EDITING BLOG

Editing or Post Production is the crucial stage when the rushes are bought together and we moved from first assembly to various fine cut versions of our Pop Video. Eisenstein, the famous Russian film maker, argues that the meaning of a film comes through the montage, the sequecnes, the order of the shots and how they are assembled one to another. We were constantly aware that we were creating meaning through montage.

Since the end of filming, and getting to the rough cut of the music video, I have spent several evenings and afternoons editing using Apple’s Final Cut Pro editing software, which amounts to at least 15 hours spent personally. Given our late change of original idea and loss of location, we had limited time to prepare for the shoot day, therefore did not manage to develop a new story board for the project, so could not follow this during the editing process.

All of our shots, except a few close ups, were done as 360° tracking shots, fitting with our new avant-garde idea. To begin the editing process, we filtered through all our shots, and got rid of any unusable shots, such as blacks, and then renamed shots aptly (eg. ‘CU INTRUMENTS WHOLE SONG‘) to make the process as efficient as possible. We then created several log bins (eg. ‘BANJO SOLO’) and put appropriate shots with in them.

To begin with we put in the audio file containing the song, followed by a wide shot of the whole song as a ‘foundation’. To follow this we put in an alternate wide shot at the end of the timeline, which was shot specifically to end the video, which incorporates a change of set. We then watched the wide shot, and went through our footage to see what specific shots we wanted to place within the song (eg. wide bar scene) and placed these on the timeline ensuring the image was synchronised with the audio of the song. To ‘sync’ audio and image, before placing a shot on the timeline we inserted a ‘marker’ at an easily definable point on the shot using the recorded playback from the day, and then placed a marker on the timeline for the same point, so that when we dragged the shot onto the timeline, all we had to do was ‘sync’ up the two markers and delete the recorded audio.

Next we identified distinct sections of the song, such as fiddle solo, banjo solo and guitar solo, and ‘cut in’ fitting footage for them, trying to ensure that the musician who’s solo it was the focal point of the image. Because our footage was constantly tracking right to left (camera moved left to right), it was necessary to combine different shots of the same musician consecutively, using video transitions such as ‘edge wipe’, to create seamless ‘cuts’ between shots, to uphold the effect that the image is constantly moving. This also regularly creates the appearance of the same musician with in the frame twice (upholding Negus’s convention of a music video that there exists ‘the flexibility to disregard realism’).

We noted that the beginning of song lyrics (eg. first line of the second verse) were important, and thus was necessary to accommodate several of these ‘first lines’ with a shot (be it close up, wide or medium) of the lead vocalist. This was also applied to several of the backing vocals.

After watching the current video back, we noticed that there were prolonged periods of black, which would need to be filled. To do this we found shots that would fit the gap and used ‘edge wipe’ transitions at both the beginning and end to slot the clip in between the existing enclosing shots. It was often necessary to alter the beginning and end points, and even the angle, of the ‘edge wipes’ to accommodate for the occasional variations in tracking speed of juxtaposing shots.

To emphasises the atypical nature of our video, we found sections of footage, such as a wide shot of the whole band, and sped this up to near 1500% of original speed, which created a rapid spinning sensation, and this fitted perfectly with the intro/post chorus/outro swift guitar riff.

Our aim for the pop video was to accentuate the idiosyncratic nature of the song, band and genre; which is ‘Blue Grass’, a form of country music with a fast tempo. It is not a typical genre for music videos as it would not be encompassed by the term ‘popular culture’, therefore we opted not to try to produce and archetypal music video but attempt to be innovative. The lyrics of the song are sung from a female characters point of view, and the lyrics and music combined portray the message that the girl is; strong, rebellious and independent. The constantly tracking footage portrays visually what the song does aurally, unsettled and unrestricted freedom. The constant movement also suggests voyeurism, and creates an element of intimacy between the band and audience, which is how we want to portray the band; not an element of ‘us and them’ but makes them appear more ‘accessible’ and less distant.

The band are dressed in bright colours and the girls have brightly coloured hair (red and blonde), the clothes are to an extent smart (such as the trousers, shirt and jacket combination of the males and the dresses of the girls) yet with an ‘edgy’ nature about them. The movement within the frame of the band from right to left, suggests too the unconventional and rebellious nature of the band.

