Three Point Lighting

Key Light

The key light shines directly into the subject and is the main illuminater.

Fill Light

The fill light is usually positioned at the subjects eye level and illuminates any dark shadows on their face.

Back Light

The back light shines from behind and makes the edges of the subject lighter. 

Different types of light.

Exposure. 

This photo has the exposure turned down so the colours are much harsher and creates shadows.

This photo has the exposure turned up and makes the scene look lighter.

Hard/soft.

This photo has a softer filter over it and it looks slightly blurred.

This photo has a harder filter over it and it looks sharper.

Unit 26, Sound and Editing.

SOUND.
Diegetic
•dialogue
•ambient sound

Non diegetic
•voice over
•soundtracks

Contrapuntal sound: doesn't fit the image.
Sound bridges: sound seeps over into another shot.

The matrix.
•diegetic dialogue
•shot reverse shot
•background music
•sound bridge, alarm clock.

500 days of summer.
•non diegetic soundtrack, bird tweeting, crowd.
•diegetic dialogue, the lift.
•contrapuntal sound, fountains.

Mean girls.
•contrapuntal sound, wild animal sounds - non diegetic
•non diegetic voice over, music
•diegetic dialogue,
•diegetic ambient mob
•shot reverse shot

Casino royal.
•diegetic dialogue, girl scream, grunts of pain
•ambient sound
•non diegetic soundtrack, sound of the whip (Foley)

EDITING.
Editing transitions are how you get from one shot to another
Fade and cross dissolve - passage of time/suspense // flashback.
Cut - invisible, make sure the narrative flows seamlessly
Montage is a modern idea of showing a selection of narrative in a quick way

Video

Moving images.

The reason we film/video is to tell stories. Some are big (cinema, TV) and some are small (advertising and promotion).

The process...
The filmmaking process is broken into three parts.

1. Pre-Production.
2. Production.
3. Post-Production.

Shooting ratio, 10:1

Production: Who does what?
Camera Operator/Cinematographer - Director of Photography.
Director, comes up with the shots to tell the story visually.
Producer, in charge of everything and everyone.
Lighting Technician, their job to the get the lighting right in a film.

Types of Production.
Single Camera Production, you have one camera throughout the whole production. Feature film, documentary, TV drama, majority of things on location.
Multi-Camera Production,  Live broadcast, pre recorded TV show, usually in a studio.

How to make moving images. 
Light is everything we see.
Soft light = diffused light.
Hard light = direct light.

Technical Workshops, Unit 26 & 21

In today's lesson we learnt the basics of editing on Final Cut Pro which is a non linear editing system, meaning that you don't have to edit shots in chronological order. You can edit the ending first, then the beginning then the middle which you can't do in linear editing systems.

First off we learnt what all the screens were called in Final Cut Pro.

Then we organised our clips into bins so that they were easier to manage.

Then we all chose a clip, and marked it either by clicking I to mark in and O to mark out or using these buttons. 

You know a clip has been marked because you will see the two blue lines with the arrows.

We also talked about the workflow of a production, the workflow is the steps taken to finish a project. First of all you review and mark your footage, then you make a rough cut of all your shots. After that you finalise your cut making it a “locked cut” and then you export it.

I also learned that when watching footage, you can use the J key to rewind, K to stop the footage and L to play.

The Shining

Over two lessons our class watched Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of "The Shining". Whilst watching the film, we all made notes on his use of Cinematography and Mise-En-Scene,  I thought that he was very creative in the way that he did his camera shots. In a scene where Danny is playing on the floor, Kubrick uses an ariel shot whilst a ball rolls on from the off screen space and then changes to a close up, that wasn't something that we'd expect in a scene which is set indoors.
Also when Jack and Wendy were on the stairs, the use of high and low angles were manipulated because normally we'd expect the person in the low angle shot to have all the power, but Wendy was in that shot and although she had a baseball bat, she was still the vulnerable one and Jack had all the bad intentions. Another camera movement to talk about is when Danny was on his bike and the camera was at his level behind him, usually the camera would be up higher, almost looking down on him because he's the child but by making the camera at his level it made us as the audience feel just as vulnerable. Reflecting back on the film, the camera always tracked the action whether it was a close up, mid shot or an over the shoulder shot. 

A lot of red came into the setting as we began to see Jack change and particularly when Danny is alone, this symbolised the blood of the little girls he could see and the danger that was yet to come. When the actors stared into off screen space, the close ups included a depth of focus, the camera focussed on the actors' facial expressions but the background was slightly blurred so we would concentrate on what was happening in the foreground of the frame. Also the tense changed throughout the film, whilst Jack is walking around and walks into a bar, past bartenders and waiters were there, this helped the audience to understand the narrative better because Jack was talking to a waiter and he was the man who killed his family and it helped to make more sense of what was happening.

