This episode of Film Riot Mondays is brought to you by Kef Audio. Today on Film Riot we're
gonna be talking about camera techniques and showing you how to work it, girl. Welcome
to Film Riot Mondays, the little brother to Film Riot. Two weeks ago, we talked about
basic coverage for a scene. Now today, we're going to take it a step further and talk about
a few easy camera techniques that you can use to enhance your story.
Ready as I am? Let's dance. First we're going to go through main types of shots and their
names, and then later we're going to cover why would want to use those some of those
shots for emotional reasons. First up is a long shot. This one is a shot that shows you
the entirety of your subject. For instance, on a person it would be from head to toe.
Next we move to a medium shot, this one is from about the hips up on an actor. After
that we move in further to a medium closeup, which is about from chest up. And then a closeup
which will be from the shoulders up. And then finally an extreme closeup. An extreme closeup
will fill the frame completely with your subject.
And you can have an extreme closeup of pretty much anything. For instance, this would be
a closeup of an actor's watch. And this would be an extreme closeup of the watch.
Now we move on from distance to angle. We have a low angle which is below your actor's
eye level. By placing the camera lower you are making your actor seem larger than your
audience. This is a great way to denote power. You can of course use this to an extreme low
angle like Orson Welles famously did in Citizen Kane.
He actually had his crew dig a hole in the studio floor so he could get the camera as
low as he wanted, which is pretty awesome, if you ask me.
Next is a high angle which would be a shot where your camera is higher than your actor's
eye level. This can be used to denote weakness in your character or make them seem insignificant,
since we're visually seeing them as smaller. And of course the extreme of this would be
a bird's eye view shot. This shot is directly over head of your subject.
One of my favorite examples of this would be the final shot in Scorsese's Taxi Driver.
It's almost like we have this God view which is empowering to the audience and also disconnects
them from the event a bit and gives them this overview of this scene. Final type of angle
I want to tell you about is the Dutch angle also called the oblique angle.
This is where the camera is not level. It's a bit off which gives a feeling of something
being wrong which is a great way to push an odd feeling onto your audience and in your
scene. My favorite examples of this come mostly from Brian De Palma's films, especially Mission
Impossible. I think De Palma uses dutch angle perfectly in that film.
But there are more camera techniques than just the basic camera angle. There is also
basic techniques on how you move the camera. For instance, you have a pan. That's when
you turn the camera left or right on a tripod or a wide cameraman holds it but they stay
in the same position. Then you have a tilt which is when you moving the lens up or down
again with the tripod or cameraman standing in the same position.
Next we have the dolly shot. This is when the camera is locked down in some way whether
on a dolly or a slider or whatever DIY method you've devised to use, and then you're moving
the camera left to right, or forward and back on this track. Moving on, we have a crane
shot which is exactly what it sounds like.
This is when the camera is on a jib or a crane and being lowered or raised in a scene. One
of the most famous for me is from Shawshank Redemption. Which is also kinda of a combo,
cause we're also getting a bird's eye view at the end there. How do you like them apples?
Finally you have handheld. This is when your camera is not locked down.
It's instead operated by a cameraman on his shoulder or for a lot of us low non-budgeters,
it's just our hands because shoulder mounts are expensive. This is also an indie favorite
because it makes production much faster since there's no need to set up extra gear for each
angle, you can just do the whole run and gun.
But those are the basics, and now after a quick break we'll come back and talk about
why you would want to use them. For emotionality. For those of you out there who do not already
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back baby dude, let's get all emotional on this mother lover.
As a filmmaker you always have to have your end result in mind. Your camera is the eyes
of the audience. It's an objective observer that you have complete control over. So what
visual techniques you use to tell your story will have one of the biggest impacts on the
tone of your film. So understanding some of those basic of what effects these techniques
can have is a must.
Take for instance a dialogue scene. You can use a distance from your actor to help tell
the story. If you want us to feel connected to the character and really feel the emotion
they're displaying then you might want to go to a close-up since this is a very intimate
shot with the character. But if you want us to feel more disconnected, cut to a wider
shot and maybe even dirty the frame a bit with a foreground object .
You can also use foreground objects to an extreme to maybe visually insinuate that the
character is hiding something or that they're trapped, since visually there is nowhere to
go. Then if you want the character to seem lonely or abandoned you may want to go to
a long shot. Here we have the character in a wide open and empty space.
No friends around. Then there is focal length which is how zoomed in or out you are on your
lens. If you use a longer focal length while shooting your subject the background will
feel much closer to them which could give it a claustrophobic feel. But if you drop
to a short focal length the background seems much further from the subject and it opens
up the world.
We can also move the camera to help push the emotion you want your audience to feel. You
can dolly in or out to the right or left to reveal, or use a slow zoom for dramatic emphasis.
The way you decide to use motion or not will have very different effects on your scene.
Finally we have depth of field, this is one of my favorites to mess with and one of the
easiest ways to force your audience to focus on what you want them to.
A good example of this is from our last episode, in the sketch iRac Focus, from the wrist weapon
to Josh's face. It was a great way to build the scene a bit further before moving to the
next next stage where all the shooting begins. It used to be next to impossible to get shallow
depth of field for the non-budgeters like us but now thanks to DLSR's and Lens Adapters
us non-budgeters can finally use this fantastical tool.
But there you have it. The basics you need to know to get started with better visuals.
Of course rules are always made to be broken. And these shots can mean something completely
different in different context of your story. The point is to start thinking about the psychology
behind how you use your camera so you can take your film making skills to the next level.
Logo, and now this is the end but don't forget to come back on Thursday when we are going
to be showing you how we made the cowboy and aliens wrist weapon and how we made it move
and attach to those lens flares. Also, if you would like to be entered into a chance
to win a free filmmaker T-shirt and a custom Film Right mini-poster signed by the whole
film writer crew all you have to do is go to this link and follow the instructions.
The link is also in the description so go visit, throw your name into the mix while
helping your friendly neighborhood fill up. Until next week stay safe and watch good films.
Holy God!