AS Media Studies G321 Foundation Portfolio presentation

1. PRODUCTION SKILLS –
MOVING IMAGE

2. Stages of production
 Planning
 Production (shooting)
 Post-production (editing)

3. Planning
 Idea
 Mood board, mind-map, brainstorm
 Set brief from OCR
 Script
 Including all dialogue but also direction, action
and settings. (Example Script)
 Storyboard
 Visualisation of the shots to communicate the
script

4. Production
 Camera
 Action
 Sound
 Lighting

5. Post-Production
 Editing
 Export and Presentation

6. Scripting
 A film script uses the following conventions:
 Dialogue:
 Character names centre justified
 Dialogue indented under the character name
 Action
 Left justified
 Key props or features (for the production designer) and
actions or sounds (for the director) in capitals
 See example script
 Return to Planning

7. Storyboarding
 A storyboard is a graphical representation of
the camera shots in a film sequence which are
connected together to create a “narrative flow”.
 The narrative of the sequence is visualised by
a series of drawings which depict location,
character, props and setting of each shot
 Images are accompanied by text detailing
action, camera directions, lighting directions
and sometimes basic dialogue

8. What are storyboards for?
 Helps the director to visualise the flow of camera
shots
 Illustrates how the narrative will flow from one
shot to the next for the audience
 Used as the basis of discussion between director
and the director of photography to decide how
shots need to be acted, lit and shot
 In a production meeting, a picture really is worth a
thousand words. You can script a sequence in words
as clearly as you like, and there will always be some
misunderstanding. But if you use storyboards, it’s so
much easier to communicate your visual and
dramatic ideas.

9. The Storyboard

10. Example Storyboard

11. Example Storyboard

12. Example of Storyboard and
finished product
 Gorillaz: Clint Eastwood
 Finished Video
 Storyboard animatic

13. Return to
planning

14. Use of the camera – shot choice
LS
(Long Shot)
CU
(Close Up)
WS
(Wide Shot)
VCU
(Very Close Up)
MS
(Medium Shot)
ECU
(Extreme Close
Up)

15. The Grammar of shot choice
 Shots tell the audience different things
 LS and WS set the scene and give context.
When used at the start of a sequence these
are called establishing shots.
 MS is used for action including spoken action
 CU is used for reaction and emotional content
 VCU and ECU are used to show fine detail or
to make the audience uncomfortable

16. The “sentence” of a sequence
 In this sequence from The Ring notice how the
director uses a long shot as his exterior
establishing shot, then a wide two-shot to
establish the interior
 The beginning of the conversation is shot with
medium shots of each girl
 As the emotional content of the conversation
increases, he moves in for close-ups
 When the tension is released, he pulls out to
MS again for the action

17. The 180° Rule
 Two characters (or anything)
within a scene should always
have the same left-right
relationship with one another
 Imagine a line (the axis)
connecting the two subjects
 You can place your camera
anywhere on one side of the
line, but you can never cross the
axis
 When shooting a conversation,
OTS (over-the-shoulder) shots
help the audience follow it
 The sequence of swapping from
one view to the opposite is
called shot/reverse shot (from
angle 2 to 3 and back)
Notice how the same sequence
from The Ring obeys the 180° rule
and uses OTS shots.
1
3
2

18. Angles
 Commonly action is shot from the same level
 Shooting from below the action is using a low
angle shot. This puts the subject in a position of
power over the audience.
 Shooting from above the action is using a high
angle shot. This puts the audience in a position of
power over the subject.
 Shooting the action crooked is using a canted
angle. This creates disorientation.
 Notice how the director in The Ring uses high
angles to make Katie seem vulnerable here and
here.
Return to Production
More on use of camera

19. Sound
 There are two types of sound in a filmed
sequence:
 Diegetic sound: this is sound that is contained in the
scene that you are filming. It can include dialogue,
noises made by the characters, or objects in the
scene. The characters will be able to hear diegetic
sounds. If you can hear it but not see it, the sound is
OOS (out of shot)
 Non-diegetic sound: this is sound that is added on
and separate to the scene. This can include musical
soundtrack, voice-over and effects. Characters will not
be able to hear non-diegetic sound.
 Listen for examples of non-diegetic sound in The
Return to Production

20. Lighting
 Lighting a scene is
critical to making it
look good
 Lighting which looks
natural, bright and
sunny with indistinct
edges is called high
key lighting
 Obvious lighting with
high contrasts,
creating dramatic
shadows and clear
Return to Production

21. Editing
 We use Adobe Premier Pro as our editing
programme in school
 It is available on all computers
 Please note that video files are very large
 We advise you to use a folder on the desktop of
your computer. If you use your area on the
network you will run out of space, and the network
may not run quickly enough. Make a folder with
your group’s name on it.
 You will need to work on the same computer each
time.

