Media notes Lesson 4

Moving images

• The reason we film/video is to tell stories
• Some stories are big: Cinema, Television
• Some are small: Advertising, Promo 

The process 

The film making process is broken into three parts

1. Pre-Production
2. Production 
3. Post-Production

Aesthetics: Pleasing to the eye

Shooting Ratio: When you go out and film 10 times the stuff you need. I.E Have 1 hour film, film 10 hours worth of footage. 

Production

Who does what?

• Camera operator/Cinematography(American)/Director of photography(UK): Set up lighting, Film stuff
• Director: To come up with the shots for the film. Their job to tell the story visually. They will get a script/pages of dialogue. Will interpret it into a visual medium. 
• Producer: Person who is in charge of everyone. Makes sure people show up on time. Knowing how long they have to spend on a specific section/scene. Organised/Militant. Make sure film is created on time/in budget
• Lighting Technician: Links in with the Cinematography. Makes sure the scene looks right with the lighting 

Types of production

• Single camera production: Where you have one camera used throughout the whole shoot. Reasons why: Might cost a lot of money. Get a good camera. Main reason: Get the best performances out of the actors. Can get it into different spaces, don't have to worry about getting different cameras in shot. Feature film will usually be a single camera production. Documentary usually a single camera production. TV Drama usually single camera production. Majority of things filmed 'on location' 

• Multi Camera production: Where you have a multi camera set up. Cut from one video to another video. Usually used on a live broadcast. Or a pre recorded TV show (Alan Carr: Chatty man) Used mainly for getting all the angles. Multi Camera used mainly in a studio. 

How to make moving images

• Light is the most important thing. Light is everything we see. Once you understand light you begin to understand video. (What that means is: Once you understand how cameras interpret light, you understand how video works and how best to produce your aesthetically pleasing moving images.)

Light explanation

When it comes to natural light there are two different kinds of light. (Soft light and Hard light)

Soft light (indoors): Shadows faded, not crisp or sharp. Almost like you're not being lit. Should have element of shadow on one half of your face. Also sometimes called 'Defused light' Light may bounce off something or be filtered through something

Hard light (indoors): Lots of different reasons why you would do hard light - creates depth. Being more friendly, helps flattering people. Also sometimes called 'Direct light' 

Exposure: Anything that is bright can be called the highlights. Covers part of the image. Another bit called the mid tones. The whole image really. Shadows really dark part of the image. If you get the balance right you can lose a lot of detail.