Director Alfred Hitchcock first used this visually impressive effect, which makes use of an optical illusion, in “Vertigo” to depict a fear of heights. To create the effect on set, the camera is moved backwards with a dolly, while the focused object remains the same size in the frame through a counteracting adjustment of the focal length during the move. Steven Spielberg is also a big fan of the dolly zoom; he used it in “Jaws” and “Poltergeist”, among others.
Archive notice: This article was originally published on 2016-10-25. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
