Classwork (Camera + Storyboard)

 In class, we discussed about the different camera angles. 

Camera Angles

These are notes from class ⬇️

There are 12 angles that were introduced and here are my personal notes for each style

Long Shot: Shows the full subject and setting.

Extreme Long Shot: Shows the subject from afar.

Medium Shot: Balances subject and setting, often used for conversations.

Cowboy Shot: Focuses on action, often used in Westerns.

Close up: Focuses on the face or details, shows emotion or importance.

Extreme Close up: Highlights tiny details and intensity.

POV: Shows a characters perspective, creates immersion.

Over the shoulders: Shows one character from another's viewpoint, creates connection or tension.

High Angle: Makes the subject appear weak or vulnerable.

Low Angle: Makes the subject appear powerful or dominant.

Dutch Angle: Creates unease or tension.

Establishing Shot: Provides location and context, often helps sets a scene.

Here is an example of each  to show that I understand these camera angles ⬆️

We watched a video about camera angles which helped me remember the function of each camera angle which will be helpful in fully maximising the effect of each scene that we will shot for this film opening. This video also helped clarify and give detailed information on the effect of each camera angle that is maybe rarely used or is only a niche to that specific genre.  

Camera Movements

We also learned about the different camera movements and I took handwritten notes as well. 

Fixed	Camera remains static	Calm, peace, normal
Push in	Camera moves slowly toward subject	Brings the audience closer, more involved, getting more serious.
Pull out	Camera moves slowly away from subject	Takes audience away from the action, leaving a character. Detaching from subject
Pan	Side to side, camera fixed	Reveal information, mirrors natural head movement of the audience.
Tilt	Up and down, camera fixed	Same as pan, just a different direction
Dolly	Camera moves around freely	More immersive, we are moving inside the subjects world, we feel part of the action
Tracking	Camera moves around on tracks	Similar to dolly, but smoother.
Crane	Taken by a camera mounted on a jib/crane that moves up and down.	Reveals the epic size of the setting, landscape.
Handheld	Camera is shakey	Very natural, immersive. High energy
Zoom	Zoom	Brings audience closer to budget. Draws our attention to something.

This is a table created by my teacher Mr Nick in his presentation term 1 slides about camera movements 

This is a video on the different camera movements in a video. To show my understanding of what was been taught in class ⬆️

Sound

Besides camera angles and movements, We also learned about sound.  (NDS - non diegetic sound)

Description	Effect
Diegetic sound	Sound that can be heard by the characters within the media text.	Add a sense of realism. Reveal information to characters (and then audience)
Non diegetic sound	Sound that can only be heard by the audience.	Enhance meaning, create an emotional response in the audience
Trans diegetic sound	Sound that transitions from one to the other.	Creates a link between the audience and the world. More immersive

This is another table from that same term 1 presentation by mr nick however it's for sound. 

Description	Effect
Melodic	Positive and pleasing connotations	Enhances a positive scene. Create positive emotions in the audience.
Discordant	Harsh and unpleasant connotations.	Enhance negative scenes.  Create suspense, tension, anxiety
Contrapuntal	Has an opposite tone to the on-screen visuals.	Adds deeper meaning to scenes. Insight into the character's thoughts. Maybe they seek pleasure in doing bad things.

This is another table from that same term 1 presentation by mr nick

however it's for types of non diegetic sound

Here are examples for each:

• Melodic 

• Discordant

• Contrapuntal

Mise - en - scene

I also took some hand written notes during the Mise - en - scene class

This is classwork we did in class about mise en scene and how the use colors, costume and etc to give the character more meaning and deliver the points the director is trying to make. 

Here's a video that we watched in class ⬇️

This video gave me a better understanding of why filmmakers use mise en scene as well as the different ranges they use (which was not included in my teacher's presentation) which are naturalistic (props, settings that exist in real life) and theatrical (props, settings, backgrounds that only exist in our imaginations / they are exaggerated). 

Editing

Editing is the process of selecting, arranging and manipulating footage to create a cohesive and engaging story.  Besides that, I also took some notes of the specific things we learned in class. 

 

Continuity Editing	Non continuity editing
Straight cut (cut) Eyeline match  Shot /reverse shot Cutaway / Insert  *Match cut	Cross cut (parallel cut) Flash back Flash forward Jump cut  *Match cut

⬆️ (these tables were taken from Mr Nick's term 1 presentations)

Here's a video I watched at home and also in class.

I learned that there are other types of cuts besides the ones listed above such as split edits that uses the audio of another footage and places it over a scene before or after it making an "L" or "J" shape when editing. It makes the transition be more natural and smooth instead of the traditional and hard cuts . This could be helpful when our editor edits the scenes and he wants the scenes to blend a bit better. 

