American New Wave: Context and Breakdown

What's involved?

So what exactly is a new wave and what happens? Well during a great period of change within the country that then boosts the film industry that it then causes new ideas and concepts to be brought forward with new techniques. The precursor to all of them was by the French as they brought with them new concepts such as authors and camera styles that then become unique to the Director of the film. The actual name for these is auteur and camera stylo which we can link to a certain style of camera movement that the director then becomes known for.  It's almost similar to that of a creative signature that you'd see on a piece of art (which also got re-vamped in this wave but it's not overly relevant).

So how does this all link to the American New Wave, well if we look at techniques used then we start to see some greater influences such as the extended cut. This is where the scene or shot has the camera in a specific position with the emphasis on the scene for an extended period of time without cutting, this allows for more meaning to be built for characters yet it can then become part of a directors signature. Yet this is not one of the biggest parts of the American New Wave, that comes from the basis of the contents and context of what's happening at the time. How is this relevant? Well look at a lot of films from the period of the sixties to seventies what was going on, well you have the Vietnam war one of the worst for America as the actual cost of the time and resources that went into it for as long as it did had a large impact to the economy and the industry as a whole, next was the movement of the time which was a hippie/free-love type so it was about mind-bending drugs and altered perspectives which gave way to a lot of different camera moves and edits.

So what was made with the New American Wave? The first thing would be the topics contained within them such as MASH, now during the period of the sixties the cold war was raging and the war had gotten over to Vietnam and this is quite possibly one of the most unpopular wars within modern history because of the expense and the effect across both America and Vietnam. It gave rise to film creators making clear but changed messages about the war hence MASH, so you can see within the contexts certain films gain an extra layer of depth.

The story is that it follows a group during the Korean war and the effect that it has on the group that's a part of an American camp. If you follow actions of the characters some of it seems to be a minor comment on the insanity that the Americans faced during the war, which the film kind of follows as it goes along with the series f events that goes across the entire film until the end. If you look at the football game there's another metaphor within it even though both sides are American, there's one side which has the upper-hand almost endlessly (Vietnamese) then another side which seems to be at the underhand of everything no matter what they try (American) which reinforces the metaphor of the futility of the American campaign.

Another example to give to support the idea of depth would be two that relate in different ways, one is Easy Rider. In brief it's about a road trip between two friends that sort of hints at the idea of freedom and none conformity with the social norms of the time. Of course this was already well versed in America at the time because at the time it was brought from the death of Kennedy and then the government started to bring the hammer down on the drugs and other things that the movement brought.

This was then brought into the industry with films such as Easy Rider to highlight or better demonstrate in a more visual way the idea of free-love and drugs that went against the system standard.

However going back to the techniques used, there's an iconic one that was made popular with the French and that is the long cut. If you remember back to the Cemetery trip scene from a previous post that had a near three minute continuous cut of them just being sat in the graveyard with almost no dialogue exchange between characters which was a popular method of the French as they too had similar long stretches where there was either all diegetic or non-diegetic without any audio playing over. 

If you look back at the Cemetery scene it starts out calm and measured with an extended cut for almost the entire length of the clip which then gets changed to a lot of quick cuts and visuals to demonstrate the chaos of the drug but also to demonstrate the damage that it seems to do to the person/people taking them.

Earlier I mentioned that I was drawing from two films for this section on the idea of freedom and going against the system that this movement brought with it, the second is an earlier film form the 60's called Bonnie and Clyde.

When looking at this there's a good source within a book by Peter Biskind (Quote and name in research links post) that details not only what made them so popular with the themes of the time [this made them more relatable for the public] but also what was considered far enough to sink the film.

But as previously mentioned this was at the time of free-love and the need to go against traditional society as while the idea of them and the actual art behind them (dubbed a renaissance) and so this developed more yet they were still frowned upon if use the book as an example.

So how do these two films link, surely there's no way that a film about motorbikes and drugs could relate to another about bandits and robbers but the basic message is the same, it's about going against the system and the norms of the period and they're the almost poster models for it. 

