Film Studies Week 2Editing Relationships

There are four different areas to consider when editing, they are as follows:

Graphical – This concerns the transitions between scenes and their appearance

Rhythmic – As it sounds, rhythmic is the focus on editing shots together to create a sense of rhythm

Temporal – The use of editing to display the passage of time, either past or future.

Spatial – Utilising space to establish shots and or sustain continuity

Cinematography

Cinematography refers to the visual aspect of a films language i.e. what a shot is and what its purpose is to the audience, story etc.

Types of Shot

Bird’s Eye View – Filmed from the top down

High Angle – Filmed as though we are looking down on the subject.

Low Angle – Opposite of high angle meaning we are looking up at the subject

Dutch Tilt – Twisted and distorted scene

Rack Focus – More of a technique as appose to a shot, when a scene pulls focus to a different focal point

Extreme Long Shot – A shot that sees our subject filmed for a rather long way away (mainly used for establishment)

Long Shot – Seeing all of our focal point in the shot

Mid Shot – Seeing our subject at a medium distance, half of the person

Close Up – Shot close up to a subject, face taking up majority of frame

Extreme Close Up – A shot focusing on certain body parts taking up the full frame

Point of View (POV) – Shot through the eyes of a subject

Camera Movements

Pan – the camera moves across the scene in order to establish it.

Tilt – When the camera is tilted on its axis in order to capture a subject from the top to bottom or vice versa.

Tracking – Following a subject for a shot either via a steadicam or dolly

Crane – A shot in which the camera is mounted on a crane and raised into the air

Rear Window and Mise –en-Scene

The following are notes made on the opening long take of Rear Window:

-Everything in the shot is intentional and has some sort of meaning

-Hitchcock was a master at Mise-en-Scene

-Pans are used for establishing the films setting

-We see photography related items, the most prominent being the negative that confirms that our protagonist is a photographer without the use of dialogue.

Transitions

Cut – The simplest of transitions, literally from one scene to the next.

Wipes – The following scene will swipe across the screen thus removing the previous scene. Most prominently used in Star Wars.

Dissolves – Shot A is superimposed over the start of Shot B

Atonement

The following is notes made on the long take used in Atonement:

-A clear contrast is made between the civilians and military by the clothing (the military are a lot more formal while

civilians are not) and by means of power (military is seen somewhat bullying civilians)

-Scenes are incredibly busy meaning there is a vast amount of symbolism to be observed,

-The entire shot is one take from the solders perspective making it very immersive, we see no establishment of the location until the very final scene making us build it up in our heads.

-We frequently move in and out of dialogue.

Context

Understanding context of a film means understanding its meaning by reading into its production aspects such as year, target audience etc.

There is also the context of watching a film to look into which is as it sounds, why someone would watch a film, for this you need to look at their age, location etc. However some aspects may not be that important depending on the film.

Spaced Episode 5

We then watched episode 5 of Spaced in its entirety, the following are my notes from the screening:

Spaced is directed by Edgar Wright who is known for his use of visual comedy which means he creates humour using framing, shots etc.

-The flat is lit in yellow and blue in order to create an aura of mystery

-Fred begins to become rather philosophical and we see him sport a white background which gives open and somewhat holy imagery while Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s characters are in a much more natural human-like light despite their nonsensical rambling.

-During the scenes in which we see two separate plans being mapped out we see two very different representations for each plan: The first plan is incredibly simple therefore it is only portrayed through fast paced comic-like stills while the second plan is filmed all with live action.

-A temporal relationship is present when a plan in selected, the coin is flipped in the air and then multiple coins hit a bar leaving us to assume that the second plan has been selected.

-We see different characters in different lighting for symbolism: Blue for sadness and emptiness and open yellows to suggest happiness.

-We see an encounter between Simon Pegg and a boy in a toilet to which the 180 degree line is used as they have a conversation, during which dramatic music is used when the boy speaks in order to make him seem intimidating despite him being the complete opposite.

-False intimidation is a recurring technique

-Close ups of villains accompanied by over the top and comical noises to create humour due to the seeming somewhat intimidating.

-We see the “heroes” and villains have a “shootout” by making gun signs with their hands and “shooting” each other which also happened at the beginning of the episode bringing it full cycle

-We see an uneventful credit roll however it does have meaning as we see in the previous scene that the marijuana has been cooked into the stew.