Film Study: Cinematography

Here are two clips from what we watched yesterday.  Feel free to write your paragraph about one of them!

12 Angry Men Film Study Paragraph

You are going to write a paragraph on the cinematography used in a scene from the movie, and how it affects the story.

An example topic sentence would be something like:  "In the scene about .... (describe the scene you chose) ... the director used many types of cinematography to enhance the story."  Then, pick some of the terms that were used, and discuss how they were used.

Cinematography terms:

• overhead "God's Eye View"
• underneath "Ant's Eye View"
• dolly in, out, or across
• pan down, up, left, or right
• rack focus from one subject to another (action/reaction)
• over-the-shoulder (character's perspective)
• establishing shot

• landscape (wide), group (medium), close-up, or extreme close-up (extreme emotion) 

• musical score/soundtrack
• lighting (dark=something to hide, light=exposed and open)
• costuming

12 Angry Men Movie

Today we had the spelling bee team finals.  Congratulations to Tucker and Caroline!  We will be watching them compete against the rest of the school on January 31st!

The second half of the half-day was spent watching the brilliant movie, 12 Angry Men.  If you were absent, you can find it on Youtube (below).

Homework:  12 Angry Men objective test is on Friday.

Cinematography Intro

Hi folks!

In the video below, you will learn many of the elements of cinematography.  Your assignment: be able to tell me three terms that were discussed in the movie, and were NOT on the handout I gave you for tomorrow.

Homework:  Watch the video below.  12 Angry Men test on Friday.  Movie terms sheet due Thursday.

Cinematography in 12 Angry Men

A director uses these elements to enhance the TONE (overall emotional feeling) and the THEMES of the movie.  We'll be applying it to Twelve Angry Men.

Score: music composed for a specific film to enhance emotion.

Establishing Shot: a shot that introduces a location and/or character.  It gives us the context, the "big picture" of the movie...so we know where this is, what the setting is.

Pan: when the camera turns on a single axis.

Dolly Shot: a steady camera movement through a scene in a single shot.

Rack Focus: a shift of focus from one element on a screen to another.

Wide Shot: shows the whole character.  More of a distant feel to it.  It's used often in introducing characters.

Medium Shot: shows character from waist to head.  Often used for dialogue.  This is the most frequent type of shot used in American film, and most of a movie is at this distance.

 

Close Up: shows a character's head and shoulders (although it can be of an object like a knife).   This gives you a chance to see the character's facial expressions.  Often used when we need to see a character's emotions.

  

Extreme Close Up: shows only a portion of the the face, ex: eyes or mouth.  These are the closest shots you can get and are used to focus on emotion.

 

and another...