The story follows a couple as they travel and go on the run for robberies of banks and other such things but it all comes to end when they get shot by a law pose at the end of the film, the reason why this is significant is because it goes against the norms of the time for these two people since maybe it would be calm and measured jobs like an office rather than going everywhere robbing and getting into trouble. During the sixties was also the women liberation movement and this movement reflects on it by giving the women the chance to go against what was deemed normal and show that you can do something huge and extraordinary even if the impact is negative or exposes the world.

Shutter Speeds and Aperture

Shutter Speed

What is it?

Shutter speed is just pretty much what it says on the tin, it's how long and fast the lens is exposed to light. For example 1/50 which is the standard for film and photography the numbers basically mean that the sensor within the camera will be exposed to light from the scene for a fiftieth of a second before snapping for the next one for however long the shot will be.

But these speeds do have another effect and that's the effect of motion blur, if you use freeze frames or just viewing footage then you can see that there's a definite blur within the movement captured. As an example of this I have attached some screenshots of two frames from two different shutter speeds, one at 1/60 and then another at 1/125 so that you can see the change between them.

In this image you can see that there's some blur occurring alongside the motion making it difficult to pick out details within the object.

Whereas in this image there's a more significant amount of blur even with things such as the forearm which doesn't feature that much movement within them.

So this shows how important the shutter is within film and how even a small change to the frames can have a massive impact upon the quality of film that's then made and left at the end of the production.

Now onto the Aperture.  Now I have covered this previously but not to an extent where I feel that it would be useful, so the way aperture works is by controlling the depth of field through controlling light flow to the sensor. The bigger the aperture (the lower the number) the more blur will be in the image and vice versa.

These diagrams have a mush clearer version of this method and how it all looks. 

So as you can see the aperture plays a rather big role in how the clear and bright an image is but it also helps you play with what ranges are available for your shots giving you the ability to get more meaningful ones or more focus on one character.

Here's an example of some aperture tests that I did:

As you can see from these shots in order of brightest to darkest the higher the number on the aperture the more clarity you get from your image but the overall brightness is lowered whereas the lower the number gives you more brightness to light the image with but some of the image will be lost or blurred out.

Hopefully now you understand that with aperture the general ruling is the higher the better but be prepared to fiddle with your light set up but if you go lower you may need to adjust your subjects range to the camera.

Meanings in Jaws

Scars and Edits

When editing you always have to think about the rules, this then gives you the guide for what you can break when doing your next piece of editing. This comes under what's known as the Rule of 6 and these are the general rules that you should follow or think about while making your story, normally above all story is what you'd expect to be the key thing to think about or focus on but actually this isn't true. While the story of a scene is important emotion always comes first when bringing together a scene, this helps to get an audience reaction but more importantly sell your scene.

Now onto the film of choice for today, we're looking at the scar scene this helps us to connect with the characters on screen and give more meaning behind the story and their connections to it.

Now in the editing for this scene we see two opposing characters bonding with the protagonist seeming to be on the outside of the two.

In these two frames we see the lighting is dark around everywhere but the center of the table which they're on. This helps to draw the viewers to focus on that point making their actions more meaningful as they're paying attention to that point.

It also helps to follow the 180 degree as they have a reference point to use but also a singular point of focus where they can now draw meaning from their text.

However lighting and mis-en-scene aren't all that's used to give the text meaning but the type of shot as well. It's a very close-up shot giving little of the surroundings away making the audiences eyes zoom in on the scene before them. It's not just what's not around them but the length too, this scene is almost a three minute long shot of these two characters interacting.

This is all helping to establish the characters with their experiences and allowing us to bond with them much deeper than at just face value, as we can see it seems to be mainly focused on two characters who aren't even technically the protagonist which links back to the rule of six that I mentioned earlier where you draw on emotions for meaning before story. Which if you think about it makes sense to the scene, ordinarily this would be almost contextual but for the emotion of the moment and the characters in it this has been included but in one long cut too making the emphasis that this more important to the characters and the emotional link rather than any full impact to the story itself.

Another thing which is key throughout all of these scenes is that the two characters on screen are almost constantly getting closer to each other making it seem more and more like there's a connection between them.

