Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Crime Cops - Cinematography Focus

     In the short film "Crime Cops" there is a set of character: two detectives, two nerds, and the enemy they are after. Watch as they put together there skills to find the suspect in order to aprehend he or she. Who knows, the ending might surprise you. For a link to the video on youtube click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF_qQYrCcns


     At first when we start watching this movie our eyes are focused on the first nerd who enters the door. His role in being shown first is a way to hint towards the fact that in the end of this whole investigation it is his software that figures out the culprit. The low key of the shots shows a dark mood that emphasises the intensity and importance of what the characters are doing. The camera is relatively close to the action because it is as if the camera operator would be right in front of the actors. Being close to the characters while getting the shots allows us to focus on there expresions and emotions. The camera angle is a mixture between up and down. The camera faces downward on the computer "savies" because they work for there boss which is the dark skinned detective; the camera is pointing upwards on him because he is on a high ranking level. The dominant color of this short film is variations of the color blue, some shades of blue are bright and some are darker due to a dark shadow in the room since the only light source is the monitors in front of the computerists. The visual information received is at a moderate level because although we might notice a stale background with some objects laying there there are several characters to focus on. 1, 2, 3, 4, and lastly the fifth in the end of the film who gets shot. The framing is tight, since the camera is zoomed in on a close up at there faces there is not room for free movement. This might portray a commitment to ones job that he or she will not move nor rest until the work is done.

     The cutting in the film "Crime Cops" is relatively fast paced in order to allow suspicion to build up until the climax of the film is reached. The cutting allows us to move on to the next idea mainly because there is not much to think about what has just transpired in the scene because the only thing these nerds are doing is pressing buttons and enhancing images like never done before. The shots are fragmented and it goes with the idea of a faced paced story because the bosses have no time for bull shit. This is shown through the caucasian detective as he is unpatient that he is not getting results. The cutting is manipulative in the sense that each shot is changed as quick as a computer processors mind. Computers work fast and in nowadays information comes to us so fast that by popular demand people want answers immediately; and what these shots do is even though they don't give away the ending right away they move at a fast enough pace that we can tolerate because we know any minute know that the truth will be revealed.


     The director keeps the camera motion close because even though not much is going on in the shot, the added sound, dialogue, and camera swaying allows for the viewer to feel like there is so much action in just a simple shot. The shots seem to be lyrical due to the fact that even though the shot movements may seem random it is in fact usually moving slowly towards the next person that the action is going to focus on. For example if the dark colored detective is talking the camera is swaying to the bottom left and when he finishes his speech the camera simply drops towards the nerd that says his own line. The symbolic implication is that we dont always have to understand what the character is saying, we just have to notice that the story is moving on and that we can see there is progress within the shots.

     First of all no sound is distorted within the short film "Crime Cops." the sound is orchestrated not from an original track but obviously fabricated by the directors or editors, most likely the sound designer. Each seen where in this case there is only one, the sound changes and differs from settling into there location from suspensfull tunes all the way to stopping all the sound whenever they hit a eureka moment. A repeated motif within the sound is the suspense violin (I think) accompanied by a metal beat (tink, tink, ta, tink ta tink tink). The music is used to underline the speach and any part of the short movie. The dialogue is very comedical because every single one of the character says something exeptional where the detective is saying random computer talk that isnt real in order to mock the computer lingo. For example he is says "coreo beb abb algorithm." In this clip we know what the characters want, not specifically, but we know where in a general area because all the characters gather around a monitor to look at a piture and they analyze it from different angles.


     The type of actors featured in the short film "Crime Cops" are amateurs even though they act professional. I believe that all of them are the friends of the dark skinned detective since he owns his own youtube channel for himself just blogging about where he goes and what goes on. The actors are treated as camera material because they dont really portray art but what they can show is how americans are able to find any workplace and do something significant with there lives beneficial to the world even if it isn't paramount to the grand scheme of things. The culture information revolved around this clip has to do with the fact that typicall americans, since we live in a progressed nation, we rely on computers to do most of our work. This is shown through the white detective because he says lets just go and check it out while the brown detective insists on using the computer. We learn that although it is easier and a lot more efficient to use computers to do solve our problems that we should never forget our basics and go back to review them even on the field.

     The time period of the short film "Crime Cops" is modern where people are free to wear whatever they want and some jobs require a suit. For the average middle class citizen these would be common clothing for them making them feel comfortable especially since there are so many who are in the same situation. The costumes are appropriate for age, but as we see with the nerds they still wear teenaged clothing and this shows that your never to old to use a computer. The costumes are meant for work and every character stands proud and tall except the nerds since they are worried that they might not be able to give results for there superiors.

     In the short film "Crime Cops" the story tells itself. The characters there voices are almost at a point of mumbling but this is because it seems like they have done there job before and that everyone knows what there talking about providing the viewers with a sense that everyone trusts each other. The darker detective provided the authority figure in the film, and so his presence forces the geeks to do there jobs better and to anticipate what they need to do next. For example, one of the geeks say "im already five steps ahead of you." And to rap it all up the white detective is there to provide the pressure that there is no time to mess around with technology because he provides the sense of urgency.