Task Eight – Transitions and Effects done

Transition is the movement from one shot to the next. A form of transition is the straight cut this the most common and invisible. One shot  moves instantaneously to the  next without attracting the audience's attention. One of the benefits of straight cut is that it helps to retain reality. They do not break the viewers suspension of disbelief.

Dissolve
This is simple fading one shot off the screen as another shot fades in. When using dissolve one most make sure at some point the audience are able to see both shots on the screen at the mid-point. Dissolve is used when the film-maker wants to show a connection between two characters, places or objects.

Fades is a gradual darkening or lightening of an image until it becomes black or white. One shot will fade until only a black or white screen can be seen. Fade is used to indicate the end of a particular section of time within the narrative, It could also show passing of time.

Another form of transition wipes, this is when one image is pushed off the screen by another. Images can be pushed left or right. It is more common for image to be pushed off the left - hand side as this movement is more consistent with the sense of time moving forward. Wipe is used to signal movement between different locations that are experiencing same time. An example is the use of wipe in the star wars film



Graphic Match is also known as Match cut, this is a cut in film editing between either two objects, spaces,different compositions in which an object in the two shots graphically match, often ping to establish a strong continuity of action and linking the two shots metaphorically. This technique was used in the movie Psycho to match the circular image of the plug hole with the next image of Marion's eye.




 Following the action- This is a when there is a movement, or in an action scene, the camera would  follow the event/action that is taking place. In Mr&Mrs Smith the camera rotates around the gun battle to show more of the action instead of staying at angle.

Multiple points of view - This is where each character are showing each side of a particular point of view. Where one character will show what he/she is seeing and then it will change to the secondary character and do the same. an example of this is the Iron Man.



Shot Variation - This is when a shot is uninterrupted by editing and the shot distance changes.The shot can be either static or mobile but it must be a continuous motion. for example the shot begins as a long or wide shot ends in close-up. This example shows The Matrix beginning in long shot, the camera moves in a circular motion and ends in a mid-shot.




Manipulation of Diegetic time and space - this is when a film uses effects to show an age or time change. Either a person, an object or even an environment shown either getting younger or getting older. It can be something as simple as using a colour filter or the desaturation of an image to show a different point in time. There are many films which uses this technique but an example is The Time Machine. The time traveller enters the time machine and the environment changes as he travels through time.



A modernised version of this is effect is seen in the Harry Porter film Prisoner of Azkaban

Evaluation
This video is where I have effectively used different transitions and effect for the manipulation of diegetic time to show the future. The clip goes black and white when the psychic sees the future and it goes back to normal to indicate back to normal life. Another effect I used is the dissolve, the scene of the dice dissolves into the black and white scene. The purpose of dissolve at that time was to show a connection between the dice and the two girls walking (the psychic was seeing the future from the dice).

Task Seven – Engaging the Viewer/Creating Pace done

Engaging the viewer and creating pace - are both very popular techniques in editing. Engaging the viewers and Creating pace are usually different depending on the genre it would be needed for. If it is used for action or horror scenes one would expect the scenes to go in a fast sequence, if it is used for a romantic scene the sequence would be expected to be a lot slower than action or horror. The speed of the scene would help determine the type of reaction you would receive from the audience. When watching an action movie with fast scenes, the audience tend to pay more attention in order to every bit of the action. An example is the hunger games trailer.

Speed of Editing- The speed of editing is used to create emotions like drama, tension, etc. in the minds of the audience. The speed of editing can vary from seconds to minutes depending on the scene, for example in an action sequence the scenes would last for about two to three seconds but if it was for a romantic scene the sequence would be a lot slower and the scenes would probably last for about five to six minutes. An example of an action sequence is The Bourne Ultimatum.

