Storyboarding 'Remember Me'

In lesson last Wednesday, we practiced storyboarding for our two minute film beginning by drawing the first minute of the 'Remember Me' first episode. Doing these storyboards meant we could develop our understanding of all the different shots and determine the lighting, angle and sounds used to create different suspense's that we could use in our film beginning.

Preperation For Prelim

In preparation for our preliminary exercise, I did some research on the camera techniques that's obligatory to use in it. The shots needed are '180 degree rule', 'match on action' and 'shot/reverse shot'.

180-Degree Rule - The 180 degree rule is a filming guideline that actors in the scene should be filmed within a 180 degree angle which must be maintained throughout the conversation. This rule enforces continuity of the shot and the invisible line must be perpendicular to the angle of the first establishing shot. When the rule is broken, it results in causing the audience confusion.

Shot/Reverse Shot - Shot/Reverse shot is another editing technique that is used for continuity and without it, will cause confusion. It is simply the characters looking at each other or objects. The shot shows what the character is looking at then is followed by a reverse shot of the character themselves looking at it. This shot coincides with the 180 degree rule because in this case, the rule is used to retain continuity by not distorting the audiences view of the location.

Match On Action - The match on action shot is an editing technique in which one shot cuts to another shot portraying the action of the subject in the original shot. This is used to create an impression of continuity - the action in the shot creates a 'visual bridge' which draws the audiences attention away from the slight cutting issues.

From researching these three techniques, I've learnt that they are used principally for continuity. It is essential to maintain the audiences understanding of the shot and if these three shots are not applied then the audiences view is distorted and they may become attracted to something else in the shot. Having a better understanding of them for our prelim exercise means we can ergo use it in our two minute film beginning, improving its quality.

Storyboarding 'Luther'

In class we looked at a short clip from the TV drama 'Luther' Series 3, Episode 1. Doing this meant we could get some ideas for good camera shots to use in our film opening. A shot that I particularly liked in this clip was the second shot where the protagonist is looking out of the window and the depth of field is very wide as it focuses on the city but as she closes the curtains, the focus point shifts so that the foreground is no longer out of focus.
Another shot that I liked was the point of view shot from underneath the bed while she takes off her shoes as it builds up a lot of suspense and hints that something scary is going to happen without letting the audience know that there's actually someone under the bed. Both the third and seventh shot where filmed at this angle under the bed, so this enabled us to understand that these shots were filmed at the same time rather than shot three being filmed then the camera being moved several times for the next three shots before being returned to the same angle but not being exactly in the same space. Understanding this meant that it would be easier for us when it comes to us filming our openings if we had two shots in the same place.

Breaking The Fourth Wall

In lesson on Wednesday we researched about some more filming techniques. One of these was a technique called 'breaking the fourth wall' where one of the characters break the imaginary fourth wall and addresses the audience. This can either be talking directly at the audience or just glancing at them for a moment. This helps convey that characters true emotions on the situation and can also be used for dramatic irony; to show the audience that the character feels or knows something that the other characters do not. An example of this is shown below in Miranda Hart's TV sitcom "Miranda" where she uses this technique as an extension of her comedy. In this clip, she breaks the fourth wall three times; first to tell the audience that she's lied to Stevie about her date count and the other two times to express disgust at her mothers party plans and proposition to set her up Edmund Detory. This connects the audience with the characters and most often is used to set up an inside joke that the other characters are unaware of.
My group discussed the use of this in our film opening but because we haven't decided upon our plot or even the genre, we are most likely to do a thriller or horror opening in which, this technique can not be used appropriately thus, we are probably not going to use this.

Gaze Theory

In lesson we learned about the Gaze theory, which showed how the characters in a film or tv programme acknowledge the audience in their speech direction.

Intra-Diegetic Gaze - Intra-Diegetic gaze is when one character is shown to be looking directly at another character whilst talking.

 Intra-Intra-Diegetic Gaze - When the audience is watching the character(s) in the text watching TV.

Extra-Diegetic Gaze - Extra-Diegetic gaze is when the person in the frame is depicted as looking ‘out of the frame’ or otherwise known as acknowledging the forth wall and talks directly to the audience.

Film Making Techniques

On Wednesday, we researched different film making techniques that we could possibly use in our Prelim exercise and our 2 minute film beginning. 

Camera Shots
A variety of camera shots are essential so that the layout does not become boring for the viewer but can also assist on creating suspense.

Establishing shot - An establishing shot is used to set the scene and show the audience when a new scene is beginning.

Long shot - A long shot is used to focus in on a character while still showing most of the scenery. It is often used to portray the characters feelings using pathetic fallacy, usually sadness or loneliness.

Full shot - A full shot is one that focuses mainly on the main character standing up.



 

Mid shot - A mid shot is taken of a character from the waist up and enables the viewer to pick up on the characters gestures easier. This is used when a person is speaking with concentration and the dialogue is important to the plot.



Close up - A close up is used to accentuate essential dialogue that the audience must not miss due to the vitality of it to the plot.

Camera Angles
Film uses many different camera angles to create a variety of effects and help tell the narrative. Camera angles are used to show different POVs (point of view). The low angle is used to make the audience aware of the characters positioning and also, shows the viewers a different angle of the scenery. A eye-level angle
A high angle is often used to show the vulnerability of the character by making the POV higher than the characters.
A birds-eye angle is used to focus on the characters movements and the surrounding people who walk by.

Camera Movements

• Pan
• Track
• Dolly
• Zoom
• Tilt
• Point of View (POV)
• Dolly In, Zoom Out

Focus Techniques

Manual Focus - Manual focus is used is cinematography to manually adjust the focus of the shot. This is used because it means that the focal point can change in the same shot.

Continuous Auto Focus (CAF) - This is used in film to ensure the focus stays on the same object/person even as it moves. It automatically does this so the camera man does not have to keep manually focusing the shot.

Depth Of Field - In filmography, you can use two types of Depth of Field; short and wide. Short depth of field means the focus point is on one particular object/person and the mise-en-scene is blurred out. This is used to attract the audiences attention to one specific thing that may be important to the plot. On the other hand, you can use wide depth of field which is when everything in shot is focused.