For our preliminary task we had to find a location, storyboard a scene of someone walking through a door, sitting down, and having a conversation and then film it. Our scene had to include shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.
We decided to film it in the school cafeteria as it had a big enough space for us to film comfortably in. Instead of the usual method of drawing our storyboard, we took pictures to create our storyboard.
Storyboarding a scene is where you create a series of rough sketches outlining the scene you want to create. They should include some basic information, such as what type of shot you want to shoot, for example a long shot or a close up, but also the duration of the shot, so you know how long to shoot the scene for.
Storyboarding is an essential part of the pre-production planning as you can refer to it when you're out filming your scene,saving time, but also making filming much easier as you have a visual representation of the shot you want to create.
Here's an example of a simple storyboard template-
Sound is very important in film and TV programmes. It is 50% of your film experience.
Diegetic Sound is sound whose source is visible on the screen, such as dialogue, whereas Non-DiegeticSound is sound that comes from nothing within the field of vision and has been added on afterwards.
Other sound definitions include-
Sound Motif- A sound associated with a character or with a place, e.g humming of machinery associated with a factory. A character may have a particular musical figure that plays when they appear.
Direct Address- This is when a narrator or character speaks directly to the audience, not to characters within the scene. This technique means the characters interacts with their audience.
Here's an example of this taken from the popular TV show Miranda, starring Miranda Hart-
Here Miranda directly speaks to the camera and also turns to looks at the camera, making it more comical.
Score- This is music composed, arranged and played specifically for the production.
Incidental Music- This is non-diegetic music that accompanies events or changes of scenes.
Themes- This is music that always accompanies a particular programme or even a particular character and suits its mood.
Voice-over- This is where a voice from the outside the scene gives the audience information. Often the voice tells us the story and may be a character within the story. In TV programme Desperate Housewives, a character is the narrator even though she is not alive.
Sound Bridge- This is where the sound, either non-diegetic or diegetic, continues across one or more transitions or cuts.
Mise-en-scene literally means to put in scene. It refers to whatever you can see in the shot.
CLAMPS is an easy acronym to remember when talking about mise-en-scene. C stands for costume. L stands for lighting, A is for actors, M is for movement, P for props and S stands for settings. There is also sound and editing to consider plus camera movement and shots, but for now we in class are focusing on CLAMPS. These six things are important because it gives the film or television programme realism, making it easier to watch. It can also reveal things about the characters or give a representation of topics, such as gender.
For class we were told to find a clip from a T.V. drama and analyse it for CLAMPS. I chose a clip from Grey's Anatomy starring Ellen Pompeo and Katherine Heigl, among others.
Here's it is -
Costume- Meredith is wearing scrubs, which shows she's either a doctor or a nurse. Alex is in quite formal wear, suggesting maybe he was at a formal event. Izzie is wearing typical patient wear, showing she is ill, but the bandanna she's wearing suggests her hair has fallen out, which is usually associated with cancer. This can be seen in the screenshot below-
Lighting- The lighting is very artificial, very much like the bright unnatural lights of a hospital, but it's also quite dark representing the sadness surrounding the death of George.
Actors- Izzie is crying, showing that she was probably quite close to George. When Meredith tells the lady to go, it shows that the lady is probably not one of their friends or part of their social group, as they are not consoling her. Alex turns away in this clip, possibly representing something of his character, that maybe he runs away from situations.
Movement- The movement in this scene is quite slow, helping to show the emotion.
Props- The medical equipment helps give it authenticity. The wheelchair and the drip for Izzie, show again that she is ill.
Setting- A hospital shown from medical equipment, and costumes such as props.
The rule of thirds applies to the composition of a shot. The frame is split into 9 equal sections.
Like this -
This acts as a reference point which then acts as a guide for framing the shot.
Points of interest should occur 1/3 or 2/3 of the way up or across the frame, not directly in the centre. This is because the eye does not automatically go to the centre of the screen, so if something is in the centre it makes it look strange to the audience.
Here's an example-
This is taken from The Vow (2012) starring Rachel McAdams (above) and Channing Tatum. In this shot we can see how the rule of thirds is used as she is not directly in the centre, making the shot feel more natural.
Semiotics means the study of signs. It helps us to understand images and visual signs.
All communication is possible through signs.
Key names in the history of semiotics are Charles Sanders Pierce, Ferdinand de Saussure and Roland Barthes. All three influenced the development of semiotics.
Connotation and denotation are very important when discussing semiotics. Denotation is literally what you can see, whereas connotation is what is inferred by the image or the emotional suggestions related to the image.
The denotation of this image= Woman, with blond hair, wearing white dress, in the style of a wedding dress.
Connotation of this image= It's her wedding day. She's probably happy. The white dress also suggests purity and innocence,while it's in a style that is associated with Western weddings.
The 180 Degree Rule is where the camera remains on one side of an imaginary line that divides the characters. If the camera crosses the line it can become confusing for the audience as it makes it look as though the characters are swapping places. If the camera does cross the imaginary line it will be for a specific purpose.
This image gives a good representation of the 180 degree rule.
The basic idea is that the camera should always film on one side of the line of vision so that the two characters are always on the same side of the frame, making the scene continuous.
It is often used in car chase scenes. If the car leaves on the right side of the frame, in the next shot it should be on the left side. This all adds to the continuity of the scene.
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