Cinematography
Cinematography includes camera shots, camera angles, camera
movement and lighting. Camera shots are used to demonstrate different aspects
of a film's setting, characters and themes. As a result, camera shots are very
important in shaping meaning in a film.
·
Extreme Long Shot/ Establishing Shot: contains a
large amount of landscape. It is often used at the beginning of a scene or a
film to establish general location (setting).
·
Long Shot: contains landscape but gives the viewer
a more specific idea of setting.
·
Full Shot: a complete view of the characters.
From this shot, viewers can take in the costumes of characters and may also
help to demonstrate the relationships between characters.
·
Mid Shot: character from the waist up. From this
shot, viewers can see the characters' faces more clearly as well as their
interaction with other characters.
·
Close-up: contains just one character's face.
This enables viewers to understand the actor's emotions and also allows them to
feel empathy for the character. This is also known as a personal shot.
·
Extreme Close-up: contains one part of a
character's face or other object. This type of shot creates an intense mood and
provides interaction between the audience and the viewer.
·
Camera angles are used to position the viewer so
that they can understand the relationships between the characters.
·
Bird's eye Angle: looks directly down on a
scene. This angle is often used as an establishing angle, along with an extreme
long shot, to establish setting.
·
High Angle: looks down on a subject. A character
shot with a high angle will look vulnerable or small. These angles are often
used to demonstrate to the audience a perspective of a particular character.
·
Eye-level Angle: puts the audience on an equal footing
with the character/s. This is the most commonly used angle in most films as it
allows the viewers to feel comfortable with the characters.
·
Low Angle: looks up at a character. This is the
opposite of a high angle and makes a character look more powerful. This can
make the audience feel vulnerable and small by looking up at the character.
This can help the responder feel empathy if they are viewing the frame from
another character's point of view.
·
Dutch Angle: demonstrates the confusion of a
character.
·
Crane Shot: is often used by composers of films
to signify the end of a film or scene. The effect is achieved by the camera
being put on a crane that can move upwards
·
Tracking/Dolly Shot: a tracking shot moves on
tracks and a dolly shot is mounted on a trolley to achieve the effect in the
example above. This camera movement is most commonly used to explore a room. By
using a tracking shot or a dolly shot the composer of a film gives the viewer a
detailed tour of a situation. It can also be used to follow a character.
·
Panning: gives the viewer a panoramic view of a
set or setting. This can be used to establish a scene.
·
Surveying pan: The camera slowly searches the
scene: may build to a climax or anti-climax
·
Tilt: A vertical movement of the camera - up or
down- while the camera mounting stays fixed.
·
Crab: The camera moves (crabs) right or left.
Sound
·
Direct sound: Live sound. This may have a sense
of freshness, spontaneity and 'authentic' atmosphere, but it may not be
acoustically ideal.
·
Studio sound: Sound recorded in the studio to
improve the sound quality, eliminating unwanted background noise ('ambient
sound'), e.g. dubbed dialogue. This may be then mixed with live environmental
sound.
·
Selective sound: The removal of some sounds and
the retention of others to make significant sounds more recognizable, or for
dramatic effect - to create atmosphere, meaning and emotional nuance.
·
Selective sound (and amplification): may make us
aware of a watch or a bomb ticking. This can sometimes be a subjective device,
leading us to identify with a character: to hear what he or she hears. Sound
may be so selective that the lack of ambient sound can make it seem artificial
or expressionistic.
·
Sound perspective/aural perspective: The
impression of distance in sound, usually created through the use of selective
sound. Note that even in live television a microphone is deliberately
positioned, just as the camera is, and therefore may privilege certain
participants.
·
Sound bridge: Adding to continuity through
sound, by running sound (narration, dialogue or music) from one shot across a
cut to another shot to make the action seem uninterrupted.
·
Dubbed dialogue: Post-recording the voice-track
in the studio, the actors matching their words to the on-screen lip movements.
Not confined to foreign-language dubbing.
·
Wildtrack (asynchronous sound): Sound which was
self-evidently recorded separately from the visuals with which it is shown. For
example, a studio voice-over added to a visual sequence later.
·
Parallel (synchronous) sound: Sound 'caused' by
some event on screen, and which matches the action.
·
Commentary/voice-over narration: Commentary
spoken off-screen over the shots shown. The voice-over can be used to introduce
particular parts of a programme, add extra information not evident from the
picture, interpret the images for the audience from a particular point of view,
link parts of a sequence or programme together. The commentary confers
authority on a particular interpretation, particularly if the tone is moderate,
assured and reasoned. In dramatic films, it may be the voice of one of the
characters, unheard by the others.
·
Sound effects (SFX): Any sound from any source
other than synchronised dialogue, narration or music. Dubbed-in sound effects
can add to the illusion of reality: a stage- set door may gain from the
addition of the sound of a heavy door slamming or creaking.
