Media ISL 2

Film Editing Glossary

Cut
A visual transition created in editing in which one shot is instantaneously replaced on screen by another.

Continuity editing
Editing that creates action that flows smoothly across shots and scenes without jarring visual inconsistencies. Establishes a sense of story for the viewer.

Cross cutting
Cutting back and forth quickly between two or more lines of action, indicating they are happening simultaneously.

Dissolve
A gradual scene transition. The editor overlaps the end of one shot with the beginning of the next one.

Editing
The work of selecting and joining together shots to create a finished film.

Errors of continuity
Disruptions in the flow of a scene, such as a failure to match action or the placement of props across shots.

Establishing shot
A shot, normally taken from a great distance or from a "bird's eye view," that establishes where the action is about to occur.

Eyeline match
The matching of eyelines between two or more characters. For example, if Sam looks to the right in shot A, Jean will look to the left in shot B. This establishes a relationship of proximity and continuity.

Fade
A visual transition between shots or scenes that appears on screen as a brief interval with no picture. The editor fades one shot to black and then fades in the next. Often used to indicate a change in time and place.

Final cut
The finished edit of a film, approved by the director and the producer. This is what the audience sees.

Iris
Visible on screen as a circle closing down over or opening up on a shot. Seldom used in contemporary film, but common during the silent era of Hollywood films.

Jump cut
A cut that creates a lack of continuity by leaving out parts of the action.

Matched cut
A cut joining two shots whose compositional elements match, helping to establish strong continuity of action.

Montage
Scenes whose emotional impact and visual design are achieved through the editing together of many brief shots. The shower scene from Psycho is an example of montage editing.

Rough cut
The editor's first pass at assembling the shots into a film, before tightening and polishing occurs.

Sequence shot
A long take that extends for an entire scene or sequence. It is composed of only one shot with no editing.

Shot reverse shot cutting
Usually used for conversation scenes, this technique alternates between over-the-shoulder shots showing each character speaking.

Wipe
Visible on screen as a bar travelling across the frame pushing one shot off and pulling the next shot into place. Rarely used in contemporary film, but common in films from the 1930s and 1940s.

Genre

Genre

Genre is type or category of film. It is a way of classifying a film to help us to identify it so we can:

Create it

Choose it

Understand it

List of Genre’s

Romance- Romeo and Juliet

Action- World War Z

Adventure- Indiana Jones

Sci-Fi- Star Trek

Thriller- Clockwork Orange

War

Western

Horror- Insidious

Animation- Shrek

Comedy-The Inbetweeners Movie

Musicals- Grease

Fantasy- Narnia

Major Genre- A dominant, important category

Sub Genre

Hybrid Genre or Generic Genre

How do we recognise genre?

We identify genre by looking at:

Generic codes and conventions- these are signifiers that have been established though time and should be recognised in the mise-en-scene, the characters and the storyline.

Signifiers are the physical aspects that we see or hear in a film, such as the clothes or props. We interpret these signifiers to create meaning.

Genre	Western	Gangster	Sci-Fi	Horror	Romance
What we see	Sand, guns, horses, saloon, tumble weed	Guns, drugs, council houses, cigarettes,	Lasers, space, robots, techno, stars	Ghosts, vampires, visions	Love, roses, fields
What we hear	Horses, gun shots,	Gun shots, swear words, cockney, reving of car engines,	Ship noises, machinery, gas door openings, lasers	Loud noises, screams, doors creaking	Kissing noises, wind
Typical Characters	Sheriff, deputy, villain, dog	Police officers, drug dealers, pregnant mother	Robot, girl with one eye, lobster, guy with pointy ears, old wise guy	Female victim, non-believe, hero	Hero, heroin
Typical Storyline	Someone kills someone and people hunt for them	Don’t pay money for drugs so they kill them	Typical fight with another planet or someone gets lost in space	Someone gets scared in a house	Someone leaves/breaks up with them, then they get back together or she finds someone better
Themes Morals Ideas	Revenge,	Revenge, breaking the law	Loss and fighting	Scary	Love, heartbreak
Examples	The good the bad and the ugly, True Grit	Scarface, the godfather	Star trek, gravity	Insidious, woman in black	The notebook

 

ISL 1

ISL 1- Camera Shots/Angles/Composition

Camera Shots

There are many types of camera shots. They are all listen below:

• Extreme Close Up
• Close Up
• Mid Shot
• Long Shot
• Extreme Long Shot
• Medium Close up
• Cutaway
• Establishing Shot
• Point-Of-View shot
• Over the shoulder shot

Composition

Composition is the term used to describe a way that an image/shot is set up. It is basically the putting of shots together. Except they collect all of the recordings and put them together to make one clear shot. This usually includes things like overlays/subtitles and the combination of over exposed and under exposed images into one high quality shot.

