Summary, lecture 3

Cine- Speak
Learning the Language of the Cinema

There are a lot of different Shot Types:
VLS/ WS: Very LS/ Wide Shot
LS: Long Shot
MLS: Medium LS
MS: Mid Shot
MCU: Medium Close Up
CU: Close Up
BCU: Big CU
ECU: Extreme CU

First there is the Shot, then the scene and finally the film...
Shots are like words. They can help you to answer the questions Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?
Who? is most important and has to be answered first, cause without the who the story can't exist.


1. Who?
- Shot Type: Close Up
It answers the question of 'who' by showing the character in detail.

2. What? -What is the character doing?
- Shot Type: Mid Shot
It answers by showing the subject performing an action. Important: It shows the character.

3. Where? - relationships between people and places
- Shot Type: Long Shot
The Long Shot gives the answer to the 'where' question at the beginning of a scene, it is also known as the Establishing Shot. It is important for the audience to know where the action takes place.

4. When?
- Shot Type: Wide Shot and Close Up
Both types can help to answer the 'when' question. Time can be a difficult thing to capture on the screen. You have to know in which time the film is playing and all the people, places and things have to fit in these time. The passing of the time is really important.

5. Why?
- Shot Type: Big Close Up
It can helps to answer the 'why', by revealing more about a character and their actions.
But the 'why' questions must not be explain to early, otherwise there is no reason to watch the film to the end.

6. How?
- Shot Types: Medium Close Up or series of Close Ups
They can explain an event and answer the 'how' question.


"RULES"
Head Room:
-not to much or to little head room

Talking Room:
- not to much or to little talking room

Rules of Thirds:
- you need a raster over the picture
- it's all about positioning
- subject of interest must not be in the middle of the picture

180 Degree Rule:
- it's the line between two people having a conversation
- it has to be 180 degree to take a photo where you can see the faces of both people


IMPORTANT:
Every Shot has to be arranged.
Every Shot needs a reason why it is in the film.
Every Shot has to be new.
Every Shot must have a purpose.


TASK:
Watch a movie and answer the Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? questions.

- I decided to watch the movie 'Blood Diamond', cause I think it's a really good and interesting film with a lot of different shot types. And by chance I watched the preview of the serial 'Dexter' and was really surprised about the inconvenient shot types.
In the preview they show normal things like baking an egg, or preparing meat for baking or crushing coffee, but because of the really 'Extreme Close Up' all these things are looking really disgusting and unnormal and fitting perfect into the preview for 'Dexter'.

Blood Diamond:

Who?
In the beginning of the movie there are a lot of Close Ups of the leading actors Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) so the viewer knows who the character is.

What?
To answer the 'What?' question the audience can see some Mid Shots where the producer shows what happend and what the story is about. You can see that Danny is an diamond smuggler and make deals about it. Or you can see Solomon and his family and in the next sequence the viewer can see, that his family were attacked and broked away.

Where? When?
The story takes places during the Sierra Leone Civil War in 1999 and you see some Long Shots and Wide Shots for example of the landscape or the rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). Directly at the beginning of the scene the viewer gets to know where the story is set.

Why? How?
Through the different Close Ups the audience get to know more about the characters and what they are doing, why and how. You can see the faces and the feelings of the people. Danny always wants to be a tough guy, but he also has a lot of problems and fear. And in the face of Solomon you can see also fear, but there is still hope and he has a really strong will.
(picture: google images)