Units 2, 3, 22: Task 2:

Single Camera Productions

A single camera production is when a (single) camera is used to film a movie or music video. Sitcoms, music videos and adverts (commercial) which you see on television may use single camera productions, as it is cheap and low budget rather than the typical multi camera productions that you may see in many action films and television shows as they involve more than one camera, which you would have to pay for.Usually, sitcoms may use a single camera production to film a dialogue between characters as they interact with each other.

Advantages:- Cheaper to film as you are only using one camera throughout your work so

many people can film with ease and can only worry about editing with one camera.

- In addition, this makes filming and editing more time saving with a single camera production than a multi camera production.

Disadvantages:- The main disadvantage is that you would have to spend more time editing

with a single camera production compared to a multi camera production as everything such as good takes, bad takes, and outtakes were shot and taken on that one camera. This would make this more time consuming since you have to spend more time editing many shots.

- Also, as one scene is constantly filmed, this could mean that when filming at different angles or filming another shot from the same angle, there may be continuity errors unlike multi camera production

- 6+s which can cover all needed angles

Examples of single camera produced films/ TV shows:

The Conjuring 2

Everybody Hates Chris- TV Sitcom/show

Quarantine (2008) - Film

The Conjuring 2 is a movie based on “The Enfield Poltergeist.”“The Enfield Poltergeist” is the name given to the alleged claims of supernatural and paranormal activity, which took place at the council residence of Penny Hodgson and her family between 1977 and 1979. The movie is supposedly based on a true story but there are elements of the film that are made up and were not supposedly real within the alleged true story such as one of the antagonists being the crooked man who was not mentioned, included or even a part of the Enfield Poltergeist story. This also makes the movie unconventional, as there is a hierarchy of antagonists with Bill Wilkins and The Crooked Man and the protagonist being the Demon.

GenreConjuring 2 is a movie, which falls under the category of horror and falls under the genre of supernatural horror due to the main antagonist being in a form of a spirit or ghost. The sub-genre for this film is supernatural horror as the antagonists being

dealt with come in the form of a spirit and a demon.

NarrativeThe Conjuring 2 is a closed ended storyline as the audience have seen the end of the storyline and already know that there is no cliffhanger at the end of the film to follow. Although most of the film followed into one storyline, The Conjuring is a multi-strand film as the film contained to storylines at first; these were the storylines for both the Warrens and Hodgsons. All events in The Conjuring 2 happened in chronological order meaning that the film’s events unfolded in a linear sequence.

Technical elementsCamerawork: the majority of the jumpscares were close ups such as The Crooked Man’s jumpscare on Ed. The close ups on the jumpscares were so that the audience could experience the antagonists up in their face and to make them feel as if they were in the characters shoes and make them see their expressions as well which is why there are also close ups on the characters. There were also close ups on objects such as the TV to show their importance in the film. The TV for example was shown because one of the antagonists (whom the audience would be revealed to as well) was manipulating it.

There were instances of high angles being used as well for example, when the audience are first introduced to The Crooked man, from Billy’s point of view, there is a high angle to show how big and tall The Crooked Man is. The high angle could also show the sense of Billy’s powerlessness as you have his fear right in front of him and can see his facial expression from the low angle given from The Crooked Man’s point of view.

The included long shots were to show the audience the surrounding environment and get the audience involved in the sense vulnerability and feeling small. Mid shots were used to show dialogue and some establishing shots were used at the start of the scene to show the setting and/ or the environment of the location such as the very start of the movie

Mise en scene:The audience could tell that the setting of the film takes place during the 1970’s as looking at the house decoration, there furniture and some luxuries such as the sofa and lamp look to be from the 60’s and house decorations may happen once or twice every ten years which would indicate to the audience that this does take place during the 70’s. Looking at the Hodgsons, the audience can see that they are no financially stable. For example, they live in council house and in that council house, their furniture and wallpaper looks very old. The boys seem to be wearing similar clothes regularly with bob cuts and long hair which is different to Ed (showing the

juxtaposition) as Ed’s home, furniture, luxuries, clothing and hair look more modern and clean and much better than the Hodgson’s. Although hairstyles were different between America and Britain, looking at Ed, you can see he looks like he had a fresh cut hence his short hair. This was also shown through parallel editing.Throughout the movie, there was high key lighting during calm and happy moments and dark/ damp lighting during eerie moments.

Editing: The longest shot in the movie is shown when Ed and Bill are having a conversation. There is a mid-shot used as this is show dialogue and the audience is focused on Ed which leaves Bill (the antagonist) blurred out in the background so the audience can mainly focus on Ed throughout the dialogue and focus on things such as his body language, facial expressions and the tone of his voice.There was also many cutaways where there was one take, which would then break away from the characters and show other reactions. This was also used to show jumpscares for example, Lorraine, looking at a mirror, back, then again at the mirror to see the nun.

Sound:There is a lot of non-diegetic sound used to add tension for the audience. There is a lot of instrumental music used to do so. (Non-diegetic sound is the sound that the audience can hear but the characters in the movie cannot). There was also synchronous sound used. This would show or indicate to the audience what is happening to as well as around the characters. For example, during the pub scene; as the pub is filled with people, the way that synchronous sound was used was that

there was indistinctive chatter included in the background to show that there are others in the pub, not just the main characters that makes the scene more realistic.

