Movie Making
Pictorial Continuity - Telling a Story
In producing a video it is important to understand how the mind works. There are certain rules that filmmakers follow becuase they know how audiences respond. When you walk down the hall at school the first thing your mind does is scans the entire hall to get a feel for the environment. Next you focus on your friend walking down the hall and finally you begin a conversation with your friend. This is the typical sequence for how the mind takes in information, take in the whole environment, identify what is important and then focus on that.
In movie making the way you visually present information is through a "shot" - a recorded view through the camera. By placing a series of shots together in sequence you tell a story and thus you have created a "movie". This course will introduce you to the most common types of shots.
Setting the stage - revealing the environment - The Long Shot (LS)
This shot should be far enough back from your subject so you can see the surroundings and subject. You decide what is visible and what is not, what is important for the audience to see and feel as a result of this initial shot.Medium Shot (MS) - the medium shot provides the transition from the LS to the close up shot. Without this transition the move to the close up shot would appear abrupt and disturbing to your audience. In the medium shot you will see some of the surroundings but the subject should fill most of the screen.
Close Up (CU) - this is where your subject fills most of the screen, for people it is from the shoulders up. This is where you want the audience to see the character and their emotions. This is where most of the action will take place.
So the typical sequence is the LS to set the stage and reveal the environment in which the following action takes place.
The MS moves the audience closer to the subject and provides a smooth transition for the action.
The CU focuses on the subject and draws the audience to what is taking place.Here is an example of the process of moving from one type of shot to another and how they are sequenced together to tell a story.
Put Down the Cup - setting the stage and transitioning