The unfamiliar constant tracking motion of the video, combined with the appearance that in terms of camera and editing it could be one consistent shot (bar a brief section of cuts) yet in terms of realism is completely impossible would be the unique selling point of the video, capitalising on theorist Barthes’ jouisance (meaning pleasure through the unexpected). Due the niche market of ‘bluegrass’ musicians and fans, there are little other existing bluegrass videos (in comparison to ‘pop’ or ‘rock’ music, where there are tens of thousands) and therefore the audience do not know what to expect at the beginning of the video, and we attempted to uphold this throughout, by often introducing new scenes and shot sizes, to constantly keep the audience in anticipation for what could appear onscreen next.

Continuity editing is used to establish a logical coherence between shots, and is commonly found in media products with a narrative or something thats trying to portray fact such as a film, TV programme or documentary, how ever this is not always the case. Discontinuity editing is when the purpose is not to portray realism or to create an element of alienation, it can be achieved by changing shots before the viewer has time to recognise what is going on or breaking the 360degree rule to give the appearance that the subject has changed direction, amongst other various methods. We used mostly continuity editing, as we wanted to make the majority of the video appear as one long smooth shot. During the middle of the song, the camera stops tracking and remains fixed, at this point we adopted standard cutting technique and used methods such as eyeline match, when there is a CU of the lead singer playing her instrument then we cut to a CU of her face looking down at what she is playing for a bried moment before she looked up again.

We chose to both challange and uphold many of Keith Negus' common generic conventions of popular music promo videos. We upheald the convention of 'the explicit and unashamed promotion of the artist's 'image'' as the subject of our video was only the band, and incorporated no narrative (challanging his convention that the video often contains a narrative element), as we decided the band and the performance were more important. When straight cutting was used we ensured the convention that 'shots are cut tightly to the beat' was upheld as we did so, and at this moment we adopted short sharp shots, of no longer than 3 seconds. We developed a repeating thematic element in the form of the constant tracking, fitting the convention.

Negus' convention that 'a wide and extensive use of shot types, camera angles and movement', as we only used CU, MEDIUM AND WIDE SHOTS, which were always at the same level - there were no angles used. We also challanged the convention that there is often the feature of 'special effects', there is no element of CGI or in camera effects used, only a small amount of colour editing used.

SHOOT DAY

The timetable for our shoot involved half a day building and painting our set, one day actually shooting for seven hours, and then two hours to strike the set. This involved hard work following our call sheet but worked out well. We managed to shoot all that we had planned and more.

Unfortunately, we lost our location a few days before our shoot so had to devise a new concept that we could operate in the studio. We came up with quite an unusual idea that would challenge several conventions of ‘the pop video’. Our new idea is as follows; to hang a black curtain in a circle (360°) and position a camera fixed to a wheeled tripod in the middle and place the band members under pools of light in a ring around the camera. The camera moved in a circle, performing a 360° continuous Pan, capturing each band member consecutively and the order of band members, shot sizes and backgrounds were changed regularly to keep the video interesting. The 360° Pan was going to be our only camera movement. There had to be sufficient room between each band member so that we could fill the camera with black to give us a point to cut. The camera moved round in an anticlock wise motion (from left to right), so the band travel across the frame from right to left, suggesting a rebelious nature, fitting with the theme of the song and lyrics for 'This Little Kitty'.

• 
  Before the arrival of the band we prepared the studio, after the last minute change of idea. The front of the Juke Box prop that we had sourced for our video fell off, so we had to fix this for use. We cleared space and provided tables and chairs for which the band could use to get ready and to use when they were not needed for filming. We painted large wooden panelling (approximately 2m X 1m) white, to place beneath the camera to serve as a flat platform free from bumps to give the camera a smooth movement and to reflect further light on to the musicians, as due to the 360° nature of the video, we could not position standard redhead and blonde lighting in a 3 point set up, so we used overhead spot lights, which cast a downwards shadow occasionally but the white panels on the floor fixed this.
  
