Media Studies 101

1. Media Studies 101 1.2 Intro to Film Language

2. The Grammar of Film • A film is the combination of many thousands of individual frames that when put together make up shots, scenes and sequences

3. Each shot has a special purpose in telling the audience a story • Over the last 100 years, film makers have perfected the way we tell stories by using certain “RULES” • These “Rules” when put together act like a “Language” which we as an audience can understand

4. The Language of Film • There are TWO basic things to look at when we read the language of film • What the Camera is doing to achieve the shot • What is placed in front of the camera

5. The Camera • The Camera is basically the audiences’ eyes and works just like your own. But… • It has extra advantages • It can get closer to or further away from an object than we can in normal life • It can move in to an object in a way we can’t • It can change angles • It can jump from one thing to another instantly

6. The Camera • Therefore, the way the camera is placed or angled is important to the way images can be understood. • So, it is important to know what types of Shots and Angles are commonly used

7. Shot Types The type of shot that the director chooses to use shows a number of things; • Emotions (Close Up) • The amount of movement or action of the characters. (Mid-shot) • The detail of the surroundings (Long Shot)

8. Technical Codes • Technical Codes are the technological choices (techniques) used to tell the story of the film. • These techniques produce SYMBOLIC or deeper meaning

9. Describing Camera Angles and Movement • When describing camera positions, or choosing them yourself, you have to think about three important factors • The FRAMING or the SIZE of SHOT • The ANGLE • If there is any MOVEMENT involved

10. CU - close up MCU – medium close up MS – mid shot MLS –medium long shot LS – long shot ELS – extra long shot

11. Shot Types The type of shot that the director chooses to use shows a number of things; • Emotions (Close Up) • The amount of movement or action of the characters. (Mid-shot) • The detail of the surroundings (Long Shot)

12. Establishing Shot Establishing Shot

14. Wide Shot (WS) • describes almost any shot with the human figure dwarfed by its surroundings. Wes Bentley and Kevin Spacey in American Beauty

15. Jamie Bell and Nicola Blackwell in Billy Elliot • Too many wide shots in a movie can keep the viewers at a distance and so make it hard for them to get involved.

16. Shooting one or two characters in LS or WS tends to leave a great deal of picture space to fill, especially in widescreen. In this shot from The Princess Bride, the barn on the right and the gate and tree on the left fill the frame and eliminate awkward gaps.

18. Long Shot

19. An LS is often used to put a character into the context of the wide setting. Jamie Bell in Billy Elliot (2000)

20. long shot / LS • a shot that shows a human body in full and within the frame a publicity shot of Ian McKellen as Gandalf

21. Medium Long Shot

22. Mid Shot

23. The scarecrow effectively and amusingly fills a gap in this MS TWO of Sam (Sean Astin) and Frodo (Elijah Wood) from Fellowship of the Ring.

24. Space here is filled by files and blinds – all verticals. The actor's position on the far left of the frame underlines his character's discomfort over the bad news he is bringing to the unseen listener. The verticals add subliminal barriers. Danny Huston in The Constant Gardener

25. The space between figures can be used to show the emotional gap between characters • as in this scene between the estranged brothers (Matthew Macfadyen and Colin Foy) from In My Father's Den.

26. Medium Close Up

27. medium close up and mid shot /MCU and MS • It is often difficult to differentiate between the two: MCU is usually head and shoulders; MS includes more of the body but not all of it. Kenneth Branagh as Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing

28. Close Up

29. close up / CU • a detailed view of a person or object, only the head, which fills the frame; a publicity shot for the Russian film Burnt by the Sun (1994). and one for Audrey Hepburn in Charade (1964) • a CU helps to create a sense of intimacy, and helps the viewer to identify with the character.

30. Olivia Hussey as Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (1966)

31. Over the shoulder shots are often used for conversation or to suggest closeness. Emily Mortimer and Paul Schneider in Lars and the Real Girl

32. Vanessa Redgrave makes a powerful impact in her scenes at the end of Atonement, when she seems to speak directly to the cinema audience.

33. Extreme Close Up [ECU] • less common in widescreen format, though still sometimes used. Rachel Weisz in The Constant Gardener

34. It is often used for sinister effect Jon Voight inHoles (2003) Ian McKellen in Richard III (1995)

35. or to show threatening or bullying behaviour, as in this shot from Strictly Ballroom (1992)

36. and it emphasises the glamour of Nicole Kidman's Satine in Moulin Rouge (2001)

37. ECU helps to show the distress of Chris McCandless (Emile Hirsch) in Into the Wild (2007)

38. BCU TWO: Dev Patel and Freida Pinto in Slumdog Millionaire

39. CAMERA ANGLES • The angle between the camera and the object being photographed gives emotional information to an audience, and guides their judgment about the character or object in shot. • The more extreme the angle, the more symbolic and heavily-loaded the shot.

40. This shows a scene from directly overhead, a very unnatural and strange angle. Familiar objects viewed from this angle might seem totally unrecognisable at first This shot does, however, put the audience in a godlike position, looking down on the action. Extreme High Angle (The Bird's-Eye view)

41. The most obvious uses are to view the actors from above • as in this famous shot from High Noon (1952), showing the sheriff Will Kane on his own to face the outlaws coming to kill him

42. or where Tim Robbins is in danger of being thrown off the roof by a warder in The Shawshank Redemption. • a shot like this is very effective in making the viewer share the feelings of the character.

43. The camera is elevated above the action using a crane to give a general overview. High angles make the object photographed seem smaller, and less significant. The object or character often gets swallowed up by their setting High Angle

44. high angle • a shot in which the subject is photographed from above It gives an overall view of the arena in A Knight's Tale (2001)

45. and of the committee that is planning Princess Diana's funeral in The Queen

46. This high angle shot is also a POV shot, as young Briony witnesses from the window above – and misinterprets – an encounter between Robbie (James McAvoy) and Cecilia (Keira Knightley) in Atonement.

47. An older Briony (Romola Garai) is shown alone and small as she faces the fact that the evidence she gave years earlier was false.

48. The camera is positioned as though it is a human actually observing a scene. The actors' heads are on a level with the focus. Eye Level

49. Low angles help give a sense of superiority toward the subject. The added height of the object may make it inspire fear and insecurity in the viewer, who is psychologically dominated by the figure on the screen. Low Angle

50. low angle • a shot in which the subject is photographed from below Mary Barrie (Radha Mitchell) takes the high moral ground – literally and metaphorically – with her husband JM Barrie in Finding Neverland