbourhood. He is the father, the don, the one that calls the shots - which is why him dominating the screen as he chews his food is fitting. The camera slowly creeps up on him as well, zooming in slowly so he fills up more and more of the screen.  From him sitting in the middle, head and all in view, it allows the audience to see his broad, powerful shoulders, on top of which sits a head full of pride for family - both of them.

Low Angle

"Wake up, Henry...": Karen looms over Henry, armed with a gun of all things. She’s pointing the barrel round down the camera lens and looks over the audience as if they too were about to be shot. The use of filming her from a low angle gives her a power position; she’s in control and she calls the shots (no pun intended). 

Tommy Shoots: Yet another high angled shot, revealing Tommy's intimidating, heartless actions of murder. 

Camera Movement

Tracking Shot

“If you touch her again, you’re dead!” :  Before the pistol-whipping commences, we see the fury in Henry’s eyes and the throbbing rage in his walk through a tracking shot of him walking from one side of the street (Karen's house) to the other (victim/sleazebag). He grits his teeth, walks with an intention to maim this guy. Is portrays Henry as a powerful yet dangerous human being. The tracking shot reveals these figure expressions and creates a large amount of suspense.

Tilt

At first, the audience is exposed to a medium shot of Henry, but then the camera tilts downward to reveal a paper bag between his feet. He’s eager for his cronies to get a look at his future fortune: Drugs. The camera then tilts back up, revealing Tommy and Jimmy either side of Henry, looking from the bag to each other. They nod and decide that drugs seems like a good way to make money, revealing they would like 'in' with the trade.

Crane Shot

The Meat Truck: A slow moving crane shot creates suspense as Henry’s voice over reveals something disturbing: “But still, months after the robbery they were finding bodies all over. When they found Carbone in the meat truck, he was frozen so stiff it took them two days to thaw him out for the autopsy.” The camera drifts over a crowd of people and policemen, unaware of what horror lies within the truck's frozen contents. Not only is suspense created, but a creeping feeling of horror is filtered through the screen to the audience as the Godlike vision edges around the corner to display the ghastly fate of Carbone.

Steadicam/Hand Held

Copacabana Cool (Steadicam): Karen is being taken out by Henry. As a young woman in an average neighbourhood, she’s awaiting the night with her desirable date, Henry Hill. But she doesn’t know who Henry Hill is, exactly, even if the audience does. The audience do know, however, that Henry has to prove his worth to this woman. He needs to impress her to no end in order to make up for standing her up on a date.  We follow them as they descend the stairs and stroll through the ‘behind-the-scenes’ area of the famous Copacabana Club. The steadicam reveals how respected he is.

Why follow them? We’re witnessing the corruption of moral by a glamorous lifestyle – a lifestyle acquired by all things illegal, of course, but to Karen, who literally walks the bridge between right and wrong, its luxury. She sinks into the callous underworld of gangsters, and we, the helpless audience, follow, trekking behind them. The audience also witnesses the inner workings of a Henry Hill, now a respected gangster; they see how he gets past lines, how he commands special treatment without saying anything., how he greets people and says things like, "every time, you two!" insinuating that he goes to the famous Copacabana a lot.

Henry Hill the Chef (Handheld): Henry needs to cook dinner, but he's high on cocaine. The camera shakes as it follows him around, creating a palpable sense of instability. Given his other trips out during the day, the camera not being steady reflects his life; before, his life was good. Now, it’s all over the place, not working out and hard to manage.

Framing 
Shooting Stacks: Death is unexpected for Stacks. He crouches in the bottom right of the frame as Tommy moves out of frame; and then an arm rises, pointing a gun. We hear the shot, we see blood, but it happens so quickly that our minds barely have time to register what happened. By having stacks fill up that portion of the frame, out eyes are already on him; they are off centre, in dangerous territory... There's also a large amount of room to the left of the frame, which is occupied by the uninspiring image of a bed. A bed with white sheets - alas, it all makes sense. It's a canvas, waiting to be spluttered with the paint of Stacks, applied by Tommy's sociopathic tool - his gun, which his merely an extension of his arm judging by how much he likes to wave it around.

Focus

Shallow
A focus shift occurs, mimicking Henry's eyes as he wakes up to find a gun being pointed in his face. 

Deep
In Paulie's house, adults do one thing in one room whilst children do things in another. This reveals the family environment and realistic Italian household, where there are plenty of members and thus commotion.