Task Eight – Transitions and Effects

Task Eight – Transitions and Effects

Write a detailed post that explains how different transitions and effects can be used to manipulate the diegetic time and space in a film. Ensure you cover in detail the following: 

There are many different transitions and effects that can be used in the making of a film which can portray a change in the diegetic time and space. This means you can use this features to manipulate the film in the way in whichever way you want to. These ways are;

• transitions - these are small effects used in between clips which make the cut between the two appear more smooth and natural for example a wipe which you see a wiping action go across the page to make the first shot disappear and the next appear slowly in it's place.

• Graphic Match - this is when one shot finishes with an image and fades into another image of the same shape, using this helps the audience understand the passing of time.

These two images put together are the two scenes that link shapes. In the picture above are the two images fading between one another. As you can see the two shots match in shape. In the scene you see the woman get murdered, and then the water travelling down the plug, then the shot fades from the circular plug, to her ovally shaped eye. This type of effect makes the viewer understand the change of time. These is shown in the film Pyscho.

• following the action - this is when the camera moves around a shot for example an action shot, to see more angles of this action. This is shown in an extract from Mr and Mrs Smith where there is a fight scene and the camera rotates around the gun to get more angles of the fighting action. 

• multiple points of view - this is where a character's particular point of view is shown. For example when it will show what the first character is looking at then switching to what the second character will see. This is shown in this Iron Man clip, where you see Iron Man look from his point of you and the other person then doing the same.  

• shot variation - this is a scene in a film which has no editing involved, however there is a change in the shot distance or angle. A popular example of this is in the Matrix, there is a scene where someone shoots a bullet, the shot variation is when the guy moves out of the way of the bullet and  the camera rotates around him displaying this. 

• manipulation of diegetic time and space this is used by all of the effects I have mentioned above. Other ways in which you can manipulate time and space in a video is by putting filters over your video to create different effects. For example a blur over a video could indicate confusion, a colour change could suggest a dream. 

           

The  different types of transitions that you can use are wipes, cut, dissolve and fades. These aid you to make your video appear more smooth and it will flow better, you can also use these effects to manipulate time and space. 

Wipes - Wipes are a transition used between two clips in which pushes one image off the screen and another on. This is shown in the image below, a wipe is a transition you can use between two clips to smooth out the jolt between the change of shots. 

Cut  - a cut between two shots which does not have a delay or a subtle way of putting two scenes together. You just place two shots together, with a cut in the middle, this is shown multiple times in the clip shown below. 

Dissolve - a dissolve is used many times in the clip below once Bella starts to dream, the dissolve involves the first picture slowly disappearing in particles off of the screen and the new shot appearing in the place of this. It is used effectively in this clip as it is very dreamlike and is clear that the montage of shots are hazy and quickly disappearing and reappearing on screen. 

Fades - a fade is another transition in which the first shot starts to fade to black, this could be used in a scene to build tension, or to end a clip. It is a useful way of having the image come off of the screen as then it doesn't just jolt off and get replaced. The images below are a great example of this, it shows the scene getting darker, and fading to black and the next scene coming from dark and lightening. 

This is my first youtube clip of demonstrating all these features, to show a change in time/space. When the space changes, into the dream, I edited this section so it was a lighter, hazy colour. This makes it known that the person is dreaming and has changed location. I also used









This is a fade I used to capture the change between the scene and the dream. The fade highlights the outgoing of this shot and brings in the next. I could of made it beter by fading in the next shot however it is still noticable that the shots changed to in a different location.

 

 This is another effect shown below, I have used to clearly show the change of time and space. I have made the clip of the dream a slightly pink colour to make the shot look surreal, which makes it clear to the audience that something is different. This dramatic change alerts the viewer that this location is strange, and is not of the ordinary.

 

 Another effect this picture portrays the use of graphic match in my movie, it isn't completly of the same shape, however you see a similar image of Adam laying down in the next shot, this makes the viewer understand that time has passed from one shot to the other.

This is my final upload of my film, it is slightly different to the other as I made it more pink to improve what the viewer will understand as a dream.

