Clip 4
The first shot runs for about twenty-two seconds and is the longest singular shot I will be studying. The purpose of the shot is to introducing us to Captain Miller and gives us a brief insight into him, his relationship and rank amongst the other men.
The shot starts with a close up of Millers shaking hands, opening a bottle and raising it up to drink. We do not see his face as the camera moves out of the dark into the light and back down again. He finally raises his head followed by the camera looking out to his men and the situation ahead. The shot moves backwards through the other soldiers, concealing Miller, so our point of focus has now been shifted from focusing on the one character to the rest of the boat, and because Miller is central throughout the shot we are lead to know that he is the main character we will be following through the story.
Within the one movement we have a close up, a mid shot and a wide. This is to slowly bring the audience into what will be a very fast paced vicious scene.
Photograph 11
Photograph 12
The first framing used diagonals drawing you to the main focus which is the middle of the shot. As we move up and down with Millers bottle you feel unsteady as you naturally believe that the camera and Miller would have stayed up instead of going back down again.
Photograph 13
Throughout the move backwards from the medium close up to the wide, Miller stays in the centre of the frame but your focus moves around the screen as other men become a part of the frame crowding Miller. This focus shift is caused by a number of factors. First of all the physical movement of the camera backwards followed by the character lowering his head, but by this point the framing has changed to the rule of thirds.
Photograph 14
The character next to Miller, on his right, takes up a full third and his movements are more prominent than those around him, for the full movement the rule of thirds does not change but the characters who inhabit them do. This allows you to take in the full contents of the shot.
Photograph 15
Because the shot size only changes through movement instead of cutting between shots I think this has a stronger impact. It gives the audience a sense of position on the boat and a feeling of claustrophobia as the characters are all very close to the camera and each other. It shows a little more of the characters without straying from the current situation. The decision to cut from character to character is done a few shots later and I believe it works at that point in the scene as the audience have been given the chance to know their surroundings before the beach. The choice to shoot away from the beach allows the audience to feel the tension of not know what lies ahead or how far away they are, as well as stopping them from becoming distracted by a looming background this allows them to concentrate on getting to know the characters. His in turn makes the landing in the beach seem more horrific.
The movement through the boat had been done with a steady cam. It is more fluid than the shaky hand-held work that is done later and works well with the sea and rocking boat.
