In cuffs, the camera angle is used to create emotion and meaning within the different scenes. The first episode of Cuffs begins with an establishing shot. This is used to show the audience where the action is taking place, what the type of scene we are in and in addition what the weather is like. It is usually a very wide shot or an extreme wide shot. In a lot of the chase scene a high angle shot is used as a cinematic technique to give more clarity as to what is going on. It also gives a more dramatic sense to a scene and so, during the fight scenes or tense scenes, the high angle shot is used a lot during Cuffs.
There are also a lot of sensitive and vulnerable moments in Cuffs, such as when the dad almost commit suicide, or when the mum got her child back and when another officer slipped his number into Jake's pockets. In each of these scenes the camera angle used is a close-up. It gives a show of feelings and gives more detail to the smaller actions. A tilt pan shot is also sued quite often. Between the father and child there is a tilt pan shot used where it shows that they are somehow linked together in the story. At that point we don't know how they are linked but we do see that the girl knows this man and the man knows the girl, because of the tilt pan shot. It does this by showing the girl and then fading the camera outwards so that we see the guy staring back at the girl.
There is also the use of extreme close-ups. This is a shot that is so tight that only very certain details are shown. For example, in Cuffs, we get a close-up of Nathan's wrists (a drug addict) which have been badly slit. Another example used in Cuffs, as an extreme close-up, is when an Indian boy gets stabbed and all we can see is his head hitting the floor and blood leaking out from his body. It was such a tight close-up that we couldn't see anything more gory than the blood.
Mark 4 and a half out of 5
ReplyDelete1. Cut the opening sentence which is general not specific.
2. Identify Brighton as 'where the action is taking place'. Explain that the bird's eye view shot shows it to be a seaside town, extensive, with all the challenges that brings to a police force. Brighton is known as a holiday destination for foreigners and day-trippers, as a university town, as a busy commercial centre and so on.
3. Do not conflate several examples: stick to the establishing bird's eye view shot alone. Deal with others separately as each has a different effect.
4. You are right about when CUs are used, but again, focus on each separately, explaining WHAT feeling is shown and what the effect is on the audience.
What you also need to write is that a CU's FUNCTION or EFFECT is to encourage the audience to sympathise with that individual.
5. Thoughtful on tilt pans.
6.... and on ECUs.