Welcome to Spring 2017.
Here are notes on basic visual continuity for Monday's lecture, for reference:
Lecture: Visual Language for
Storytelling
Camera
shots
ES –
answers the question “Where?”
WS –
also answers “Where?”, provides context for the action
FS –
body language, pantomime
MS –
emotion + body language
CU -
emotion
ECU –
emotion, intensity, important story detail
Up Shot –
viewer feels small
Down Shot/Birds-eye
– viewer feels powerful
OTS –
provides spatial sense, audience knows what one character doesn’t, see reaction
of far character to what close character says or does
2-SHOT –
gives spatial relationship
Dutch
Angle/Canted Angle – unusual POV, destabilizing
Pan –
move to reframe because of an action, hide and reveal
Tilt –
vertical pan
Tracking
Shot – camera follows actor
Composition
- Vary
size of objects for visual weight and rhythm and to direct the viewer’s gaze
- Activate
the negative space – create interlocking pieces – no “floaters”
- Overlap
to create sense of 3D space
- Avoid
tangents
180-degree rule.
- Make
sure spatial relationships are clear (refer to class discussion)
Jump cut
– break in time continuity
Cutaway
– can solve jump cut problems
Match cut – use multiple
shots to add visual interest to a single movement while maintaining time
continuity