Quarantine

GenreQuarantine is a single camera produced movie that falls under the genre of horror due to its conventions which include (for example) panic and dreadfulness. This film falls under the sub-genre of zombie as the audience sees a setting which leaves the characters isolated in an apartment building, which is caused by the section or colony of protagonists which (in this film), are the living dead.

NarrativeA narrative is how the events unfold or occur. Quarantine is a closed ended storyline meaning that the storyline ends with the audience already knowing or anticipated the ending (what happened). This example is seen at the end of the movie when you see Angie (or Ángela Vidal played by Jennifer Carpenter) crawling towards the camera in a pitch black room hence the night vision on the camera (being the last living person) before suddenly getting dragged away into the darkness.

This film’s narrative is also a single strand as only there was only one main storyline featured or happening in a movie unlike some other single camera produced film’s such as The Conjuring 2. Quarantine also contains a linear sequence as all events in the film happen in chronological order.

Technical elementsCamerawork: Quarantine’s camerawork is mainly found footage as this movie was filmed as a documentary or news coverage. This means that there was no tripod used to hold the camera as the camera was handheld. The only time where the camera was held on a tripod was at the beginning where Angie (the reporter) and Scott (the cameraman) were at the fire department.

There was a lot of mid shots used in this film, and with the film being found footage (as it was held by a cameraman), this allowed the audience to see the characters at eye level. The close ups used were generally to capture the live reaction of the characters such as panic, anger and fear and the long shots used were to add pace to the movie and show the audience the body language of the audience. For example, at the beginning of the movie, Angie was seen standing straight, smiling and comfortable with and around the firemen meaning that she was a happy, social

and friendly person however, near the end you can see the opposite. She was shaking, frantic, sometimes kept her head down looking enraged out of fear, empty and looked nowhere near comfortable.

With the found footage, there was a lot of shaking of the camera. This would show or indicate to the audience the panic and rush of when the victims are running from the living dead and fear could also be shown through Scott (the cameraman) as you hear him breathe heavily, his tone (when he speaks) does change and you see the camera shake even when they are not running.

As for angles, there was rarely any high angles used. Some examples of high angles that the audience may have seen in this film was when the living dead who have fallen a flight of stairs to the ground and you see the camera look over their bodies; or when Scott climbs on top of a table to film the investigation/ surgery being performed on the deceased who lay on the table with people drilling into their skulls.

Editing: There is no real evidence of editing being used as this movie was filmed as found footage. One of the only times the audience may see editing being used is when Scott beats down one of the zombies with his camera and you see blood being splattered on the lens. Through editing, the blood was added as an effect to show that it was it’s from the zombie, this is why the audience may say that the blood may not look to realistic.

Mise-en-scene: At the beginning of the film, you can see that there is bright light and to match that, the audience can see that everyone (in Quarantine) is happy, all looking safe with no danger going on. This can be seen when the characters are at the fire station/department and on the road.

After, during the majority of the movie, the audience can see that the setting is darker, the light is darker, and no one is happy, the characters are confused, don’t feel right about the current situation that is going on, there is a sense of panic which adds a sinister tone to the film.

At the end of the film, it is pitch black (hence the night vision on the camera) and so are Ángie’s hopes of surviving this nightmare. She is scared into silence, shaking and has lost self-control as no longer knows what to do or what to say. In the dark room, the space is very cramped giving the audience a claustrophobic setting which makes them feel uncomfortable.

In one of the dark rooms, there were newspaper clippings, tape records and labs rats, and (scientific) equipment which may show the audience that there was a cause to the virus which caused all the chaos and the havoc. Without this, the story would not make sense as to what happened as well as why it happened and would’ve confused the audience.

Various colours were worn or shown by the characters during Quarantine. For example, the police officer wore his uniform which is blue. Blue signifies bravery and heroism which is what police officers are seen as for protecting their cities and country. The officer’s badge was silver and this would symbolise authority which the audience would’ve seen in the film as the officer tended to be very commanding. When it came to the living dead, the audience could see that they had fully black eyes. In this movie, the colour black was representing power (which the zombies had as they had the ability to kill anyone, fight anyone and would stop at nothing to do so), death and evil which purely describes these zombies.The fire fighter had a red hat which indicated that he had strength, power and determination (the firefighter did his absolute best to lead and keep himself as well as others alive).There were colours shown by the environment within the film which indicated a lot of moods to the audience. For example, the colour grey showed that there was a dull and dirty atmosphere when everyone was confused, scared and in panic during the movie. At the end of the movie, the setting was pitch black and dark. The audience could tell that this meant death (just like what the eyes of the zombies symbolised), and this was shown also with Ángie being dragged back until the audience could no longer see her leading them to believe that she was also dead.

SoundWith the film being found footage with very little editing used. Most (if not, all) sound heard in the movie was diegetic meaning that the sounds that the audience heard could also be heard by the characters within the media text. If there was a lot of non-diegetic sound as well as, then it will take away a lot the verisimilitude of the movie meaning the is less realism of the movie to the text’s world which appears real and the audience would not find the logic of Quarantine to be “believable.” There is some asynchronous sound presented by the director at the beginner. For example, when the people become barricaded inside the apartment building, the audience can hear sirens and helicopters flying above the characters but cannot see the cars and helicopters.