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THE LENS
Four main functions controlled by the lens:
- Image Focus
- Quantity of light
- Image Area
- Depth of field . Controlled by three factors:
The lens and perception (size constancy)
STILL PHOTOGRAPHY
Basic operations of a single lens reflex 35mm still camera
Exposure and interrelationships of shutter, aperture and film speed
VISUAL DESIGN AND STRUCTURE
THE FRAME AND ASPECT RATIO
The 7 visual components:
1) Space
- deep, flat, Ambiguous / recognizable , Open / closed
- Depth Cues
2) Line
- Horizontal
- Vertical
- Diagonal
- Curved/Straight
- Emotional Qualities
3) Shape
- Two-dimensional: circle, square, triangle
- Three-dimensional: sphere, cube, pyramid
4) Tone
Control though:
- art direction (reflective)
- lighting (incident)
- exposure (less selective)
Coincidence and Non-coincidence
5) Color
6) Movement
- Object movement (this means actors too!)
- Camera Movement
- Audience point of attention (continuum of movement within the shot and shot-to-shot)
7) Rhythm
- Alternation : is change
- Repetition (of an alternation)
- Tempo (of the repetition of alternation)
Graphing Components + Subcomponents
Balance
THE SHOT
The three basic shots (long shot, medium shot, close up)
The shot described by angle (high, birds-eye, low, eye level, canted)
The shot described by movement (pan, tilt, dolly etc)
The shot described in terms of coverage
SCREEN GRAMMAR
Rabiger's approach to screen grammar as a reproduction of human consciousness
DIRECTORIAL COMMUNICATION TOOLS
SCREENWRITING AND DOCUMENTARY PROPOSALS
Foundations: Premise , treatment , step outline
Story and thematic Archetypes
Documentary research and the documentary proposal
SCRIPT ANALYSIS
Imaginative choices (antecedent action, objectives and actions, what's at stake, subtext etc)
FILM/VIDEO INTERFACE
Film Camera
- Intermittent movement
- Pulldown claw
- Shutter
- Exposure time and Shutter angle formula
- Overcranking and Undercranking
- Calculating Lengths for Film
The Film Image
- Film layers - Black + White
- Film Layers - Color
- Color Balance
- Color Temperature and filters
- edge & key numbers, keycode
Video
- Analog and digital recording
- Video process
- Video controls (exposure, light sensitivity, depth of field, white balance)
- NTSC, PAL & SECAM, HD
- Interlaced and progressive scanning
- Resolution
- Frame rates
- Compression
- Color Space
- Keeping track of video: drop frame and non-drop frame timecode
- When film and video collide: the 3-2 pulldown
- flex files
CONTINUITY/SHOOTING TO EDIT
Types of continuity
Maintaining continuity
- Role of the script supervisor
- Scheduling
- Changing Sizes and Angles
- Inserts + Cutaways
- Overlapping action
LIGHTING
Other lights (eye-light, set light, kicker, practicals etc.)
Qualities of light (specular, diffused etc.)
Kelvin scale and color temperature
Electricity Basics : Watts ÷ Volts = Amps
EDITING
- Emotion (51%)
- Story (23%),
- Rhythm (10%),
- Eye-trace (7%),
- Two-dimensional plane of screen (5%)
- Three-dimensional plane of screen (4%)
Classic Hollywood Continuity Editing
Seeing Around the Edge of the Frame
THE DIRECTOR/ACTOR DYNAMIC
The System and the Method: Stanislavsky to Griffith to Kazan
The actor's preparation
System of wants: life needs, objectives and actions
Moment-to-moment
Personalization
Casting :
Getting actors:
Casting Directors v. Talent Agents
CREW ROLES
Crew positions and functions
OBJECTIVE SOUND
Sound and audio distinguished (sound = acoustical energy, audio=electrical signals and
various types of recordings)
Properties of physical sound:
Influences on Sound Propagation
Room acoustics/the three sound fields:
- Direct sound
- Discrete Reflections
- Reverberant field
- Reverberation time (influenced by volume of the room and absorption of surface areas)
Movies and the three sound fields
- 1920s: Exhibition in reverberant spaces, production on anechoic stages
- Now: â??deadâ?? theatres and relatively â??liveâ?? shooting conditions
Noise: unwanted sound added to the original sound (airborne and structure-borne)
Distortion: unwanted modification of the original sound
PSYCHOACOUSTICS
Auditory Sensitivity and Frequency (most sensitive in 2-4 kHz range)
Equal Loudness Curves (more energy is required at lower frequencies to sound equally as loud as midrange and higher frequency sounds)
Loudness effect (at a lower level, sound seems to lack bass when compared with playing it as its original level)
Loudness vs Time (it takes a high level sound 1-8 frames at 24 fps to reach its full perceived loudness)
- Precedence effect (we locate sound in the direction of the first-arriving wavefront)
- Influence of Sight (exit sign effect)
- Localization best in horizontal plane
- The cocktail party effect
Speech perception : panning dialogue across the screen to match action v. centering it
AUDIO FUNDAMENTALS
Digital audio:
SOUND RECORDING
Microphones:
- Classified by Directionality : cardiod, hypercardiod, omnidirectional
- Classified by construction : dynamic, condenser
- Classified by positioning (boom, fishpole, stands, hidden mics, lavalieres)
Single System + Double System Recording
- Recorders *:
- Analog reel to reel
- Digital Audio Recorders
- Hard drive recorders
- Features of recorders (mic inputs, line inputs and outputs, record level adjustments, Volume Unit and Peak Program Meters etc)
Audio Mixers (between the mics and the recorder)
SOUND DESIGN
objective - literal sound vs subjective - personal sound
Diegetic sound / Non-diegetic sound
SOUND EDITING
Traditional (southern California) approach: vertical â?? one editor per reel
Alternative (northern California) approach: horizontal â?? editors cut like fx in all reels
Dialogue
- Production
- Wild lines
- ADR (automated dialogue replacement)
- Loop group
- Voice over
- Presence/fill/room tone (space between actorâ??s lines or space between various things going on at start and end of takes or room tone
Sound effects: non-musical, non-dialogue sounds from the environment
INTRODUCTION TO DOCUMENTARY
Traditional narration-based documentary
Cinema VéritéCinéma vérité
Historical documentary and problems of access
MUSIC VIDEO
Traditions: Busby Berkeley to the Beatles to Bowie
Cinematic v. Photographic
Performance based/non-performance based
Laws of Note
Down here I am going to link to all of the "laws" and "rules" that I think we will definitely need to know.
