Camera Exercise: Safe Place thriller analysis

The Story
Safe Place is a thriller set in a school. In the school the boy played by Corey starts to notice suspicious paranormal activity and shares this with his friend, who is played by Michael. They then seek to hunt out the cause of the strange goings on within the school and spot a strange figure in one of the windows. Quickly to prove the sighting they take a photo of the dark figure which then starts to move towards them. Both of the boys run but are caught by the figure at the end of the scene and fall to the floor, presumably dead.

Use of Shots
We used; long shots, over the shoulder shot, tracking shot, point of view, medium shot, high angle shot, close up, pan and a low angle shot but we did not use all the shots listed in the lesson because we didn't find a opportunity to use it within the story. We used the shots that were appropriate and made sense to the story.

1. The first shot was a long shot which we used to establish the scenery of the thriller so people would know the setting and be able to tell where the boys were coming from and going to. This shot also introduces the characters to the audience as they approach the camera and so the audience are aware that these are the two characters that the film will be focused on.
2. We then use a medium shot of the boys legs as they make their way down the stairs, this is used to show they are moving throughout the school and to show they are making their way down the stairs, they are obviously going somewhere but the audience are unaware yet of where they are going and what for
3. The next shot is a high angle shot from above the stairs the boys just walked down, of them walking from the room. Again this is just to show the boys are moving from place to place so the audience questions what the boys are doing
4. The next few shots are over the shoulder shots, we used these as it's an efficient way of showing the audience that both of the boys are now discussing something with each other and it gives the audience the chance to see the characters close up and so they can now distinguish the main characters. The audience can also see the urgency shown in the boys expressions in this scene as the shot gives the audience a good view of the boys faces as they talk.
5. The next is a mid shot of the boys leaving the building, again a shot of the boys walking so the audience are still wondering what will happen next and to hear the boys discussing more of the story
6. We then used a tracking shot to move to the next scene
7. We used a close up of the camera once Corey had taken the shot so the audience saw that he had taken the photo and in attempt to make the audience feel frightened of the dark unknown character
8. We used a pan shot of the boys that then turned to the dark figure which then turned back onto the boys running towards the dark figure as it moved away. We used a pan shot because we wanted the shot to be quick as to express the urgency of the event and so the audience will feel tense as to what will then happen next.
9. The second to last shot we use is a point of view shot, the camera is held by the boys so the audience will feel as though they are in danger because they see the scene from the point of view of the characters and so feel the characters fear and terror.
10. The final shot used is a low angle shot as the boys fall to the floor and the monster appears to make the dark figure look more menacing by looming over the two characters and combined with the point of view gives the audience the same feeling of peril and being in danger of the looming figure.

I believe my shots were successful as they gave us the effect we desired and the impact we wanted to impose on the audience, using particular shots and angles to effect the audiences feelings and thoughts. Each shot fit with the scene it was portraying and contained the characters and the settings effectively.

Critical assessment
Mostly the shot is held steady and the camera was kept on the tripod in most scenes, however in one of the tracking shots the camera movement jumps and seems unsteady at first and a steady shot is not held perfectly in all scenes. In the final scenes where the boys are running the unsteady shot in purposefully placed into the scene as part of the shot.
In each shot the characters were appropriately kept within the frame and the scene, although in some shots the frame is slightly tilted and not purposefully so, it was just a mistake that was not set correctly during the filming.

Conclusion
I think that the most positive elements of the film was our use of shots, I think we used each shot appropriately and the shots fit in well with the story and created the suspense and fear we wanted to instill in the audience that we wanted it to.
I do however think that some of the shots were shaky and that the editing could be improved. There were continuity errors with the changing of the characters clothing halfway between shots and lighting changes in some of the scenes, mostly because we had little time to focus on these faults and to re-film these scenes. Also in some of the scenes people were talking in the background and it distracted the audience from what was being said by the characters and so some of the audio was muffled and one scene had to be cut from the final product due to us being unable to hear one of the characters in his scene over the sound of the noise.