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.