22. Transitions
 Transitions between shots also communicate
meaning. Don’t get too fancy…
 Cut: this is sequential in time from one shot to the
next. The second shot follows directly on from the
action in the first.
 Fade through black: indicates that time has
passed between the second shot and the first
 Dissolve/Wipe: can indicate a flashback or a
change of scene

23. Matching Action
 Cutting from one shot to the next should
directly sequential to the audience
 However, you will have filmed the two shots at
different times
 It is vital that you match the action from one
shot to the next so that there is no “jump” as
the camera cuts
 The cut should be invisible to the audience
 Notice how the director matches the action
across cuts in our sequence from The Ring.

24. Putting it all together
 This is a video made by two ex-students, now at
University studying Media
 Notice how they use the techniques of film-making
we have discussing including:
 Shot choice
 Angles
 Action matching
 Shot/reverse shot
 The 180° rule
 Diegetic and non-diegetic sound
 The Stairs

25. Export and Presentation
 Once the sequence is fully edited in Premier,
export it as a .avi file and upload it to YouTube
before embedding it into your blog.
 On YouTube you can log in as
ChewValleyMedia with the password
mediastudies
 Make sure you also post your planning
including script and storyboard
 Take some still photos of your video shoot and
post them to show what you were doing
 Take screenshots of the edit in Premier to
demonstrate your progress

26. Use of camera
 Batteries
 DV tapes
 Tripods
 Using the camera
 Sound kit

27. What to shoot…
 Framing: from long to close up
 As individual shots, framed, not zooming through
 Angles: high, straight and low
 Movements:
 Tracking (forward and backwards)
 Panning (left and right)
 Crabbing (left and right)
 Tilting (up and down)
 Craning (up and down)
 Focus: zoom (in and out, slow zoom/crash

28. Evaluating your footage
1. What does the shot emphasise about the
subject?
2. What effect does it have on the audience?
3. How might you use the shots in your
preliminary production?

29. Editing
1. Set up a new project in Premiere Pro (see separate guide)
2. Import the footage from your technical skills shoot
3. Edit the shots together in the order they appear on the sheet
4. Caption or title each shot with the technical skill it illustrates (e.g.
“Shot Composition: Close Up” or “Camera Movement: tracking
shot”)
 Extension tasks:
1. Use “dip to black” transitions between each example shot
2. Put some music underneath the sequence
3. Use video effects on some of the clips – change the colour balance,
use filters etc.

30. Using the sound kit
 Things to remember:
 The microphone needs a battery
 Use the pre-amplifier set to the correct settings
 Monitor the sound with headphones
 Good technique
 The microphone should be as close to the subject
as possible but out of shot at all times
 Try to avoid shadows
 The microphone is directional – point it where the
sound is coming from

31. Preliminary Video Task
 Film and edit a sequence in which:
 a character opens a door, crosses a room and
sits down in a chair opposite another character,
with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of
lines of dialogue.
 This task should demonstrate match on action,
shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.
 Try and make this interesting!

32. Moving Image Assessment
 Shooting material appropriate to the task set,
including:
 controlled use of the camera
 attention to framing
 variety of shot sizes
 close attention to mise en scene
 Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer
and making selective and appropriate use of shot
transitions, captions and other effects
 Recording and editing sound with images
appropriately

33. Main task: the titles and opening of a new
fiction film, to last a maximum of two
minutes.
Main Task

34. Titles and Opening Sequences
 In your blogs you will need to show detailed
research and analysis of at least three title
sequences and three opening sequences from
fiction films (i.e. cinema releases, not TV
programmes)
 These can be from the same films but the
analysis of the title sequences and the
opening sequences must be done separately

35. Analysing sequences
 Each post must contain embedded video of
the sequence you are analysing
 The analysis must be detailed and focus on:
 The media language of the sequence
 Representations where appropriate
 The target audience and the impact on the
audience
 An evaluation of the sequence
 You will be rewarded for reference to specific
shots, timecoded to the embedded video clip

36. Conducting your research
 You can and should conduct your own
research
 The research should lead into your production,
but it need not necessarily be in the same
genre
 Your evaluations should link to your production
planning
 Start with www.artofthetitle.com
 Search for the clips on Vimeo and YouTube to
embed to your own blog

37. Se7en (1995)