Weekly diary of work for ‘Design for Animation, narrative structure and film language‘.

I learnt how the camera, mise en scene and editing convey visual language during filming. There’s a lot of information in the videos, so repeating watching them will help a lot.

Also, I went deep into the history of film, animation and CGI. I listed the timelines in my blog with my understanding.

And here is the link to it Week 1: Timeline & Understanding of the history of film, animation and VFX.

Note

The camera

Shot Length

• Wide shot – You can see the whole subject or scene. Show the action.
• Extreme wide shot – Watch the whole scene from a distance. Show the place.
• medium shot – A partial body shot of the subject. Show the character.
• Two shot – Two objects are in a frame. Show closeness
• Close up – A complete detail of an actor’s face or object. Show powerful emotion.
• Extreme close up – Closer than close up. For exposition or disorientation

Angle

• Eye level – Camera looks straight at the subject.
• High angle – Camera looks down at the subject. Make a object seem small
• Low angle – Camera looks up at the subject. Make a object seem large.
• Dutch angle – Camera looks at a tilted angle.

Focus & Lenses

• Depth of field – How much is in focus.
• Deep focus – Long depth of field, everything was focused.
• Shallow focus – Short depth of field, only part was focused.
• Rack focus – Changing the focus.
• Tilt shift – Blur part of the image to create artificial depth of field.
• Telephoto lens – A long lens that compresses space.
• Wide angle lens – Give space more depth.
• Fisheye lens – For disturbing images.

Movement

• Handheld
• Steadicam – Handheld with rig for stabilizing.
• Pan – Swivel the camera on a tripod horizontally.
• Tilt – Swivel the camera vertically.
• Zoom – Shot length changed by adjusting the lens.
• Dolly/Tracking shot – Move both the camera and the rig.
• Jib/Crane shot – Camera put on a platform and raised above/ brought down to the subject.
• Dolly zoom – Camera is dolly while rooming.

Mise en Scene

Decor

• Setting – Outdoor/ Indoor/ Real place/ Green screen.
• Set dressing – The objects are not used by actors. Show place or character.
• Props – The objects used by actors. Show character.
• Costume – Show character.

Lighting

• Three-point lighting – Combines by Key light, Backlight and Fill light.
• High key lighting – bright lights and colors with strong key and fill light.
• Low key lighting – Darker lights with somber mood. Weak key and fill but strong backlight.
• Chiaroscuro – Light contrast with dark.
• Hard lighting – Bright harsh key lights to create hard shadows making the scene tough, angular and unflattering.
• Soft lighting – The lights diffuse through a filter, create a romantic lighting.
• Ambient lighting
• Unmotivated lighting – Lighting shape the scene without being an element of it.
• Motivated lighting – Lighting is the element of the scene.

Color

• Black and white
• Tinting – Entire scene is bathed in a certain color.
• Sepia Tone – One type of tinting with a dusty color.
• Color film
• Color grading
• Saturation – Highly saturated scene can feel bright and exciting. Lowly saturated scene can feel washed out and desolate.
• Color palette – Can be broad or selective.

Space

• Balance – Symmetrical balance.
• Deep space – The scene places elements both far and near to the camera.
• Shallow space – No depth.
• Offscreen space – Scene draws attention to the thing out of the frame.
• Blocking – All the movements the actor makes the scene.

Editing

• Sequence shot – A long-running shot takes a lot of action in a scene.
• The cut – The transition between the end of one shot and the beginning of another.
• Dissolve – One shot slowly fades into another
• Wipe – The second shot rolls over the first.
• Fade in/ Fade out – Start and end going to and from a black screen.

Continuity editing

• Continuity error
• Screen direction – Having a consistent direction of movement between shots.
• Match on action – Movement from one shot to another smoothly.
• Eyeline
• 180 degree rule – The camera always stays on one side.
• Crossing the axis
• Establishing shot – Show where the scene takes place.
• Master shot – A wide shot to show a scene in its entirety to establish everyone’s location.
• Reverse Angle – The opposite side of the previous angle.
• Insert shot – To show detail.
• Shot/ Reverse Shot
• Cross cutting – The film jumps between two lines of action to show they’re happening simultaneously.

Discontinuity editing

• Freeze Frame
• Slow motion
• Fast motion
• Reverse motion
• Jump cut
• Match cut
• Split Screen
• Overlay
• Montage