Camera Shots, Angles and Movement

Camera:

Frame
Angle
Movement

News values

> Threshold - the bigger the impact and reach of the story
> Unexpectedness - an event that is a shock or out of the ordinary
> Negativity - bad news is more interesting 'if it bleeds, it leads'
> Elite persons/places - stories about important people and powerful nations
> Unambiguous - stories that are easy to understand and for papers to report on
> Personalisation - stories that include human interest - 'real' people
> Proximity - stories that are closer to home that are more likely to be included
> Continuity/currency - stories that are already in the news continue to run and are updated

C     U     P     P     T     U     N     E     =     ACRONYM

Stuart Hall

He was looking into mass media and also the power of how media can represent DRCAGES. DRCAGES stands for:

D - disability

R - regional identity

C - class

A - age

G - gender

E - ethnicity

S - sexuality

Oppositional, negotiated and preferred readings.

Examples of these influences in media:

Statement: "This drink is the best drink in the world, you'll love it!"

Oppositional: "No, I definitely won't love this drink at all!"

Negotiated: "This drink might be one of the best drinks in the world!"

Preferred reading: "This drink is definitely the best drink in the world!"

Preferred reading is what producers want you to believe.

Mise En Scene

Mise En Scene

(put in scene)(place on stage)

Costume - can signify certain individuals, can show time period etc.
Lighting - high, medium, low etc.
Actors - movements, blocking, positioning, expressions etc.
Makeup - to make someone look older or younger
Props - weapons, items etc.
Setting - external, internal, weather, daylight, month, time etc.

Some notes from the lesson:

> set dressing
> texture
> lighting is important for movies
> 3 point lighting - fill, key, back
> high key/low key lighting
> highlights/shadows
> chiaroscuro
> hard lighting/soft lighting
> mood (of scene)
> ambient lighting
> unmotivated lighting/motivated lighting
> natural lighting
> colour - black/white = cheaper
> tinting - sepia tone = dusty
> colour grading - adjusts saturation
> colour palette
> space (within the frame) - balance, shallow space, off screen space
> different types of space (e.g. linear, asymmetric, round etc.)

Ghost Ship

GENRE

DI: The movie begins with a romantic setting of many couples on a cruise and everyone enjoying themselves. There is a female singer in a flamboyant red dress singing to all o the cruise and her voice is being projected all over the ship using speakers. Set in 1962 - Italian ocean liner.

S: The setting is a large, expensive cruise ship floating on the ocean during the night/evening time.

T: The opening scene of the movie seems to be a romantic theme however once the music begins to change and the camera scenes change, the theme turns to horror. Also sadness is shown.

I: There are many props throughout this opening scene. For example: a microphone and stage for the singer to show how expensive this cruise is, tables with luxurious food and candles on them to show how this cruise has many rich/wealthy people aboard, a game that the little girl is playing with, clean and white sailor hats to show the professional side to the sailors but most importantly, there is a long metal wire as a prop. This metal wire is a significant prop as it is the prop that makes the audience concerned once the music begins to fade/change.

N: The story is told throughout the length of the song that the female in the red dress is singing. At the beginning of the song, the camera angles and movement show how everyone is enjoying themselves and they all look fairly wealthy and of a high status. However, nearer the middle/end of the song, it shows how the dances are coming to an end, almost like everyone's lives as very soon after, most of the people aboard the ship die from being sliced in half by a metal wire.

C: There are many characters during these opening scenes however, the camera focuses a lot on two characters that some may presume are main characters. The female singer in the red dress has a lot of screen time in the opening scene as well as the young girl all dressed up. Due to this much screen time, attention is drawn to the young girl and how she acts before and after the deaths of hundreds of people right in front of her eyes.

T: The camera quality has an added effect on it to make it look like it is in the olden days (1962). Furthermore, long shots have been used a lot to emphasise the mass of wealth aboard the very large cruise ship.




MISE EN SCENE

C: Formal suits and dresses are the main costumes other than clean, white sailor suits.

L: The lighting is unsaturated and romantic looking to show the current mood of the atmosphere.

A: Everyone in the opening scene are full grown adults with the exception of the young girl who begins by sitting on her own playing.

M: There is only makeup on the women and the singer to show the maturity and femininity of the females on board.

P: There are a lot of flowers spread around the cruise creating the image of nature and beauty which completely contradicts how their is later death and blood everywhere.

S: The setting is on a large cruise ship. The exterior of the boat is shown and also the interior is shown as very flamboyant and elegant by the mass of camera angles.




SOUND

M: The music begins very soft and elegant however it then turns to more dramatic.

C: The music is parallel throughout the opening scene as everyone is happy when the music is soft but when the music begins to change, so does the mood of the atmosphere on the ship.

