Short Model Movie Analysis

Short Model Movie Analysis

To begin this short narrative video I was going to use an establishing/master shot as my first scene, this would have helped demonstrate the geography, time of day and scale of environment. However, when shooting the video we included an establishing shot of our green screen, although when editing the video we couldn't add a background into the green-screen as the opacity wasn't strong enough to get the full image. Thus being why I couldn't use a backdrop that fitted the style and genre of the film. 

For the first shot I used an over the shoulder shot, the main protagonist being in shot and the villain in a dirty two shot. However, the footage when editing came out blurry, not giving the best quality to work with. The dialogue of the scene starts with the villain (side of shoulder), giving the audience the impression they are possibly on his side of watching from afar.

For the second shot in the short narrative, I used a close up of the characters side profile, this works well, corresponding to the 180 degree rule, as the audience can keep track of which direction each character is looking and can keep the story flowing smoothly.

For my third shot I again used an over the shoulder, however when filming this shot I now recognise in editing it did not fit an over the shoulder as it was too high up the characters body. As well as this the background stops behind the villain, as you can see a part of a set, making it a nearly unusable shot.

For the fourth shot I used an extreme close up of the character; at this moment in the audio the villain is left alone in a room, the single shot giving the impression of loneliness and emphasises the fact he is the only one in the room, to go further you could interpret the character is inside his head, thinking while the camera is on him. I feel this shot worked well in correlation to the narrative as well as the cinlmphatography, it being a clean, balanced and un-blurred shot.

My fifth shot was a medium shot, demonstrating the character from chest to head, as well as using only a small part of the screen in the footage as the character is central to the left, leaving speaking room in the right corner. 

At this point I introduced my protagonist into the narrative, using a single clean close up of the character, as well as a medium close up to transition onto the next scene. I feel this worked well as it followed the 180 degree rule and kept the narrative flowing smoothly.

This shot was used as a worms eye view of the villain, at a point where the character may have felt big and monstrous towards the protagonist, using this technique of demonstrating the villain in this way helped portray this through the narrative. 

These two shots included are medium fulls, portraying the character in full from his head to waist. This helped the audience gain insight onto the fashion, composition and body stance of the character.

I used this shot as a medium full shot/cowboy shot but instead having the characters looking directly at each other. This I feel creates more tension within the scene and makes the audience feel uncomfortable by the closeness of the characters, not letting there be any room left in the shot.

When editing the video I cut down the footage to fit the dialogue, as well as cutting out any mistakes of blurred, angled or uneven scenes. As well in editing I attempted to imbed a environment background that would suit the dialogue (eg, a interrogation room, prison, police station, etc) unfortunately the opacity of the green screen in the footage was not strong enough and would not allow a backdrop to be used. Furthermore, when filming the short video I made sure the white balance was on, on the camera so I could achieve the lighting I wanted. I feel the use of varied camera angles worked well in correlation to the narrative, however, some of the footage could be improved by not being blurry or in and out of focus next time. I could have improved my composition by using more shots that fit well within the narrative, making it clear which character is speaking and who the villain and hero are. I felt I followed the rule of thirds within the short film, nearly always giving each character speaking/breathing room so the footage didn't come across as uncomfortable or crowded. In most shots I left space for head room, however when coming to editing I realised that the top of the heads were cut off/not included. I sequenced the footage to fit the dialogue, creating smash cuts when a character starting talking or cutting to/from a character when there was dramatic speech or movement.