Saturday 29 September 2012

Analysing videos

It is very true, practice makes a man perfect.
To have a clear picture on the different types of shots and the different camera angles, we made videos and each one of us tried them to have our hands on it.
This was not only important because of the first hand experience but it also taught me that each shot has its meaning. one does include a shot just because he/she feels it looks good. But it forms the narrative of the story and communicates with the audience.

We were taught that there are basically two different types of camera modes which include stationary mode and travelling mode. All shots like panning, zooming, tilt up and tilt down are included in the stationary mode as the camera has no physical movement whereas in the travelling mode the camera is physically moving and this includes shots like dolling, craning, following and tracking.

After making our rough videos, my partner and i decided that we would select movie clips of our choice and then compare our shots, camera angles with those. in this way we would learn from our mistakes (if any) and then when it comes to apply these shots and movements in the future then it will be an easy job.

the first scene i selected is a very basic shot from the movie titanic. it is when Jack and Rose are returning from the party and they see a shooting star.
Each shot here in this scene is communicating with us. Even when there is no verbal communication, the camera angles and shot say it all.

The scene starts with Jack and Rose returning from the party. The first shot is a long shot of Jack and Rose.

in this shot,the camera at first is static and the characters are in the long shot. The significance of this shot is that the characters are being established. We dont get to see the expression of these characters but we can judge from the body language what they feel.



Later, as the characters move the camera dollys back and develops in a high shot. Making the expressions of the characters much more understandable.
The concept i had developed of this shot was some what similar. what i did was that i took a back pose of my characters and dolly out as my characters moved forward. in this way my characters were in focus( there were also other people in the frame but i had focused on my 3 main characters) and from their body language we could deduce that they were happy and enjoying.




The next shot in the movie was a close-up of the two characters. Basically they used a close-up here to show the expressions of the characters.
This is exactly what i did. Theclose-up of my subject gives details about the features, the expression. i have also kept in mind the head room(Enough room for the subject's head. Space around their head yet not too much.) If i had not kept that in mind and if my subject was placed too low then it would have made it appear shorter and even if i didn’t leave any head room then my subject would have looked scrunched.


The last shot i selected from this scene is over the shoulder shot of Jack and Rose. It is also at times referred to as a 180 degree shot where an imaginary straight line of 180 degrees is drawn and the cameras are placed at the end of this line. This gives the perspective of both the characters though this cannot be confused with a view point shot.

I have shown the perspective of both the characters and placed the camera at 180 degrees.
BARFI-Ashiyaan
This second evaluation I am doing is of an Indian song from the movie barfi. The reason why I chose a song this time is to see the difference the shots of a movie and the shots in a song and how these shots convey a message.
The song starts with a view point shot. In this shot the director first shows the viewpoint of Priyanka (the actress) and then the actor’s viewpoint.





The first picture is the view point of Priyanka and the second picture is the view point of ranbir.
What I did was that I showed the viewpoint of my canteen. I took one shot from outside the canteen. How the students look at the canteen and the second shot was of how the sitting area looks from inside the canteen (canteen owners view point)

Then again this shot in the song is an extreme close-up. We get to see the minutest details of the character. Her expressions, her features.Almost everything.
We see how the girl is happy to see through this crystal ball. Her perspective has changed.
This is what I did. The extreme close up.









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