Camera Work

Camera Shots

There are three main types of camera shot, these being an over the shoulder shot, a distance shot and the way the shot is framed.

Over the shoulder shot: this shot allows the viewer to see pretty much what the character can see, and this also lets the viewer catch a glimpse of the characters reaction to events occurring.

Distance Shots: these include mid shots, long shots, extreme long shots, close ups and extreme close ups. These are all used at different times in order to create a different mood for the scene and a different audience point of view.

Framing: this includes point of view which is a technique used to make the audience feel like they are in the position of a character, seeing and experiencing whatever they do. Another technique used is the rule of thirds meaning that the object or person being focused on is on a third line of the shot, this is basically done because it is pleasing to the eye. Also used in the way of framing are two shots and three shots, which jut means how many people are focused in the shot.

Focal Length

There are three main types of focus; these are focus pull, deep focus and shallow focus.

Focus pull: when you can see the change in focus – this could be used to disorientated the viewer or show the disorientation of a character.

Deep focus: this means that there can be more than one thing in focus at once, however this is unnatural to the human eye which makes it interesting to look at.

Shallow focus: this means that only one thing can be in focus at once which is natural to the human eye submerging the viewer and tricking them into the reality of the film.

Camera Angles

The different camera angles include a canted angle, an eye level shot, a high angle, a low angle and a birds eye view.

Canted angle: this is basically a tilted camera often used to show disorientation in the film.

Eye level shot: this is exactly how it sounds, a shot taken at human eye level. This is natural to us and makes the action seem more real.

High angle: a shot taken from above the subject. This is often used to show power over the person or object.

Low angle: a shot take from below the subject. This is often used to empower the person or object.

Birds eye view: a shot taken from above often used to show the geography of an area.

Camera Movement

The types of camera movement are as follows: dolly, steadicam, handheld, arial, zoom and pan. These are all used to create different effects on the audience.

Dolly: this is where a track is laid out for the camera to run on in order to create a smooth way for the action to be followed or to get different angles on the same scene. This type of move is reproducible if anything goes wrong in the first take of filming.

Handheld: this is where the camera person holds the camera creating a shakey effect. This can be used to submerge the viewer in the action.

Steadicam: the Steadicam is a device which is attached to the camera person and creates an effect crossed between the dolly and the handheld. Although the movement is not completely smooth it is far smoother than handheld. This is useful for getting into small spaces where a dolly cannot.

Ariel: this can be achieved by using a wire, helicopter or crane. It allows the camera to get high above the events happening.

Zoom: this includes zooming in and zooming out.

Sherlock: Series 1, Episode 1 – Ability/Disability

Camera Work

• The shot of him sat in bed is at first out of focus – This shows the disorientation in his own mind and also makes it clear to the viewer that he is having a bad dream, perhaps as a result of a bad experience that has left him mentally scarred.
• When he is layer in bed the camera pans up and stops to show his face – This makes the viewer concentrate on his sleeping facial expression which looks angry, showing he is subconsciously not that sound of mind.
• When he is sat on his bed the camera tracks backwards – This shows both the geography and space of the room, letting the viewer know that he is alone, showing that the character also feels alone in the minimalistic room.
• At the end of the scene, the camera zooms in on his face – Once again this shows his facial expression – he appears ‘poker faced’ which would suggest that he is trying to hide some emotion, and the shot of his face also suggest isolation because we can’t see much background.

Sound Design

• When he wakes up a sad sound track is used – This reflects his emotions of sadness and depression.
• At the end of the scene he says “nothing happens to me” – This shows his social inactivity and aloneness.
• The woman’s voice can be heard in the scene before he is shown in the therapy room – This shows that he is tired of hearing the same people and having the same conversations about his mental health.

Mise-en-scene

• The characters face is shown to be set against a black wall – Showing a clouded or dark mind and also isolates the character.
• The character uses a walking stick – Signifies physical disability.
• At home the character wears neutral/dark colours – This shows that he is stuck in the past, in his army days, and the dark colours also represent his melancholy mood.
• The last scene is shot in a therapy clinic – This shows mantel disability.
• he wears brighter colours outside of his home – He is putting up a front to others.

Editing

• There are cuts between him and the soldiers – This shows he is stuck in the past as he still dreams about war.
• When he is in bed he fades to black – This shows his loneliness and isolation.
• Spots of white light are show over his face while he is in bed – This shows mental disorientation and confusion, and even fear.
• when he walks in to the room with the mug the image of him intensifies from nothing – This shows that he feels alone and unwanted.
• There is a fade from night to day – This shows that he is unaware of any passage of time.

Sound Design

This diagram basically explains the different types of sound that can be created or heard within the filming industry.

1. Diegetic Sound:
Sound that purports to originate from the world of the film
E.g. Dialogue coming out of a characters mouth, sounds shown in shot etc.

2. Non-diegetic Sound:
Sound added in, post production, in order to manipulate the audience
E.g. Music, voice over, narration

3. Complied Score:
Pre written music that is added in to the soundtrack of the film

4. Composed Score:
Music that is specifically composed do the film in order to create a particular effect

Most films are made up of both composed and compiled.

5. Synchronous sound match:
Sound that matches the evens happening
E.g. Someone talking

6. Asynchronous sound:
Sound that doesn’t match the events happening
E.g. A visual of a metronome with the soundtrack of a hammer.

Team America World Police (Trey Parker, 2004)

Team America is a puppet using comedy, based on the global impacts of American politics.The members of Team America’s World Police are a less than helpful group regarding American or global safety and unknowingly cause more damage than help.

