Long Cut Long Length Pans of Love

One thing unique in the cinematography of The Graduate is the choice to have three long cut shots panning close up on Benjamin running, which not only are examples of impressive camerawork but also effectively isolate Benjamin from the rest of the world and show his love for Elaine. These shots occur when he first arrives at Berkeley, when he runs down the apartment building stairs after being evicted, and when he runs to the church after his car runs out of gas.

Two shots with the same framing but different focal lengths and subject distances vary in perspective. A shot with a larger focal length and subject distance will show less of the background and more of the foreground. This change in perspective becomes clear with dolly zooms, which continuously change the two, as seen below with a dolly zoom with focal length ranging from 24mm to 840mm.

In two of the three shots, the camera is very far away and has an enormous focal length. This means only the tiniest bit of background is shown. In the staircase shot, being very zoomed in was not possible due to the space in which the shot was filmed, but very little background is shown nonetheless. During the long-cut pan when Benjamin first comes to Berkeley, Benjamin seems isolated not only because of the large focal length but also because it is a high angle shot, meaning the little background showing is mostly the ground. The viewer only realizes Benjamin is at Berkeley at the end of the shot when the camera zooms out to wide and students dissolve in. The shot where Benjamin is running to the church isolates him not only by having a large focal length but also a low enough shutter speed  and large enough aperture and parallax such that the background behind him is very blurred.

In all three shots, Benjamin is isolated and in his own word. The only person or thing he cares about is Elaine and his love for her. Just like the viewer is unable to see his surrounding, the cinematography shows the viewer that Benjamin ignores his own surrounds because he is preoccupied with the thought of Elaine.