Definitions

Why learn how to read films:

•    Emotional experience
•    Entertainment
•    Learn story
•    Visually connect with characters
•    Historic events
•    Perspective –> human condition
•    Relate to characters

Is Cinema or film a text:

• story
• characters
• setting
• sound
• images

Cinema is a visual art form. cinema is not literature. A film is not a novel.
- However, a film is a text, just as a play, poem or novel is a text.
- Although the storyline is essential, when reading a film you must be able to examine, interpret and analyse the visual elements and style.


Elements of film - Alice in Wonderland:

Shot types:
Setting, lighting, characters, dialogue, sound

Props:
Colour scheme, objects,
























A shot is a continuous piece of filming without interuption from the time the camera is turned on and starts filming until it is turned off

EDIT:
- An edit is a break in the film where one shot ends and the next shot begins
- The four common types of edit are:

• Cuts
• Dissolves
• Fades
• Wipes (occasionally)

Edit types are selected carefully to suit the genre of the film and emotional intention of the shot!


A SCENE:
- A scene is a collection of shots, arranged through editing, into a specific order.

Starting our Film

Type of Film: Music Video to the song devil tears by Angus and Julia Stone


Crew Structure

Producer: ALL
A film producer creates the conditions for making movies. The producer initiates, coordinates, supervises and controls matters such as raising funding, hiring key personnel, and arranging for distributors. The producer is involved throughout all phases of the filmmaking process from development to completion of a project.

Director: SOPHIE
The director is responsible for overseeing the creative aspects of a film, including controlling the content and flow of the film's plot, directing the performances of actors, organizing and selecting the locations in which the film will be shot, and managing technical details such as the positioning of cameras, the use of lighting, and the timing and content of the film's soundtrack.

Costume/Props set designer: HOLLY

Sound designer:BINDI
The sound designer, or "supervising sound editor", is in charge of the post-production sound of a movie. Sometimes this may involve great creative license, and other times it may simply mean working with the director and editor to balance the sound to their liking.

Film editor:ALL
The film editor is the person who assembles the various shots into a coherent film, with the help of the director.

Camera operator/s: SOPHIE/BINDI

Story board designer: ALL

Script designer: ALL

Title of film: DEVIL TEARS
Synopsis: "A synopsis is a summary given in brief terms that covers the major points of your film. Synopses are usually more in-depth than a mere "summary", and aim to give a fair idea of the topic."

-  A girl is the main idea of the video. The guy singing the song is talking about her. Shes on the beach and she remembers the good times they used to have. It flashes back into the old times with him and her together having fun. She has the bracelet he gives her and she drops it into the ocean because she knows its over and shes never getting it back. Then the end scene is her walking down the beach because she knows shes not getting him back. The video clip on a whole is not meant to be a happy film clip, but reflect the way the guy and the girl are both feeling about each other.
Theme: a music clip of lost love between and guy and a girl


The Story Board of our Lost Love music clip.

Making a Video

List the jobs done by the following members of the video production (creative team’
1.    Executive producer:  manages time line of project and controls the budget.
2.    Writer: the person who takes the idea or concept and writes the script
3.    Producer: in charge of the creative team. secures service of the production crew, prepare shooting schedules and making sure the film is shot on time and on budget.
4.    Director: Directs performance of cast and crew and tells people what to do. Also explains performance to technical crew and has the final say on a visual and audio treatment of the movie.
5.    Production manager: Co-ordinates track production and make sure its running smoothly and on time.
6.    Storyboard artist: works with director and producer to draw up sketches for the various scenes.
7.    Camera operator: shoots required scenes according to directors directions and also work with the lighting director. 
8.    Sound technician: ensure dialogue and other sounds are properly recorded. They also ensure that microphones and levels are correct. Also involved in the final sound mix.
9.    Talent: are the actors or cast. Deliver the content 
10.    Editor: Finish off the production by cutting the footage to a suitable length. Music, graphics, special effects.

