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Using Camera - Techniques

Today me and my group members are in the steps of creating our film. but first we are to learn the basic techniques of a camera and how to use it in order to make our film in the best quality.

Head Room:  The space between the top of a subject’s head and the top of the frame. Headroom must be carefully apportioned so that there is not too much or too little, especially if shooting for transfer to video or for blowup, where the frame will be cropped in a little on the top and sides.


Macro: It’s basically close-up photography where the image projected on the camera sensor is relatively the same size as your subject. Super Macro allowa people to see more; what this means is that,  your sensor sees closer than the human eye which leads to some unusual photography.

White Balance 

 Why would you need to get the colour right in your shots?

White balance (WB) is the process of removing unrealistic colour casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in your photo. Proper camera white balance has to take into account the "colour temperature" of a light source, which refers to the relative warmth or coolness of white light. Our eyes are very good at judging what is white under different light sources, but digital cameras often have great difficulty with auto white balance (AWB) — and can create unsightly blue, orange, or even green colour casts. Understanding digital white balance can help you avoid these colour casts, thereby improving your photos under a wider range of lighting conditions.

When using a camera there are symbols that indicate to illustrate what effect you intend to use in your picture or when filming. 

The picture above is the difference between when white balance is applied and when its not!!!

Film Theory

Rule of thirds

By placing interesting components of your image at intersecting points, such as people, buildings, animals, or your main subject, you can make your image well balanced and help viewers naturally move through your image. The rule is based off of a subconscious movement throughout artwork where a viewers eye pauses at one of the four intersecting corners longer than it would in other such areas such as the far edges.

Roles and Responsbility of Film Industry

• Producer > film producers create the conditions for making movies and film producers initiates, coordinates, supervises, and controls matters for example raising funding, hiring key personnel, and arranging for distributors. in addition film producers are  involved throughout all phases of the film making process from development to completion of a film.

• Director > responsible for overseeing the creative aspects of a film, this includes controlling the content and flow of the film's plot, directing the performances of Actors, organizing and selecting the locations in which the film will be shot, and managing technical details such as the positioning of cameras, the use of lighting, and the timing and content of the film's soundtrack.

• Executive Producer > executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making process, but the executive producer is still responsible for the overall production. generally the executive producer handles business and legal issues

• Production Manager > production manger supervises the physical aspects of the production and not the creative aspects this includes personnel, technology, budget, and scheduling. the production mangers responsibility is to make sure the filming stays on schedule and within its budget. in addition the production manger also helps manage the day-to-day budget by managing operating costs such as salaries, production costs, and everyday equipment rental costs.

• Production Coordinator > responsible for organizing all the logistics from hiring crew, renting equipment, and booking talent. The production coordinator is an integral part of film production.

• Post-production Supervisor > responsible for the post-production process. therefore during filming they maintain clarity of information and good channels of communication between the Producer, Editor, Supervising Sound Editor, the Facilities Companies such as film labs, CGI studios etc and the Production Accountant.

• Production Assistant > assist in the production office or in various departments with general tasks, such as assisting the First Assistant Director with set operations.

• Screenwriter > responsible for script. screenwriter may be involved in varied degree with creative aspects of production.

• Script Supervisor > keeps track of what parts of the script have been filmed and makes notes of any changes between what was actually filmed and what appeared in the script.script supervisor also make notes on every shot, and keep track of props, blocking, and other details to ensure continuity from shot to shot and scene to scene. the notes of the script supervisor are given to the Editor to expedite the editing process and the script supervisor work closely with the director on set.

• Stunt Coordinator >arranges the casting and performance of the stunt, working closely with the Director.

• Casting Director > chooses the Actors for the characters of the film.

• First Assistant Director > assists the Production Manager and Director. first assistant director mainly ensures that the film comes in on schedule and maintain a working environment in which the Director, principal artists (Actors) and crew can be focused on their work. first assistant director is also responsible for directing background action for major shots or the entirety of relatively minor shots, at the Director's discretion.

• Second Assistant Director > helps carry out those tasks delegated to the first assistant director. the second assistant director also might direct background action and extras also they might help the first assistant director with scheduling , booking etc. the second assistant director is also responsible for creating Call Sheets that let the crew know the schedule and important details about the shooting day.

