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Showing posts from October, 2020

Three-Point Lighting Setups

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 Three-point lighting is a commonly used method for lighting up a specific subject in a scene with light sources from three specific points. These three lighting types are backlight, fill light and key light. Image taken from:   Flex Clip Key Light: Key light is the most intense source of light on scene and is therefore the primary light source for the scene. The key light would be set up before the backlight or fill light and is used as the base foundation for the lighting of the scene and can be changed in multiple ways to create different effects such as positioning the light source at different lengths from the subject and at different angles to create different types of contrast and shadows . However, the most important role of the key light will always be to allow correct exposure. Backlight: The backlight hits the subject from behind and is usually placed higher than the subject. The backlights main function is usually to separate the subject from a darker background and give mo

British New wave research

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What is British New wave British New Wave, otherwise specified as kitchen sink dramas, weren't like the previous typical advertisements for the British way of life, they were unpolished and soon developed into gritty features called "angry young man films". These were typically set in Northern England during the late 1950s and early 1960s. The narratives of these films usually dealt with the problems of the working class, such as: Unhappy marriages alcoholism secret affairs unplanned pregnancies barroom brawls generation gaps Influences/ intent A large amount of British New Wave was inspired by 1940s work of american auteur and 1940s Italian realism. Many British New Wave filmmakers took influence from french new wave filmmakers who used specific techniques to convey realism, such as: Location shots to add documentary feel Real people (not actors) as extras Hand held cameras Black and white footage Reference to the camera men as well as photographers Long tracking shots u

Shutter speed

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 Shutter speed, in photography and film, is used to control how movement and motion is perceived by the viewer of said video or photograph. There is, however, a difference between how shutter speed is used and how it effects film and photography. For example in photography, if you were to use a low shutter speed of 1/4  and take a photo of an object moving, the photo will contain a large amount of motion blur and details will be un clear, where as a high shutter speed of 1/500 will take a more clear, concise image that will make the object look like it was still when the image was taken. Whilst in film, the shutter speed does still effect mostly the motion blur, you are more limited on what shutter speed you can use as, to achieve a natural movement look, the shutter speed should always be set to double the frame rate (frames per second) the standard frame rate used in film making is usually around 25 FPS making the shutter speed automatically 1/50. Setting too high of a shutter speed

split screen technique

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 In flim making, split screen is a technique used to show two different scenes simultaneously on the same screen. This is used for a variety of reasons in different movies. For example it may be used to show a phone call, where one one side of the screen you can see the reactions and emotion of one of the characters and on the other side of the screen you can see the reactions and emotions of the other character. This scene from Annie Hall is a good example of split screen. It is used to show the two characters contrasting feelings on the same subject matter (being their intimacy) and shows the beginning of the breakdown of their relationship. It also accurately demonstrates a wider analogy of how different genders perceived each other in that time period. My Example:

The development of editing technology

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Early editing (cutting): Cutting is a fundamental form of editing that emerged relatively soon in the film industry as filmmakers and audiences began to desire films with longer and more in depth narratives and this was only achievable through editing multiple shots together. Early filmmaker George Melies, whilst filming a carriage, had his camera jam, and therefore accidentally created what is now known as jump cuts. Melies used his discovery to create his own editing style where the actors would disappear and reappear. Melies created some of the basic editing techniques we still use today such as stop motion photography, fade in/out and overlapping. Further forward D.W.Grffith created Cut In, this was first used in The Greasers Gauntlet to put emphasis on emotions and reactions. Throughout his career he developed continuity editing along with many other techniques. Moviola: In simple terms, the moviola is known as an editing machine. The Moviola was the first device used to allow the

Creative film making: film openings lesson notes

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Dolly Zooms

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  A dolly zoom is where the camera zooms in or out on a subject whilst the camera moves towards or away from the subject; the effect that this aims to create is that the subject should stay the same size but the background compresses/decompresses around them. A good example of this is poltergeist where the character seemingly stays the same size but the setting decompresses, this gives the effect that the hallway grows longer, adding to suspense of the scene. The most well known example of a dolly zoom is the infamous scene from jaws, it is used to show that the character is having an extreme realisation.

camera lenses and their effect.

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  Wide angle lenses The range of these lenses are normally 16-35mm. They allow you to fit more in frame of shot and are therefore good for shooting things such as establishing shots (e.g landscapes) because of the amount able to fit in shot helps to establish time, context and location. This establishing shot (from 0.00-0.41) uses a wide angle lens to fit more landscape in shot. This immediately shows that the movie will be set far back in the past due to the landscape type, little amount of people and the type of people that are around.  Zoom lenses Zoom lenses are able to vary their focal length by moving optical mechanisms in the lens. These lenses are used predominantly for dolly zooms and for making the subject appear to be moving closer or further away without actually moving them.  This scene effectively uses dolly zoom to enhance the building of suspense. It gives the impression that even though the character isn't moving, the door is getting further away, furthering the su

Editing Techniques in film

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  Establishing shot: An establishing shot is used to introduce new scenes to the viewers, indicating the location, time and context of what is happening. These shots often show obvious signals of a time and/or location. They are normally shot from high up to get as much of the location as possible in shot in order to set the scene clearly for the audience. Establishing shots, if taken correctly, can give the viewer a general idea of the genre and atmosphere of the movie as well as the time period. To conclude the main purpose of an establishing shot is to provide context. Example:  Lord of the rings Establishing shot Temporal overlap: A temporal overlap is where an action is repeated but from a different point of view; for example, in a fight scene, a character may narrowly miss being hit, this would then be shown again from a different perspective. Temporal overlaps are used to build suspense and to emphasise importance. Kuleshov effect: The kuleshov effect was invented by a soviet fi