 

Task Seven – Engaging the Viewer/Creating Pace

Task Seven – Engaging the Viewer/Creating Pace 

• Speed of Editing -  In any film the length of the shots could be anywhere from a couple of seconds to a couple of minutes long. However the length of the sequences create the pace of the film moving along.  The speed in which the sequence is edited will create the mood of the action going on on-screen. 

• Cross Cutting - this is showing two things happening at the same time, both cutting to and from each other. For example I have posted a clip, of the beginning of scream, in this you see her about to get murdered but also at the same time you see a car coming towards her, as it cuts between this car and her death you see that her parents arriving happens just before she can get to them to call out. This engages the viewer as the viewer is wondering if they will actually cross paths. It also builds tension for the viewer as the cuts get so close to meeting but she never makes it.

• Cutaways - Cutaways are shots that interrupt a filmed action by showing a view of something else which isn't carrying on the narrative. Cutaway shots do not usually contribute any extra drama content on its own however it is used to help create a longer sequence, our cover up any blips in the action.

• Creating pace - Creating pace in a video is switching shots for example so you do not use loads of 40 second shots, you increase the editing speed to pick up the pace by using load of little 5 second shots. If you wish to create a scene that has anxiety or suspense for the audience then you will make the shots shorter and the editing quick. This would be used for example in an action scene like shown in this section of The Bourne Ultimatum. As they are running and fighting the shots are rapidly changing every few sections.

•   However in romance films for example the shots are longer, to keep the relaxation and the fluidity of the mood. The lengths of the shots reflect the mood the audience should be feeling calm and relaxed. Embedded is an example of this from 'Sleepless in Seattle' 

• Development of drama - Cross cutting is a form of editing that can be used to develop dramatic scenes for example, I have mentioned above the clip of the beginning of scream where you see the girl getting murdered just before her parents arrive. This makes the audience feel the tension of if they will make it in time. 

In this film in which we attempted to recreate these few objectives. I crosscut our movie to develop a sense of tension, you see two people arriving at school at the same time, when the bell rings. Then both going opposite ways to get there vaguely on time, we created the tension of who will get there first by switching the shots to and from the two people, seeing them progress closer and closer until one person reaches the classroom. We change our speed of editing, as at first the shots are longer and more relaxed, however when you hear the bell ring the speed of the editing changes to short shots, this builds the anxiety in who will get there first. 

Task Six – Non - Continuity

Task Six – Non - Continuity

Although continuity editing is widely popular and accepted in movies and films worldwide some films use non-continuity editing can be used by a director to show a sign that the character is mad, or confused, this helps the audience understand and relate to the confusion of the character. Also there was a period of time in which Jean-Luc Goddard and other french directors thought that they would purposefully create films that did not follow the continuity rules just for a change against typical Hollywood films.. Different types of non-continuity editing include: 

Jump Cuts - Jump Cuts are shots which do not cut together smoothly and are put together with a gap in an action. For example you will see the ending of an action but you will not see the action take place, so this makes the scene appear to jump from one thing to another. 

Breaking the 180 degree rule - this is when you are filming say a conversation between 2 or more people, and you are filming on say the left hand side of the room you cannot cross the line 180 degrees over to the right hand side of the shot as then the two people in the shot will appear to jump and switch places will confuse the viewer. 


A Bout de Soufflé (Breathless) by Jean-Luc Goddard - Jump Cut
Jean-Luc Goddard's film - A Bout de Soufflé, is a good example of a french movie that decided to purposely go against continuity, using edgy jump cuts throughout the movie. An example I have provided is a scene in the movie where the two characters are driving and one shot the female character is just talking and then next it jumps to her holding a mirror, you do not see her take the mirror out. The same also happens when she puts the mirror away, it just disappears. 

