Studio Lesson 1: Learning the basic principles of Film Making

Basic principles of Film Making

The 180 degree rule is keeping on one side of the characters and only staying on that side, and you can only move within that 180 degrees.

I did not know this rule prior to this lesson, but makes complete sense. It is important because you see the character with the same background, preventing confusion for the audience, as they may think that the location has changed.

We then got taught how to shoot sequences. Matt adjusted the camera to make a wide shot with him in it with a motorbike on a table. He recorded the video of him walking into the shot, picking up the bike and examining it then putting it back down again. He repeated this with a mid-shot and a close-up. The close-up only consisted of the motorbike itself.

Matt also taught us some 'studio lingo'. To let everyone know that your ready, you would say 'standby', then when you hit the record button you say 'rolling', which gives an indication to the director that the camera is ready and therefore he can say 'action'. I learnt that this keeps the studio organised and the words are not usual, therefore making it clear that they are professional and not to be mixed up with normal language.

Continuity is where you have to keep certain props in the same state to not make the shots messy or look different from a mid shot to a close up, which is meant to be happening at the same time, but filmed one at a time. We keep track of continuity by having an assistant who would write down notes about the scene, for example what hand the actor used to pick up an object or the positions of chess pieces on a board. To keep continuity in my sequence, we made the actor stand in the same place, take out her phone from the same location on her body, using the same hand.

We made our own sequence which consisted of someone walking into the shot, taking out their phone, looking at it then putting it away and walking off shot. We used the 180 degree rule and took a wide shot, mid shot, close up of her face and phone, an angled shot from the left and right, with added close ups of the phone from a left angle.

We shouldn't watch our footage back because then that wastes time on a set which may be costing a lot of money to rent. You also shouldn't let your actors watch the footage back either because they are most likely to hate the angle they are seen at and become self conscious which makes them change their acting.

Jaws Film Poster

Jaws film poster analysis

In the film poster for the movie ‘Jaws’ directed by Steven Spielburg, there are many connotations for horror and action. The target audience for this particular film is thrill-seekers and people who enjoy gore and blood. The camera angle of this poster is an extreme long shot because you can see what setting they are in and shows the main character: Jaws itself. The picture of the shark heading towards the surface creates atmosphere and tension alone. The title ‘Jaws’ is in large red capital letters, suggesting connotations of blood, violence and danger. The title also gives an obvious hint at what the film is going to involve. This gives audiences the confidence of being able to predict what the plot is going to be, therefore feeling power over the film.

The victim is unaware of her surroundings as she is in a swimming motion, not panicking, so does not know her fate. The shark’s mouth is open, obviously ready to attack the unsuspecting woman, and as it blends into it’s surroundings, it makes the scene more sinister. This picture overall is very minimalistic and keeps the audience on a cliff hanger because the shark is about to attack, it hasn’t already. The poster also suggests that women are more vulnerable to attacks than men because the character is a woman on the poster. The woman is also naked which may attract men audiences because this is considered attractive.

Potential audiences can predict what is to happen in this film easily as the poster makes it very obvious. The classic Jaws theme tune is very distinct. The central image is very big and taking up most of poster, compared to the woman shows that she is exposed to the danger of the shark. The blue image from the black background makes the image stand out even more. The colour scheme in this poster is not at all complicated, a simple blue, red and white theme, which are strong and bold.

The billing block is centred at the bottom of the page in small font, typically because it is not important to an audience. The three main actors names are in white block letters under the image, which stands out against the black background. These names may encourage audiences to watch the film, as they are famous actors, increasing popularity therefore higher ratings.

The mise-en-scene in this poster is simply just the swimmer, shark and the title. This causes no distractions for the audience and focuses on the important parts. This may make them wonder what else there is to this film, therefore will watch it.

Camera set up

Today we learned about how to set up a Black Magic mini ursa film camera. As a group we set up the tripod and levelled the spirit level to make sure the tripod was stable and not tilted. Pushing a button and sliding it on and tightening with another screw attached the camera. Then we attached the battery pack with a satisfying click. We then removed the lens cap, turned on the camera and looked into the viewfinder to see our surroundings. We were directed to zoom all the way into our subject by the teacher and focus by turning the dial on the lens. Then when you zoom out, the subject will still be in focus.

