Task 1 - Film Language - Part 1

Wide, high angled shot

In many of his films Danny Boyle uses high angled shots for a number of purposes, as an establishing shot and to give information to the audience, and he executes the high angled shots in a variety of different ways.

127 Hours

In this film Boyle zooms out to his high angled shot. Is is an extremely high angle, as you can see in the last frame of the picture here. It shows Canyonlands National Park in Utah where Aron was trapped.

The choice of shot here was used to show how large and vast this area is, and also how empty. Arons arm is trapped at this point, and as you can see in the first frame he is crying out for help. Danny Boyle starts a slowish zoom out from Aron's face, and keeps zooming out, getting further away from Aron to this high angled shot which shows the audience just how small the crack he is in is, and how small it is and he is in relation to the whole area. People are left with the feeling he will never be found, that his efforts at yelling will not be any use at all. This is the effect Danny Boyle wants to create among the audience, because this film is based on a true story, and many people already know that he survives. Boyle wants to convince people that there is no way he can survive, and uses this high angled shot effectively to show that survival is unlikely.

Slumdog Millionaire

Again, in this film, Boyle uses this extremely high angled shot, and he uses it to show the slums in Mumbai. This is one of the biggest slums in India, and the shot shows the audience just how large they really are. Even though each shot is getting further and further away from the slums, it is still all we can see, and this really shows the audience that they are bigger then they can even imagine.
The way Boyle executes the shot is different to 127 Hours. Instead of zooming out to show the whole area, each of the three shots are shown as statics - 1, 2, 3 - in a row. The use of this keeps with the upbeat, exciting nature of this scene, with the children running through the slums. Danny Boyle said he really wanted to show that the slums were lively, thriving places, and by doing the quick switch to the next shot it keeps the excitement running. It also means it doesn't seem like it is pitying the people in the slums. Boyle has a real interest and love for the slums, and he wants to show them how he sees them, not have the audience feel bad for the children or people. The high angled, almost overhead shot shows the bustling areas size and really makes the audience see how amazing and interesting the slums are.

Millions

In Millions the high angled shot is not as high as the other two films and is used as an establishing shot.
It is used at the beginning of the film when the two children go to this place that is to be their new home. It establishes this place where a lot of the film is set for the future.
The top left shot and the two bottom shots < open this scene, in which the boys watch the house they are going to live in being built, and showing this large empty area emphasizes the endless possibilities and adventures there are for them to dream up in this new place.
It also links the beginning of the scene to the end. In the pictures above ^ the bottom two shots are the high angle shots from when they arrive on the scene, and the top right picture is the shot from the end of the scene. It links the empty dirt area to the house that has been built on it. It also shows the passing of time effectively, as it zooms out from inside the house, looking down, to this fully built house, showing how the house has sort of grown up from the original dirt lot.

Even though the high-angled shots in each of the movies are all executed differently, and used for different effects, we can really see similar characteristics in all of them. Danny Boyle effectively uses them to show the audience the setting and provide deeper understanding of the situations people in the film are in.

Information gathered from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbu3GmiWF68
http://www.thefancarpet.com/q-and-a/127hours_dannyboyle_jamesfranco
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWP9F8UGhGQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnU1ftPu9bc

Millions Commentary - Danny Boyle and Frank Cottrell Boyce
Slumdog Millionaire Commentary - Danny Boyle and Dev Patel