Michael Ballhaus - Goodfellas

Long Take
This scene in the Goodfellas uses a long take that stretches beyond three minutes in it we see gangster Henry Hill take Karen through an alternative entrance to the copacabana restaurant. The camera follows the couple as they make their way through the different areas of the restaurant, the shot is highly choreographed including a mass of extras which adds to the difficultly of pulling a clean cut off, the margine for error is affected by each passer by and delivery of Henry's lines/interaction with the minor characters.  The steadicam operator must also keep a relatively similar distance between himself and the couple without falling behind and getting lost in the set. The shot works as a long take rather than cutting as it becomes an indirect POV of Karen, seeing this side of the Gangster life she is seduced by the money and respect that people show towards her and Henry. The shot is also guilty of suggesting the doors of the lifestyle being opened to Henry and having his whole life ahead of him the shot works on a range of levels developing a detailed ideology and symbolism.

Though the lighting doesn't actively change within the rooms it does differ from room to room, we start off with a green and quickly transition to tones of red through the highly lit kitchen and back into more tones of red before reaching the inside of the copacobana flooded with a red haze of thin smoke and warm lighting. At point 0:56 in the take the wall to the right of Henry Hill appears to be coated in gloss red which to me has a strong relation to the blood shed that he has witnessed and will continue to see over his life as a gangster, he is surrounded by the idea making it seem inescapable. Having this scene shot in a set allows a greater control over the lighting, throughout the majority of the take the cieling isnt in frame providing the lighting technicians a greater freedom when it comes to illuminating the characters as they pass through the hallways and rooms, as having lights on the set floor could be problematic due to the wideness of the camera lens as it captures a vast amount of the set hiding the lamps would prove difficult therefore the reasoning behind the cropped roof is evidently viable. 

Though I have access to a steadicam i believe that its use in our film should be kept to a minimum if not used at at all as i feel that to pull off a successful steadicam shot it takes a great amount of practise and focus pulling ability. Also its use would be wasted on the environment as it seems un fitting and unjustifiable. However a long tracking shot with a slight amount of choreographed action would prove more successful, either a slow tracking forward motion or tracking the length of the track and backwards could be a possibility to explore.