Film Language

Cinematography:

Psycho - 1960:

Camera framing and movement-
The scene begins with a medium shot (MS) of the man looking as though he is concentrating and about to do something suspicious. The screen then cuts to a close up (CU) where we see him remove the picture on the wall and discover a hole which makes the audience even more suspicious of him. Immediately, he looks through it and an eyeline match and point of view (POV) shot takes place and the audience and the man both see the woman undressing, which is a long shot (LS). This gives the audience an idea that he is planning on doing something to the woman. The camera again cuts to an extreme close up of the man's eye as he peers at the woman some more. We again notice another POV shot and the woman now has her silk robe on (LS). She then walks off the camera and then a CU of the man reveals him cover up the hole on the wall with the picture, then the camera cuts to show him turn away still looking quite thoughtful. He returns to the same standing point where he was at the beginning of the scene.

Fast and Furious - 2001:

Camera framing and movement:
The scene begins with an establishing shot of all four cars lined up. The screen then cuts to a CU of all four exhaust pipes with fire coming out them. A LS then shows the crowd and the race begins. The camera shows all four gear sticks in drive with a CU. A CU shot reveals the start up of the engine all the way to the moving wheels of the car. The camera then uses a mixture of tracking and dolly shots to follow the action of the cars using LS's MS's and CU's. A high angle shot of the camera tilting down uses a crane shot to focus on the cars to show the audience who is winning the race. Constant CU's of the characters faces and car parts are shown to emphasise the concentration and importance of the race. It also reveals the characters next move. For example when the CU of the laptop is shown inside the car, we instantly know something is going to happen as an eyeline match of the character looking at the laptop takes place. We then witness the drivers car speed up and again see a continuity shot of the engine speeding up. The thrilling car chase reveals many MS's of the cars lined up next to each other to show who is in the lead.

What's the difference?
The difference between these two movies is firstly the time period they were made in (1960 and 2001) and the fact that Psycho is filmed in black and white and the other is in colour. The first clip does not show many camera movements but instead consists of many angles and shots and camera cuts. However, Fast and Furious has almost every shot in movement whether it be tracking, dolly or a crane shot. This keeps the action alive for the audience and is extremely thrilling as we don't only witness the car race but see it from the characters point of view also. Whereas Psycho has more of a suspicious and mystery feel to it. Both clips have an impact and effect on the audience but in different ways. Over the years cinematography has improved drastically as more camera shots and movements are easier to take with the development of technology.

A haunted house:

Editing:

‘The Haunted House’ scene begins with a straight cut revealing the possessed woman looking crocked on the floor as she is in an uncomfortable position with the four men looking at her with quite worried facial expressions. This immediately catches the audience’s attention as we wonder what is going on in the scene. We eyeline match back onto the possessed woman on the floor, then to the men again and back to the woman who gets up and starts moving her head side to side in the camera. A wipe soon then takes place of the woman still looking quite possessed  and the man next to her where he looks to the camera confused and scared and is pointing to her. Another straight cut takes place to show another man screaming and jumping in fear waving his arms around and pointing to her and the four men are all shown again lined up. We then straight cut back onto the woman where she drastically starts waving her hands around and a dissolve takes place where she quite unclearly for the audience moves around on the screen and leaves us feeling uncomfortable.

We as the audience cannot see what is going on clearly and are scared and thrilled at this point. A straight cut reveals the four men waving their hands and yelling at her. The camera then holds still and we see smoke coming out of the woman as she covers her head with her arms and kneels on the floor. The camera again straight cuts to the four men having a conversation all with different facial expressions. However two men are looking scared and two not looking as though they are very bothered. This creates comedy as we can tell it is not taken seriously, otherwise all the observers would have been intrigued and would have quite serious and worried facial expressions. A jump cut then reveals an unexpected edit where we are forced to witness the woman jump onto the wall from the floor quite suddenly and we immediately straight cut back onto the men looking quite frightened and shocked as they all jump back and extend their arms and hands in front of them, looking as though they are trying to all protect themselves.

A straight cut then close up’s onto the woman’s face where she is still attached to the side of the wall. After follows a wipe to show the same man again who we previously witnessed in the wipe cut taken before. The man looks confused as he looks side to side to the woman and to the camera continuously. This could make it clear to the audience that he is the only person standing next to her and we should be worried for him the most. Or, a counter argument could suggest that he is the bravest of all the men and possibly the most important as he is shown a number of times rather than the rest of the guys. Another wipe takes place and the woman jumps into the camera fiercely. The screen then fades out quickly into a plain black screen, therefore we assume something terrible happened to the four men and the scene is over. However, we are surprised when the camera turns back on and straight cuts to a close up and low high angle shot of one of the men who we didn’t pay much attention to during the scene, looking quite scared and alone into the camera. This could tell the audience that while we were so busy paying attention to the other guys, this man was the actual victim, which surprises us.