Cinematographer style

The documentary we watched showed me that there is more than just picking up a camera when making a film. Being a cinematographer is an art and a science. You need to know what lens, light, and camera will compliment the actor/actress. Your style should help identify what film you have shot, but not get in the way as to overshadow the film's story. The main point of the film I believe was that there is no right or wrong way to make a film. There are just ways that can look unique and that can make your vision come to life. It is very exciting to know so many artists, express themselves in a modern art form like Cinematography. Another important thing that I learned was that our personal style comes from inside. And in expressing ourselves through that personal style, we are learning the meaning of our life, by showing it on screen.

Scene analysis: Taken

In the scene where Kim is in the house and is on the phone with her dad, Brian, she notices that her friend, Amanda, is being kidnapped on the other side of the house. She tells her dad what is going on and she has to hide under the bed, where Albanian criminals take her away, and eventually one of the Albanians picks up the phone and talks to Brian.
The first part of the scene is using a steadi-cam and a medium close up shot at eye level of Kim talking on the phone with her dad. The tracking is smooth and is at a moderate speed. This type of shot is used in a back and forth between her and her dad during the early, calms part of their conversation. Also, the lighting on her dad is sort of dim to show his personality of being very methodical and his worry.

Kim then notices that there are strangers across the house near her friend. This is where the camera goes from slow paced to fast and there is a dutch angle and the tracking of characters gets more frantic.
Amanda’s friend is then taken, and the jerky camera movement is used to show how both her and her friend are scared. This is also used to convey the fact that panic is setting in for Kim and that her dad is becoming increasingly worried about what is happening at the house.

While Kim is in the bathroom talking to her dad about who is in the house, the lead room changes to show that she is trapped, and also, the camera on her dad goes to quick tracking to show him grabbing recording equipment.

Kim is then told to go to the next bedroom and get under the bed. The camera is set at a low angle even before she gets under the bed and tilts down to follow Kim under the bed. This low angle is also important to showing the intruders black shoes coming down the hallway to the bedroom where Kim is, because rather than reveal who the intruders are, just their feet are shown to create high tension. It gives a subjective view to the whole situation and the shaky view that Kim has from under the bed.

The intruders are in the bedroom now and they talk for a bit and then some of them leave. This low angle is used to create the same suspense as before, because later, a person who stayed in the room pulls out Kim from under the bed, and the camera stays under the bed and she moves back out of the shot.
Then the shot changes to just her dad at a low angle and tracks him in a medium shot from him sitting down to standing up as he listens in the phone for what the intruder is going to say on the phone. This low angle shot used while Kim’s dad is standing up is to emphasize how deadly he is and how he will catch the people who took his daughter.