Camera angles

OCR Media Studies, How to Guide. Basic Camera Angles

OCR Media Studies - Basic Camera Shots

OCR Media Studies - Camera Movements

Over the shoulder shot

An example of an over the shoulder shot would be this scene from Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2. This adds effect as it shows which character is in control and the way in which a number of characters communicate with each other.

Long Shot

An example of a long shot is this scene from Batman The Dark Knight, this allows the viewer to see the full scene and the effect the character has on the public in the city.

High Angle

An example of a high angle shot is this scene from Inglourious Basterds. This camera angle shows which characters are dominant and which are the less powerful.

Extreme close-up

This is an example of an extreme close-up from the film Avatar. This is usually used when trying to add tension, it can also be used at the end of films to end with a character rising from their death.

Low Angle Shot

This is an example of a low angle shot from the film Batman The Dark Knight Rises. This camera shot is also used to show dominance and is used to show the effect of the lighting in a scene.

Mise en scene

Luther

Setting/Location

The first scene appears at a busy road, then appears tall building in the background. The second scene is inside the female characters high-rise flat in an urban area, this suggests she is a wealthy person or has a very important career.

Colour scheme

The colour scheme in the city and into the flat is very dull, also the clothing in the scene is very dark suggesting they both wear practical clothes suiting their careers.

Props/Objects

The props used in the scene inside the flat include telescope, black hole poster and a globe. This suggests that she is interested in space and is a keen voyeur.

Hairstyle

Luther's hairstyle is very neat, this adds a very practical hairstyle. Her hairstyle is also neat and functional, this is suited to her career.

Make-up
The make up on the woman in this scene is very strong and she has clearly made an effort in the way she looks in this scene. she has very noticeable lip-stick that stands out from the rest of her make up.

Costume
The characters in this scene are very smartly dressed. the women is dressed in a business attire and looks like she has made an effort. Luther is dressed in a huge wool coat, shirt and jeans, this is his iconic choice of clothing and what he normally wears.

Placement in frame
In the scene she is always smaller than Luther in every frame. but she is seen to have the control in the scene in what Luther says she always finishes his sentences and has the final word on things.

Choice of actor performance
She is a dominant figure in this scene, she is in full control of the situation and knows what she's saying and what she wants to say ensuring she gains control of his attention. At the end of the scene she also threatens him which shows she is dangerous and dominant.

Lighting
The whole scene is very well light with daylight. The flat is also high up in the building so the lighting is very powerful.

Why did Ex Machina succeed at the Box Office?

Ex Machina was a strangely successful film of 2015 at the Box Office. It is an example of an Independent British film that tells the story of a programmer who is invited to with his boss to administer the Turing test on an android he had created. The android had artificial intelligence the Turing test was used by evaluating the human qualities of a breath-taking female; Ava. However the film lacked many qualities to make a successful film which is why it was unusual for the film to succeed at the Box Office.

The film was directed by Alex Garland, he also has experience with films such as ‘Annihilation’ and ‘Dredd’. The stars include Domhnall Gleeson, Corey Johnson, Oscar Isaac, Alicia Vikander and Sonoya Mizuno. Although the actors in the film are not seen as well-known, they became popular due to Ex Machina. Even though only 4 characters speak in the film, it still succeeded at Box Office. Domhnall Gleeson has been in popular films, such as ‘Unbroken' and 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part two’; he is also going to be in the new Star Wars film coming out on the 17^th December. The film was produced by 'DNA Films' and 'Film4' productions. Both of these film production companies are very successful and have produced many successful films. This could demonstrate that the production for 'Ex Machina' could be one of the reasons for its success at the box office.

Ex Machina’s budget for the film was estimated at $15,000,000, this paid for the location, the stars and the producers. In the opening week, Ex Machina made around $250,000. Although the film was released during the release of the ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’, the film still managed to make a quarter of a million dollars in the opening week. The budget of Ex Machina was a lot lower than any other film; this could suggest why Ex Machina did so well at the Box Office.  Ex Machina has a cinema length of 108 minutes and was first put on 4/5 screens. This later increased to 500 screens when Avengers, Age of Ultron viewers died down. It had a reasonable success in the US and other markets as its world-wide box office figure was $83,128,313 showing its success. As it was marketed mainly in the US in Texas that is where most of its success lies. The science fiction film "Ex Machina" has been picked up for Us distribution by A24 Films.

During the upcoming release of Ex Machina, the directors used many ways of marketing. These include, they used the dating app 'Tinder' to raise awareness about the upcoming sci-fi thriller. They created a profile of Ava so that people could interact with her and feel like they were part of the film this made others want to go and see the film. They also used Instagram to spread news about the film to a wider audience. 'Ex Machina' is not a four quadrant film, which is another reason why marketing would have been so important.  However, for example 'Avatar' and 'Star Wars' are both very popular and successful sci-fi films this shows that there must be a bigger target audience for sci-fi thrillers.

The location for the film was predominantly in Norway. The setting for Nathan’s house was Juvet Landscape Hotel, Alstad, Valldal, Norway. The location and camera angles were very important to portray this in the best way possible. The key scenes during the film are Caleb and Ava's relationship developing. This needed to be done perfectly as this is a major part of the film itself. The lighting has to be perfect for the situation, almost like it was real-life. They filmed used Sony F-65 cameras with anamorphic lenses; this allowed them to get the perfect scene for this part of the film.

Ex Machina used an alternative to CGI, due to their low budget. In order to create Ava’s robotic features they filmed the scene with both with and without Ava’s presence. Camera- and body-tracking systems transferred Vikander’s performance to the CGI robot’s movements. Overall, there were around 800 shots, of which 350 or so were shots of robotics. This means that even though this film had a significantly smaller budget compared to other successful films, it was still able to create the same standard of film due to the evolution of technology.

Ex Machina certainly isn’t a mainstream movie, in the sense that it isn’t viewed as the typical British film, what with its confusing plot and slow tempo. This certainly caught the interest from the film critics, who awarded positive reviews of the film. The IMDB (Independent Movie Database) has a rating on a high range of films across the planet. For Ex Machina, its rating is 7.7 out of 10. A magnificent score for such a low budget movie, and this did little to harm its reputation throughout the film industry. Once the film was well established as a critically acclaimed movie, Ex Machina began to develop more external interest from those who aren’t keen Sci-Fi fanatics, and therefore generated more of a profit from revenue etc.  

Ex Machina was a huge success at the Box Office, generating a gross in the region of $37,000,000 from a $15,000,000 budget, overall the film made around $6.9,000,000. This was achieved through sharp marketing campaigns, summarising skylines, and gaining a cult following. The film was also a massive success due to the generation in which it was filmed and the way that shaped the quality of its special effects, as well as its genre and its intriguing director.

In my opinion Ex Machina succeeded at the Box Office due to marketing before the film. As well as the respectable reputation of Alex Garland; the director. Over all I don’t believe that Ex Machina should have done as well as it did at the Box Office due to its slow pace, no special effects and the time it was released (at the same time as Avengers). I would have thought that due to this film also being released around the same period, it will have taken away the major of viewers for the film.