If you could make a reality show about your life, what would it look like?
"Moose Encounters:" the next big reality show? Why wouldn't this clip work as a TV show? What needs to be done here?
How is this clip stronger than the first moose video? What does it contain that the first one does not? What will your reality show need in order to be a success?
VISUAL/NONVERBAL STORYTELLING
Composition and Characterization examples:
Student layering example created by Jazmine Casiano
Student layering example. Jarrod Carnick's video "Last Man Standing" contains shots of layering using human subjects in background, midground, and foreground.
Student layering example: "The Game."
Student example: Avoid these common mistakes that are illustrated in this video. Please do not use subtitles (this is not a "silent" movie in the sense that there is dialogue we are not hearing. Communicate nonverbally, please!). Please reshoot shots in which your actors break character.
One-minute Scene Example: Peeping Tom scene
Here is the simple version of the Peeping Tom scene that shows approximately the level of complexity you want for your scene (in Fundamentals of TV Production).
Film example: The Searchers
How is John Wayne's character revealed here? Where does the viewer look in the frame? How does the contrast between characters create meaning and character in this clip? What would have been required (from the director and actors) to shoot this scene?
Student Film Example: Bad Karma
Go to 4:42 to 5:45 in this student film. What choices were made in camera placement and why? How does the contrast between characters in the same shot create meaning? What composition considerations were made before shooting these scenes?
Famous Z-axis example from Citizen Kane
Film Example: Citizen Kane
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| Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AL2Tua5a_o to see the childhood Kane scene that uses Back,mid,and foreground layering composition |
Moving Camera Examples:
Student example: Kyler Michelson's Astral Projection
Student example: Dan's Decision
Student example: Kyler Michelson's Astral Projection
Student example: Dan's Decision
Judy Morris made this video when she was a college student. It was for the very same assignment you have: use a "power move" to tell the story or add suspense to a scene. What is the power move (camera movement) here? How was it done?
Film Example: Das Boot
How does the traveling camera shot help create mood and meaning in this scene? How did they get this shot? To see a glimpse of the making of this movie go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaJgGuzq2H8 (and to see that scene being made, go to 2:45 in that clip of the making of Das Boot).
Opening Traveling Shot in Hugo
Famous Stedicam Moving Camera Shot from Goodfellas
Notice how the power move takes you through space with the characters, revealing a "hidden" world that the protagonist knows well and shares with his date and future wife.
Student Example: The SUperfan
Go to 4:50 in this student film to see the car-used-as-a-dolly shots. Notice the momentum it adds to the sequence.
Student example: Nightmare Pursuit (from a Chapman University class)
Note the hallway scene and the chase in the second half of the film, starting at 1:10. How do elements in this sequence intensify the mood and internal state of the character? What choices were made by the filmmaker concerning camera movement and placement and how did he get these shots?
Subjective Camera Examples:
Film example (subjective camera): Vertigo
As you watch these subjective camera scenes, look for the way the scene "tells" us, the audience, that the film is about to go into the character's mind: Does it lead into the shot or sequence with certain clues that it's about to be an internalized, POV-type shot? Or is it intentionally left mysterious and unclear (maybe the scene begins WITHIN the dream world and only later does the person "wakes up," which tells us it was all a dream)?
ALSO: Do we, the audience, have to do the work of figuring out where "reality" ends and subjectivity begins? AND: consider which type of subjectivity is at work here: dream or fantasy sequence (fiction)? flashback (reality, if a "reliable" flashback)? POV shot (reality, but it could be an altered reality if the person is ill or insane)? OR...is it a blending of the real and subjective in a way that we, the audience, can't tell what is real and what is imaginary?
Film example (subjective camera): Spellbound
Film Example (subjective camera): Notorious
Here, Alicia, the Ingrid Bergman character, has a hangover after a night of heavy drinking. Notice how we see through her eyes and get a sense of her state of mind through these POV shots.
Subjective Camera Example: "Mysterious Meat Charges"
In Mysterious Meat Charges, notice how editing assigns meaning to the dog's facial expression to make it appear as if he is thinking and doing certain things (such as using the mouse or typing on the keyboard), even though he is not. This shows how editing creates meaning.
You can place a shot of someone reacting and place it next to a shot of what the person is "looking at" and the two shots together will create meaning. Viewers will think the person from the first shot is looking at the object in the second shot. In other words, the dog now appears guilty because we assign meaning to his facial expressions based on all that is going on in this scene (the shots that come before and after his reaction shots--as well as the images layers on top of his close-up shots). This is called the Kuleshov Effect.
