How Micro Elements Are Used

Shutter Island

Extreme Long Shot

In an Extreme long shot you are able to see the whole background, it can be to help set the background story. In this picture it shows the sea and a medium sized boat telling us that only a few people are travelling, there is also no land around the boat suggest they are sailing to the middle of nowhere. This can create mystery for the audience.

Close Up

Close ups are used to show detail or a persons physical state, in this screen it has capture the facial expression of madness with a bit of anger. This close up can also identify him as the main character. The camera shot produces different emotions which helps the audience relate back to the main character.

Medium Shot

This is print screen of a medium shot, its consists of a little background and half of the character’s body, we can tell from the picture that the actor is wearing a police badge on this trousers, and that he is stressed by his body language. The background looks like he is in a cabin’s medical room or bathroom. This could mean that the actor is unwell or sick. This will create a start of a storyline for the audience, as well as show the emotions the of illness or stress.

Long Shot

The print screen is showing an extreme long shot, this helps the audience to understand what the person is doing and where the scene is, this shot is normally used too show full body language or to show crowds in different scenes. This shot is showing the back of a person looking in to the open space of the sea, which is never ending. The emotions let off in this scene is desire and loneliness as the actor is looking out in the sea, with his hands in his pockets.

PAN The camera is placed on a tripod, where is can scan the scene

horizontally. This movement is often used when following an actor, so that they are kept in the middle of the frame, or so scan the scene. This helps the audience acknowledge where the scene is set, what the actors body language is doing for example if they are running, are they running away from someone, or are they simply just running to keep fit. During the opening sequence of shutter island, a pan movement was used to show the main character leave the the bathroom/medical room to the main deck. The characters body language was shown here as well as his facial expression, which sternness but a hint of scariness.

TILT

This is very similar to a pan movement, it is when the camera scans the scene vertically. This movement is used for scanning a building in a frame, or even scanning a person for head to toe. For the audience it helps to either show the description of a building or character, or even to build up suspense in a thriller or horror. This should could be used in a psychological thriller to slowly tilt up and show the audience who the killer, or victim is. Whilst doing this slowly there is a build up of suspense, which is a typical convention in a psychological thriller.

ZOOM

Is literally when you zoom into or out of the scene/frame. It can be used to zoom from an extreme long shot to an extreme close-up. The zoom pace however can vary it from a ‘smash zoom’ to a ‘slow zoom’ where the camera zooms in inch by inch but the camera remains stationary. The reason for this is to tell the audience to focus on a specific, object, item, or part of the body. In a psychological thriller this would be a very conventional shot as it also creates a sense of mystery, and can also create a eerie mood.

CUT AND PACECUT is when the frame changes from one shot to another. For example from a ‘close up’ to a ‘medium shot’ as shown below. PACE is how fast this cut happens. Cut and pace are main keys elements in a psychological thriller opening, it reveals an effect of speed and confusion for the audience. In Shutter Island there aren’t a lot of Cuts because the director is creating a slow pace to signify that the boat journey is very long.

PERFORMANCE

The performance is all about the vocal delivery and the emotions actors/actresses show, to try and make their performance as realistic as possible. During the opening sequence of Shutter Island Leonardo Di’Caprio who is the main character is very sea sick, so he must convict his audience he is sick by how he talks and acts, for example he walks with a dizzy notion and is sick sea when we first see him, this tells the audience that he is on an important task as he does not like boats.

NON-DIEGECTIC

This is when the actors cannot hear the sound but the audience can. For example in a psychological thriller the eerie music played to emphasis the scene is non-diegetic, because it has been added in after, so the actors do not here this only the audience does. The background music in Shutter Island is very mysterious and eerie, which foreshadows mystery in the film.

DIEGETIC

This is when the source of the sound is visible to the actors for example, the voices of characters (dialogue), sound made by objects in the story for example if a car is passing by in the background we and the actors can hear it, or if music instruments are playing. The diegetic sounds in Shutter Island is mainly the crashing waves upon the boat, this justifies that the scene is set out in the sea/ocean. This also helps the audience to understand the opening much more as they know where they are without having to be told by an actor in the film.

MISE-EN-SCENE

This is the first scene of the opening sequence, it is showing a small boat coming out of the fog. The fog represents mystery which is a typically convention in a psychological thriller, the small boat as well shows mystery, because we why would you have a small boat in the middle of nowhere. The audience can then straight away starts to question the film about where it might be heading.

How Will This Help Me?

The different shots used in Shutter Island tells me what I need to make my film more realistic and thrilling. For example, closes up are very popular in a psychological thriller as it tells the audience what to focus, which could lead into something very big later on in the movie. The diegetic and non-diegetic sounds as well help to create the atmosphere of a psychological thriller and it links together the film and the genre. If there was no sound only dialogue during the film, it be uninteresting, therefore the audience would not watch. I think a slow eerie piece of music for the background would emphasis the psychological thriller genre I am creating.