"The Shot"

Even though this is a Gangster Film blog "the shot" is not what you think it might be.  The shot refers to the way a movie is filmed.  There are many different ways that films could be shot and the ways that they are shot have a huge impact on the film itself.  Some shots are very hard to take and others are much easier, the more complex the shot is the more complex the scene may become.  The shot in itself can make or break a movie because it can either indulge the audience even further into the movie or it can distract them away from the important things within the film.

On of the main parts of the getting the perfect shot is making sure to use the shot composition effectively.  When shot composition is used correctly the scene within the film can look brilliant.  There are some main things that shot composition uses the make sure that the shot is useful to the audiences pleasure.  Most importantly the shot should be used to the fullest, if there is empty space in the shot it is deemed as confusing or useless.  If I were to be watching a film where they were standing in a field with nothing extra I would begin to lose focus on that film.  Also by placing objects within the scene you can create depth of the picture itself.  If a room in a shot was empty the viewer of the film would have no perception of the setting that the characters are in.  By placing objects in the front, middle, or the back of the shot it begins to give a viewer a glimpse into the surrounding that the characters would be in while in that specific setting.

One of the most difficult shots to make in a film is the "long" shot.  A long shot is a uninterrupted shot which usually takes a couple minutes to get through.  The long shots are not edited with so you can imagine how difficult that these shots are to make perfect.  Everything must go right in a long shot or the whole shot must be done again, this is why the long shot is not used widely by directors because you can imagine the time that it would take to perfect a shot like this.  Long shots if used correctly can help build suspense in a film, or it can create a dramatic effect in which keeps the viewer on the edge of their seats.  Like this clip from A Touch of Evil, the long shot has so many aspects that must go right for the opening of the film to go right.

As you can see from the clip these shots take careful directing and shooting to make sure the right shot is seen by the viewer.  In this opening a crane was used to film this long shot.  The framing and use of space is crucial to the overall success of a movie, if the film does not used the correct shot or type of shot the audience view of the film may be skewed from that of what the director was trying to portray to the audience.  After researching into the "long" shot the clip from A Touch of Evil is absolutely brilliant, I can only imagine how much time and effort went into making that shot so dramatic and suspenseful.

Film Composition - Film School Online. (n.d.). Film Production Overview - Film School Online. Retrieved November 30, 2011, from http://production.4filmmaking.com/cinematography7.html

Film Glossary. (n.d.). Rice University -- Web Services. Retrieved November 30, 2011, from http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~engl377/film.html