film techniques

I researched into different film techniques using Google. I found the '30-degree rule' which is essentially a editing guideline that states that the camera should move at least 30 degrees between shots of the same subject occurring in succession. This is to avoid the risk of the audience focusing on the filming technique instead of the story that is being narrated. For example, if this rule was to not be followed and it was to be followed by a jump cut it could result in lose in concentration of the audience. Below is the Wikipedia link which was my prime source of research. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30-degree_rule
From this research I believe that this rule is not as straightforward and can be manipulated in certain instances.

Transitions

After learning about transitions, I needed to learn how to use it within my adobe after affects software. Blow was a YouTube video, which I primarily used to learn the basic transitions. Essentially what I learnt, that one needs to layer the different video clips together to create a transition.

Should we use stop motion?

When creating the story board we debated as a group weather or not to use stop motion film in parts of our opening sequence. We decided to find some examples of stop motion first to see what kind of affect it would create. Below was one of the examples which we looked at.

We decided as it was a horror that it wouldn't be very conventional and work very well with our idea.

An introduction to Semiotics

In the lesson today, I learnt about semiotics. We were told that semiotics are the following things:

• Colour 
• Camera shots and angles
• Clothing
• editing
• Mise-en-scene

I was explained that visual semiotics was the study of signs and codes. The definition we were given on how they were used was as followed: ''producing, conveying and interpreting messages and codes that govern their use. We where then explained, through the use of different examples, a range of colour corrections; camera shots and angles.

After the lesson I spent some time research into semiotics theory. Below was one of the videos posted by another teacher giving a more in depth explanation.

Learning about editing:

In the lesson today we learned about Editing and how to analyse it. We were given a list to memorize and learn of different editing terms.

• Shot/reverse shot
• eye line match
• graphic match
• action match
• jump cut
• crosscutting
• parallel editing
• insert
• cutaway
• long take
• short take
• Invisible editing
• visible editing

These terms are there to help me with my analyses of TV drama. 

Camera shot analysis

In the lesson today I learnt about how to analyse the different camera shots in relation to whats happening in the scene. We watched a clip from king Arthur...

In the clip we looked as a class at how the shots where relevant to the scene. For an example in the opening shot, looking down from a high distance, you can see how the shot set's the scene showing the mountains and the snow and how cold it is. then the next scene  After learning about it we were put into groups too analyse a clip off our choice.

We analysed a clip from `Mrs Doubtfire`:

 

We first counted 14 shots in total for the clip. The first shot we established to be a medium shot etc. This exercise helped me to understand the different camera angles in an actual film. 

Camara movment:

In this lesson we learnt about camera moment. We first looked at the kinds of camera movement there are. We did this by looking at a power-point presentation which explained the different types of movement:

For an example; 

In this clip from the very first shot there shows a good example of 'dollying in'. This we established is much better than using the camera zoom, because when moving the camera it should feel for the viewer as if it was there own eyes which obviously does not zoom in. Tracking in and out is a much more realistic view for the audience.  

The rule of thirds!

In my lesson I learnt about the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds is the placement of things within the shot. For an example:

In this clip it shows when Lou and Andy are talking to each other they are around the outside of the shot (nothing is directly in the middle of the shot). This is because our eyes are naturaly drawn away from the very centre.

Later on in the clip when Andy desides to climb over the fence etc, there is a clear distinction that Lou is more central and Andy is much more to the side. That is why our eyes are naturaly drawn to see him climbing over the fence.