Lessons

Lesson Info

Meaning Behind Shots and Movement

Well to start with so the meaning behind shops yesterday we talked about different coverage and shots that we have to get the thumbnail for this guy or the thumb drive so we're going to start out with the different angles you can use so we talked about the wide the medium the close up but that's just your focal length of how close you are or not to the character the angle that you're shooting at is going to say a lot about what you're doing as well so actually why don't we show these as we go so you want to grab the camera you thought hey maybe I'll sit down for a minute no j k no no you want a high angle this can kind of set up some weakness for your character why don't we fly in a chair real quick and you you want to help him situate that uh josh and stark why don't you guys come out here I didn't introduce you guys to start us off if you didn't see day one day two this is josh producer on actor in all of my stuff this is stark is my effects artist he's going to teach you a lot of th...

e effects later later in this segment and he's wearing such a sexy little sweater so just very calvin klein me let's just get a look at it I think you should do it I think you should do it they're for the butt way take a take a seat here, josh let's bring that over. Why don't we get the shoulder piece is well just so we can just we can fly with that easily you can go over here we're gonna go no lighting on this that's not gonna look beautiful but you'll get the idea we're just looking at the angle of uh what we're doing here when you swapped out the battery swap out the batteries on that guy all right? So we're gonna look at high angle why it does this will go through a few who were gonna look a low angle, which is goingto possibly give us some strength high angle we're looking down on the character just like I am looking down on josh I'm in a place of power, right he's not so much he's sort of in a weak spot so you can use those either to extreme effects or subtle effects of sort of, you know, shift what the audience may or may not be thinking just a bit above the eye line orbit below the eye line or you could go very spielberg uses low angles all the time and they were glorious not always for that reason we're not always trying to make the character looks super strong or weak sometimes it is for different reasons, but usually for me I'm using him for those kind of things were towering above the audience. The audience is towering above us. Let's. Bring it right over here and you have the shoulder piece actually want to wrangle this for us. All right, so let's frame. Josh let's, go right here. So let's, move to the side. Let's, go right there. Cool. What's down way pulled all their no scary here. Let's frame left down. Just a touch. Okay, so we're looking down on them right now. And why don't we go? Teo? You want to squat bringing it let's fly on an apple box so we can sit down as well. We're actually won't you stand up? That would make it easier. Does she stand up? Actually, you can stand straight up too, right? Cool. And then good. Stand right there. All right, so we have our low angle. We're looking up at our character, right? What's won't even step on this chairs. We can get an extreme high. Let's, get extreme. I what are we doing today? All right. And look right here for me, it's. Our character is towering above us, right, he's. Bigger than us. Let's, get down! Now! You're fighting the gyro of america! Now we're going to go a little bit more level we're level with our actor we're seeing ida ida them I want to stand back up again and now we're looking down at them again so you can use these different angles for those different effects again it doesn't have to be this extreme what you squat down to touch right there it could be very, very subtle so we have this character around there and the second character I wanted to stand up and say we're at why don't you come up just a touch take a step back slightly down we just make it really, really subtle one character is a little bit of leverage over the other one another device to try to tell your story I let's switch back to the keynote I level like we talked about normal were eye to eye with the character dutch or oblique step back in here and why don't you come on this side so you don't have to walk back and forth over and over again all right and let's switch back to the camera okay, so this would be a dutch let's put the other way you know like batman forever oh you are batman and robin greatest film ever where everything is not quite right the horizons off we're getting those diagonal lines that were talking about before my favorite use of this was in mission impossible first film uh won't you sit down again way had a shot that kind of looked like like this right here go over touch let's frame him a little less left let's tilt down and let's let's make that a little more extreme the angle okay, we have a shot that looked like this but we didn't start like that he's talking to kittredge in the restaurant right and everything's kind of normal almost eye level till he realize something's up on all sudden we're low angle we're going very, very dutch with it and brian depalma's using visual tricks that kind of make everything very, very wrong it almost feels a dreamlike in away everything turns extreme immediately. I don't use these often and when I do I use them suddenly because they are an extreme style but it's something that could be used for really great effect that is used very often moving on again we could actually just switch the camera I'll just check my notes here so we don't have to keep switching back reports so wide close ups and extreme close ups we kind of talked about uh he's a little bit when we're talking about compressing or widening your world but it doesn't have to be about folk alike that's just your distance from the character so let's just stay on the same focal length but let's get sort of close up happening let's, frame them left. Yeah, let's, look off to the right, right over here. So we're in it with our character were experiencing the world with our character here, right? Or whatever the discussion is, whatever he's thinking were there with him, and we're going through these things with him. But if we step way back, just keep going as far as you can. Now we're kind of on the outside looking in, whatever he's experiencing. We're