Shot List

Shot List -

This will be showing some of the shots we plan to use when filming and the skills when may also use along side them.

1. Tracking shot = When showing all the photos of Lily that the kidnapper has accumulated.
2. Extreme close up = Again when showing photos of Lily in the kidnappers house however the shot will be closer and more enhanced.
3. Pan = When we see Lily running in the park which gives the audience a feeling for the location.
4. Over the shoulder shot = When Lily is looking out into the field.
5. Medium close up = When Lily is tying up her lace before/after she heard the twig snap.
6. 180 degree shot = While she looks around to find where the noise came from and make her self aware of her surroundings.
7. Establishing shot = Both of the park/forest and of the kidnappers hideout.
8. Tilt = When showing the details of the kidnappers room where he has the photos of Lily.
9. Two shot = Whilst showing an iteration between Lily and a passer by.
10. Close up = When showing Lily's face after hearing the twig snap to show her fear.

Introduction to DSLR

This blog post will be an introduction to DSLR cameras and some of the ways they work and the settings and functions they have.

DSLR -

• It stands for Digital Single Lens Reflex.
• This means when a camera with one lens and a mirror which reflects the light, pictures are recorded on a digital card instead of a film.
• Automatic settings are advised to be used at first while you are still learning about how to use the camera properly. To do this your must ensure that the lens is set to autofocus (AF) not manual focus (MF), push the shutter button down halfway and it will automatically focus on the subject.

Key terms -

• Exposure: This is the amount of light a digital camera's sensor captures when a photo is taken, too much light results in a washed out photo that is overexposed, and too little light will end up with an underexposed photo.

• Aperture: This controls the size of the lens opening that allows light into the camera, you can blur the foreground and background that bracket your subject by opening your aperture with a low f-stop number. Or you could keep your photo sharp from the foreground by closing the aperture down with a high f-stop number.

• Shutter speed: The speed setting controls how long the shutter opens to expose the image sensor to that light, open it for just a millisecond and you can freeze a fast moving subject. Alternatively, you can show movement of a fast moving subject by keeping it open longer with a slows shutter speed.

• ISO: This is how sensitive your image sensor is to light, a camera's image sensor can be adjusted to detect more or less light as needed for good exposure. If you are shooting in low light you will need to boost your ISO and if you are shooting in bright light you will have to lower your ISO.

Media Language 2

Media language refers to the ways in which meaning is created in media texts. Below are some more of the terms we have been learning about in our AS Media Studies lessons.

Camera -

• Extreme long shot: A wide view of the complete setting, a person would be barely visible in the scene. It gives a sense of scale and provides watchers with a location, this is very similar to an establishing shot.

• Long shot: Closer than extreme long shot but still shows the complete scene, a human figure is clearly visible and fits easily within the frame. However, the background will still dominate the human figure.

• Medium long shot: A great deal of information about the setting is still visible, human characters can be seen in detail and everything above the knees is in shot. A common purpose of this type of shot is to provide both dialogue and action.

• Medium shot: On the human body, a medium shot would start at around the waist and include little space above the head to allow gesture and expression to be clearly visible. This shot is ideal for dialogue and some very limited action.

• Medium close up: Frames the subject moderately closely, the head and shoulders fit comfortably in the frame with little room above the head.

• Close up: Shows the detail of the subject and may only show the face of the person, this is often used in narrative to show emotion.

• Extreme close up: Shows only a portion of detail and magnifies something that is very small. It can be used to create a sense of mystery and can be very effective in hiding what something is until a dramatic pullback.

• Crane: When the camera is attached to a crane and we are shown the scene from above it, this can act as a sense of scale or provide information.

• Dutch: When the camera is titled to one side so the horizon is on an angle, it creates an effect that is disorienting and unsettling for the audience.

• Rule of thirds: A photograph in some people's opinion should never be placed in the centre of the frame, instead the focus should be at the intersection of imaginary lines that divide the frame into thirds.

• Depth of field: A filmmaker can use focus to make the audience pay attention to certain details, the background and other details can be downplayed by keeping them out of focus. The area of the frame that is in sharp focus is called the depth of field and this is determined by the length of the lens.

Editing -

• Straight cut: Creates a natural movement between shots and in many ways emulates the audiences' own eye movements.
• Fade: Where the old image gently disappears, usually to a black screen before the new image appears in its place.
• Dissolve: Bringing a new shot into focus as the old one disappears from focus, at some point in dissolve both shots are on the screen at the same time.
• Wipe: Where the new image comes onto the screen with a distinct shaped edge and seemingly ‘pushes’ the old one off screen.

Lighting -

• Coloured lighting: These are often used to give a particular effect the scene, less natural lights again can be used to give a different effect.

• Diegetic lighting: Lighting that appears to emanate from a source within the scene.

Mise en scene -

• Set dressing: How the setting is presented to the audience via the use of décor or the landscape shown of an external location.
• Casting: The choice of actors is an important part of the creation of the text, an actor needs to have the right look for the character that the director wants to create.
• Body language: The style of acting and the way the actors respond to the action is part of the meaning of the text.
• Framing: The relative positioning if actors and objects within the frame.

