Writing About Production Techniques
Below are some resources to help you see how journalists or reviewers write about a certain media product. This is the detail we are looking for in classwork or practice work / essays:
QUICK CLICK
> Exemplar On Writing About Production Techniques- here
> The Use Of Mise En Scene Techniques To Create Meaning For The Audience- here
> The Use Of Camerawork Techniques Are Used To Create Meaning For The Audience- here
> The Use Of Lighting Techniques Are Used To Create Meaning For The Audience- here
> The Use Of Editing Techniques Are Used To Create Meaning For The Audience- here
> The Use Of Sound Techniques Are Used To Create Meaning For The Audience- here
THEORY
The Use Of Mise En Scene Techniques To Create Meaning For The Audience > GO TO TOP
Lesson Powerpoint (NEW DEC 2020)- click here
For an overview of Mise En Scene- click here
VIDEO- An Excellent Video On This Topic: click here
Mise En Scene refers to the composition of everything visually within the physical boundaries of the shot / frame.
The way in which figures and elements are moved around within a frame can provide many effects. Mise-en-scène also includes the positioning and movement of actors on the set, which is called blocking. Mise En scene can also be described as a look or style of a film (for example gothic), a mood or atmosphere in a whole film or an individual scene (for example a threatening feeling). Mise en scene refers to the visual elements in a frame including:
Set design
The look and the feel of the set can help establish audience expectations about the film. Set design is the setting of a scene, the objects (props) and the decor. Props are often to use to provide clues to the audience about characters and storylines. Sometimes props reappear from scene to scene reminding the audience of it significance. Sometimes these props can become motifs in the narrative. Set design can be used to amplify character emotion or the dominant mood of a film, or to establish aspects of the character.
Lighting
The intensity, direction, and quality of lighting have a major effect on the way an image is perceived, including mood, time of day or night, season or atmosphere.
Space & Shot Selection
The representation of space affects the reading of a film. When a character fills a frame the audience can usually be assured that they are a major character central or important to the narrative. Equal space given to two actors within a frame would indicate equal importance in the scene to these characters. Cramming the frame can have a claustrophobic effect
Costume & Make-Up
Costume simply refers to the clothes that characters wear. Using certain colors or designs, costumes in narrative cinema is used to signify characters or to make clear distinctions between characters. Costume often gives important information about characters, including their background, profession, attitudes, personalities, their state of mind or their role in the narrative. For example black or dark clothing often suggest evil (antagonist) while white or light clothing suggests goodness (protagonist). Change in costume can represent an evolution of a character.
For example:
Component Hospital drama Gardening programme Horror movie
Setting Hospital ward Back garden Haunted castle
Props Medical equipment Spade, plants, soil Spider webs, candles, stone floors
Costumes White coats, surgical Wellington boots, gloves Black cape, grey dress, rags
Lighting Stark and artificial Warm and natural Candle light, dark shadows
Characters Doctors, nurses Well-known TV gardener Monster/ghost, hero/heroine, victims (played by actors)
The Use Of Camerwork Techniques Are Used To Create Meaning For The Audience > GO TO TOP
In film and Television different camera shots are used and then edited together to create a narrative (story). The idea being that even if your film or programme contains no dialogue, your selected images should still tell a story that makes sense. Try watching something with the sound turned down – you will find that just from the pictures you can still understand a lot of what is going on.
When creating camera shots, you have to think about FOUR important factors:
> The FRAMING of the shot.
> The LENGTH of the shot. (the distance of the camera from the subject)
> The ANGLE of the shot.
> If there is any MOVEMENT involved.
For an overview of this click here or for a more detailed overview click here (good)
The Use Of Lighting Techniques Are Used To Create Meaning For The Audience > GO TO TOP
For an overview of this click here
Lighting can define the space within a frame, separate foreground from background, create textures, mold and shape, reveal or conceal. Lighting
can be expressive – setting a mood or a look in a film. An entire film can be lit in an expressive way. Thrillers or Film Noir is often dark and gloomy with low key lighting.
Features of lighting:
• Intensity
• Source
• Direction
• Colour
The colour of lighting can determine the mood of a scene. Red light can emphasise danger or warmth; blue light can emphasise mystery or coolness.
The intensity is how bright the light and how much of it is directed on a specific area, character or object.
