Lights, Camera, Action

Friday 29th  September
LCA lesson 1

L/O: to understand and practise using the principles of film making 

Shot type:

Establishing shot: present an environment, time and transition through scenes- setting up the scene.

Wide shot:  positions things far from camera- to present peoples size/ feelings, rather than establishing environment

Long shot: to have the whole person or thing in frame to exam every body part

Medium long shot - shows upper half of body to focus on their movements and specific hand actions

Mid- shot: starts above waist but under chest and ends just above head to get an almost pov shot

Medium close-up from middle chest to head to focus on characters expressions

Close-up mainly focus on characters faces - eye level to get a greater understanding of their emotions

Extreme close up: isolates a specific area of the body - mainly face- e.g lips, eyes, nose.

Framing:

Single: One character alone in the frame- primary focus on them. Dirty single has a part of another character, clean is by itself

Two shot: Both faces must be both visible in frame, same as 3 shot, 4 shot

Crowd shot:  including many faces in a scene

Over the shoulder: focuses on both characters with a character speaking behind someones back

POV: wide range of perspectives normally from a characters point of view- make it seem like we are experiencing the moment with them.

Insert shot: frames information to specifically identify items

Angles:

Low Angle: Below eye level and looking up - to make them look more powerful.

High angle: higher than eye level, to make someone look weak or vulnerable

Overhead shot: directly over subject, to showcase complex moments

canted/ dutch/ tilted angle: - uneaseful shot, slanted to one side to make an unusual scene to intensify the scene

Eye level: Natural height to be not strange and common

shoulder level: less subtle than low shots which may change to ots shot to position characters without making them be seen as too low

hip level: basically to zoom in at the hip to showcase items there.

Knee level shots: Knee high almost like low angles to showcase movements near leg level

ground level shot: on the ground and focusing on the character on a floor level.

Movements:

Static shot: locking on a fixed position. No camera movement mainly to catch dialogue and focus on characters actions.

pan: rotating a camera left or right horizontally- used to reveal information and follow characters gazes

Whip pan- faster pan shots to create fast moments to mix m=characters together- forming a better relationship

tilt: directs cameras up or down -to view a character or scene ranging from top to bottom highlights importance.

Push in: moves camera towards a subject, zooming in to the scene to highlight importance about the characters or items.

Pull out: pushes out and reveals more about the scene, setting and characters- to distance themselves from the main subject- tones of abandonments.

Zoom:  revealing more about a scene - unnatural faster movements, looking at finer details

Crash zooms- rapid zooms for extra effect and points the audience to how fast paced the scene is.

Dolly zoom: dollying in whilst zooming out to focus on a character as the background moves to see how the character react

camera roll: spins in a position to create unease or tension as we see the whole frame in a circular motion

Tracking; follows a subject as the exact movements of a character is followed by a camera

trucking shot: tracking from left or right to follow various characters movements as they do tasks

Arc: moves around a subject.