• Location Manager > responsible for final clearing a location for filming

• Production Designer > responsible for creating the physical, visual appearance of the film - settings, costumes, character makeup, all taken as a unit.

• Art Director > art directors oversees artists and craftspeople, such as the Set Designers, Graphic Artists, and Illustrators who give form to the production design as it develops.

• Illustrator > draws or paints visual representations of the designs to communicate the ideas imagined by the Production Designer.

• Set Designer > Architect, who realizes the structures or interior spaces called for by the Production Designer.

• Set Decorator >responsible for the decorating of a film set, which includes the furnishings and all the other objects that will be seen in the film.

• Set Dresser > responsible for applying and removing the "dressing", i.e., furniture, drapery, carpets everything one would find in a location, even doorknobs and wall sockets.

• Construction Coordinator > responsible for the construction of all the sets

• Prop maker > responsible for building the props that are used for the film. responsible for finding and managing all the props that appear in the film.

Narrative Stucture

Narrative

In media terms, narrative is the coherence/organization given to a series of facts. The human mind needs narrative to make sense of things. We connect events and make interpretations based on those connections. In everything we seek a beginning, middle and an end. We understand and construct meaning using our experience of reality and of previous texts. Each text becomes part of the previous and the next through its relationship with the audience.

Most of the films we see at the cinema are narrative films, films that tell a story. Even films which are factual often employ story methods to get this point across, for instance a documentary may follow the 'story' of a group of environmental warriors over a period of six months in their fight to prevent a road being built. We are so steeped in the narrative tradition that we approach a film with certain expectations, whether we know anything about the story or not. For example: We expect the opening to give us information about whom, what and where. To see a series of incidents, which are connected with each other? Problems and/or conflicts. The ending to resolve the action or cast new light on what has happened As the viewer watches a film, they pick up cues, recall information, anticipate what will follow, and generally participate in the creation of the film's form. The film shapes the particular expectations by summoning up curiosity, suspense, and surprise. The viewer also develops specific hunches about the outcome of the action, and these may control our expectations right up to the end. The ending has the task of satisfying or cheating the expectations prompted by the film as a whole. The ending may also activate memory by cueing the spectator to review earlier events, possibly in a new light. As we examine the narrative for

Narrative Theories

1. Claude Levi-Strauss - constant creation of conflict/opposition propels narrative. Narrative can only end on a resolution of conflict. Binary oppositions.

Levi-Strauss looked at narrative structure in terms of binary oppositions. Binary oppositions are sets of opposite values which reveal the structure of media texts. An example would be GOOD and EVIL - we understand the concept of GOOD as being the opposite of EVIL. Levi -Strauss was not so interested in looking at the order in which events were arranged in the plot. He looked instead for deeper arrangements of themes. For example, if we look at Science Fiction films we can identify a series of binary oppositions which are created by the narrative

2. Tvzetan Todorov - suggests narrative is simply equilibrium, disequilibrium, new equilibrium.

Bulgarian structuralism linguist publishing influential work on narrative from the 1960s onwards) Todorov suggested that stories begin with an equilibrium or status quo where any potentially opposing forces are in balance. This is disrupted by some event, setting in chain a series of events. Problems are solved so that order can be restored to the world of the fiction.

PLANNING SCHEDULE

TASK	TASK MANGER	TARGET DATE	CHECKLIST
Storyboard	Everyone	01/12/11
Animatic Storyboard	Farjana	03/12/11
Contract of Actors	Grace	01/12/11
Location contractors	Farhana	01/12/11
Recces – Graveyard	Farjana	07/12/11
Recces – Classroom	Grace	07/12/11
Recces – CTC	Farhana	07/12/11
Costume list	Grace	10/12/1
Equipment	Farjana	10/12/11
Props list	Farhana	10/12/11

Trick r' Treat Horror Film Challenges Conventions

these three men talk about the relese of latest horror movie trick or treat which was only released on dvd and blue ray.  this movie challegenes classic horror movie conventions A little too often, Dougherty goes for the “gotcha” ending to the individual stories, and at times Trick ‘r Treat feels like a cheap Twilight Zone knockoff. But while indulging in the occasional cliche, the movie avoids making ironic commentary on them, and while it’s frequently violent and horrific, much of the violence is smartly left to our imagination, which keeps everything fresh and scary. Many people are killed and there’s plenty of gruesome gore left onscreen, but none of it feels mean spirited, even with the gleeful death of children. With everything it has going for it, it wouldn’t surprise me if Trick ‘r Treat becomes required Halloween viewing one day.

