Essential camera shots in filming.

180-degree rule:

The 180-degree rule is where the film camera has to be on or behind an imaginary line between two key characters, i.e. in football matches, the camera is on one side of the pitch using a straight line motion, this will show Team A (i.e. Arsenal) shooting to the right and Team B (i.e. Tottenham Hotspur) shooting to the left, if the camera suddenly changes sides of the pitch, the footage will make the teams look like their shooting in the own nets, thus confusing the audience.

However, you are able to break the 180-degree rule as long as the camera is seen to be moved from one side to the other, keep in mind that the audience sees what the camera sees.

Above is an example from Youtube.com, showing a football match between international teams Spain and Scotland, you automatically know the camera is on a 180-degree line, as it  shows Spain shooting right-to-left and Scotland shooting left-to-right.
if the camera is flipped to the other side of the pitch, it will look like the teams are shooting in their own net.

Cutaways:

Cutaways are a cheat in editing, to hide jump cuts between two major characters, if in two consecutive scenes, the footage of one character is a jump cut, the editor will hide the jump cut by adding a cutaway which usually scenes the second major character of the scene or in some occasions a third.

If however, there is are two consecutive scenes focusing on one characters, and the camera jumps from one location to the other, this will turn the edit into a bad edit.

Point of view:

A point of view shot is where the camera acts as one of the characters.

If there are two characters talking to each other across a table, the camera may sometimes by placed in front of the character or right next to the character, giving the impression that your seeing what the character is seeing.

In car chase scenes, a camera can be placed on the front of the cars bumper, this will make you see, not what the drivers seeing, but what the car will be seeing. This tells the audience, what the character/objects looking at, where they are going and why they are looking that way.

Shot-Reverse Shot:

A shot-reverse shot is where the footage starts on for example a persons face, the next shot will be behind said person in which you can see what he/she is seeing, then it finishes with the footage returning to the persons face, this gives the audience an expanded image, and an idea of what he is looking at/for.

Above is another video from Youtube.com, this time, it talks about shot-reverse shots, as well as the video itself being a shot-reverse shot.

Cutting to soundtrack:

Cutting to soundtrack is where the music fits the video, with each move, creating pace.
in an action film for example, if two people are fighting, the editor would fit in a fast paced music edit, to fit the video, if a punch to the face is shown for example, a cymbal crash from a drum might be heard.




In this scene of the award-winning movie, The Dark Knight, the music in the background is a fast paced type of music, as the Joker arrives, this adds suspense and the thrill factor to the scene.

Wednesday, 26th September 2012.

Pace, Storytelling, Seamless Edits and Continuity in Film-making

Creating Pace:

Slow motion - Slow motion is where the scene slows, leaving characters in slow pace.

Slow Motion usually takes place in fighting scenes; a good example is a fighting scene in the movie Sherlock Holmes.

Above shows a scene from the movie, Sherlock Holmes, where Sherlock is thinking of a strategy, this is shown by slow motion.

Shot Length - Long = Slow, Short = Fast

SFX – In The Matrix training scene, the SFX used is a variety of fighting effects (punching sounds, whooshing etc…), it adds to the pace by further expanding on the audience’s imagination, and understanding of the film.

Music – The music used in The Matrix training scene starts with an oriental piece (gongs and drums), because both Neo and Morpheus are performing Kung Fu.

The music then changes halfway into a sort of modern, up-beat electro just as the scene switches from the training arena to the ship, the music remains throughout the scene, the electro music is fast with a pounding bass, adding and fitting to the pace.

Above is a scene from the movie, The Matrix, in which Neo and Morpheus are training.
You can hear SFX in the background.
Take notice of the music which changes from oriental to modern, and how they fit in with the scene.

Motivated Edit – A motivated edit is when the editor is determined to edit a certain clip, motivated meaning he is driven to do something.

Montage – A montage is a compilation of clips, some of which fade away into another clip. It is a take on the passage of time, giving the audience the impression that this clip is taking days but actually the clip is about 1 minute long.

I.E. In Rocky I, Sylvester Stallone’s training montage may take up to 2 weeks, however, it has been edited, featuring the best of clips over the 2 weeks, giving the impression to the audience, that the training is taking a long time, but their viewing it for about a minute.
A montage can also link the manipulation of dietetic time and space, as they show the passage of time.

Montage from Rocky IV.

Storytelling:

Storytelling is where the editor of a film of television shows, edits a collection of clips in the correct order, and precise timing to make into a story being told.

The perfect timing from the editor can lead to continuity.

Seamless Edits:

Seamless Editing is the editing of a clip in such a way that it fits in with the following clip.

This edit can be linked in with storytelling and continuity.

A seamless edit is where the audience will not see a jump cut, from one scene to the next.

Continuity:

Continuity is where the following has all the props that were shown in the previous scene.

However, there are continuity errors: visual, audio and narrative.

Visual continuity errors means when a clip’s visuality does not work, i.e. shirt colours being changed, surrounding errors (cars in the background moving in an out of clips, planes in the sky).

Audio continuity errors in films are where the audio doesn't work with the clips, i.e. a crash is heard but there is no crash on screen.

Narrative continuity errors are when the storyline of the video does not fit with both visual continuity or visual continuity, i.e. a character is talking about saving a princess in medieval times and a robot walks in.

