Out of the Blue Directed by Robert Sarkies

In the film 'Out of the Blue directed by Robert Sarkies, there is a scene in which the antagonist David Gray shoots a young girl named Chiquita Holden. Chiquita then runs out of the house she was hiding in and takes off towards the town of Aramoana. Sarkies uses this scene to set the audience up for the rest of the film. He uses four techniques to show the emotions and thoughts going through the characters heads, Camera Shots, Composition, Lighting and Sound Effects.

Sarkies uses camera shots to show the emotion that the characters are feeling. He chooses to use a series of shots that switches from a medium close up of the girls hiding, to a close up of Gray crouching, to a mid-shot of Chiquita running out of the house. This is because the director wants the audience to feel the emotions that the characters are going through. He then uses a continuous running mid-shot with a handheld camera to make the viewer think about the situation that has just unfolded and to give of the feeling of a pervading sense of fear and uncertainty. He then switches to a running front facing close up of Chiquita to show you her pain and to give a feeling of bewilderment, as if she’s not coping with what has just happened. The latter is created by the shaking of the camera as she runs and how it swerves from side to side as if her world has been shaken and threatens to collapse. The director uses the switching from back shot to front shot to show the change of her priorities. The back shot is used to show the urgency of her flight. To show how all she’s thinking about is escape. It then changes to front on to show you how the pain has filtered in and how now the pain is more important then escape to her.

Another technique Sarkies uses is composition. This is used throughout the scene to tell the audience a number of things. It is first used in the medium close up of the three sisters hiding behind the table. It is used by the placing of the table leg in between Chiquita and her sisters. The director uses this to give the audience a hint of what is about to happen. By giving the audience a hint, he is making you think about the significance of the separation and making you pay closer attention to the following scene. This separation builds up the tension and makes you feel the characters pain more acutely when she is isolated by her sundering from her sisters. Another part when composition is used is when Chiquita is running past her dads’ body. The body is placed in the centre of the screen. This is to give the message of importance