Film Language

In todays lesson, we learnt about the different language film editors and producers use when shooting a film regarding Camera, Movement, Mise En Scene, Editing and Sound. We were taught acronyms to help us undertsand these concepts and then went on to analyse a few clips from different films to help us get used to the language.

Camera -
Frame - This reflects the size of the shot.

Angle -  There are different types of angled views when filming;

• Worms Eye View (Low Angle)
• Level (point Of View)
• Birds Eye View (Hight Angle) 

Movement - There are different movements that the camera follows, these include;

• Pan Right and Left
• Tilt Up and Down.
• Tracking Shot (following the characters as they walk for instance)
• Steady Cam.
• Handheld.

Mise En Scene -

• Costume 
• Lighting
• Actors - Their Age, Gender, Efnicity, Class, Sexuality, how they Stand, Speak, Clothing.
• Makeup - Normal Makeup, Special Effects or No Makeup.
• Props - Icons.
• Setting

Editing - 

• Transitions
• Order of narrative
• Pace - Slow (Scared/Love)
• Special Effects.

Sound - 

• Dialogue
• Music - How the music makes us feel when it is played in the background.
• Diegetic Sound - Real sound that actors would hear. (Background Sound, such as cars)
• Non Diegetic - Sounds actors, wouldn't hear - (Music, Voice Overs) 

After learning about the key terms used in the film industry; we watched the opening clip of the Disey Pixar film 'Up'. 

Up

                           

In the opening scene from the hit Disney Pixar movie 'Up' we can see that time passes extremely quickly, starting from their wedding day when Carl and Ellie were both very young right through to the elderly period in their life, all these events happening at a very fast pace happening without any dialogue whatsoever.  The Camera movements in this opening scene are very significant in showing the passing time in the couples life, the directors uses straight cuts and panning when filming. The clip also shows time passing by Ellie tightening Carl's tie each morning before going to work, each tie representing a new day. This opening scene includes no conversation or narrative which shows how music and different effects are so powerful in films, particular in animated films.

Cape Fear

            

We watched the opening scene from the film 'Cape Fear' and applied the film language we used to analyse the different camera angles used when it was filmed. In 'Cape Fear' we saw four different frames used by the camera, these included 'ECU' - extreme close up shot, Mid Shots, and 'ELS' - extreme long shot. The camera also tilts downwards when showing the viewers the photographs and posters on the prisoners cell wall, the posters show a poster of a leader of some sort, because this is on his wall suggests he idolises this figure and believes in one powerful person in charge, this could reflect his life before prison as he could have been the leader of a mass gang. When leaving the prison the viewers understand that the prisoner is completely alone with no one greeting him as he leaves imprisonment. The producers create an eery and dangerous atmosphere by representing the character as a thug. We gather this representation of him due to stereotypical nature of tattoos,  he also has greasy slicked back black hair, these are features of our  'Mise En Scene' acronym 'clamps'. The man featuring in the opening scene of 'Cape Fear' grasps an intimidating attitude with a mask of intelligence due to the amount of books we can see he has read in prison, which also suggests he has been there for a long time. As he makes his way out of the prison, the directors incorporate pathetic fallacy by using thunder and lightening to represent how the outside world should be scared by his exit, as if danger is coming. 

Boyz n The Hood

At the beginning of the this clip the audience can hear several gunshots, swearing and screaming all as background noise; there is not visual for the very beginning scene which makes the audience wonder: Is there actually a shooting happening, or is this just a representation of these characters everyday life? The first scene we see, we re introduced to the first four characters which are young children making their way to school. While walking to school, their conversation includes discussing gunshots they had heard the night before very casually as if everything was normal and this was a regular occurrence in the area in which they live.  The director used stereotypical mannerism of a 'chav' by dressing these children in baggy clothing of bright colours and also featuring walls covered in graffiti, the childeren are walking along roads smothered in rubbish which clearly indicates living in a very rough area. 
Very soon into the film, we can gather that these children are very brave and confident as they are living life surrounding my crime. We can see the children walking into a crime scene without any fear whatsoever, once again emphasising how this lifestyle is very common for them as none of them were shocked or scared by the crime scene.  Throughout this scene, the camera indulges in many close up and mid shots to focus on the children's reactions to the crime scene, to allow to audience to engage in the fact that this is their everyday lifestyle, there are also elements of the camera panning to show the children reacting off of each other. 
The next scene is shown by a 'MLS' - mid long shot of a classroom full of children. The class are drawing pictures of the police which is a transition between their real life to drawings as they are so used to seeing the police around. Two boys that appeared in the first seen are shown arguing with each other whom are both extremely opinionated which shows that they have possible been brought up by particularly confrontational families. When this argument breaks into a fight, the teacher tries to break it up whilst the other class members are encouraging them and laughing at the situation, which implies that, again, this happens often and in fact they find these circumstances humorous. 
The final scene we analysed from 'boyz n the hood' was presented to the audience in an extreme long shot.  The child that is walking home from school stumbles upon a gang having a bust up on the streets, in broad daylight. The setting in this clip is very significant in showing how dangerous the streets are as most fights happen in the dark where suspects are less likely to be spotted, this symbolised the violence and crime in society at the time this was filmed. 
The frame then switches from the focus being the child walking home to his mother at home on the phone to his teacher which is shown to the audience in a close up shot. The boys teacher jumps to the conclusion that the mother was uneducated and unemployed as most mothers were at the time, also due to the fact she had a troubles, confrontational son she assumed that this was a reflection on his upbringing at home. Whilst the phone conversation was happening, the focus then changes back to the boy walking on the streets featuring a car going by playing extremely loud music which is a contrapuntal sound as it does not match the mood of the conversation between the mother and the teacher.