11.    Define brief: intention, purpose, target audience, limitations (budget, time frame)

Pre-production

12.    What is the purpose of the pre production stage? plans of the shooting are put into place
13.    What are some of the tasks done in the pre production stage? scripting, scene breakdown, storyboard, shot list, casting, locations, equipment hire, catering, transport, informing people
14.    Why is the pre-production stage so important to the production process? preparation for the movie so they know what they are doing and so its organized,
15.    What are three important things to remember in the pre-production process?  These could be related to the stage in general or the work of those performing specialist roles. making sure you have a setting thats available to use.


Production

16.    What is the production stage also known as? (Think about its purpose) shooting of the script
17.    What are some tasks done in the production stage? lighting, camera operation, sound
18.    What are three important things to remember in the production process? These could be related to the stage in general or the work of those performing specialist roles. : lighting, clarity of the audio, get as close to actors mouth as possible. dont want any background noises.  safety issues. tape legs down on cameras, put sandbags on them too, keep set clean.
19.    What does ‘continuity’ mean? Why is it an important consideration of the production stage? ceratin items or objects are continued in the same shots.


Post-Production

20.    What is one of the major tasks completed in post-production? is editing
21.    What is the difference between an off-line edit and an online edit? off line is rough cut edit and on line is the final cut edit.
22.    What are some of the tasks done by an editor? cutting footage and audio together in the right order. working with producer/director and final approval by executive producer.
23.    What task is done after an edit? What is the purpose of this task? a sound mix is made. a sound technician adjuts levels of all sounds so they are correctly balanced.

Shots

 Wide shot - even though there is not real background or setting here, this shot type still establishes the setting.

 Medium Shot -

 Close Up -

 Extreme Close-Up -

 High Angle -

 Low Angle -

 Birds Eye View -

 Ants Shot Perspective -

 Over the Shoulder -

 Cool Lighting -

Movies

Action Films:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.

 

Worksheet Film
1. On the right are some of the ways we classify films. On the left are some film titles. Match
each title with the most appropriate kind of film from the column on the right.


FILM    GENRE

The Simpsons   
a thriller

FRIDAY THE 13TH   
CARTOON

27 DRESSES   
a historical film

WILD WILD WEST   
a (Hollywood) musical

BRAVE HEART   
a science fiction movie

MOULIN ROUGE   
a war film

ARMAGEDDON   
a horror film

BLARE WITCH   
Epic/Historical

INDIANA JONES   
a romantic comedy

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN   
western

ALIEN   
a documentary

THE GOD FATHER - CRIME   
ADVENTURE

LIFE OF JOHN BUTLER   
a disaster movie

CASABLANCA   
ROMANCE


2. Here are some of the categories for the annual Academy Award Winners. Each winner gets an Oscar. Look back over the past few years – not just this year – and note down who you would give your awards to for as many as you can of the categories below.


Best film – Avatar
Best Actor – Leonardo DiCaprio
Best Actress - Katherine Heigl
Best Supporting Actor – Heath Ledger
Best Supporting Actress - Keira Knightley
Best Director – James Cameron
Best Original Screenplay (script) – Inception
Best Screen Adaptation – The Shawshank Redemption
Best Cinematic Photography – the 007 introduction
Best Editing – The Wild Bunch
Best Special Effects – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 1.
Best Original Score (music)  - The social network
Best Costumes / Wardrobe – Alice in Wonderland

Best Title Sequence / Credits - Superbad
Best Short (film) – Ten Minutes
 

Titanic Iceberg

Mise En Scene:

Lighting:
- Dark and cold with a blue haze over it. The lighting in the boiler room was dark, warm and hot to try and show how hard they work and how different it is to the ship up the top and on the outside.


Setting:
- This part of the movie is shot in lots of different places, to show the contrast between the different classes on the ship. It was set in the boiler, in an office inside the ship, on the eagles nest outside and on the deck of the ship.