just observing now. We're not quite in the situation with him were not experiencing it with him. We get to be a third party, sort of just looking at it from the outside in. So those two decisions let's mount that back on the tripod. You want to help him sew those two decisions will say something a lot about what you're trying to do. What perspective are yu trying? T o have for your character? Are you wanting to put them in their shoes? You're going along that journey with them? Are you wanting to push, push back and have a third party person just observing the scenario as you go along, which will say a lot about your team let's, switch back to the keynote extreme close ups for me put you inside the character's head, which I use often you really get in there and the character is not saying anything, but you're actually thinking with them at this point, not just experiencing it, you're going inside their head, and I use this for this next video has sound, actually, but I use this in my short film tell tells, like, sort of a psychological thriller for me, and I want to get inside this guy's head and it's somebody that you shouldn't be following. You shouldn't be relating to in any way, but I kind of wanted to force you in their toe look att sort of this monster. Ah, so we start just with close ups and we moved into those extreme close up, so we're moving in tow like his psyche, little by little, and then we pull back out once we've seen that, then I pull you back out of that to be a little bit more of a bizarre observer, but we're still in this situation with him, but just to replay one more time, some of the stuff that we were talking about yesterday is even happening. Some of those duality ideas that we were talking about look at the blood on his head, how it's splitting him right down the middle, even he's of two minds. Look at the lighting we have lighting heavier on one face splitting them right down the middle he's of two minds so he's looking at what he's done and on one side is this monster on his other side is this guy that's right with guilt? All the bees are directing decisions that you make in pre production and you follow through with little subtle things that again people might not be picking up on but they're the things that makes something re watchable or make people feel like there's something there worth watching you know what I mean? You you watch a film and sometimes it just feels like okay, saul thing forgot all about it hopefully that's not what this one was and then you watch a film where whether you get or not it kind of feels a little bit deeper you know I mean there's something there's there's nuance there and that's what all of these things are a little by little these camera angles, these ideas of the duality thing I played with and found every way possible to shove it in almost everything I possibly could. These are things that add that production value with your audience knows it or not to film movement a movie in is forcing your audience closer good or bad I used it a lot until a well tell was one of the films that I prepped a lot for it was done like the hitchcock way the film was made in pre production very little was changed when we shot proximity was on the seat of our pants sort of film which is why a lot of these examples will be tell but when you move closer to the character we're bringing you in to the characters world whether they're delivering some kind of emotional monologue and I'm slowly but surely bringing you in as you empathize with them and begin to relate with them or perhaps they're this horrible character that you don't want to get closer you're disgusted by them but one forcing you in on them making you mohr and maura uncomfortable there's nowhere to go I'm pushing you towards this person uh or a move out which could be a leaving or tearing away from a character one character's leaving another and as they do we're pulling out from the other who doesn't want them to go and it's all sapping it's raining and beautiful but through visual we're sort of representing that that breaking away that tearing of whatever that relationship was or it could be opening the world up a brave new world somebody going off to college and spitting around so happy that we're moving back showing this beautiful new world for them or uh for situations like this once again from tell if you haven't seen it the cop we know there's something upstairs in the bathroom that's messed up and we don't want the cops to go in there because we don't know what's gonna happen we're worried for her she comes in and I wanted this moment where we sort of opened up into this this life a cave of don't go in there, you know, open up into darkness and so we used just a slight move back to create this like frame of danger for her you know, we're framing her with that danger zone that we don't want her to go to when we're sort of playing with the fact that this is going to go there is it? Is she not handheld? Hey josh I mean j k only do this handheld versus locked down and held you get more high energy you're switching from or you can switch from smooth the handheld which will show in a second but why don't we bring it over on sticks first? Josh, why don't you come over here? Let's get about right there just a touch let's say about three inches to do it get this side a little stark wants you come over here too let's take uh three steps back josh stark street in front of josh we're gonna go ahead and do it t s so just do a basic conversation sort of scene let's punch into let's go toe like a fifty I'll say good let's get about right here and start take a half step to your right and stand up straight turn piece of sexy it's a sweater man I kind of want to pet it right a little bit so all I had to die for that you're terrible now peeta I just think it's what do you mean you're tryingto get going? Okay? Just just like half and just lean actually don't even move to sleep a little bit otherway camera they go stop that's another good example sometimes you'll tell an actor you're in someone about close up right and you'll tell an actor move to your left and josh that's what happens come back in uh josh move to your left take a step to your left you know that's what happens? So what you'll do instead is uh if you take him, tell him to take a step, take a step that's insane right a little bit back and now lean just a touch good and that's