Movies in my Spare Time #1

Movies In My Spare Time

A movie I have watched recently viewed is Selma. Starring David Oyelowo and Carmen Ejogo. They do a beautiful performance of interpreting Martin Luther Kind and his wife, Coretta Scott.

Official Trailer

The not so well known director, Ava Duvernay who also worked on Spiderman 2 and i, Robot is known for her dramatic choice of camera angles and serious, "put down your popcorn and watch" movies.

I decided to focus on camera angles and editing choices of this movie because that is what i hope to eventually do... film movies. I noticed straight form the beginning she chooses to put the camera in a place where you can see more than one level. There were staircases in about half of her shots and they were also from extreme high angles and extreme low angles depending on who was in the scene. Another thing I noticed was that she used very few still shots. The majority of them were moving shots. Fading in and out of scenes and across the set. The reason why I believe she chose to do this for the movie was because there was never a break for Martin Luther King or the coloured people of this time. They were constantly moving and working and fighting for their rights, like these shots never staying still.

I chose to focus on the opening scene. She starts with a moving shot in the corner of a church and moves down to the level of the people, she conmtinues to put the camera behind the railing of stairs and show children walking down towards the height of the camera and talking to eachother. The next scene the camera at the top of a staircase and it walks down them and films a coloured women go and apply for her right to vote. All of these shots were continuously moving and they were all on different levels of the room.

I

 personally loves the movie, it was a realistric interpretation fo what happened at the time., It was not cliche or over the top, it was serious and very real. It had the right amount of violence and peace, silence and speech and showed everything that was necessary and nothing was over produced.

Callie Pasick