Props:
ice-berg -
steering wheel - it showed they were turning really fast, the shots sped up.
the machinery - was massive machinery, moving very fast. temperature and lighting was warmer to create the sense of it heating up and making the intensity higher. 
sight seeing tower at the top - so they could see if anything was in the way and to also give the viewes a sense of how close the boat was to the ship
the propeller -

Characterisation:
Perspiration dripping off peoples faces from fear.

genre - historical film, drama, romance

Cinematography

- painting light in the dark - exposure
- visual psychiatrist - deal with the mind. Refers to how they make visual of what people are thinking, how they make visible of whats in the mind.
- they move the audience to think
- compose and create movement
- visually represent a story
-  

 House of Flying Dragons

 Camera Movement:
Very fast at the end after the build up of anticipation during the first few minutes. straight cut credits were used to enhance the film and cut quickly and fasten the camera speed. the camera speed fastens and slows down to enhance the action of the fight. In terms of focus, the subjects in the front were clear and the subjects in the back were blurred to re-enforce the people in the foreground. The camera was placed high to see all the people above her who were watching and to show what was going on.

Genre:
Foreign Action Film

Cinematography:

Bright lighting but also crisp so you can see the minute details.

Editing refers to creating rhythm through editing. refers to the passing of time, for example you might speed up for impact or slow it down.

FIlm Language - Mise En Scene

Elements Used to elicit an emotional response in the audience:

 MISE EN SCENE

PUT IN SCENE

This is the combination of all the visual elements within the frame

(frame: the physical boundary that contains what the audience sees)

Raiders of the Lost Arc; discussion of Mise En Scene

Genre:
The genre of Raiders of the Arc is an action movie. You can tell its an action movie as the scene is really fast paced with fast shots. The setting is a dark mysterious place which shows its also an action. The main type of edits that are used in this movie are cuts. This makes the feeling of the action movie a lot more action. The shot types that are used are close-ups, then it jumps back to the wide shot to see the whole setting and whats going on around the place.



Style of Acting:
The actors have a strong type of acting. They seem strong and not scared of anything. The dirt they have on their faces and their ragged clothes kind of show they are adventure people.  

Props:
There are little props that make the movie the way it is. The whip is a big part, along with the hat they wear to get the feeling that they are adventurous type people. The golden face that they collect is also a big part as it shows what they have come to achieve and shows that they are explorer type people to have gotten it. There are also cobwebs used to enhance the mood, it shows its a dark scary type of place to get the feeling of the action movie.


Lighting: 
The main type of lighting that this scene uses is mainly dark lighting. The lighting on their faces at the start and the shadows on their faces, also the scene in general is shot pretty dark to create the mood of the action movie. The temperature is warm most of the time, but when they were walking into the cave the temperature was cool to make the feeling goose-bumpy and kind of scary.

Setting:
It is set in South-America. South-America is an amazon type place so its shot in the wilderness in the amazon.

Notting Hill; Discussion of Mise En Scene

Genre:
Romantic comedy

Shot types: 
Close ups, to get the emotion and express of their face. to help the audience to connect with whats happening. Wide shots were also used to create an atmosphere and to see the setting. Also to show the relationship between the 2 characters. A big shot at the end with the birds eye view was to see the big picture saying "are we meant to be together forever?" they used the camera to create the metaphor.  

Lighting:
the lighting that was used was like a warm temperature to create the mood of the scene. Then at the park is was like summers light moonlight and it was definitely cooled down to create that intimate feel, to emphasize the romantic feeling.  

Style of acting:
They make themselves likable and shows how vulnerable we can be when in love. They also show their weaknesses. They were a number of different characters so they could connect with a lot of people. They are generally very down to earth with the way they act and they over think things.

Props:
The clothes have a big part in movies and the clothes that are worn in Notting Hill are usually stylish and fashionable to fit with the time.
The brownie was also used as a prop. it was given to the one who was the most pathetic. It enhances the scene of them getting to know each other by sharing the close secrets with each other.
The fence was another prop and it showed that she was stronger then him. She wanted to have some fun but he was a bit more quieter and he was a bit more shy and not as out there.
The wheelchair contirbuted to the story as well as it was trying to show she was a caring person even though she had a famous life she wanted to connect with his family and get to know them.
The bench in the park symbolised true love, it talked about the 2 people who had sit there together on that bench. Its a symbol of 2 people who experienced a life long love.