Cross Cutting- is an editing technique most often used in films to establish action occurring at the same time in two different places, in a cross cut, the camera will cut away from one action, which can suggest the simultaneity of these two actions. Cross cutting is used to create tension and suspense in the mind of the audience, also cross cutting can be used to very effectively develop sense of drama. In scream Casey death was made to be more dramatic with the use of cross cutting.

Cutaway- a cutaway shot is the interruption of a continuously filmed action by inserting a view something else. It is usually, although not always, followed by a cut back to the first shot, when the cutaway avoids a jump cut. The cutaway shot does not necessarily contribute any dramatic content of its own, but is used to help the editor assemble a longer sequence. For this reason, editors choose cutaway shots related to the main action, such as another action or object in the same location. For example, if the main shot is of a man walking down an alley, possible cutaways may include a shot of a cat on a nearby dump or a shot of a person watching from a window overhead.

Creating pace- is when editing is used to speed up or slow down a film. The pace of an edit can alter the way the audiences views the film. For example action films are usually fast paced, this is done editing shots so they are short and then quickly cut to another shot. Drama films normally use slower shots, this is to allow the audience to see and understand a scene, and to understand the character. This is done by having longer shots in a scene.

Development of Drama- This is very effective because it keeps the audience in suspense and gives them something to look forward to.

Summary of My Video

My Creating Pace video included Cross Cutting, the purpose of this was to create tension and develop drama in the minds of the audience. The storyline involves 3 actors, 2 students and the teacher. The teacher walks out the classroom to report one of girls to the head teacher for being rude, while she was gone both girls, gossip about teacher, violate the classroom equipments, use their phones and dance around. While editing this video I made use of cross cutting to develop some tension for the audience. There was a cross cut in the scene of the students being playful in the classroom and the teacher walking from the corridor back into the classroom.

Task Six – Non - Continuity

Non- continuity editing
 This describes the deliberate or accidental violation of rules of continuity when editing films. As a deliberate technique, it may be used to connote authenticity or to create alienation.The purpose of non continuity editing is to make the audience see more in the movie than just the storyline, it engages the audience more and gives them an avenue to be able to judge on a fair side. Although it may look like a mistake that is the whole point behind.
There is a shot where it breaks the 180 degree rule, and skips from side to side this is really disorientating for the audience.

The Shining - Stanley Kubrick - Breaking the 180 Degree Rule
Although breaking the rule often looks unprofessional and does not work, it has been used by many directors including Stanley Kubrick in the bathroom scene of The Shining to make the audience feel unbalanced and disorientated as well as Peter Jackson in The Lord of the Rings with Gollum show a divide between his two personalities. The only reasoning behind breaking the rule one could have is for the effect that it causes, like Kubrick and Jackson have done, otherwise it will not work with the rest of the scene and will only confuse the audience on where they are watching the scene from.





A Bout de Soufflé - Jean-Luc Goddard - Jump Cut

This film became very famous for the use of jump cuts in it, It is Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 French New Wave classic À Bout de Soufflé (Breathless). The film’s producer apparently asked Godard to reduce the length of the film, and one way he did so was during some of the conversations. Godard explained: “Instead of slightly shortening one and then slightly shortening the other, and winding up with short little shots of both of them, we’re going to cut out four minutes by eliminating one or the other altogether, and then we will simply join the [remaining] shots, like that, as though it were a single shot.”

A bout de soufflé video


The first jump cut was at 0:14 seconds we see her sitting calm without searching for any mirror, or holding a mirror in her hand, at 0:15 seconds, she is seen holding a mirror and styling her hair. The second jump cut was at 0:20 seconds, where the mirror disappeared from her hand. She did not throw it away or make it disappear, jump cut was used. t.here are more jump cuts in the clip but the most obvious are the ones at the beginning.

