Thursday, December 6, 2012
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
How is Your Software?
Basic Editing!
There are lots techniques when it comes to editing. I am not going to cover them all but I am going to describe some of the more basic ones just as a little jump start. Keep in mind that there are lots of different ways to cut and manipulate film.
- Cut - an instantaneous change form one image to another
- Wipe - an obvious removal of one image by another by one rolling the other off the screen in one direction or another
- Defocus effect - one shot ends out of focus; another beings there
- Dissolve - a slow change from shot to shot, involving a moment when the two images blend
- Freeze frame - movement in the sequence is stopped, creating the effect of a photograph
- Fade - the picture vanishes gradually to black (fade-out)or appears gradually on the screen from black (fade-in).
- Zoom in and out- a character photographed in a long shot suddenly is zoomed into a close up or vice versa
- Metric montage - images change with the music beat
- Slow motion - characters seem to move at an abnormally slow pace
- Montage - many images are put together to create a single impact; often used with music for poetic or advertising effect
- Fast motion - characters move very fast in jerky sequences reminiscent of silent movies
Walter Murch!
So this semester at school I read In the Blink of an Eye. The book is written by Walter Murch and explains his philosophy on film editing. I want to be an editor which I finally grow up! I love the ability to take a whole lot of chaos and mold it in to one beautiful entity. So I find it very interesting when Murch talks about how “editing is [like] a kind of surgery...like cooking...like dance…” (44-45).He explains editing more of a lifestyle, rather than just a task. I think I can relate to him because of how passionate he is. His rule of six, if you have to cut something to make the film work better, cut from the bottom up in this order: emotions, story, rhythm, eye trace, two dimensional plane of screen, and three dimensional space of action. If the three dimensional space of action is not working with the emotions, story, rhythm, eye trace and two dimensional plane of screen, then but the three dimensional space all together. If you have not read In the Blink of an Eye I strongly suggest that you do, as I have an interest in film and editing this has change my thinking every since I read it.
Can I Rewrite Your Movie?
People say film is written three times, which is true, but do you know how? The first time is when the screenwriter commits the story to paper, and the second time is when the director and actors commit the story to film. The third time film is written is when the editor constructs the story in time, this is the final telling of the story and most often dismissed in conversation because it is behind the scenes. For example, for Hollywood writing, first a screen play is written (first time), then actors and directors put their own essence into the film which can change the story (second time), and finally the editor will then use the screenplay as a guideline and take the footage to create something new entirely. In my own experience I realize that the script is ever changing, and that it is rewritten time and time again. When I edit my films I especially play with this concept.
Camera Tips!
There are several camera techniques that can change the message and response in films; field of view, camera angle, camera lens, camera focus, and camera movement. Field of view can change the message coming across in films in two ways. If the camera is close to the subject and in focus then this creates the audience to feel closer to the subject, when the camera is further away from the subject that creates the audience to feel further away or separated from the subject. Camera angle can have three roles, powerful/ threatening, sympathetic/ superior, and trust. When the camera is looking up at a subject that makes the message come across as that person or thing is threatening or has more power than the subject doing the looking up. When the camera angle is looking down it does the opposite it creates the feeling of sympathy or being superior, and when the camera angle is level (eye to eye) that creates the feeling of trust between both subjects. Camera focus is another key technique, it helps direct the attention and control of the subject and plot. A soft focus can imply unclear thoughts, softness, a memory, whereas a sharp focus is reality.
Dogma 95!
In 1995 Directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg started Dogme 95 and the Vow of Chastity as an avant-grade filmmaking movement. They were later joined by other directors but the movement needed in 2005, but that has not stopped filmmakers to continue the vow of chastity. The vow of chastity consist of several steps:
- Filming must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in
- The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice verse
- The camera must be a hand-held camera
- The film must be I color. Special lighting is not acceptable
- Optical work and filter are forbidden
- The film must not contain superficial action
- Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden
- Genre movies are not acceptable
- The final picture must be transferred to the academy 35 mm film, with an aspect ration of 4:3, that is, not widescreen
- The director must not be credited
I find this to be a very odd style. Although I think that it would be challenging and a lot of fun to try this out on a future project.
Bonjour!
The French New Wave was a movement that influenced filmmaking process. It started after World War II in France the classic filmmakers and the younger generation were not seeing eye to eye on the filmmaking process. Most of the French New Wave films used the same group of conventions:
- Jump cuts
- Shooting on location
- Natural lighting
- Improvised dialogue and plotting
- Direct sound recording
- Long takes.
In this day and time these were new to the filmmaking industry. Jump cuts are remembered most when looking back on the French New Wave. They did the jump cuts to cover up any mistakes.
The Soviets and their Montage!
Soviet Montage Theory relies on editing to make cinema more understanding and created. The five methods of montage were described by Sergei Eisenstein in his introductory essay “Word and Image”. Metric: There are a certain number of frames that the editing follows. Rhythmic is basically keeping the continuity through out the whole film. Tonal is all about the emotional meaning, which involves the length of the cuts and get a reaction from the audience. Overtonal/associational is made up of the metric, rhythmic, and tonal montage to effect the audience for a better effect. Finally, intellectual is filmed with shots both elicit and intellectual meaning. Eisenstein was considered the “father of montage”. Eisenstein believed that montage is dialectical, therefore is an example of Marxism and Hegelian philosophy.If it were not for the Soviets then we may never have the epic montage scenes that are plastered all over Hollywood. The Soviets started the way for many other types of cutting.
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