Category Archives: 5 minute film
Film Editing – another brief glossary with examples
Aerial shot: A shot taken from a plane, helicopter or a person on top of a building
Backlighting: The main source of light is behind the subject, silhouetting it, and directed toward the camera.
Bridging shot: A shot used to cover a jump in time or place or other discontinuity. Examples are falling calendar pages, railroad wheels, newspaper headlines, and seasonal changes
Cut: The splicing of 2 shots together
Cross-cutting: Literally, cutting between different sets of action that can be occurring simultaneously or at different times
Jump cut: Cut where there is no match between the 2 spliced shots.
Deep focus: A technique in which objects very near the camera as well as those far away are in focus at the same time.
Dissolve In a dissolve a first image gradually dissolves or fades out and is replaced by another which fades in over it – suggests a longer passage of time than a cut.
Eye-line matching: A term used to point to the continuity editing practice ensuring the logic of the look or gaze
Fade in: A punctuation device. The screen is black at the beginning; gradually the image appears, brightening to full strength. The opposite happens in the fade out
Fill light: An auxiliary light, usually from the side of the subject that can soften shadows and illuminate areas not covered by the key light
Flashback: A scene or sequence inserted into a scene in “present” time and that deals with the past. The flashback is the past tense of the film.
Flash-forward: On the model of the flashback, scenes or shots of future time; the future tense of the film.
Focus: The sharpness of the image. A range of distances from the camera will be acceptably sharp. Possible to have deep focus, shallow focus
Dollying: A tracking shot or zoom which follows the subject as it moves.
Framing: The way in which subjects and objects are framed within a
Iris in/out: An old technique of punctuation that utilises a diaphragm in front of the lens, which is opened (iris in) or closed (iris out) to begin or end a scene
Key light: The main light on a subject
Match cut: Exactly the opposite of a jump cut within a scene. These cuts make sure that there is a spatial-visual logic between the differently positioned shots within a
Montage: More particularly: Eisenstein’s idea that adjacent shots should relate to each other in such a way that A and B combine to produce another meaning, C, which is not actually recorded on the film.
Pan: (abbreviation of panorama) Movement of the camera from left to right or right to left around the imaginary vertical axis that runs through the
Pull back shot: A tracking shot or zoom that moves back from the subject to reveal the context of the scene.
Rack focusing: A technique that uses shallow focus (shallow depth of field) to direct the attention of the viewer forcibly from one subject to another. Focus is “pulled”, or changed, to shift the focus plane, often rapidly, sometimes several times within the shot.
Reverse angle: A shot from the opposite side of a subject. In a dialogue scene, a shot of the second participant.
Whip pan: A type of pan shot in which the camera moves sideways so quickly that the picture blurs into indistinct streaks. It is commonly used as a transition between shots, and can indicate the passage of time and/or a frenetic pace of action. Also known as: swish pan, flick pan and zip pan.
Wipe: An optical effect in which an image appears to “wipe-off” or push aside the preceding image. Very common in the 1930s; less so today.
Stop-frame Animation
The 5 minute film task brief suggests the film may be live-action, animation, or a combination of both. The task of animating stop-frame is, I am sure you are all aware, hugely time consuming, but in case you are interested (ALys), here are a few links of things which may be useful. The film clips above should give you a little food for thought – from the surreal Svankmajer (Czech genius) to the absurdly morbid Tim Burton, via the english cheeriness of Nick Parks. Look, consider and weigh up the possibilities, or just be put-off by the scale of the task.
Dragonframe software – professional
istopmotion software
smoovie
icananimate
a Macworld article
Audience Demographics – how are we categorized?
A few links for you to explore….
CLick the pics for links
Short Film bloghub 2012
http://hallcrossacademy.co.uk/blog/barbermason/
http://hallcrossacademy.co.uk/blog/mccuskerpurdyjackson/
http://hallcrossacademy.co.uk/blog/michaelturnbull/
http://hallcrossacademy.co.uk/blog/haribo/
http://hallcrossacademy.co.uk/blog/alysbaddiley505/
http://hallcrossacademy.co.uk/blog/pancakes/
http://hallcrossacademy.co.uk/blog/emcole/
http://hallcrossacademy.co.uk/blog/manraja2media
http://hallcrossacademy.co.uk/blog/robynsadielouisejack
http://hallcrossacademy.co.uk/blog/gablilnat
http://hallcrossacademy.co.uk/blog/page8424
Please email us with your blog addresses if you already haven’t and we’ll link them here.
Top Tips for blogging success!
Following feedback from the exam board, here are a few pointers on how to achieve success with your blog.
1. Relevance. Whenever you post – make it count – how does your post add to your knowledge/understanding of what you are aiming at? Be explicit in what you are doing always, and say why you are doing it.
2. Research. How does your research feed into your product? Be precise in your explanations.
3. Preliminary task. Always include this (if relevant – Y12).
4. Be thorough in your research into title sequences – foreground what you have learned and explain how you might use this information practically.
5. Use of ICT. You must show skill and imagination when presenting your ideas. Prezi is good, but don’t make it too text heavy. Video diaries are good. Animated self-playing powerpoints are good. DVD style commentaries are good. Lots of web-links are good, embedding is better. Make your blog look and feel personalised.
6. Evaluations. When answering each individual question, try and use a different technique – and don’t be descriptive in your answers. You must evaluate, review, be critical – assess your work.
7. Codes and Conventions. What are the codes and conventions of your chosen genre? Be specific – explain and analyse. How will/does your product (products) reflect/use these codes and conventions? be specific and detailed.
8. Storyboards. To be really successful, don’t just stick with a regular storyboard. why not try Animatics? http://www.storyboards-east.com/animat.htm
9. Target Audience. You must be specific in your target audience. Use Socio-Ecomomic goupings and Lifestyle Groupings to accurately describe them.
10. Ancillary Tasks. They must be accurate facsimiles of the real thing. If they don’t look the part you will not get the marks. Chose your style models well, and analyse them in a detailed and acurate way.
Representation – a useful site!
Here – use for your question 1b if relevant!
Genre Theory – a useful site
Here – some good names and quotes to drop into question 1b – if relevant!
Importing video from the new sony cameras-read this first!
Found on another website –
The video files created by the Sony DCR-SR72 Handycam are not playable on MacOS if you just copy them from the camera in USB mode. VLC will play them, but they can’t be opened by Quicktime, iMovie or iDVD:
The document “filename.mpg” could not be opened. The movie is not in a format that Quicktime Player understands
The videos can, however, be imported to iMovie (NB – the star icon version) if the camera is connected in “Disc Burn” mode. It may also be called “DVD burn” or something similar.
Connect the camera in disc burn mode, then open iMovie and select the “Import Movies…” option. Navigate to the folder on the camera where the MPG files are located, and click the import button. iMovie will then import all the files and save them as MOV files in the event library. This can take quite a long time if you have many movies. Also be aware that the resulting MOV files are larger than the original MPG files, and iMovie creates thumbnail versions which consume quite a lot of disk space. Make sure you have plenty of space available before starting.
Now the files are playable in iMovie and Quicktime, but there is still one more issue to fix. If you have recorded movies in 16:9 format, they will be rendered as 4:3 when you add them to a project in iDVD. To make them work properly you have to export them from iMovie to yet another MOV file.
This whole process is very frustrating. Not only does it take a lot of time and effort, but the double conversion of the files ends up consuming around 3 times more disk space than if the original files could be copied off the camera and used directly.
These files now imported can be found in a folder (dated) in Movies – iMovie events – New event (date) and can then be copied into movie HD if you prefer that interface (and I do!).
HX media 