Wednesday 13 February 2013

Unit3: From Script to Screen- Camera Angles and Shots


Following Phil's feedback, I have been thinking on how to make the camera angles and shots more interesting. I am trying to use a certain psychology of camera angles and shots to get closer to the character and then after his identity has been revealed, we get far from him or not go back to him.
After a further research I noticed that a close-up shot is used to get closer to the subject face and trust it and either make the audience feel very comfortable with the character or uncomfortable, depending on his situation, In my situation, the audience will feel concerned about his case, as we feel sorry for what happens for him during act 1 and 2. A dutch shot is very interesting in terms of depicting madness and disorientation in German Expressionism.

Concerning the camera angles, a high angle is used to make the subject less significant, powerless and makes the character look swallowed by their surrounding, low angle is used to inspire fear, insecurity in the viewer and psychologically dominates the character by the setting. In this case, the attic will be dominating the character's mind in act 3 and the character will be shown from a high angle to show how weak he is. 

So for instance, my storyboard starts with a long shot showing the character in his bed and attic door and an Eye-Level angle, but as we start noticing that the character is having problems ( hears strange noises), the camera shot changes to a medium shot and the angle to a High Angle.

In the scene where he is about to gets out of bed, the camera shot changes to side view in which the psychological impression is different and means that the viewer feels unnoticed and invisible, which means that the character isn't aware of our presence, therefore this shows his loneliness and gives the viewer an advantage and control, because they see him but he doesn't.

When the character starts to light up the match and flashback occurs, the camera shot is a close-up to the character's face which becomes a POV to show the flashback scenes and then an extreme close-up when he lights up the second match as well as a Dutch shot while he is lighting up the match.

I have also looked at some reference from Tutor Phil to help me add more panels to my storyboard to effectively use the different types of shots in order to express panic, disorientation and terror.




1 comment:

  1. This is a good, solid post, Anass - a bit of back-to-basics screen craft. I look forward to seeing some suitably energetic panels! :) Onwards!

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