We see that the camera still hasn't moved or followed any of the usual rules that we know for cinematography which can normally mean that the emphasis is on the environment like an establishing shot for the surroundings rather than character focus.

However this scene goes against the norm by having its focus be how close the characters are getting (symbolising the new unity from their shared experiences) whilst highlighting that all we've seen of these two is how different they are from each other but in actuality probably have more in common.

Again we see that the lighting is consistent in highlighting what the scene needs the focus on at that moment bringing the audiences focus to it and therefore drawing their attention away from anything else. The way that the camera is angled to almost reflect off the fact that these two are sharing a wide range of experiences and emotions, almost makes it seem like an outsiders point of view where only the characters on screen know the true depth behind each mark. 

This POV turns out to be a strong one as when the camera next cuts it's to the main character watching from the side out of the light and the main focus of the scene almost pushed aside, like an outsider. Having this cut in the place that it is gives an important emphasis to the characters themselves and their emotions, for example like here we see Roy Scheider's character looks almost uncomfortable to go and join them in the main part of this scene.  

Then as we see by this shot we can see why he's on the outside, the only scar he has is from an operation not any sort of experience with a shark or some other form of creature.

One really important thing of note here is that the shots are identical but the light that just highlighted his face has more emphasis and has moved lower to the part that's exposed to the camera drawing the audiences eye to what's changed and maybe why he's not joined them. 

A potential reason why the editor chooses to cut away only once they almost get to the end of the scar show-off as it were could be that there was to be a specific emphasis on the effect that each has on the story, listing off each one with a how gives the audience a sense of direction. That instead of the protagonist taking charge as is the norm in film they instead choose two characters that were only introduced mere moments ago contrasting the usual etiquette and structure of films, however it's not just the switch between them that gives a purpose but the length.

Having the two secondary protagonists who don't really relate to the story with more screen time than the main protag shows the style of the editor and DP, it shows us that they wanted to give everything they could a meaning behind it like for example to characters who act as opposites bonding over shared experiences or how isolated the main seems because he hasn't had the same as the others.

In summary it's like I stated before the editor chooses cuts and shots to create meaning behind the text that they're presenting and certainly in this case they've kept to the structure we know and placed emotion before story whilst making sure they connect.

Hopefully this has given you a better insight into how editors give different or specific meanings in the texts that they create.

Have a great day!

Rules of Shots in Cinematography

What's What

In this post I will be breaking down the types and styles of different shots throughout film and TV talking about the technique, how effective they are as well as some of my own shots. Hopefully it will teach you something new.

Anyways enjoy!

Shot/Reverse- Toby Maguire's Spider-man  So in this shot you can see a character having a conversation in the mirror with two opposing characteristics, one being happy and manic and the other being down and confused. The way that this shot works is that when there's one shot after there's a similar shot but at a reversed angle to show the flip of the scene hence showing the duality of the character. This type of shot is more generally used for conversations between characters as it gives the impression that both pieces of dialogue are happening at the same time, like the one in the clip above.                     

 Here's my interpretation of the shot reverse technique with the two splits of the same character interacting together and the jumps showing that it's at the same time but the outcome is almost completely different to what's expected. Overall I fell that we demonstrated and captured this rule well as it shows what it is and what it can do along with the effect it can have when used effectively.

180 Degree Rule- The Dark Knight  Here we have a scene which is another dialogue section but the rule still applies, basically when the camera moves in this section it's only allowed 180 degrees movement within the area of the scene. Here in the scene between Batman and Joker the cameras that switch views between them have a cut but that's just for between the characters where as if you look at the actual movement then it follows this rule and actually loops back while the conversation carries on. Generally when using this the characters tend to show more of a body to what ever side the camera on but when you have multiple so long as you have a bit of room the effect will be the same.

Here's my interpretation of this rule:

 Here there isn't as much camera movement and that's probably one of the biggest downfalls of the piece example but the basics are all still the same where the characters are leaning more towards the side with the camera and generally working in that direction showing off the rule just as well. This demonstration has worked well because it shows off the rule and how it might be edited but on the other hand there's very little camera movement so it's less accurate then it would be other wise.

