This document analyzes various shots used in the trailer for the film "Contagion". It describes several shots including a medium close up, establishing shot with pan, follow shot using a handheld camera, handheld POV shot, high angle surveillance-style shot, POV shot from a car windshield, and long shot. It concludes that a variety of shots were used effectively to convey genre elements like panic, but that additional shots could have been included, such as an extreme close-up or over the shoulder shot.

1. SHOT ANALYSIS
‘CONTAGION’ TRAILER
ELLA ASH

2. MEDIUM CLOSE UP SHOT
This shot is a medium
close up shot as it’s
closer than a mid shot
with just Megan's
head and shoulders
showing. It’s effective
as it also gets a bit of
the context into it.

3. ESTABLISHING SHOT/ PAN SHOT
As well as this shot being an
establishing shot to establish a
location, when you watch the
trailer it also shows the camera
movement of a pan, which
moves across the scene,
focusing on the ‘Danger of
Death’ sign which relates to the
narrative. We used a tripod to
make sure the camera remained
still and the pan was smooth
and professional.

4. FOLLOW SHOT (tracking shot)
Follow shots/ tracking
shots can be used with
either a dolly track,
Steadicam or handheld
camera, so for our
trailer we used a
handheld camera to
create a sense of panic
and represents the
character running.

5. HANDHELD CAMERA/ POV SHOT
This is a perfect example,
even more so than the still
on the previous slide, of the
effect of using a handheld
camera, however in this
case it represents a POV of a
zombie, therefore using a
handheld camera would be
the most appropriate
technique to use to put this
across to the audience.

6. HIGH ANGLE SHOT
This is an example of a high
angle shot which we used in our
trailer and made into surveillance
style footage, as CCTV cameras
usually look down from a high
angle. The effect of the high
angle also makes the zombies the
main subject and it’s clear to the
audience they are in fact
zombies. We managed to capture
this from positioning the tripod
on top of a bridge.

7. POV SHOT
Again, this is probably a
better example of a POV
shot in which the camera
looking out onto the
road out of the
windscreen, represents
the passenger.

8. LONG SHOT
This still, is an
example of a long
shot. It captures the
scene and shows the
protagonist, the car
(prop) and a zombie
coming towards her. In
this case they both
take up the majority
of the frame.

9. OVERVIEW
Overall, I feel we captured a good variety of shots that work well in
our trailer for various effects, particularly the handheld camera
shots, which are conventional considering the genre. We did plan the
majority of these shots, however some shots for example the long
shot were taken spontaneously, but we felt that they were effective.
If I were to film the trailer again, I’d perhaps be looking to get an
extreme close-up shot to show emotion, and an over the shoulder
shot to represent confrontation between a character and a zombie,
or perhaps a conversation.