the slight if you look at him he's not moving it at all but in camera it's massive so that could get very confusing and frustrating for the actor so when you're in a close up ask him just lean you take a step and they're out of it and you got to reset everything alright let's go hand held do you find this out actually with service on my shoulder and handheld so the difference between six and handheld especially if you doing like action is you can really get in there and sort of feel the scene. So if josh is sort of getting intense with stark and say's, josh starts the move still towards stark a little bit josh, you can sort of get in there with him and start playing with what you're doing with the camera maybe maybe you slowly start moving in, you know, like we're talking yesterday you start framing it more and more extreme little by little and you probably look predicted I look like I'm about to run, don't I? This is a sexy cameraman so frees you up forget it just going to get a little intense with it, move around a little bit, let it breathe a little bit didn't even get in there with the zoom if you like, which is really difficult with this guy, so depending on what they're doing, you could try to hold it steady where you could get a little crazy so it adds a lot of energy to the frame just by taking it off sticks so that's to you guys since it down that's two massive style choices just by being locked down or not one you know, twenty four esque sort of thing or the other uh very calm but switch back to the keynote for switching from smooth too handheld mid shot so this is sort of a subtle switch it's not like a massive switch I've done a massive village just a little bit subtle it's kind of smooth and then we'll switch over we'll talk about it ah way she left it why would she leave without any of her stuff? You had a fight she stormed around didn't come home again you just can't get that one right? Can you? All right so let's watch it one more time and talk about it and again I didn't come up with any of these ideas this is not my original ideas that's what they mean good artists borrow great artists steal these air stolen ideas you watch the movies that you love, you dissect them and then you use what you thought was great about it. So first she's at the door were sort of smooth we're letting it breathe a little bit like we talked about here's a phone inside we know that he killed her girlfriend she doesn't she's coming into the danger zone right we let it start breathing a little bit here and it's smooth for the most part it's open still smooth but now we switch to that angle he sees the knife and we really start moving in around really start energizing the frame sort of pushing you towards the idea that something's wrong and then this shot right here look how much she's blocked off by him there's nowhere to go I start really cutting her off a lot really dirty by our other actor didn't come home again way completely switch out of her slammed him up against the wall that we were talking about before he's not even listening to her so that angle is telling us that we're completely away from her she doesn't even matter she's a muffled noise he's deciding what he's going to do so the idea behind those things is watch the movies that you loved watching movies that impact you emotionally and dissect that why is this happening right now? What is it about the music the sounds and the images that is doing this to you snap zooms adds energy uh hey josh you want to do a quick snack josh this is going to be tough with this sort of a rig this rig's not really built for snap zooms we'd want to throw on another no let's go ahead and go hand held with it actually let's do a comedic sap stabs in first let's go a little bit forward it's going right about here that's good yeah good full focus on that tarantino does he's all a lot of weight so josh ready and give me give me kind of a turn at it let's roll on it what people have this forever and the president's dead let's get one more there's no more ice cream okay that's a comedic snap snap soon tarantino will do you no zoom like that all the time and has a very stylistic definitely leaning towards tongue and cheek sort of vibe to it on your shoulder joke that I'm not gonna say live on the internet don't censor me what's coming a little bit way have uh this is a proper gun we're going to talk about a little bit later so why don't you just grab this turning pain well should come here actually I have this for you don't you dropped to one knee right here go to your left dark way so josh already be down and just grab and turn back up a little bit from the gun so you kind of got to reach a little pan into josh stark uh move to your right spending the gun down rather uh it's frame it here until he gets it we're gonna move up okay so we're just going to energize a little bit not make it too insane and action josh try one more time let's let's hold that focus on josh let's just worry about nailing that and action so little snaps like that very very twenty four styled I pretty much add to any sort of gun fight scene and losses they're all throughout but you can't really tell because the action is happening so much but there's these little bursts that are happening the entire time that you're not fully scene that's adding a lot of energy to the frame that you could overuse it and it'll be ridiculous. Uh, the bourne movies using very well, I think in some of them and then in some of them, I'm getting a little seasick. Eso you can't even awesome filmmakers overuse it. Actually, captain phillips uses it quite a bit to great effect. Those are also very obvious those air used more to make you kind of feel like you're watching some kind of documentary there's cameraman actually they're doing the thing in a way the way I usually use it is like trying to hide them a little bit, especially with losses were shooting in this love, the place that did not look like a place where an action film would be happening. Most of people in the film and it looked like they would be holding a gun, so I'm trying teo get you to forget about that at intensity to the scene so you can still enjoy because that thing was kind of ah, we wrote it, shot it and finished it in a couple of days, so there was no casting or anything it was just who was available so that with one little trick, the kind of add intensity to people who were just like booby