BTEC Media Induction handbook

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INDUCTION HANDBOOK Analysing Moving Images Mise‐en‐Scene Ligh ng Shot Distance Camera Angle Camera Movement Edi ng The Con nuity System Sound Genre

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ENSFC‐BTEC DIPLOMA IN CREATIVE MEDIA PRODUCTION

Denota on and Connota on When we look at images there are two different levels of meaning—the denotaƟve level (the defini on of things that you’ll find in a dic onary) and the connotaƟve level. This level of meaning is more fluid, and might even change depending on who is looking at the image, where, and when. Semio cs is the study of signs and meaning., and it works mainly by exploring this connota ve level of meaning.

Denota on What is depicted in this image?

1.

……………………………………..……………………………………..…………………

2.

……………………………………..……………………………………..…………………

Connota on What else might it suggest?

1.

……………………………………..……………………………………..…………………

2.

……………………………………..……………………………………..…………………

3.

……………………………………..……………………………………..…………………

4.

……………………………………..……………………………………..…………………

The term ………………………………………………. is used to describe the first level/literal meaning and the term ………………………………………………. is used to iden fy the second level/associated meaning. You will find that the former is the meaning you will find in a dic onary whereas the la er is the cultural meaning(s) a ached.

Task: On the reverse of this sheet are several images. Discuss each image with the others on your table and try to find the connota ons of each.

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ENSFC‐BTEC DIPLOMA IN CREATIVE MEDIA PRODUCTION

Denota on and Connota on Red

Tree

Water

Star

Cat

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ENSFC‐BTEC DIPLOMA IN CREATIVE MEDIA PRODUCTION

Mise‐en‐scene Mise‐en‐scene means “what is in the scene”. Everything in a shot has been thought about by the director and all the people who have contributed to it (costumes departments, set designers, cinematographer etc). Everything is there for a reason and so can be analysed using the denota on/connota on method to work out the meanings being created.

Try this with these s lls. On the opposite page write down the objects, colours, gestures, expressions, etc which seem to you to be providing connota ons and contribu ng to the meanings the s lls are genera ng.

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ENSFC‐BTEC DIPLOMA IN CREATIVE MEDIA PRODUCTION

Denota on/Connota on Analysis of Mise‐en‐scene

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ENSFC‐BTEC DIPLOMA IN CREATIVE MEDIA PRODUCTION

Ligh ng Shadows

Prop ligh ng effects (e.g., Vene an blind effect)

Spotlight

Posi oned Lights

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ENSFC‐BTEC DIPLOMA IN CREATIVE MEDIA PRODUCTION

Ligh ng Term

Defini on

Ambient Ligh ng

Mo vated Ligh ng

Chiaroscuro

Ar ficial Light

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ENSFC‐BTEC DIPLOMA IN CREATIVE MEDIA PRODUCTION

Ligh ng Low Key Ligh ng

High Key Ligh ng

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ENSFC‐BTEC DIPLOMA IN CREATIVE MEDIA PRODUCTION

Shot Distance Extreme long shot

Long shot

ELS

LS

Medium shot

Close‐up

MS

CU

Extreme close‐up

Wide shot

ECU

WS

Point of View shot

Over‐the‐shoulder shot OSS

POV

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ENSFC‐BTEC DIPLOMA IN CREATIVE MEDIA PRODUCTION

Camera Angles

Eye level / Straight on

Canted angle / Dutch angle

Low Angle

High angle

Bird’s eye view

Worm’s eye view

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ENSFC‐BTEC DIPLOMA IN CREATIVE MEDIA PRODUCTION

Connota ons Photo Exercise—planning Strength

Poverty

Love

Fear

Desire

Danger

Wealth

Weakness

Loneliness

Friendship

Purity

Greed

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ENSFC‐BTEC DIPLOMA IN CREATIVE MEDIA PRODUCTION

Camera Movement Pan

Tilt

Track

Crab

Arc

Crane shot (jib)

Zoom

Contra zoom/trombone shot/zido

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ENSFC‐BTEC DIPLOMA IN CREATIVE MEDIA PRODUCTION

Edi ng Cut

Fade

Dissolve

Wipe

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ENSFC‐BTEC DIPLOMA IN CREATIVE MEDIA PRODUCTION

THE CONTINUITY SYSTEM of edi ng 180 Degree Rule/Axis of Ac on Establishing Shot

Match on ac on

Eye‐line match

Shot‐reverse shot

(The second image is also an example of a P.O.V shot) 14

ENSFC‐BTEC DIPLOMA IN CREATIVE MEDIA PRODUCTION

Sound Sound is used a lot in films and in television programmes and is integral to crea ng mood, tension, excitement and atmosphere. If you have ever watched a media text with the sound down or muted, you will know that the viewing experience is vastly different.

Today we will be looking at the term soundtrack and exploring the different elements that contribute to it.

What three elements make up a soundtrack?

1.

……………………………………………………………………………………….

2.

……………………………………………………………………………………….

3.

……………………………………………………………………………………….

1.

2.

3.

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ENSFC‐BTEC DIPLOMA IN CREATIVE MEDIA PRODUCTION

Sound The first Hollywood mo on film to include synchronised dialogue was The Jazz Singer (Alan Crosland, 1927).

The words “wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain’t heard nothing’ yet” were spoken by Al Jolson and there were several synchronised musical performances.