Low key lighting exploits shadows creating a sense of threat or suggests romance, mystery or danger. For example if a face is only partly lit with a shaft of light reflecting from the eye the effect is sinister.
High key is lighting that is bright and can suggest happiness or be reassuring to audiences that all is well. Low key lighting is usually expressive while high key lighting is realistic.
Lighting can be used to emphasise particular elements, objects characters or actions within a frame. Framing with light can draw the audience’s attention to one feature while obscuring others.
The texture of light refers to how hard or soft the light is. Hard light creates clearly defined shadows and crisp textures and edges. Soft light creates diffused illumination, blurs contours and gentler contrasts between light and shade.
The direction of light can have an impact on a scene. For example back lighting from behind an object or character creates a silhouette so the
audience can only see the outline of an object or character or under lighting where the light is positioned below the object or character both these can produce an ominous effect.
Three-point lighting
In standard three-point lighting there are three main positions for the lights:
• Key light – the hardest and brightest, focused to one side of subject
• Fill light – softer, more diffuse light that is placed to the other side
• Backlight – placed behind the subject
Day for night- A lighting technique that involves shooting in the daytime to make it look
like moon light night.
The Use Of Editing Techniques Are Used To Create Meaning For The Audience > GO TO TOP
For an overview of this click here
Moving Image and publishing products use a variety of editing techniques to help the audience understand what is happening in the narrative. Edits should be seamless and unnoticeable by the audience
Terminology
Editing creates the illusion that a film is unfolding naturally, without the intervention of the film-maker. Good editing is invisible with seamless
connecting shots that create the illusion of continuity of time and space.There are numerous editing techniques:
Cut – where one shot is cut to the next. Sudden cuts can produce surprise, horror, and disruption.
Fade - where the image disappears into black and generally represents a brief lapse of time
Dissolve - where a fade coincides with the gradual superimposition of a new image and generally represents a longer lapse of time
Wipe - where one image replaces another proceeded by a divisional line moving across the screen
The fade, dissolve and wipe can be used to indicate the passing or expansion of time. The longer the edit techniques are can indicate more or less time passed.
Shot-reverse shot – is used to represent a conversation. The characters speak to each other appearing on opposite sides of successive frames, each looking in the direction of the other. This is shot over a continuous sound track and edited together.
Graphic match – shots are edited together in relation to how they visually correspond with each other. Visual relationships are significant but
visual/aural relationships in editing are also very important this includes the overlapping sound from one shot to the next with an image depicting the dialogue spoken.
Crosscutting – is cutting back and forth between scenes linking stories or events together or indicating events happening simultaneously.
Timing - can be used to enhance the energy of the action, or to slow it down. Action sequences can take on greater drama if cuts occur within moments of high action. For example if a car is about to crash, the viewer may see several successive and separate views of the same moment. A cut in a moment of relative steadiness can slow down action. A character deep in thought may
be shot from several positions in order to expand the moment and instill
significance into it.
Rhythm of editing is important. Many films have a rhythm throughout their duration. The pacing and rhythm of the editing can dramatically affect single scenes. Editing can increase or decrease the pace of the film. Quick edits is editing brief shots together before cutting to the next shot while slow edits allow shots to continue for a long time before the cut to the next shot. The filmmaker may choose to construct a steady rhythm by making all the shots approximately the same length. An accelerating rhythm may arise from successively shorter shots; a spasmodic, irregular rhythm may be produced by a combination of shots of widely different lengths.
How Is Sound Used To Create Meaning For The Audience > GO TO TOP
Lesson Theory- click here
The importance of sound
Although film is sometimes thought of as a purely visual art-form it also relies heavily upon audio. Even in the days of silent film, movies were usually screened with live performances from musicians who would play in time with the action on screen. With the invention of sound, film-makers in the late 1920’s were suddenly able to add a new dimension to their stories. Actors could be heard to speak, actions could be highlighted with the use of vivid sound effects, and music could be used to give extra emotional life to films. It is now impossible to analyse cinema or to make films without understanding how film-makers use sound.
Different types of film sound include:
Diegetic Sound
The word 'diegetic' means to come from the world of a story. It is sound which the characters on screen can hear and can include sound effects, the sounds made by movements and actions of characters, background noise and spoken dialogue.
