different media forms forms have different media language as an introduction is worth looking overall at what constitutes the language of moving image. we are looking at the language so we can understand the rules and conventions that are there.

The camera is a important tool as it determines the focus and depth of field. the focus can be used to direct and prioritise certain information. for example, it should determine where the audience is focusing on and to look at.

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

shot size is really important. for example with extreme closeup it gives you a more dramatic on screen moment of the character rather than a far away shot as it does not dramatics the scene as much. also with far away shots it shows a more dramatic sense of the scene.

insert shot is the shot that is inserted to focus of the thing that is being focused on in the scene.

edit

Moving from Camera to Edit, would be to compare the way that the camera can frame and position characters and thereby the audience by creating ‘subjectivity‘ and empathy. This is so important for creating a story, characters, a theme and of course communicate meaning Similarly, the way in which images are edited together has a massive significance in terms of communicating an idea and of creating meaning.

editing stiches together your camera work.

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′)

when my character was pushed I cut on the action of him falling. I also cut on the focus of the hand grasping the sand and letting go I cut after the action of the hand grasping the ground.

parallel editing

The use of sequential editing (editing one clip to another) allows for a number of key concepts to be produced:

• parallel editing: two events editing together – so that they may be happening at the same time, or not?
• flashback / flash-forward – allowing time to shift

montage: telling a long story in a short period of time, this can be done by taking the important events in the story you are trying to tell and cut them together to make a sequence that therefore tells the story in a short time. Montage can also be used as symbolism.

logical shot progression

Conventional shot progression – to create VERISIMILITUDE (ie realism, believability) usually involves the following shots (although not always in the same order).

The use of these shots allow the audience to understand SPATIAL RELATIONSHIPS between locations, people, movements etc. The length of shot will determine the drama, empathy, theme etc. The choice of how to sequence each shot will determine the AESTHETIC QUALITY of the product. The next sequence will then follow a similar pattern, which again allows the audience to understand concepts such as SPACE, TIME, DISTANCE, MOVEMENT, MOTIVATION, PLOT, THEME etc.

shot reverse shot

he Shot / Reverse Shot a really good starting point for students to both think about and produce moving image products. The basic sequence runs from a wide angle master shot that is at a 90′ angle to (usually) two characters. This sets up the visual space and allows the film-maker to to then shoot separate close-ups, that if connected through an eye-line match are able to give the impression that they are opposite each other talking. The shots are usually over the shoulder.

different forms of media have different media languages,

the way the camera is focused controls where the watcher is drawn to on the screen, if the camera focuses on something then unfocused onto something else your eyes are drawn to look at that specific thing. Also different angles help with what you see and the the meaning of the shot. for close up shots there is needed to be a focus point for definition and purpose.

EDIT

Editing is what stitches your camera work together. Editing is important as it brings the effect of your film together making it how you want it. You need it to create effect.

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′)

montages allow you to express things, such as emotion.

logical shot progression

• establishing shot / ES, moving to
• wide shot / WS,
• to medium shot / MS,
• to close up / CU,
• to big close up / BCU;
• and then back out again

• parallel editing: two events editing together – so that they may be happening at the same time, or not?
• flashback / flash-forward – allowing time to shift

• 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-SCALE, SIZE & SPACE
• Insert Shot
•  AESTHETIC QUALITY
• SPACE, TIME, DISTANCE, MOVEMENT, MOTIVATION, PLOT, THEME 

shot reverse shot

usually used to make it look as if two people are having a conversation.

1. Kernels: key moments in the plot / narrative structure
2. Satellites: embellishments, developments, aesthetics

This theory allows students to break down a narrative into 2 distinct elements. Those elements which are absolutely essential to the story / plot / narrative development, which are known as KERNELS and those moments that could be removed and the overall logic would not be disturbed, known as SATELLITES.

Roland Barthes: Proairetic and Hermenuetic Codes

1. Proairetic code: action, movement, causation
2. Hermenuetic code: reflection, dialogue, character or thematic development
3. Enigma code: the way in which intrigue and ideas are raised – which encourage an audience to want more information.

Linear = arranged in or extending a straight or nearly straight line

chronological = following the order in which they occurred

sequential = forming or following in a logical order or sequence

circular structure = an object that references itself.  making sure the function that is being passed in, filters out repeated or circular data.

Time based = over a period of time

narrative arc =  is an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strips, board games, video games, and films with each episode following a dramatic arc.

Freytag’s pyramid = Devised by 19th century German playwright Gustav Freytag, Freytag’s Pyramid is a paradigm of dramatic structure outlining the seven key steps in successful storytelling: exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, and denouement

Exposition = Narrative exposition is the insertion of background information within a story or narrative. This information can be about the setting, characters’ backstories, prior plot events, historical context.

Inciting incident = The event that sets the main character or characters on the journey that will occupy them throughout the narrative.

Rising action =  starts right after the period of exposition and ends at the climax. Beginning with the inciting incident, rising action is the bulk of the plot. It is composed of a series of events that build on the conflict and increase the tension, sending the story racing to a dramatic climax.

climax = The ending and leading up to the end of the narrative

Falling action = Falling action is what happens near the end of a story after the climax and resolution of the major conflict. falling action is what the characters are doing after the story’s most dramatic part has happened.

Resolution = the ending of the story, happens after the conflict

Denouement = the final part of a play, film, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved.

Beginning / middle / end = The plot through out the films

Equilibrium = Everything is balanced at the beginning

Disruption = Changing something over and over again

Transgression = Often disequilibrium is caused by societal / moral / ethical

Peripeteia = a sudden reversal of fortune or change in circumstances, especially in reference to fictional narrative. “the peripeteias of the drama”

Anagnorisis = the point in a play, novel, etc., in which a principal character recognizes or discovers another character’s true identity or the true nature of their own circumstances.

Catharsis = is the purification and purgation of emotions through dramatic art, or it may be any extreme emotional state that results in renewal and restoration

The 3 Unities: Action, Time, Place = a tragedy should have one principal action. unity of time:

 Flash-forward / Flash-back: a flash-forward takes a narrative forward in time, a flashback goes back in time, often to before the narrative began.

Foreshadowing = be a warning or indication of a future event.

Ellipsis = the omission from speech or writing of a word or words that are superfluous or able to be understood from contextual clues.

Pathos =  to persuade an audience by purposely evoking certain emotions to make them feel the way the author wants them to feel.

Empathy = is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference

Diegetic / non-diegetic = In film, diegesis refers to the story world, and the events that occur within it. Thus, non-diegesis are things which occur outside the story-world

Slow motion = A slow movement to add to a tense scene

In media res = the practice of beginning an epic or other narrative by plunging into a crucial situation that is part of a related chain of events.

Metanarrative = in critical theory and particularly in postmodernism is a narrative about narratives of historical meaning, experience, or knowledge

Quest narratives = one of the oldest and surest ways of telling a story.

The Leveson inquiry was a judge-led inquiry (spanning across 2011 and 2012) set up Prime Minister David Cameron. It reviewed the general culture and ethics of the British media, and made recommendations for a new, independent body to replace existing press complaints commission. This was a result of the wake of the phone-hacking scandal at the now defunct News of the World tabloid. This was where employees of the news paper were accused of phone hacking, police bribery, and exercising improper influence is the pursuit of finding a story.

The final 2000 page report was published on the 29th of November 2012.