We watched a clip from the movie Margaret in which shows the lead up to a bus crash. As a class we discussed the coverage of the Scene.

It was commented that the shots were quite intimate with the close up shots. The use of the reflective surface of the shop windows was interesting. She was looking at her self in a self-absorbed way and that’s how she spotted the bus driver was wearing a cowboy hat. There are a lot of implications/associations in the scene. For instance you don’t actually see that she sees the bus drivers cowboy hat through the reflection of the glass but its assumed.

We also watched a scene from the TV series Mad Men which features two people at a bar. The coverage of the scene was quite simple. It started with a tracking shot to establish the bar and to follow the characters into position at the bar. The rest of the scene was covered with two shot MS/MCU in which both characters are featured in each. This scene would have used two cameras. We know this because the continuity in the acting and lighting is perfect. Furthermore, it would be the most practical way to shoot the scene.

Afterwards we viewed another bar scene from the TV show Gossip Girl. The opening shot tilts down to establish the bar. The two actors aren’t even in this shot but the sound edit leads us to assume they are. The perspective in this scene is noticeably different from the Mad Men scene and more intimate. A lot of the shots are over the shoulder or dirty shots, jumping around from MS, MCU and CU shots for variation. This scene was probably shot with around 5 different camera setups. A lot more effort seems to have gone into this scene then the similar scene from Mad Men.

We watched a bar scene from another film  which was a lot more complex and varied. It features more camera setups and more camera movement such as a tracking dolly shot in at the beginning. The angles are varied and covers the scene from many different perspectives and not just shooting from one side of the bar for example. Furthermore the extras seemed to be used to motivate camera movements and to connect shots together. The scene has a total of 18 shots but only 7-9 camera setups. Which means they were adventurous and creative with their shots.