DepicT! Texual Analysis

Introduction

In this analysis I will be demonstrating my understanding of the technical conventions of moving images by exploring the camera use, the editing, the sound and the mise-en-scene and lighting. I will be identifying these technical conventions in my own work and will be using the correct media terminology.

Camera Use

When producing our 90 Second DepicT! Short Film, we used a variety of camera shots. These ranged from long shots, medium shots, and close ups. The shots were used to either show what should be 'established' on screen and if the shot type was used to show what a character's personality or emotion is. All of the shots, describing what the angle was and the movement of the camera, were all documented on a physical storyboard. However, some shots were change.

This is 'close up' shot was used to establish what the main story line was about. Because the story line was about football, it was clear that we had to identify, from the start, that the film is about football. Also the title that 'tracked' onto the screen, gives a hint on what the story will be about.

This again is a 'medium, close up shot' and it contrasted with a 'tracking' movement of the camera. As this was intended to be a film on football, it was suggested by Sean (Our Teacher) to include 'tracking' shots, about 1 second long, to make the film feel 'fast paced' to the audience. We then adapted the advice to our film; the results were successful. We also kept the 'camera angle' low so that the ball was level in the shot. This made it more effective. 

This 'long short' was used to establish where the ball was roughly going to land, once it was kicked. It also tied in with a 'match-on-action' shot of the ball being kicked, to the ball landing over the fence. This shot can also establish what the characters are looking at and can occasionally show a facial reaction. 

This 'medium shot' was used to show both reactions of the two friends and did not go as expected. In this shot, the initial reaction was meant to be an established shot of me and Keiran looking 'annoyed'. However, the resulting cut was of me smiling, which broke continuity.

This shot was used to show how a 'high angle' can focus on what is going on. It was also linked in with the 'fast-paced' action shots and was the only high angle shot in the film. I think that we could of used more to make the film more effective. This shot became quite successful as the 'fast-paced' shots all linked together well.

In this shot, it had a range of camera movement, angles, and shot distances. In this scene, Kieren walks over to the ball and picks it up over an inch above his head. In this shot, the camera angle is low to start with and then raises up to a normal angle, and then to a high angle. The shot distances were all close ups from the low angle to the high angle. The camera movement used was a crane up and was used to establish where the ball is going to end up and what is going to happen to it. We also used our original music track, which we recorded on Garage Band to avoid Copyright Laws.

Editing

In the editing process we used an Adobe software called Premiere Pro. This software allowed us to edit, and put together all of our shots so that we could get what we wanted out of our film. In this case we wanted a 'fast-paced' football film. Out of the three of us, we all took turns in editing our film so that we had knowledge in the editing software.

All of transitions used in out film were 'cuts'. This in favor added to the 'fast-paced' action feel of our film which was what we were going for and would be noticed by the audience. When it came to the editing process, me and our group had little knowledge of how to use Premiere Pro. However, this was part of the project and the whole course itself. Even though we didn't have a clue on how to use the editing software, we had the opportunity to learn and adapt the knowledge to our work. We also had assistance given to us through the project, if we ran into any problems or difficulties.

We used a range of shot types when editing and made sure that, if there was a opportunity to add 'continuity', then we made sure the shots fitted well together. As said in a previous paragraph, the beginning shot of the ball was used, at the start of our film, to show that the movie was about a football and to ensure that the audience knew what the film was about. Most of the shots in the film were used to show continuity. This was done because of how fast pace the film was. If continuity wasn't added then the audience could get confused on what is going on.

If this shot, of the ball getting kicked over the fence, hadn't of had multiple shot angles added to it then it would lose continuity as the ball could be flying anywhere. This can confuse the audience; so continuity was vital in our film.

Continuity Clip...  

Shot One







 Shot Two

Shot Three

Sound

Most of the sound in our 90 Second DepicT! Short Film was Ambient, and Diegetic sound (Synchronous). However there was one shot at which we used our own recorded track. This was done to avoid Copyright Laws. Sean our teacher, assisted us in making our music track so that it was effective for the particular scene.

In shots like this, the sound type used was Diegetic (Synchronous) sound. This means that the sound of the lads kicking the football was the part of the character's world and Synchronous means that the object or person making that sound was present to the audience as well as the character.

This shot was the only shot that had non-diegetic sound and was used as an 'incidental music'. This is when there is an unrecognizable piece of music that can guide the audience's response. 'Parallel' music was used to enhance what was going on screen. In this case the 'dramatic' shot of the ball being lifted by one of the characters was the non-diegetic sound.

Beside that, we didn't really use any other kind of sound or music. I think this was done because it didn't need music, or it was less effective with it. So maybe in future projects we will consider of what idea we want, if we wanted more music added.

Lighting and Mise-en-scene

The only kind of light used was ambient light (available light or natural light). I think this was because we only had limited amount of equipment in the area we were in. Also because we were in the middle of a playing field, electricity was limited. However, this didn't affect the film in a bad way.

As shown in this picture, the lighting was 'fair' and worked well when it came to the day of shooting. We also adapted our shots so that the characters were not affected by light. What is meant by this, is that we wanted to make sure that the characters we clearly seen in each shots and that the light angle didn't make them look too 'dark'.

As said in previous paragraphs a playing field was used as our location, as the film was about football. It was also free to use for the public so we didn't have to obtain a location release. Again, it was also good for ambient light. When it came to props we made sure that the light was focused on the object (the balls) as the movie was based around that object.

Conclusion

So to conclude, there we some good things and some bad things about our Short 90 Second DepicT! Film. I think when I start future projects, I will apply different kinds of lighting, sound / music, and different camera techniques, so that I can experiment what my strong points are in Media Production.