D: The sound begins as diegetic as the singer sings however, it turns to non diegetic when the deaths occur.

O: There is a lot of both offscreen and onscreen. There is a lot of offscreen sound when there is a large pan of the cruise ship's exterior and the woman is still heard singing however, there are also scenes where the woman is in the scene and you can visually see her singing.

V: There are no voiceovers.

E: The sound creates the emotions of love, sadness, shock and horror.

D: There is a lack of dialogue to emphasise how the audience should be watching the movements throughout each scene and so when the wire is shown, it allows them to focus on the visual rather than the verbal.




EDITING

S: The singer and the young girl have the most screentime which could imply that these are the main/important characters.

T: There are smooth transitions through to each scene to represent how the evening is/was going smoothly.

O: The order of narrative is in chronological order as all of the events that happen on the screen happen in that order.

P: There is a slow pace throughout which is ambiguous as it could represent the age of the people there as they cannot move as fast as a younger person or it could represent the slow flow of the ocean beneath them.

S: There are no added special effects however the camera does zoom into the metal wire to create an idea of importance.

Boys In The Hood

GENRE

DI: There are kids walking along the sidewalk in a rough neighborhood and they come across a crime scene. Then they get to school and Tre gets up and teaches the class with his superior knowledge compared to the rest of the class. There are strays all around the neighborhood also.

S: The setting is in 1984 in a fairly poor neighborhood/school.

T: The themes are violence and corruption.

I: The props include the teachers stick and also police tape showing the time period and the corruption in the neighborhood.

N: There is no narrative.

C: The young boy is shown as the main character.

T: A low angle is used for Tre when he is peaking to show his superior knowledge compared to all of the other students in his class and so a high angle i used when the dialogue of the other students occur.




MISE EN SCENE

C: As soon as the opening scene begins, Tre (the young boy) is wearing very smart and formal clothes, further emphasising his intelligence and maturity. The rest of the kids around him are wearing typical colourful, children's clothes to match their age and lack of maturity compared to Tre. Tre's mother is wearing a very formal outfit, suggesting how how her lifestyle is of a middle/maybe high class. This contrasts with how Tre's teacher was talking down to her on the phone.

L: All of the lighting used in the opening scene is natural lighting to show the normality of the children walking and being at school. However, there is also a bit of high key lighting used.

A: You can see that the main character is Tre and his friends.

M: There is no specific makeup being used to create anything. However, the mother of Tre is wearing makeup to symbolise her age and maturity.

P: Whilst the kids are walking to school and looking at a crime scene, there are posters of the president with bullet holes covering them. This has been done to signify the violence and also hate that the people in the neighborhood feel towards the president. Furthermore, at school, the teacher uses a stick at the front of the class as a pointer etc. so this represents the time period as nowadays we would have laser pens/remotes.

S: The setting is in a rough neighborhood where scenes include the sidewalks and school that the young children attend. The use of the downtown alleys with kids in them are used to show how there are many places where things could go wrong e.g. shootings.




SOUND

M: Soft, investigative music is used in the beginning when the kids are walking however the music changes to create tension when the kids are "investigating" the crime scene.

C: The music is parallel to the kids on their way to school because they begin by being chilled walking and then they decide to investigate an alley.

D: Diegetic sounds are heard in the beginning, like animal noises and police cars/sirens.

O: Offscreen, noises like: older men shouting, cars, gun shots, planes, helicopters, police and screams can be heard. Onscreen, you can see the teacher and students talking to each other in the school.

V: There are no voiceovers.

E: The sound creates emotions of fear, worry and possibly confusion.

D: The dialogue sued by the teacher, mother and kids all mean something different. The kids' dialogue on their way to school is talking about very advanced things that normal kids wouldn't talk abut. The teacher's dialogue is used to emphasise how smart Tre is and the mother's dialogue is used to show her responsibility and maturity (even when she the teacher is being rude to her).




EDITING

S: The most screentime is covered by the young group of children, however, the young boy Tre has the most screentime to emphasise his main part in the movie.

T: There are no transitions, they are just straight cuts to different scenes.

O: The order of narrative is chronological.

P: There is no change of pace in the editing, all scenes are the natural pace of how they were filmed.

S: Special effects in the opening scene include the gunshots when the screen is black. This emphasises the rough neighborhood.

Sound and Editing

Sound: 

Music - what kind?

Contrapuntal/parallel - against emotions, with emotions

Diegetic/non diegetic - real sound, sound effects/music

Offscreen/onscreen - only noise heard, noise seen happening on camera

Voiceover - talking over video

Emotion - how sound makes you feel

Dialogue - how/what did they say?


