communication by movies

Week 2 lecture of the New Communication Technology was about the languages of the cinema. It was a great lecture for a keen photographer like me! He explained the all techniques to tell the story on the movie, and it is soooo useful for the regular photographs as well.


The lecture went like this:

Cine-Speak
Learning the Language of the cinema

Shot sizes

VLS/WS: Very Long Shot / Wide Shot - eg) a person standing in a scenery
LS: Long Shot - eg) bit closer, but full size of a person in a scenery
MLS: Medium Long Shot - eg) a person with his thighs and above
MS: Mid Shot - eg) a person with his chest and above
MCU: Medium Close Up - eg) a person with his shoulder and above
CU: Close Up - eg) full size face
BCU: Big Close Up - eg) close up of face but still you can see eyes, nose and mouth
ECU: Extreme Close up - eg) only one eye



Shots as Words – shot sizes to explain 5W1H

• Who - Close Up showing details of character
• What – Mid Shot showing subject performing an action
• Where – Long Shot also called Establishing Shot, showing beginning of a scene
• When – both Wide Shot and Close Up showing time by sunset, or close up of the clock etc
• Why – Big Close Up showing more about characters and their actions
• How – Medium Close Up of a series of Close Ups showing evidence etc

Head Room
 Head room is also important. It has to have enough head room, but not too much neither. When you have too much head room, it creates a meaning –eg short person etc

Talking room
 As same as head room, talking room is also important. If the person is too close to the edge of the screen and not enough talking room, it seems like he is talking to the wall. If there is too much talking room, it looks like he has so much to talk about.

The rule of thirds
 It is the basic good compositions. Object should be positioned on one third of the screen (horizontally or vertically).

The 180 degree rule
 When shoot 2 people talking, draw a line between that 2 and shoot from one side of the 180 degree line. If you don’t, it seems like they have already finished the conversation.

Inserts and Cutaways
 Extra information

  

Making a statement
 Every shot needs to drive the narrative forward.

Wow. Very interesting, isn't it?

The suitable shot sizes for telling 5W1H were extremely useful to me. I will definitely use these techniques for my next News Photography assignment which is due for next week. Gosh I have 3 assignment due within a couple weeks.......