Horror Sequence - Group Task

Within our group, we were given a task to create a horror movie sequence using a range of different shots. I feel our task went quite well, however, there were some inaccuracies. For example there was less than 12 shots and the sequence was only around 30 seconds long; this was purely because we thought we had enough usable footage, yet, some of the clips were not; the storyline could also be put across clearer.

The first shot is an establishing shot of the girl opening the door, following this is an extreme close up of her turning the door knob. After this we see a panning shot (from right to left) of her walking through the hallway; not noticing the fact that there is someone in the corner of the room. This gives me the sense of suspense, it makes me feel intrigued which is the aim of the clip; who is this person and what are they doing in this part of the building. We see the girl try to find her class room in the next two shots, however we see an over the shoulder shot of her realising that she has stumbled into an abandoned part of the college. The next shot is a mid shot, she hears a bang and we can see her turn around. We see an extreme close up of her eyes, this is used to show the fear and confusion of her realising that she is not alone. We then see a static transition cut thats been edited in to dutch angle shot of her walking down the corridor to see what the bang was, within this the clip has been edited to appear like an old CCTV camera that has fell down of the wall. We then see her get attacked/killed by the mysterious figure, with this following an edited slow mo shot of the figure walking away.

Group Task

Analyse Sequence

·      View your chosen sequence and take notes on: cinematography/mise-en-scene/sound/lighting/editing/performance

·      Discuss and debate meaning production (personal responses)

·      View and pause the clip again to construct a detailed analyses

·      Continue to take more detailed notes and discuss ideas.

Revolutionary Road Clip:

In the first shot used, there is use of an establishing shot of what seems to be a school corridor with two people (a man and a women) walking down it. The shot lasts 20 seconds with only the diegetic sound of footsteps featured in the scene, this could suggest that the two are not getting along for some reason, this idea can be supported by how far apart the two are together, towards the end of the sequence we see the man is ahead out of the frame, where as the woman is a few seconds behind.

In the next shot, we can see the pair in the car, with the male driving. The shot was filmed as a two shot/medium close up. There is a silence for approximately 5 seconds and the two look quite far apart. It becomes apparent that the two are in a relationship when the male refers to her as ‘baby’ when the silence has been broken; this has been used to establish that the two are together. The woman becomes increasingly frustrated within the scene as the male is trying to comfort her, about something she may not have achieved. The two become increasingly agitated. The next shot shows the male parking the car on the side of the road (long shot), this is to establish where the car is parking.

 

The next shot is a long shot of the car and the pair sitting in the car, we can see they are sat even further apart. The male tries to talk to the woman, however, we see her move further away when he tries to touch her; this connotes that the two are in a fight. The next shot is a medium close up/over-the-shoulder shot of the woman; this is to show the woman’s emotion; this is an example of low key lighting as we can only see the only her face. We then cut to a medium close up of the male from a low angle; this could suggest that he is superior in the situation. We then cut back to the female in a reaction shot of the man trying to sort things out, she seems very distraught as she shouts at her partner, saying “leave me alone!”, this is followed by a reaction shot of the man, who becomes increasingly agitated to the womans arrogance to talk about the problems the two are having, these are examples of shot-reverse shot.

The next shot is a medium close up of the woman sitting in the car. She looks quite calm within the clip, however you can tell that the man and woman are distant with each other because you cannot see him within the shot. There is only lighting from the left hand side, which highlights her emotions of sadness. The next shot shows the man through another medium close up. He is seen to be moving to face the woman, which suggests that they are in conflict. He is also pointing his finger at her, which suggests that he is being authoritative towards her. His facial expression suggests that he is frustrated with the conversation as he is frowning his eyebrows. He also used explicit language which suggests that he is arrogant. This shot is almost 20 seconds long, which suggests the diegetic dialogue is important to the narrative.  

The next shot is another medium close up of the woman. This time she has her hand on her forehead, which suggests that she is frustrated by the conversation. Her facial expression shows that she is confused. Also the setting of this scene is within a car at night. We can see this from the low key lighting outside of the car.  

