Camera Shots & Angles

When filming, there was a variety of camera angles and shots that we wanted to use in order to make our film opening as dynamic as possible. Milly and I found that when filming; shooting the same scene but from many different angles gave us a lot of different shots to use to make the action seen visually appealing. 

An example of this is when the protagonist (character A) stands up, we used a close up, a long shot from behind a door and a mid shot; so that when we edited this, we created a match on action shot and therefore made a simple movement more interesting for the audience to watch. This will improve our work, because often match on action is used to show someone walking through a door etc, for example; the way we showed it in our preliminary task, however this match on action shows the protagonist doing something simple - just standing up from the floor. The long shot from behind a door creates suspense, because it gives the impression that someone is watching the protagonist, and because the audience are viewing the scene from this angle; they too feel like they're spying which can not only add to the tension but make them feel uncomfortable. 

We used a point of view shot when the antagonist is entering the home of the protagonist. This angle is usually seen in films that are filmed in a 'found footage' way, with one character always holding the camera for the audience to see. We didn't film our film opening in this way, however we wanted to use this camera angle, so that the audience could feel the disjointed suspense that comes with seeing things from the antagonists' point of view. This will improve our work because, this camera angle is unusual to be seen and used in films that aren't classed as 'found footage', so we've broken the convention of this. Usually in film, the audience view the action from the protagonists viewpoint and therefore automatically side with them; however by forcing them to almost become the antagonist, it creates suspense and uncertainty. 

We also used a low angle shot of the antagonist (character B) as they stood outside of the bedroom of character A. We used this camera angle to make them seem more powerful and intimidating as conventionally the antagonist has more power and strength compared to the protagonist. This will improve our work because it's not often that high and low angle shots are seen and used, so this adds variety to our film opening and gives the audience a new viewpoint. This creates suspense, because the audience are placed at a lower angle compared to character B, which in turn makes them feel inferior and therefore weaker.