Week 10 Clip recap

Only one clip this week, as you remember, we had Andi take the lecture on Layouts and Pre-Viz. As this was her job in Animation studios for many years, it was a no-brainer, and awesome, to have her speak about the layout department tasks in the pre-production process. Thanks Andi :D

This clip or two that we watched is one part culmination of the lessons we have covered thus far, plus an into into next week's lecture on 'Editing'. A particular point that I want you to remember (which I brought up in class) was that this biopic/drama still utilizes composing theories that some people would normally mistaken as action film type shots (typically since we've seen examples used in 'The Matrix', 'Casino Royale' or even 'Ben 10' cartoons for instance). Make no mistake, you can "jazz" up your "talking head"/exposition/ drama scenes with compositional concepts we spoke of back in the early part of the semester.

The use of the extreme close up, edited with fragments of events of Ali's past and some key events leading up to the Liston fight conveys to the audience that we are "seeing" Ali's inner thoughts as he focuses on the speedbag.

Note the circular compositon, and the "fanning" of the men surrounding
 Clay/Ali in the shot, from far left foreground to far right, with Ali the focal point
(not just "standing vertical" in shot.)

Another shot, where Depth of field, composition and the direction of the
people's heads (all looking towards Clay/Ali) lead the eye to the focal point.

 Have a look at the lecture slides from week 8, here's an example or two of theory in practice :)

"Beyond the standard point of Interest" (Icon)
In this case, Ali's famous footwork signifies his entry into the ring,
rather than a medium or full body shot.

 This clip misses out on the "Clay v. Liston" Weigh in, which is a scene I like as despite the two characters being in the midst of a huge room full of people, the focus is purely on them, and the frames are composed in a way that the focus is always on the main two, whether it's through depth of field, negative space or framing Clay/Ali and Liston between the shoulders and heads of the people around them. The "blurring" of foreground heads and/or background people immediately draws your eye to the focal point of the screen. Could only find an Italian version of this scene, but no matter. The story is clear through camera shots, posing/acting and editing.



Anyways, gotta run, will make a post tomorrow showing some examples to clarify what is to be produced for the final assessment.

Recap- Week 8 clips

Hi Guys,

I hope if I haven't heard your final assessment story that you'll email me on pmason83@gmail.com....*hint*
Thank you to those that have :D

In the meantime, let's recap some of the clips we saw in the last class. The lecture slides are going up, my apologies if you missed the class, I simplified the shot layouts on the whiteboard, and expanded a bit, but you'll get the idea. The focal points and compositions/camera choices given as examples are those which tend to feature in particular genres. Have a look at the clips below, and see when these more advanced principles (from lecture) have been utilized in the genre clips below.

Many shots here should start to become very familiar to you ;D

Drip Along Daffy:
Parody-style films usually hit the nail on the head when they mimic the idiosyncrasies of composition and shot selection of the genre they're conveying. Check out in particular the "shoot out" sequence at the end of this cartoon, and think back to the shots we saw used in the Western examples from earlier in the semester. 

Duck Dogers in the 24th 1/2 Century:
Another example of genre parody- where referencing design, speech and themes have come into play.


Vezi mai multe din Desene animate pe 220.ro

Robin Hood Daffy:
And another, because I love Chuck Jones's "Porky and Daffy" partnership. We might see a couple more before the semester is out ;)



Live Action Examples:

Casino Royale (Madagascar chase sequence): Wasn't able to embed, but link is below.

This sequence uses everything we've touched on so far- Establishing shots, POV shots, over the shoulder, Zip pans, tracking shots, crane shots, use of diagonals in composition, strong perspectives etc. but also, some of the newer composing elements we touched on in the last class: Animating the scene (for a chase sequence- where the chasing character follows the "chasee" in the previous position, creating suspense and tension), upshots, landscape as character, action shots, beyond the standard points of interest etc. See how many you can spot!

Casino Royale sequence link: Click Me!

The Godfather (Opening scene):
Negative space and lighting to create focal points. Depth of field, Scale. Subtle truck out (camera movement).



 Tropic Thunder (opening scene):
 Not quite all of what we watched, but the "guts" of it are there. It's missing the "Big, Medium, Small" helicopter shot at the beginning, but you get the idea. Another example of parody, but again, referencing genre to get the laughs.