  

We then cut to another medium close up of the man who is getting aggressive towards the woman and using offensive terms towards himself. This shows that they might not respect each other. In the next scene, there is the use of another medium close up, however the man comes within the shot. We see him through the use of hard lighting, where we see a part of his face and he finger, pointing at the woman. This shows that the conflict is getting worse, because he is invading her personal space. The whole of this sequence is a shot reverse shot, which intensifies as the clip goes along.  

In the next scene, we see the woman get out of the car in anger, through the use of another medium long shot. Which suggests that she has had enough of his shouting at her. The next scene is a long shot, which shows us the front of the car that they were sat in. The lighting from the headlights is beaming intensely which suggests that the argument could get even more heated.  

The next shot is a mid-shot of both characters, although they are very close to each other in proximity, they share a very negative aura and both have a confrontational demeanour. The rule of thirds is used in this shot as both characters utilise the middle and left side of the screen, leaving the gloomy darkness lingering on the right hand side of the shot, this could express their dark relationship or the impending doom that could be yet to come.

As the male lead starts to walk off, the shot changed to an over the shoulder, mid-shot focusing on the female lead. Both characters have immense aggression towards each other this is shown by their tone and dominating body languages. The distance between the characters shows emptiness in their relationship and as the male lead turns away, a car is shown in-between them highlighting the obstructions in their relationship.

The next shot returns to the original position, a mid two-shot, by using shot reverse shot to emphasize their interaction. There is also an increase in tension and physical violence. The male lead regains his dominance by attempting to hit the female lead. As she cowers away he proceeds to take his anger out on the car. This shows the change in roles, as at the start of the scene both characters portrayed the same level of dominance and anger towards each other but after the incident the male lead holds more control over the female just due to violence.

All of these scenes are shot statically to focus on their argument without any distractions; this shows that the argument is the only thing that is in their mind at that moment and they have put all their energy into it.

As the male lead strolls off after the injuring himself, the camera angle stays the same and does not track him, to show the females reaction to what he has just done, she seems shocked at the situation even though she isn't facing the camera. The male lead then stands in the way of the car lights making him his body the only well lit object in the frame. This puts emphasis on him and makes it seem like he's seen the light and regrets his actions.

The next shot is a part over the shoulder mid-shot of the male lead cowering over the car bonnet, with the female lead standing over him, this allows her to regain the dominance and control over him. She then dramatically gets into the car leaving the male still in pain outside the car, however regardless of what has occurred she still allows him time to get into the car with her, showing that she still cares about him and could never leave him.

The camera angle then changes to a close up of the woman's face in the car whilst waiting for the male to get in. The lighting is very low-key and there is only a small amount of light on her face to show her distressed expression to the situation. The complete darkness around her emphasises her dark thoughts smothering her and there is no escape. The male then enters the car just as she manages to pull away her hand and show her distraught state.

The last few shots of the scene are silent and are close ups of their faces looking horrified after the events which had taken place. A series of shot reverse shots then take place with the camera focussing on the character closer to the camera at the time, leaving  the other character blurred in the background this emphasises that although they are sat next to each other they are both very alone and are taking no notice of the other person and are essentially lost for words.

The last shot of the sequence is a still, long shot of both of the car showing both characters sat inside. There is a huge distance between both of them which shows the hollow in their relationship and the intensity that the nights events had caused to both of them. The lighting is low-key except for the single street light and two car lights, these emphasise the light at the end of the tunnel for them and signify that they can work through their issues.

Kill Bill: Shot by shot sequence

Kill Bill - Volume 2

In the first shot, we can see a woman walking forward, her surroundings tell us that she is in a church. The shot was captured as a medium close up with the camera tracking backwards; this is to help set the scene. In the following shot, we can see a point-of-view of the door, this is because the woman heard someone playing the flute from a distance; therefore insinuating that it came from outside, immediately after she hears this, the sound becomes non-diegetic as we can hear someone playing the guitar; this is to portray the mystery of who is playing the flute. This is then followed by a reaction shot of the woman looking surprised and distraught; the camera is no longer tracking. This could be because her reaction is important; if so, her reaction is suggesting that she may recognise the sound from a place/person in her past. The camera then continues to track backwards. We then cut back to a shot of the door, however, this is no longer a POV shot but a medium/over the shoulder shot, this is to show that she is going to look outside. As she continues to walk outside, we see the rule of thirds used as the doorway is near to/on the interception grid, the shot then changes to a long shot when she makes it outside of of the church. 

