Parasite – Through the denotation you see people facing the camera, but as you look longer you notice that there is a person lying on the floor
The Terminator – This film poster has anchorage to it.
Wreck it Ralph – Signification is done instantly through the angry emotion on Ralphs face. Its an index of the 8 bit art, the choice of font is old school. And the Disney logo gives anchorage to the picture
The Lorax – The dominant signifier is the Lorax. This film poster is quite reactionary.
All media forms have a language, therefore moving image has its own language and conventions.
Students who make their own products often struggle with SPACE, SIZE and SCALE. These are fundamental principles.
Different MEDIA FORMS have different MEDIA LANGUAGES as an introduction it is worth looking overall at what constitutes the LANGUAGE OF MOVING IMAGE – in other words, key terminology – which also suggests that there is a GRAMMAR or CONVENTION or set of rules
The most important tool in a camera is the focus and depth of field (ie how much is in focus). I used this in my first scene however I did not do it to a high quality, nor did I do a pull or rack focus.
Shot sizes, angles and movements
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
My first shot was a establishing shot, the next scene was a low angle and the next one after that was a high angle with a close up. I could use a insert shot of a note to give clarity to the environment around me and to the audience.
Editing is:
editing is stitching things together (eg. moving images)
But the key question is WHEN TO EDIT ie when is it best to move from one shot to another? The answer is usually found in the following list:
EDIT ON ACTION
EDIT ON A MATCHING SHAPE, COLOUR, THEME
EDIT ON A LOOK, A GLANCE, EYELINE
EDIT ON A SOUND BRIDGE
EDIT ON A CHANGE OF SHOT SIZE
EDIT ON A CHANGE OF SHOT CAMERA POSITION (+30′)
I showed a scene of the woods and then cut to a guy holding a stick.
Shot Sequencing 1: 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 Montages are the process of compressing time through editing and giving the audience an idea of what the situation is.
Shot Sequencing 3: Invisible Editing / Continuity Editing Continuity editing can be seen as the opposite of montage editing as the main aim is to create a sense of realism or ‘believability’ known as verisimilitude and has it’s own structure of rules where shots are edited together at particular times or on particular shots, as previously highlighted above.
match on action eye-line match graphic match sound bridge 30′ rule 180′ rule
Shot sequencing 4: Shot progression Conventional shot progression – to create VERISIMILITUDE (ie realism, believability) usually involves the following shots (although not always in the same order).
Shot Sequencing 5: Shot / Reverse Shot
The 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.
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. Think about the way satellites orbit something bigger like a planet. Satellites can therefore be thought as useful to develop character, emotion, location, time and so on, but NOT ESSENTIAL. In this way they are really useful creative elements but not essential to the story. As such, some elements may emerge and play out but actually turn out to be of little value, meaning or consequence to the overall / main parts of the narrative – these can be called non-sequitars. Nevertheless, the use of light & shade is very important in terms of constructing an effective and enjoyable narrative.
Genre is a way of organizing products into different categories. It helps mass medium to produce consistently and efficiently and to relate its production to the expectations of its customers. It helps to understand similarities and differences in a piece of product. Products in the same genre tend to hold similar patterns and codes and conventions that are both predictable and expected. Consumers want it so that it is similar, but different, but not different enough so they don’t like it but instead a window between them.
saddled with conventions and stereotypes, formulas and clichés and all of these limitations were codified in specific genres. This was the very foundation of the studio system and audiences love genre pictures – Scorsese, A personal Journey through American Cinema (1995)
Steve Neal
predictable expectations – reinforced – amplify – repertoire of elements – corpus – verisimilitude – realism – construction of reality – historically specific – sub-genres – hybrid genres –
Levi-Strauss talks about binary opposition theory, whereby its where there are two people who are very opposite to each other (eg. strong female vampire and the opposition would be a weak male human) creating conflict. This creates an ideology within a piece of media, audiences are encouraged to make a judgment about characters, groups, places etc.
Britain’s streets erupted into rioting the day before Ghost Town reached number one in the charts. This was due to Ghost Town being released on Released on 20 June 1981 against a backdrop of rising unemployment. it expressed the mood of the early days of Thatcher’s Britain for many. “It was clear that something was very, very, wrong,” the song’s writer, Jerry Dammers, has said. – Source (BBC, Jon Kelly)
The band was made up of white and black singers, at the time this was known as 2 Tone due to the record labels name to a genre which fused ska, reggae and new wave and, in turn, inspired a crisply attired youth movement. Vocalist Neville Staple said in Ghost Town that there was “too much fighting on the dance floor”, he sang from personal experience. The Specials to announce a gig promoting racial unity in their city on the day of Ghost Town’s release; the National Front announced a march in the area on the same day. By the evening of 10 July, Ghost Town was a number one single.
Cultural resistance – Culture is what influences people’s hearts, minds and opinions. This the site of popular change. The music is a form of protest. People will only change when things are changed around them.
Cultural Hegemony: ● Antonio Gramsci: Italian philosopher writing in the 1930s Key Terms: ● Hegemonic: dominant, ruling-class, power-holders ● Hegemonic culture: the dominant culture ● Cultural hegemony: power, rule, or domination maintained by ideological and cultural means. ● Ideology: worldview – beliefs, assumptions and values ● Cultural hegemony functions by framing the ideologies of the dominant social group as the only legitimate ideology. ● The ideologies of the dominant group are expressed and maintained through its economic, political, moral, and social institutions (like the education system and the media). ● These institutions socialise people into accepting the norms, values and beliefs of the dominant social group. ● As a result, oppressed groups believe that the social and economic conditions of society are natural and inevitable, rather than created by the dominant group.
Subcultural Theory: The Birmingham School (1970s) ● In the 1970s, a group of cultural theorists in Birmingham applied Gramsici’s theories to post-war British working-class youth culture ● Looked at working class cultures like the teddy-boys, mods, skinheads, and punks – subcultures unified by shared tastes in fashion, music and ideology. ● They argued argued that the formation of subcultures offered young working class people a solution to the problems they were collectively experiencing in society.
There are 2 tones in the music video which are ska (reggae) and punk which intertwine. With whites and different races combing they protested again racism.
Todorov states that media has a beginning, middle and end. He calls these the “equilibrium”, “disruption”, and “new equilibrium”
Freytag
Freytag’s pyramid is similar in that he has a exposition and climax and denouement.
Multi-perspective narratives: contemporary stories are often told from different character perspectives, repurposing equilibriums as disequilibrium when the story shifts from one character viewpoint to another Metanarratives: provide audiences with moments that draw attention to the idea that they are watching a story. Metanarration might knowingly refer to the product as a media construct or speak directly to audiences through fourth wall breaks.
Vladimir Propp
Vladimir propp suggests that stories have stock characters to structure a stories. You do not need to recognise all of these characters, but it is a good way to understand the way in which CHARACTERS FUNCTION TO PROVIDE NARRATIVE STRUCTURE:
Hero Helper – usually accompanies the hero on their quest, saving them from the struggles encountered on their journey, helping them to overcome the difficult tasks encountered on their quest. The dispatcher: sends the hero on his or her quest, usually at the start of the story. Princess – the princess usually represents the reward of the hero’s quest, while the princess’s father often sets the hero difficult tasks to prevent them from mar rying the princess. The donor: provides the hero with a magical agent that allows Villain – fights or pursues the hero and must be defeated if the hero is to accomplish their quest. Victim Dispatcher Father False Hero – performs a largely villainous role, usurping the true hero’s position in the course of the story. The false hero is usually unmasked in the last act of a narrative
