COVID Dystopia: Shot 1

In this shot the title zooms large quickly with a loud metallic sound effect while an ambulance flashes its way forward. Since the title is a bit off center it now makes me uncomfortable. I might center it exactly and see if that can work. The title could probably be bigger if I am not trying to avoid it overlapping the foreground building. When the title fades out the camera pans to the left following the movement of the ambulance.

This shot used to be a warning that you are about to see something that is horrific and you should probably run from the theater. That warning was needed to screen the film at Visual Fringe back in May of 2023. It took me a long time to decided to take the warning back out and replace it with this New York City street scene. Since the shot was intended originally to give people time to read the paragraph, it is the longest shot in the film.

I tried adding depth to the scene but it isn’t really needed since the buildings are all so far away and the camera doesn’t move. The shot lingers by just following the movement of the tiny ambulance. The only hint of the fast pace to come is the quick introduction of the title.

Every shot is like this in COVID Dystopia. I live with it for a long time and then decided it could be better. It would be great if everything was perfect on the first try but that is seldom the case.