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Doctor Who – S09E11 – Heaven Sent – Montage analysis

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06rhv99/doctor-who-series-9-11-heaven-sent

The mood is sad, you can tell this by the music used, the piece of score called ‘The Shepherds Boy’ by Murray Gold sets the mood. It has a theme of sadness and loneliness as the Doctor comes to the terms of that version’s death as he regenerates himself for what possibly is the billionth time just to go through a long process of running through a castle to punch a diamond wall for 4.5 billion years.

The montage towards the end of Heaven Sent not only serves as our conclusion to the story but is fairly lengthy, serving the majority of the last 10 minute of the episode. Peter Capaldi stars as The Doctor, who tells a story about how long eternity is in segments as the montage progresses throughout the episode. As the montage starts you don’t really know the point of it and the impact doesn’t hit you as much as it does by the end of the montage, The purpose of the montage and the impact changes by the end as you learn the Doctor is there for 100 years, then 200, then 500, then 5000 then a million, then 52 million years then 1 billion to 2 billion then well over 4.5 billion years as you see the doctor begin to loose it as he has to repeat the same puzzle maze over and over again all that time.

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Up – Married Life Montage

Up has the right mix of happy and sad and deals with it very smoothly, it shows us the life of Ellie and Carl in the space of 4 minutes and 22 seconds. It does not take us out of the film and you end up leaving the scene with mixed emotions, you feel happy but also sadness and may even cry. Its the right length for a montage and you don’t feel like its going on too long or if its too short.

There are a range of shot types in the montage like pans and close ups. One particular shot that stands out is the pan past the medical room Carl and Ellie is in, this tells us all we need to know without the film explicitly telling us, we can tell what has happened top them by the fact the recent shot was them talking about having a baby. This part then leads into the pan showing the two in the medical room, I want to show many shots that tell us all we need to know from showing a particular shot.

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How could i do this in a montage?

I could show a lot of shots of the things i love for example my favorite shows, films, my dog and many other things i enjoy. I would make it not too short or not too long but i would have a mix of upbeat and sad music but it would mainly be happy, the approach to this would be like Up. Up has a montage that goes happy then sad then happy again and does a really good job of balancing both. I may end up just making a completely happy montage because i may not have anything sad to show

The shots would be medium to mid shots and maybe a couple establishing shots to show where about’s we are. These are probably the best and most common shots to use which is why i would use them.

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What type of shots would i use in my montage

The majority would be medium to medium close up shots. I will definitely be putting in a couple establishing shots into it. This is to mix it up a bit in terms of the range of shots i have, i would probably only use a couple. Maybe one at the start and one at the end.

I would use the DSLR cameras to shoot my shots, i wouldn’t worry about getting a special mic like a boom mic or lapel mic because i will be removing the sound anyway and replacing it with a song of my choice, i have a few ideas of what songs i could use, i particular like the song Flagpole Sitta which is also used as the theme tune from ‘Peep Show’ this song is a strong contender as it’s my favorite and i can do a really nice transition from talking about my favorite shows showing the Peep Show title sequence then cutting to other shots of my dog or other thing i love with the same song continuing from where it would’ve ended at the end of the Peep Show title sequence.

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Where am i going to record my footage?

I am going to record my footage mainly at home and in the park where i like to take my dog. This will be the places i get the best footage of my dog, i may not be able to record in the park so that is up in the air but i definitely am going to record at my house and in my garden. I have chosen these places because i know my dog loves them so i’ll get the best shots possible because he’s the most comfy when hes there.

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Will you need any actors or crew to help you?

I won’t need any actors apart from my dog and maybe me depending on the shots i want to do. In terms of crew i will be the only person needed to film everything, i can set up my camera and tripod and begin filming on my own, i wont need anyone else to help. The reason i’m doing this is because it will be a bit too busy trying to get my dog calm to film him with a lot of people around. I know that it would be the best option in terms of filming my dog so i will only have myself as the crew.

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How will you edit the montage?

I will edit the montage mainly in adobe after effects. Some shots that may need color correcting or filters or any kind of effects may be edited at my house where i have Sony Vegas Pro 13 and Adobe After Effects. These software’s will help me to edit my shots if they need any color correcting or any little tweaks before the final edit of all the shots gets made in Adobe Premier Pro. If any audio needs changing or editing then that will be done in Adobe Audition as that is where i will have access to the most amount of tools to edit my audio.

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Will it have a fast or slow pace?

My montage will have a fast pace because of the song choice. It will not be too fast but it certainly wont be slow this will help because i know the speed of my song is quite fast but not too fast that the shots are not going to be on for long.

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