History of Film!!
Movies are a way to tell stories through images and photography and it is important to understand how they speak and make us a part of the story. It all starts with the camera, so the first chapter will be:
Shot Dialogue
How do movies speak?
Shot Lenght
How far is the camera from the action, it can be Wide or Tight (far or near) and this category is divided in 6 main shots.
- Extreme wide shot – a shot from the whole scene from a distance (usually used as a “preview” of the scenary and characters position in it)
- Wide shot – where the viewer sees the whole scene and it’s characters movements and full body.
- Two shot – usually a view from one of the characters shoulders allowing the viewer to also see the other character (frequently used in western movies when a character confronts another)
- Medium shot – a partial shot from the body (from the knees or waist up)
- Close up – a complete shot from the characters face, like a portrait
- Extreme close-up – used to show a detail wheter it is a facial expression or a discret action in the scene, important for the understanding of the plot.
Angle
The chapter before was about how far the camera was from the action, now this one is how high is the camera from the character.
- Eye level – as the name says, is when the camera is at the eye level of the actor. Also known as a neutral angle.
- High angle – the camera looks down at the subject (gives an idea that the actor is small)
- Low angle – the camera looks up at the subject (gives the idea of the actor being biger or taller)
- Dutch angle – the camera looks at the subject from a tilted angle (used to make a scene or action look more weird and unreal)
Depth
Depth is controlled by lens and focus, which gives us the defenition of depth of field, what is the camera focused on? like the human eye the camera focuses on important details and characters along with the line of action.
- Deep Focus – long depth field, where everything in the shot is focused
- Shallow focus – short depth of field in which only part of the shot is focused, and it can vary throughout the action (for example, the camera is focsused on a character that then, interacts with another one and the camera focus on that one and can jump between characters in the same scene)
- Rack focus – when the camera is still the focus follows the path of an object or actor
- Tilt shift – it is usually made with a special lens or in digital post production in which the focus changes within the shot
Movement
The camera is also a character and characters need movement and movies are made of it. There are a variety of movements that a camera can make that alsp tell a story.
Handheld – is when the camera man grabs the camera and that gives a much more genuine movement to the scene. It is used to make an action more stressfull or active, the camera man has more freedom moving it but much less control in the scene.
Steadicam – the camera is following a straigh line and is stabilized, making the scene more fluid
Pan – the camera is on a tripod but can still follow an horizontal movement
Tilt – also on a tripod but the movement is vertical
Zoom – follows the action with a zoom in or a zoom out (ajusting the lens from wide to tight or vice versa)
Dolly/tracking shot – camera is on a moving dolly and moves with the actors
Jib/ Crane Shot – camera moves upwards or down to a character (like it just finds a character randomly in the scene)
Editing
Movies have to be edited and cut, but sometimes there is a part of a movie which is in fast motion and displays a lot of information, multiple actions that happen continuasly, usually for a short period of time – it is called Sequence Shot. There have been some exceptions in which the director lets the movie play for a long time, but it is very hard to do and rare, it has to be filmed all at once without any cuts.
There are a few main cuts to transition scenes:
- Cut – the most basic transition method
- Dissolve – the current shot slowly fades to the next one
- Wipe – second shot rolls over the current shot
- Fade in and fade out – going to and from a black scene to the movie
And ofcourse, we have the more complex ones:
Continuity Editing – is when a scene looks like it was filmed all at once but in reality the actors had to shot a variety of shots that mimic the previous frame of the last shot so that it has a continuity effect on the scene.
Ofcourse, sometimes an error has to be induced in order to be possible to use a different angle of the scene, to show a detail or really just another view – it is called continuity error.
Screen direction, as the name describes is the direction that something is happening and has to be maintained so that the viewer knows, for example from where the treat is coming or the direction their going.
Match on action is when an action goes from one shot to another, as well as eyeline is when an actor looks in a certain direction that cuts to another where an object or action is located, allowing the viewer to have a better idea of the space in the scene. The actor can also look directly in to the camera to give the idea of one actor looking directly in the eyes of another, to enphathize emotion.
180 degree rule – is when, for example in a fight the camera always stays on the same side of the fight to give a certain balance to the position of the actors in the scene.
When the axis in a scene is broken it must have other things that give a balance to the viewer towards the space, like the direction of the look of the actores or a fixated shot of the scene that can’t change much orelse the viewer loses his orientation – that is called crossing the axis.
Mise En Scéne
Is a french expression meaning “placing on stage” – the feel and look of a film, basically how it speaks visually. There are four main categories for the mise en scéne: decor, lighting, color and space.
Decor
Before anything else, a movie has to be set, something that tells part of the story before the actors do, a location, and everything that’s part of the scene is the set dressing – the objects that are only part of the set, they dictate how the story goes but they’re not “used” by the actors.
The props (objects that actores use) always make part of their character, as for the costume that can give a lot of answers in a characters intention or background.
Lighting
Three point lighting
- key light – main source of light
- fill light – fills the shadows from key light
- back light – to separate the subject from the background
High Key lighting – strong light, color, fill and key. Everything is vivid and colorfull.
Low Key lighting – lights are darker, has a weak fill light, can have a strong back light to enpahthize outlines.
Color
Makes feel of the movie, it can indicate emotion – for example, anger with dark colors and blues for a melancolic sensation or happiness with warm colors. It all makes part of what the movie is about and the context in which it is told.
Space
Is how the shot is composed and organized within the frame. The balance of every movement and action create a look and have to tell the story, even if the actor is interacting with something off the screen and their movements within the frame make part of how the story is told.
History of Animation and VFX
Animation is when a group of drawings are moving at once to create an ilusion that the drawings are animated and have life, tricking the brain.
1609 – The magic lantern
1800 – Zoetrope
1914 – First animated character
1928 – Introduction to music as a sound – Mikey Mouse!
1929 – Wall street crash which made the people relly on animation as entertainment.
1929 – Skeleton dance, from Walt Disney.
1933 – King Kong
1937 – Snow White – the first animated film made by Disney.
1958 – The 7th Voyage of Simbad – Stop motion animation
1963 – Jason And The Astronauts, the skeleton battlle (stopmotion animation)
1985 – Young Sherlock Holmes, first CGI character – the stain glass knight
1986 – Pixar is created – CGI animation is born
1989 – The Abyss, the water tentacle
1991 – Terminator 2: Judgement Day, the metal cyborg
1993 – Jurrasic Park, the dinossaurs. First detailed 3D characters which poses where converted form real life movements into keyframes in a computer
1995 – Casper
1995 – Toy Story – First movie made entirelly by computer – Pixar
1996 – Dragonheart
1999 – Ep 1 – Star Wars
2002 – Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers – Gollum character
2002 – Ep 2 – Star Wars
2003 – Matrix – universal capture
2005 – King Kong – Emotion in an animated characters face
2006 – Pirates Of The Carabean – david jones octopus beard
2007 – Beowulf
2008 – The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button – Brad Pitt face
2009 – Avatar