Storyboard for the Chase Scene

1. The first shot is an establishing shot where the victim is running down a path and the camera is behind her. At this point, the audience are oblivious to what/who she is running away from and that she is pregnant and the killer had beaten her before she got away.

2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 are POV shots from the victim running down the path. This makes the audience feel more involved as they get a sense of her urgency. Then the victim turns around to see how far behind the killer is, and this is the first time the audience are introduced to the idea that someone is after her. However, as this is a film opening, they will not discover why he wants her.

7 + 8. are high angle panning shots where the audience can see the victim desperately running away from the killer then pausing by a tree to catch her breath. This high angle makes her look inferior, smaller than she is compared to the killer.

9. is a close up of her arm as she is leaning against the tree. The audience see a branch cut her and she starts bleeding.

10 + 11 + 12. A mid shot of the victim and the audience see her observe the cut on her arm and squirm at the sight of it. Then, she turns around and her face changes to signal that the killer is getting closer, so she continues running.

13. is a framed as a midshot but it shows his hips and legs so the audience are able to see that the killer has just approached the branch with the victim's blood on it.

14. is the same midshot however the killer bends down to observe the branch. The audience see the killer study the blood with a sadistic grin on his face.

15. is a close up of the killer's face as he smells the blood. This emphasizes to the audience that he is a blood-thirsty killer who enjoys goriness, pain and death.

16 + 17. are wide establishing shots, framed as full body shots, so the audience see the killer rise and begin to sprint, the scent of blood spurring him on, making him more determined to get her to kill her.

18. is framed as the same establishing shot as before, but panning is included which follows the killer running, but then slows down to exaggerate his speed now that he is motivated by her blood.

19. is another establishing shot framed as a full body shot, and is at a high angle, making the victim seem inferior and weaker than the agile and fast killer. Through this shot the audience see her slowing down, she is now tiring and needs to stop. She stops running forward and moves to the side.

20 + 21. A midshot in which the audience see her move behind a thick tree in order to hide away from the killer. They see her panting, then tilting is used to follow her as she falls down to the ground, tired and frightened, and she puts her head in her hands and weeps.

22 + 23. A close up showing her upset, melancholic expression, and she takes her Cross necklace and looks up and says "Please God, save us". (We chose to include a Cross as it is ironic because she is a prostitute who is pregnant and unmarried.) The camera then tilts down to show the audience who 'us' and this is when the audience officially discover she is pregnant.

24. is the killer's POV as he approach the tree the victim is hiding behind. This will make the audience feel helpless as they know he is there, but the victim does not.

25 + 26. A low angle shot of the ground where the victim and killer's feet are visible. The audience see his feet walk up to the tree and pause, holding them at the edge where they are waiting and wanting to see what he does to her. She is crying so hard that she cannot hear him approaching her. In the same shot, the audience see him move around the tree.

27. A high angle close up shot of the victim, making her appear smaller and weaker compared to the killer. The close up reveals her reaction to seeing the killer.

28. A two shot of the victim and killer to empahsize how he has finally caught her. The audience see the killer grab the victim by her neck and drag her up so she is standing face-to-face opposite him. He then strangles her.

29. is a close up, framed as a high angle POV from the killer, displaying her distressed face as she tries to scream for help. The camera zooms onto her mouth.

30 + 31. An extreme close up of the victim's open mouth as she is screaming and the camera continues zooming into her mouth and then fades out into the operation scene.

Deconstruciton of camera angles- not seeing a characters face

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.

Practical Investigation: Chase Scene (2)

Practical Investigation of a Chase Scene:

This was already Raman's Practical Investigation (and you can see it here) but one day after school, I happened to be staying after school and I had some really good ideas so I tried it out with my friend Catherine. Overall I felt that some of the angles were good but the lighting wasn't that good as it started to get dark quite quickly although in some of them it does look effective. If doing this again, I would definitely do it earlier in the day to get better lighting and I would also use a better camera as I recorded it on my phone, which doesn't have a high quality camera. I do however think it gave me a good idea of what to do in our final piece and what camera angles/movement would be successful.

When uploading the videos to YouTube, I chose to automatically enhance the lighting and stability issues, in some of them I think it has improved it so I decided to keep it in.

It's hard to tell from the lighting but this was in the wooded area, I'm not too sure about the darkness, I think it looks unprofessional and you can't see her running properly but on the other hand I like that fact that she suddenly appears in the light and you don't really see her coming. Although the attempt at a tracking shot didn't work that well, I think the idea of making her wear her white shirt shows up well on the video and in the darkness.



