Trunk shot

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A trunk shot in Reservoir Dogs.

The Trunk shot is a camera angle used in cinema when one or more characters need to retrieve something or someone from the trunk of a car. Though the trunk shot can be produced with great difficulty by placing the camera inside the trunk of a car and filming the action outside the trunk of the car, it usually is "cheated" by the art department by placing a trunk door and some of the trunk frame close enough to the camera to make it appear to be shot from within the trunk. This allows the considerable bulk of a movie camera and camera operator to have a free range of movement without risk of damage to the camera or operator, makes the shot logistically easier, and allows the normal crew and equipment used in filmmaking to be utilized.

This camera angle is often noted to be the trademark of film maker Quentin Tarantino who disputes that he puts the shot in his films as a trademark and simply asks "Where would you put the camera?"^{[citation needed]} Although he did not invent it, Tarantino popularized the trunk shot, which is featured in Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, and Kill Bill. In Grindhouse (Death Proof feature), Tarantino's traditional shot looking up at the actors from the trunk of a car is replaced by one looking up from under the hood.

Possibly the earliest trunk shot can be noted in the 1967 movie by Richard Brooks, In Cold Blood after the two outlaws cross the borders to Mexico by a stolen car. The technique also has been used in the film Goodfellas in 1990 where the characters of Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, and Joe Pesci are opening the trunk of their car, ready to kill the man within, as well as in the CW's Supernatural (TV series), where trunk shots can be seen looking up at the protagonists, Dean Winchester and Sam Winchester, in both the pilot episode, and the second season's finale. In the music video for Colombian pop-singer Shakira's single "Objection (Tango)", Shakira is shown from a trunk shot, smiling sadistically at her ex-boyfriend and his mistress, who are bound and gagged in the trunk of her car, which she then slams shut.