The next shot we see is a low angle shot outside, with a man playing the flute in the near right of the frame with the woman to the left of the frame further away; she also has her back to him, which can connote she doesn't like this particular person. Further to support this idea, the next shot is a close up of the woman's face on the right side of the frame; she turns and looks at the man with an expression of confusion yet portrays a feeling of resentment. The shot then cuts to a close up of the male playing the flute, not observing that the lady has walked outside, this then reverts to the same close up shot of the woman's expression for a duration of 3 seconds. This reverts back and forth for a duration of 10 seconds, with the tempo of the non-diegetic sound increasing (guitar is playing faster).

After this sequence, the man stops playing the flute, looks up at the woman; acknowledging that she is there. The non-diegetic sound also stops. The man says "hello kiddo" which proves the suggestion that the lady knows the man from her past, the sound may also have stopped to portray the tension and the silence between the two; as usually when you see someone from your past, you would be chatty and be more keen on catching up. This then cuts to a medium long shot of the woman standing to the left of the frame. She waits a total of 5 seconds to respond and we can also see that her surroundings are desolate. This can connate to the audience that she may not want to speak to this man, furthermore, her surroundings lead to quite a long distance which may indicate that she has a long past with him; which could be the reason why. The lady responds with "how did you find me?". This phrase is often used in association to playing the children's game 'hide and seek', where the objective is for one person to hide from another until found; the woman may have been hiding from this man for a long period of time and until now, as she has been found. The man responds in the next shot which is a close up, he responds to her question with "i'm the man" as his reasoning. The next shot shown is a reaction shot of the woman, her facial expression tells the audience that she is disgusted, yet not surprised with the response the man gave. She then asks "What are you doing here?", however, the tone in her voice suggests that she is not happy by his appearance; yet confused on why he has come to visit her in her 'new' life. Following this, we see a medium long shot of the man, however this changes to just a medium shot after he stands up. The next few shots are shot and reverse shots of the two exchanging dialogue (all mid shots). 

One of the next shots we see is a close up on the womans feet walking closer to the man, the feet stay on the right side of the frame.This is used to create a timid effect as the woman hasn't been in walking distance of the man in a long period of time. The dialogue used in this also benefits the idea of a tense atmosphere for the audience; the woman talks about how she is pregnant, however, the tone in which she's speaking in can be perceived like she is saying these things to make the man angry or somewhat jealous. This shot is followed by a close up on the lady on the right side of the frame, viewing from the side of her body. The shot after this is a close up of the males feet walking closer to the woman, building suspense as the pair are becoming closer and closer. There is a quick 2 second close up of the woman speaking before the next shot which is a close up of both of there feet meeting in the centre, this has been added to show how close the two are standing apart from each other, which is not very much space at all; so much so that the two are standing in their personal spaces. 

The following shot lasts for 1 minute and 20 seconds, we see the man and woman exchanging dialogue. The shot used was a close up/two shot; within this we can see the expressions of the two, which we can see the pair become agitated as in the dialogue, the two are trying to wind each other up (e.g: man: "Where does your young man work?" referring to the woman's fiancé and the suggestion of a possible age gap). The use of the longer shot is to try and show the build up of tension/anger within that specific space of time. We then see an 'over-the-shoulder' shot of the male towards the left hand side of the frame; towards the right of the frame, we can see the back of the womans head. There is a few reaction shots of the woman looking down, this could portray that she is not paying much attention to what the man has to say, in further shots we see that she starts to become more and more emotional, this also features a high angle shot. The shot then reverts to the 'over-the-shoulder' shot of the man, this allows insight to the audience so the they can see what the main character can see from their POV, adapting realism. This sequence ends with the woman calling over 'Tommy' who is presumably her fiancé.