Week 2 Cine Speak

Cine-Speak
Learning the language of the cinema.

This week we talked about how to use shots as words, focusing on different methods and techniques used in making a film. How can we, by using different shot sizes and angles, answer the 6 questions; who, what, where, when, why and how? To get a better idea of how to influence your story by using the right shot size, the different shot sizes were evaluated;
Very long shot/wide shot (WLS/WS), long shot (LS), medium long shot (MLS), mid shot (MS), medium close up (MCU), close up (CU), big close up (BCU), extreme close up (ECU). For example, the close up shot can answer the question ‘who’ by showing the character in detail.

Different shot sizes can also make a photo tell a ‘different ‘story, than what is actually the reality. In photojournalism for example, the photographer may attempt to use a ‘close up’ leaving parts of the subject/scene out of the frames, and in that way create a stronger photo. This photo, ‘Afghan girl’ by photographer Steve McCurry of the young girl Sharbat Gula, a student of a refugee camp (originally surrounded by other kids), is a good example of how the close up can be used, her capturing her strong facial expression.

The lecture also covered the usage of talking room and head room. With the right amount of headroom and right positioning of the character in the frame makes it look like the character is actually having a conversation, rather than talking to a wall or just out in the air.
With some new techniques on our hand, it’s time we have a go, and the results can be seen in this weeks tute*spark.



TUTESPARK - The Lost Keys

After taking all the photos, we realised that we had used the wrong angle on the camera, and had to do it all again. Anyway, we managed to get it all done and here's the result. Enjoy!