Examples (camera shots, camera angles, transition) - Movie Review Example

Movie review Films are mediums of communication. Producers of films employ a number of techniques besides the story line to aid in communicating the intended message. Among the most commonly manipulated techniques include camera shots, camera angles, transition and color balance among many others. An up-close analysis of how these are manipulated to communicate is done below through reviews of a number of short films. The film new boy begins with a closer up shot of the young black boy. This is an establishing shot revealing just enough details to help create the mood in the movie.

A close up shot reveals just enough details to develop an understanding of the immediate surrounding. From this shot, the background of the boy is visible revealing a classroom setup. A blackboard is clearly visible and the teacher’s desk. From the young black boy, the scene swiftly transits to another. The transition effect is “cut:, a spontaneous switch from one scene to another. This is the first transition in the film and together with the first few shots they help create the theme (Penz and Andong 106).

The new shot is a long shot if the classroom. This shot is used to reveal the entire breadth of the classroom. It is also used to show the rather clear contract between the new black boy and the class filled with white children. The cut transition helps create the rapid contrast required to bring the “jump” illusion from one of the scenes to another. This transition easily brings out the contrast between the boys black color and a majority of the white students in the class. The next scene is of a naughty boy trying to intimidate the new boy.

The shot is an extreme close up into the boy’s face. Previously, as the teacher introduces the new black boy, the camera had zoomed into the timid boy’s face bringing an extreme close up shot of his central face. When the next scene is introduced by a cut transition and is an extreme close up of the white boy, the notion achieved by the producer is to bring to the fore the finer details differencing the two boys. The two contrasting scenes reveal the difference in the colors of the skins of the two boys.

The bully personality of the white by is immediately established from the angle the camera zooms into him (Penz and Andong 76). Unlike with the boy that the camera zoomed into him at a high angle depicting possible fear or intimidation, the camera zooms into the white boy at a low angle brining the illusion of a towering young man. This implies the feat that the white boy is possibly dominant over the new black boy. In addition to the domineering camera angle, the white boy proceeds to prove his portrayal by inflicting pain into the boy by asking him questions to torment him.

The lady teacher ask for any one of the pupils to volunteer to sit with the new boy, the entire class lifts their hands, the camera zooms out the hands to establish an extreme long shot of the class. The class is wide and this is an attempt to fit all the hands into the frame. This is also done to bring out the comparison of the class demography. Out of the many white hands, a single black hand is clearly visible; the contrast of colors makes it stand out from the rest. Work Cited Penz, François, and Andong Lu.

Urban Cinematics: Understanding Urban Phenomena Through the Moving Image. Bristol: Intellect, 2011. Print.