30 Degree Rule- Various  This type of angle is much tighter than normal, as you can see if the camera does move then it doesn't move very far or at that much wider either but it's mainly used to highlighted certain characters or features within a scene. As you can see in the video above there's a few different scenes where this is used but they're not as wide ranging in what they cover making the audiences eyes focus on the thing that's in focus right in front of them in the scene. 

Here's my interpretation of the rule:

 So as you can see we've narrowed the scope but kept the scene similar to the last one to show that you can still have a similar type of scene but you have to be careful in what you include to this so that it's not too crowded and makes the audience loose immersion within the scene, having the rule as well allowed us to give focus or highlight one character within the scene. Now issues with this shot is similar to the last where we really didn't demonstrate any real movement of the camera to show off what the angle is or how impactful it can be.

Cutting On Action- Unknown  This one is just a brief note as it's used more by TV channels for their shows for adverts, so they can keep their audience hooked on what's going to happen when it cuts back to them. However this doesn't mean that it's only television that can use this rule, some films do this too where they cutaway from a piece of action to a different scene for other characters, it's a good one to consider for some light tension building or comedic effect but isn't really one of the best to use a lot.

Crosscutting- Inception  Now this is an interesting technique because of what it can do to a scene, as you can see in this scene there are times where it cuts away and back quite frequently but why? Well that's because this rule tries to make multiple things happen within the same space, almost like they're going on at the same time. This is the effect that it creates having a cut that's quick enough and close enough to the last creates this feeling that both things are happening within the same time making each cut or change synch together like in the scene above.

Here's my interpretation of this:

 This isn't as much a cinematic or big example as the one above but it still demonstrates the rule well, having these things edited so quick and close together with n invisible cut helps to create that sense of both have happened within the same time frame. The big thing though is that this looks similar to a shot/reverse shot but it's not as the shot/reverse shot is more to do with characters interacting and dialogue whereas this is more built for sequences like the scene above.

The actual footage itself I feel works well to demonstrate this rule but I feel like if we had worked a bit more to tackle the seemingly synchronicity of the technique then it would have had a much clearer display but this works well as an active example of the technique.

Establishing Shot- Harry Potter  Well we all know this one, almost every film has them and always look really pretty. Establishing shots. They are all about one thing, setting a scene of a location where your characters are based such as the Harry Potter example above, there's little to add here but how they're taken now that can change from a camera on a track to a drone flying over head with the camera angled face down.

Here's my interpretation:

 As I said earlier there really isn't a whole lot to do with this one other than camera stability and time, too long and it'll be boring too short and well it can throw the audience out of the moment when the scene changes so overall I'm happy with the outcome of this as a demonstration into what an establishing shot looks like.

Match On Match Action- Friends  Now this is an interesting one, this involves a multi-camera set up and more close editing to get right. So as you can see by the clip basically this rule is where you have one shot with the character doing the action (like opening a door and walking into the room) and then the next shot is them continuing where the camera left off. Friends is iconic for this type of shot as that's primarily the type that's featured within the show.

Here's my interpretation:

 As you can see this is a similar format but with less on screen so you can clearly see the effect as the clip goes, the cut between entering the door and the camera changing to inside the room is clear so that you can see what we're matching with the door. This I feel works well as a demonstration although it would work better if the clip ran a little bit smoother in-between shots of the scene.

Temporal Overlap- Family Guy  Ah the heart of any good action film multiple shots of the same explosion, also called temporal overlap. Now this is where there are multiple almost quick shots of the same explosion some even going back before and then replaying but with how quick the edits are within this and how the sequence is put together it almost doesn't matter because it all looks as though its at the same time. Now could this be confused with the Crosscutting shot? Possibly as both follow a similar format to one another but thing is the crosscutting is of different things happening at once whereas this is more like multiple cuts of one sequence.