  We then made sure that the camera, a SONY NX5, was white balanced and ready to film. Following this we established optimal positions for the band members under the five pools (spots) of light surrounding the camera, and used electrical tape to mark these positions. We ran a brief test run with members of the crew standing in the markers to identify any problems with the camera and to test the spots we had established.

• Shot a wide of the whole band, whole song. We then repeated this but got the band members to move around behind the camera and switched positions so that when the camera had done a 360° rotation - there was someone else in the same position. This proved fairly difficult as sometimes people weren’t in position before the camera reached them again or they had not stuck to the markers and were not in sufficient light.



• Shot mid of whole band, whole song



• Shot CU of instruments whole band, whole song – problem was that due to variation in musicians heights and sizes of instruments and the constant 360° motion of the camera it was difficult to capture all the instruments with in the same frame, so we had to sit the fiddle player down and get the double bass player to stand slightly further back.



• Shot the fiddle player, playing the solo with wides, mids and close ups.



• Shot the guitarist, playing the solo with wides, mids and close ups.
  


• Shot the banjo player, playing the solo with wides, mids and close ups.



• We then shot the lead singer, singing several important lines such as the beginning of verses and choruses.



• We then introduced the jukebox and stools into the frame, and had two extras sat on the stools with drinks as if to suggest a bar and shot the band in wide with a few stationary close ups.



• After this we added a wooden bar stand painted black, with a drinks stand to expand the bar and a table with chairs and added more extras to the scene. We positioned the band next to this environment and stopped then camera on the band and healed until the end of the second chorus.



• For the final shot, we constructed a raised stage and hung stage like lights that flashed consecutively above, and positioned cinema like seats in front with extras sat in them to simulate a ‘gig’ atmosphere.

A shot that I felt really worked well was the one with the bar situation set up as there was movement between the extras, and someone reached out towards the bar to usher a drink just as the camera passed, so it ‘lead the eye’ through the bar to finally rest on the band and the camera stopped. It fitted very well with the music, as there is a feeling of movement through out the song, but this sense of movement stops at the point we paused the camera on the band.

Another shot or sequence that i felt worked well, was the close up shots of the various band members and instruments, as they are not conventional 'band' instruments, including a banjo, fiddle and a double bass. There is a lot of movement due to the fast musical nature of the song, for the close up the camera was framed quite tight around the musicians hands which made the image interesting.

I was happy with hown the day had gone, and it was free from any major set backs. Given the state of uncertainty we were in before filming due to the last minute change of ideas, the day could not have gone any better. We had ample footage to edit, keeping with Negus's convention of a music video that it is filmed with a high shot ratio. If we had more time, we could have perhaps shot a narrative element to which we could cut to regularily, however challenging this convention, may prove in the videos favour as described by Barthes' theory of Plaisir 'pleasure through the unexpected'.

Permissions Letter

Here is a copy of the permissions letter, sent to 'The Toy Hearts' seeking permission to use thier song as part of our music video. We were legally and morally obliged to obtain the permission of a copyright owner to enable us to not only shoot the pop video, but also be allowed t0 place it on the internet at various sites.



The Toy Hearts Band
Birmingham
09/11/10


Dear Sir or Madam

We are a group of A Level students working on an A Level project for a qualification in Media Studies. We are writing to request permission to use the following track as part of this project:

’This Little Kitty’ by ‘The Toy Hearts’

With your permission, the track would be used as the accompaniment to a short form video that is made purely for assessment purposes and will have no commercial usage. The video will be viewed only by members of the school community and the assessor of the examination board.The artist and the copyright holder will of course be fully recognised in the pre-production and evaluation material that accompanies the project. We can also include a full copyright notice if required both in the planning material and on the video itself.

Yours sincerely

Joshua Jackson,
Hurtwood House School

The Finished Call Sheet

Call Sheet

The call sheet is essentially 'the bible' for the shoot day. If a question or concern arises - we will refer to the call sheet . This said, it is important that the call sheet is done in significant detail, with any information that might be relevant to the video. It is vital that we have a record of all numbers of the members of the production team so that if one is missing, and we need them on set or need to get ahold of them - this can be done immediately and with ease. If the shot day is to be a success it is important that the call sheet contains the following information.

