HUM 1020 – Professor D. Iles
FILM
Types of films:
Narrative – tells a story (many sub-genres such as Western, detective story, science fiction, horror, romantic comedy, etc.)
Documentary – sociological or journalistic approach; based on reality
Absolute – film for its own sake; does not tell a story; built piece by piece using a variety of techniques
Editing
Film is rarely shot in the order that it will finally take. The pieces are shot separately and put together like a jigsaw puzzle. The success of the final product depends on the editing process used, the manner in which the director handles the camera, and the lighting and movement of the actors before the camera.
Plasitcity is the quality of the film that allows it to be cut, spliced, and ordered according to the needs of the film and the desires of the filmmaker.
The editing process creates or builds the film, joining shots or scenes together to make a whole.
Cut – joining together of shots during editing
Jump cut – a cut that breaks the continuity of time by jumping forward from one part of the action to another part that is separated from the first part by an interval of time, location, or camera position. It is often used for shock effect or to call attention to detail.
Form cut – One scene ends with a particular shape or image and the next scene starts with a similar shape or image. It makes for a smoother transition.
Montage – utilizes many short clips or scenes edited together to act as an indication of compression or elongation of time or as a rapid sequence of images to illustrate an association of ideas. It is considered to be the most aesthetic use of the cut in film.
Camera position and viewpoint
Camera position and viewpoint are as important as the editing process. How the camera is placed and how it moves can be of great value to the filmmaker.
The shot is what the camera records over a particular interval of time and forms the basic unit of filmmaking. The master shot is a single shot of an entire piece of action.
The establishing shot is a long shot introduced at the beginning of a scene to establish the interrelationship of details, a time, a place, etc., which will be elaborated in the subsequent shots.
The long shot is a shot taken with a camera that is at a considerable distance from the subject.
The medium shot is taken nearer to the subject.
The close-up is a shot taken with the camera quite near the subject.
A two-shot is a close-up of two people with the camera as near as possible while keeping both subjects in the frame.
A bridging shot is inserted in the editing of a scene to cover a brief break in the continuity of a scene.
Framing is the amount of open space within the frames. The closer the shot, the more confined the figures will seem. This is called tightly framed.
Objectivity
An important variable of camera viewpoint consists of whether the scene reflects an objective or subjective viewpoint. Objective reflects an omnipotent viewer, rather like the technique of third-person narrative in literature. In this, the filmmaker allows us to watch the action through the eyes of a universal spectator. In subjective viewpoint, the scene is presented from the viewpoint of a particular character. This is analogous to first –person narrative.
Cutting within the frame
This technique is used as a way of avoiding the editing process. It is created by a movement of the actors or of the camera or a combination of the two. It allows the scene to progress more smoothly and is frequently used in television.
Dissolves
Dissolves are added during the printing of the film negative as transitional devices. They usually indicate the end of one scene and the beginning of another. The scene fades out into black and the next scene fades in. A lap dissolve is when the fade out and fade in are done simultaneously and the scenes momentarily overlap. A wipe is a form of optical transition in which a line moves across the screen eliminating one shot and revealing the next.
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