Almost all famous directors are known for having a favorite type of shot. Each of these shots conveys the type of story that they are trying to tell and gives more meaning to the film. After a director experiments with a lot of different styles, they tend to find a type that is just for them. Knowing which director will stick to which type of shots will give you a look into the variety of shots there are and help you find one that you will use often.
We will start out with Paul Thomas Anderson. This lesser-known director is credited to movies such as Inherent Vice and The Master. When his name is said, people will think of the man who uses the whip-pan. This shot is used when a character is talking and the interest is turned to a different matter so rather than using a traditional cut, Anderson spins the camera to the new subject. This is mainly used for a dramatic reveal shot or something else that really takes the viewer’s breath away. A more heard of director, Quentin Tarantino, famous for movies like The Hateful Eight, Pulp Fiction, and Django Unchained has a more unique kind of shot. If you ever really noticed, he likes to position a camera inside of the trunk of a car and have the actors open it a respond to whatever is in the trunk. Then he flips the camera and shows what the characters are looking at. Many people call this the trunk shot and still use it all the time. Another very famous director, Alfred Hitchcock, has a signature shot called “the Hitchcock Zoom” that he uses in Psycho and Vertigo. He first came up with this idea when he fainted at a party and tried to remake that sight into a shot he could use in his movies. Hitchcock finally came up with it by having the camera on a dolly and bringing the camera back while zooming in on the characters. This creates a subtle feeling of unease for the audience that has been loved by many other directors. After learning the ways of many famous directors, I hope you can find a style of filming and stick to it in your movies. http://canvas.grolsch.com/film-works/20-signature-shots-and-techniques-of-the-world%E2%80%99s-greatest-directors
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When shooting for a movie, it’s mandatory to get a variety of different shots to complete scenes. But this isn’t always the easiest thing to do considering that there you have to write them all out before and see which shot looks best. With just a few of these tips, it will be a lot easier to write out a shot list.
It starts out with over-the-shoulder shots. These are the hardest shots to get done correctly because you have to get the perfect amount of the back of the actors head in there while you still need enough of the person who is talking. Apparently, some directors don’t shoot these types of shots because it takes too much time to get it done correctly. But when the back of the head is blurred out, it looks perfect and well worth your time. Another classic shot is the panning shot. This shot is frequently overused and misused at the wrong times. Often, Steven Spielberg has great use of this type of shot to establish a certain mood or advance the action in a scene. The next one is a zoom shot. I think that these can be very nice shots but you have to use them right. The article says that you should mainly use these for an effective serious or creepy shot like how Ridley Scott executes them. But if you use them too much in a film, it will start to get annoying. And finally make sure that they are smooth because no one likes a jerky zoom. Now they start to get complicated. A tracking shot is a very sophisticated shot that can get messed up easily. By using a dolly, you can eliminate some of the trouble when trying to film this. But make sure that you’re on a smooth surface so it comes out great. The last one that I will talk about is the Dutch angle shot. This is done by rotating the camera a little to one side so that the character or object looks tilted. This type should only be done when trying to elicit a sense of unease and disorientation to the viewer. A lot of these tips are commonly used but when all of these types are mixed into a film, the cinematography will improve greatly. http://www.lavideofilmmaker.com/filmmaking/film-techniques.html Horror movies are very hard to produce because you have to get the scare tactic down. Many of them fail at this and get terrible reviews. Tested.com published an article claiming to know the “common denominators” of some classic scary movies.
The first one explains that timing is everything. The article says that you have to have the element of surprise when shooting suspenseful scenes. When a bomb is under the table, the audience knows it will go off soon but doesn’t know how soon so they are all waiting on the edge of their seats for it to occur. Alfred Hitchcock stated, “There’s no terror in a bang, only the anticipation of one.” Also, you need to slow down the beginning of a scene so that the audience feels that they are there in the film and eager to see what will happen next. Do this by putting in shots of everyday reality so that they have something to relate to. The last point of the topic of timing is to put a terrible scare in the first scenes of the movie so that the audience will be will be waiting for the next jump scare. An example of this is the chest buster scene in Alien that had a creature erupting out of a man’s stomach. The second argument was that what you don’t know can hurt you. This is referring to how the monster in the films is sometimes never shown like in Jaws and the Blair Witch Project. They like to say that what you can imagine is always worse than what you see. A great tactic to use is to make the audience squint and catch fast glimpses of it to keep them entertained. The final point is to embrace your budget. Basically, don’t try to amp the movie up on unnecessary expensive CGI when your movie doesn’t need all that. Some of the best movies had no fancy monsters and just starred messed up characters played by talented actors. However you plan to execute your horror film, just remember to have a good story line and not just focus on the jump scares and monsters. http://www.tested.com/art/movies/455206-rules-terror-horror-movies/ One of my favorite parts of a film is when it takes a dramatic plot twist and I am just sitting there stunned. From The Sixth Sense to Fight Club, these iconic twists amazed audiences around the world. But what’s the big secret behind coming up with a plot twist that no one sees coming?