Mind you, this film isn’t for the faint hearted as the narrative is packed from start to finish with crude jokes and casual racism, making it, if you’re into that kind of thing, all the funnier. Even the theme tune is peppered with obscene language. The audience is also humoured by the puppet representations of actors such as Matt Damon and Alec Baldwin, who join forces so that they can, under the orders of Korean Dictator Kim Jon Il, try to destroy the planet.

Rod Stewart – Maggie May

Written By Rod Stewart and Martin Quittenton in 1971, ‘Maggie May’ is one of the most well known Rod Stewart songs of all time, featuring on the album ‘Every Picture Tells A Story’. Stewart manages to tell an ultimately sad story of the ending of a relationship  in a predominantly summery, up beat way which mostly disguises the peppering of both flat and minor chords within the main melody, but which add a sorrowful undertone to the song.

‘Maggie May’ was ultimately received well as it reached number one in the UK Singles Charts, and managed to stay there for two weeks. As well as this the song reached a respectable number 131 in the Rolling Stone’s ‘The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time’.

Eric Clapton – ‘Wonderful Tonight’

You know when you hear a song, and just think, this is a perfect wedding song? No? Me neither… Well, Clapton’s ‘Wonderful Tonight’ paints a picture of the perfect romance, one that almost everyone dreams of – almost fairy tale-like. However the cause of this song being written, although vaguely romantic, has a fairly dark underlying motive. It was later revealed by Clapton himself that the ballad was written as a cry of affection to Pattie Boyd, the wife of George Harrison, a close friend of his. However, this was not the first sign of Clapton’s love for her as it is conspired that ‘Layla’, a song previously covered on my blog, was also devoted to her around the same time as Harrison released ‘Something’, also dedicated to her, as he couldn’t contain their crazy love affair any longer. Shortly after ‘Wonderful Tonight’ was released Pattie and Clapton were wed, to the demise of Harrison, but the marriage ended ten years later in 1989.

‘Wonderful Tonight’ is something of a fond childhood memory to me. A song of the past that is still relevant to my life today. An all time favorite. Not only is the riff a classic, but Clapton’s voice is beautifully memorizing, yet rustic, perfectly complimenting and contrasting the ballad-like nature of the song. ‘Wonderful Tonight’ takes the top spot as my favorite song.

Horror Film Analysis

During yesterdays lesson we started to practice our moving image analysis technique, and we began this by analyzing about the first twenty minutes of the horror film ‘Insidious’.

Our first target was to infer what it was that the director was trying to achieve, which we found to be to scare the audience and to fit in accordance with the horror genre. Secondly we had to identify the ways that  this was achieved…

The first method we noticed, before the film even started, was the eeiry, uncomfortable music playing over the top of the ident, letting the viewer know the nature of the film before it begins. This is followed by a ball at the start of the film, which then flips around to reveal a young boys bedroom, this is so that the viewer feels disorientated before the narrative begins, and thus makes them feel uncomfortable. Throughout this, the disturbing soundtrack continues. The first shot is an establishing shot of a dimly lit, typically scary child’s bedroom. The camera then takes the audience on a journey through the house and then focuses in on a shadow at the window, which evokes the audience’s primal fear instincts. Through out this, the soundtrack plays into the typical horror genre conventions. The camera then acts as our eyes, forcing us to look around a corner that we don’t want to, with the knowledge that we wont like what we see, therefore scaring us further.

Following this opening scene, the credits are shown in a red smokey font, reminiscent of Hell. The first scene is established with a shot of a big, old American house, filtered in black and white, making it look traditionally spooky. The audience is then shown a shot of each room of the house in succession, but each shot is altered slightly from the norm, but is shown for only a few seconds so that the audience know’s something is wrong, but isn’t quite sure what. As well as this, each of these shots goes ever so slightly out of focus, creating a dream-like effect.

Throughout the film, the camera is intrusive, making the audience feel as if they are there, watching the characters, and alternatively, that someone else is watching the characters, which is in many ways spookier. Added to this, the audio is packed with over extenuated scary noises, such as white noise, creaking doors, scratching, low mumbling and the ticking of the old creepy grandfather clock, which make the viewer feel uneasy

Eyeline match

An eyeline match is basically the the idea that when filming, the character will look off screen and thus, the audience will want to see what it is that the character is seeing. This shot is then followed by one which cuts to whatever the character is looking at. This creates tension in the first shot as the audience waits in anticipation for what is to come in the next shot.

For example: A man looks in to the corner of a room but the corner is not in shot. In the following shot what is in the corner of the shot is revealed to the audience and focused on by the camera.

Eyeline match can also be used to show one character looking at another between two shots without any confusion to who the first character is looking at. This is done by matching the height and eye direction of the first character so that the camera appears to be looking at the second character through the first characters eyes.

Shot reverse shot

 

Shot reverse shot is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. This is achieved as because the characters are shown (often using a wide shot) to be facting in opposite directions, the audience assumes that they are looking at each other. Shot reverse shot is a feature of the classic Hollywood style of continuity editing.

 

180 degree rule

From what I understand, the 180 degree rule is a guideline to follow when judging the spatial relationship between characters and objects being filmed in a shot or string of shots. There is an imaginary axis connecting the characters or character and object and the camera should be kept on one side of this axis for every frame in the scene. The first character making an appearance should always appear on the right hand side of the shot, while the second character or object remains on the left. When the camera passes over the axis, it is commonly known as jumping or crossing the line… This is to be avoided. Another rule to remember when following this rule, is that the object or character being filmed should remain at the centre of the shot whilst the camera faces towards it or them.

180 degree rule as shown in the diagram below