!Coventions of a Horror Movie! (Spooky)

1. Setting For the 'typical' Horror Movie

• Small communities or isolated places. Urban environments, dark streets and narrow alleyways. Large cities or run down ghost towns. Anything that connotes isolation or being alone.
• Often sometimes places with “dark” history, like abandoned houses, hotels and insane asylums.
• Locations for any good horror genre film could be: Lakes, Roads, Highways, Countryside, Barns, Farms, Dark Woods, Woodlands, Houses, Cabins, Cities, Subways, Gloomy Underground Tunnels, Creepy Hotels, Abounded Houses, Haunted Houses, Space-Stations (for Sci-Fi Horror), Graveyard (Or Cemetery), Dungeons, Deserted Ships at Sea, Space Ships, Alien Planets (Like Predators), basements, attics, meat factories, science lab, London Underground, Shopping Mall, Cornfield, Pirate Ship, Tundra, Asylum, Deep Water, Blizzards and many other dark locations. 

 2. Technical Codes

• Camerawork is very expressive and not natural. High and Low angles can connote fear and nightmares.
• POV shots are important because they allow the audience to see the world from the monster’s eye. This happens roughly at the end or in the middle of typical horror film (Evil Dead had a very long POV shot when it chasing Ash the hero through his house).
• Handheld shots make it difficult for the audience to make out what is happening. Cloverfieldis one prime example of this, since the entire movie is shot with a handheld camera to promote the feeling of terror and the unknown.
• Sometimes framework uses the depth of field, makes it harder to see the monster creeping up behind the protagonist.
• Disturbing sounds are very important in a horror movie. Ambient diegetic sounds like footsteps and non-diegetic sounds (like a heartbeat).
• Types of shots used like ECU on a certain victim’s face can help the audience identification with horror and fear, and also to exclude any threats (if we can’t see it, then its more terrifying).
• Editing can create unsettling tension and suspense. If the editing hasn’t been paced up in a while then you know that something very bad is about to jump out and scare you.

 3. Iconography

• Visual style: Often dark colours like red and black (links to evil, blood and danger etc).
• Lighting is expressive and non-naturalistic. Low-key lighting can help to crate dark shadows and unfamiliar shapes in the blackness. Lighting can be motivated in the world of the film (like bonfires, fireplaces and torches).
• Props can help us to further identify horror genre. Specific props can be identified with a certain villain or character (Chainsaws, Machetes, Knife, Claw Gauntlets, Costumes, Firearms etc).
• Common objects include: Weapons, Masks, Icons of the Supernatural, Religious Icons etc).
• The iconography of the monsters help to connote extreme fear, disgust and terror: Werewolves, Vampires, Mummies, Frankenstein and many others.

 4. Narrative Structure

• Classic narrative structure largely made applicable to the Horror genre but it can either be left for closure or maybe perhaps leave room for sequel and thus enable a franchise (Like Friday the 13th, Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street)
• There’s always a hero a protagonist, a man or “final girl” of the film, keeping with the normal conventions of the genre. Usually the hero must embark on a mission or quest to kill or solve problems.
• Some narratives are very formulaic and this is practically present in sub-genres, most noticeably Slasher films. After some event that turns the killer insane or by some childhood past or even psychotic medical issues, the villain returns to his home-town and always preys on teenagers. These teenagers represent “immoral” and are quite stupid, usually they are the ones who start the horror in the first place or maybe they just get killed quickly and there is always (sometimes) a survivor, most likely a female character.

 5. Character Types

• The Main Protagonist, often the “victim/hero” of the movie.
• The Villain, often a monster, mutated freak, alien or serial killer.
• The stupid/immoral teenagers that always get killed.
• Creepy children.
• Police Officers that can either be good or bad.
• And many more: Ghosts, Zombies, Demons, Psychopath, Stalker, Weirdo, Werewolf, cheerleader and the list goes on.

 6. Themes

• Good Versus Evil
• Depression
• Religion
• Childhood issues
• Revenge
• Supernatural
• Beyond Death
• Science gone bad
• Zombie Apocalypse
• Nightmares
• Madness
• Insanity
• Lust
• “Self-consciousness” making you question what is real and what is not
• Envy
• Suicide