Today, I introduced the film study unit. I have pasted the notes below:
Film Study
Screen plays are written works for specific audiences with specific issues to present. Film is the universal communication tool using images and music to convey ideas. Reviewers of films study the actors, the lighting, the music, the plot lines, the pace and delivery and write reviews about them. There are different genres in film, just as in books. Short films, documentaries, horror, mystery, drama, comedy, etc.
Literature effects cultures and defines characteristics of certain peoples...film does the same thing. While I never encourage just the watching of a film as opposed to reading the original text (sometimes films are original in themselves--the screenplay is the original and worthy of study), film is worthy of study and classes have been created with the title of "Film as Literature".
Before we start, you need to understand some things about film techniques.
The Shot
This is the building block of all filmmaking. Whenever you hear someone say, “Hey, did you see that shot in The Godfather?” he or she is talking about a single, uninterrupted piece of film. In other words, the shot is the image that is seen on-screen until it is replaced by another image through some type of editing technique.
If the camera moves while still filming, but without that momentary break, then you are still watching just the one shot. Play a clip from any film and you’ll see that moment of black when the shot changes. While the black is not actually inserted into the film, it seems to be there for just a split second. We will now watch “Joey Write a Letter.” I want you to count the number of shots which appear in this clip (it is 1:31 in length). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW1lxwsK5_Q
Framing
One of the first decisions that a director has to make is how the object will be positioned within the shot, or how much of the frame of the movie screen the object will occupy. The three main framing types are the long shot, the close-up, and the medium shot. As you will see, the director will choose to use a given type of shot in order to achieve a particular effect. Also, these three types consist of sub-types (EWS (Extreme Wide Shot); VWS (Very Wide Shot); WS (Wide Shot); MS (Mid Shot); MCU (Medium Close Up); CU (Close Up); ECU (Extreme Close Up); CA (Cutaway). Now, we will look at some examples of this. http://www.mediacollege.com/video/camera/tutorial/01-framing.html
Long Shot
In a long shot, the object on the screen appears small or appears to be seen from some distance away. If a person is shown, then generally you will see his or her entire body. This type of shot can establish the scene, but showing, say, the Manhattan skyline, so that the viewer knows where the film will take place. It can also serve to show distance or separation between characters in a way that other shots cannot, or to show that a character is integrated with his or her surroundings. The long shot also gives the viewer a sense of time and place, but objects and characters may seem unclear or indistinct because of the distance and lack of detail. It also allows the viewer to decide where to look since there is so much on the screen to see. The long shot – in many ways – can be seen as the opposite of the next framing choice, the close-up.
Close-up or Close Shot
The object or subject takes up nearly 80 per cent of the screen space and therefore appears to be very large. This shot can be used by a filmmaker to direct the viewer’s attention to a crucial clue in a detective story, to emphasize a facial expression or gesture, or, perhaps, to show the single tear dropping off the character’s cheek as he delivers his deathbed speech. The close-up forces the viewer to look at only what the director intended, as opposed to the long short, which allows for at least some choice on the part of the viewer. Interesting, too, with a close-up is what is missing, or excluded from the scene. We are not allowed to see the entire scene, so we become deprived for a time of the overall context. The close-up is uniquely cinematic – theatergoers, in contact, are not allowed up onstage to see the sly wink or the trembling hands. The close-up has many parallels in literature. It is one of the most powerful tools a filmmaker has: it is intimate and revealing, though somewhat intrusive and authoritative.
Medium Shot
A medium shot is a shot between a long-shot and a close shot (duh). It is probably the most common and most naturalistic of the three types, since it is also the most common in our real lives. Generally we see each other in medium shots because of personal space distances. Unlike the long and close shots. The medium shot does not necessarily communicate much in the way of cinematic effect, and it could best be called a sort of “neutral shot.” Most television shows are framed almost entirely by using medium shots because they are unobtrusive and comfortable; they do not tend to call attention to themselves. However, the medium shot can show more setting and context than a close-up can, though it lacks the close-up’s detail, and it brings the viewer closer to the subject than the long shot does, though it cannot show the distance and relationships between characters, or between characters and settings, in quite the same way.
There are almost unlimited variations on these framing choices. There is an extreme close-up, a three-quarter medium shot, and a "deepfocus shot," where, in a single shot, one object is shown in a close-up while others in the background are shown in a long shot. So, as with all the cinematic techniques, the fun involves decoding the director's intentions and supporting one's judgment with specific details. Classic Hollywood framing normally suggests that a director establish the scene with a long shot, move into a medium shot, and only then use a close-up. This has a natural kind of feel to it: as an audience member you can imagine getting closer and closer to the subject. Interesting things occur, however, when a director intentionally breaks with this convention for whatever ideas that he or she may have.
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