Blending of subjective and objective camera example: "Hello" montage from Glee:
Student Example of subjective camera: "Dream Sequence" (from a Chapman University class)
"You Should Have Studied" by Amos Cooper (student example: subjective camera)
"Fire Hazards" by Rory Meagher (student example: subjective camera)
Full-length student film with subjective camera: "Co-Op" by Kyle Stover and James Costello.
Cutaways and Inserts (or "Cut-Ins")
Why Use Cutaways for interviews (among other scenes)?
What are Cutaways?
Inserts Example: Mysterious Meat Market Charges
Student inserts example: "Park Bench Romance"
"Get Crackin'" Inserts Example
Notice how the scene might have worked without the extreme closeups of the pistachio nuts being placed in front of the dogs' noses, but these insert shots help a great deal in calling attention to what exactly is going on.
Montage
Film Example: Love Montage from the 1974 film "Benji"
Notice how this love montage consists of nonverbal shots of different "events" that could have been assembled in any order. The music, slow motion, superimpositions (check out the long super starting at 2:09), and over-exposure effects add to the dreaminess of the mood here, giving it a true 1970s feel.
Film example: Love Story
Here's another love montage that takes a bunch of little actions by the couple and assembles them (again, it could have been any order of shots) into a montage that gives the sense of the two of them being in love. Notice how they use the setting: the couple frolic in the snow, which was easy to film, since it was an actual snowy day in a snowy location.
Kuleshov Effect example: Henry Fonda clip
Here's the example of the Kuleshov Effect shown in class.
Film example of cut-ins: Psycho: the shower scene
This famous scene is composed largely of cut-in shots. It's a classic example of montage, as well.
Interviews about the making of the shower scene:
Shot-Reverse-Shot and Cut-ins Example: Hugh and Edith Scene
Notice the use of over-the-shoulder shots here as we go shot-reverse-shot during the conversation. Also notice the use of close-ups on Edith's face as the scene reaches its climax when she realizes she has to teach the dreaded English composition course.
Peeping Tom: Complex version with music
Montage
Film Example: Love Montage from the 1974 film "Benji"
Notice how this love montage consists of nonverbal shots of different "events" that could have been assembled in any order. The music, slow motion, superimpositions (check out the long super starting at 2:09), and over-exposure effects add to the dreaminess of the mood here, giving it a true 1970s feel.
Film example: Love Story
Here's another love montage that takes a bunch of little actions by the couple and assembles them (again, it could have been any order of shots) into a montage that gives the sense of the two of them being in love. Notice how they use the setting: the couple frolic in the snow, which was easy to film, since it was an actual snowy day in a snowy location.
Kuleshov Effect example: Henry Fonda clip
Here's the example of the Kuleshov Effect shown in class.
Film example of cut-ins: Psycho: the shower scene
This famous scene is composed largely of cut-in shots. It's a classic example of montage, as well.
Interviews about the making of the shower scene:
Shot-Reverse-Shot and Cut-ins Example: Hugh and Edith Scene
Notice the use of over-the-shoulder shots here as we go shot-reverse-shot during the conversation. Also notice the use of close-ups on Edith's face as the scene reaches its climax when she realizes she has to teach the dreaded English composition course.
Peeping Tom: Complex version with music
Introducing Brad Womack....Again. The Bachelor (2011). Here, notice how B-roll is used to illustrate what Brad talks about (his breakdown after his first foray on the show) and how camera placement and zooms are carefully planned out (for the water shots and workout tight shots of Brad with his shirt off).
Kasey's scene: notice how the illusion of production breaks down in this scene from last summer's Bachelorette (2010). The helicopters that pick up the couple. The change in the wine glass level and sunlight in the scene where he sings to her.
Kidnapped by the Kids (OWN network): notice how the woman's body language changes from shot to shot while they are seated, which likely means the scene has been edited out of sequence to heighten the pleasure for the audience (and get the best reaction shots to what the man is saying). Notice the man's teardrop on his cheek at the end of the clip: reality show gold!
The Lunch Date: Academy-award winning short film from 1989. Think about the attention to story and character that went into this--they obviously spent much of their energy and time on pre-production so costs and effort could be kept within budget and time for their assignment (this was a graduate student film project at Columbia University).
Split Screen example: Week 15 (long version):
Dynamic Editing Example:
