SINGLE CAMERA ESSAY

In this essay, I shall attempt to outline single camera formats and the different uses for them in film. To do this I shall firstly explain which production single camera Is used, deconstruct a two sequences and cross reference them and also how different types of cameras can add a certain effect to the film. Finally, I shall talk about the technical aspects to single camera including why a certain camera is used for certain production.

Single camera formats are mainly used in films and high end production, this is because it gives the director more control over everything if this single camera format is used. This format gives the director control over lighting as the establishing shot is already set up and the different angles and close ups the lighting won't change as the settings are ideal for the establishing shot. Also it helps with the mise en scene as having one camera makes the director focus on the specific frame to give the scene its full meaning instead of having multi camera which may miss some things; as single camera takes more time. it helps and enhances the story and gives the director more control of the shots.

In order to further my understanding of single camera techniques I shall deconstruct a sequence from a film that uses a single camera.

Batman: The Dark Knight
Interrogation scene
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWgyKDfFC_U

This sequence in The Dark Knight was one of the fan favourites. it starts off with James Gorden attempting to interrogate the Joker the lighting is very noticeable throughout the beginning of the sequence differentiating the position of the different characters as the joker is surrounded by darkness which indicates that he is isolated but also in control as the darkness tells  that he is a mysterious individual but the full lighting on his face shows that he is not lying. Gorden is shown to be weaker as  he is trying to find out where the hostages are situated but the lighting has made  half his face in shadow which tells he is hiding something both from the audience and the joker.

Additionally the camera shots show to difference between them as the shots don't show both of them in frame, but instead close ups of each of them throughout the conversation. This all changes when batman appears in the scene, joker loses his control as the lights turn on. as batman beats up the joker the camera moves Aline with the joker to put him in focus of the frame this is effective as it gives the audience a feel of intensity.

 Too Add, the camera angles while batman is in the scene beating up the joker shows how powerful they are, in contrast to themselves as the camera is facing down towards the joker as he is powerless and the camera was facing upwards towards batman from jokers point of view to demonstrate batman's physical power. Straight angles are used throughout at the eye level of the audience, allowing them to integrate themselves within the scene.

In addition the sound also enhances the tension of the sequence and also builds up anticipation the filmakers   added this sound to keep the audience at the edge of their seats.



Big Bang Theory 
Sheldon & Penny funny scene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BkNgTnSHA8

In sit-coms such as big bang the producer uses the multi camera technique as it gives a more studio environment, its less time consuming then the single camera technique, it shows the different characters that are involved in the scene, its more about quantity over quality. The lighting is no focused in the shooting; its all flat lighting. Lighting helps a scene become more dramatic and intriguing which was needed in the dark knight interrogation scene to build up tension and add a sinister effect to the characters but in the big bang thing is not needed as it is a completely different genre the cuts are to show what the different characters are doing and doesn't need lighting to show what type of character they are or to add effect, the dialog shows it. The show would not be the same if lighting like in the dark knight was to be used.

 In the camera movement big bang used mostly still shots and only moved to follow Penny moving towards or away from Sheldon, as the director wants the audience to focus mainly on what the characters are saying and not what the camera is doing. This is different in the Batman scene because without the camera movements the scene would not be as intense and intriguing. They use camera movements to show actions in an empowering way.In addition sound is used completely different in both examples.

 In big bang after a funny line was used there would be an audio input of a crowd laughing;this is to show that the show is surreal as it is made to be in front of a crowd in a studi,o this also shows in the 

acting as it is not up to movie standards which the multi camera technique shows but this adds to its comedic effect. Sound was used very differently in the dark knight as it was used for anticipation and tension to lead to the next scene to keep the audience at the edge of their seats. 

The camera used in the Dark Knight was a IMAX 70mm film camera this is because the print of film is a higher resolution format and is twice the size of a standard 35 mm print, it can also be used in wide aspect ratios such as 2.20:1 to 2.29:1. The 70mm also has a downside though, it is very expensive to produce a long film off.

The Cameras used in the Big bang theory are the Sony HXR-MC2500E this is because the camera is fairly cheap to have multiple but also that its high quality and digital so the workflow would be vastly quicker then if it was on a print of film and can be transferred straight to the video editor.

                                                 My Short film Entitled Living London.

16.1.2

                                                         Editing unit 16 task 1 (16.1.2)

In this essay I shall attempt to analyse the various techniques of film editing. To do this I shall firstly cover the pioneers of editing, before analysing contemporary editors and some of their own techniques. hopefully I can pick up on improving my knowledge of editing techniques.

Editing has evolved in many ways throughout the years to become what it is now. Without some of these various film pioneers editing as we know it and would change the way we see movies in a whole different way.

