Unit 16 Shot Variation

Shot Variation

close-up

A close up is a shot which fills up most of the frame to show specific detail e.g. facial expressions.

This scene from psycho shows the shower scene where she is dead on the floor and moves from an extreme close up to a close up shot

mid-shot, (or medium shot)

Mid shot (medium shot) is where the body is framed from the knees or waist to show specific body language.

Ghostbusters (1984)

The part where Venkman says “Come in Ray”

long shot

Long shot (full shot) is where the camera is at a long distance from the object/subject. The standing person is however fully visible.

Forrest Gump – Life is like a box of chocolates scene

Wide shot

Wide shot is where the camera places large areas of space within the frame. Extreme wide shots become ‘fisheye’ images.

  Ghostbusters – First Call at the Sedgewick hotel (1:11)

Ghostbusters 2 – Zapping Yanosh (0:53)

Two-shot

Two shot (American shot/Plan American) is where there are two people within the shot to show conversation or interaction with each other.

Ghostbusters – Ray and Winston talk about passages from the bible

The Dark Knight Rises – Bane Introduction (0:37)

Aerial shot

Aerial shot is where a shot is taken from a plane or helicopter to give a distant perspective.

Ghostbusters – Releasing the ghosts

The Shining – Intro

Unit 16 Manipulation Of Diegetic Time and Space

Manipulation of Diegetic Time and Space

There are 2 types of sound in film, diegetic and no diegetic

The main difference is what sound is in the frame and what sound is outside the film or the sound the characters can hear and what sound the characters cannot hear.

The diegetic sound holds the role of realism to make the scene feel realistic.

It is used usually to build tension or to make the scene more dramatic (realism)

Example:

Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace - 

This scene has a mix of diegetic and non-diegetic elements

The speech, movement sounds and sounds of pain when hit are all diegetic and natural to the scene where as “Duel Of The Fates” (the music) is not and this is non-diegetic

Lord of the rings: Fellowship of the ring - 

The increasing music in the scene is non-diegetic whereas the sword sounds and the Balrog groans are as well as the dialog between the characters Gandalf and Frodo

Unit 16 The History Of Editing

In Camera Editing:

What is In Camera Editing?

In-camera editing is the technique in film making and video production of shooting shots in the exact sequence that they will be seen on the movie theater screen or television program. This means planning in advance what shots will tell the desired story and then shooting only those shots in that order, as opposed to the usual film making technique of shooting multiple takes out of sequence, then editing them into order to tell the story.

Why was it used?

It was primary used in the very early days of filming (black and white with heavy cameras) where you didn’t have PC's or Macs to edit on.

Example:

The Lumiere brothers 1895

This was to show a scene of workers leaving their workplace with no story line

Then there was;

The Devil's Castle 1896

These are very early movies in which all editing was done in camera and used no editing software it was all done on a film strip that you used to get in old non-digital cameras

The Great Train Robbery 1903

Then people started using it in more modern films:

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope for example:

There looks like there are some cuts where it goes black but this is because when he made it you could only fit 10 minutes of film onto a film reel so he had to find a black background to film for when the clip stopped. This film wasn’t very well liked but Alfred was just experimenting as he liked to do.