Title Page - Basic information RE; the production team, song name, date

Contents Page

Cast List

Equipment List

Studio Set Plan

Set Desin

Lighting

Props

Wardrobe

Lyrics

Schedule

Shot List

SET BUILD AND LIGHTING DESIGN

This is 'Wiltons Music Hall' in London, a location that we were particularily captivated by.

'Barn Theatre' in Oxted. We particularily liked the historic feel.

'Kings Theatre' Portsmouth, which we very much likes the red materials, and simple colours.

Disappointingly, non of these locations, amongst others that we scouted, were available or within our budget. A letter sent to the 'Barn Theatre' by a member of our group follows;

" To Whom It May Concern,

I am a student from a sixth form college in Surrey and am studying Media A2 level. For our coursework in the A2 year we are required to shoot a pop video, for our video we are shooting a band called They Toy Hearts who are an up and coming band who have just got home from touring in America. I am working in a production team of four people in total. I have visited the Barn Theatre recently to watch The Happiest Days Of Your Life and really liekd the look of the theatre and think it would look really good in our video. We would like to shoot the video on the 22nd November for a whole day. I would just like to know how much it would cost and what conditions you have. A quick response would be greatly appreciated so we can make alternative arrangements if necessary.

ThanksJosh Gorman "

Sadly, as with the others, this was to no avail.

We therefore discussed, with 'Dan' a professional set design technician, pottentially recreating a similar 'feel' with our studio. We played him the song so that he could get an idea of what the song was about and share his views. He offered us some advice on what we could do such as investing in to scale plastic moulds, cast in recogniseable theatre architecture such as columns, which we could paint and dress the set with. We then discussed buying some authentic deep red curtains. He agreed with our choice of lighting as we had previously devised, faithful to the mood of the song, but also suggested we considered 'yellow' filters, which give the image a 'yellowy' tint, to greater portray the idea of the theatre. It was suggested this could be done during post-production, using AfterEffects software but this would mean it went over the whole image, and we could not be selective, such as just lighing the band members. In conclusion, we decided a combination of filters combined would create the desired effect and also give some depth as would not be the case with a pure yellow filter or if it was done in post production.

Although we were making progress, and happy with our lighting design, and prepared to begin set building, we all knew we would not be able to achieve what we could with a location.

Luckily, Dan came back to us a few days later, with the news that he had the perfect loaction that we could use, free of charge. It is a big old stately home coimbined with an Opera theatre. The house is called 'The Grange' and is located just outside Winchester - internally it had the exact right character and arcitecture that we wanted to recreate in the studio.

STILL AWAITING IMAGES

As a result of the change in location, our story board has to also change. We have to wait until we have seen it before we can come up with further ideas of set design (if necessary) and changes to the treatment. Due to the distance of the location and it being privately owener, we cant go and visit the location as we please, therefore we have a planned 'recky' on the 5th November. After this, we will hopefully have more images and a further idea of treatment and set desigg. The plan is still to create a music video based primarily on performance as we feel this will allow us to capitalise on the fact that the band is a real, experienced band who have played, performed and made music videos together before. We anticipate that we will get a really good on screen presence from the band and are looking forward to working with them.

Lighting Plan

Lighting is essential when creating the mood of an environment, and if not thought through it can give the wrong effect or parts of the band or subject may be lit inappropriatelly. Khuleshove states that 70% of meaning is in the visual, only 30% is portrayed through sound, so it is important that all elements of the visuall image are intergrated.

It is important to have a plan ready, in particularily if working on location where equipment has to be transported and lighting my not be already available, to ensure that the director, cinematographer and gaffa (in charge of lighting on the day) know exactly what is required; such as varrying intensity lights like redheads and blondes and how the lighting will be used - three point lighting incorporating; a flood, a fill and a back light. A design will also ensure everyone knows where the lighting is to be possitioned, so the shoot day is as efficient as possible.

We have chosen to use low key lighting, as we like the silohete effect that it creates with the subject. We also want to use red filters on some or all of the lights to give the image a tint of red, this is because the song is about being reckless and has quite a promiscuous feel to it, and we believe that red reflects this well.

