Looking at Short Films: The Gatherer

by Unknown 02:19 0 comments Research

--The Gatherer--

'A small town is being terrorised by a serial arsonists. Detective Matthews is closing in on who he thinks is the suspect. But can he prove it?'

The Gatherer uses an interrogation as its main filming point and uses other shots about the crime intermittent throughout the 10 minutes. In this interrogation scene there are several shots that have a similar essence to the shots we have planned with regards to set up, lighting and positioning.


1. Close up of the criminals hands in cuffs, relaxed and half in light in the foreground and darker in the background. With further close ups of evidence and the zippo lighter splitting up the constant shot-reverse-shots, adding a variety to the film - making it easier to watch. The use of the shot of the flame also adds to the intensity of the interrogation which we will be doing except with close ups of Goldilocks rather than props.

2. The medium shot to the side showing the two sides of the table showing the binary opposite characters - assisted my the detective being in more lighting and angled slightly towards the camera, and the criminal faced slightly away from the shot and in darker light, which we will be aiming to replicated with Mr Pearce and Goldilocks.

3. In these two shots of a birds eye view of the files/evidence supplied my the detective we hope to do something similar - however we will have one file open and include mugshots of Goldilocks and a brief file on her which we will make. I also like how polaroids have been used and give an older feel to the shot (even though the film is set in recent years).

4. These following shots are all similar to the angles and distances to what we hope to get in our filming, although shot reverse shot is needed to keep the interaction flowing between the two characters, a change in distance to the characters is helpful to break up the same shots that can eventually just become tedious and boring.

 These two shots of the closer shots of the criminal we like as it adds to the intensity of the thriller and helps build up the tension - especially as the two facial expressions he's pulling are so opposite you could class the character as bipolar.