heroes

Heroes

In this episode of heroes we studied two particular scenes, the ‘casino’ scene and ‘cheerleader’ scene. Both these extracts consisted of techniques resulting in effects that were used for specific purposes.
In the first extract, the camera begins with a tilt that tracks forward, this establishes the setting as the camera, tracks forward passing a roulette wheel, and casino table. As the camera tilts upwards the characters are revealed, with a jump to a close up two shot. Throughout the next 10-15 seconds, the camera jumps from close ups to two shots for a specific reason, this ingenious technique is to portray the characters different attitudes in the scene, e.g. whilst the camera is focusing on one character alone, it is obvious that the chosen character has a certain feeling, in this case concentrated. A second compilation of shots that is used while ‘Hero Nakamura’ is concentrating is as follows: a slow zoom then a quick jump to a close up, framing ‘Hero’ with three quarters of his face inside the shot. These shots are used to highlight the intense concentration carried out bout this character. What follows this set of shots is the effect of what ‘Hero’ does; this is that he stops time.
The next short extract of this scene is portrayed using a special effect this is why the director uses the shots chosen. First he uses panning/tracking to show where ‘Hero’ is and is going to go, this is the tracking. The panning is used simply to highlight the special effect, moving around the casino room.
The second scene we analysed was the ‘cheerleader’ scene. This scene is different as it starts in a different set, where a man is waking up and trying to stand up. The camera being unsteady and pulling in and out of focus shows this precisely. The camera then focuses on a picture of a girl; this picture then fades into the real cheerleader. The next effect I analysed was whilst the cheerleader and a boy are in a car going extremely fast. The camera shows this in many ways, first by cutting through the master shot (an over the shoulder shot of both characters, also revealing they’re in a car) and a series of close ups including the gear sick every time they go up a gear and also a close up of the mph gauge. Also the cuts between each of these are fast, again showing the speed. Another two-second angle is that on top of a traffic light, while the car passes right past it. To end the scene the cheerleader purposely crashes the car, when this happens, the shots reflect the impact of the crash. First the camera is level with the car on the side then the moment it hits the wall the camera jumps behind the car; this fast pace editing reflects the speed and impact of not only the crash but the whole scene.