1. Through the Car
The first shot with Sean will be shot partially in a single take.
I envisioned the camera to start outside the car; sliding parallel to the side of the car and then entering through the window. The camera would then stay on Sean until Vision enters the car; where it then pans to him entering before moving into the back of the car beside Vision where the rest of the lines are said.
This shot was inspired by the Indonesian film 'The Raid 2' (Edwards, 2014) which features a similar shot but the camera instead, goes through the car and out the rear side window (4:23 - 4:41 in the below video).
My plan to create this shot was to use three camera operators: one would take the camera into the car; the second would be concealed in the footwell of the front passenger seat who would then take over the camera before passing it over the third operator seated in the back left of the car to then catch the rest of the shot.
I knew from the get-go that this shot would be one of the hardest to do in Grit because of the use of three camera operators and the sheer trickiness of passing the camera without too much shake two whole times.
A behind the scenes video shows that The Raid 2 used three camera operators to achieve the shot but creatively concealed one inside a fake seat costume. The third was sat outside the vehicle ready to hold the camera up.
2. The Mirror Shot
I intended to have a shot where Sean would stare at himself since the idea became the new version of Grit, I wanted to have the camera facing the mirror and create the look of a camera never even being there but instead almost seeing this through the character's eyes.
This shot reminded me of a similar one done in Matthiew Kassovitz's French film 'La Haine' (1995):
This shot was achieved by using a body double for the foreground figure and having the actor, Vincent Cassel, facing the camera through a hole in a wall built on set. Cassel and the body double then mimic each other's actions and therefore creating the effect that the camera is simply facing a mirror.
I find these types of shot very clever when done well, to create a scenario where we're suddenly made aware that the camera isn't visible immediately adds a sense of realism to the film: like the film is actually happening in front of us because there is no camera being reflected.
My strategy to achieve this shot was to do two shots: the first being a shot of just the mirror and the tiles around it with a green piece of card placed over the mirror. The second shot would then be of the actor stood in the room where the mirror is going to be and perform the scene. We would then take the shot into post-production, chroma keying the actor's scene over the green card covering the mirror and then flipping it horizontally to get the mirrored shot.
3. Face Shot
This shot will be used for the scene where Sean stumbles over and is briefly exposed to the real world.
I envision this shot to be set with the camera attached to the actor's chest and the camera to be pointing at their face. Some research into this informed me that the shot had a genuine name: Snorricam, and there are numerous examples in film and TV. I was concerned I wouldn't be able to find sufficient examples as I had no idea what to describe it as.
Here are some examples:
In the music video for The Pistolas song: 'Take It With A Kiss'
In Martin Scorsese's film Mean Streets (1973)
I like this shot for how disorientating it is and how we become uncomfortably close to the character. It really creates that feeling of claustrophobia and would work perfectly with the scene in my film because of how Sean suddenly struggles in and out of reality.
These three shots in particular will be the most challenging in the film or require some thinking to achieve the desired shot. I'm confident that they can be done as the solutions seem straightforward enough, all that's needed is some rehearsal prior to the filming.
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