Camera shots in a film extract

Recently in Miss Brown's classes, we have been learning about and understanding camera shots and how they can be effective. Some of the shots we have talked about are Aerial shots, tracking shots, Tilt shots, Pan shots and so on. After we looked at examples of these shots in films such as The Fast and The Furious, Pulp Fiction etc. We talked about why the director chose to use these type of shots, and how it affects the audience whilst they are watching the film. The way the camera shoots the scene is significant; it makes for more meaning. Using the same camera positions and movements for large sections of the film will not be effective, and will make the audience feel un-interested. because it is less engaging for them. For example an 'over the shoulder' tracking shot will make the audience feel like they're with the character in the film, and therefore feel much more engaged with the film.

Using this knowledge we were taught, we had to for homework watch a two minute clip from a film of our choice and pick out all of the key camera angles and methods used. This task helped us to apply our knowledge of camera shots to a real film of our choice. I chose to study 'Shutter Island' and picked out some certain shots from the introduction of the film.

The first shot I talked about was an extreme wide shot, aerial shot of Shutter Island. I talked about how this shot acts as an establishing shot which introduces the location, and how it builds tension for the film because the island looks so isolated and mysterious, and how the island is completely surrounded by the sea. Because of these two aspects of the film the audience can't help but feel drawn in to the film.

The second shot I talked about was a pan shot which pans past a large, old mental asylum on the island. The camera is positioned in the vehicle driving past, so when the camera reveals and pans past the asylum, the scale of the building looks massive and also therefore looks significantly intimidating. Furthermore I talked about how this shot builds up a sense of dread as to the building looking so intimidating and sinister.

The last shot I talked about was another pan shot which pans past some barbed wire on the fence system. Similarly, I talked about how this builds up dread for the audience, knowing that the island is full of insane people, a pan shot showing all the barbed wire makes the audience feel scared of what is to come.

I felt this homework task went well and I understood what I was talking about in terms of camera angles and shot types, and how this affects the film.