Single Camera
Purpose -
A
dramatic story line is created to effect audience emotions, there emotions
during these types of films tend to fluctuate, from happy to sad, from tense to
calm. Drama films are a more realistic approach to film and can almost be a
real life situation, in fact a lot of "based on true story" films are
dramas. These types of films usually have characters that are dealing with
problems in their life, such as conflict with others or themselves. You tend to
find that because these types of films, are more realistic and could be real
life situations, a lot of audiences can relate to the story or characters
easier, also so can the actor.
Formats -
The first type of single camera drama is a drama "series". These television series are broken up unlike a feature length film and contain, episodes and seasons. These shows are written as they develop and may continue depending on their popularity and ratings. These episodes can get released weekly-monthly, creating new changes to plot and story-line whenever the creators want to. An example of a drama series would be "Doctor Who", the very well-known drama series, its been creating episodes since the early 1960's and still gets new episodes today, with its main character being unable to die and can "regenerate" due to its sci-fi genre, it can really keep creating new episodes forever until it loses its popularity, which would be very unlikely as it has a huge fan following.
A drama "serial" is a story-line that serialises events or a story from books or true/fictional events. Serials are usually split into episodes similar to TV shows. This type of feature is a one off showing and does not have weekly releases of new episodes. Pride and Prejudice is a romance set in the 1800's consisting of 6 episodes, each being about an hour long, it was adapted from the Jane Austin Novel.
Unlike the single camera drama formats before, this type of drama is not broken up into episodes, this is normally a feature length film or a long single episode. A single drama normally is created to influence a real life situation or event, this is used to make the audience more aware of the situation, however but also to entertain and get them more invested as it is more to do with real life events. An example of this is "Don't take my baby" which won best single drama in 2016 at the "BAFTA" awards.
Narrative Structures -
A linear story line is basically a story that goes in the correct order
of time, it works through the events of the story in sequence, and an example
of this is "Whiplash". A linear story line is used to keep the story
basic and to stop it from getting over-convoluted or confusing.
A non-linear story line is the opposite to a linear story line, is does
not have a specific order of displaying its events in the film, this often is
the case of movies using flashbacks to explain a story, these stories are often
fragmented and are used in mystery dramas, almost like assembling a puzzle for
the audience. A problem with this is that it can become confusing for certain
audience, or even most audience if done poorly, an example of this is
"Pulp Fiction".
A realist structure is a film structure that tries to be as real as it
can be, an example of this is "Zero Dark Thirty", a film based on the
true events of 9/11 and how Osama Bin Laden was assassinated. This film tries
to tell true events in a realistic way, it keeps close to what actually
happened during the true event. However lot's of films that are mostly "realism" films can have some "non-realism" aspects to them as Zero Dark Thirty although has a realistic story structure, over exaggerates some of the action aspect to the story, this helps the audience stay entertained but it can still feel realistic.
A anti-realistic film is the opposite of realistic films, they don't
mind having insane action sequences or story-lines that could never happen in reality, this can really give some really creative films, that can be extremely entertaining to watch, most people would agree that non-realism films are the more fun types of film out of the two, however some films that are unrealistic such
as a super-hero film can have a realism feel to it, for example Christopher
Nolan's "Batman Trilogy" is some of the most realistic super-hero
films in cinema, it explores if our society did have a super-hero such as a
"Batman", how would it work, and what challenges would he face, in
the film he needs protective armour and can make the wrong decisions which is a
realistic way of looking at it.
WHIPLASH -
"Whiplash" won an academy award in 2014 for "best editing". Whiplash is cut in a way that each time the camera angle changes, it means something to the story.
The date scene in whiplash is an example of very clever editing, it starts off with an establishing shot, this is used to establish location and atmosphere of the area, but also to help identify how the characters are positioned in the frame. This is used in most films as it is an effective opening shot for a new scene.
When the conversation start in the scene it then cuts to a mid-shot of both characters, and it maintains this shot framing for around a minute, during this time the characters, just have some fun, positive, small talk between one another, the cuts in between the characters help to show the chemistry between this characters.
When Miles Tellers characters asks a more personal question, the camera shot changes to a close-up the characters, this is to give the message that the current conversation is a bit personal and uncomfortable, being this close to the characters makes the audience feel a bit claustrophobic and uncomfortable like the characters are feeling in the scene. The conversation in this part of the scene is clearly starting to feel a bit negative and personal.
When this awkward conversation finished the camera cuts back out, to identify that this subject has finished and it about to be changed, this gives a sense of relief sub-consciously to audiences, it also identifies that the uncomfortable feeling of the conversation has left the scene. Neither of the characters speak during these mid-shots, until Nicole changes the conversations atmosphere and starts a new positive one, during this the shot changes back to the wide establishing shot, signifying that they are sort of starting over again and forgetting about the previous conversation mood, they are trying to start of positive like before.
After this the new small talk conversation carry's on and to show the positive mood is back successfully, the shot cuts back to the mid-shots like before. Cutting back and forth between the characters like before as well.
