Camera Shots And Angles In TV And Film

Camera Shots and Angles

Establishing Shot (ELS) - Either establishes or tells the audience where scene is set, it also shows the type of emotion or mood of the scene which is usually matched by the scenes surroundings.

Master Shot (MS) - A shot without cuts so that the entire scene is continuous.




Close up (CU) - A shot that is closed in on an object or a frame of a person.




Mid Shot (MS) - A shot that generally includes a person from the waist up or an object from a short to medium distance away.




Long Shot (LS) - A shot that usually is including the entire frame of a person or a group of people in the distance. An entire frame would be a character from head to toe.




Extreme Long Distance (ELD) - A shot that has a link to the surroundings and puts a perspective on what is happening and where it is happening similar to the establishing shot. It also can include entire crowds or shots from about half a mile away.

Two Shot - A shot with 2 characters in the shot to establish the nature of their relationship and/or emotions and the general context of the scene.




Point of view - A shot to see from a characters viewpoint usually to see what the character is up to or the emotions and thoughts of a character in the scene.

The Purpose and Conventions Of TV And Film

Main Exercise 

The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of 2 minutes.

Conventions

Conventions are the generally accepted ways of doing something, so in the case of media it means to communicate a specific message or an excepted pattern of code.

The Purpose 
The purpose of a film opening is to show action and begin the viewers interest so they get immediately hooked into the film. The film opening will also clearly state the genre of the film, you will also most likely see either the protagonist or antagonist. 

Timing Conventions
The time a film takes to open. Large budget films usually use 5 - 7 minutes openings whereas low budget films are used to be seen with 2 - 3 minute openings.

Set the scene
Used to show where the scene of the opening is set and the general mood of the film.


Introduce the key characters
Introduces protagonists, antagonist and even sometimes side characters etc.

Key Credits
Shows the production company, director, actors etc.

Equilibrium
An event or plot point that happens in the film that is key to the story.

Codes

Media students identify three categories of codes that may be used to convey meanings in media messages.

Technical codes - Which include camera techniques, framing, depth of field, editing, lighting etc.

Written Codes - These are the form of headlines, captions, speech bubbles and language style etc.

Symbolic Codes - This is mainly based around clothing and the colour scheme etc.

Continuity and Preliminary Excercise

Final Preliminary Exercise

Continuity 

This has to do with consistency. It's so that the timeline in a video is clear and understandable to the audience. In film continuity involves keeping the same plot, characters and objects consistent from one scene to the other. This is so the timeline of the story makes sense and doesn't confuse the audience.

Preliminary Exercise 

This is my final cut of my preliminary exercise. Firstly, the video went pretty well whilst recording. Our group managed to film all of the required shots such as match on action and the 180 degree rule. However, we learnt from this exercise that finding a place to film with less people is essential when trying to film a task. There was a lot of background noise on the video and there was someone saying "open the door" in one of the clips. Editing could have also ran smoother considering there are a few mistakes such as cuts with people in that are not there in the next shot. There are some positives to the video such as the over the shoulder shots and the match on action shot.

Production Projects (Films And TV)

Production Projects

Produce a continuity exercise which involves a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite to a character, with whom they exchange a couple of lines of dialogue. 

The task should demonstrate:

Match on action - Where the perspective of the shot will change during a scene to focus on an object or action, the shot is different and may be from a different perspective however it is still the same action.

Shot/reverse shot - Where one character is looking at another character (usually not in screen view) and the other character is shown looking back so the audience assumes they are talking to each other when they are not on screen.

180 degree rule - Which is a basic guideline in all film-making, an imaginary line called the axis. Film shots can only happen on one side of the axis in a certain scene. The first character must always remain on the right side and the second on the left.