Film Analysis: Chameleon Street

In the film Chameleon Street, William Street is a con man who lives for the edge of life, he uses his genius understanding of the world and quick thinking to deceive anyone and everyone he comes in contact with in order to fuel his obsession for advancing in life through taking (some unnecessary) risks. In this specific scene Street has been sent to a psychiatrist named Jonathan Hand due to a faked epileptic seizure in order to be removed from an area that would make him prone to being taken advantaged of by fellow inmates. In the opening sequence of this scene, the audience is thrown to a close-up shot to the side of an unidentified man’s face, as the audience is forced to observe the someone what distressing mechanistic movements of the human face. These movements captivate our attention and in a split second our continuity for the film is immediately obstructed as the 180° degree rule is completely neglected, we as the audience see a flipped version of the same face and our understanding of where we are in the realm of perspective. As the scene progresses, our point of view is shifted to an over the shoulder shot of who we assume to be the man who’s face we were uncomfortably near in the moments before to reveal Street in front of the desk. I realized throughout this scene that no true establishing shot was met and even further than that there is no eyeline match to

Hand or structure to the conversation between the two men, there is only the over the shoulder camera angle to assume that when Street looks in the direction of Dr. Hand he is