Filmmaking:Intro
- Art of telling a story through a sequence of moving images
- Art of compressing (or expanding) time and space
- 3D world (universe) –> 2D screen
- follow the story however it goes
- Lifetimes –> Minutes (or moments to minutes)
- Rare that a film is “real-time”
- Time expansion rare (except at a small scale)
- Art of controlling the viewer’s attention
- head in a vice model
- Tell viewer where to look (or where not to look)
Film in a day?
- No way – some of the high points, vocabulary
- Old days: forced people to buy a book and read
- Awareness of subtle art
Subtle Art
- Amazing thing about film is that you don’t notice it
- Cinematic devices (cuts, camera moves, …) – just happen
- Cigarette burns (don’t notice until someone tells you)
- Seeing what is going on can enhance your appreciation
- Learn to be able to pay attention
- Doesn’t preclude being able to sit back and enjoy the ride
Film from Me?
- No – not a film professor
- Don’t have examples at my fingertips
- subtle – I can’t always identify
- I don’t have standard examples
- Idea: bad examples, where things aren’t so subtle, medium becomes obvious
- My own Film 101 films
Comparison with theater
Aspects to think about
- Mise-en-scene
- Composition (static and dynamic)
- Editing and continuity
Mise-en-scene
- control of everything – to most effectively tell story
- everything in front of camera
- design of sets, props, costumes, lighting, …
- space
Composition
Frame (using hands) to narrow world to box
- control what viewer sees (and doesn’t)
- composition outside of the frame
- guides attention
- guides affect
- main types based on framings
- ecu, cu, ms, ls, els
- can serve functional roles
- details in an exteme close-up
- establishing shot (give sense of space)
- point of view shot
- dialog shots, 2-shots
- angles
- balance
- framing
- headroom
- leading
- thirds
- centering
Focus and depth of field as a tool to guide eye through the frame
Visual salience to guide the viewers eye through the frame
Moving the Camera
Why?
- extend image size
- connect 2 things
- keep focus on moving object
- convey motion
- slow reveal
- draw attention (zoom in)
- give context (zoom out / dolly out)
- make viewer sick
Unnatural act of having your viewpoint changed
Types of moves (based on movement)
- Pan
- Tilt
- Zoom
- Dolly/Truck/Crane
- parallel
- in the direction of camera (contrast with zooming)
- Along an arbitrary path
- Hand-held
- Steady-cam
- Damped platforms and stabilization
Types of moves (based on semantics)
- Tracking shot
- leading the action
- Panorama shot
- Motion in frame
- Following the frame
Editing
Kinds of editing
- Contnuity style – you don’t notice cuts
- ironically, usually means there are bigger gaps
- Montage (chopped up)
- Experimental
- Parallel
- Discontinuous
- contrast between segments
- Transitions
Pacing
- how long are shots?
- adjusting timing sets pace (quick cuts MTV style, longer cuts old style)
- use control over pacing to raise excitement, …
- various common patterns
- question and answer format
- often used – pulls viewer forward
- creates tensions
- action and response
- variety of shots to avoid boredom
Cuts
- connection between 2 shots
- Match cut – things flow
- Jump cut – jarring – viewer notices
- usually because of small change
- Real cut
- switch to a different time and place (time/space compression)
- How to avoid jump cuts
- change image size / viewpoint “enough”
- cut on action (so its obvious that things are connected)
- Continuity via narrative
Conveying geometry of the world
- establishing shots so people get a sense of the space
- consistency of viewpoints
- 180 degree rule (stay on the same side of action line)
- tennis game example
- how to cross the line
- move over the line
- move to line and then over
- move away to something very different
Tin Toy Cinematography (neat because its simple)
- Opening shot – room (pixar logo bag), toys, convey importance of TinToy
- Only then does he come to life.
- Establishing shot of room (sense before baby enters)
- Foreshadowing – Tin Toy looking around before baby enters
- Baby enters – nuetral shot of baby and TT (establish scale)
- Action/response (play with toys / TT watches)
- Cut on action – breaking chain
- clearly some overlap (tin toy reacts AFTER we see crash)
- Low angle shots of baby chasing tin toy
- Non-low angle shot of fall (empathize with baby)
- Off-screen action (baby throwing TT) – but you know it was happening
My film 1 Films
- Jump cuts (I was trying!)
- Forced manipulations of time and space
- Filmmaking is obvious – forced attempts to used composition and editing devices
- Bad lighting!
- Working in film really makes you think
- edits are rough (and not undo-able or previewable)
- 1 camera (so you need to plan)
- bad light properties
- low amounts of control
- no immediate feedback (developing time)
- costly to reshoot