It is important that the two female singer's facers are luminated with a spot light to make thier faces the centre of attention when the shot is focused on them, and to make them very prominant. Instuments must be also well let for close ups for the same reasons. We are going to use a flood light on the lead male instumentallist aswel, as he has a very characteristic face which we feel will look good on screen and respond well to being lit.

Studio Design

A studio design is a vision for how the set will look on the day, and usually when working in a film studio you are tryint to conceal the fact that it is a studio, so it is important to have a sound design in place, ready for construction, in order for the set to look as authentic as possible.

Whilst drawing up a set design it is important to think of 'practicality', especially when working to a budget, as somethings may not be possible and othertimes it may just be best to shoot on location for a real authentic feel.

We had to consider where our band members would be placed and what we would position around them. Our plan for the bands performance element was originally to have them set in a rustic, homely yet studio environment, complete with pictures, mirrors and ornaments on the wall, as well as a large red rug in the centre. We wanted it to have a 'woody' feel like an old american, country house. Our original studio design, is shown bellow.

We then decided we want to have the band located with in an empty theatre, but not necessarily on stage, just within that environment - we were particularily attracted by the deep red colour of theatre chairs and curtains as well as the aged, timely feel associated with them. Locations were considered and apporoached for this to no avail, but we also felt that recreating a theatre feel with in the studio would not have the same affect.

Camera Test

A camera test is conducted well in advance of shoot day to give the director and producers clarification as to whether the video has been corectly cast in terms of how well the band look on screen - do they look like a band should which is together and fluid? It is also to give them confidence as to whether they will be able to work with them, because if they dont get on on shoot day, then the day could be a disaster. The footage - photos / film - obtained through a camera test may be consulted during story boarding.

For our pop video shoot, we are lucky enough to be filming a real band, 'The Toy Hearts', producing a video for one of their latest singles, 'This Little Kitty'. We are in contact with the band via email and telephone, but will not be able to meet them before the shoot for a camera test. Therefore we have found performance and promo, images and videos of the band.

The video and images reflect the band's camera compatibility, and shows that there is real chemistry between them. A lot of camera time will be focused on the two female singers. The large amount of instruments used by the band will give us alot to film in terms of performance and will make for an entertaining video.

STORYBOARD

A storyboard follows the timeline, and transfers the words on the timeline into images and expands on them. This gives us a first idea of what the final product is going to look like on screen, and allows us to visualise it, ready for when we shoot it. Whilst story boarding we work out what type of shot we will use for different events and why, such as; a mid shot of the lead singer positioned in the top left corner, presenting him as a protagonist character with the guitarist positioned in the background on the right hand side to give him an 'edgey' feel. During the storyboarsing process we also look at movement which will be used such as; tracking shots or craning. The storyboard allows us to see what will work and what wont.

We dont just shoot what is drawn on our storyboard. We 'shoot to edit', and we opperate on a high shot ratio, as is the case with most music videos, when a lot of footage will be shot but only 3 minutes of this footage will make the final 'cut'. This means that if there is a wide shot at the beginning of the storyboard and one towards the end, we would shoot the shots consecutively, and in the editing process position the footage when it is meant to occur - this is logical as it means we dont have to rearrange the camera, lighting or set and more than necessary, all similar shots will be done at once. We will probably film much more than necessary, perhaps the band performing the whole song with a Wide shot, to give us a greater selection of footage when editing as we may encounter problems with the footage we had planned to go somewhere. IT IS BETTER TO HAVE AND NOT NEED, THAN TO NEED AND NOT TO HAVE - this is very important when making any kind of film as it is often very expensive or impossible to go back and re-shoot a sequence after the final shoot day.

