What is camerawork?
-How the camera is used in television and film to serve story, character and action.
-The art of cinematography.
-The primary grammar of visual storytelling.
basic elements of camera work:
-The shot- affects our emotional and psychological relationship with character and setting through composition and speed.
-Movement- affects our emotional and psychological relationship with character and setting through changes in movement.
How do we use shots?
-The basic building blocks of visual grammar.
-The visual equivalent of sentence structure.
-If shots are words, mise en scene is meaning and editing is narrative structure.
The basic shots:
-wide shot- establishes location , setting or character's context in setting.
-medium shot- characters dominate the frame.
-close-up- face or specific object dominates frame
-extreme close-up- one particular focus in frame.
The size of the image is important to the emotion, particularly when you're using hat image to have the audience identify with it- Alfred Hitchcock
Classical framing and composition
-Rule of third- subject placed at aesthetic intersect.
Angle and speed:
-High angle shot (overhead shot, birds eye view)-objective, alienating. diminishes character or subject in frame, emphasising vulnerability or isolation.
-Low angle shot- emphasises character or subject's dominance in frame. Often used for 'hero shots', or menace.
-Dutch/tilt angle-disorientating, creates psychological tension.
-Slow motion/fast motion-alters audience's perceptual or emotional response to dramatic action.
Expressionism:
-Angled shots are a common feature of expressionism, particularly the classic German expressionist film of he 1920s-30s.
-Expressionism presents the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas. Expressionist artists sought to express the meaning of emotional experience rather than physical reality.
Motion and emotion:
Why do we move the camera?
-to heighten action or emotion.
-to convey objective or subjective viewpoints.
-refocus audience's attention within the scene.
-explore or change setting/ environment.
I believe in using camera movement when it helps tell the story more effectively... I think one of the first essentials of the moving camera is that the eye should not be aware of it- Alfred Hitchcock.
Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972)
Use of camera movement to emotionally distance audience from action (murder narrative)
Alienation:
-Hitchcock's use of the reverse crane/ racking shot is an example of alienation effect.
-Alienation is the extent to which one maintains a critical distance from cultural production. the more immersive a piece, the greater the extent to which one is drawn into the fictional piece, often associated with passively experiencing the media.
-Contrastingly an alienated audience remains removed from the media, critically considering the signs, narrative and so on. This is often considered in relation to artifice, with alienated media not attempting to hide the constructed and artificial nature of the production; showing scaffolding, using minimal staging etc.
Key camera movement techniques:
-pan, tilt and zoom
-handheld/ Steadicam
-dolly/ crane
Filming Halloween (1978):
-heightens action and emotion through subjective POV
-switches between subjective (steadicam) and objective (crane) viewpoints.
-refocuses audience's attention within the scene (movement through set and pans)
-Explores character relation to environment.
Elements of visual style (Bordwell):
-denotative (directing attention)
-expressive (bringing out or magnifying emotional qualities)
-decorative (flourishes or stylistic patterns that are independent or semi-independent of narrative design.
-symbolic functions (invoking abstract concepts).
Use of handheld in documentary:
-Heightens action and emotion (conveys urgency)
-Dynamics of transition (moving from one location to another)
-Places character in context (life on the streets). Authenticity.
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