Kuleshov Effect- The Dark Knight Rises  Now this one is interesting because it's one that we see but never really pay attention to as it just fits in all the right ways. This rule (or effect) is from two shots like crosscutting but is more to do with emotions than the actual sequence itself, it's where we derive meaning from two shots that work in sequence with each other and then the audience gains meaning from that. So in this example between the fight with Bane and Batman we see cuts back to Catwoman who's emotions are on full display for us to see about the choice that she made. This then connects with the audience and makes them emotional too as it's almost like its a comment on how helpless they are for the situation at hand like she feels.

Montage- Hot Fuzz  Here we are the final technique or rule, The Montage. Now this came from the Soviets who seemingly managed to bend the laws of time and space to get a sequence of shots from point A to point B while creating meaning and giving the audience the needed information on what was happening. Hence why Hot Fuzz is a good example of this as it has this sequence of shots for the first five minutes with the protagonist narration to guide the audience through what's being played to make sure that they don't get lost in what's happening in between.

Hopefully this has given you an insight into what some of the rules are and how they can impact what you're creating if used right.

 

Basic Camera Set-up and Pull Focus

Details

So we go back to the origin of the camera techniques that have been discussed here so far, and that's how cameras actually work and some of the basics of the industry of cinematography / photography in order to get an understanding of what there is and how it works together.

With that lets look at a role which is a necessity in the actual area. The Director of Photography or DP for short.

Now the Director of Photography is basically someone who takes charge of all the cameras and shots, so they decide the lighting and camera positions and mis-en-scene before doing either multiple pictures or takes before changing things or moving onto the next, But they cover much more like understanding the script to get meaning from the shots that they take, they also have to work fast but precise as there will be time and budget restrictions.

This doesn't mean however that it's all stress and worry, DP's make their own styles that can become iconic and have its own fan following. So long as they understand the basic rules of lighting and camera movement and techniques then they can manipulate them to suit their style best.

Now on to some camera and photograph basics.

First thing to think about is Lighting, the sun is the biggest brightest light thing known anywhere so if the settings that you have when you take a photo in the sun produce a seemingly normal photograph then in lower lighting (such as with a dim bulb) then the image will appear underexposed giving it an entirely different meaning.

The next thing to look at is the Aperture, this blocks or allows light to enter the lens, so the narrower it is then darker the image and vice versa.

A third thing is Shutter Speed, now when people say frame-rate they think it's actually related to the shutter speed. This is not true, what shutter speed actually manages is the length of exposure that each frame has so for example a 1/50 would be one frame every fiftieth of a second.

The last thing is a bit more complex. In a camera (video to be specific) there's a chip inside called the CCD chip which acts as an almost grounding agent for the image being recorded, now this works in a similar way to the aperture in terms of exposure in that if it becomes sensitive to lighting then it will still make bright images but from smaller sources.

This diagram can probably explain this concept better than me:

Now, with those covered we can talk about pull focus. This is a method where by you pull the focus of the camera from one thing to another like maybe a character from the foreground to the background or vice versa. Below is an example from the 1987 release Predator:

Here we can see some characters in focus (background) motion to Arnold Schwarzenegger's character and the camera changes focus to reflect this too as the audiences focus is now back on him rather than the previous character.

I went out and tried to get my own example of a pull focus in a less noisy way, below is the footage that I managed to capture:

In this footage you can see a bit clearer than the Predator example the actual transition mid-shot between the two areas of focus. Now for a good set-up to get a similar results you would need to use what I like to call the 'Default set' which is just standard settings for the camera to get the best shots possible.

For example adjusting your light meter (seen below) to the perfect setting so it's clear what your changing it to.

In order to do this type of change in focus, with a standard DSLR Canon just adjust the focus ring around the outer edge of the camera until you get that change. It might be worth while practicing a few ties so that you can make sure you get the clean transition between them.

Hopefully this has helped you understand your camera's a bit more and taught you something that you didn't know.

Have a great day.

ISO Uses

Content

So ISO, what is it? There's a common myth that if you have bad lighting you should turn up your ISO in order to compensate, this is not true or advisable as this will lead to 'noise' being on the film which lowers the quality and overall makes it appear worse than keeping it at recommended.

