Within our re-shoot of the chase scene we have decided that we don't want to see our killers face, whether it be because he is wearing a mask, or because, with the use of camera angles and movement, the shots edited do not allow the audience to see his face.
To be able to do this well, I felt it necessary to do a deconstruction into an advert that I had recently seen on the television that manipulated the use of camera angles, shadows and reflection to conceal the identity of a specific character through the sequence, until the end where you get the first look of his face, an effect that we wish to replicate in our film opening within the chase scene and the diary scene.
The advert that I deconstructed was advertising the new tv-series "Fleming". The initial shot of the sequence is a long, full body shot, a door concealing more than half of the screen, but the main focal point of the image directed to the top right of the screen where Fleming is standing, facing away from the camera. This initial shot gives the feeling of being hidden, as if we as the audience are watching this man, unbeknown to him.
A fast edited extreme close up shot of the man doing up the cuffs on his shirt, is sequentially shown, followed by another long shot of the man facing away from the camera, looking in a mirror- this just adding to the feeling of watching, and spying on this person, that we still don't know the face of.
An extreme close up shot of the side of Flemings face, his reflection shown in the mirror is shown, just missing the view of his full face and an extreme close up shot of just behind his ear run quickly at the end of this scene, building up the desire to see his face, teasing the audience by giving them almost glances.
The use of focus is played upon a lot in this small sequence, used to highlight Fleming in all of the shots that he is in, even if he isn't in the main image. This is to keep the audience focused on him, not allowing their eyes to wander to the things in his surroundings.
Using objects to conceal half of the screen, and distored reflections to give disjointed images of Flemings face, is another thing that is used a lot within the sequence, making the audience focus on Fleming, and giving them small glimpses of his face, building the desire to know what his face looks like even more.
From the scene in the room where Fleming is looking in the mirror, away from the camera, the scene changes, the location being a bar, where Fleming walks across the room, shown in a range of camera angles including a long shot, mid shot and close up shot, all avoiding his face again. This change in scene, still keeping the feeling that we as the audience are "stalking" him, with the blurred out screen invading objects such as a wine glass or a persons body getting in the way, yet again increasing the need to see his face by the audience,
The final shot before we are shown Flemings face is a zooming camera movement towards his back, as he is sitting down. A range of different shots, all with quick pace editing, are shown before, the final camera movement, a 180 degree turn around his head, is executed, showing his face, finally. Eye contact with the camera in this ending shot with the man who's identity had been a mystery, gives the feeling of being caught, adding tension, and finishing the scene with a final "pow"- exactly what my group and I wanted to do as the final shot of our film opening, seeing our killers deformed bloody face with "ADORE AND ENDURE ME" carved into it.
This deconstruction, however only looking at the camera angles and editing, seeing how they portray different effects, gives me a much better idea of how to do our chase scene filming, including what camera angles to use, how to get the audience to focus on the character we want them to focus on, and how to make them want to find out what our killer looks like, creating the feeling of mystery and danger.
