This very first shot was specifically designed to look like a CCTV camera to add a sense of being watched, which brings up the mystery of who is watching; both are thriller signifiers.
This shot of the CCTV camera, stresses the point made by the previous shot that Tanwyn's character is being watched. on top of this, in this shot there is a slow zoom which also adds interest and emphasis on the CCTV recording, with dawning apprehension. This shot is not full of action so it is quite short and we have added titles to add extra interest to the shot and also it is better to have the titles on a boring shot than on a shot full of action as they will distract from the full meaning.
We cannot see Tanwyn's character properly in this shot as he is profiled against bright white light (chiaroscuro lighting). Both the lighting and the silhouette are thriller signifies and they help to maintain a sense of mystery surrounding this character, in so doing reeling the audience in. All the way up to this point the music has been just a steady beat (like a heart) but as soon as this character walks through the door the ebat carries on but there is a rising tone that builds, symbolising his imminent death or the character's walk into danger.
This shot carries on with the same point as the last shot except this shot is less straightforward as the camera has panned round to view the character through grubby glass, that blurs his silhouette and reflects his corrupt nasty personality. As soon as John (Tanwyn's character) has walked past the dirty window the music reaches its peak and a heavier beat begins showing that there is no going back.
At the beginning of this project our group decided that we wanted to achieve a stylish, interesting result, in this shot we did this by emphasising different aspects of it, with this there is the white walls, almost clinical but a bit too dirty; this contrasted with the black stairs and silhouette creates a powerful and stylish shot. this also symbolises how bad John's character is. This shot is influenced by the film noir's we saw as a group and their use of black and white, especially the shot from 'The Third Man' when Harry Lime is revealed.
This shot was greatly influenced by 'Vertigo' as it makes you feel as if you are about to fall and it disorientates the audience because of the bird's eye view. This type of shot is very popular in the thriller genre and we especially liked it because all the while you can see John's Hand on the rail or part of his body walking; the partial shot of the character allows the mystery of who he is to be kept and built upon. Also he is walking up the stairs towards the camera, which suggests he is walking towards something, in this case it is his own death.
Over the end of bird's eye view shot and the beginning of this runs the internal monologue, another of the thriller signifiers which show the innermost thoughts of a character. This character is usually the main protagonist making them seem more important, however John Vanik gets killed so we have added a twist into the opening that he is not actually the main character which is yet another thriller signifier.
This character walks very boldly seeming confident, this along with his internal monologue which is also quite cocky implies that this character is powerful; it is not infact him who is powerful it is his father but the image of him being arrogant and over confident fits his personality. At the end of this shot the briefcase that John has been holding all the way through the opening is swung into shot right in front of the camera, which adds significance to it and its contents which are unknown throughout the opening. On top of this it provides a new and engaging transition between this and the next shot.
This shot is merely used to see him walking into the trap that is set. However when the door becomes fully open the light from the otherside seeps through and shows really nice use of chiaroscuro lighting.
This shot is needed basically to make the narrative flow so wehave a variety of shot lengths and also so that the shot is more interesting to the viewer, as we had to do something to spice up the dull action of walking through a door. Just looking at this shot though you can see that he is walking out into light but either way he walks there is darkness so it is a symbol for leaving safety and travelling into the unknown. For the audience have no idea where he is going.
This is an over-the-shoulder shot that is introducing us to the other character, our main protagonist, Smith. The shot also enables the audience to get a good look at the grungy monotonous mise-en-scene of the car park and a view of John's walk.
This is my favourite shot out of all of them due to the fact that the framing is so unusual because the scene is encapsulated in a triangle making it feel claustrophobic and looks like a play button symbolising the action that is to come. The lighting in this shot as in the last also is just so brilliant with the chiaroscuro effect and the fact that they are white lines getting closer together the further behind John you look. This has the effect of making the distance he is walking look longer and so prolong and build up the tension that is mounting. This shot also utilises deceiving vanishing points that are not really there, but are good to have as they are another thriller signifier.
This shot is the same as the earlier over-the-shoulder shot except John is closer to Smith. This looks as if Smith has been standing stock still and has perhaps been waiting for quite a while implying that he may be angry because John is late. This shot an the last are two of my favourite as they are perfectly balanced and they keep Smith's identity a complete secret as we can see merely and outline of him, although we are so close.
This shot is one I wrote of in an earlier post, as the top of the shot is cut off by the roof and the framing is not balanced because there is too much space behind Smith. However we could not fix this during editing without making it look worse; we tried moving the screen so there was a black bar at the top and bottom of the screen which did not work with the other shots, enlarging the image to cover the whole screen but this dramatically lowered the quality and we even tried sorting it out during filming by moving closer and tilting the shot which ended up looking even worse. we could have just cut this shot out of the film, but we did not wish to do this because apart from the problems with it, it is a really nice shot with the white light in the middle separating the two characters that never actually cross into the light, they just throw the briefcase across, hinting at their obvious aversion to being good citizens. This shot is quite reminiscent of a western as they look as if they are about to have a stand off against one another, which is a nice effect as it does become a game of brains (Smith) versus brawn (John). On top of this Smith seems almost to disappear into the background which shows his professional ability and his covertness, whereas John just barges in shouting 'Smith is it' in a cocky manner, thus amplifying his need to be heard and feared.
