Shot Evaluations - The Establishing Shot

The next shot that I will analyse is the establishing shot, where we establish the location and another character. It is not a conventional establishing shot as it isn't very wide, but it still 'establishes'.

In this shot we can see that Yung is in Trafalgar Square, the other side to Agent Davidson.We have made sure that we didn't cross the line, even though they are not talking face to face, in order to orientate our audience easier. This is the first shot of Yung, which is used to establish where he is in the square and who Yung is. Most of the shot is a sort of dull grey, but Yung clearly stands out through his bright yellow backpack. The backpack was a last minute addition on the day, as we wanted Yung to appear young and inexperienced. The bright yellow backpack makes him an obvious target and also defies the conventions of agents looking cool and suave. It is also clear that Yung is the main feature of this shot as he is in the centre. Nelson's column is just to his left, and this is framed in a way so that an audience reading the screen left to right would see that he is in Trafalgar Square first, and then see who Yung is, second. The fountain to his right provides colour and brightens up the scene a bit more, adding contrast to the dull stonework. Overall the shot is split into three neat thirds, the first establishing Nelson's Column, the second establishing Yung and the third half providing a sharp colour contrast.
The shot also gets progressively lighter from left to right. This was planned so that it seemed like Agent Davidson was in danger, and his escape route at the end was on the right of this shot. It subconsciously forces the audience to associate the side of the square where Davidson comes on with danger and the side he comes off with escape and freedom. Even the sky gets lighter, and there are dark clouds covering the darker side of the square. Obviously we couldn't plan this on the day, so we colour graded it afterwards. I particularly like the dark, obinous colours of the buildings on the far left, as this provides a very sinister backdrop to the film. Although these aren't obvious tricks, the audience is subconsciously affected by it, and it really adds to the dynamic of the film.