The Hunger Games - Gary Ross - Breaking the 180 Degree Rule
the use of breaking the 180 degree rule is used when she gets into the bed room. this was effective as that point in the movie because of the situation she was in, this technique was used to confuse us a little bit and it was also used to show that she herself was confused and was not herself any more.

task 5 continuity editing done

Continuity Editing 

 Continuity is a big part of film making. If you're shooting a short film or interview, it's important to set the scene and establish your characters in space and time in order for the viewer to follow the action. Continuity editing became known as 'classical Hollywood' style of editing. it was developed by an early European and American film directors in particular , in particular D.W Griffin in his film the  birth of a nation and intolerance.
The classical style ensures temporal and spatial continuity as a way of advancing narrative , using such techniques as the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot reverse shot.
It helps to maintain a sense of realistic chronology and generates the feeling that time is moving forward.
this does not mean one can not use a flashback or flash forwards, as long s the narrative will still be seen to be moving forward in an expected or realistic way.

Key continuity techniques
Eye line match
This technique links two shots together.we see a character looking at something off screen and then we cut to it to show what the character is looking at. This allows the audience to experience an event in the film just as the character is experiencing it.

An example of the eyline match is in kill bill


180 degree rule
The 180 Degree Rule states that two characters in a scene should always have the same left and right relationship to each other. If you don't follow the 180 Degree Rule, or break it intentionally, it disrupts the scene disorients audience. When you break the 180 line, a person who was originally facing left in a scene is all of the sudden facing right.
if the camera passes over the imaginary axis, connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line.
When you shoot a scene with actors imagine a line extending out between them. You can move your camera anywhere along that line, as long as you don't cross over the line to the other side.


Match on action
Match on action is a technique of filming used in many sorts of films. It consists of connecting 2 shots together in which a character finishes off an action in the second shot that was started in the first one, for example a clip of a character walking through a door in which he opens the door being filmed from behind then the clip cuts to him walking through from the other one.
The technique ensures that the action seems like a natural and realistic movement even when the actor may have finally performed it twice.


Shot Reverse Shot
shot reverse shot is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character and then the other character is shown looking back at this first character . since the characters are shown facing in the opposite directions the viewers assume that they are looking at each other.

Continuity Editing- Continuity Editing as been really successful 

Summary of our Continuity editing video clip - our continuity editing was a short clip in a  classroom with 2 female actors. The purpose of this clip was to show our understanding the techniques (match on action, eye-line match, shot reverse shot, 180 degree rule) and how effective we could use it.  one of the techniques we use was the match on action (This technique links two shots together). the camera goes to the face of the actor looking up at the clock and looks back down to concentrate on her work. another area where we made use of the match on action was when one of the girls ran from the corner to open door and the camera also catches her as she opens the door to go into the room. This is effective because  the audience want to see the expression on the face of the actor as then get in and the camera catches what the audience expect.
Another technique used was the shot reverse shot where one character is shown looking at another character and then the other character is shown looking back at this first character. this happens when both actors have back and forth arguments with each other.
The techniques we used during the filming of the short clip were effective because it passes the right messages across.This makes the viewer assume they are looking at each other. and it also carries the audience along as the conversation continues.
The techniques we did not include are the point of view, eye-line, 180 degree rule one of the reason i did not include these were because i found them the most challenging so i went with the once i felt like i could easily work with.

t4 montage done

 In the world of montage there are different types of montages, we All the montages have different meanings;

French cinema- in French practice montage has its literal meaning (assembly, installation)

Soviet cinema- in soviet film making of the 1920s, montage was a method of juxtaposing shots to derive new meaning that did not exist in either shot alone.

Hollywood cinema- in Hollywood cinema a montage cinema is a short segment in a film in which narrative informative is presented in a condensed fashion. and example of balboa. in this film rocky was training for a boxing match and there was montage of him training.this could have been a period of days, weeks or even months but it was condensed into about 2 minutes.


