Camera workshop 3

Today we had our camera workshop with both Fergus and Simon.

The day started with Simon looking at Shot sizes, camera movements and trailers. We looked at the different types of shots used by the correct language.

Camera shots:

Camera shots

Above is some of the standard references to camera shots.

Extreme long shot is much further away getting a lot of action in the frame. Wide shot is as shown above (establish the scene or follow action) following a Mid shot from waist above.  Medium shot/medium close-up is from arms above, this is often used in drama and for news reporters. Close-up is from the shoulders up (to focus on a person or object) and extreme close-up is framed tight into the face or object.  There is two shot (2 people in frame),  point of view (from the characters perspective) and Over the shoulder (often used in drama when two people are talking).

Camera angles:

There is a variety of camera angles like low angle (facing up to someone), high angle (facing down) and birds eye view (arial/crane shot).

Camera movement:

We looked at camera movement. There is pan (panning from either left to the right or opposite), tilt (tilting up or down to reveal something), track (tracking from either left to the right or opposite parallel to the action), dolly (dollying in or out of a person or object, often mistaken for tracking in or out but the correct term is dolly. I thought it was tracking), Stedicam (handheld but a steady and smooth shot, can do shots like track or dolly without the need to attach to a track or wheels) and jib or crane (can pan across over action and tilt up or down whilst keeping the same lens size, good to open or close a scene or to reveal something exciting.

Trailers:

We then went onto looking at trailers. Trailers show key elements to a story to persuade people to go and watch the film or TV show. Interestingly I learn't that trailers started out after a film had finished but the audience left and did not see the trailers, they decided to show them before a film so people would see them. Trailers are short (around 2mins) to give enough action to make people consider seeing it. They have appropriate music, dialogue, and titles detailing the name of the film and when it is to be released, if a trailer for TV it will have the time of when the show is to be broadcast. Teasers are similar to a trailer but are much shorter and don't reveal much, hence 'Teaser'. Teasers are usually shown when the release of the film or TV show is very near, making sure people are aware of it.

Simon gave us a task to edit the short film 'Soft' that we watched early in the project. We was told to edit the footage into a trailer. Simon saw my first edit and gave feedback on how I had too much of the thugs and the fight scene, I did not have enough shots of the Son which is the key element of the film. I took on the feedback and edited further. Simon had another look and said it was an improvement. I had more of the Father and Son relationship but I still had a number of shots that were not as relevant such as when the father gets out of the car, this shot was on for a long time. Also the shot of him going out to get the milk. I edited it some more to make the trailer stand out and sell.

Here is my trailer for 'Soft'.