If the exposure is too much, you scroll a wheel on the lens to adjust it to the correct lighting, this wheel was very stiff. The ISO is the meter on how sensitive the camera is to light, and this should always be at 400. Shutter angle (SA) changes the blurriness of a moving subject. This is usually at 180 but if any lower the subject will be less blurry. This is well suited for action films, as the movement has to be sharp to have an impact on the audience. The exposure is darker the lower you make the SA. The white balance makes the temperature of the video either warmer or colder. 5600K to 6600K (K means Kelvins) are well suited to outdoors scenes as it makes the scenery look more normal by making the video footage colder. 3200K is better for indoor scenes.

My favourite film

My favourite film is Interstellar. A crew of astronauts travel through space to find a new home for humanity due to the global crop blight, famines and droughts. A newly discovered wormhole in the solar system allowed a team of astronauts to search for an environment that can sustain life. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) who is an ex-science engineer and pilot tries desperately hard to make food by farming to save the famine, but nothing succeeds. He stumbles across a NASA base near his home and is asked to go on a mission to find a new habitable planet.  Professor Brand (Michael Caine) is a NASA physicist who worked on plans to save mankind by transporting the Earths population to a new home. Cooper then has to decide on either never seeing his children again, or saving the human race. The film was released in 2014 and directed by Christopher Nolan who played with the idea of space exploration, time and gravity. At the end of the film, Cooper falls into a tesseract, which resembles a stream of bookshelves, which peer into Murphy’s bedroom at different periods of her life. Cooper summarises that the wormhole was created to contact Murphy and he was her ‘ghost’ the whole time. On Professor Brand’s deathbed, he admits to Murphy that he knew all along that the mission wouldn’t work. Cooper gave Murphy a watch before he left, and he relays on the quantum data to move the second-hand on the watch in order to get Murphy to solve the gravitational equation. The final scene concludes with Cooper visiting Murphy in the new habitable world that she discovered. Dolan expresses the eternal bonds between father and daughter through these scenes. The team of researchers included Anne Hathaway, Matt Damon, Casey Affleck and David Gyasi. Most of these characters did not survive unfortunately.

Paramount produced the film in North America and Warner Brothers produced it internationally.

This film is my favourite because it kept me on the edge of my seat constantly, the back story is very intellectual and makes sense, which makes us feel the fantasy because of the scientific background to it. I love the type of films that are thrillers and ones that make you think about what you would do in that situation if that were to happen, as it keeps us creative.

How tension is created in the opening sequence of 'Ecliptic'

Ecliptic ( how tension is created ) from Katie Emily

Introduction

Hello, my name is Kate and I am 16 years old and live in Newmarket, Suffolk. My interests are filming, editing and taking creative photos. I have a YouTube channel, which consists of funny skits and holiday videos. I love taking videos of my travels and I think editing is the best part. Putting the music to the video is the best because you can sync it and make the film run smoothly and pleasant to watch. I’m very interested in film sets and how one films a video and edits it. Before Hurtwood, I used to go to Culford, which unfortunately did not have the resources or capability to do the subjects I now do at Hurtwood. I go to quite a few concerts and festivals, I have seen all my favourite music artists like Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Jack and Jack and Ariana Grande. I go to festivals for the vibes and listen to the music. I film my own YouTube videos on my Canon G7x and edit them on iMovie on my MacBook. The editing takes a long time but I enjoy it a lot. My YouTube used to have many videos of me using an app called VideoStar, which creates music videos automatically for you, all you had to do was lip sync/dance. I have these private now because they are very embarrassing. I love analyzing camera angles and wonder how some scenes are filmed in my favourite TV show, The Walking Dead. I’m sometimes quite critical at if there is a filming error and wondering how a camera is placed in a set and love the depth of field when it is a close up shot and only the actor is in focus. I have only used iMovie so far because I’m waiting to master how to use that program before I used the big software’s like Premier and Final Cut Pro.

I hope that I’ve improved on my video filming and editing and you can see my progress on my YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/starfishfoam

Don’t ask about the URL, I was 12 when I made it!

This blog is going to be my coursework blog for media studies, full of notes from classes, short clips and my achievements and progress from the beginning. I’m looking the most forward to filming and editing my first video at Hurtwood and watching peoples reactions to see if they like it. I also love watching other people’s videos they create and see their own techniques.