The two key film-makers 

Lev Kuleshov- he was among the first people to theorize about the relatively young medium of the cinema in the 1920s. he agreed that editing a movie or film is like constructing a building, brick by brick shot by shot the movie the building is created. he did an experiment that proved this point was true, he took an old film clip of a head shot of an old Russian actor and inter cut the shot with different images, when people saw this they praised the actor because the picture of the man he had initially put up had different expressions and when another picture was put beside it, the expression on his face matched the other picture. the simple act of juxtaposing the shots in a sequence created the relationship. the audience were able to read meaning from looking at the two pictures. this experiment was the start of the technique known as montage.

Serge Eisenstein- he was briefly a student of Kuleshov, but the two of them ended up parting ways because they read different meanings as to what a montage meant. By using contrasting, unrelated shots Eisenstein tried to create shock in the minds of viewers.

The two key film clips;
Strike;


Strike; The sequence is very short, just under a minute and a half, but contains over 30 shots. This rapid cutting is typical of the Montage film which on average has a greater number of shots than any other type of film making of that era. The scene begins by showing the striking workers running, hundreds of them, and also shows the military advancing and firing, but it never shows the military in the same shot as the workers. The military chase the striking workers and then gun them down in a field. We don’t see any people being shot, but instead we see all their bodies lying there after the slaughter. This footage is inter cut with non-diegetic shots of a bull being killed in a slaughterhouse. The use of a non-diegetic insert is another common Montage device.

Rocky(Hollywood Montage); this happens to be a Hollywood montage , rocky is a new named boxer, in the clip we were shown rocky was training for a boxing match.


How the filming went
My group and i made two montages, the soviet montage and the Hollywood montage. the Hollywood montage was the easiest because it was easy to come up with a story line, on the other hand the soviet montage took a longer time to film because it was difficult coming up with a story line for it. But we managed to film both.

Hollywood-

This montage was easy and fun. i worked with two other friends to achieve the end product. we used an empty classroom as our setting and we used different types of props. most of them were handmade, for example the price tags. we had 4 scenes all together. first scene was of a young lady walking round in the market looking for an handbag to buy, she came across one she liked but she did not have enough money to buy it so she walked away. scene 2 was in a bookshop with the lady walking in the market and another lady. the first lady was selling all her books in order to have enough money to buy the bag, first lady bought some books. scene 3 was of the bookseller lady and another lady buying books, she sold some books to her and got some money. In that same scene she was packing up her books, counted he money she had altogether and rejoiced and closed her shop for the day. Scene 4 was the last scene we filmed, she walked back to the shop where she saw the bags, she bought the one she wanted and walked off the scene with a smile on her face.

Soviet Montage-

This was the most difficult of the two montages, we used props like chairs, sheets of papers, a classroom.we had a lot of scenes. Some of the scene were outdoor and some of it was inside. We did this because the whole point of a soviet montage is to make different shots look connected. the outdoor scene was about a happy girl who collected flowers, went off  and came back only to meet her flowers dead. the indoor shots was about three people that showed anger and death, one of the characters was tore up sheets, the other character was about anger and the last character died. All this unlike shots are what made our Soviet Montage.

The intention behind my montage- The intention behind my Hollywood montage was to be able to show how you can fit in a story of 10 minutes into a shorter time. The intention between my Soviet Montage was to show how different shots could mean the same thing even if they are not meant to be connected together.

What went well  a few things went well during the filming, operating the camera was easy and directing the acting was fun. every member of the group brought an idea to the table this made it easy for the us to carry on with our work.when we set off to film, finding a suitable filming area was not a problem. we found an empty room with tables and chairs in it and this was the best kind of setting we could use.

Was  it successful- The Hollywood Montage went very well and we knew the exact thing to do, we got on with our work and we completed the filming as fast as possible so for this reason i think it was a successful production. However, the Soviet Montage was not the same, it was not as successful as it should have been. At first we did not have a good enough story line which made filming difficult. We tried different things but did not quite fit into the idea we were trying to present like, shock, suspense etc. And the shots we filmed did not seem as real as possible for these reasons i think it was not a successful production.

t3 from analogue to digital done

From Analogue to Digital Editing

What is analogue editing?
It is the cutting together of pieces of celluloid film. Traditionally films are made up of images printed on to acetate negatives, these are then spliced together to form a reel of film. ll these are feed into a projector at a constant speed of 24 frames a second which makes the pictures appear to be moving.
this is known as analogue.

