Research into similar Media texts

The first film we looked at as a class was the Matrix. The scene was taking place when Neo goes into a mansion, yet to see Morpheus for the first time.

We can draw upon their use of match-on-action of the camera shot opening of the door to compare to what we will use when it comes to making our own films, here the effect is used to emphasise the importance of this first encounter, furthermore, the extreme close-up of the door-knob builds suspense.

We can see good implimentation of shot/reverse shot when Neo converses with Morpheus, and although they are not standing, we will have to do practically the exact same thing when it comes to our turn. This leads us onto our next principle of the 180 degree rule wherein we watch someone have a conversation. Our mind establishes that Character A is on the left handside of the screen, and Character B is on the right. If this line is overstepped (the camera passes the invisible line), the whole illusion is broken and we begin to question the validity of what's happening in the film, making watching the whole thing a lot less enjoyable. Thus, we will have to be very careful when we start to film to have our actors sit in the same positions, but more importantly keep the respective camera angle the same in order to tie in with the rule.

The second film we watched was Terminator. The scene involved the Terminator conversing with a police man who refuses to let the Terminator into the station when he hears that the Terminator wishes to see Sarah Connor. We see evidence of shot/reverse shot with the 180 degree rule when the two have the conversation, and then a lot of match-on-action when Terminator crashes the car into the building. The fact that there are lots of shots gives the scene the sense of fast-paced action (which there obviously is) and makes the scene more appealing.

The third and last example I am using is from the 'OCR Media Studies' CD, the example they give us for this task. In this scene the camera primarily follows a teacher walking down a corridor, opening a door, crossing a room and then sitting down to talk to his colleague. The establishing shot (if you can call it that) shows the audience the setting of the about-to-take-place scene, due to the aspects of mise-en-scene incorporated, in this instance background and character costume. The camera then displays a match-on-action sequence where the same person supposedly doing the same continuous action of walking to a door and opening it, as it changes angle and zooms in on the hand on the door. The fact that these are two distinct shots, taken at different times is important because they are put together in a way that makes the audience believe that what is being portrayed is one action. The match-on-action is continued up until the scene where the camera is on the other side of the door, as it shows the last shot of the continued action. Following all of this we can see another establishing shot in wide-midshot, letting those watching know arguably where the other person in the conversation is going to be. The reason why this is so crucial is that this shot immediately tells our brains that the person seen secondly is on the left hand side of the room (and of the screen in the conversation) whereas the other is on the right. As previously mentioned, all this ties in with the 180 degree rule. The last thing that is neccesary is the conversation, an initial shot of Character A talking to B, the second shot showing Character B's reaction and then if neccesary the same sequence is repeated. This principle is done here in this way, showing a very simple exchange of dialogue with the respective characters on their respective sides.