Camera shots and angles in movies- Coursework prep

                                                                    Shots


Establishing Shot: A shot taken from an overhead position, often used as an establishing shot.

Close up shot: A head and shoulders shot often to show expression or emotion of a character. Also can be a shot of an object, filmed from close to the object or zoomed in that reveals detail.

Extreme Close up: A shot where part of a face or body of a character fills the whole frame, also can be a shot of an object where only a small part of it dominates the frame.

 

 

Establishing Shot: A shot that establishes a scene, often giving their viewer information about where the scene is set. Can be close up shot but often a wide/long shot that usually appears at the beginning of the scene.

 

 

 

Medium Shot: The framing of a subject from waist up.

 

 

Two Shot: A shot of two characters, possible engaging in conversation. Usually to signify/establish some sort of relationship.

 

 

Point-Of-View Shot: Shows a view from the subjects perspective. This shot is usually edited so that the viewer is aware who's point of view it is.

 

 

Over the shoulder Shot- looking behind a characters shoulder, at a subject. The character facing the subject usually occupies 1/3 of the frame but it depends on what meaning the director wants to create (for example, if the subject is an inferior character, the character facing them may take up more of the frame to emphasise this.

 

 

Overhead Shot- a type of camera shot in which the camera is positioned above the character, action or object being filmed.

 

 

                   Reaction Shot: a shot that shows the reaction of a character either to another character or an event within the sequence.

 

 

 

Angles

 

 

High Angle: a camera angle that looks down upon a subject or object. Often used to make the subject or object appear small or vulnerable.

 

 

Low Angle: A camera angle that looks at a subject or object. Often used to make the subject/object appear powerful/dominant.

 

 

Canted framing (or oblique): camera angle that makes what is shot appeared to be skewed or titled.

 

 

 

 

Breakfast at Tiffanys opening

 

A young New York socialite becomes interested in a young man who has moved into her apartment building.

Director: Blake Edwards

Main Actors: Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal.  

  

 In the opening to the movie, the scene is set in a urban background, with tall buildings, maybe somewhere like New York. A yellow taxi pulls up as the camera follows it when it gets closer. The main character gets out of the car in her iconic outfit, black dress, and pearls, she stands outside Tiffany's, which is the name of the movie . then its just a focus on the main character looking in shop windows and walking along the street, we can obviously tell the movie is going to be about her, then she runs across a quite road, where a man is sleeping in a car, he wakes up, obviously wanting to speak to her, he chases her to the door of a typical New York home.

 

The opening doesn't give much away the movie, it introduces the main character with very limited dialogue and non-diagetic music is non-existent. the scene is set and we know the movie is going to be focused on the lady.

 

Examples of AS media openings- Coursework prep

I thought I could look at a few AS media romantic movie openings to link in with my own coursework piece and evaluate them, and consider each factor in my piece.

This media work was made in 2011, and got a grade of 95/100 which is a high A. Their task was to create a trailer not an opening. but I will evaluate like an opening,- it introduces the main characters, the boy in more depth as the movie is about him. This is what we will be doing in our movie opening, but a little different, when both boy and girl will be introduced the same amount. As a trailer this doesn't give to much away but makes you want to watch the rest of it. There is credits after each scene about the 'boy' and situations, towards the end there are rhetorical questions depending if the 'guy gets the girl in the end', after the montage of them boy trying so hard to get the girls attention and then become friends, which will lead to more?

Criticisms:

This trailer, if was a film opening would give to much away but since it isn't, the 2 minutes introduces you to what the story is about.

The trailer in my opinion has too may switches of songs, depending on the situation, I think maybe only have one or 2, if not use one only but different parts depending on the mood.

Also the camera quality is not that great, if they couldn't get hold of good cameras, then maybe editing the scenes for a little more colour and sharpness.

 

I will make sure the quality of our cameras are of a high standard and we have enough time to edit well too.

Love Actually

Love Actually follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England.
Director: Richard Curtis
Main Characters: Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Keira Knightly, Martine McCutcheon, Bill Nighy, Colin Firth, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman.

The opening to the movie doesn't show any main characters, or gives off anything about the actual movie. Its set in an airport during the arrival of the passengers, a montage of when they see family, friends, lovers again after being separated from them. People are hugging, kissing showing how much they love each other, hence the name of the film- love, everyone is smiling with joy, others are crying with joy that they are together again with the pure uncomplicated love felt as friends and families welcome their arriving loved ones. The voice over is David (Hugh Grant) speaking as the main character, he player the prime minister, taking about love is always around whether we can see it or not.

