Camera Work Linked with 'Love Actually'

Camera Work on Prezi

Prelim Evaluation

Untitled Prezi on Prezi

Preliminary Task Storyboard

Each shot on this Storyboard is linked to the table below describing the shot. The images start at the top left and move to the right, and so on.

Preliminary Task Planing

This table displays the planning before filming a practise recording and the main one. It will help me and the group to know what is going on and where and what needs to be said. It will help us to be organised and also to know everything we have done and need to put into each shot.  We will use it as a guideline whilst we’re filming.

Batman: Analysis

·         Mise en scene

·         Camerawork  FAM frame, angle, movement

·         Editing TOP transitions, order of narrative, pace

·         Soundtrack

(USE EXAMPLES FROM EXTRACT)

Notes on Batman clip

Night time

Fire

Explosion

Dramatic music

Speaker phone from police car

Cars crashing

Close ups of faces

Dim lights

Suspension – transition from face close up to fast moving car

Helicopter

Quick changes – seeing different teams – batman and police

Car flying

Flashing lights – police siren

High/long angle to fit in setting – create the scene

View from car – displaying danger and speed

Talk about the editing and camerawork of this short clip

The movement and the transitions of this short clip are extremely fast – this means a lot can happen in such a big scene. It also allows everything that happens to be seen. This builds up excitement and suspense for the audience. The different camera views allow the viewer to either see everything such as the start of the clip where there is a bird eye view so the audience are able to see the setting and vaguely guess what’s going on and also to allow the audience unaware of what’s happening – where the cameras view is from the car window. This also displays danger and speed from the car, also adding suspense. The pace is very fast adding to the build up of excitement created for the audience purpose, this is helped by lots of movement. Fast cars driving build up tension and anxiety for the characters from the audience and allow the order of the narrative to flow whilst still being quick and choppy for the thrill factor.

Textual Anlaysis

Looking At Genres

-          Acton/Adventure

-          Noise effects

-          More than 1 thing going in 1 one screen / fast cuts

-          Props

-          Dramatic / fast music

-          Suspense / Thrilling / Romance

-          Establishing shot (seeing what’s in the scene)

-          Tracking shots to follow action

-          Super hero / Villon

-          James Bond / King Kong

-          Violence

Camera: MAF

-          Movement (Tilt/Pan/Tracking/Handheld/Crane/Ariel)

-          Angle (High/Low angle/Eye-level)

-          Frame (ES/LS/MS/CU/ECU)

Task: Find action images, for each of the above – say what effect has, linking to the action, adventure genre.

1) 

 

  This shot is a long shot because even though you cannot see the animals in full, they’re clearly a lot bigger than the woman and are slightly back, out of the edge of the shot. The angle is a tall eye level because it is in level with the animal’s faces but not the woman’s however it is not completely above her.

2)

This shot is a long shot because the buildings are far away whereas the monkey and the aeroplanes are in focus and closer to the camera, this is because obviously they are moving and, here flying towards the camera. It is at a high angle to get the whole capture and clearly show what’s going on in the screen shot. The movement of the shot is tilt to get the full inspiration of the monkey jumping upwards and how high it actually is.

Love Actually Scree Shot Analysis

Studying Opening Scene Elements

The purpose of an opening title sequence to a film is to establish the visual style of the film and to introduce to the viewer the following:

-         Characters

-         Location

-         Narrative/Plot

-         Genre

-         Themes

Typically, an opening sequence will contain:

-         Details of the cast and crew

-         The film’s title

-         An introduction to character/type

-         Indication of the place

-         Indication of the historical period

-         Information regarding mood and tone

-         Introduction to signature theme tune

-         Information about the genre

-         Questions that the viewer finds intriguing

-         Patterns and types of editing that will be echoed in the remainder of the film

-         Mise en scene and cinematography that will be echoed or elaborated upon later in the film

(Cinematography is the creation of motion picture images. It can involve the use of film or digital imagery, usually with a movie camera. It is closely related to the art of still photography. Many additional technical difficulties and creative possibilities arise when the camera and elements of the scene may be in motion.)

This lesson we looked at other Media AS student’s work who had developed their ideas into short movie opening sequences. We watched three including Affliction, Deadly Shadow and Glitch. They was all very high-quality and professional. I was very impressed and they gave me inspiration and some proficient ideas for my ideas. Within the lesson we watched them 3 or four times and analysed them, saying what we thought went really well and things they could of improved on.  This will help me with planning and developing my opening sequence because I can get a good idea on what things really work well and the sort of things that don’t.

Affliction

What went well…

Ü  Brilliant sound effects

Ü  Good music choice

Ü  Straight forward shots

Ü  Created the right mood – enigma

Ü  No Dialogue

Even Better If…

Ü  Some pauses went on for too long

Ü  Too loud when boy trod on the glass

Ü  Mug didn’t fit in with the mood – didn’t look write

Ü  Didn’t understand the purpose of the phone call, confusing for audience

Ü  Actor didn’t respond well to being tortured also costume – didn’t look tortured or as if he was put through a lot to get to where he was

Ü  Also actor’s reaction wasn’t dramatic enough when he found out about his daughter being kidnapped

Deadly Shadow

What went well…

Ü  Slow motion shots

Ü  Really go quality make up

Ü  Good atmosphere created

Ü  Good timing with the shots

Ü  Good use of angles

Even Better If…

Ü  Wrong actor for the main character, too immature and young looking, looked unprofessional and killed the mood slightly.