When it cuts back to Nicole however, they use the close-up from before, when the conversation was uncomfortable, however this time the vibe is completely different, because the conversation this time is positive and flirty, the close-up feel like they are bonding with each other more, and starting to like each other, getting to know each other better. This close-up cuts back and forth to again show the connection between the two. This shows how dialogue can affect the feeling of camera shots and angles.
The final scene of Whiplash is incredible, the way it's filmed and handled it masterful, a range of different shot types and angles help to send subliminal messages to the audience. During this scene there are loads of low-angle shots of Miles Tellers characters, this represents the power and determination of the character.
When Andrew (Miles Tellers character) begins to play the drums when not instructed, it shows it with lots of quick cuts from all different angles, this helps to go with the rhythm of the music but also the quickness represents which speed and skill.
Before this however we have Fletcher who walks over to Andrew, it cuts to a shots of Andrew with Fletcher stood out of focus to the right of the frame, he closes off space in the frame with the character, giving a closed off vibe and claustrophobia to the shot, representing the relationship between the characters, its clearly negative, also however Andrew is sat looking up at Fletcher shows that Fletcher is the one in charge and has power over Andrew.
At first Fletcher is furious with what is happening, however further into the scene, it is clear that Fletcher is starting to enjoy the music, respecting Andrew more. The angle shows this as this shot is very level eyed which gives the vibe that he's starting to come down to Andrew's level, working with him rather than against him.
Not soon after this there's a quick pan shot that switches between Andrew and Fletcher, Andrew is playing the music to the commands of Fletcher, this shows them working together, the use of the fast pan helps to show that they are now connecting with one another, and are on the same level, they are working with each other.
Drive -
Drive is a film starring Ryan Gosling and is directed by Nicolas Winding Rfen. This film has almost a metaphoric message woven into its story.
Ryan Goslings character "Driver" is a talented stunt driver, who drives as a getaway driver for criminals, he meets his neighbor and starts to have feelings for her. He wears a bomber jacket with a large scorpion logo on the back, during the film his character mentions the story of "the scorpion and the frog". In this story a scorpion persuades a frog to give him a lift over a pond as he can't swim, the frog is concerned he will be stung, however the scorpion ensures the frogs safe as if her were to sting him they would both drown, the frog agrees and the scorpion stings the frog, this is because it's in the scorpions nature to sting.
Lighting -
The basic technique of lighting can be mainly narrowed down to the 3 point lighting system, this involves a key light that lights up most of the frame and is aimed directly at the subject, a fill light that is used to soften the key light as the key light can look a bit harsh on camera if a fill light is not set up, it mainly helps to take down the harsh shadows that the key light creates and then the back-light which lights up behind the subject, as not having a light to light up the background can make the subject or character merge in with the background, so this helps to separate them from the background.
High-key lighting is when the crew uses heavy use of strong fill and key lights on their subjects, this can really make the look of a scene or film really bright and almost over the top, this is used heavily in musicals and fun family/kids films. A film such as "Wizard of Oz" is a film that would use this type of 3 point lighting, the film appears almost really over the top with how bright and colourful it is, the high-key lighting really suits its mood and atmosphere.
Low-key lighting is basically the opposite of High-key lighting, the use of key lighting and fill lighting is much less and sometimes minimal, this can give a very dark, intense vibe, a lot of thrillers, horrors and violent action movies use this to their advantage. An example of a film that uses this is fight club, a heavy intense drama, again low-key lighting suits its atmosphere and vibe.
Back-lighting can be used for several different atmospheres and messages to the audience, it can be used to cast a heavy shadow over a object or character which can hide its appearance and create mystery. A film that uses this is "Spectre" a James Bond film that hides the appearance of the main villain to create a mystery over who it is, but also to intensify the situation.
Back-lighting can also be used to create the "halo effect", an effect that creates a bleed of bright light behind the character, this can be used to boost the scenes atmosphere in the film, it can make characters appear godly or ghostly.
Sound -
A film score can have a huge impact on the way a film affects a audiences emotions, for example horror movies will have very dark, tension building music, that is often slow and sometimes unusual, to make you feel uneasy whilst watching a film, a really good example of some horror film scores, that really influence the film heavily is the "28 days later" theme and also the opening track to "Get Out", the get out track uses slow string instruments, with unusual use of tones for uneasiness, but also the voices often change volume and tone, the whispers really exaggerate the creepiness. The 28 days later song uses slow pianos and guitars that gradually build, starting it off slow and creepy, building it up to complete chaos, which relates to the films plot.
Sound in action films can be used to again really add to the intense scene or it can be added for a comedy, or a satisfaction effect, films that use soundtracks to intensify action scenes are usually more serious films such as "Taken".
however action films that play with the music for a more light-hearted, comedy vibe are "Baby Driver" and "Thor Ragnarok". Both of these are great at using the music to add to the action, making it far superior than if they huge more generic action music.
