596. How to build an armature for claymation / aardman secret clay recipe

click here

aardman secrets!

519. SIGNS, CODES and CONVENTIONS

MISE-EN-SCENE (French for ‘put in the scene’)

EDITING
Some important edits are called: continuity (or ‘Hollywood’) edits; MTV (’music television’) edits; cross-cuts; follow-cuts; match-cuts; jump cuts; eye-line matches; dissolves; fades; montages; bridging; flashbacks…

SHOT TYPES

Establishing shot / long-shot / mid-shot / close-up / point-of­ view shot / soft-focus…

Semiotics is the name given to the study of the way by which meaning is created in the world, especially in the mass media. It is based upon the Idea of ’signs’ and ‘codes’, ‘denotation’ and ‘connotation’.

A sign is the basic unit of meaning in semiotics. A sign is any individual thing that signifies meaning; for example, your clothes are a group of ‘fashion signs’ which signify meaning (perhaps you are trying to look ‘cool’?). There are two ways that signs create meaning: all signs have a literal meaning, which is called their denotation; but, depending on the context, many signs also suggest other ‘layers’ of meaning, which is called their connotation. For example, an image of a girl dressed all in white denotes just that, I.e. this is what you ’see’; but it may also connote innocence or purity (and all that this means in our society and culture), i.e. this is what you ‘think’.
Connotation, therefore, is always more than the denotation. Signs rarely work alone. They are most often combined with other signs to form a code.

A code is a group of signs that we recognise as going ‘naturally together’ to signify meaning (e.g. a rose is a sign; but being handed to a girl by a boy could create a ‘romance code’ and suggest love).

Film and TV codes are often called technical codes because technical equipment is used to create them.

There are three ways through which codes and signs can signify meaning: Iconicity: an iconic sign or code looks just like the thing it seems to represent, e.g. an image of a cowboy seems to be just that; but it is called iconic because it suggests far more than it should: for example, our culture tends to associate extra meanings with the idea of ‘cowboy’, such as toughness, heroism, masculinity, etc. Iconic signs are never reality: they are a representation of reality.

Indexicality (an indexical sign or code) in a sign directly suggests meaning because what it shows seems to be the result of something we associate with the thing it represents, e.g. smoke suggests fire, sweat suggests exercise, appearance can suggest wealth, etc. This can be a short-cut way for a film director to create meaning.

Symbolism (a symbolic sign or code) suggests meaning because we have learned this meaning in our culture; a symbol, in itself, has no association with what it means, e.g. a red heart shape suggests love; letters combine to make words, etc. The meaning we gain from codes is said to be culturally determined which .means that our culture ‘taught’ us that particular way to interpret the meaning. For example, when we see our national flag, the Union Jack, we see more than what it simply denotes – a piece of coloured cloth: patriotism and pride, etc.

An important code is an enigma code. These codes put a fascinating question in the mind of the audience that only watching the movie will answer. They tempt the audience to watch and are often used in trailers. A convention is simply a way of doing something that we are so used to we usually fail to notice it; conventions can seem ‘perfectly natural’ or ‘realistic’ yet are anything but. So: women in cowboys tend conventionally to be either ‘very good’ or ‘very bad’ – and this seems ‘normal’ within the genre of cowboy movies; the wheels of a car always screech; guns always kill outright; a punch always knocks a person out cold.

Genre and narrative are important media conventions that are covered later, as are editing techniques and-the use of certain shot types (such as an establishing shot sequence or montage – see later).

Cinema and TV codes are created within an area bounded by the edges of a screen. By controlling what objects and action are in this frame, a film director creates what is called a mise-en-scene.

Asking questions such as ‘who, what and where’ of the characters and objects and their relative positions, expressions, appearance, costume, make-up, scenery, props, lighting, sounds, etc. in a mise-en-scene will help you analyse it.

