Week 2 - Response to Lecture

 This weeks lecture was based on the following topic: Cine-Speak Learning the Language of the Cinema

Firstly we learned about the different shot sizes used for film:

Shot Sizes

VLS/WS: Very LS/Wide Shot
LS: Long Shot
MLS: Medium LS
MS: Mid Shot
MCU: Medium CU
CU: Close Up
BCU: Big CU
ECU: Extreme CU

We then learned how each different shot size relates to a specific point the producers want the audience to grasp when watching the film:

Who?
The Close Up answers the question of ‘who’, by showing our character in detail.
What?
The Mid Shot answers the ‘what’ question by showing your subject performing an action
Where?
The Long Shot is our answer to the ‘where’ question, at the beginning of a scene it is also known as the Establishing Shot.
When?
Both the Wide Shot and the Close Up can help us answer the ‘when’ question. Time can be a difficult thing to capture on the screen.
Why?
The Big Close Up can help answer the ‘why’ question, usually by revealing more about a character & their actions.
How?
A single Medium Close Up or a series of Close Ups can explain an event and answer the ‘how’ question.


We then learned about head room, good talking room, the rule of thirds, and the 180 degree rule. 

In very simple terms the camera must be positioned in the correct spot depending on the position of the actor and what he/she is doing.

For example, good talking room means that the actor be positioned on the right hand side of the screen when facing to the right or vise versa, This enables the actor good talking space on the camera.

Good head room simply means the actors head is not cut out of the shot, and is represented properly in the frame.

The rule of thirds means braking up the film screen into thirds to allow for central placement of the actors face.

180° rule is a basic guideline in film making that states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle.

Consequently all this information we learned in the lecture was for our tutespark task for the week which required us to create a video using our mobile phone cameras.

The final result of this video can be seen in the following blog.