After reading through a textbook for the best part of 30 minutes I thought what a perfect occasion to take some notes from this and blog it! (This is before I realised it was homework!)
So here goes..............
Page 36- A fine page to start on! Green columes give way to a wonderful white border around the page........... On a serious note:
Diegesis: Something I picked up fairly quickly in the lessons but it was nice to be reunited with diagetic and non diagetic sounds once again.
Examples from films and a bit about Diagesis:
First of all Non diagetic: A Non diagetic sound is a sound that is added mainly for the audience’s benefit, normally the example the textbook uses is Taxi Driver where Music is used to create a ‘Haunting atmosphere’. For the other 99.9% of the population who, like me have never heard of this Movie another example can be found in ‘No Country For Old Men’ a film we are watching clips of in class. At the start there is a voice over of what we can assume is a former sheriff of the area where the film unfolds. I think this example is very affective as he tells us of a murder that has been committed in the area. This immediately sets the mood of the film.
And for Diagetic sound, a sound which is ‘Natural’. Ok I’ll go into a bit more depth. A sound is natural to that scene for example the whistling of the wind, this is another affect that is used in ‘No Country For Old Men’. This simple sound tells us the audience a lot. First of all it shows us that the area is vast and empty and if something bad (Or good but not often!) happened it isn’t likely to be heard by anyone.
What I learned from reading the passage about them:
I learnt that they can both run into each other (If both are being used to show the same thing)

Micro and Macro origination:

From what I can make out this is basically making sure your film falls into the genre you want it to fall into. If only it was that simple. Right from what I can make out micro elements such as types of camera work, Music, styles of title, Dialogue and setting the pace are all collectively a macro theme. The basic idea I think is if your doing a film about romance and two actors are about to kiss or something you don’t really want to have motorhead playing in the background and the camera shaking like a leaf.

Bottom line Micro and Macro origination= common sense when making a film

Camera work and framing

I thought it would be be4st to divide this information into bullet points
· Most of the shots you take as part of a film should be taken with a non mobile camera
· Zoom is not usually used in film. Only use if you are deliberately trying to show amateur footage
· Film uses fewer close ups than TV mainly because the viewing screen is much bigger
· Mainly use Mid shots, Long shots and sometimes close up shots
· Rule of thirds. Frame divided into a 3 by 3 grid. Keep people’s eyes off of the centre
· ‘Language of film’= How effective different combinations are e.g long shot to a mid shot as used in the text.
· The higher the angle the less superior a character is

Mise en scene

This is basically the detail of a film. From what I can gather it is another common sense element. Just ensure that you do the simple things right, consistently. Think about things like costumes that will best portray what your film is about. Another one of my stupid examples: Don’t wear school uniform if you’re meant to be dressed as some sort of murdering hillbilly!
Another one would be make sure that your character has the same haircut throughout. If your filming over a long period and your actor starts as a mod style skinhead and towards the end has liberty spikes it’s not going to look practical!

Lighting

Most of this is common sense really. Use your initiative outside of the world of Hollywood where directors and cameramen get the luxuries of multi thousand (Million?) lighting. Although I did make some notes below of the methods used in the text book
1. Natural light- Basically use things like the sun to your advantage. E.g sunny day can help capture a happy moment
2. Use cheap lighting- coming back to my comment earlier. It’s a light at the end of the day! Why spend all that money on a spotlight for an amateur film when things like torches are much more reasonably priced
3. Colour filters- again this is a facility that you can spend a fortune on or use a bit of old common sense and use things like shinning a light through liquid which is just as effective as a filter
4. Positions the light source for effect: Another simple yet effective method that can change the mood very easily. E.g A bright light in front of the character can show mystery as to what’s actually there (Magical possibly)
Combining sound, image and titles
A lot to think about in this section but again it’s all about accuracy. Use sound, imagery and titles to fit in with your film. Add appropriate sound for the mood of the film.

The grammar of non linear editing

This section is basically saying don’t get too carried away. Think about your audience at all times and not what makes your job any easier (Although if you can hit two birds with one stone, I certainly will be if I can find something that can tick both boxes).
It also says be consistent (Don’t start using different titles and imagery as this just looks stupid to put it simply!)
Make editing invisible. From what I can gather this simply means that your film must look believable. Don’t have sounds arriving too late for the scene they’re meant to be in.