Iris shot
A silent-era circle that closes on a character, revived by Scorsese.
An iris shot closes or opens the visible image in a shrinking or growing circle surrounded by black, a device of silent film used to stress one detail of a scene. Martin Scorsese sometimes highlights a character in this way as a homage to the silent cinema of the 1920s, when the transition was common.
Quick Facts
- Technique
- Iris in; iris out
- Origin
- Silent film era
Facts from the source article.
Background
Scorsese's biography lists iris shots in Casino (1995), used on Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci, in Life Lessons, in The Departed (2006) on Matt Damon, and in Hugo (2011). Since the silent era the technique has mostly been used for ironic or comedic effect; the Iris shot article cites 'Life Lessons', Scorsese's segment of New York Stories (1989), as an example of a non-ironic iris shot used as part of the grammar of film.
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