Helloo!! Welcome back or welcome to my blog!! As we all know, the most important part of a movie or show is the way it is shot. How else can the audience take in the information intentionally? Camera shots and angles have the power to completely change the feeling or meaning of a scene, and as directors of our own film, my group and I used a variety of them to highlight numerous things. In today's post, we are taking a deeper dive into what these camera shots and angles were in our film.
Establishing Shots:
Firstly, as the film open we immediately utilize an establishing shot of the car radio. This shot, though simple, is sooo important to the rest of the film. For one, it establishes where the first scene is taking place, with an angle close enough for the audience to be able to tell that 1. they are in a car, and 2. the title of the music that's playing. The music aspect I would say is most important as it introduces the soundtrack for the entire opener. Additionally, this also gave us a chance to incorporate some diegetic sound into the film. As the film transitions from just a black screen to this establishing shot, you can see Vale's hand turn up the radio, causing the music to begin. This shows that this music is also heard in the character's world, but after this car scene, it become non diegetic.
Skipping towards to end of the 2 minutes, there is yet another establishing shot. We intentionally put the establishing shot at the end on purpose. After all of the flashback and present day scenes, we finish off with showing each girl walking towards their designated college. The order follows, Eli (Phi), Yve ( Nahomy), Maria (Me, and lastly, Vale (Mariana). Given the fact that Mariana is our main character, we wanted to place her scene last for her to be the last person in the audience’s minds. Due to this, we roll the bulk of our opening credits during a slow-mo still shot of The University of Miami, which was Vale's chosen school. About that by the way... We had to switch Vale's school from UCF to UM due to some complications we faced on the college trip. I'l get into the details of that during a later blog. Anyway, this establishing shot casts a view over UM's lake, showcasing the water fountain, greenery, class buildings, and a town square for outside performances with the UM symbol popping in. At this time, Nahomy was filming random parts of each campus we visited just in case we needed extra footage, and let me just say- Thank God she did!! After editing all of our scenes, we still had a good chunk of time left over, and this establishing shot was not only a great time filler to roll credits, but it's also very meaningful to the story and the lasting affect on the audience.
POV Shot:
Following the beginning car scene, there is the infamous gas station scene. Although we got sooo much footage from this night at the gas station, only a couple clips made the cut. Out of these few, we knew we HAD to include this POV shot. When Phi and Mariana were first pitching the idea of joining their group to Nahomy and I, they knew for certain a fun gas station scene was needed. They had the cool idea of including a POV shot from Vale's perspective. In this scene, Eli, Maria, and Yve are shown messing around trying on the gas station sunglasses. We had our filmer hold the camera at Vale's eye level, and I act as if I'm putting sunglasses on her. I feel as though this scene makes the moment feel very intimate for our audience. So far, we had only really been showing scenes from an outside perspective as the camera follows the girls. This POV shot let's the audience in to the moment, making it feel more real and heartfelt.
Full shot/ long shot:
Additionally, we also include a variety of full shots, but I want to specifically focus on this one. This full/long shot shows Vale in her empty room moving boxes as she finalizes her packing for college. The way we stage her room in this sequence highlights disparity and emptiness. Her room is less personalized and she is taking her memories down from her walls. As seen, we show Vale's entire body in relation to what is surrounding her. This allows the audience to absorb all of the context they need to understand the scene, thus understanding the impact of the change. You can see the boxes, you can see the suitcase, you can see an empty mirror, and you can see Vale moving a box in her hands. Not only this, but we can also tell how Vale is feeling through her body language. She swiftly moves the box from her bed to the pile with a dull look on her face, which sets the mood and atmosphere for what this scene is supposed to convey. We also included this full shot to transition through a match cut to the next flashback scene.
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