 The Shining - Stanley Kubrick - Breaking the 180 Degree Rule
In Stanley Kubrick's film, The Shining, you the 180 degree rule getting broken in the scene in the bathroom. One shot shows a long shot of the two talking with the bald guy on the right, and then for the close up shot the camera breaks the 180 degree rule and shoots a scene from the opposite way. This makes the two people swap positions to the audience, this shows the bald guy on the left hand, usually this is a bad move as it will confuse the audience, however in this scene it is used to show confusion and madness.


The Hunger Games - Gary Ross - 
Breaking the 180 Degree Rule
This is a scene from the Hunger Games by Gary Ross, this is where the character Katniss, is taken to her new room, where she will be staying just before she has to fight for her life. The camera breaks the 180 degree shot showing the room from one direction to another. This helps in this shot to show the confusion and how nervous the character is being in a new environment. That she is also taking it all in about her death. 

Task Five – Continuity Editing

Task Five – Continuity Editing

This provides evidence for: Unit 16:P1, M1, D1

• Match on Action - this is when for example someone is walking through a door and you follow the action all the way through without cutting when looks best to cut incase it does not look natural. This enables the filmmaker to have the full natural action so it doesn't look forced or ajar, especially if extra shots are needed. If they wasn't filmed all the way through you could lose part of the action or it could look forced. Below is an example of this, from Friends where Chandler is talking on one side of the door with all the people outside and shows him closing the door. The next shot is a match on action, continuing the last shot on, you see him closing the door on the other side, this shows fluidity in the shot.

• Eye-line  Match - this is when you see an actor looking at something and then a shot of  what they are looking at. This enables a film maker to show the audience first hand of what the character is looking at, without having to explain.  An example of this is shown below where you see Obi Wan is seen looking up and then you see the shot of the light saber so you know what he is looking at. This links the two in the audiences mind, so they know what Obi Wan is thinking about without him having to say it. It also makes what he does more understandable. 

• Shot, Reverse Shot - This is when you see a conversation going on between two people and you show one person talking in for example an over-the-shoulder shot and then the reverse, so a shot of the other person in the conversation talking and this will go backward and forward. A film maker would use this to highlight who is saying what part of the speech, it helps the audience recognise which character is talking. If they did not do this shot, and just used a wide shot of the conversation instead, it is a lot less personal and you may get confused by who is saying what. This is shown in the picture below, when the man is talking you see the shot over the womans shoulder to see him. However, when she speaks the opposite is shown, over his shoulder. 

• 180 degree rule -  this is when you are filming say a conversation between 2 or more people, and you are filming on say the left hand side of the room you cannot cross the line 180 degrees over to the right hand side of the shot. The film maker will use this rule as then, if he crosses the line, the two people in the shot will appear to jump and switch places. Film makers stay to this rule as otherwise the dramatic change will confuse the viewer. Below I have included a diagram to help explain:

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Below is our example of Continuity Editing, when filming we tried to include all of these things in our video.

• Match on Action - this is shown at the beginning when Kayley walks into the room in the dark, you see her walk and begin to open the door, in the next shot you see this action continuing on from inside the room of her walking in, this is effective as at first you wonder who it is and where is she walking and you see it is into the dark room. The camera angles 
• Eye-line  Match - at the beginning when you see Nicola typing, the camera then shows the screen in which she is looking at, we carried this out well as it defines what she is looking at, it is effective because of the tension of not knowing what she is typing. The only problem is you cannot see any typing on the screen, so you would need a word document or words on the screen to show that she is actually typing.
• Shot, Reverse Shot - this is shown at the beginning where the two first characters are plotting, you see and over the shoulder shot of Nicola from Kayleys perspective however, the reverse shot isn't over Nicola's shoulder, it is a wide shot of the two of them. Although we did get a reverse shot, we did not include it as the wide shot worked better.
• 180 degree rule - in the first room you see throughout the whole story within that room that we stay on one side of the characters, at no point do we cross the 180 degree line and film from the perspective behind the characters we stayed on one side. 

Overall, although there are some points to improve on, I think our film was quite successful with the task of continuity and maintaining that we have successfully shown all of the above mentioned editing techniques, however it is only little mistakes such as the computer screen having no typing on it and more speech between the characters to provide the shot, reverse, shot. Other than this the task went well.

