Deconstruction of Camera Angles + Editing:

Deconstruction of Camera Angles and Editing in the diner scene from Natural Born Killers:

~ The YouTube clip below is the scene from Natural Born Killers that I had to deconstruct, only looking at camera angles and editing. This deconstruction was also useful as research for our horror/slasher genre.

~ The first shot seen is an establishing shot of the diner and the two men entering and this immediately sets the scene and explains to the audience where they are.

Establishing shot of the diner (0:00 - 0:01)

~ One of the opening shots from the section shows the two 'rednecks' who come into the diner, it's a low angle shot, to lull the audience into thinking they are more powerful and have more authority than the other two 'normal' customers and that they are in control of the situation. They also use a low angle shot for Mallory dancing to give a hint to the audience that she isn't as weak as she may appear to be.

(0:04)

 (0:06)

~ When the man sits down next to Mickey, who is initially covered by the newspaper, they are on the right hand side of the shot and as the camera swivels round we can clearly see in the background Mallory dancing with the redneck, the focus is meant to be on the two men talking but the audience should be noticing the other two at the same time.

(0:35)

(0:42)

~ A cutaways editing technique occurs as a close up grey-scale shot of Mickey drinking is momentarily interrupted by quick jump cuts of a man covered in red blood before a cutback to the original shot. This could represent either a memory/flashback or a plan in his head of killing someone in the future. I like this technique as it juxtaposes the normal scene in the diner with the images of someone clearly badly injured.

(0:43)

(0:43)

(0:44)

(0:45)

~ Throughout the shots of Mallory and the redneck dancing, there are a lot of close ups of his head and parts of their bodies as the camera zooms in and out and is tilted left and right, all the while in grey-scale to separate them from the rest of the diner. A lot of the close-up shots of his face could be considered Point-Of-View shots as it looks like the audience are watching him from Mallory's POV to help them understand the position she is in, when he starts sexually dancing with her. The movement of the camera around the two dancing reminds me of being on a roller-coaster, where it tilts from side to side. (00:48 - 00:54)

(0:49)

(0:50)

~ When Mallory starts to beat up the redneck, the camera angles are never level or straight on, they are always at a slight angle, almost wonky, which could be exaggerating the fact that the redneck is drunk. During this section, the shots alternate from being in colour to black and white, depending on the position of the shot and this variation is effective.

(1:31)

(1:37)

~ When Mickey fires the gun at the woman, the shot of the bullet travelling towards her is taken from the bullet's point of view until it reaches her forehead, and the footage cuts to a shot of the walls to see the blood splattering, confirming to the audience that she is dead, without actually showing it.

(2:17)

(2:19)

(2:20)

This shot is used again when Mickey throws the knife towards the onlooker who begins to run away and the camera follows it spinning and crashing through the window until it cuts to a 'match on action' shot as the angle switches to a front view of the man as he falls to the ground with the knife in his back.

(2:29)

(2:33)

(2:27)