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Blog #3: Relationships Between Shots

This scene is from Kill Bill: Volume 1, directed by Quentin Tarantino. The video is just under 2 minutes, but I analyzed the first half of the scene. The scene is placed in sequence, therefore it encompasses continuity editing.

0:00 – 0:13 The scene begins as an overhead shot, like a bird’s eye view. The camera is following a subject into a restroom, which is clearly motivated camera movement.
0:13 – 0:16 The camera pans down and focuses on the subject at a neutral angle, a medium shot.
0:20 The camera follows the subject once again into a stall.
0:23 The camera at first shows the exterior of the stall but quickly changes, without moving the camera, to a view of what is happening inside the stall. The subject is changing, the camera sees a profile shot of the subject. This is filmed as a medium shot and the subject seems to be lined on the right vertical line in the rule of thirds.
0:29 Then the camera follows a new subject, wearing a black dress, from the restroom into a hallway.
0:33 – 0:44 As the subject in the black dress looks to her right side because she hears two people talking, the camera begins focusing on these two subjects. This is a medium, two shot that following the subjects from the front. The camera is facing the subjects as opposed to the subjects followed before.
0:45 As the two subjects are followed, the location changes to a larger room as they climb up the stairs. Here, the camera zooms out and changes to a medium long shot of the two subjects.
0:47 The camera pans from the two subjects and is now on a close-up shot of the singer. This seems to be a low angle shot only showing the singer’s face.
0:52 The camera pans once again to a low angle but is now an extreme long shot of a new subject. The other side of the room is now visible and the camera shows the other staircase. The subject walks down the staircase and the camera zooms in as a long shot into a medium long shot and the camera is at a neutral level now.


This whole scene is one long tracking shot that changes locations and subjects throughout. It breaks down a busy atmosphere by defining various actions taking place in order. 

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