Blog #3: Relationships between shots

Desierto (2016)- “The Getaway” scene

The scene begins with a long shot of the dog, and its owner running towards him.  Through the long shot, we get a clear view of the background: the sky, the dry ground, the leafless trees, a true depiction of the harshness of the desert.  There are various eye line matches throughout the scene; the first is when Sam looks down and sees a pile of snakes.  There is a constant back and forth eye-line match of Sam looking at those snakes.  The second eye-line match is when Sam looks off the screen and straight ahead, the scene is then followed by an extreme long shot of two people running.  From the distance, they appear small but as Sam points and shoots, they become more visible in a long cut shot. The scene then jumps back to Sam and the snakes; at the hiss of the snakes on his feet, we see a high angle shot of Sam looking down at them, giving him a sense of power as he points and shoots.

There are various cross-cuts in the scene that jump from one action to another.  The first cross-cut occurs when the dog barks and runs away from Sam, making his way to the car.  The other cross-cut occurs when Moises and Adela, the two people we see running away from the sight of Sam earlier, run towards the car.  The crosscut in this particular shot helped make the transition of the actors running from a distance, to open the car doors, to start the car, to finally speeding away.  There’s also a brief medium shot of Moises as he struggles to open the doors of the car.  As well as an extreme close up of his hand as he toggles the pliers to start the car.  We also see a brief point of view from Adela as she looks back to Sam running towards them.  The continuity editing in this scene combines shots to show Sam and his dog chasing Moises and Adela, as these two run to safety. 

https://youtu.be/WIa7y3GyAQY