Continuity analysis

For my continuity sequence, I chose to analyse a scene from one of my favourite films ever, Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Establishing shot:

• ELS of the building that the restaurant is in - to inform the audience of where the scene is taking place.

Shot reverse shot:

• When Ferris is talking to the waiter, they switch between shots of the two of them - we see how both characters respond to the conversation.

180 degree rule:

• The whole scene is filmed from Ferris's right side and does not switch to the other side. This is so the audience will not feel disoriented or confused.

30 degree rule:

• When Ferris says that he is going to call the police, the shot changes to face the phone straight on, so the camera moves about 45 degrees. If the camera did not change the angle it would look like a jump cut, which looks slighty strange and glitchy.

Match on action:

• When the waiter enters the scene, we see a MCU of him walking toward Ferris, Cameron and Sloane. It then changes to an LS of the waiter walking toward the three of them, but he is still walking, so the scene looks logical.

Sound:

• When Sloane is on the phone to the waiter, Sloane's voice continues through the shots changing. This is so we can see both of their reactions to what the other is saying.

Accident Continuity Analysis

What worked well:

• Played with the action shot and convention of establishing shot - started with a close up rather than an ELS.
• Match on action - from when he runs into the room in slow motion and crashes into the locker.
• Good range of shot types.

What we could improve:

• Start of chaotically and then move to slow motion - too much of a change and seemed out of place.
• Room looks the same on both sides, so it looks as though he falls over toward the locker he crashed into, rather than away from it.
• Broke the 180 degree rule - crossed an invisible line and the direction was changed.

Film Making Conventions and Cultural Codes (American Psycho)

I chose a scene from American Psycho, from the middle of the film. The genre of the film is drama/crime.

Film making conventions:

• ECUs of each business card, and when each character takes out their business card - shows the importance of the cards to the businessmen.
• As the scene goes on, the framing on Patrick Bateman gets tighter and tighter - making the scene more tense as we read the anger and jealousy in his facial expressions.
• Voice over of Patrick's inner thoughts - although he is not outwardly expressing his jealousy we see into his mind like none of the other characters get to.
• Sound of the clicking when the other businessmen open their business card holders is enhanced and isolated - get the sense of building tension - as Patrick focuses more and more on the business cards, he gets increasingly jealous.
• Other characters are shot with MCUs or CUs, but only ECUs on Patrick and the business card, so we focus more on Patrick and his emotional response to the cards.

Cultural codes:

• A room of very well dressed businessmen - all very rich and highly thought of in the business world.
• Comparing their business cards - competitive nature of their work place - Patrick becomes furious when he learns that they all consider Paul Allen's business card to be better than his, but a large percentage of the audience would not understand his jealousy, which makes Patrick's reactions and emotions even stranger to us.
• Their clothing and the room that they are in have fairly muted colours - nothing too bright - shows the seriousness of their environment

Reflections on shots

Genre:

We chose horror as our genre and we decided to represent this by having dull colours and a tilted LS to convey the strangeness of our main character, and to make her look sinister. The hair on one side of her face and the intense look makes her look like a villain.

Achieving the effect:

We achieved the effect by putting a sepia setting on the camera and shining a pag light directly on Ella and tilting the camera.

What is successful:

I think the genre is being conveyed successfully and our decision on changing the setting on the camera and tilting the frame was a good idea, because it conveys the darkness of our character.

Improvements:

I would probably make the shot tighter, an MCU or CU so we could control more in the shot and get rid of the background. The lighting is good, but I would change it by putting the light underneath Ella's face to give harsh shadows on her face to make the shot even stranger.