The storyboard gives the editor instruction as to what is required. In our storyboard we mapped out the shots we are going to use, camera angles, the movements we will use (such as tracking, panning and crane shots), mise en scene and lighting. The story board acts as a blueprint for the final product. If it works we will then shoot it and we can cut it as if putting a puzzle together. The video bellow is an example of a finished stroyboard that has been shot with a camera and then cut accordingly - if this product was then to be made into a professional animation, the final product would probably look very similar to this

Our Storyboards include more than just images;

1. Shot Number
2. Location
3. Action
4. Shot type/Movement
5. Sound
6. Lighting
7. Edit Transition
8. Timing
   

Unfortunately our plan kept changing from our timeline to our story board. This meant our storyboard kept changing up until the actuall shoot. In particular our location changed from being in a studio, to out doors to finally, on a sourced location - this meant alot of our original storyboard ideas were adapted accordingly


The lead musicians in our band are two attractive female singers and an elder man. We decided that we are going to use several close ups of the females as this may appeal to a wider audience, and is more appealing to watch. It will also help 'sell' the band.

We are going to use alot of close ups of individual instruments as the song has many aspects that showcase them such as solos and fast riffs. The band also uses a wide range of instruments such as banjo, double bass and fiddle, not the standard; guitar, bass, piano and drums - so it will be a good opportunity to show the audience that the band are something a bit 'fresh' and 'exciting'.

We are going to limit the majority of our edit transitions to straight intercuts. This is to ensure the final footage 'flows' and is easy for the audience to watch. Given the fast pace of the song, and extensive shots we will use, we felt that if an extensive range of transitions used our product might look 'choppy'. Straight cuts compliment the speed of the song.


Below is extracts from our storyboard.

Timeline

A TIME LINE uses the words and times as a first method of linking images to the song - the lyrics and music riffs. With the timeline you can see whether images will hold for the time that we have given in the song. So if a line of the song is seven seconds and you cut on the beat at the end, you need an image that will hold for seven seconds. Will an image of a hand playing a clarinet be engaging enough to last for seven seconds? A timeline will give you an idea as to whether it will or it wont hold.

For the opening line of a song sung by the lead singer, when the lyrics are the most prominant in the mix, it would be appropriate to have a close up or mid shot of the lead singer. It would not make sense to match a shot of the guitarist if he is not playing at this point.

It makes sense to incorporate a close up of the guitarist's fingers playing a riff during the guitar solo of a song.

We have two female singers who will be shot with close ups, in particular during their singing parts. The reason we will use several close ups of the, is that it makes the video more sellable to an audience, aside from existing fans of the band and music, as they are both attractive.

Featured bellow is an extract from our timeline for 'This Little Kitty'. It lists the events of the song, lyrically and musically, in the left hand column. Under the 'Time' column, it states the exact time the corresoponding event occurs. The other parallel columns list out ideas for what could happen on screen at that moment whether its; Performance, Narrative or Image.

Composition Rules

Films, TV programmes and Music Videos use images to put across meanings and ideas to the audience. The image is what is seen with in the frame. Lev Kuleshov, Russian film maker and respected film theorist, stated that 70% of the meaning within a film is in the image.

There is a 'language' of film making - this is what film makers use when constructing their image, to put across this meaning. This 'language' consists of more than 200 Composition Rules. These rules are apparent across all forms of filmed media product. In this blog I discuss a small fraction of the compostion rules.

Different Type of Shot Size

There are many different shots used across all kinds of film making (Documentaries, Movies, TV Shows, Music Videos etc. Different shots portray different messages and meanings to the audience. Bellow are several of the different shots, and the significance of them.

Extreme Wide Shot/ Extreme Long Shot

These shots are most commonly used establish a sense of location, as it usually shows where a scene is taking place. Over 95% of the time, this type of shot features at the beginning of a scene. It is crucial when there has been a change of location, especially to an unfamiliar one not previously featured.

Long Shot/ Wide Shot

Long shots or wide shots, are still used as 'establishing shots' but are usually be more focused around a subject, and will most probably feature the subject from head to toe. They are used to establish a subject within a scene or location. Sometimes they are used to establish a link between two people or several people within the frame, as there is more room to do so - this is difficult with a medium shot because it often means the subjects are positioned too close. Also used for action sequences, as they allow for a lot of detail to be positioned in the frame with out it feeling too 'crowded'.

Medium/ Mid Shot

These kind of shots are used most commonly, as they position the subject(s) with in the frame, in a way that is comfortable for the audience to watch. It is not particularly intimate (like a Close up/ Extreme close up) but is close enough to highlight that the subject is important, affords an element of meaning to the subject, and provides enough detail to get a story across to the audience.