Editing:

Screentime - characters, is main shown more?

Transitions - past, future, jump cut

Order of narrative - in order, jumping around?

Pace - fast, slow mo

Special effects - sci-fi, actions, highlights the cool or significant parts

Semiotics

Semiotics - the study of signs/anything which stands for something else
Denotation - what we see when we look at an image
Connotation - what we understand from this image


DI- This television poster shows the main characters all standing together amidst the chaos of downtown New York. Each character is surrounding the star of the show Clary Fray/Fairchild.
S - The series is set in New York as you can see the skyscrapers in the background.
T - The themes shown in the poster are good vs evil due to the fact that the characters (who fight against demons) are surrounded by a dark and gloomy city. However some could argue that love and jealousy is also a theme as in the centre of the poster is the main character Clary, but beside her is her father-like figure Luke and her love interest Jace.
I - There are no props used in this poster however their costumes do add that aspect of mystery and possible danger as they are all wearing black leather.
N - There is no story told in this poster.
C - Each character is standing next to a character that they have a relationship with (whether that be family or not). However, you can clearly see the main character is the strong red head in the centre of the poster as she draws the attention into the middle of the poster.
T - The large red symbol at the topnof the poster draws peoples attentions immediately as the photo has had a darker filter on it to make it look mysterious and dramatic, emphasising the genre of fantasy/sci-fi/action/adventure.

Denotation:
There are eight strong looking characters all surrounding one main female character who is placed in the center of the poster. The background consists of the skyscrapers in New York and a very cloudy/misty sky.

Connotation:
From the poster, we can clearly see how in the middle of the poster there is a red headed femal wearing black leather and being surrounded by harsh looking people. This draws the attention of young women as there aren’t gradually becoming more and more strong female leads on the television. We can also see that death is possibly involved as the large red symbol at the top of he poster shows the red slightly running down past the outlines of the symbol, creating an effect that looks like the dripping of blood. All of the buildings, walls and the stairs all look fairly old and tired however, the characters do not as they look clean and polished. This could mean that they are of he younger generation or it could mean that they are re new to whatever they are doing around the city of New York. The stormy looking weather in the background adds to the effect of possible or imminent danger.

Genre

Definition of genre - a type or category

How do we identify genre?
DISTINCT is useful (acronym)
Describe In detail
Setting - location, historical time period
Themes - love, guilt, revenge, good vs evil
Icons - significant props such as a weapon or a wallet
Narrative - how a story is told, plot
Characters - boy/girl, background
Textual analysis - style of camera, editing, mise en scene and sound


Genre types:

> Sci-fi
> Horror
> Action
> Adventure
> Comedy
> Romance
> Drama
> Historical
> Documentary

Here are some photographs based on the HORROR and COMEDY genres:

This photograph has been chosen to represent COMEDY. 

By showing Sam hiding behind a tree with pom poms, it adds an element of comedic value to the mundane photograph. 

By using the setting of a school, it makes the comedic aspect of the photograph to stand out as there is an abnormality in a normal scene.

By using a theme of laughter to represent comedy, we took a photograph of Sam smiling.

By using red and white pom poms, not only do they stand out from the surroundings, but they add that sense of humour as stereotypically a cheerleader would be a girl.

This photograph has been chosen to represent HORROR.

By using the prop of a large kitchen knife, it creates a feeling of mystery and anticipation as knives are typically associated with horror/thriller genres.

By having the image look slightly misty, it allows the knife to have a slight glint/shimmer on one side of the knife's blade. This allows the knife to stand out a little bit through the window of the car.

Steve Neale - Genre theory

The idea that genres may be dominated by repetition but are also marked by variation, difference and change.

The idea that genre changes, develops, varies and borrows and overlaps with one another.

Hybrid genre - combination of genres (e.g. Scary Movie etc.)

LIAR application

LIAR:

Language: camera-music-editing (e.g.costumes, props, lighting, actors etc.)
Industry: (e.g. Adidas)
Audience: who's it targeting?
Representation: who (e.g. class, age, gender, ethnicity etc.)-what (e.g.message, place etc.)

Applying LIAR to the video above:

L: The music adds affect to how the two actors are brothers and it relates to how brothers would act. The editing shows the parts of their relationship that can be relatable to families around the world. Using a coke bottle as a prop shows off the brand to people watching the advertisement so it is a good way of selling themselves. The repeated colours of red, white and blue add to the fact that Coca Cola originates from America.
I: Coca Cola
A: It targets people of various generations as people with siblings can relate to how an older sibling would react towards their younger sibling.
R: A main representation from this advertisement is unity as the older brother comes to his siblings' side when there are bullies. It is sending the message that families do care for one another, they may not show it at times however they do.