Lecture (Week 3)

Today is our third lecture for New Communication Technologies. We're learning about gathering the concepts of making movies. We're learning about the language of the cinema, otherwise known as 'Cine-Speak'. To start off, we looked at the different shot sizes. There is the 'Long Shot', 'Medium Shot', 'Mid Shot', 'Medium Close Up', 'Close Up', 'Big Close Up', 'Extreme Close Up', etc. Sometimes, a picture can describe particular words. For example: The 'When?' of a story could be represented by the picture of a clock. The 'What?' of a story could be represented merely by the background in the shot and the people inside it. And the 'Who?' of a story can be represented by a close up of a person's face. The 'Why?' of a story is a bit harder to portray through pictures, but most commonly represented by facial expressions to paint a picture of what is being said without dialogue. The 'How?' is generally represented through a Medium Close Up or a series of Close Up's.

This is an example of a Medium Close Up, portrayed through the iconic horror film character: Frankenstein. Bibliography: (http://cineprism.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/frankenstein-3d.jpeg)

This is an example of a Wide Shot, portrayed through a soccer game: Bibliography: (http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~lah/emma/Images/ERH_8years/wide_shot.JPG)


This is an example of a Close Up: Bibliography: (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Galanthus_nivalis_close-up_aka.jpg)

This is an example of a Mid Shot: Bibliography: (http://robinjames.com/db3/00239/robinjames.com/_uimages/RobinMidShotCanyon.JPG)

Another important aspcet in different shots, is that all the content is fitted into the picture. This is otherwise known as Head Room. There is also the factor known as Talking Room. This when we need to fit the character in the proper position to make his dialogue appeal natural and appropriate. Especially when you have two people in the scene, you need enough space for both characters to fit into the shot to have appropriate talking room.

Important note: rule of thirds. (Fitting the characters interest into the cross-points of the shot)

So to conclude, basically we learned an extremely long and strenuous amount of information about different camera angles and positioning people and places in order to create the 'who', 'what', 'where', 'when', 'why' and 'how' of Cinematography. Good stuff :)