Close Ups

They can be used t highlight details of a subject such as facial features or emotions, and to establish rapport between audience and the subject. Often used to convey a sense of meaning.

If a subject is filmed with close ups, it suggests that they are important or their feelings/reactions are important to the scene. This is why so commonly, lead singers in music videos are often favoured with many close ups.

Extreme Close Ups

Used to really emphasise intricate details of a subject, such as the eye, a close up shot really draws attention to a minute detail or development, that would not be clear in a mid shot, or maybe even a close up, such as to film a drip of sweat.
Extreme Close ups, don't tell a story, but are excellent for accentuating specific emotions within a scene. They are particularly overwhelming, especially if used excessively, so when intercut together well, can make the audience feel uncomfortable.

Point of View (POV)

Basically shot from the same position and angle as a subject would be seeing, often intercut with a mid shot of the subject looking in that direction to reflect that this is the case. Often used to create a familiarity with the subject or too see the world from 'their point of view'. It is also just an interesting shot, and is often a welcome deviation from the usual angles.



Camera Position and Angle

Camera angles can tell you alot about how the director wants you to react to the subject in the frame. The two angles most commonly used to portray different meanings are the; high angle - looking down on a subject, and the low angle - looking up at the subject.

The low angle shot, looking up, suggests strength, power and importance, as is demonstrated in the image above. Often referred to as the 'hero shot' as it is often used to represent the 'hero', demonstrated in the image bellow.

The high angle shot, looking down at the subject, has the opposite effect to the low angle shot. The shot insinuates that the subject is small or in a position of weakness. A well known example of this is in 'Oliver Twist' when Oliver asks for 'more'.

Another type of shot angle is 'the dutch angle'. This is when the subject is positioned on the horizontal, and is often used to portray 'psychological uneasiness' or to estrange a subject. If this is utilised well it can be very useful, if not it can just look clumsy. he image of 'the Joker' demonstrates how a dutch angle can be used well, as it really reflects the character's disturbed nature.

Another standard camera angle used particularly in documentaries, news broadcast or interviews, is when the camera faces the subject from a 32degree angle (give or take - depending on the head/subject size), this is to give depth to the image, instead of looking 2 dimensional

Camera Movements

There are several different standard camera moves available to directors and camera men. It is not often a movement is done free hand, purely by the camera operator moving with the camera, in film, unless for a desired effect. This is often done for documentaires and the news, when it is unscripted and the camera man may need to move to follow a subject - often seen in news footage of the conflict in Afganistan.

Tracking shots are used to film movement across the horizontal. The lens is kept at a fixed angle but the actual camera and opperator move, usually along a track or attached to a vehicle. This is great for filming car chases, as there is obviously alot of movement involved, or someone running. It makes the audience feel involved with the on screen events. The camera moves with the subject.

Cranes can also be used. This is when the camera is raised on the end of a long crane or pole, that can be controlled from the bottom. Alternatively the camera and operator are rasied using machinery like cranes. This is usually done when the camera needs to get really high.

Crane shots provide a different perspective on a scene, and are visually entertaining for an audience.
Through the use of a tripod, with appropriate pivots fitted, Pan and Tilt shots can be done. The camera remains in a fixed possition, but the angle changes. Panning is when the angle moves along the horizontal axis, and tiliting is when it is on the vertical axis. They are usually used to show things that are too wide or tall for a static shot such as; panning - used to film wide land scapes, and tilting - used to film tall buildings. They give an audience as sence of space and height, but dont create a real sense of involvement, especailly if used to film movement.

Tilts and Pans often begin at one end of the axis and finish on the subject. An example of a possible beginning of a tilt shot is shown bellow. The camera would then tilt down to reveal either the subject, or the enterance to the building, to establish location, this would then cut to a shot of inside the building. This would tell the audience where exactly the scene was taking place



Lighting

The lighting of a set is very thought out process, and is usually the job of a gaffer. A poorly lit set can result in footage being hard to see, and shadows can appear which will distract from what the director wants you to see.