·
Music: Music helps to establish a sense of the
pace of the accompanying scene. The rhythm of music usually dictates the rhythm
of the cuts. The emotional colouring of the music also reinforces the mood of
the scene. Background music is asynchronous music which accompanies a film. It
is not normally intended to be noticeable. Conventionally, background music
accelerates for a chase sequence, becomes louder to underscore a dramatically
important action. Through repetition it can also link shots, scenes and
sequences. Foreground music is often synchronous music which finds its source
within the screen events (e.g. from a radio, TV, stereo or musicians in the
scene). It may be a more credible and dramatically plausible way of bringing
music into a programme than background music (a string orchestra sometimes
seems bizarre in a Western).
·
Silence: The juxtaposition of an image and
silence can frustrate expectations, provoke odd, self-conscious responses,
intensify our attention, make us apprehensive, or make us feel dissociated from
reality.
Mise-en-Scene includes setting, props, lighting and costume.
Soft and harsh lighting can manipulate a viewer's attitude towards a setting or
a character. The way light is used can make objects, people and environments
look beautiful or ugly, soft or harsh, artificial or real. Light may be used
expressively or realistically.
Editing
·
Cut: Sudden change of shot from one viewpoint or
location to another. On television cuts occur on average about every 7 or 8
seconds. Cutting may change the scene, compress time, vary the point of view,
or build up an image or idea. There is always a reason for a cut, and you
should ask yourself what the reason is. Less abrupt transitions are achieved
with the fade, dissolve, and wipe
·
Matched cut: a familiar relationship between the
shots may make the change seem smooth: continuity of direction, a similar centre
of attention in the frame, a one-step change of shot size (e.g. long to
medium), a change of angle (conventionally at least 30 degrees).
·
Jump cut: Abrupt switch from one scene to
another which may be used deliberately to make a dramatic point. Sometimes
boldly used to begin or end action. Alternatively, it may be result of poor
pictorial continuity, perhaps from deleting a section.
·
Motivated cut: Cut made just at the point where
what has occurred makes the viewer immediately want to see something which is
not currently visible (causing us, for instance, to accept compression of
time). A typical feature is the shot/reverse shot technique (cuts coinciding
with changes of speaker). Editing and camera work appear to be determined by
the action. It is intimately associated with the 'privileged point of view'
(see narrative style: objectivity).
·
Cutting rate: Frequent cuts may be used as
deliberate interruptions to shock, surprise or emphasize.
·
Cutting rhythm: A cutting rhythm may be
progressively shortened to increase tension. Cutting rhythm may create an
exciting, lyrical or staccato effect in the viewer.
·
Cross-cut: A cut from one line of action to
another - also applied as an adjective to sequences which use such cuts.
·
Cutaway/cutaway shot (CA): A bridging intercut
shot between two shots of the same subject. It represents a secondary activity
occurring at the same time as the main action. It may be preceded by a definite
look or glance out of frame by a participant, or it may show something of which
those in the preceding shot are unaware. (See narrative style: parallel
development) It may be used to avoid the technical ugliness of a 'jump cut' where
there would be uncomfortable jumps in time, place or viewpoint. It is often
used to shortcut the passing of time.
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Reaction shot: Any shot, usually a cutaway, in
which a participant reacts to action which has just occurred.
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Insert/insert shot. A bridging close-up shot
inserted into the larger context, offering an essential detail of the scene (or
a reshooting of the action with a different shot size or angle.)
·
Buffer shot (neutral shot): A bridging shot
(normally taken with a separate camera) to separate two shots which would have
reversed the continuity of direction.
·
Fade, dissolve (mix): Both fades and dissolves
are gradual transitions between shots. In a fade the picture gradually appears
from (fades in) or disappears to (fades out) a blank screen. A slow fade-in is
a quiet introduction to a scene; a slow fade-out is a peaceful ending. Time
lapses are often suggested by a slow fade-out and fade-in. A dissolve (or mix)
involves fading out one picture while fading up another on top of it. The
impression is of an image merging into and then becoming another. A slow mix
usually suggests differences in time and place. Defocus or ripple dissolves are
sometimes used to indicate flashbacks in time.
·
Superimpositions: Two of more images placed
directly over each other (e.g. and eye and a camera lens to create a visual
metaphor).
·
Wipe: An optical effect marking a transition
between two shots. It appears to supplant an image by wiping it off the screen
(as a line or in some complex pattern, such as by appearing to turn a page).
The wipe is a technique which draws attention to itself and acts as a clear
marker of change.
·
Inset: An inset is a special visual effect
whereby a reduced shot is superimposed on the main shot. Often used to reveal a
close-up detail of the main shot.
·
Split screen: The division of the screen into
parts which can show the viewer several images at the same time (sometimes the
same action from slightly different perspectives, sometimes similar actions at
different times). This can convey the excitement and frenzy of certain
activities, but it can also overload the viewer.
·
Stock shot: Footage already available and used
for another purpose than the one for which it was originally filmed.