Special effects -

• Green screen: This is used to superimpose images onto another and can be used to place an actor into a location.

• Computer generated technology: This is used to add to what can be created on film, some films are created using only CGI and it makes up the whole of the mise en scene.

Media Language

Media language refers to the ways in which meaning is created in media texts. Below are some of the terms we have been learning about in our AS Media Studies lessons.


Camera -

• Establishing shot: The opening shot in a dramatic scene that establishes the disposition of people and objects in the mise en scene. As such it is usually a wide shot, and is likely to be followed by a succession of closer shots.

• Two shot: A shot in which two figures appear in the frame.

• Point of view shot: A camera angle in which the viewer seems to see with the eyes of a character in the scene.

• Over the shoulder shot: A camera shot in which the subject of the shot is filmed from behind a person's head and shoulders, which are framed to one side in the foreground.

• High angle shot: A camera shot taken from a higher level than the subject and angled down towards them. This shot can have the effect of diminishing the authority, making them look weak.

• Low angle shot: A camera shot taken from lower than the level of the subject, and angled up at them. This shot can have the effect of enhancing the authority of the subject, making them look powerful.

                                                                     

• Canted angle: A cinematic device where the camera is physically placed at an angle so that vertical and horizontal surfaces appear diagonal.

• Pan: A horizontal camera movement left to right or right to left on a fixed axis. The word is short for panoramic movement. A pan following a moving object suggest that we are viewing it from the point of view of the observer.

• Tilt: A camera movement up or down on a horizontal axis.

• Tracking shot: A camera movement achieved by mounting the camera on a dolly and moving it along a track. Typically, tracking shots are used to follow characters or other objects.

Sound -

• Diegetic sounds: Sound that can be heard by the characters in the world of film.
• Non - diegetic sound: Sound that cannot be heard by the characters in the world of film.
• Synchronous sound: Sounds that is directly matched to what is being viewed.
• Sound bridge: An editing technique in which visual cuts are deliberately not matched with audio cuts. For example, the editor may cut to a completely new scene but allow sound from the preceding scene to run on for a short time. Alternatively, we may hear the sounds of the next scene before it was seen.
• Dialogue: The conversation that happens between characters in a work of fiction, or the lines spoken by the actors.
• Voiceover: A type of non-diegetic, asynchronous sound in which the audience hear a voice that doesn't have a source either within the frame or within hearing distance and which isn't heard by the people on the screen.
• Incidental music: Music used in a film or play as background to create or enhance a particular atmosphere.
• Stings: A short musical phrase primarily used as a form of punctuation.
• Ambient sound: Sound which is natural to the setting.

Mise en scene -

• Mise en scene: The look of a film, derived from its use of sets and settings, lighting, colour, costumes, hair and makeup, props, actor movement and the overall placement and visual composition of these elements by the director.

• Location: A real place, as opposed to a studio, in which something is filmed or otherwise recorded. A location might be New York City or the desert.

• Set: An interior that has been constructed to look like a real place when filmed; the set helps to identify the time and place in which the narrative will unfold.

• Costume: The clothes worn by characters in a fictional text. The costumes are part of the mise en scene and as such are an important part of signification, e.g. a period marker.

• Makeup: Cosmetics used to change the appearance of a performer.

• Prop: Short for property. A small item used in a film or TV production to add realism, assist with the narrative or act as a motif.

• High key lighting: Lighting which eliminates most of the shadows.

• Low key lighting: Lighting which emphasises shadows.

Editing -

• Cut: The commonest form of edit in moving image texts, this is the instantaneous change from one shot to another in an edit.
• Shot/reverse shot: A convention for showing a dialogue sequence. We cut between the two speakers, showing each person's point of view.
• Eye line match: A visual code used to make it clear what the subject is looking at.
• Graphic match: A compositional device onscreen, whereby objects of common characteristics of shape or colour are used in successive shot.
• Match on action: Two shots in which an action begun in the first completed second, thus disguising the fact that there has been a cut.
• Dissolve: In editing, a cross-fade between two shots, one fades out as another fades in.
• Wipe: A short transition in which the new image wipes over the previous one.
• Superimposition: To place one image over the top of another on the screen.
• Montage: The production of a rapid succession of images in a motion picture, usually accompanied by music, to illustrate an association of ideas or a passing of time.
• Post-production: The various processes that take place after filming in order to create the final cut of the film.

AS G321: Foundation Portfolio in Media - Overview

My name is Chloe Hughes and I am studying Media Studies at Newlands' Girls School. This blog will be used to document and log my AS coursework.

For AS G321: Foundation Portfolio in Media, I have been given the following briefs:

Preliminary Exercise

Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule. 

Main Task

The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

This blog will serve as a record of my progress. It will include the documenting of research and planning, production, post-production, and evaluations.