Camera Analysis of 'Pi' clip

pi subway scene clip

We see a man in the underground take some pills. Seconds later he becomes nervous, that then changes into his unbearable state, at which point he starts banging his head into the wall. We then see a smartly dressed man wearing a bowl hat and leather gloves, as the camera tracks down his body we notice blood we notice blood is dripping off the bottom of his gloves. Concerned, our narrative character runs across to the platform where he saw the man standing. He is nowhere to be seen yet a trail of blood leads us and our character to a brain on the floor. There is a look of disgust on our narrative characters face yet not a look of shock. As he pokes the brain with his pen the music becomes faster creating tension and a train heads down the platform towards him.

Camera analysis- Extreme close up shots shows us he's taking subscribed legal pills suggesting a mental illness. A wide shot shows us his anxiety through body actions. followed by a close up of his hands to show us he's scared or nervous. An extreme close up jumps towards his face to show the point our character has been hit. Tilted vision that is moving gives us a feeling he has and he can't see straight. The camera is at eye level and every time he jolts his head the camera moves to the side. A hand held camera shows us a restricted view of a smartly dressed character adding mystery to the scene. We cannot see what this man is looking at. The camera quickly flickers back to our main character and then back towards the mysterious man. At first we have a close up of his gloved hand and the camera follows the blood onto the floor (Tracking ). There is a tracking, close-up. at head level that follows our character over the stairs, rocking as he does. We see through the main characters eyes as he approaches (characters point of view) the stairs. It then switches between a tracking close up of his face and a view looking through his eyes as he approaches the blood on the floor and following it to the brain. This rotates with the wide shot of him approaching the camera (brain). Close up of his brain. Medium/close up of characters head as he bends down to poke brain. He quickly turns around and the camera changes from a close up to a wide shot from behind him. Shot returns to medium/ close up. A repeat of he previous 10 seconds happens but we catch a glimpse of the train. We see him from the trains point of view as the train kills him.

Preliminary Task--FINAL EDIT

In my preliminary task as much as we fought it continuity seemed to be an issue. We applied 'Match on Action' where possible and although the outcome could be much improved I'm happy with what we ended up with. I speak for my group when i say the main issue was the doors. They opened and closed the wrong way to create the vortex almost portal i was hoping to achieve to take our character (Gabriel) from place to place, every time confused as to why he could never end up in the right place, whilst at the same time his girlfriend eagerly awaits to tell him some important news. Throughout making this film I found time past by faster then i thought it would. This meant organisation was key and something I needed to pay more attention to. Things such as organising where we would film and what clothes the actor was to wear on what day was an issue and I feel i have learnt from my mistake and will be able to plan and deliver better next time. However after walking around and finding what we thought to be funny places to film, we had a range to select from and I thought that helped whilst editing at the end. Editing was a job i shared with Sam and Aimee that seemed to take hours. Cutting clips to make them fit together proved a challenge in itself, and as i have said achieving continuity was hard but I thought it turned out smoother than rocky. A fault I found whilst filming was zooming in and out. I feel its uncomfortable to watch Gabriel stepping in and out of the van and i will work on that in the future. Aimee was our director, Sam shared the editing job with us all and I was the camera man. I found our team worked well and we learnt from our mistakes. The experience has made me more confident and excited about our 2 minute film.

Diegetic and Non-Diegetic Sound

A diegetic sound is a sound heard within the world of the film. Everything the viewer hears within the world of the film therefore counts to be diegetic. An example of this is character dialogue or a car on the street sounding it's horn. Non-Diegetic sound is sound that as i like to say, takes over and floods over all other sounds. An example of this is the theme tune in James Bond. In many cases films merge the two in a bridge of music connecting a change of scene. Picture a man listening to the radio in his room and as you hear the flicker of his lighter whilst he lights his cigarette, the music becomes louder and almost takes over every other sound in the scene. The flicker of the lighter could be described as a bridge from diegetic to non-diegetic, and the non diegetic could be used to switch scenes.

What You Can Tell From A Single Shot

From each single shot you can tell a lot about whats happening. From what i gather in this shot, a man is handing the woman, quite obviously upset, money. Her casual clothing implies their gathering was also casual and therefore either they are close friends or more. The bed she is lying on also suggests their surrounding is either of the two's home. The man seems to have a suit on showing he is a man on class and possible wealth. He is handing her money also suggesting wealth or that he is leaving her and giving her money due t her situation.

Backgrounds

Back grounds can be created using various different techniques such as the one shown. A set up for a scene takes hours to prepare and the director would not settle for anything less then what he had previously pictured. 

High and Low angle effects

The use of high angle and low angle shots can be used to posses a character with dominance over another character in the scene. In this scene taken from TV series, 'Scrubs', a low and high angle shot has been used and exaggerated for comical effect. Due to the camera looking up at the woman in the scene it gives the impression she is larger then she is and is a figure of authority. The camera looking down on the man takes away his masculinity and makes him seem more easily overpowered.

List Of Camera Sizes

Extreme Close  Up

Close Up

Medium Close Up

Mid Shot

Medium Long Shot

Long Shot

Extreme Long Shot

Establishing Shot

Master Shot

Birds' Eye View

High Angle

Eye Level

Low Angle

Worm's Eye View

Tilt

Dutch Tilt

Point Of View Shot (1st person)

Over The Shoulder Shot

Spectator Shot Spectator Shot

Panning Shot

Tracking Shot

Steadicam

Handheld

Symmetry and Composition

Framing

Depth Of Field

Focus

Rule Of Third

Two Shot

Preliminary Task Storyboard