Try to consider what effects are created in a mise-en-scene’, what meaning they have (their denotation and, most importantly, connotation), how they have been created and why they were created (which will be the director’s purpose – perhaps to develop a character, a mood, the storyline or plot and sometimes to explore a deeper meaning or idea, i.e. a theme).

Editing is the placing of separate shots together. This allows a director to manipulate space and time ­hundreds of miles or weeks of time can be reduced to a few scenes that appear perfectly natural and believable to the audience. A montage is a most important editing technique. It is a series of shots that are edited together to create a kind of ‘individual unit’ of meaning.

Continuity edits – especially matched cuts – are called ‘Hollywood editing’. This creates a sequence that seems to flow naturally on from the previous one, and in which the edits are ‘invisible’. These have the effect of creating a realistic and seamless flow to a story or narrative (see below) where one event leads naturally onto the next.

Jump-cuts are dramatic edits; MTV edits are rapid sequences of fast jump cuts used to create a conscious effect as used first in pop-videos;

cross-cuts/parallel editing follow different actions such as two people talking; follow-cuts follow an action to its consequence, e.g. a character looking edits to what they look at

eye-line matches are a kind of follow cut).

A sound-bridge is a sound edit that allows sound from one shot to cross into the next to create continuity.

An establishing shot is usually the opening shot of a sequence; it ’sets the scene’ and locates the action. It is often followed by a mid-shot followed by a close-up shot.

A subjective point-of-view shot (POV) is at eye-level and appears as if you are viewing the scene from the character’s perspective (as in ‘Blair Witch’).

An objective point-of-view shot acts as if you are an observer secretly looking into a scene.

CAMERA ANGLE Eye-line match / high / low

CAMERA MOVEMENT Zooming / tracking / panning / hand-held

LIGHTING High key, neutral, low key

‘DIEGESIS’ AND SOUND

VISUAL EFFECTS / SFX

NARRATIVE

GENRE

ICONOGRAPHY

THE ‘STAR SYSTEM’

REALISM

‘Verisimilitude’

‘Generic verisimilitude’

‘Cultural verisimilitude’

Camera angles can signify meaning, e.g. a subjective POV high angle shot can crate a superior feel. Different camera movements can create significant meaning – a zoom or tracking shot into a close-up of a face can create emotion, a pan across a war scene can suggest violence; POV tracking shots and POV hand-held camera shot can create tension and involvement by making you feel as if you are a part of the action.

Lighting can create atmosphere and mood as well as signify meaning, e.g. in a horror movie, light and shade are important codes of meaning. High-key lighting is harsh; soft-key lighting creates a romantic atmosphere, spotlighting picks out a character from a group, etc.

Diegesis means the ‘world of the film’: if something seems to be a part of the ‘world of the film’, it is called ‘diegetic’. So, sound that is a part of the action is diegetic sound, e.g. wind noise, screeching cars, etc; but sound that is added’ to create, most often, mood or atmosphere is called non-diegetic sound. Diegetic sounds may also be added in after filming, or may be exaggerated for effect (e.g. loud footsteps).

SFX (special effects’) often use computer-generated graphics to create compelling realism and meaning.

The use of a narrative structure is a major convention of cinema and TV. We are all immersed in narratives and have been since childhood as we tell of or hear about the complex events of the world not in the form of long-winded complex details or bald information but as absorbing and interesting stories. Yet this way of explaining real as opposed to fictional events greatly oversimplifies reality whilst at the same time; paradoxically, appearing very realistic and believable. For instance, real events are rarely clearly ‘connected’ by such simple ’cause and effect’ relationships as in stories (i.e. this leads to that because…). Yet in narrative they always are. And in the real world people are not either good (i.e. ‘heroes’) or evil (i.e. ‘villains’); but in narrative they always are to some degree at least. And so on. For better or worse, we tell and hear of world events as narratives and media producers know this and use it to create media texts that rely on narrative structures and forms to be absorbing, compelling and convincingly realistic. Because of this, filmed narratives can easily trick us into thinking we are viewing a real ‘window on the world’.

