Scenes to Inspire

 In class we were told to choose a clip that showed what we loved about film. For my clip I chose the film Now You See Me (2013) directed by Louis Leterrier. Below is the clip-

I chose this because it has what I love about film. Not only was this film visually spectacular, it also made me think. It made me question what was going. This is what I love about film: It's ability to make you capture your emotions. It's the same reason I like to read; the ability to take you on a journey, whether visual or in your mind. It can make you forget what's going on and just focus on the magic of film. 

In particular, with this scene, I like the on-screen tension with the actors. They really become their actors, which I find makes a film. It's the same with Heath Ledger and Christian Bale in The Dark Knight. Both actors bounce-off each other creating movie scenes that you will remember.  

 

Things that I can apply to our own opening sequence are very clean cuts and shot transitions. This makes the action run more smoothly and therefore is easier to watch.

Insidious clip

Here is our version of the Insidious clip. We tried to include every shot and movement in our clip, especially the movement at around 10 seconds. This camera movement was achieved by Katie on a wheely chair, zooming out whilst being pushed forward by Joel to create an unsettling effect. Another example of this camera movement is in Jaws, directed by Steven Spielberg.                                                                      

We had some difficulties whilst filming, especially to get all the different shot right. What we found we needed to improve was our storyboarding as we had to refer to the clip, whereas we should've been able to rely on our storyboards.   

                                                                    Thanks for reading :)

Practicing Camera Work

Quite a while ago we had a task to re-create a film clip, focusing of getting the right camera shots and movement. Our group decided to re-create the ending clip from Insidious. Here's the clip-

 

We created storyboards for this scene-

 In my next post I will upload our version of the clip :)

 



Editing

Editing is a crucial part of film language. It helps to structure the narrative and link scenes/events together. Editing also helps the film to follow a logical order or time span, however some films distort this, for example flashbacks.

The most common form of editing is a cut. This is where one camera shot moves instantly to another.
Examples of some cuts are-

• Eye-line Match- This is a part of continuity editing, where we see a character look in a particular direction then the next cut gives a shot of what they see.
•  Jump Cut- This is an unusual edit pattern. It is where a few frames have been removed from a continuous action giving a jerky, unnatural feel to the action. It can be seen in BBC Three's Being Human.
• Parallel editing- This is where you run two or more sequences of action that are happening at the same time and we cross cut between them.
• Cutaway- A cut away from the main action to a scene of related action somewhere else.

Transitions between scenes other than cuts include:

• Dissolve- Where the image appears gradually to break into particles, leaving the next shot to emerge from behind.
• Crossfade- Where the current shot fades out at the same rate as the next shot fades in. An example of this is in the BBC TV show Sherlock, shown below. This is perhaps used to show that time has passed, or they are now at a new location. 

•  Fade Out- The current shot fades- usually to black.

Superimposition is where two or more pieces of film are blended so that they appear at the same time. This can be achieved by blue or green screen techniques where an actor is filmed against a background of consistent blue or green.  This colour can then be digitally extracted and the film of the person layered onto another piece of film so the person appears against a different background.

Editing is also used to determine the duration of a shot. For example a short shot duration can convey action or emergency, whereas a longer shot duration can suggest intimacy or intensity within the narrative.

Split screen is where the frame is split into sections so that the audience can see events happening at the same time. A good example of this is the American TV series 24, seen to the right. Here we can see how the split screen technique is used to show the reactions of four different people at the same time.