Monday 20 February 2012

Moving image terminology

Moving image terminology

Extreme long shot/wide shot;
This shot is often used at the beginning of a film or sequence and acts as an establishing shot, showing where the action is taking place. This type of shot is especially crucial when there is a dialogue, so when a character talks to another character off-screen, it doesn’t look like the character is talking to no one. This shot usually shows a landscape, and it’s mostly used in scenes of action on a large scale, which shows little detail in the frame.
Long shot;
Long shot is a shot in which a figure can be seen from head to toe, it’s a shot that shows characters in the frame as approximately ‘life’ size. So there is still a huge amount of background shown whilst there is a character or a main subject/object in the shot fully shown from top to bottom.
Mid shot;
Mid shot’s shows the figure from around the waist to the head. In this type of shot, you can easily recognise and individual but you can also see what they are going with their hands. Mid shots are one of the most common shots that are used in filming, because it allows a great deal of flexibility while eliminating much of the useless parts of image, such as characters lower half, which typically has little to do with the scene.
Close up;
This type of shot can sometimes be from chest to head, and it’s a good type of shot to use because it shows the facial expression very clearly. This shot shows very little or no background at all, because the shot concentrates on specific details like the expression on a face of a character or specific detail of mise-en-scene. A Close up shows things such as scenes of a conversation between two people arguing, which makes the audience see that clearer.
Big close up;
Big close up only shows only the head or parts of objects, as this type of shot is only used when expressions are important.
Extreme close up;
This shot is just above the eyebrows to just below the mouth or sometimes even closer, it’s used for the same reason as a close up, however extreme close up shows extra detail on an characters facial expression or an mis-en-scene e.g. a shot of just one cry tearing up.
Two shot;
Two shot usually shows two people standing forwards, sideways or backwards, whilst having a conversation, but not always, sometimes they are both shown to show the relationship between them. These shots are usually shot in mid shot, to ensure that the audience can see the characters clear enough but also their facial expressions.
Bird’s eye view;
This shot is taken from the top, so for example the camera is flying in the air so the audience can see the whole city or the view from below. This is usually used when showing landscape and to set the establishing shot.
Worms eye view;
Worms eye view is similar to bird eye view, however this time the worms eye is taken from the bottom, so the camera is facing the sky upwards. This allows the audience to see everything around them. E.g. a man standing in a middle of a city and the camera shots him from a low angle on the floor to show him and the place where he is – the city.
High angle;
High angle is very important, it means that the camera looks up at the subject, often endowing the subject with a sense of power.
Low angle;
This angle is when a camera is looking down on the subject, reversing te effect of the high angle and making it look small or weak.

It's imporant for our group to consider using these camera shots and angles in our thriller production to ensure that we make the start 5 minutes of the movie interesting and engaging for the audiences.
Sources:
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http://library.thinkquest.org/29285/filmmaking/st5.html
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AQA Media Studies AS Book by Julia Burton and Elspeth Stevenson
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http://will-mayne.blogspot.com/2011/02/camera-shots-and-their-meanings.html

Anastazja Stanowska

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