Camera & Lighting Ideas 1

Party Scene

SkinsSkins is an British on-going TV series, a drama based on the lives of different groups of friends throughout their years of college. The target audience for Skins is young adults, roughly around the same ages as the characters i.e. 16 – 20, this is because of the explicit content featured i.e. sex, drugs and violence. This series was incredibly popular due to the relation the characters and themes has with the audience, including relatable story lines along with covering several sub-genres such as comedy, social realism, romance.

Throughout the 6 series of Skins, the stereotypical scene which is always featured in a ‘party scene’, representing the archetypical behaviour of teenagers in this day and age. Considering that our trailer is a coming of age film, we also wanted to include the stereotypical party scene as we wanted this to include the climatic point in our film, along with having the opportunity to explore and use camera angles in order to portray various things.

A complication of clips from 1-6 series

http://youtu.be/GGL4nNnjkWQ

Camera Angles 1

Wide High Angled Shot Close Up Shot Wide Angle – Establishing Shot

Close Up Shot Low Angled Shot

Skins – Series 3

http://youtu.be/RC6zFBji_vQ

Another short clip from Series 3 of Skins.

Camera Angles 2

Close up – Low Angle Shot

Wide - High Angle Shot Extreme Close up - Canted angle

Medium Close Up Shot Medium Close Up – Canted AngleClose up/Medium Close up

Popular Camera Angles Used

O Canted AnglesO Close UpO Medium Long ShotO High Angle ShotO Low Angle Shot

Canted AnglesCanted angles are used repeatedly in both clips to clearly represent the stereotypical behaviour at young adult’s parties. The canted angles are symbolically used in order to reveal the reaction of drug and alcohol abuse on a person’s body, alongside representing the experimental lifestyle of teenagers and young adults. Canted angles also connote the outrageous and out of control behaviour of the characters as the skewed angle represents their erratic state of mind.

Close Ups/Extreme Close Ups

Close ups and extreme close ups are the most popular camera angle used in the previous clips. The use of the close ups allows the audience to focus on the facial expressions of the characters, linking to the directors intentions of portraying the characters as being drunk or high, showing the archetypical behaviour. In addition, close ups can be used in order to represent relationships between characters. For example, close up of a feature of a character (eyes) would be followed by a eye-line match to another character, connoting a lust or passion a character has for another, linking to the stereotypical sub-genre in a coming of age film being romance/sex. However, depending on the expression of the individual features, it could also show conflict between characters, foreshadowing a climatic point to the scene. Furthermore extreme close ups are used effectively to show the state of the characters i.e. focusing on the sweat on a characters forehead. This shows the intensity of the party along with the reaction the body is having to the alcohol and drug substances.

Movement of Camera Angles

The shots in both clips appear to be unsteady, this is due to the camera being ‘hand-held’ allowing the audience to feel part of the scene and atmosphere, creating a POV perspective. This is what we will mainly be including in our own party scene as we feel that we could portray the manic state of the party, having the opportunity to take close up, canted, low and high angled shots. A pan is used frequently, used in order to create a long take, moving from one character to another. This is effective as it allows the audience to see what's in the back and foreground of the shot along with creating a variety between length of shots.

TransitionsWithin both of the clips, there is a lack of transitions used, conventionally only using quick cuts in order to jump from clip to clip. This is effective and links in with the intentions of portraying the wildness of the party as the lack of transitions increases the pace of the clips, symbolic for the ‘high’ and excited state of their bodies due to the substance abuse. It also establishes the party as being ‘out of control’ with the pace of the clips being fast, possibly leading up to the climatic point of the scene.