Steve Neale - Genre Theory 

The theory states that; A text must be SIMILAR enough to be recognised as a particular genre. But it must also be DIFFERENT enough to be new and exciting. This is important for our film opening as 

• It allows us to understand that we (the film opening producers) need to subvert some conventions in order to stand out from the millions of other movies with the "horror" genre.

• It also works in vice versa because we (the film opening producers) if subvert the genre completely audience's of the genre will be confuse and feel alienated from the movie. 

• Our movie distributors will also understand who to distribute the movie to in order for the film opening to do well and be profitable for both parties.

• To appeal not only to one particular audience (horror) but to also expand and get other people (younger or older then our age demographic) from similar genres to watch our film opening 

Here is a perfect example of this theory. The creators of FNAF kept the same characters throughout with their recognizable colors. The only thing they changed is the form of media and some of the colors to something more vibrant and neon so it can appeal to a younger audience (teenagers & preteens). However, the low key lighting used and the dull, eerie mise en scene of the horror movie from the original 2014 one still is used as such it's still recognizable for the long time fans of this series to also watch the "movie" version as the take will be slightly different.

David Buckingham - Genre Theory 

According to david buckingham, media changes over time because of societal changes. 

As seen with the two images above, as time progress a need of race inclusivity increases. There's even a rule in Oscars that currently states that "At least one of the lead actors or significant supporting actors submitted for Oscar consideration is from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group in a specific country or territory of production..." in order for a media product be eligible and as such most movies or media product begin embedding this into the media culture. This back in the day didn't exist especially back in 2003 s such robin's race stayed the same until recently.  

Binary opposites 

Binary opposites are conflicts that moves a plot forward and makes a film opening somewhat interesting as it introduces an obstacle for the protagonist. There many tropes for example:

• Good vs Evil
• Corruption vs Purity
• Emotion vs Thought
• Monogamy vs Adultery, etc                                                                                                

  (these example tropes were taken from Mr Nick's term 1 presentations)

Like in this clip it shows that the binary opposites are Honesty vs Lying or Hard Work vs Laziness. This scene shows that the film maker is pro honesty and hardwork as it shows mr bean losing /unsuccessful  at the very end.  

Media Codes 

A code is an aspect of a text from which the audience can derive meaning. We can do this through decoding or deconstructing the text. 

(these words were taken from Mr Nick's term 1 presentations)

- Hermeneutic Codes - Mysteries withheld from the audiences 

In this poster, numerous things are withheld from the audience like "what is the robots looking at" and "why are their eyes glowing ?" which is something our film opening wants to do. To make the viewer wonder and be curious of the actual events of the movie.

- Proairetic Codes - events that lead to the next part of the story 

In this clip, Mr bean couldn't fit everything into the suitcase. So using proairetic codes the audience is able to deduce that he needed to take something out. We also need this proairetic codes so audiences can also logically figure out what happen and keep the story events moving logically. 

- Semantic Codes - visual elements that are correlated with meaning 

In this poster, they use red to symbolize possibly death supported by their angry expression. Purple represents otherworldliness, poison, etc. 

- Symbolic Codes - codes that are given meaning through the movie's context

In this scene, only people who have seen other movies of this franchise know that the red lightsaber represents the dark side and the green in luke's represent the growth, wisdom and goodness Luke has experience in previous movies.

- Cultural Codes - codes that have cultural knowledge or context 

In this scene in south park, only people who have seen or heard about the united states former president Obama can understand the joke. Obama represents media's high expectation of a leader that could fix everything (which something most people know about if they keep watching or hearing about obama related news)but is met with politics messy reality. 

Uses of Gratification Theory - Blumler & Katz

We learned this theory in class where our teacher explained about this theory. We use this theory so we could better understand  our consumer's perspective as each media product satisfies certain social needs. In my opinion our film opening satisfies the diversion social need since the world of adventure and tension is often absent in the lives of the consumers. 

Storyboard practice - classwork

We also created our own story board to practice for our actual storyboard for our project 

Self reflection: After editing my notes AGAIN I think I improve and gave more detail into what I have learned in the past few months. I think next time I should add more of "My own work" to show a deeper understanding of each and every topic such as a video or a collage instead of just "screenshotting" most of my teachers slides into my blog. Overall I think I improve from the first iteration of this classwork post but I think with a few more changes such as videos, photos I took the time to edit and made it to show my understanding to the examiners would be even more helpful besides the information from my teacher's slides.