This is extremely dramatic as an extreme close up of Smiths eyes that slowly look up in recognition but total hatred and disinterestedness. As of yet the audience still have not seen smith properly and this is their first chance to see him although we only see his eyes and they are shaded by the brim of his hat (trilby hats; generic of the thriller genre). The lighting keeps one side of his face in shadows whilst slowing lighting up the other half as he moves his head, however the audience never get to see him fully as just when they are about to the shot cuts away to the next. On top of all this the slow zoom that we used on the CCTV camera we have also used here to great effect as it narrows in on his eyes to make him seem even more dangerous and angry underneath his collected persona. This shot was really difficult to take as we wanted the beginning of the shot to be blurry to protect his identity and because the focus on the cameras is automatic and cannot be greatly changed we had the get the camera focused on an object in the background whilst Lukman crouched below the camera out of sight. Once the camera was focused he had to jump up and do the action so the camera would refocus and then we would see his face properly. As you can probably tell this shot took and extremely long time to shoot.
This shot was one that we used for Johns speech, as it shows him and the mise-en-scene with the chiaroscuro lighting up his face but leaving some of it in complete shadow. His face is seen as cast in more light than Smiths as if he is more innocent or is newer to the game.
This shot finally reveals Smith to the audience although his face is still cast in deep shadows and the hat hides some of his face which keeps some of the earlier mystery. Smith turns away from the camera and away from what John is saying as if he does care and wishes he would just leave the briefcase and go. This may be because John has just mentioned Smith's boss and if he does not have a boss or does not like not being in control he may take offense from this comment.
This shot was designed so that the character of John is central but still has enough room in front of himself to articulate the importance of what he is saying with hand gestures. Also in the background the audience has a good view of another high rise building next door that would be great for a sniper to hide in the case of a double cross.
This shot leads on from the last; by cutting to a closer view of John whilst he is speaking his words are given added meaning especially since he just asked him 'You do know who i am, don't you?' which implies that he has relatives in high up places or he has got too big for his boots but the zoom effect adds power and significance to his words. The light landing on Johns face cast the rest into dark shadow which is one of the main features of this opening sequence and is a really nice effect to show his path away from the normal and good to the criminal he wants to become to please his father.
This shot of Smith blinking shows complete and utter disinterest in the news that the man he is facing is the son of a very powerful man who could have him killed. this gives an indication of his total disregard for life and his nerves of steel amidst the threats of murder. The audience by now have a vague idea of what Smith looks like but they still have not seen him properly yet and even in this shot his face is shielded by the shadow from his trilby. There is a line of light behind him but compared with John he is in a very dark area of the car park to keep the mystery. We used a hand held camera effect for this to show that his emotions are little bit unbalanced with humour and annoyance.
Here John threatens to get Smith killed unless he shows him respect but these threats don't come to anything and this just off front view of John gives us an objective view so the audience can understand the empty threat better and feel as if they are the ones being shouted at.
Throwing over the briefcase so as not to step into the light that lights up the whitewash wall and outlines the black brief case, suggesting that its contents are either dangerous or illegal. This shot turned out quite stylish with the black briefcase turning against the white backdrop of the wall. The throw by John is very hard as is shown in the next shot when Smith catches the briefcase with a load thump showing John's anger and outrage at being ignored.
This shot shows the practiced manner in which Smith takes out his gun from the back of his trousers, adding to the sense that he is not new to this business and is very efficient.
This shot is to get the audience to look from Smiths point of view down the barrel of the gun and to realise the danger John is in. This shot is almost like the first over the shoulder shot we had of Smith character with the blacked out silhouette except in this one we can see his entire back and can get into the mind set of Smith's character.
This shot is really nice as it is almost as if the gun is being pointed through the screen at the audience when we look down the barrel of the gun. In addition to this when the gun shot sounds at the end of the shot after Smith has taken aim it makes the audience feel as if they themselves have been shot.
The title of our film was something that eluded us for weeks as we could not think of an appropriate title that we all liked, in the end we decided on 'Single Shot' due to the fact that it fits in nicely with the transition between this and the last shot being the sound of a single gun shot. Also it has multiple meanings as John Vanik only had one shot to get the deal right and he messed it up, ending up dead. The font we used was meant to look almost like typewritten script to fit in with the stylish theme of our opening, however this font is even better because it has aspects of that but also looks smudged and over layed that makes it seem dirty and old like the mise-en-scene, it also flashes about on the screen for a while as if being seen by john whose life is slowly fading and he is blinking quickly, shown by the flickering.
