Planning - Camera Angles, Shots and Movements

We went through our script and storyboard to identify the different camera shots, camera angles and movements that we need to incoporate and consider when doing our filming. We carefully picked out certain angles and shots that we feel are important to concentrate on and help convey feeling and emotion of the character along with creating an atmosphere thats suitbale for our trailer and plot. We bullet pointed all the different ones that we found and will research them in closer detail in order to ensure we make the most of them.

Camera Angles/ Shots and Movement

• Birds eye view into Close up
• Close up into mid shot
• Match on action shot of main character entering her home
• Over the shoulder to close up which will take place during the dreams
• Close up of main character's sleeping face to tilting camera so it pans up the wall
• Mid shot of cot
• Panning shot of the police car
• Low, mid shot of police man getting out of the car
• Mid shot of babies cot
• Long shot to Extreme close up
• Mid shot at eye level zooming out to display more of surroundings

Birds Eye View: This camera shot shows a scene directly overhead which often gives the audience a postion of power as they are looking down on the action. This gives the characters a inferior position making them look quite weak, which is what we wanted to convey as the birds eye view shot will show the woman mourning the death of her husband and we want to to have a position of weakness and loneliness to create an atomosphere of sadness.

Close up
This concentrates on a specific detail in the shot, either a face or part of the mise en scène, and avoids showing any more of the background and is often blurred. Often used to convey the importance of things or a facial expression. Also used to try and get into the mind of a character as it is a very intimate shot, making us feel quite uncomfortable: this is an aspect that we definately want to include in order to convey the thrilling and frightening nature of our film. Along with being very intimate towards a character as we want to go inside the mind of our main character, Helena. This is crucial to our film as

Mid Shot
Contains a character or something from the knees/waist up, normally used for two shots so that a dialogue scene can be seen or action. Surroundings are minimum more than likely the environment has been established proir to this show. We plan to use this shot during conversations that are of high importance an establish details and imply details about our film.

Match on action
This refers to when a person is doing an action, and cuts to another shot which then matches what was happening in the previous shot often from a different angle. For exmple in our film, Our main character will be entering her house, focusing on her turning the door handle, then cutting away to a view from the inside of the house to see her coming in.

Over the Shoulder
This is a shot of someone or something taken from the pespective from over the shoulder of another person. This person's back of the shoulder an head of this is used to frame the image of what or who the camera is pointing towards. Very commonly used when two characters are having a discussion and will usually follow an establishing shot which helps the audience connect the character to their setting.

Tilt and Panning

These two camera movements are similiar in that they pan across the screen, however a tilt scans a scene vertically. Where as panning is a movement in a scene, horizontally, often used to establish a setting as a whole or follow a moving object which is kept in the middle of the frame and may be following a character. This will be of great use as our film is focussing on our character and her actions, so panning will be necessary, This will particularly be of use when Helena is in bed dreaming, and the camera is focusing on her face, but then pans up the wall to the ceiling to establish this idea of her fading into a dream.

Low Shot
These increase height which is useful for short actors and give a sense of speeded motion. Low angles help give a sense of confusion to a viewer, of powerlessness within the action of a scene. The background of a low angle shot will tend to be just sky or ceiling, the lack of detail about the setting adding to the disorientation of the viewer. The added height of the object may make it inspire fear and insecurity in the viewer, who is psychologically dominated by the figure on the screen. Often used to give someone or something a position of power and if viewed from another character through a low shot makes thenm inferior to them. As the trailer progresses, our main character will slowly disintegrate into a broken character being shown as inferior to others as she breaks down further.

Extreme close up

This can be taken from as much as a quarter of a mile away, and is generally used as a scene-setting, establishing shot. Normally not showing much detail, just establishing something of importance. 

Eye level

A fairly neutral shot; the camera is positioned as though it is a human actually observing a scene, so that for example actors' heads are on a level with the focus. The camera will be placed approximately five to six feet from the ground. This will be effective when seeing life through our main characters eyes. It really allows us as the audience to gain her perspective from a situation, which is needed in our film as to understand her way of thinking and how her mind works. Crucial to understanding her mental illness 'disassociative identity disorder.'

Zooming out
A zoom lense contatins a mechanism that changes the magnification of the image, bringing it closer or further away to the audience's view. A video zoom lens can change the position of the audience, either very quickly or slowly without physically moving the actual camera which saves a lot of time. The zoom will prove very useful during our trailer when the woman is being drag into an instituion, the door slams and through the small door window we can see her fighting and struggling to get away. Starting at her bloodshot eyes using a close up, we zoom out at a medium rate to establish the surrounds on a mental institution along with the focus of her getting further and further away from the audience. This relates to the idea of with every dream and thought she believes that her baby has been killed which pushes her further away from reality and the audience.

By researching each movement, angle and shot we have now a greater understanding of what each one requires and how to make them work effectively in our film.