Edwin Stanton Porter was a producer, director, studio manager and cinematographer. He was one of the earliest film pioneers. He contributed in editing and film making in many ways and he is most famous for introducing the idea of parallel editing; although prior to this technique he

 came up with something called temporal overlap which is when the same action is shown in different perspectives or angles. This technique of editing was first used in the film ''The Life of an American Fireman (1903).''  There was a shot of the men disappearing down the pole , and then it suddenly cuts to the bottom of the pole; this allows the viewers to visualise what is happening in that location, before the firemen came down. This editing technique soon died down although it was appreciated at the time as it was a very new and creative technique; it looked too clumsy and messed with the sense of time in the film. This editing technique was used in the 1991 film The silence of the lambs directed by Jonathan Demme and many other films. This influenced film making as it adds depth and structure to films parallel editing is still used too this present day which shows how much of an impact it had in the industry of film making; an example of this technique being used in a modern film would be American Sniper when the soldiers are walking down the street while the sniper takes cope at a target.

D.W Griffiths was a producer, director and writer from America who pioneered in modern film making techniques and is considered ''father of film'' he contributed in many ways and created a lot of techniques. D.W's most famous piece of work was in a silent film called the birth of a nation. He used various editing techniques in his production such as classical cutting; which is a style where that part of the movie is characterised by the sequence of shots that is determined by the feeling of the scene eg, dramatic or emotional emphasis. A good example of this in use was in the scene of the good, the bad the ugly when the 3 main characters are about to shoot each other and the camera cuts between all 3 of them. Another editing technique that Griffiths constructed was tonal editing; this type of editing is conveyed through the emotional tone of the scene and that takes effect in the editing. For example to convey the scene with a happy tone it will have a lot of quick cuts however in sad scenes it will have longer shots that use cuts in a slower rhythm.

Walter Murch was an american film editor and sound designer and is most famous for designing the Six Rules of editing.
The Rule of 6 is a list of rules that you have to consider when editing any film; the first rule is emotion (what the affect it will do to the audience at this particular point in the film. Telling emotion in the story is very important as you want to grip the audience in the editing.
Another rule is story (does the editing move the story in any meaningful way?) each cut must advance the story. rule 3 is rhythm (The cut has to be on the the point that makes rhythmic sense) timing is essential. Rule 4 is Eye tracing (eye tracing is what the audience would focus on and the cut has to be right so the audience doesn't get distracted.) Rule 5 is Two dimensional place of screen (making sure the cut follows the axis.) and lastly rule 6 is Three dimensional space (the cut has to be true to physical and spacial relationships.)

One of the movies Walter is most known for is the Godfather II a used editing techniques such as parallel editing (cross cutting) and also the rule of 6 which impacted the way the movie turned out.
The majority of editors have used Walter Murch's technique in their films as it helps structure the film  and has impacted the way films are made in a big way as there is now guidelines to think about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Weaop_aiTg

The scene of Godfather II where fredo and Michael have fallen out is a great example of continuity editing. Te scene uses 180 axis rule, eye tracing which makes the audience focus on the characters more and the camera angle looks down on Fredo to emphasis his position between the two. the editing isn't noticeable as you focus on the story more. Walter emphasises and highterns  emotion by using different cuts in the right moments. Walter also shows the distance between the two as they have fallen out as uses cuts that have only one character in the frame to show it. Also the use is rhythm in this scene effects the mood overall as the cuts are the right pace not too fast and not too slow.

another example would be the ending scene in godfather III

Through writing this essay i have acknowledged different pioneers of editing that have impacted the ways films are made and structured. The pioneers such as Edwin stanton porter and D.W Griffiths that made the building blocks for editing techniques and inspired a lot of editors in this present day as parallel editing and classical cutting plays a big part in editing as it is used a lot in films.
furthermore i learnt acknowledged what the rule of 6 was and analysed the movie Walter Murch editing which was Godfather II and picked out the techniques.







 

How to set up premiere pro:

-how to use the green screen and cloning (chroma key):

allows to take out a certain colour to add a background behind the footage.

-Apply the ultra key effect found in the effects panel on to the clip that has the green screen and select the colour you want to take out.
- Import a picture or video you want in the background and put it underneath the green screen video layer.
- use transform to upscale or downscale the picture so it fits the composition
-To clone the green screen; just duplicate the clip and position it with transform so it's in the correct place.

-isolating colour (leave colour effect)

makes a certain colour obvious another colours black and white.

-search isolate colour in the effects and presets panel and drag it onto the video clip; then use the colour pen and choose what colour you would like to isolate.
-turn the decolour up to 100% to make everything but the colour you isolated black and white.

-super 8

gives an old fashion and aesthetic look to the footage.