The Disadvantages and Advantages of analogue editing

Cons

• There could be limitations in editing, for example if the projector is missing, editing can not continue.
• If any mistake is  made during the filming it is impossible to cancel or cut is out.
• Any noise cannot be erased from the tape.

Pros

• You get a perfect copy of the sound.
• The sound that is made in the clip is the original sound and nothing can be added or subtracted to it.

What is Splicing? Splicing is the joining of two pieces of film for example at the ends of both films.

What is linear editing?
This is a video editing post production process of selecting, arranging and modifying images and sound in a predetermined, ordered sequence.

The First Moviola

Moviola allows a film editor to view film while editing. It was the first machine for motion picture editing when it was invented by Iwan Serrurier in 1924. Moviola the company is still in existence and is located in Hollywood where part of the facility is located on one of the original Moviola factory floors.

Digital Editing - this  is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital unlike analogue. This is the use of computers to manipulate digital data. Digital cinemas make use of bits and bytes which are (strings of 1s and 0s) to record,transmit and reply images,instead of chemicals on film. The process is electronic so there is no printing or splicing involved.
Pros

Digital Editing uses bits and bytes ,reply images instead of using chemicals on films.

There is no splicing or printing involved because the process is electronic.

What is Non-linear editing?
Non linear editing is method that allows you to access any frame in a digital video clip regardless of sequence in the clip. With Non linear editing you have the freedom to access any frame, and use a cut-paste-method, similar to the ease of cutting and pasting text in a word processor, and allows you to easily include fades,transitions and other effects that cannot be achieved with linear editing.

in camera editing done

Brief History about in camera editing

What is in camera editing In camera editing is a technique where instead of editing the shots in a film into sequence after shooting,the cinematographer shoots the sequence in strict order. the resulting 'edit' is therefore already complete when the film is developed. the process takes alot of planning so that the shots are filmed in the right order.however, some of this time can be reclaimed, as there is no editing, cutting out or rearranging of scenes after. When the last scene is filmed the movie is completed.

George Melies was most famous for this in camera editing,he was a French illusionist and a film-maker who had seen the films made by the Lumière brothers. through the in camera editing he managed to film 'The Vanishing Lady' which happened to be an huge success.



 

I created this short film with three other team mates we got along very well so it was easy creating this film. we had the option to use two or more actors but we used three because of our story line, and a camera operator that happened to be myself. we used an empty class as our setting and books,chairs,computers as our props. as we rehearsed for our film we found it a bit difficult to concentrate but at the end of the day we got it right. There were some mistakes but as we do more filming practices it would help us get better.

A few of things went well in my groups film. Our editing was a bit out of time and we were in time for some of our shots we cut some of the shots at the right time and some of the shots were cut seconds after this created pauses while watching the clip. the message we were trying to pass across was received even through a short period of time. The elements we would be taking into consideration on our next film project will be; making the film a little longer, in our short film we had a maximum of a minute but we done 40 seconds. what we would also be improving is the editing, in order to make the film as good as possible would be in time for any pauses and plays.

The pros of in camera editing

• It can be very useful for magician and tricksters that make films for example George Melies made good use of in camera editing and tricked alot of people to thinking things were actually disappearing.
• If at all the characters forget their scripts the camera could while they do a quick rehearsal and continue.

The cons of in camera editing

• If the camera operator is not focused they could forget to stop the camera when its time to cut
• Sometimes there could be a long pause with the characters, this could be because they do not know what to do or do not know when the camera starts or stops.
• if there are any mistakes in the filming, it cant be edited or cut out because there is no editing involved in In-Camera editing.