The hero essay (p. 141)
In further contrast to Chief Steve McGarrett, Captain Frank Furillo is rarely filmed tight or full-front. He is usually one part of a frenetic, moving pan by the program’s camera. In contrast, ‘Hawaii Five-0’ ’s camera crew never even used a dolly, favoring a steady tripodic close-up on McGarrett’s face that today seems more reminiscent of romantic portraiture than filmed drama.
Context
The essay's hinge and the scene's roster warrant: the entire modern-to-postmodern hero argument is finally cashed in camera grammar — steady tripodic close-up vs. frenetic moving pan, dolly economics, portraiture vs. drama. Whole moral eras distinguished by shot selection, by a seventh-grader, one year after the auteur-father's death: Hal thinking natively in lens technique before he can know what the skill is for. ("tripodic" also quietly rhymes across the theme — 015's tripod-mounted camcorder, 037's Husky tripods; the echo is ours, inferred.)