Before i film my final production i have been looking at techniques and angles. Together with my group we filmed a short sequence of a school rivalry. The story line is not very exciting as well as the acting however we have successfully used a range of camera angles:
Long shot:
The long shot at the start of the clip helps to set the scene, a school, and introduce the characters. The shot also helps to imply that not many people are around, creating tension.
Over the shoulder:
Long shot:
The long shot at the start of the clip helps to set the scene, a school, and introduce the characters. The shot also helps to imply that not many people are around, creating tension.
Over the shoulder:
This shot is successful as we can see the two characters over the shoulder and we can also see the rest of the corridior. I feel this shot was framed well considering the fact it was a tracking shot at the time.
High angle shots are successive in making the characters look small and inferior. We used this shot on the stairs as it was easier to achieve. This shot makes the characters look smaller than they are and indicates that maybe something bad is going to happen.
The use of the low angle shot after the high angle shot portrays that actually maybe these characters are not in danger at all and maybe they are the stronger characters of the clip.
The close up of someone tying up their shoe sets the audience up for an introduction of a new character, however we are not introduced to him straight away creating a suspenseful moment.
Point of view:
Before we meet the second character we are presented with a point of view shot this again keeping his identity secret. This shot i feel shows that there is a lot of tension as the person looks the two characters up and down, as if to be summing them up. I think this shot is very creative.
Extreme close up:
This extreme close up, although it is very dark, helps to show the tension between the characters. Tariq, the character, is clearly not happy about bumping into this new character, i feel this shot expresses it well.
All of these shots are very useful when filming a opening. They help to make the film more exciting instead of being one long contious shot. We have also used other shots such as traking shot and shot-reverse-shot. We did not use all the shots on the list as some were difficult to do with the equipment we had for example 'crane shot' and 'steady cam'. I feel that the most successful shot is definitely the point of the view shot as it shows that there is some form of confrontation or disagreement that is going to occur. The least successful shot i feel is the tracking shot. It was very difficult to achieve.
Overall the most positive elements of the short clip would have to be the range of shots that we managed to incorporate. The shots were also successfully continuos. However there is a lot of room for improvement. For example at times the camera was shaky and there is a lot of muffled noise in the background that should have been edited out. I also feel that the editing could have been better as a lot of the shots are very jumpy. I would also have liked to add some form of soundtrack and titles however we simply did not have the time to do this.
I feel i have learnt a lot from doing this simple task, such as the importance of the positioning of the camera and how steady the camera must be. I also learnt how some shot types can be very effective in a given situation.