Camera Angles

The angle of a camera can give emotional information to the audience.It can also guide their judgement about the characters or an object.
The more extrememe the angle (e.g. the further away the shoti s on the left eye), the more symbolic the shot will be.
The Bird's-Eye View
This kind of shot from directly overhead is very unnatural and strange angle. Familiar objects viewed from the angle might seem totally unrecognisable at first (umbrellas in a crowd, dancers' legs). This sort of shot does , however, put the audience in a god-like position, looking down on the action. People can be made to look insignificant, ant-like, part of a wider scheme of things.
Low Angle
These increase height (useful for short actors like Tom Cruise or James McAvoy) and gives a sense of speeded motion. Low angles help give a sense of confusion to a viewer, of weakness within the action of a scene. The background of a low angle shot will tend to be just sky or ceiling, the lack of detail about the setting adding to the disorientation of the viewer. The added height of the object may make it portray fear and insecurity in the viewer, who is mentally dominated by the figure on the screen.

Holiday Work

Media Studies AS Level

Summer Work

Conventions of a Thriller

 

This genre contain many features within conventions. These include:

·         Mirrors

·         Shadows

·         Quick Cuts

·         Music to cause tension

·         Flashbacks

·         Time confusion

·         Montages

Sometimes thriller movies can start going straight into the action but other times might contain a simple, beginning, middle and an end with the problem starting in the middle. On most occasions, the fact that some thrillers start with the action and problem can bring more suspense to the audience as there can be confusion coming across as the audience do not know why it’s happening, which would obviously make them want to sit and watch more to find out what, why, how, where, when and where.

Also, thrillers can also be associated with action films due to its fast rolling cameras and its shadowed lighting. This is all to create effect to what the scene wants to represent. Thrillers can be seen most of the time containing music playing through the dialog when something bad is building up. Usually in a fight scene when a group of people are on a chase. The type of sound can be known to be heat beats? Fast guitar bass strumming? Or a tension making soundtrack.

5 Analysis Shots- Olympus Has Fallen

This was at the very start of the film where they have chosen to directly get the audience on their feet when the producers decide they are going to make a death already right at the start of the film.

To start, this shot is a long shot to show the extent of what the car is going through with someone actually in it. The dusk conditions with only the light coming from the car exterior really sets the pressure being put on in the car.

Right at the bottom corner of the shot, we can see the side of the road that the car fell off. It may not look like much but what we don’t notice that it makes the audience realise the shear drop for the car to fall. This also contributes to the tension of the death.

This shot shows the presidents assistant pure expression on his face due to the president’s wife’s death. The camera itself has been made to focus right on the actors face. This is obviously to allow us to see the stress and strain being put on him.

This shot also has the same kind of lighting effect, similar to the other shot. This is to show that they are under pressure.

The costume they use tell us that they were going to attend somewhere nice, for example, a meal or a ball of some sort. Maybe to celebrate some sort of public event.

The very long shot, showing the landscape of America, focusing on the White House makes us think that the film may or may not have something to do with the well-known building.

This time, rather than the other 2 shots, this gives us a 1 second idea on what we are looking at for the next 2 hours. The editing side of it makes the shot look very clear and quite a day light kind of bright to give us the impression of happiness and being patriotic.

It simply shows a normal day of the USA.

This shot is actually in the White House, a clear shot of the president’s face in what he has to deal with every day. Obviously, he has to make some pretty hard decisions and do some pretty difficult life things/choices. So in this shot, the actor would have to make his facial expression look stressful.

Lighting wise, we can see that you can clearly see the setting and the actor but it’s still a bit dull to show how under pressure he really is.

Again, the fact that they have put him in the middle of the flags shows the patriotism of their country.

This shot shows that when there is a problem, they have to make it discreet to keep people calm but fast to keep the president safe.

Seeing the presidents body guard’s facial expression (serious and sweat on his forehead) makes us think that something bad is about to happen and there will inevitably be gun shots.

Something that supports this statement, also, is the dark lighting coming from both characters. The only type of light shade of natural light we can see is the dusk light coming from out the window.

Notes on the conventions of The Girl Who Played With Fire

·         Beginning with tense music

·         Short bit of action at start

·         Camera showing the face to show facial expression

·         Fast shots to suggest big build up

·         Loud foot step noises for build up of tension

·         Close ups on faces

·         Long shots with characters walking towards the camera talking

·         Sirens to represent police

·         Shadow and darkness to represent death and something bad

·         Voiceovers

·         Screeches from car wheels on the road

Test