Justifications - AV product

Here are some justifications for some of my choices with my AV product.

• The first scene. The first shot of my piece is from behind Skinner as he runs away from the camera. I have chosen to place the camera behind him in the first shot for two reasons: one, so that the idea that he is running away from something is immediately established through the fact that he is literally running away from the camera; and two, so that Skinner's face is initially not visible, which adds to the disorientation of the audience and links into the theme that the audience doesn't really know what's going on. The camerawork in this scene is all handheld and almost entirely shaky, which adds to the idea that the character is panicky and trying to run away. The camera movement is reflective of the character's lack of control. The editing also picks up pace as the scene progresses, with there being more and more shots within each flash each time. This serves to increase the pace of the scene, building up to the climax where the scene transitions into the red room. The music also helps with this build-up, as it increases in intensity, length and layers each time.
• The second scene. The camera is mostly still in this scene, which is supposed to contrast the previous one. Here, the camera reflects how Skinner is tied up. The character himself cannot move, and is forced to witness the dead girl taunting him, so the camera has to stay still as well. The shot that the transitioned is transitioned into with is a wide shot, that establishes the location, but from there on in, the camera goes quite close to Skinner to align the audience with him and to capture the personal nature of this haunting. As the scene moves on, the reverse shots of Skinner's reactions move further out: the first is a close-up, the second a medium close-up from a low angle (which itself is simply there to disorientate) and the third is a medium shot. This gives the scene a linear flow, and indicates context gradually emerging as the audience gradually realises what's going on. Again, towards the end of this scene, the cuts speed up to the climax, which is this case is Meredith shouting "Scott!", indicating Meredith's increasing anger towards Skinner. The penultimate shot in this scene is a Dutch angle shot, which adds to the disorientating unreality of the scene. In the very final shot, the camera moves for the first time, panning to the left to track Meredith's movement. This is the final stage of the scene's build-up, as the camera being mobilised further energises the scene. Furthermore, after a whole scene of just tripod shots, this movement acts as a sudden change, adding to the confusion.    
• The third scene. This scene is the most 'normal' is the production. The camera is mostly still, although there is a small pan in one shot, but only to follow Skinner's movement. There are no odd angles, strange cuts or anything like that, and the scene serves to normalise the situation, establishing Skinner in reality. This sets up the next scene, where edits have been made subtly to make the audience feel like something's still off, even though Skinner is now 'awake'.
• The fourth scene. This is my dialogue-filled, plot-progressing scene. The camera is all handheld, but more stable than in the first scene. The colour-grading in this scene is also more normal, and better reflects reality. The scene is shot quite conventionally, with inserts and a range of middle, close-up and wide shots, jumping between standard and reverse as the dialogue moves around. However, there are a few odd moments. One is where there is a flash of the red room when Meredith's name is mentioned. This flash is purposefully a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment that's serves to leave the audience a bit confused. Some of the angles also don't match up, so where you would expect a reverse shot from one perspective, you get another. This is barely noticeable, which is sort of the point. If this were a full-length show, these inconsistencies would keep becoming more noticeable over the episode's run, but as this scene is from early on in the show, the inconsistencies are still very muted.