Initial Idea for Cinematography

From the brainstorming session at our first meeting, we tried to come up with ideas for cinematography.  We focused on how we were going to present an hour in the space of 5 minutes.  I thought that we could film the scene in Sarah's bedroom as if it were being filmed by a CCTV camera.  We could then "fast forward" through the moments when she is sat thinking. 

I started researching films that use the CCTV style of filming.  Andrea Arnold's 'Red Road' was one of the few that I discovered.

Here are a couple of stills from the film:

The CCTV footage suggests that someone is constantly looking at the characters.  I want the audience to be the immediate "viewer" of the action.  I feel that this will make Sarah's story more personal to them, and therefore they will connect more effectively with the character.

This long shot shows the character looking at the CCTV footage.  The darkness around her makes the scene mysterious and sinister.  It creates an eerie, tense atmosphere.  We didn't feel that this created the right mood for our piece.

I don't think that this style filming is an effective style.  It would allow the audience to over look the action, rather than become involved with the characters.  It also does not created the right mood for the audience.

Looking back on my AS work, we created a sense of time passing by using long duration shots, smooth, slow pans and tracking shots, and slow transitions in our editing.  However, we wanted to challenge ourselves, and take time in deciding what style would be best for our film.  I felt that if I use handheld camera movements, this would create a sense of realism, and will therefore make the audience feel that they are there witnessing the event. 

We further researched Andrea Arnold's work, and whilst watching 'Fish Tank' we saw a short sequence where Arnold suggests a movement in time.  Here is the sequence below (starts at 1:40 and ends at 3:50)

This 2 minute sequence shows the long journey from the characters estate to a different neighbourhood.  Arnold portrays the long journey by using long duration shots.  She then creates realism by using handheld camera shots to involve the audience into the story further.  I think this style will be more effective for our film, because we want to create the same type of anxious atmosphere that Arnold creates.