Shot Evaluations - The Fountain Death Shot

This shot occurs as Yung is being shot at the fountain, just after having walked up to it and exchanged eye contact with Jim. The interesting thing about this shot is how we got the shot as it is in a rather interesting position:

This shot was taken from on Nelson's Column. We obviously couldn't climb all the way up the column as it is very high, but we got a few layers up it (it's legal!) and I took it from there. I had to zoom in a lot, which normally doesn't work very well, but in this case it worked and the picture still came out at a very high quality. The other issue with zooming in is that it makes the camera very unsteady, but I luckily managed to hold it still enough. If the shot hadn't work then it would have been a bit of a disaster as we couldn't convince Richard to fall in the fountain more than three times and the first two were fairly average.
By having a shot from this high angle the shot looks very high budget and gives it a very high production value. If people were to know the geography of Trafalgar Square then they would wonder how we got that shot as it doesn't look like it was taken from the column. It just appears to be hanging in mid air as if we used a jib or a similar mechanism which are only really used in very high budget films. This illusion is also helped by the fact that there is a woman with an iPad on the close side of the fountain, and the camera is clearly at a higher level then her, showing that it isn't just elevated in a normal way.
This shot then cuts to a mid-shot from behind Yung of him falling in, which helps focus the attention, as in this shot he doesn't seem to be the centre of attention. We did this so that when he is shot, it is more surprising and the audience are more shocked as they wouldn't expect it from the angle that is given. The music helps sell this effect, as it is obviously building towards a climax, but they don't know what that climax will be. From this shot the audience would assume that something was about to happen on the left third of the frame, as that is the empty side which they would presume should be filled up. By having Yung dying on the right side of the frame it seems almost wrong, which brings the element of surprise in further.