10 Most Imaginative Shots On Film

7. Vertigo Zoom - Goodfellas

The "dolly zoom" isn't a new cinematic technique by any means, and was popularised by Alfred Hitchcock in his 1958 classic Vertigo.

The effect, which is achieved by moving the camera backwards while simultaneously zooming in, results in the frame's focal subjects remaining the same size but the background perspective shifting dramatically.

It was famously first used in Vertigo to depict Scottie's (James Stewart) fear of heights, and is generally employed to depict an uneasy or reality-altering moment.

Perhaps even more famous than Hitchcock's version of the shot, however, is the brilliant Vertigo zoom employed in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas. When gangster Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) meets a jumpy Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro) at a diner, Scorsese inches the camera away from the pair while zooming in, causing the street behind the diner to grow larger.

It's a masterful use of the zoom both because it defies expectations - using the zoom for a dialogue-based scene rather than its typical use in a set-piece - and because it heightens the already potent paranoia of the scene.

The viewer feels uneasy because they know something isn't quite right visually, reflecting Henry's own anxiety about him possibly being "whacked" at any moment.