Case Study: Pretty Little Liars Short Film Extract

As for my second Case Study, I have decided to view on a short film extract based on an American teen thriller and drama show called Pretty Little Liars in the clip of "Aria Smash." This short film extract was taken out from an episode of the TV show as it showcases a 2 minute and 37 second clip of Aria, one of the main characters, a shocking scene where she's in someone's office, trying to find something and when she does- she loses it and starts destroying the whole furniture in the office. There's a wide range of camera angles and techniques used, such as medium shots, close up shots, over shoulder shots, hand held shots, medium tracking shots and shot reverse shots.

The first scene of the short film extract showcases a medium shot of the main character, which was Aria herself dressed casually as she hold two notebooks looking guilty and mysterious by the slight side expression of her face. The mise-en scene from this part indicates she's in a type of modernly office; browsing to paperworks nor notebooks like she's trying to find something from the place. Quite a lot of props were used and presented in this medium shot as its used in order to create an effect that the set it's real- to make it more believable towards the viewers also as known as the 'target audiences', which is more likely to be suitable and appropriate for young teenagers from 13 year olds and above, mostly targeting on girls than boys. This may be because the main characters for this show is originally 4 and they're all female so girls are more likely to watch the show than boys because they can relate to it the most.

The second scene cuts back into a close up shot of one of the notebook that Aria was holding back from the previous medium shot of her holding them. This will indicate to the audiences what the notebook contains as by the looks of it, it seems like its some sort of diary/notes by someone and Aria must've found what she was looking for all along. A brief, straight forward title had caught her attention as the use of extreme close up shot of the notebook she had found that entitled, 'Aria Montgomery' and then it goes on about some information and facts about her. This gives the viewers a sense of mystery because just by reading what the notebook says would freak anyone out as it sounds like someone had been stalking Aria. Also, hence the use of blurriness and out of focus on the background of the screenshot image above as the camera technique had been used to only focus on what the notebook states and not pay attention towards the background as its not necessary.

Furthermore, the scene moves along with another different camera technique as the main focus of this is the change of camera angle. As you can see from the print screen above, the camera angle used appears to be from a low to a high shot as we can see her lower chin as it flows up from the expression of her face. Also, her eyes is looking down as this tells us she's reading what the notebook states from the previous scene that was shown before. From her expression of her face, the viewers would know how intriguing and curious she was as she reads the notebook- by closing her eyebrows in creating a grin-kind-of-face, like she's annoyed of something. In addition, the use of the camera angle is used because as the viewers watch the scene- they will be looking up towards her face in order to see her facial expression as she looks down on 'us'. Bare also in mind that the background was blurred out and not focused in order to create a dramatic effect to only focus on Aria's facial expression and impression about having to read what someone had wrote about her for the first time; it looks like that's what she came to look for to confirm about something that's been bugging her about.

Onto this next scene, another camera angle is used. This time the angle comes from behind the notebook as its blurred out as you can see. However, its still composed in a low to high angle in a close up shot as the facial expression of Aria had now changed. Aria is now tearing up as she continues reading the notebook that someone had written about her. This would give the viewers a pity impression as they would be able to relate and feel the same way if someone had written about you- as you don't know why and what for. It sounds creepy and shady, as well. 

Moving onto a few seconds after, Aria loses her cool and let out her feelings as we can tell by the look of the screenshot image above that she's angry, frustrated, mad and a little bit worried and taken aback.  She starts grabbing multiple books laid out from the table using a medium shot alongside a medium tracking shot of Aria grabbing the books and throwing it effortlessly on the floor with pure anguish. From the viewers point, they might think she's gone mad and overreact because she doesn't realise it's someone's 'office' or 'house' that she's making a mess on. However, from her point of view- she might be doing it on purpose as its an act of revenge towards the person who wrote the creepy notes about Aria. Or Aria must've known whose behind it but needed some sort of evidence. Who knows.

The next scene opens up with a different camera angle used as it appears to be a even lower angle from low to high camera technique composed in a full shot. By this shot, we're able to see the character of Aria in dept and detailed as we can judge her from what she's wearing and by the way she's acting on the scene. Also, this camera shot can define how Aria is presented to be someone who has control over something and someone powerful because as for the viewers, we are watching this scene by moving our heads up in order to level Aria's face to see her facial expression. 

So, for this scene- she grabs onto a brown looking lamp and smashes on the ground to showcase her frustration and anger towards what she had found. This would make us curious because its making us want to watch the full episode to find out why she's behaving like that and the cause of the event. I would also want to point out by the way Aria spreads her feet so wide; as it represents a sense of balance and stable personality as even though she's mad and breaking and throwing objects and papers around, she knows what she's doing as she tries to control her balance by not hurting herself or falling on the ground like a drunk person would.

Multiple camera technique had been used of the short film extract of 'Aria Smash' as the title links back to what happens on the video as it's not misleading at all. The multiple camera techniques used was medium tracking shot, hand held shots, shot reverse shots and close up shots as well. We can see the shot reverse shot when Aria pauses for a while as she saw something that caught her attention; then the camera moved to Aria's back and then back to Aria's original shot. The time frame went by quick as it created a short tension effect as the viewers would want to eagerly  find out what she saw.

The final scene cuts back to Aria's close up camera shot as we are able to see a new sense of her facias expression. But this time, it had a different feel compared to last time as it appears like she seen a ghost. Her facial expression had left her appear blank and in slight shock after having to see a picture of her and a guy, looking sweet and friendly in a picture frame on the bookshelf as she broke in the glass to retrieve the picture frame. It appeared that the two were a couple as the name 'Ezra' as Aria had left her face turn cold and emotionless. This would raise us so many wanted question like who is Ezra and what he had done to Aria for her to lose her mind like this after finding out something she's not supposed to. Or was it planned? 

The lighting used in this short film extract seemed to appear a bit dim and used natural light such as the time of the day outside the house that Aria was in. It appeared like she was in there around early afternoon as we can still clearly see the set and props used for the set location. This would become more believable and reliable when using natural light as it's all about shooting the scene at the right time of the day in order to get the right amount of lighting effect and shade you want to portray towards the scene and the audiences as well.

There was also no dialogue used in this scene, as that's what my group originally planned to do. This way, it's more meaningful and easier for the production and edit crew to represent the scene as only the objects smashing on the ground and some short tracks can be heard a little.