 

This is the dialogue in the opening:

....Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world,

I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport.
General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed,
but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere.
Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy,
but it's always there - fathers and sons,
mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends.
When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know,
none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love.
If you look for it, I've got a sneaking suspicion... love actually is all around...
.

Romantic movie-2 minute opening analyse- Coursework Prep

James Cameron's 1997 Titanic has become the all time favourite love story, about a 17 year old aristocrat, Rose, expected to be married to a rich claimant by her mother, falls in love with a kind but poor artist aboard the luxurious R.M.S Titanic, during 1914, on its first and last trip to America.
Director: James Cameron
Main Characters: Leonardo Dicaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Gloria Stuart.

 The opening is a submarine looking at the shipwreck of the Titanic, and the ship turns from what it looked like in 1997 at the bottom of the North Atlantic ocean to 1914 at Portsmouth with happiness and cheer. There is a panning shot of the ship to the crowd emphasising the size of it, and everyone getting ready to board, cars being loaded and suitcases. There's a close up of the crowd, everyone is smiling, its just an overall joyous moment of the ship docking. Then it fades to water, in the night, portraying the fate of the ship, the music starts to fade out and the shots are now underwater of the submarine looking for Titanic evidence. The first main character to be introduced is Rose she steps out of a car with the rest of her family and friends, her clothing is clearing stating how wealthy her family are, they also have a lot of suitcases, a car and are taking first class. The docks are very busy with people of all classes merging together some going on the ship others waving them off. You follow the family as they get on the Titanic, how nice and luxurious first class is. Everyone is amazed with how wonderful it is, Rose is not so much she hasn't smiled yet, showing she isn't happy.

Genre Focus- Coursework Prep

The genre of the movie can be told in the first few minutes of it, by the different elements- the props,setting, characters etc. Genre means the style of what the film entails, due to the conventions set in.
The most common film genres are:
Horror
Romance
Comedy
Documentary
Rom-Com
Western
Action
Thriller
Sci-fi
War
Family
Drama
Fantasy

I will be focusing on 3 film genres, one will be the coursework genre in which I will later do deeper research into.
Romance:
Here is a mind map of the conventions you find in a typical (teen) romantic film:

Romance movies are always popular amongst the girls, we love a good love story of which is every girls dream to find that perfect guy in the perfect way. At the start of a movie the main characters are always introduced in some way, it could be by narration and seeing or from the script of what others say, or from the surroundings of what is going on (Mise-en-Scene). The writer/director creates the film in a way that the audience can relate to, certain scenarios that the girls and boys will come across during their teenage years. There is normally a problem in the way of the 2 people not being together, either the other person doesn't know about the other, or family disapprove, or they are moving away, lots of typical conventions but the couple always find a way of being happy together again.
Here is a list of classic Romance films:
Titanic
The Notebook
Love Actually
Dirty Dancing
Notting hill
Breakfast At Tiffanys
Forrest Gump
Pretty Women
Pride and Prejudice
The Holiday
How to lose a Guy in 10 days
Amelie
Serendipity
Two Weeks Notice
500 days of Summer
10 things I hate about you

Creating and Pitching a Movie (Coursework Prep)

In our groups we were given 4 prompt cards in which we had to create a movie of our own. Our prompts in which we HAD to include in our movie were: 2 characters- Jack aged 26 and Jane, the genre of horror and an object of a knife, which was handy as it fitted in really well with our theme.

With our cards we came up with ideas of what this movie could be about, as it was a horror we needed a killer and victims, so brainstormed loads of ideas, our initial idea was that the 2 main characters were Jack and Jane and with it typically being the male as a psychotic killer, but then we switched it round so the killer is completely unknown until the very end of the movie. We thought that there aren't very many horror movies set in a boring old office, in a call centre and we found their was a 'space in the market for one'. deciding on what would actually happen in our movie, there was some agreeing and disagreeing on some points, but we eventually came up with an idea we were all happy with, although it was a little complicated, buts its because there was a lot of detail.

 Our final idea was....

Jack and Jane are the main characters, they are introduced at the start, by Jack who has been working at the office for about 4 years now, Jane a new intern at the office, he likes what he sees and tries to make conversation with her, Jane has a lot of male attention in the office. Then

 28 workers in the call centre (very similar to the one above) are just doing their everyday things, on the phone, a boring low paid tedious job. the killer hangs one of the workers the body is hung in a cupboard, but now one knows, the murderer suddenly cuts off all communication eg phones, computers then takes over the tanoy saying he only wants 9 victims so they remaining 18 have to be killed, not by him, by their fellow workers, no one believes him, so he tells them to check the store cupboard to see the blood ridden body, the lights are turned off, its pitched black and there is panic surrounding the room, sudden screams and thumping to the ground, the odd gunshot too.

