Language of the moving image

The language of moving image is the key terminology and set of rules with grammar or convention. There are different languages that compare with the movies, music videos, posters, animations etc.

I have used the camera focus on my sequence by panning that camera to someone and further focusing on his hands and what his doing. I’m going to better my sequence by getting his facial expressions after focusing on the hands to show him realising what he pulls out of his bag.

Sizes, Angles and Movement

  • High angle / Low angle / bulls-eye / birds eye / canted angle
  • Tracking / Panning / Craning / Tilting / Hand held / Steadicam
  • Establishing Shot / Long Shot / Medium Shot / Close-up / Big Close-Up / Extreme Close Up (students often struggle with the first and the last again issues with SCALE, SIZE & SPACE, so practice is really important)
  • Insert Shot

The shots angles and movements can vary between close ups to the face or the eyes, excluding any lower parts such as the chin and mouth, it also specifically focuses on the eyes and put the other facial features such as the beard out of focus.

Insert shots are the shots that draw the viewers attention to a specific aspect of the scene.

Cut fade/dissolve

As such, what you leave out known as ELLIPSIS is just as important as what you put in. Again the ideas of SPACE, SIZE & SCALE are really important, because you need to frame your shots with appropriate SIZE AND SCALE and trim your shots so that they are not too long / not too short ie creating the appropriate SPACE for ideas, characters, themes, the plot etc to develop.

  1. EDIT ON ACTION
  2. EDIT ON A MATCHING SHAPE, COLOUR, THEME
  3. EDIT ON A LOOK, A GLANCE, EYELINE
  4. EDIT ON A SOUND BRIDGE
  5. EDIT ON A CHANGE OF SHOT SIZE
  6. EDIT ON A CHANGE OF SHOT CAMERA POSITION (+30′)

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