What does it actually do? It makes the lens and therefore the camera itself more sensitive to light and will make it either over or under expose images but the general rule of thumb is that you should keep it between 100-400 and work with the appature or Shutter Speed rather than risk over-exposure and adding noise to a scene.

This image helps to demonstrate this point better and gives you a clearer picture of what effect that ISO can have on pictures.

On the left is an image with an ISO set to 100, the image is clean and crisp with detail and the colours are whole. On the right is an image that's full of noise (the grain over the front of the image) which has ruined the detail and diluted the colours of the sky and the building making appear to be of a worse off quality and almost seemingly from another camera.

To try and emphasise this point more I shot a few of my own videos to try and show you what effect ISO can have in different environments.

Here is an image with the ISO set incorrectly: 

As you can see by the highlighted spots on the frame there's a lot of grain and noise on the image and that's because of incorrect ISO settings for the lighting and environment making it a worse looking final product overall.

Here we have an example of a good use of ISO within the environment, having a low ISO in high key lighting will produce good results as the camera becomes less sensitive to light meaning that the chances for noise and grain within the image are low.

It will also produce a more detailed image as the shadows will be more defined while the light still gets through the lens with just enough exposure for it to be a clear image

However these examples aren't really an exact science, there's still so many factors that could affect them. An example would be for the high ISO I shot at night with a singular point of low key light (a ringlight) which would give worse results than multiple at equal distances like as backlighting, or the fact that I didn't do multiple test shots of the day photograph to better test for the best ISO setting for that moment.

This doesn't mean that the footage looses impact, the points are still made within a dark setting and lowkey lighting (like a studio with a singular point) a higher ISO would be preferable as it would make the camera better able to detect and then use the lighting available, whereas a more highkey lighting setting would require a lower one to draw out the images quality and reduce the amount of noise seen in the final product.

Hopefully this has given you a better understanding of how impactful the ISO settings on a camera can be for the product you're producing.

Have a great day.

Premire Pro Editing

Editing Basics

So, with all the stuff to cover about media development as a whole I thought I'd go over some of the tutorials from Premier Pro and what some of the take-away's are from each section.

We begin with the basics of editing, sequencing clips. Obviously this seems easy but it's actual more complex in the breakdown, this doesn't come from the action of the putting them on the timeline (lower right box) but rather their order and making sure that you keep the right audio files with the right clips otherwise it begins to be thrown off.

Now we come to the end of the aligning and functions area. In this section we covered how to move both audio and video to ensure good placement and quality.

Some of the take-away's from this are:

-Take care when you use the timeline, where you have stuff in sequence will affect the video playback

-Audio is linked to video, which means that you need to lock one of them in place if you begin to edit the other

-Having the preview window at a decent size goes miles to helping with edits, this will show you a preview of the final product and where you need to improve

Just to round off the basics of introductions to editing, we have overlaying on top of videos and bringing in different effects and bringing them together with the project to add more depth to the project and bring it together.

Some of the take-away's from this are:

- Using video effects and transitions can add another layer to your project, having these effects can improve the flow from a jumpcut so it's worth while to give it more consideration

-Always plan what you want from it, this seems obvious but having a list of what you want where will go miles in helping you keep structure when editing and it means that the project will meet what you wanted it to be rather than looking like a quickly pieced together jumpcuts and footage

-Organise your resources, keep what you want to use in the order that you'll need it with possible notes for the clip so that you can keep track of your video development and ensure you know how to best merge it together.

Well now we've reached the end of the editing cycle, the 'final phase' such as colour grading and enhancements to highlights and shadows to make it like a ore standard profession style of clip.

Here are some final thoughts from learning editing and some final take-away's:

-Use the blue arrow to move along your timeline to keep an eye on your project window, it gives you the opportunity to preview what your final product will be

-The timeline is a vital tool for your success, it gives you the chance to layer images and other videos to create all manner of things including a split-screen

-Colours are a near essential tool in order to make sure that you get the right tone or message to the audience as the wrong type of message can give an entirely different tone to the production.

Hopefully this has given you some insight and maybe a different perspective into what is done during the production of TV/Film.