The Jazz Singer is credited as having introduced ‘talkies’.

Term

Defini on

Score/ Music tracks

Incidental music

Parallel music

Contrapuntal music

Dialogue

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ENSFC‐BTEC DIPLOMA IN CREATIVE MEDIA PRODUCTION

Sound Term

Defini on

Diege c sound

Non‐diege c sound

Synchronous sound / Asynchronous sound

Voiceover (v/o) or narrator

Sound bridge

Ambient sound/ wildtrack

Sound effects/ Foley sounds

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ENSFC‐BTEC DIPLOMA IN CREATIVE MEDIA PRODUCTION

Sound We have just looked at the different elements that make up a soundtrack.

From what you can remember, how many aspects of the soundtrack can you iden fy from the opening scenes of Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960)?

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ENSFC‐BTEC DIPLOMA IN CREATIVE MEDIA PRODUCTION

Pu ng it all together: GENRE 

Genre means a ‘type’ of media text. On the next page we’ll explore that defini on in a li le more detail.



I the first column of boxes if you know them, or take a guess. Then guess the genre in column 2. In the last column note down what combina on of elements, in addi on to the storyline, is telling you this. Is it mise‐en‐scene, ligh ng, camera use (distances, angles, movement), edi ng, sound?

Clip Exam‐ ple

Film/TV programme (Director, Release date)

The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson, 2001)

Genre

How do I know?

Fantasy

Mise en scene of elves, wizards, burrow houses. Soundtrack.

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ENSFC‐BTEC DIPLOMA IN CREATIVE MEDIA PRODUCTION

Pu ng it all together: GENRE The importance of genre for audiences and industry Genres are ‘types’ of media products within (or across) the different media forms. They are usually iden fied because they share similar conven ons. When we decide to go to see a horror film, we already know some of what to expect, but not all of it or how everything will all be put together. As audiences, genre helps us decide what media we want to watch, e.g., “I like horror, I don’t want to watch rom‐coms”.

If you go into a shop like HMV, you will find they have categorised the products into genres. You can search the shop for a product by iden fying the labels on the shelves; if you are looking for the latest superhero film, you could go straight to the ac on or family viewing sec ons. The moving image industries use the concept of genre to minimise the risk of their product failing to make a profit, by making products which target already‐exis ng audiences (‘horror fans’, or ‘ac on movie fans’ etc). It’s a huge risk to invest money in a film, and a produc on company will do everything they can to minimise that risk. Making genre products is one way of doing so (and that’s also why sequels are made so frequently).

Genre Hybrids Many films and television programmes explore different themes and demonstrate various genres; some mes the combina ons of these themes makes it difficult to place them neatly into one category. In recent years there has been an increase in horror comedies. Films such as Zombieland (Ruben Fleisher, 2009), The CoƩage (Paul Andrew Williams, 2008) and Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright, 2004) have hacked away at the conven ons of the horror genre and incorporated humour into the script to breed a whole new and exci ng media product. Action adventure films are typically a blend of genres. The Terminator films for example; Terminator (Cameron, 1984), Terminator II: Judgement Day (Cameron, 1991) and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (Jonathan Mostow, 2003) are all as much science fiction films as they are action adventure films, and the Alien franchise is based on a mix of action, horror and sci‐fi. In addition to action, a film such as Beverly Hills Cop (Martin Brest, 1984) could be classed as a ‘cop’ or crime movie and Troy (Wolfgang Petersen, 2004) a historical epic. When we talk about films that embrace different genres, we refer to them as multi‐generic or hybrids.

List 2 films that you have seen which display more than one genre and name the genres.

1.

2.

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Low Budget Filmmaking

A low‐budget film is a mo on picture shot on limited budget. Young

or unknown directors o en make low‐budget films due to a lack of

funding from studios, produc on companies or private investors, who

are not willing to invest in a film which appears unlikely to become

successful. It is not straight forward to determine what qualifies a film

as a low budget produc on.

The term ‘low budget’ is rela ve to certain countries and varies by genre, for example, a $20m budget for a comedy film would be considered modest, whereas an ac on film made for the same amount of money would be considered low budget.

At the me, The Blair Witch Project was the highest grossing low‐budget film of all me. It had a budget of $22,000 but grossed over $248 million worldwide. It had the highest ra o of box office sales to produc on cost in American film making history. Another successful low‐budget film is Clerks (1994) by director Kevin Smith.

Clerks was made on less than $27,000, its success helped launch the career of Kevin Smith.

A micro budget film is that which is made on an extremely low budget, some mes as li le as a few thousand dollars. An example of such would be the 1992 movie, El Mariachi (Rodriguez, 1992) it was shot for $7,000.

Despite the ny budget, it was a success both cri cally and commercially, and started the young director's career. The film went on to make more than $2 million. He has also won cri cal acclaim with From Dusk Ɵll Dawn (1996), Sin City (2005) and Planet Terror (2007). His most recent project was Machete released in 2010.

What factors can affect cost?

Other low budget movies to check out; Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974), Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968), Evil Dead (Sam Raimi, 1981), Eraser head (David Lynch, 1977), Clerks (Kevin Smith, 1994), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Gilliam/Jones, 1975).

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ENSFC‐BTEC DIPLOMA IN CREATIVE MEDIA PRODUCTION

Low Budget Filmmaking What elements of low budget filmmaking are evident in Clerks (Kevin Smith, 1994)

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