Ü  Music didn’t match

Ü  Font of the writing of credits didn’t match genre

Ü  Setting was too casual

Ü  Lighting too bright for genre, should have been darker to make a sinister look

Ü  Title and font lead audience to believe ‘religious’ and completely isn’t

Ü  Actions were too sharp, the acting looked to rehearsed

Going For Gold' Storyboard

Sound

Some key terms when analysing sound are;
Symphonic: Music performed by an orchestra.
Melody: A distinctive tune.
Atonal: Music having no established key.
Rhythmic: Percussive sounds forming a beat.
Dissonant: Non harmonious combination of sounds or lacking conventional harmonies.

The term diagetic refers to the world of the film, the fictional space created by every successive shot. Sounds that emerge from sources within the frame are known as diagetic. Those that come from somewhere else are therefore usually non-diagetic, unless it clearly comes from a radio or a stereo in shot.
Non diagetic sounds also cannot be heard by the films characters. (Occasionally however, directors play with our expectations). Sometimes we are able to hear a characters thoughts and sometimes a character may address the audience directly to camera. This is rare in mainstream dramatic movies but a voice over narration from one of the characters is not uncommon.

Many famous celebrities or their character’s have their own trademark them tune. Characters with major role or follow a series of movies tend to have a recognisable and popular original tune of which when played, can immediately relate back to the film or mainly he character. E.g. James Bond movies have a recognisable tune that goes along side when the movie starts, summarily to the Superman them tune.

Ø  Most films are edited with only the dialogue in place and the raw sound in the background of shots.

Ø  The sound editing usually takes place after the visual edit and will include the stripping of unwanted sounds from each shot, with dialogue either ‘looped’ by actors or replaced with a ‘clean’ dialogue track recorded on set. A technique called ADR allows precise lip sync.

Ø  Things such as footsteps, doors opening etc are replaced by Foley arrests. These tracks of several recorded separately are known as Foley tracks. ‘Ambient’ sound or reverb will be added to stimulate and match the visual environment of the scene.

Ø  Other effects may be created entirely by combinations of synthesisers and sampled sounds. For star wars for example, the sound editor included samples of London underground trains to create the effect of spaceships travelling past the camera. It is also common in action sequences for certain effects to be sonically exaggerated (such as gunfire, punches in fights and screeching tyres in chases etc.)
The last element to be added is generally the music which could be anything from a symphonic tune to a pre recorded rock song. Editors will often edit to a ‘temp (temporary) track of some pre existing music. The final stage of sound editing involves creating a mix of all the elements.

Ø  Nowadays, several mixes will be produced for the films exhibition in different theatrical environments. These are made using proprietary equipment and involves sending different elements in the mix to different channels (speakers), including rear surrounds.

Ø  The most widely used are DTS (digital theatre systems) and Dolby digital. The desire to recreate the quality of movie soundtracks in the home has led to the growth of home cinema; using DVD’s to carry six-channel (or more)soundtrack information.

Analysis in terms of Sound
People used to have a piano playing beside a film to add to the effect and emotions being portrayed in the film.
Diagetic:  

·         voices of characters

·         sounds made by objects in the story

·         music represented as coming from instruments in the story space ( = source music)

Diagetic sound can be either on screen or off screen depending on whatever its source is within the frame or outside the frame. Another term for diagetic sound is actual sound.

Monster House

·         Symphonic orchestral music creates the atmosphere and makes the children’s feel seem a little bit scary and unpredictable.

·         When the girl is singing, this is diagetic sound. Other people would have been able to hear her if this was a real life situation.

·         Her bike and the leaves rustling-diagetic sound- she would have been able to hear it and someone close to her in a real life situation would have been able to as well.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

·         Music and images we see on the screen both match

·         Music goes in with the beat of the action taking place and movement on the screen.

·         Music matches the mysteriousness of the weird images and events.

·         It also matches the films theme.

Snatch (A Level Opening Sequence)

·          The music matches the geeky theme perfectly and matches the action on the screen.

·         When all the action stops or someone stops talking the music stops. This adds and creates more drama for the audience to watch.

·         It could be said that the beginning of the film was non diagetic because at this point, as the audience we don’t know that the boy with the headphones in can hear the music that we can hear.

·         At the end of the film we notice that the music was in fact diagetic as the character in the opening sequence could hear the whole time.

·         Diagetic sound was used when the characters were speaking to one another over the computers. They could all hear each other.

·         Sounds from, for example, when the boy was snatched from his room, are all diagetic as the audience and the characters can hear. We can interpret this from their reactions when he is taken.

Analysis of Genre

Film Institutions