A basic and commonly used method of set lighting (the one I have used in previous projects and will use for my music video) is one that is known as 'three point lighting'
The key (spot/flood) light is placed first, to provide the main source of the light on the subject's face and body. However, this results in shadows appearing down one side of the subject, due to the body being full of contours and bulges (clothes, nose, eyes etc). We therefore use a 'fill' light.

The fill light is there to eradicate the shadows, and is positioned accordingly, but will usually be at a similar angle from the camera to that of the key light, but on the opposite side.

The idea of the back light is not to light the subject, but to provide light behind the subject, to create a sense of depth and 3 dimensionality.

This kind of lighting set up is comfortable for the audience to watch. Intensities of light can be adjusted accordingly and so to can the colour of the light ( see colours) to create a different mood or atmosphere.

We use lights known as 'Blondes' and 'redheads'. A blonde ranges from 1 kilowatt - 2 kilowatts and a red head from 400 watts - 1 kilowatt. These provide more than enough light and can be used to fill large spaces.


Colours

A lot of thought and consideration goes into what colours to be used on sets, clothing and lighting, as different colours can be used to convey different emotions. Sam Peckingpah's 1969 western ' The Wild Bunch ' uses primarily washed out browns throughout; sets are this colour, buildings, people etc, this was to reflect the 'colourless', melancholy environment in which the film is set. You can usually tell alot about how a director wants a character or scene to be portrayed, by the way they or it are dressed with certain colours.

Examples of what different colours suggest are;

Black is a pronounced, mysterious and intimidating colour as it is ultimately the absence of light. Can be used to suggest a strong personality or on the other hand a troubled one. Black is not very comforting.

White is often used to reflect purity and virtuousness. It can also suggest a cold and isolating environment.

Red suggests an outgoing, physical, active character, and associated with love but is also often seen to be promiscuous, sexual and lustful. Alternatively it can reflect anger. Red is associated with power.

Green is associated with nature and the earth but also money and wealth. As a result it can be used to suggest an empathetic, natural, abundant character, but also used to portray a jealous, envious.

Blue insinuates a cool, clever, chilled, contemplative, loyal character. It can also be used to portray an depressive, withdrawn environment.

Shapes and Lines within a frame

Shapes and lines that appear within a frame from backgrounds, and aspects of the set, or as part of movement or editing, can be used to suggest different meanings and atmospheres.

For example, horizontal lines, such as those created by a shot of the horizon, suggests stability, restfulness, peacefulness, and generally not threatening or challenging.

Vertical lines suggest height, ridgitity and can be quite threatening.

Diagonal lines, as with the 'dutch angle' (see camera angles), suggest movement, unreal, bizzareness. They often feature more in the climax of a film

Straight lines in them selves express strength, formality, sterness and regularity. Where as curved lines, or those forming a circle, reflect flexibility, freedom and naturalness. Jagged lines, with lots of sharp angles suggest unpredictability and danger.

The image bellow uses a combination of lines, such as jagged, horizontal and straight lines, to create a sense of urgency, danger, freedom, strength and unrest.

The Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds devides a frame into 9 squares of equal size. Two parallel, equally spaced horizontal lines devide the frame into thirds, and two parallel, equally spaced vericle lines also devide the frame into thirds, resulting in the 9 squares.

The 4 points at which the lines intersect are known as 'hot spots', and these are the four main area that the eye focuses, so film-makers try to possition important features within the frame, at one of these four focal (hot spot) points. This is because our eyes find it more pleasing to have the primary feature or character on one of the lines or hot spots, opposed to positioning them in the centre of the frame.

However, each of the focal points can portray a different meaning. this is a result of the eye naturally reading a frame from left to right. The audience naturally feels comfortable with the feature/individual position in the top left focal point, however if the feature/individual is positioned in the bottom right focal point, the audience will be more affronted.

When protagonist (eg. good Spider-man) and antagonist (eg. bad spider-man)are featured with in the same frame, the protagonist will usually be positioned on the left hand side, and antagonist on the right. The promotional film images below reflect this, as even when the characters are switched around in the frame, the audience still feels more comfortable with the figure on the left.