Understanding Movies

Pengantar Penelitian Sastra

Elements that we are going to learn today are…

1. Camera distance2. Camera Angle3. Camera Movement4. Mise on Scene

Camera Distance

1. Extreme Long Shot2. Long Shot (Full Shot)3. Medium Long Shot4. Medium Shot5. Medium Close Up6. Close Up7. Extreme Close Up

– Shows location – Often used as an initial establishing shot in a sequence

Camera Distance: Extreme Long Shot (ELS)

frames the entire body of one or more characters

Camera Distance: Long Shot (full shot)

- is also called “plan américain” or American shot- shows 1 to 3 characters from the thigh up. - shows characters and their roles without emphasizing their emotions.

Camera Distance: Medium Long Shot

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Camera Distance: Medium Shot

– Waist up– Focus on character(s)

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Camera Distance: Medium Close Up

– Chest up– Focus on

character(s)

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Camera Distance: Close Up

Can be of people

Can be of objects

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• If the close up is of the whole or part of the face then it shows emotion and reinforces spectator involvement

Camera Distance: Close Up

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An extreme close up is more magnified than close up, and will focus on one part (hand, eye, mouth, etc.)

Camera Distance: Extreme Close Up

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Camera Distance: Extreme Close Up

Often used at climax of drama

Camera Angle

1. Straight-on Angle2. Canted (Dutch)

Angle 3. High Angle4. Low ANgle

Camera Angle: Straight-on Angle

Normal angle and makes spectator feel comfortable

Camera Angle: Canted (Dutch) Angle

produces sense of unease in spectator

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Camera Angle: High Angle

Connotation - lack of power

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A shot taken from below an character, as if he/she is looking down on us. This may make us feel small and the character seem powerful and authoritative

Gladiator, Ridley

Scott, 2000

Camera Angle: Low Angle

Camera Movement

1. Panorama2. Tilt3. Track (dolly)4. Zoom

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Camera Movement: Pan (Panorama)

Camera swivels left or right on axis.

Used for:– Showing scene– Following movement– Guiding attention

Camera Movement: Tilt

Camera swivels up or down.

Used for:– Showing scene on different levels– Following movement

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Camera Movement: Track (Dolly)

- camera on wheels, usually on a little cart called a dolly (so sometimes known as a “dolly shot”; or the verb “to dolly” is used.

- can track in/out, left/right, slow/fast.

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Camera Movement : Track (dolly)

Tracking in

Lateral track(ing shot)

Use of zoom lens to create illusion of camera moving in/out. Can zoom in/out (forward zoom/reverse zoom)

Camera Movement : Zoom

Mise en scène

(pronounced “meez on sen” with second syllable nasalised, term from French theatre)

refers to everything we see on the screen.

1. Lighting2. Props and Objects3. Color4. Proxemic Patterns and Gestures

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• Three point system of lighting

– Key light: main source of light

– Backlight: adds highlights and differentiates actor from background

– Fill light: softens shadows from key light

Mise en scène: Lighting

Lighting

1. High Key Lighting2. Low Key Lighting

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High Key Lighting

- lighting scheme in which fill light is raised to almost the same level as key light - produces images that are usually very bright, few shadows on principal subjects. This bright image is characteristic of entertainment genres such as musicals

Peking Opera Blues /Do Ma Daan, Tsui Hark (Honk Kong, 1986)

Mise en scène

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Low Key LightingKey light dimmed (may be moved – kick light), very little fill light, creating strong contrasts between the brightest and darkest parts of an image and often creating strong shadows that obscure parts of the principal subjects.Shadows - connote unease, sense of evil - feature of horror

Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1957)

Mise en scène

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Costumes are important props. In film, any portion of a costume may become a prop.

His Girl Friday (Howard Hawkes, 1940)

Mise en scène: Props and Objects

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Mise en scène: Colour

• Colour is strongly linked to emotions

•Cool colours (blue, green, violet) suggest calm

•Warm colours (red, yellow, orange) suggest aggression and violence

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• The relationships between the organisms in a space are called Proxemic Patterns.

• The proxemic pattern is determined by distance and may be Intimate (touching – ½ m away), Personal (½ m – 1m) , Social (1m – 4m), or Public (greater than 4m distance).

Mise en scène: Proxemic Patterns and Gestures

Source

• Giannetti, Louis. 2002. Understanding Movies 9th

Edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall• www.smcisd.net/Understanding%20Film11• www.wiredshire.org.uk/LanguageofFilmPC