Film Analysis Techniques
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This document outlines learning objectives and activities for a lesson on film analysis. It includes: 1. Recapping semiotics terms from the previous week with a matching activity. 2. Continuing analysis of film posters with group feedback sessions. 3. Clarifying conventions of film posters and introducing camera shot and framing terminology. 4. Explaining different camera shots and positions and how they create emotional responses.
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Film Analysis Techniques
- 1. Learning Objectives • Recap test - last week lesson on semiotics - 5 min matching task on key terms • To continue with film poster analysis • Groups to feedback to whole group – max 3 min • To clarify key conventions of film posters • To introduce camera shots and framing terminology
- 2. We looked at Signs… • Indexical • Iconic • Symbolic C-A-T
- 3. Iconic
- 4. Indexical
- 5. Symbolic
- 6. Indexical Here the image suggests the presence of a car
- 8. Symbolic
- 9. Iconic
- 10. Symbolic
- 12. Camera Positions and Framing • Type of shot • Position of shot to subject
- 13. The Language of Cinema • Shot scale and framing are key determinates in: • Creating emotional response for us. • Positioning the audience/spectator with regards to empathy/identity for characters and their actions/responses. • Shot scale can cue up expectations. Tells us what is of note or important.
- 15. Aims & Objectives • Students will need to be able to identify and understand how meaning is created by the use of technical codes and conventions of the audio-visual media.
- 16. Section A: Moving Image Codes & Conventions (Question 1) The first part of the module involves learning the technical codes and conventions of moving images. In your exam next summer you will conduct an analysis of a still image or a moving image extract.
- 17. Extreme Close-Up
- 18. Big Close-Up
- 19. Close-Up
- 20. Medium Close-Up
- 21. Medium Shot
- 22. Medium Long-Shot
- 23. Long Shot
- 24. Very Long Shot
- 26. High Angle
- 27. Low Angle
- 29. Over the Shoulder Shot
- 30. 2 Shot - Master Shot
- 31. Two Shot
- 33. Frame Left
- 34. Shallow Depth of Field
- 35. Deep Depth of Field
- 36. Ensure you can use the following terms and concepts • Textual analysis skills (consider primary and secondary codes). • Mode of address (how are spectators addressed) • Preferred meaning (what is the dominant meaning/emotional tone being evoked) • Anchorage (how do signs anchor the meaning) • Polysemic or closed meanings (can the image be interpreted in other ways or not
- 37. Analysis Task • • • • • In pairs Analyse & interpret frame shots: Identify key features Why was that shot used? What does it tell the audience or how does it make us feel? What is its purpose? • List ideas/observations for feedback
Editor's Notes
- Exploring the importance on camera positions, framing and shot scale and the impact that this will have on meaning or images – either still or moving
- A shot from Ridley Scott’s film Blade runner. This is a very tight shot. The foreground is flooded with information. You can see the iris in the eye and also reflected in the eye is explosions from the city scape. It is extremely clever shot as it seems that the entire cityscape is captured in one eye.An extreme close up is about detail and the director drawing our attention to something specific. It has the effect of creating suspense
- This shows just the face and is used to show expressions and emotions. The close up makes the audience feel involved with the characters feelings.
- Samuel Jackson from Pulp Fiction –It cuts across the top of his forehead. It is about showing emotion on his face. The camera has pulled back
- You see the characters face, in this case Heath Ledger, the camera has pulled back revealing more information. Essentially a head and shoulders shot, the background is still blurry but we get a feel for
- Pulling back further, giving a sense of where we are, it gives us the human in context. There is much more middle and background information. It is usually shot from the waist up. The head is some way down from the top of the frame.
- Whole group shot – it is an appropriate shot to show the group. Less detail but more background information.
- Wesley Snipes – Blade. Importance of perspective and depth of field. A long shot is typically an entire body shot. Of course, the point of that is not about getting lots of detail but about spatial relationships – it gives us a sense of lots of background information. You are getting light coming through, blood on the floor, signs – which indicates it is in some sort of abattoir or industrial location. This is an interesting shot because in the foreground and the middle ground there are two other characters that are clearly threating him. So overall it is a very interesting and well structured shot. Overall it is all about showing his body posture and his relationship to the mise en scene in the rest of the frame
- This is an example of a very long shot. We can see that the subject to be filmed – in this case these puppets from Team America, is now quite a distance from the camera. The space at the bottom and from their heads to the top of the frame – they represent a smaller part of the frame as the camera gets further away from them. We are also able to get a lot of detail from this – we are able to see detail including the door, architecture, objects and props, writing. The depth of field is all about the background. It gives us lots of good information about the relationship between the characters and the things around them.
- This shows us background, location and setting. From Danny Boyles 28 Days Later - Jim from 28 Days Later and he looks really lonely and isolated against the back drop of the houses of parliament and big ben – so an extreme long shot is incredibly good for showing humans in context. It is not about detail but about the subject and their surroundings.
- Frame grab from Shriek - The camera is looking down on something – because of the perspective that it creates, a high angle shot makes the thing look small, diminutive. This works really well to make the cat look cute and vulnerable, weak – so it is used in that way here.
- The matrix – a really good example of a low angle shot – here the camera is down on the ground or below the subject and it is looking up at an acute angle it makes the thing above us and puts us in the position of relative weakness – in this shot the character is looking threating, powerful and we are in the position of feeling weak. It also helps that this shot is also a POV shot and a cantered angle shot.
- Either phrase is acceptable – the key to understanding the cantered angle is that you can see this horizontal line and you can see that it is tipping – the camera is pitching and tipping from the horizontal. Makes us feel uneasy – maybe sinister. Although it can be used to simply make things look more interesting.
- Strictly speaking not really a shot scale – it is about one of the common devices we will need to think about when looking at editing and it is call the over the shoulder shot. It is where the camera is essentially filming character but over the shoulder of the character talking. You often see shot reverse shot, where is will cut back and forth, keeping the shoulder of the character in the corner. In the corner, this is a more typical shot of an over the shoulder shot. From the film Shaun of the Dead. The camera is sitting over the shoulder of Simon Pegg’s character – it is a tighter shot and it usually done to get us to concentrate on what the characters are saying - dialogue.
- Master shot – essentially a 2 shot. It gives a lot of background information. It is where the camera pulls back to give us a sense of what is going on.
- The last couple of concepts – two shots, it is shot usually as a medium shot, The purpose of the two shot is to balance background and middle ground information. It shows relationships between people and usually preludes an over the shoulder shot.
- This is from Team America – this establishes the location and scene, the setting and the circumstances. Often used at the beginning of a film or the beginning of a sequence. It gives us a sense of where we are, a nice wide shot that gives us our geographical location and setting
- Frame left or right – emphasises space, it is where one side is emphasised, it encourages us to look at that space – almost walk in to it. It is based on a photographic concept the theory of thirds. This is where your image is split in to one third or two thirds – it is supposed to be more attractive. It draws our attention. It makes us look from the left to the right, it is meant to emphasise how small the fish are and the shock and horror that Nemo is about to go out on to the reef.
- Shallow focus in one on one part of the image, in this case it is on the foreground, the middle and background are out of focus. Our attention is drawn to one detail within the frame.
- Deep depth of field is where the foreground, middle ground and background are sharp or in focus. It could be argued that this gives us a more realistic feel to the film we are watching.