Task Four – Montage

Task Four – Montage

The 3 key meanings of montage are:

• French Cinema  - the word 'montage' is French, in french cinema it simply means to assemble. Basically, the form of montage in this instance is just editing, for example the basics of when a film is put together. Effects and clips being put together also fall under this.

• Soviet Cinema - Soviet Cinema was used in the 1920's, it is used by putting two shots juxtaposed together to help the audience understand what the footage is trying to convey. These montages were used at the time to indoctrinate people for propaganda purposes. The meaning was not behind these two shots on their own the two shots had very little to do with each other however, the directors put the shots together to create a new meaning. There were two main soviet film directors, these are Lev Kuleshov and Sergel Elsestiein. Lev Kuleshov, was a leader in the theory of the Soviet montage, he developed these theories of editing. The main essence of the cinema  for Kuleshov was editing, as explained above as the juxtaposition of one shot with another. He showed this idea and he created what is known as the Kuleshov Experiment. This is a now famous form of editing, showing how different editing changes can change the viewers perception and interpretation of the images shown, by shots of actors being intercepted with different meaningful images. Sergei Eisenstein was another Soviet Montage film director and a film theorist. Sergei is often described as the "father of montage". He is most known for his silent films, Strike and October,  are examples of this. I have embedded an example of his work, Strike above. Which shows a typical Soviet Montage, playing shots of people running away against a cow being slaughtered.

• Hollywood Cinema - a Hollywood montage is short sequence in a film, which shortens the length of an action for example a month of training into a short minute clip of different actions that have happened through the month. It gives you a brief outlook of something that happened over a long time. An example of this is in the film Rocky that I have added below, it shows Rocky training to improve for a fight. 

      This is our attempt at a Soviet montage, as you can see from the video we showed a shot  of a general chat between two people, then intwinned between these clips there are shots of how the person is reacting to what is being said. The meaning behind the montage is two play the emotion the person is feeling next to the normal conversation, so you can tell what they are thinking of the the conversation. It went well, you can tell that we was making the video in a soviet montage style. What could have been better is we could of made it more obvious what the emotions were and what was going on.

The second type of montage we created was a hollywood montage, our idea was to take a typical day at our school and speed it up as if the character is waiting all day just for the final bell to ring, so he can go home. A school day lasts about 6 hours, so we attemped to give the audience a brief idea of everything that would happen during the day. We could have improved the montage by showing and making the time of the day and passing of time more obvious. However we showed the audience a short clip which shows a lot of what the character would do throughout the day, the video was successful because of this. 

Task Three – From Analogue to Digital Editing

Task Three – From Analogue to Digital Editing

Analogue editing is the cutting together pieces of celluiod film. Traditionally films were made up of images on acetate negatives.  They were edited by being 'spliced' together, to form reels of video.  This was then to be fed through a projector at a constant speed of 24 frames a second which makes the image appear to be moving. This process is described as analogue. There are both pro's and con's of analogue editing, one pro of analogue editing is that the editing is less complex and simple, although being physical work it would not take much time to do this. Another pro of analogue is that you do not need to learn a widespan of different programs in order to complete your editing process, is is a physical action that you can master. However there are con's to analogue editing, this is that you can only create very simple film through this method, this means you cannot push boundaries in films and cannot make films anywhere near the quality they are these days. Another con of analogue editing  is it could be very time comsuming having the find the part that you want to cut, reararange and edit the footage.

Splicing is when the film editor of analogue editing, cut one bit of the film and then physically sticks it to the another. This is a simple form of editing, part of analogue editing. It will then make the film create either the next image, or a cut to a new scene. Doing this many times over, will create a full analogue film, with edits. However in 1924 a moviola was created, this was a machine that could splice films instead of having to physically splie the footage by hand, this invention meant editors could save time and make longer films.Before the use of non-linear editing systems was simply done with the positive copy of the film negative, by physically cutting and pasting pieces of them together by using a splicer and then threading the film onto a machine with a viewer such as the Moviola.
Linear editing is  the arranging film clips in the films correct order. This order will have been predetermined in the pre-planning and production stage of the film. It will not be rearranged and will be edited in the order it has been filmed in.

