I first saw this on TV, and I thought 'DOH! :smack: ’ But on re-watching it’s looking a little to convenient. Dad says, ‘Let me zoom in on him.’ [Zoom to mouse in boy’s hands. Yep, it’s a real mouse.] The kid says he’s going to put him on top of the cage. Dad says, ‘Why doncha put him up there to play a little bit?’ [Zoom out.] A hawk swoops down and grabs the mouse.
OK: 1) Establish that there is a real mouse. 2) Casual dialogue, doot-de-doo, just a cute kid playing with a cute mouse. 3) Comment on how cute the mouse is. 4) Zoom out. 5) Yoink!
ISTM that if this were a spontaneous event, the father would not have zoomed out after the mouse was on top of the cage. It’s not the way most people shoot home video. They tend to zoom in as close as they can. By zooming out, it looks to me like they know a hawk is coming and they want to make sure they get it in the frame so that viewers can see what happens.
Just as I started typing the last paragraph, I popped over and looked at the visible comments. Looks like I’m not the only one who thinks it was a setup. One person is upset that someone suggested that a person would intentionally kill a kid’s pet mouse. Another is skeptical, saying ‘okay, how would that work out? hey Timmy there’s a hawk coming! quick bring your mouse and the camera before it flies away’ [sic]
Before reading those comments (and I’ve only read those that are on the first page), and after I viewed the video and suspicioned that it was a setup, I imagined this scenario: The father and son have a pet hawk, and they keep mice to feed it. Rather than do their normal feeding routine, they decided to have a little fun and set up a scene.
Cinematography is all about “look at this, this is a real live mouse,” followed by (as you described) zooming out to capture the takedown.
Hawk looked like he came in on a level approach path - as if he had launched from someone’s hand on the other side of the yard, rather than swooping down from the top of a telephone pole.
To start with, the chit-chat is phony. The kid goes, “I’ll put him [the mouse] on top of the cage.”
Um… why?
Then, after the kid puts the mouse down, he BACKS AWAY – another clue that something is not right, especially since he says, “He’s a cute little critter.” That is not something you say walking backwards and standing 8 feet away.
On top of the suspicious dialogue and blocking you have the cinematography head-scratcher that the OP pointed out: The dad going to wide shot when the natural camera move would have been to go in tighter on the mouse.
I’d buy it (were it not for the other things). I don’t have kids, and generally avoid them; but I’ve seen and heard enough that it sounds like something a kid would say and do.
Another good catch. I was looking at the mouse, and didn’t notice he’d moved back. As for the line, it sounded like something a kid would say (depending upon which part of the country he lives in). But the blocking is a give-away I should have caught and didn’t.
Just to be clear, as a sometime-cinematographer/videographer zooming out is the right thing to do if you want to capture a fast-moving object and have it identifiable. But most people shooting ‘home movies’ are not cinematographers/videographers and have no idea of how to set up a shot, and have poor technique. They tend to zoom in all the way, and there is usually some movement of the autofocus. That this guy did the right thing to capture the shot is what really gave it away to me.
I think whoever is upset about someone suggesting that there are people who would intentionally kill a kid’s pet mouse (or any pet) just to get a “good” video has lived a sheltered life.
I agree with your take on it: Pet hawk being fed a live mouse, but set up to look like a different scenario.
And now, the busybody comment no one asked for: in the USA, it is illegal to own birds of prey (raptors*) without the appropriate license from the Federal government. Further, it is federal offense to kill them (not including humane euthansia by a veterinarian, etc.)
*“Raptors” includes the carrion-eaters: vultures, buzzards and condors.