Cinematography- Eastenders

New Year's Day always holds a special episode of Eastenders and this year was no exception. Audiences across the country watched in despair as the iconic Mitchell sisters drowned in the pool at older sister Ronnie's wedding reception.

This hour long episode was assisted by clever camera work and effects that are rarely seen in soap, making it obvious that this was to be no standard episode. A series of arc shots, slow motion effects and overlapping were employed during the scene at the wedding reception. In addition to these techniques, the lighting was very high key and there was a strong selective focus in the majority of the scenes.

These factors contradict the typical cinematography of a soap opera, which usually consist of more basic shots and straight cut, parallel editing. This makes the featured techniques all the more impressive, and was noticed online by many viewers.

Unfortunately it is too late for us to use any of these techniques in our coursework as it has been planned and filming has nearly been completed. Also, these shots would not compliment the feel of our film opening and would not make sense to the story. 

However, these are the types of shots and effects that are likely to be seen in an upbeat music video and would be useful to consider for my A2 coursework. Next year, the course requires us to produce our own music video and these techniques are very impressive and would be interesting to incorporate into my own work.