Shots, Angles, Movement, and some Analysis

 

Shot Types:

Extreme long – Wide, complete view of the space and isolation with insignificant people

Long - Smaller but still shows the scene in it’s entirety, whole person in-frame, establishes location, showing the audience where this is all happening

Medium Long – Gives information about the setting and the character(s), from the knees up, clear view of body language and relationships/interactions with other characters

Medium – Waist up, shows gestures, expressions, their outfit, often links long and medium close-up shots

Medium Close – Usually for the news, hand and shoulders with space around them, conversations (including reactions)

Close-up – Social triangle – eyes and mouth, highlights the details

Big close-up – Shows all details, forehead to chin, highlights emotion or prop details

Extreme close-up – Small portion of the detail, enters the character’s personal space, highlights elements that would normally go unnoticed by those who aren’t looking, usually mystery and tension

Angle Types:

High – Above the characters, looking down on them

Eye-level – At the character’s level

Low – Lower that the character, looking up to them looming, often taking up the frame far more than other elements

Oblique/Canted: Off-axis, tilted, unnerving, disorientating

Movement:

Pan - The camera moves left or right, often motivated by movement

Tilt – Camera looks up or down

Tracking – Moving

Tracking pan – Moving while remaining fixed on the subject(s)

Dolly – Back and forth

Analysis:

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Sherlock Holmes: Game of 

Shadows Trainyard Shootout

Our first, second-long shot is that of an eye-level medium close-up to close-up of Sherlock Holmes, with Watson to the side of the frame, cutting to an eye-level long shot to show the men chasing Holmes and Watson. In the first shot, Holmes is framed mostly to the left, with the men chasing them coming in on the right of their shot. Because the camera is facing Holmes and he is on the left, the men being on the right suggests this is what Holmes is looking at. The camera follows Holmes, but it stationary for the shot of the men, showing that Holmes is extremely focused, not letting his vision wander or shake. It then cuts to a similar shot to that of the first, though with the characters reversed. This short shot links the next static, low-angle shot from underneath a carriage looking at Watson firing. This highlights him standing his ground, with the camera placement reminding the audience of where they are as in the background you can see a train/carriage. There is then a half-second static eye-level medium shot of a man ducking to avoid the gunfire. All shots up until now have been smooth, calm, and collected, whereas this shot has violent shaking, showing how this isn’t a calm situation for the man. We then get a repeat of the first shot, though the pair are far more over to the left, and then it changes to a high long shot, giving a birds-eye view of Watson continuing his gun fire. There is a pan that follows Holmes as he moves behind a carriage to meet another character, Watson however is static. The camera moves from high-right to low-left. For the shot of Watson being unable to fire, it starts with a high medium-long but moves to a lower shot, before panning quickly to the left, highlighting how the pace is now raised from their inability to fight back. The shots of Holmes shooting are static and at his eye level for the most part, not flinching as matching him. Even amongst all the chaos and the camera movements speeding up, these shots have little movements, Holmes moves faster than the camera when he slumps down, reaching the ground before it does, but they are matched when he gets back up. There is a high-long shot to establish the transition to outside, then a cut to a medium shot, showing how they’re all coping at that moment. The camera pans at a medium shot at eye level, motivated by them all moving form left to right of the frame. The next shot is a static eye-level medium shot of a sniper peering round a train to shoot one of the characters that are running. This pays off the earlier static shot from a high-angle as it looked as though they were being watched. When Holmes and Watson return fire, the camera is calm, static at a medium shot at eye level. They are focused and aren’t allowing themselves to give their pursuers a chance to take another shot. A few shots later, there is a long shot of a man throwing a rope down for the characters to climb up with, this remains a low angle, but cuts to a high long shot of the characters reaching the wall. Following that, there are a series of shaky eye level shots ranging from long to medium-long, showing that they’re now cornered and the stakes are rising. The shot of the man climbing up to man the gun is a medium-long remaining at a low angle to show just how powerful he will be with the gun the next medium-long shot shows. This shot tracking pans upwards from a low angle to highlight the size of the gun. The following shots of the protagonists under fire are static, cutting from a medium-long to just a medium at a high angle for the first shot, then eye level for the second. We then get a shot from the POV of the gun, tilting down to aim at the carriage the protagonists are hiding behind. The following shots are all static, going from a shot of the gun to the shell tearing through a wall. The gun shot has a high angle, where as the wall shot has a low angle. This shows that the gun is as deadly as it could be, with the wall being the main focus of the second shot, asserting it’s dominance by assuming the whole frame. It being destroyed shows how even the protagonists have a real chance of death.