Part 1 Film Language
Shot length
Wide Shot
In a wide shot you can see the whole subject, the whole scene just like watching a play on the stage.
Extreme Wide Shot
In an extreme wide shot as in wider than a wide shot. You watch the whole scene from a distance.
Medium Shot
A medium shot is a partial body shot of the subject easily from the knees or waist up.
Two Shot
A two-shot is when two subjects are in a frame. In this case we’re looking for each character’s shoulder.
Close Up
Close-up is a complete detail of an actor’s face like in a portrait. Close-ups can also be a detail of an important object.
Extreme Close Up
Extreme close-up even closer than a close-up, where we can’t even see the whole head.
All be shot lengths can mean something on their own: an extreme long shot to establish a Place; a medium shot to show off a character; a wide shot let the action speak for itself; an extreme close up for exposition or disorientation; a two-shot to show closeness sometimes extreme closeness or a close-up to show powerful emotion or lack thereof.
Angle
Shot length works horizontally，and angle works more vertically.
Eye angle would be at eye level where the camera looks straight on at its subject where were actually at the level of the actor but you can make it interesting in.
High angle means a high angle shot the camera looks down at the subject and its opposite.
Low angle looks up at the subject. There are plenty of uses for both but generally a low angle can make a person seem large and menacing and a high angle can make them seem small and kind of silly.
Dutch angle where the cameras can’t it to look the subject from a tilted angle though it should be called a Joyce angle (it got the name from its use in this German film which used canted angles to make everything seem a bit strange).
Depth of Field
Depth of field means how much a camera focuses on at once. the distance between the nearest and farthest parts in an image that appear acceptable sharp.In other words depth of field is how much is In Focus.
Deep focus a long depth of field, everything in the shot is in focus.
Shallow focus a short depth of field, part of the shot is in focus.
Rack focus change the focus mid shot to draw the eye to the important things and details.
Tilt shift selectively blur the part of the image.
Telephone lens compress space.
Wide angle lens give a space more depth.
Fisheye lens make some disturbing images.
Movement
Handheld hold the camera,give more freedom to the camera man, but less controlled.
Steadicam have a rig stabilize
Pan swivel the camera on a tripod horizontally left or right
Tilt swivel the camera vertically up or down
Zoom the length of the shot is changed by adjusting the lens from wide to tight quickly or from tight to wide slowly
Dolly/Tracking shot move with the subject or without from left to right or back to front or a curve, raise above the subject or brought down to the subject
Dolly zoom the camera is dollied while zooming changing the depth of the shot
Mise en scène
Decor
- Setting
- Set dressing
- Props
- Costume
Lighting
- Three-point lighting
- High key lighting
- Low key lighting
- Chiaroscuro
- Hard lighting
- Soft lighting
- Unmotivated lighting
- Motivated lighting
Color
- Black and white
- Tinting
- Sepia tone
- Color film
- Color graning
- Saturation
- Color palette
- Balance
Spcae
- Deep space
- Shallow space
- Offscreen space
- Blocking
Editing
Editing usually includes dissolve, wipe, fade in/ fade out, continuity editing, Screen direction, Match on action, Eyeline.
Discontinuity editing includes freeze frame, slow motion, reverse motion, jump cut, match cut, split screen, overlay, montage.
Montage takes a film into many shots according to the content of the film and the psychological sequence of the audience.
Part 2 The history of Animation, Film and VFX
1 . The history of Animation
At the end of the 17th century, a man named Johannes Zahn made a breakthrough transformation on the basis of the “magic slide”. The drawings on the “live”. This is the first time that man-made images have been recorded as light and shadow moving pictures based on the principle of rotation. It can also be said to be the earliest light and shadow animation.
In 1914, Winsor Mccay completed the famous film “Gertie the Dinosaur” in the history of animation, which is called a kind of movie in the history of animation.
In 1906, James Stewart Blackton produced a film called “Humorous Aspect of Funny Faces”, which was also the world’s first animated film.
In 1908, French Emile Cole pioneered the use of negative film to make animated films.
In 1909, American Winther McKay used 10,000 pictures to represent the animated story “Gertie the Dinosaur”, which is recognized as the first decent animated short in the world so far.
In 1913, American Earl Heard created a new animation process called celluloid, in which he first drew cartoons on plastic film and then made animated films out of pictures drawn on plastic film. This animation technique has been used for many years.
In 1915, American EerlHurd created an animation process for drawing cartoons on plastic film
In 1928, the world-famous WaltDisney gradually pushed animated films to the peak. To this day, the Disney Company he founded continues to create colorful cartoons for people all over the world. Disney — the greatest animation company of the 20th century.
In 1937, “Snow White” produced by Disney was the world’s first color animated cartoon feature film. The perfect artistry and sophisticated production effects of the film amazed the audience and made a sensation in the international film scene. It uses color film synthesis recording technology to create
2 . The history of Film
In 1895, the French Lumière brothers successfully developed an “moving movie camera” based on Edison’s “movie mirror” and their own “continuous camera”.
The parody of the play was released in 1901, and one of the compatriots was afraid of the train movie.
Since 1927, the film has gone from silent to sound, and colorless to colored.
From 1872 to 1878, Edward Mubridge, a photographer from San Francisco, USA, used 24 cameras to take pictures of the disassembled action group of a galloping horse.
From 1896-1912, lumiere created the earliest film styles, such as newsreel, travel film, documentary and comedy.
From 1946 to 1959, some Soviet filmmakers produced a batch of war films with emotional impact and biographical films with certain image appeal.
3 . The history of VFX
“Star Wars” in 1977 was the first movie ever shot with a motion control camera. In this movie, Lucas invented a mechanism that can greatly reduce post-production time.
In 1982, a computer processing method called “source sequence” was applied to “Star Trek”. The scenes of the movie were digitally generated by a computer, breaking the previous shooting methods.
In 1985, Industrial Light & Magic created the first computer-generated character in film history, the Stained Glass Man, in the film Young Fulmos, which paved the way for many of the fictional characters in the Star Wars prequels.
In 1989, Industrial light and Magic produced the first ever computer-generated three-dimensional character in the sci-fi film The Abyss, which further paved the way for the creation of Yoda in Star Wars: Episode Iii.
In 1994, Jurassic Park created a character with real skin, muscles and movements for the first time in film history. At the same time, its work team used the best real acting skills as a reference for dinosaur movements, making it a major work in the film industry.
Since then, giant special effects movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Marvel studios, and Lord of the Rings have come out one after another. New technology gives rise to new art forms, and new art forms guide the development of technology. It goes hand in hand.