Writer’s Digest published an article on how to write a story that has an unexpected turn of events based off the ending of the popular book, “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn. Although this article is based off writing a story, I thought that these techniques could be used for directing a film. Their first tip is to eliminate the obvious. Basically they are telling you to trash every possible solution that the main character could use to get out of their situation and succeed. Even think of scenarios that are so far-fetched and discard those too. Also they suggest that the situation should be very impossible to overcome to make the twist so inspiring. Their second point is to redirect suspicion. They want you to take the audience on a journey of possible solutions and keep twisting the story into new turns. This can be done by burying clues in scenes where the audience was focusing on other things like hiding a clue of something that will happen during an action scene. This will make sure that the viewer is not thinking and just worried about the fast cuts and running clips. The third technique that Writer’s Digest brought up was to avoid gimmicks. This means that the story line should not decrease the intensity when the plot twist is revealed. They quoted, “great twists always deepen, never cheapen, readers’ investment in the story.” It’s a big letdown when the entire story is just a dream that the protagonist just wakes up from. This cliché lowers tension in the film greatly. Finally, they say to always write the story line toward the audience’s reaction. The first type of this is to make them think that there is only one possible solution to the story and then a crazy turn of events happen. The next is to lead the viewer into uncertainty. This can be done by making them think that they have no idea where the video is going. The last type is to have the viewer remember back to when the protagonist did something earlier in the film. When it is brought back to the plot later in the film, the viewers have this “Oh, yeah!” reaction. I personally think that the best films always have a little bit of plot twists that keep the viewers on the edge of their seat. I hope that I can display one of these tips in one of my videos throughout the year. http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/there-are-no-rules/4-ways-to-write-a-killer-plot-twist The new Lytro Cinema Camera is supposed to “change filmmaking forever.” But with the numerous things it can accomplish, that statement isn’t sounding too far-fetched.
First of all, it is going to put the use of a green screen to rest. This new camera can remove any pixel information farther than fifteen feet away from the camera. In other words, it can basically change the background of the scene while filming. I think that this will be very useful when trying to make films with a lot of visual effects. Also it cuts out all of the hassle of putting a green screen up and making sure that you got everything lined up perfectly. Finally, this can limit the amount of acting that actors have to do by themselves when performing in a computer generated land. Another characteristic of the camera is that there will be no more manual focusing while shooting. The Lytro has a quality that lets you film your movie, then control the focus post-production. Along with that, you can also change the depth of field while on set. This new technology will help with not having a lot of errors and having to refilm while making a video. It will also create a whole new level of cinematography because now directors can show the audience what they want them to be drawn to without having to put a lot of time and effort into it while filming. Finally, this camera can change the frame rate and shutter speed easily. This is a big deal for filmmakers that like to mess around with slow-motion and make it more dramatic. They can even adjust the setting up to 300 fps for a really intense shot. All the perks of this camera really are great and all but I don’t think that they are necessary for a beginner/intermediate director, especially with the grand price tag of 125 thousand dollars. But if the Lytro really takes off then it will definitely take the jobs of a lot of people involved with visual effects. So the final question I ask is, is it worth it? http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/this-technology-is-going-to-change-filmmaking-forever/ The Beijing-based company, Zero Zero Robotics, has come out with a new drone. This drone is not like every other drone in the market though. This one uses your smartphone to follow you around while flying.
There are also some other unique features that make the “Hover Camera” unique. The drone is fully self-functioning, which means all you have to do is just turn it on and it will follow you. Next, the four propellers are enclosed in a carbon fiber box that achieve the CEO, Meng Qiu’s, goal of having a safe drone. Another exclusive feature of the Hover Camera is that if you push the camera while it’s flying, it will wobble a little, and then continue flying opposed to spinning out of control and falling to the ground like other drones. Finally, the Hover Camera has a distinctive design that folds up, making this drone very portable. Despite all the unique features of this drone, I don’t think that this product will sell very well. The price tag of $600 is on the high side of the market and some consumers might not want to invest that much. Also, the drone is very loud when it is flying which might make the videos not very enjoyable when filming in nature because you can’t hear the beauty of the wildlife. Another reason is that the actual video looks wobbly. The quality of the film is obviously a huge selling point when purchasing a camera. If the drone can become unsteady when just flying upwards, I feel like it will be blown away by a gentle gust of wind and spiral to the ground. Also, if you’re filming in an area that has a lot of obstacles, the Hover Camera does not have spatial recognition so it can easily run into a tree or something that will damage it. On that note, the carbon fiber shell around the blades is not very durable, so if it does crash, it will probably break. Finally, the drone is not water proof, and a lot of drone shots are filmed above water, so that is a big inconvenience. All in all, I believe that the Hover Camera is a cool idea for a drone but I would not invest in this product. http://www.forbes.com/sites/aarontilley/2016/04/26/hover-camera-computer-vision/#573335276e47 |
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