-Select your clip of choice and drag it into the timeline
-Then change the speed duration of the clip to make it quicker e.g. 80%
-Go to the effects panel and search for noise and dust & scratches then drag it onto the video clip on the timeline and turn the noise up to what you think is suitable.
-Then go to the colour panel and give the clip a orange tint; this adds bit of age to the clip.
-also add gaussian blur to downgrade the quality slightly.


time remapping:

Time remapping changes the velocity of the clip.

-Select your clip that you want to be time-remapped and drag it onto the timeline.
-Right click the video on the timeline then select who clip keyframe > time-remapping.
-Then make the video layer bigger on the time line too see the velocity line for the time remapping.
-select the pen tool situated in the tool tab situated on the left of the timeline and use the pen tool too select where you want the time remapping to happen.
-dragging the line up determines how fast the clip will speed up and dragging down will determine how slow it would be.

Masking:

Masking is used to take a section of the footage or picture out or you can invert the mask to only have the area you selected.

-drag your selected footage into the timeline with what you want masked to be on the top layer.

-turn the opacity down on the top clip so that the picture behind visible; then scale it too fit the footage appropriately.

-Then make a new title by clicking title on the top bar > new title which then opens a new window that allows you too mask.

- mask by clicking either on the pen tool or one of the shapes then mask what is suitable for your work.

-once the masking is finished, apply a track matte key and change the matte to your mask layer.

-drag your mask title track above the footage and the mask should be there.

16.1.1

• What is editing?

Editing is essential for making the clips you film to make sense and have a structure. (Arranging, revising and preparing written audio and video material for the final production. there is different type of editing such as video manipulation, motion graphics and many more.

Video manipulation example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UqyBU6xegU

Video manipulation is video editing that manipulates the image, so for example special effects that makes it different from the original clip and is mainly for entertainment and effect.

Montage example:

montage is technique of editing that uses separate sections clips and piecing them together to make a continuous whole


• What is Elliptical editing?

example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpJGC13TG6k

Elliptical editing is a technique used in film editing that makes an event on screen to be shorter then its actual duration in the story. the most simplest type of elliptical editing is a cut between two shots which show the same event but in different times.


• Why are long shots used?
Long shots are used to show the distance of the scene and to stress the environment or setting in the scene


• What is ‘non-diegetic sound’?

Non-diegetic sound is sound where the source is neither visible on screen or has been implied in the action present.

such as:

-Narrators voice
-Sfx
-Music

• How do we know she is bending down to pick up the ring? (what shots are used and why?)

Hustle
• Overhead establishing shot – what does this achieve?

This shot is a close-up/close shot of a detailed view of a person or object.

• What is Shot-Reverse-Shot?

A shot reverse shot is a film/editing technique that shows one character in the clip looking at the other character (off screen) then the next shot will be the other character looking at the first.

• What is Eye-line matching?

Eye-line matching is a film editing technique that allows the audience to see into the character on screen's eyes and see what they are seeing (first person).

• Why do we cut to the other members of the group?


• What is a wipe?

A wipe is a certain transition that is implemented in the editing which has one shot that is replaced by another by travelling from one side of the frame to the other side with any special shape.


• What is the effect of using quick cuts?


The purpose and effect of using quick cuts in editing is too tell a lot of information quickly or to emphasise energy of chaos.


b) Now watch ‘Editing: The Invisible Art’ and take notes:
• How can editing build tension and pace?


• What is crosscutting?

Cross cutting is an editing technique  that is mostly used in action films to establish things happening at the same time but in two different locations. in a cross cut, the camera will cut away from one action to another.

• What are reaction shots?
 A reaction shot is a portrayal of a persons reaction to an action or a statement that has been made by another.

• What is seamless editing?
seamless editing is where you edit and construct two different pieces of film together to create a smooth or neat piece of footage that makes sense and runs into each clip easily


• What is a jump cut?

A jump cut is a sudden transition from one scene to another.

• What is a flash back and what does it achieve?

A flash back is used in editing to add depth to the story to show what has happened in the past from the present that has some sort of connection.

• How can editing be used poetically?

Editing can be used to make to clips or scenes that have nothing to do with each other make sense and have a connection.


C. Watch ‘Playing with Time’ – watch the film ‘The Gloaming’. Write a short evaluation of the editing used in this film. Refer to detailed examples from the film and use the terminology you have learnt today.








6. Editor Job profile:  http://www.skillset.org/film/jobs/post/article_4732_1.asp
Read the Film editor job profile. Then, summarise in your own words the key aspects of being an editor. Explain what other people the editor works with and the skills needed.
Editor Job Role:




7. Finally - Read through your blog post and check for spelling and label your post 16.1.1. Upload this to your blog.