In my opinion I thought the acting was really good, Kubrick didn't use a stereotypical dolled up woman running away from her husband, making it more realistic and believable to watch. The transition that Grady made was also chilling and he went from a generous and helpful waiter to a cold killer who was very stubborn and seems to know exactly what to say to Jack. 
Going off other reviews, a lot of people found it frightening saying they had to go to bed with the lights on for the entire summer which i'd say in an exaggeration as I think it's more of a psychological thriller than horror. 

Sound Recording Equipment

Mics

• Lavier mic, clip mic, omni-directional.
• Shotgun mic, directional/cardioid.

Mixers, Recorders & Monitoring

Studio = use a mixing desk.
Levels = volume.

• Field mixer, used on location, they don't record sound.
• Field recorder, connected to the field mixer.
• Be careful with feedback, put headphones on and turn the speaker down.

Auteurs

Auteurs are film makers who have a specific vision for a production which they get recognised and remembered for.

Some auteurs are;

• Tim Burton who has his own unique style when it comes to dark and gothic takes on horror and fantasy films such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands and Sleepy Hollow.
• Stanley Kubrick who is thought to be one of the greatest film makers of all time, his unique use of cinematography and attention to detail used in his films is what makes him such a respected film maker.
• Ingmar Bergman whose work was known for dealing with death, illness, faith, betrayal, bleakness and insanity,  and was mainly set in the landscapes of Sweden.

Man on fire

In man on fire, the 7 minutes of footage we watched had lots of different camera angles and shots. Some scenes were sped up to fit in with atmosphere of the club and the man running into the club. It had very low-key lighting because of the setting. When people were talking fast the close up of the characters were switching quickly too fit in all of the dialogue. There were some high angle wide shots so we could see all off the setting of the club and of everyone dancing.  It also contained a split screen of 4 different scenes. Wide shot shows a rundown setting in the background of the frame. The sunglasses make him look a bit shifty, the audience wonders what he is doing there and if he is up to something. He changes his costume to show the audience that he isn't a villain but he is a gangster. The blue colour wash makes it seem more mysterious and shady. Most of the props were guns and a photo of the little girl who he was trying to find.  The lighting flashes a lot to make it seem more fast paced. There is a P.O.V. shot where it shows what he is holding close up to the camera. There is an over the shoulder shot when Denzel Washington is  interrogating his victim and the effect is to show that they are quite close together so it's kind of intimidating for the victim There are subtitles next to the person that's speaking to show how loud the place is. The bits that are subtitled are the bits that we need to focus on the most. When it slows down it does it to highlight important things happening. The camera pans to show the whole scene. They have overlaid two scenes on top of each other to fit in with it being a rave and to show that the people outside still aren't aware of what is happening. Flashbacks to give the audience important information. 

Sound - Unit 38

Who does what?
Sound Recordist
Holds the boom pole.
Sound Mixer
Works in post production which takes place when filming is finshed.
Foley Artist
Someone who creates sound in a studio to mimic/represent sounds within a production.
Composer
Come up with and create music.
Sound Designer
Designs entire sound for a production, work with a composer.

What do we record?
Dialogue
Speech by individuals or groups.
Background (Ambient Sound) / Atmosphere
Animate and inanimate.
SFX (Sound Effects)
Foley, real world.

Sound for video.
Sync  
MUST be in sync to make sense.
Non-Sync
Doesn't have to be in sync to make sense.
Mix
Balanced sound.
Wildtrack
Recording of ambient sound.

Recording environment 
This is important because if you're inside, you have a lot more control over the sound whereas if you're outside it's harder to control the noise. You must have the right equipment for the right environment. you must have the right mic for whatever you're recording and it must be in the right position. Also use a muffler to block out unwanted sound. In a studio, you have perfect acoustics (where the sound bounces back off the walls), you much more sound control, you can make sound recordings like ADR (Additional Dialogue Recording) which can overlay other audio or to add a voice over.

Microphones
Shotgun - Directional, only picks up sound in front of it. The right position will shut out any unwanted sound.
Omni-directional Mic
Picks up sound from all around, wanted if you're recording a wild track.

Induction video

"Scream spoof" by Me, Maddi, Jess, Vicky and Nicole.

Editing

In todays editing session, all of the group had a go at cutting clips and adding music. I learnt how to unlink clips to remove the audio, that you hold down apple and R to render a clip and how to cut part of a clip using the razor blade icon.
We finished our rough cut and took audio out to replace it with music, we found music off youtube and used youtube converter to put it on final cut pro to use in our project. We also added effects such as slow motion to add to the video and created credits at the end.

Scream Planning

In our group (Maddi, Nicole, Jess and Vicky) we were given a scene from Scream and so far have annotated our scripts and changed certain parts of the story line. We have scouted locations and decided where we are filming, and when we're going to start filming. Helen shown us how to book equipment out but we decided we are going to use our own and we made a list of props that we are going to bring in as we're making it more comical rather than keeping the storyline the same. Also as a group we came up with a list of shot lists we're going to use for the scene and we decided that Jess is our main actor, Maddi is going to be the villain, Nicole is going to be another girl in the scene along with me and Vicky is being our camera operator.
In our group we all get along well and I prefer working in groups rather than individually sometimes.