FICTION ADAPTATION: Ideas and Camera Movement Lecture

Today we had a brief lecture followed by a camera movement workshop.

The lecture covered ideas and the tools of a visual narrative. These tools included:
- composition
- movement
- design (sets, props, locations, lighting, colour, costume)
- structure
- behaviour

All of these tools give the narrative context.

E.g. The framing in Fargo suggests a sense of feeling trapped as the character is positioned between two poles. His behaviour suggests anger.

E.g. the set in this Red Road scene suggests surveillance. Someone is watching over people through CCTV. This is clear from the many monitors surrounding the character.

E.g. The setting surrounding this woman in Fish Tank suggests a low class for the character. The framing suggests that she is trapped in this low social class. The facts she is framed in the middle of the frame also suggests there is no escape, she is trapped from all sides. Her costume also alludes to this social class.

E.g. The framing of this scene in Star Wars suggests the character recognises the environment but has been sheltered from it (as suggested by his hood & robe).

Creativity

Never accept your first idea before thinking what else
Make bold choices

Divergent Thinking

Think of an idea, diverge into more ideas. Simplify those ideas back down. Diverge those ideas again, converge once more and then solve the idea.

Lateral Thinking

Use your 5 senses to inspire you
Dictionary, book, magazine - random places for ideas
Analogies & metaphore
Make a list of the top 5 words related to your issue
Free writing - don't think, write
Reverse thinking - think about what everyone else would do, then do the opposite

CREATE CHOICES - THEN MAKE CHOICES

DSLRS and Camera Movement

DSLR stands for digital single lens reflex

The exposure triangle is important in order to get the exposure of the shot right without getting unwanted grain on your image.

These diagrams explain how to set the DSLR to the right settings to get the look you are going for. 

Camera Movement

Why move the camera?

- the eye is drawn to movement within a frame

- it creates / enhances / emphasises / inflects emotion 

- it guides your audience's reading of a scene

- it can diffuse / destroy / weaken a scene's dramatic conflict

Before moving the camera - ask yourself does the camera move in relation to someone or something and in support of the storytelling?

How to move a camera:

We were also shown more complex uses of camera movement. These included:

Contra-zoom: tracking in whilst zooming out - this means that the background appears to change size relative to the subject. This has been used in Jaws and Vertigo. 

Steadycam : equipment made to make handheld footage more stable. This was famously used The Shining.