Film and Video Production at Mid South

This class with follow along with this Textbook--

The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video

Starting with Chapter 2: 

composition is everything that is in the composition and frame is how it lines up in the composition window.

One of the first things that we want to do in video production is to start training our eye to be of the details of where everything is placed and all the background elements that are present.

Rules
1. Use a tripod-pan and tilting and getting used to the fundamentals of the camera.  Once this has been learned, we can move on to carry and follow.  

2.  Rule of Thirds-the idea that in the creases of the frame divided in thirds, compositions will become more interesting. 



When the person looks at the screen... the first thing that you see is the person's eyes.   This is scientific. the second thing you will look at is what the person is looking at.   Knowing this, you can use this to manipulate the action in a sequence.  If you are doing a close up, you will want to have the person's eyes on the line.  

Headroom is the space above the human head  (avoid too much).   Inexperiences Videographers tend to put the face dead center of the composition and have too much headroom.    You might want to lower the head in the frame if there is a panning shot that reveals a beautiful landscape or dynamic feature within the composition.

3. Balancing out a Shot- Leading Looks
Screen left and screen right are terms that are used to distinguish which way a particular character might be looking in a shot or scene.  Leave more room on the screen-side (particular direction) that any face might be looking. 

4. The Seven Types of Shots and their abbreviations

A. Wide shot/Extreme long shot-- (WS/XLS) this would include             a person's entire body and everything around them 

B Long Shot (LS) This is a tight shot revealing the top of the head to the bottom of the feet. .

C. Medium Long Shot (MLS) Head to about the knees

D. Medium Shot (MS) Top of the head to about the waist. 

E. Medium Close up-framing in the top of the head to just below the breast. 

F. Close up (CU)-head and shoulders-don't cut the shot off above the shoulders and leave only the neck and the head.  the neck will make for a 

G. Extreme Close Up (XCU) As Close as you can get on a person.  showing just the eyes or the mouth to reveal the emotions, or if  camera shows an extreme close up of just the mouth chewing gum. 

These are the seven basic shots.  









     b.