Analyzing a short clip exercise


We have been asked to analyze a short clip and give our general impression of what the director or creators intended



So where to begin?

-The clip starts with a medium close up shot - the characters steps are heavy, reinforcing the fact that he not only looks big but is also one bulky fellow (by the way he walks you can also instantly asses the person in question is male) - the camera movement is quite unprofessional and goes in & out of focus from time to time throughout the movie as the character changes position. the character is seated and the camera angle + rooms which is quite and has florescent lighting gives the mood that this person is being interviewed. the distance does change once during the interview (when he is examining his gun) - the shot 'Medium shot' (and silence) makes the person watching seem as though they are examining the characters natural behaviors when alone (a bit like a wild life documentary).

The next shot is a close up of the characters face, this is used to show his expressions more clearly.

and finally coming towards the end we have a nice pan around the character, again zooming in closely to his face to show his ' clearly crazy' expression and then zooming out again to show the destruction he is causing with loud bangs and gun noises which reinforces how volatile the area is.

* This clip is taken from the promotional videos for a game called Team Fortress 2 - developed by Valve*