Analysis on The Dark Knight: The Joker's Interrogation

The pace starts off slow, with a long shot of the commissioner walking in.
The pace seems to remain slow, with various point - of - view shot between the Joker and the Commissioner, when the Joker talks about depression to the Commissioner, the camera angle is in such a way that the camera is on the Commissioner, making the audience think that you are the Joker talking to the Commissioner.
The first SFX comes with the opening and closing of the door in the interrogation room, it is followed by the thud from the Joker's head on the table, when Batman hits him, from that moment the pace and suspense starts to build, with the introduction of a thriller music piece in the background.
The music remains at a calm level, it is possible that the music depicts Batman's calmness, when talking to the Joker, the music is at a calm level, however, when he grabs the Joker and starts to throttle him, the music increases into a suspense.
In the part where Batman starts to throttle the Joker, SFX comes back in, with thuds and bangs and the smashing of the glass, also in the scene the music builds up to a crescendo, where the Batman is beating the information out of him, he also drags the chair to the door, sealing the room off, this could be a possible SFX.
The music gets more and more intense until the Joker tell him where Dent and Rachael are, where the music is at it's most intense, it then slows down.

Single Camera Production

Single Camera Production: When a TV show, commercial or music video is said to be of single camera production, it means that the whole video was shot with only one video camera.
Single Camera Productions in TV are usually in shows between 20mins and 45mins, Doctor Who for example is a Single Camera Production.
Some sitcoms including Channel 4’s Black Books, Spaced, Peep Show and The Inbetweeners are Single Camera Productions, this is because they are all under 45mins long and all focus on the main group of characters. For example, Black Books focuses on three people, Bernard Black, Manny Bianco and Fran Katzenjammer, throughout the shows run.

Example – Doctor Who

Genre – Science – Fiction

Narrative Structure – Starts off with a short introduction, usually introducing the problematic character, often saying he/she is after the doctor, or he needs his help etc… It continues with the doctor and companion(s) working together to resolve the situation, ending with the doctor succeeding, with the problematic character either helped or defeated. In penultimate episodes, the show may end on a cliffhanger, i.e. the doctor being shot.

Format – The start of the program (after the introduction) has a title clip, showing the TARDIS is a black hole maybe, in this clip, the main character’s (of said episode) actor names appear, followed by the iconic Doctor Who logo, with the BBC logo and finally the name of the episode, and who wrote it. After the titles, various names of producers, editors, casters etc… are displayed at the bottom of the screen. At the end of show, after the trailers for the next episode, a full list of credits is shown including sponsors at the very end, in this case, it will be BBC Cymru (Wales).

Doctor Who mainly revolves around the main character (the Doctor) and the secondary character (Companion, they’re may be a third), as well as the enemy or problematic character and extras. Doctor Who needs only one single camera, as the characters are usually grouped, thus not needing multiple cameras. Also, the series has an episode index of between 7 and 12 episodes per season, each season is roughly every year (with exception to Christmas specials), meaning the camera work has a whole year to film between 7 and 12 episodes.

Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 Shortcuts

Adobe Premiere pro CS6 Key shortcuts.

This manual gives you key shortcuts to find menus easier.

Notice: This manual may have some keyboard keys, that are only available on an Apple Macintosh.

Mark In - I
Mark Out - O
Insert - ,
Overwrite - .
Undo - CMD + Z
Backward - Page up button
Forward - Page down button
Forward 1 frame - Left direction button
Backward 1 frame - Right direction button

History of Georges Melies

Georges Melies:

Georges was a Parisian born in 1861.

From a very early age he showed interest in the arts, which led him to a place called Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. Here, Melies showed particular interest in stage design and puppetry.

By the time he was 23, he moved to London, at his parent’s request, insisting he learned English, as their ambition was to have Melies work at his father’s footwear business.

In London, he became keen in stage conjury after seeing the work of Maskelyne and Cooke.

When Melies eventually returned to Paris, he worked at his father’s factory, and also taking over the factory from his father when he retired, meaning he could raise enough to buy the Theatre Robert Houdin when it was put on sale in 1888.

From then he furthered his passion of showmanship full time, including making performances about magic and illusions.

At the unveiling of the Lumiere Brothers’ cinematographe, Melies was present, and approached the brothers with a offer to buy the cinematographe, as he was clearly interested in the device, however, the brothers turned down Melies’ offer.

With the Lumiere brothers not helping him, he turned to Robert Paul in London, to investigate the art of moving pictures, shortly after seeking Paul, Melies built his first projector, he then began the planning of his first screening, which was to take place of April 4^th 1896.

He started by screenings other peoples work, mainly those made for the kinectoscope, yet within months he was creating and displaying his work, the first of which being one reel, one shot views and lasting approximately a minute.

In autumn, 1896, whilst Melies was filming a simple street scene, his camera jammed, taking a few seconds to un-jam it, thinking nothing more of it, he went and processed the film, it was then that he saw that the film can have objects suddenly appear, disappear or transform into other objects.

He realised from this mistake that he can turn a mistake into an effect, hence the birth of ideas for complex special effects, which eventually became reality.
This became known as a Jump Cut.

Melies went on to make films such as:

• La caverne Maudite (The Cave of the Demons -1896), also known as the first double exposure,
• Un Homme de tete (Four Heads are better than One -1898), the first split-screen featuring performers acting opposite themselves,

and…

• Cendrillon (Cinderella -1899), the first dissolve.

In early 1920s, Melies became bankrupt, and his Theatre Robert Houdin was demolished, it is said he disappeared until the late 1920s when his contribution to film was recognised by the country, and was awarded with the Legion of Honour medal, as well as a rent free apartment in which he spent the remainder of his life, until 1938, where he died.

Georges Melies made over 500 films, starring in almost all of them.

Information taken and made into own words via website: http://www.earlycinema.com/pioneers/melies_bio.html on Tuesday, 11th September 2012.