LES BLEUS DE RAMVILLE

The opening shot of Les Bleus de Ramville constrains the frame, making the eye focus on the hockey player's pre-match preparations. The sense of intimacy and concentration contributes to the mounting tension that characterizes the whole of the opening sequence as the players prepare to go onto the ice and do battle. I would like to intrigue the viewer by constraining the frame in my opening shot.

The use of close ups characterizes the camerawork.  CUs track the sequence of preparations and create authenticity through the detailed scrutiny of equipment, clothes, skates, tactic sheets and so on. The viewer is drawn into the world of ice hockey. I envisage using this technique in order to design an authentic mise-en-scene and create verisimilitude.

Sound and vision editing combine to create the mounting tension. Here, as tape swings, the music is slow but with a heavy relentless beat.George Lucas famously declared
"The sound and music are 50% of the entertainment in a movie."

The camera tracks across flyers with the ice hockey team's name printed on them. I plan to use this effective way of giving information visually to the viewer, building the world of the film through props, as I saw the director of Delicatessen do.

Legible title credits that are well placed are important and I intend to plan this in at the very start: how to frame a shot so that titles will be placed where we want then to be. This is legible because it is white on black and because the main prop is off centre.

VFX here make the tactics come alive as game strategy is planned: the noughts and crosses move around the pitch. I could achieve this using iStopMotion, which I have already practised.

The tilt pan in this shot leads up to a CU of the lights, edited together with stunningly powerful sound effects as the camera is held still on the explosive beat of the music. It creates huge drama.

An over the shoulder shot contributes to the rich variety in this opening sequence, one of the qualities that makes it so richly textured. The men marching onto the ice in formation also builds the idea that they are a formidable team of warriors (we do not see their faces) who are out to conquer their rivals.The sound track supports this quality as it continues the strong, dramatic, unrelenting beat.