Long before the days of Internet talkies, film makers were forced to shoot their videos completely without sound. Every angle played a part in telling the story of the part of the story that the story teller wanted to tell.
What are you doing? Go farther away, you are too close.
But then came audio and then came porno and then came the predictable decline of American culture leading to such movies as the “Da Vinci code” considered by many to be a “step backward for mankind”. And thanks to crappy movies like this, visual story telling is all but lost its meaning.
Now, much like the aluminum seed of this wonderful wild aluminum tree, I am going to start you from the ground work up for basic composition. Not only is the shot over and we cut, but this is reflective, we do not need that. I am not even paying you. Why do you follow me around?
[music playing]
This is a close up. This is an extreme close up. This is a super duper extreme close up. This is a wide shot. And, this is a change of angle.
Wide shots are more generally used to establish where the actors are in relation to their environment and one another. While dramatic scenes can call for close ups though f**** going to a wide shot to a close up or vice versa, we will give you a nice clean cut as we are cutting from a shot where the attention is towards the left of the screen to the shot where it is on the right side of the screen.
This is a good way to follow when doing your dialogue scenes and it can be applied to your over-the-shoulder shots. Now, you do not have to show the opposing actor’s shoulder in this shot, but that is up to you. The main idea is to get all shots from angles that will help you view a map out of the world you have created in their heads.
Another great rule to follow – and by follow, I mean follow until you decide to break, is the 180 degrees rule. What that does is give you a half of a pizza pie worth of vary for your camera to move in. And, if you are a beginning a film maker, this will really help your movies. And if you, let’s say, shooting “Matrix 4”, then this will really ruin your movies. So, you can still break it. Now, if you use all these rules with the composition along with loading an audio, who knows, you might be able to get a job directing “Epic Movie 2”. But, you might want to stay tuned for the rest of the episode to learn how to do some better stuff. So, we will be right back.
[music playing]
Behold pumpkin carving contest. We are looking for photos and 30-second video clips of your best Indy Mogul carvings. Upload them on our websites. The deadline is in November 1st. The winner gets a mini DV camera, a complete sound kit, anything software and DV tapes.
Now, feel free to experiment here. What you are trying to really do is just think about your shots and understand where your viewers are coming from, your audience. And, you want to turn your own visuals into like candy for your eyes and lure your audience into your van – I mean, your movie.
Another rule from the industry is the rule of thirds. Imagine, your screen has a tic-tac-toe board, use your mind’s eye to draw this on there and use the lines and the intersecting points of the lines to help align me, my eyes, all these things. They are all centered around these lines in intersecting points.
Say the lines. That’s what I thought. I quit.
Decorate your scenes. Use lighting, interesting objects or pieces of artwork of buildings. But be aware of copyrighted images because the man will get you.
Hi. I am Ross Peacock. I’m Big Boy Ross on Indy Mogul forums and I am going to explain to you how to use the contra zoom.
So, zooming on your actress or creature, whatever you’ve got, make sure when you are zoomed in that you have a position where you can move forwards on a trolley or just holding the camera. And what you do is zoom out and move forwards about the same speed. It might take a few tries to work it out but you you’ll get there and it should look something like this.
Male 1: Jack?
Male 2: Put down the hoe.
Now, you may not have an art director and your camera man might be your little brother. But with a little bit of planning and a tripod, you will be making internet videos that historians will rank up there with the evolution of dance as one of the highlights of the American culture when they stumble upon our crumbling civilization 25 years from now. Doesn’t that make you proud? I know it makes me proud.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services