Elephant

Title: Elephant
Director: Gus Van Sant

Setting: USA, 2003

• Tilt shot up to the sky- possible time lapse as it shows day turning into night



• Airel shot following car



• Panning shot following John when he looks down at the damage of the car and then follows him back into the car



• Facial shot of John father, and camera stays on John's Dad whilst they converse



• Shallow depth of field see people in background blurred and people who Elias is talking to stays in focus



• 360 degree panning shot when Elias is taking pictures of the couple



• Small time laspe editing e.g when "Alex" is in the bathroom then we're in the canteen and he pops up again



• Tracking shot following John- always stays at the back of his head



• Close up on John's face when he is on the phone



• Shallow depth of field, John stays in focus on the phone and the teacher stays blurry



• When boys are playing football on the field there is a deep depth of field, boys stay in focus and the people on the far side of the field are carrying on with traininig etc.



• Tracking shot of guy in lifeguard jumper camera satys behind his head



• Spectator is involved in the film following everyone's story from their "memory"



• Sinsister dark lighting suggest sinsiter events will happen



• Slow motion of John playing with the dog- suggests photographic moment significance of some kind to film



• Over the shoulder shot of guy in red jumper then tracking shot in front of him which doesn't usually happen with other characters



• Tracking shot along desk suggests a link between all characters at some point during the film, though at that point so no acknowledgement of each other



• Voices sound distorted when John is alone in the room and when the girl comes over and starts talking- close up shot of John's upset face



• 360 degree panning shot and close up of teachers and students faces in disscussion group



• Shallow depth of field focused on faces not on the background of classroom which is blurred



• Lighting is dark on the couple - something bad coming their way??



• Tracking shot of John again at the back of his head



• 2 boys walking in army get up - mysterious characters?



• Red notebook- significance to film- later find out he is planning the attack



• Colour red used in all shots- jumper, t-shirt, notebook, lights at school, body warmer, trousers- all signify danger



• Tracking shot on all the characters and always stays behind their heads



• Lots of facial shots of all the character at one point or another



• Switches from one story to other- hard to keep up with them - always picked up from whre we left each story. All stories intertwine at some point



• Spectator is always in with each person's lives and personal business- almost as if we are observing them as well



• Zooming in shot of person on laptop- definate significance to the film



• Tilt shot to sky again used for time lapse- bright into dark



• Shallow depth of field- we're focusing on the TV and there are people in a delivery van outside which is blurred



• Deep depth of field- only close ups of the people shooting everyone everything else is blurred



• Use of 3 shades of blue- once when everything was normal (light blue) when dark things were happening (dark blue) and when it ended (normal bluish colour)



• Deep depth of field when shooter is walking towards camera- camera stays where it is perons face is only in focus when he's right in front of the camera



• Photograph- significance to film captures particlaur moments of time