Cinematography

The clip I have chosen is the opening scene to the first movie of the Lord of the rings trilogy, The fellowship of the ring. There are a lot of interesting shots, angles and movements used in this clip, some standing out more then others. Firstly when the three elves inspect their rings a wide range shot of all three of them is taken. When it shows the seven dwarves receiving their rings the shot starts with an birds eye view of the rings which then slowly zooms out, as they reach in. Then it shows a close up of a dwarf holding a ring. It then pans to another shot of another dwarf holding the ring in the same way, also in a close up. When all seven dwarves hold up their rings a crane shot is used to move away from that scene. 

Slightly further along the clip there is a shot of Sauron forging the one ring of power. The shot of him is a low-angle shot, this creates a psychological effect that makes him look strong and powerful. Soon after this shot there is a zoom in on the ring of power as the inscription in Black speech appears. The extreme close up on the ring adds emphasis to its power and also tells the viewer that this ring will play an important role in the story. The next few shots are done in a unique way. To begin with there is a map of Middle Earth, which then becomes semi-transparent. The camera moves along the map while there are visible scenes of fighting behind the map. From this we are able to infer that different areas shown on the map have been under attack, over time.

During the battle scene there are very fast paced camera movements, this shows that the current scene is full of action. When Sauron appears a powerful shot is taken. Sauron is currently wearing the one ring of power so a high-angle shot is taken from almost the point of view of Sauron, while he is looking down on the Elf and Human soldiers. Next there is a extreme close up on the ring of power, while Sauron is wearing it, right before he takes down multiple soldiers with ease, from this we can easily infer that the source of his power is the ring. 

Towards the end of the clip Saurons fingers are chopped off by the kings son, using a broken sword. This shot is a low-angle shot from the point of view from the kings son to show that Sauron is more powerful. The camera is partially focused on the ring and the colour of the ring against everything else in this shot makes the ring really stand out. This almost forces the audience to focus on the ring as it clearly tells them that Sauron has lost his source of power.