This is probably my favourite video out of the selection because I like the colour of the sky and that fact that she is silhouetted as she jumps. I also like the low camera angle used as I think it is an interesting variation from the typical angles. It also makes the gate seem higher and therefore her desperation to get away even harder. As she runs for a bit at the end, I think it would be better to either trim it down or to have the villain follow her in (but fast walking, I don't think he would run), showing that by having to jump up and then down, it has made him catch up with her.


I thought that originally this clip was one of the better ones, but the editing automatically done by YouTube has made it seem more disorientated, almost resembling her dizziness as she jumps off the gate. Obviously if we used this type of match on action shot we would have to make sure the movements she did were exactly the same for both angles, as for this one she gets stuck on the gate at one point and almost falls over.



With this one, obviously the lighting was major issue and the editing has just made it even more difficult to see the subject, however I do like the end result of the villain closing in on the victim and moving the camera right into her hair. That idea we could replicate wherever the location if we are choosing to have him capture her in such a way, this shot could easily be replicated up against a tree or a wall.



This one was okay, I liked the white of the shirt again and I felt it stood out more when she grabbed the tree, if we did decide to do this type of shot then I feel it would be more effective to have the villain follow her in almost the exact same place. We could also put more focus into the tree and have different angles but having the trees to be almost the main focus.




This angle didn't really work, the light was too dark and the subject goes by extremely quickly, however if filmed correctly with the ideal conditions, I could see that this angle would be effective, in particular for our film opening as we are hoping to have it fast paced, to show how urgent she is to get away from the killer.





Again, the editing made the film even darker than it was originally but I don't think it changed it too much. I like the idea of filming through a metal fence with the subject extremely close as it represents the target being so close but yet there is a barrier in the way. I think that this angle was quite effective but in our opening, I'm not sure if we are going to have a fence in the area or if it will just be trees but the same effect can still be applied.



The auto-fixing that YouTube did make it almost impossible to see her so this is one which I think did not improve and instead reduced the quality. It was quite quick as well and I don't think a small side angle of her running would fit in well with the ideas for our opening.

Practical Investigation of Lighting & Camera Angles on Killer's Hands

This was one of my hands and Annie had made it look like it had been burnt and these are the scars. This burnt hand reminds me of Freddy Krueger's face in Nightmare on Elms Street because he was also burned.

 This was my other hand and this was made to look bruised and bloody. The palm of my hand was covered in fake blood to make it look like I had just killed someone, and the back of my hand had scars, blood and bruises on it.

Both of these hands could potentially be what the killer's hands look like. The burnt hand was the most gruesome judging from other people's reactions so we could make both of his hands look burnt. However, if so, then we would have to bring the element of fire into how the killer kills his victims. From my research on victim's bodies I found the convention of slasher films was that most were left bloody so the scarred and bloodied hand could be used for our final project.

 

Deconstruction of Camera Angles & Editing of Natural Born Killers Diner Scene

Deconstruction of Camera Angles & Editing

Camera Angles:

·       Uses a two shot to establish the two main characters that have walked into the diner.

·       Next, there are close ups of the woman dancing to show the audience of her sleazy nature.

·       Midshot looking over the waitress’s arm to the two men – this shows the audience that they are making their way over to begin drinking.

·      

Long shot of woman dancing to highlight how, at first, she is alone but then it is used to show the drunken man joining her and they seem to be having fun.

·       A close up of one of the men moves into a two shot of another man wearing sunglasses sitting there, this then moves into a long shot showing the two men sitting and the drunken man dancing with the woman behind them. This long shot establishes the scene and who is there in the diner so the audience understands better.

·       Close up of the man wearing sunglasses which flicks to images of him with his face bloodied. The close up is used to show the audience his expression as he recalls this event.

·       Close ups of drunken man’s face and two shots of them dancing to show us that they are having fun.

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)

Camera Angles Investigation

The low angle shot was used to make the vampire look more powerful and make the victim seem weaker compared to the vampire. It makes the vampire look stronger and dominating so she's scarier.

Using a long shot for the vampire in this circumstance could also show how she is lonely and needs to attack in order to feel like she has a purpose. It could also be that she is getting ready to attack again because she may be waiting for someone.

Using a midshot makes you focus on both the vampire's claw-like hand and the victim in front. This makes it look like the vampire is getting ready to attack and the victim is running away. A midshot is good because it shows what both the characters are doing without using a basic two shot.