Non-diegetic sound
Non-diegetic sound is any sound which does not come directly from the world of the story onscreen. Traditional film music and voice-over narration are typical examples of non-diegetic sound. The characters in the film are unaware of these sounds, because they don't exist in their world.
Music and musical scores
Music plays an important role in cinema. It can make action scenes feel more exciting, happy scenes more joyful and frightening scenes more suspenseful. Most films will have a musical score which will accompany the action on screen. Film scores are non-diegetic and cannot be heard by the characters on screen. Sometimes, however, films will feature diegetic music. If a character is listening to music playing on a radio or if characters are singing or playing a musical instrument, then that music is diegetic.
Sound effects
A sound effect is any sound, other than speech or music, which has been recorded specifically for the film. Sound effects are usually tied to specific actions on-screen and recorded during post-production to enhance a scene. A director might, for example, ask their sound designer to record high impact punching sounds to make a fist fight feel more exciting.
Dialogue
The term dialogue simply means the words that are spoken by the characters on screen. The amount of dialogue in any given film can vary. An action film may have very little spoken dialogue but a character based drama may have a lot. For film-makers it is important that dialogue is always well recorded and clearly audible. It’s also important to never used dialogue if the story information being discussed can be shown visually.
Foley sound
Foley is the word used to describe replacement sounds recorded in post-production. The technicians who create Foley are called Foley artists. A Foley artist might record the sound of a door being closed if a scene featured that action but the original recording of the scene did not capture that sound.
Foley artists can also enhance or replace an original sound - if a character’s footsteps were not loud enough they might record the sound of their own footsteps and have that audio inserted into the film instead.
Sound bridge
A sound bridge is a technique in which the sound from a previous scene carries over into the opening of the next one.
In a horror movie, if one scene ended with a character screaming, the director might use a sound bridge to have that scream extend into the opening of the next scene. A sound bridge can also be used to have audio from the next scene begin before the film-maker has cut to it.
Wild track
The term 'wild track' refers to sound that is recorded during a film shoot, but separately from the main production audio and without any accompanying film footage being shot. Examples of wild track might include:
> recording a loud scream which might be heard off-screen during a scene
> re-recording sections of dialogue which may not have been recorded clearly during the day’s filming
The most common use of wild track is to capture 'room noise' or 'atmos' which is short for atmosphere.
EXAMPLE 1: MADE UP MOVIE > GO TO TOP
The mise en scene of Storm Front 2 are typical to that expected in an Action/Natural Disaster style genre similar to that of the film “Storm” and “Tremor”. There is no need for large amounts of sets for this film as 90% of the film is shot outdoors and the director uses it to great effect. The location of the film is Texas and the choice of locations gives a sense of realism to the film and the narrative. The colouring of the film in post-production is mainly dark greys and blue which gives the sense of threat and impending disaster. The main characters of Ted and Silvia are dressed as scientists in the field and are believable as they have all of the geological equipment. Due to the elements of wind and rain there is no need for makeup or complex costumes for Ted and Silvia as they are often drenched or wind “beaten” which gives a sense of realism. It feels at times like a real documentary on storms where you too are in it too.
The director uses with success two main camera angles which are wide/panning shots of the extensive Texas wilderness and extreme close-ups of Ted and Silvia. The wide/panning shots give the audience a sense of scale and enormity of this impending natural disaster. Extreme close up show the panic on the faces of Ted and Silvia in their quest to escape the impending doom. As Sophie Meadows of The Guardian said “Walter J Fox’s use of extreme close up gives the audience a realistic fear of this storm which adds to the impact of the film. The audience feel immersed in the storm and having watched it in 2D and then 3D I too was looking for shelter!”.
The sound of the film is mainly diegetic sound. The sounds of natural wind, rain and lightning sounds plus the sounds of Ted and Sylvia struggling in the storm really add to the tension and realism for the audience. The only use of non-diegetic sound would be the collapse of the high rise building in which sounds such as….
There is a strong continuity in the editing of the film where related shots are brought together, into a sequence which directs the attention of the audience's to a building story of impending disaster. The use of hand held cameras in the storm chase film gives the audience a sense of high drama as we see Ted and Sylvia race across Texas. The fades and cuts are smooth giving the film a real professional and realistic portrayal of the natural disaster.