Dolly zoom

The prompt

Scene paragraph Night in a long hospital corridor, photoreal medical thriller, 35mm film look. A young Filipina nurse with her black hair in a bun, wearing a white nurse's uniform, stands behind a nurses' station at the far end of the corridor, in the middle of the frame looking toward the lens, holding a paper chart. Behind her the corridor runs straight back to a distant vanishing point, rows of doors and ceiling lights receding. A cream rotary phone sits on the counter in the near foreground at lower left. Cool fluorescent light.

Medium shot at eye level, a dolly zoom: the camera rolls slowly backward while the lens zooms in at the same rate, starting in the first second. 0–2s: she reads the chart, then freezes as she realizes something. 2–4s: she stays exactly the same size in frame while the far end of the corridor grows larger behind her. 4–6s: the doors and ceiling lights at the end of the corridor loom closer and bigger while the walls stay straight and level. 6–8s: she stares ahead, unchanged in size, the far end of the corridor now looming large right behind her. Throughout: her size in frame stays constant, the horizon stays level, only the background scale changes, one continuous take.