 The lights turn back on bodies are lying on the ground, only a few not enough, some people jump out of the window, as they cant face reality hoping for survival. 9 are left. The cocky jock, with his 2 side kicks, who are pretty stupid and dumb, they don't really have a voice just follow the leader, there are 2 slutty easy girls, who are underestimated in the workplace, Jack and Jane, the quiet guy in his mid 40's who gets picked on quite abit, the jock treats him sort of as his slave, then the killer. 6 slowly die in unorthodox, strange ways, the so called hard guy is crying his eyes out, snot coming out of his nose, the quiet man is very brave and risks his life, shouting to the man " take me, leave the others and let them live, if you want someone then take me!" we still don't see the killers face.

 3 are finally left, Jack, Jane and the unknown person controlling this whole thing, they walk in to a small room, the bosses room, where Jack is handed a knife, his already blood splashes over his face from the others, Jane is crying with cuts over her face from fighting people off so she survives, but not for long. Jack is told to slit his own throat and die while Jane watches, he is hysterically crying taking a little while to end his life. The killer walks past his heading to the door, tuts, while shaking his head and says' to long, to long' pulls out a gun and shoots him in the head, then waits 5 seconds to then kills Jane, he walks out of the room which you then see from an angle never seen before of the back of the office, where multiple screens are on the wall CCTV, and the faces of each victim with a big red cross through it. the picks up his jacket and walks out, you only get a quick glimpse of his face, its the cleaner, the innocent cleaner left in the background of every conversation, meal and joke. 

Our film would be called '÷ 3, because each time a group of people die it divides by 3. 

28 to start with, one dies(hung in cupboard- which is when the proper story sets in) 

27 are left: 27÷  3= 9 (which is how many the killer wants left) 9÷3=3(Jack, Jane and the killer) 3÷ 3=1 (killer). 

How we will pitch it...

we will create a Powerpoint with cue cards on our idea of the movie, we will explain why we set it in a office- its a good opportunity because there's a gap in the market for an office based horror, its also a sign of being trapped, surrounded in a tall busy building. With each of the group contributing regularly, showing confidence, our point of a new popular movie will hopefully please everyone. 

We will have designated speeches, and a storyboard to explain the main points of what will happen throughout, we will explain everything as much as possible so there are limited questions to answer so everyone who we are pitching it to understands fully.

Then from the feedback of the audience we will make any changes needed, to make the movie best as it can be, we need to work as a successful team for it to be a successful film.

Documentaries

A documentary film is a nonfictional motion picture intended to document
some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record, its used to inform people of a certain situation, person or place. Documentary filmmakers are often motivated to make their films because they feel a particular story or viewpoint is not being covered by mainstream media, such as certain places in the world (good or bad) or an endangered species of animal.

Documentaries can be funny, poignant, disturbing, ironic, absurd, inspirational, amusing, shocking or any combination. It is a genre of movie making that uses video & film scenes, photographs and/or sound of real people and real events which when edited together creates a particular story, viewpoint, message or experience. David Attenborough is a very famous naturalist and is know for his documentaries around the word focusing on the earths animal wonders and how there process of life is different to the norm, the most recent of Life Stories. Other documentaries are 'man on wire', 'Valentino: the last emperor', 'Don't look back', 'Man with a movie camera', 'Oscar Pistorius- the Truth'.

Script for Chairboy

ChairBoy

 

Narrator: [Narration, Several cut shots of Jake doing things]. This is Jake Stewart, a young seventeen year old boy living in Burham, Norfolk.  He likes watching the football, playing video games and seeing his friends at the weekend but when he is away from all that he enjoys nothing more than spending time with his partner whom he has been together with since he was little.  The only problem is, that it is a chair. [Shot pans from Jake to the chair, whom has been on a leash in the majority of the photos so far].  My crew and I shall be staying with Jake for the next week to see if love really does travel in mysterious ways…

 

 

INTERVIEW WITH MOTHER #1 (We changed it an interview with Jake's father instead)

 

Narrator:  Hello, you are the mother of Jake Stewart, is that correct?

 

Mother: [concerned] Yes… I am Mrs Stewart.

 

Narrator:  Can you please tell me when Jake started his relationship with his chair?

 

Mother: [still hesitant] Well, he was five years old…

 

Narrator:  Please, go on.

 

Mother:  Well, he was five.  He hadn’t been at school long, he was only little- He was a very easily influenced young boy, you see.  And he saw this chair in the library of his school and- Well… He just couldn’t stay away from it – he wouldn’t!  It got so bad that he was told off and given detentions almost every day!  Eventually I had to buy the chair just to keep him from getting into trouble. He was a very demanding young boy was Jake.

