The DaVinci Code

The Vitruvian Man. That is the symbol shown to us in this first scene. We have a long shot, but at the same time, there is little we can see, no detail, leaving us in the ‘dark’ as it were. There is also a pentacle carved into the victims chest, a pagan religious icon; a symbol for Venus, it represents the female half of all things.

In this shot, we see the altered image of the “Last Supper”. It shows John/Mary as they would appear on the other side of Jesus, leaning over him. It is supposed to symbolize that they were together and that he fathered a child with her.

In this last shot, we have a long shot establishing location as well as a sun setting which allows us to ascertain the time as well. We also see several people (at least 6 in the foreground) seeming to be leaving the city in the background indicating some kind of trek is being embarked upon.

The Pursuit of Happiness

In this shot, we have a long shot showing location. We can see that we are downtown somewhere, the buildings can tell us what part of downtown. We also see two characters interacting together, playing basketball on a rooftop.

In this next shot we are at the steps of the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange, and at the foot of the stairs, we have a bright red Ferrari. Notice how everything is either white, or off white, except for the car. This is a way of showing importance to the car, not only as a fantastic vehicle, but it’s adding some symbolism to the car, it’s something to strive to achieve.

In this last shot, we have the main character looking away from his son, crying. He’s holding his son in his arms, his son is just below the camera at this point. You can see something is wrong, very wrong.

Blade Trinity

First off, I chose four shots from this movie, two reaction shots, a close up shot, and a long shot. The first reaction shot shows the character staring up at the ceiling with a bewildered look on his face; as if to say, ‘where is everybody?’

The second reaction shot is of a women right after she has been ‘told off’. The lighting over her shoulders and eyes is very telling and gives hints to the characters ‘history’ and actions to a viewer who would otherwise be unaware. Dark lighting – dark character.

This next shot is a close up of a women’s leg in the shower. The water is not only cleaning the blood away, but cleansing her emotionally. It’s washing away the hurt and the pain as the next shot will illustrate.

This last shot, is a long shot finally establishing location, and you get a real sense of emotion as she cradles herself. This is a tasteful depiction of the female form.

Babylon 5: In the Beginning

This scene is a very powerful point in the movie, we come across group of refugees huddled in the shadows, the lighting at this point is very poignant and we can see some of the reactions on their faces, which add to the mood of this shot.

Look at her eyes. In this scene, we have a reaction shot, you can see the emotion welling up in side of her. If you can, notice the drapery in the background, the color is of some significance. At this point, Earth stands on the brink of annihilation and the Madam President is giving the ‘hold the line’ speech.

In this last scene, we have a medium reaction shot of two soldiers while they are listening to the speech. There is a solemn and ominous feeling to this scene. The weight of the entire world is on their shoulders and that can be seen by their faces and is mirrored in the lighting of the scene.

Resident Evil

This first shot is a close up of a broken vile. This shot shows us that something is wrong, some chemical in now out of its container, while we do not yet know what is wrong; we do know something is wrong. This scene helps establish that something is amiss and should be wary of that chemical.

This shot is a close up of the main characters eye. This is the first time we are introduced to her and this is where the scene starts, it slowly pans out to see her entire body and her position. At this moment, we see her eye. It is telling us that something bad has happened or at the very least, something is wrong. In this shot, we can see just how expressive a single eye can be.

In this last scene, we have fully panned out to see our main character sprawled on the shower floor. We can see that she was in the middle of taking a shower, and collapsed. This scene helps establish location, at least in some small sense. It also shows us a sense of emotion with regards to the character; she is very bewildered after waking up in that position.

Lord of War

There were a couple of scenes that caught my eye in regards to this movie. This shot is in the beginning of the movie, the scene follows the ‘life’ of a bullet from creation to the moment it’s fired. It shows a very unbiased perspective of the bullet, showing it for just what it is, a piece of manufactured metal.

The next shot I chose because it is an excellent example of a long shot. In the for ground we see the sand riddled with shell casings, and in the back ground we see several figures with guns utilizing those bullets. This shot uses natural surroundings and specific clothing being worn to give us a sense of location.

This last shot I chose because it was one of the few scenes that I could remember seeing in a long time that utilized the subjective point of view shot style, aside from ‘Rear Window’ of course.

Saw

With this movie I wanted to use all close up shots because this movie masterfully utilizes this style of shot to emphasize importance on various things. In the first shot, it is of someone holding a mini cassette which reads ‘PLAY ME’.