Digital editing is the post production of a film after it has been filmed to edit it together, with the use of a computer or electronic device to do so. The film pieces are stored in digital form rather than in analogue form. Overall digital editing can be described as the use of computers and technology to manipulate digital data. In digital cinema, they use bits and bytes, which are strings of 1s and 0s, to transmit,  record and reply images rather than using chemicals on the film.

There are pros and cons of digital editing, one of the advantages is that you can make much longer and complex films, this is because when using things like final cut, there are advanced tools to add easily an editing techniques, this also increases the speed.  However disadvantages of digital editing is the idea of using programmes such as Avid and Final Cut, before you can start using them you need to have learnt how to use the software, so training may be necessary. Another disadvantage (con) is that everything is costly to buy as not only the expense of the software, you need to account for a computer to run it on, and any other equipment such as portable hard drives and headphones.

Non linear editing is using digital clips which will allow you to alter the frames and changing them to wherever they will be in the sequence. This ability allows you to cut and move frames and clips around freely. As well as this you can include other features such as transitions and filters in between and over your clips, to adjust the feel. However this cannot be achieved through linear editing. 

Task Two – Developing Editing Techniques

Task Two – Developing Editing Techniques

This provides evidence for: Unit 16:P1,M1,D1

In camera editing is a technique used before computer editing existed and was the most simplistic form of editing films. You have one shot to get each scene right, there is no editing, just press pause on the camera when changing scenes and then play again. Everything had to be filmed once only, so had to be right first time. George Melies was famous for this and created the first step in editing by making The Vanishing Lady. Filming a chair with a woman on it, stopping the camera and moving the woman off scene and rolled the camera back. This was fascinating for audiences as they had not seen anything like this before. 




We then tried to create our own short film just using in camera editing and the video shown below is the result. We were restricted to just pressing the stop/start button and could not do any practise takes. We had to make sure the setting was right and the scene layout was okay before pressing play. We only had one shot at shooting each scene so we had to make it perfect as we could not do it again. The first shot is a tilted shot to capture the two girls, Nicola and Jade, walking down the stairs, then the camera was stopped and then played tilted downwards to capture another girl, Kayley, walking up the stairs. Only to discover one of the first girls, Nicola, tripping over, we used a close up shot of the two girls legs to clearly show the audience that the Nicola has been purposefully tripped over by Jade. The next shot is Nicola falling and hitting the wall, and then another shot of Kayley finding Nicola at the top of the stairs and a close up of Jade laughing. To show the audience exactly how the change of scene is moving, there is first a close up of Kayley helping Nicola down the stairs, and then a wide shot of them walking down, whilst Jade is laughing in the background which continues again after the shot where Nicola collapses. Jade is seen walking down the stairs laughing, then it changes to both girls sitting over Nicola looking worried, then high-fiving and walking off. 



In my opinion I think the video went okay, but with both good points and bad points, a good point was that we stopped and started with no mistakes like laughing or wrong acting. However there are parts of the scenes where there isn't a flow as you can see the actors waiting to act, this causes gaps in the video. Also, in some scenes the camera is a bit shaky and not still due to the awkward location of the filming on the stairs. It was difficult to get the footage done in just one shot, this is because it is difficult to get everything right first time, so this is a problem caused by in camera editing. Another problem was when the girls are coming down the stairs and trying to capture the whole of the stairs, if we could film more than once we could trail and error this to see what would work. We could of made the scene less complex and more simple to get it to improve it, also we could've had the actors out of shot at the beginning of the scene so you can not see the actors waiting on screen.

There are pros and cons about filming using in camera editing: 

Pro's

• Saves time on filming
• No post editing required 
• Cheap to make 
• Doesn't require much equipment  

Con's 

• Must get it right straight away
• Cannot change order of the shots filmed
• Shows actors waiting to act
• Needs a lot of preplanning 
• No second takes