 

 

 INTERVIEW WITH JAKE #1

 

Jake:  [Mid interview, very excited] It is the best chair you’re ever going to find!  Look, touch it!  Actually no don’t only I am allowed to touch it, she’s mine. 

 

Narrator:  What is it that first drew you to this chair?

 

Jake:  I don’t know really.  It just had something about it, something made me know that I had to have this chair.  See that was when I was a boy, but I’m a young man now and I couldn’t be happier

 

Narrator:  So you would rather go with a chair than a woman?

 

Jake:  Well, yes! I don’t see any reason why not. [Growing hostility]  The chair can do anything any normal girl can do!

 

Narrator:  I wasn’t doubting that-

 

Jake:  I can hold and sit with her when I am happy, I can talk to her when I am sad!  [looks around suspiciously] And, coitus? Well… [spins the chair around to show a hole in the back of the chair].

 

 

 WALKING INTERVIEW WITH JAKE

 

Narrator: [Narration] After the first few days, it was clear to us that Jake doesn’t like to travel anywhere without his chair, preferring to keep it held by a leash for easy mobility.

 

[cut to walking behind Jake with his chair down the street]

 

So where are we going today Jake?

 

Jake:  We’re going to Zak’s house. He’s cool.

 

Narrator:  What makes him cool, Jake?

 

Jake:  He’s got lots of cool stuff and he’s my friend. We play games all the time and talk about football and life and school and stuff.

 

Narrator:  Does Zak not go to the same sixth form as you then, Jake?

 

Jake:  Nah, Zak is a few years older than me.  We always have to go through the side door so his parents don’t see me, he’s not allowed friends over on weekdays!

 

[Shot of a sign saying “Dr Zachary’s Therapy Clinic” outside the house]

 

 

INTERVIEW WITH COUNSELLOR

 

[shot of Dr Zachary sitting writing notes as Jake enters the room]

 

Dr. Zachary:  Hey there big guy, how’s it going?

 

Jake: I’m alright thanks.

 

Dr. Zachary:  Good stuff, take a lay down man let’s have a talk!

 

[Jake goes to lay down on the bed]

 

[cut to interview with Dr. Zachary]

 

Dr. Zachary:  I’ve been Jake’s therapist for over five years now and- wait is it six yet? [counting on fingers] One, two, three, four… No it is about five years.  I pretend to be a teenager in order to help my younger patients trust me more, to show them I’m not some big scary therapist who’s gonna rip out your thoughts and suck out your soul like a fresh vacuum!! [dry laughter]

 

Narrator:  Some people have said that some of your methods are quite… controversial.  What do you make of this?

 

Dr. Zachary:  Well I would disagree, I think that I do the job I do to help people.  I mean yes, maybe I do sometimes use some ‘unorthodox’ techniques… but I get results, I get the job done!

 

[Scene cuts back to Dr. Zachary and Jake’s therapy session, mid exercise.  Jake is positioned in an elaborate pose and Dr. Zachary is yelling at him]

 

Dr. Zachary:   Strip.

 

[pause]

 

[back to the interview]

 

Dr. Zachary:  What do I think about Jake’s problem?  No, yeah I think he’s pretty fucked up.  Beyond my help definitely!  But well, if they want to keep paying me then who am I to stop them?

 

 

INTERVIEW WITH MUM #2

 

Narrator:  Do you think Jake will ever grow out of this phase he is going through?

 

Mother:  I don’t know.  I hope so.  It’s too bizarre, I’m not sure how much more I can take of this.

 

Narrator:  Why, do you think it will affect him in the future?

 

Mother:  Well, he’s leaving for university next year and I- [pause] I just don’t want to see him humiliated because of his… disorder.

 

Narrator:  And you think this will be the case?

 

Mother: [defensive] I don’t kn- I never said that he would definitely be treated differently! It’s just… Well, what would you think, if you were walking through the halls or something and saw… that?

 

 

 INTERVIEW WITH JAKE:

 

Narrator:  What does the word ‘love’ mean to you?

 

Jake:  I think that love is a mystical and spiritual thing.  People have been saying for centuries that love ‘travels in mysterious ways’…

 

Narrator:  [pause] And so do you think love travels in mysterious ways?

 

Jake:  I think love comes to everybody in some shape or form, and when it does, there isn’t going to be anything that stops it.

 

Narrator:  So, you’re saying that you think love is quite a bizarre sort of-

 

Jake:  [laughing] I’m saying that it doesn’t matter!  All that matters is that I love her and she loves me, there isn’t anything else.
                                                        THE END.