Again, this next shot uses a close up style of shooting to establish with the audience that the clock in this shot is of supreme importance, in this case, they have until 6 o’clock to make a vital decision.

They say the eyes are the window to the soul; in this case they are the window to the mind. In this last shot, we see a female character with some sort of contraption on her head. All we can see is her eyes, and with just two eyes, we see more expression then any amount of words could tell us.

Office Space

In this first shot, it not only shows us a long shot establishing the location downtown LA, but it also shows us some of what the characters have to endure daily to get to work, the commute.

In this next shot, we have a reaction shot between two characters, one of which has a very interesting look on his face, and is mirrored in his hand gestures. Their body language and facial expressions are very atypical for an office setting such as this.

In this last shot, we have a close up of a computer screen and a file transfer in progress. There are a few telling details within this shot that tell us exactly what is going on with out even knowing what the movie is about. I liked this shot because of its use of simplistic detail to get across the idea of what is going on.

DodgeBall

“IF YOU CAN DODGE A WRENCH, YOU CAN DODGE A BALL!”
In this first shot, it’s sort of a reaction shot with a slapstick comedy element intertwined with it. In this shot, the character is being hit with a wrench, even though this would be overwhelmingly painful, there is a lighthearted-ness to the shot that makes us laugh at his pain.

This next shot is a reaction shot immediately following the last shot of the wrench facial. It shows us the reaction to two individuals after they have seen their friend struck in the face. Notice their reaction is more of shock and awe then of anger for the abuse of their friend.

This last shot I chose because it was a good example of an indoors long shot. It gives you a sense of location while at the same time it can also be called a reaction shot; we may not be seeing the reaction of someone in particular such as in the previous shot, but we are seeing the collective jubilation of the entire audience.

UHF

The First shot is a close up shot of various test tubes, beakers and flasks with different chemicals and liquids in them. In one of them you can even see the piece of dry ice making it bubble and smoke. I chose this scene because even though it is not a long shot, it definitely gives a sense of location to the shot.

I chose this next shot because it was a reaction shot that showed us what is happening to the main character. It also utilizes a small amount of humor in the shot. Even though there are 60 thousand volts running through George’s body, it is still comical. That’s another reason I chose this shot, because of how it added a sense of comedy to a “shocking” situation.

I chose this last shot because it was a good use of a close up shot, as well as an ode to a classic movie, “Rambo”. In this shot, it depicts the characters almost solemn face, even blank reaction to the fact that he just shot a man… at point blank range… with a bow and arrow.

Clockwork Orange

The first scene I chose was from the opening scene which depicts Alex, the main character. He has an evil look on his face which sets the tone for the entire movie. This is a good example of a close up shot. The lighting work in this scene is intentional and adds to this characters background

This next scene I chose because it was a great example of a close up shot of an object. In this case, the shot is of a vile, an experimental serum number 114. This serum seems to be very ominous, even more so because of how the camera zooms into this shot. This serum is injected into Alex, and then in the following scene we start to get an understanding as to why he was given the shot.

This last scene I chose because of the dramatic close up reaction shot of Alex. Right now he is being subjected to visual stimuli which is hoped to change his personality. His eyes are being forced open to watch these graphic images in the hopes that he will associate these images with an ill, sickening feeling.

Shade

I chose this part of the film SHADE for my first scene because it was a very good combination of two different styles of shots: The first is the medium shot, here we can see the character Verne (Stuart Townsend) holding a shot gun in the middle of a shoot out with mobster muscle, the other type of shot is a reaction shot. Now it is not a dramatically close up shot to truly see the reaction, but a reaction can certainly be seen, because at this point in the film, he has ducked behind the bar and took the gun from the shot bartender, he stands up to take a shot, pumps the shot gun… and click. It’s empty and his face shows that ‘OH NO!’ look.

The next scene I chose was a breathtaking panoramic view of downtown LA at night. This shot facilitates the understanding that the time of the movie has shifted from the mid-afternoon to night. It is at this point that the climax of the movie is about to take place, and the fact that it is taking place at night signifies the idea that there is a bit of suspicious behavior is about to take place.

The last scene I chose was that of the first deal of the cards in a very exclusive poker game. In this scene, The Dean ( Sylvester Stallone) is like the Godfather of the ability to stack a deck of cards, and this is just after a new deck was opened, and he is shuffling the deck. But because of his ability, he knows exactly how to manipulate the deck “and there for control the cards, you know… cheat” – Verne. This scene utilized the shot style of the close up well. showing just the cards and the hands shuffling them.