Genre means the type/kind of narrative being told, e.g. detective, sci-fi, horror, etc. Genre defines a text by its similarities to other texts. Importantly, when we watch a genre film we have many pre-existing expectations of the types of characters, setting and events we want to see (prediction is a major aspect of our enjoyment of a film, and genre helps this). Genre conventions are an important way a director can create believable ‘versions of reality’ because we fail to see that what is shown is not reality at, all, but a media convention that we have become accustomed to seeing in that kind of film. So… we don’t mind the owner of a casino being horribly killed because we see him, in the gangster genre as naturally a ‘villain’. Film companies use genre to sell and make films: a popular genre creates a greater chance of commercial success; and genre can be cost effective, making it cheaper to write new stories and reducing the need for entirely new sets. Iconography is an important aspect of genre. We come to expect to see certain objects within the mise-en­-scene of a particular genre, for example, in a Western, we expect to see dusty lonely roads, saloon bars, cowboy hats and horses, jails, sheriffs badges, etc.; in a modern horror film, we expect lonely girls, ‘normal’ objects, use of dark and light, etc. These ‘genre indicators’ are called the iconography of the genre. Celebrities and film stars are an important part of the iconography of cinema and TV.

Different stars can be important signifiers of meaning. They can create expectations of character and action, help identify genre, and create powerful iconic representation of such as masculinity and femininity. Cinema and TV are able to offer high levels of ‘realism’: the bright screen, the clear and powerful Dolby sound, darkened room, etc. are highly compelling and persuasive. Such ‘appearance of reality’ is given the odd name of verisimilitude. This is yet another convention of course – there is nothing ‘realistic’ about an image on a flat screen.

There are two kinds of verisimilitude: generic verisimilitude is the ‘realism’ that convinces us because of the genre we are watching (in the horror genres it seems highly realistic for a vampire to sink his teeth into a person’s neck); cultural verisimilitude is the kind of reality that convinces us because it looks like the way things are or should

458. movie distribution facts

http://moviedistributionfacts.wordpress.com/

406. List of free sound effects and free music sites

try soungle

freeplaymusic for something different

creative commons site
Free Sound Effects from PartnersInRhyme.com

This is a great site but check carefully because it sells sounds as well as offering others for free.
http://derekaudette.ottawaarts.com/

http://www.acoustica.com/sounds.htm

http://www.alcljudprod.se/english/ljud.php

http://www.freesound.org/index.php

brilliant, but you need to set up an account and log in to download

http://www.ljudo.com/default.asp?lang=tEnglish&do=it

http://www.jamendo.com/en

390. AS Media and Film – the BIG ONE

011

372. Propp is fun!

http://www.brown.edu/Courses/FR0133/Fairytale_Generator/gen.html

371. Propp’s character archetypes

Propp’s character archetypes

• the villain, who struggles with the hero
• the donor, who prepares and/or provides hero with magical agent
• the helper, who assists, rescues, solves and/or transfigures the hero
• the Princess, a sought-for person (and/or her father), who exists as a goal and often recognizes and marries hero and/or punishes villain
• the dispatcher, who sends the hero off
• the hero, who departs on a search (seeker-hero), reacts to the donor and weds at end
• the false hero (or antihero or usurper), who claims to be the hero, often seeking and reacting like a real hero (ie by trying to marry the princess)

346. Animation 101

animation011

311. What is animation?

animation01

109. How to set out a script/ how to format a screenplay

HOW TO SET OUT A SCRIPT

FADE IN: EXT. COLLEGE – DAY

A well-kept up & ultra-modern educational building, with students walking by in groups, all obviously hard-working and motivated.

INT. COLLEGE – CLASSROOM

A classroom full of eager students in neat rows listening to an alert young lecturer at the front. We PAN ACROSS the students, including KEEN STUDENT, looking as if she doesn’t believe any of this, and ZOOM IN on ACE MEDIA, the tutor

ACE

… and here’s how to set out a script

KEEN STUDENT

(off screen)

Do we have to set it out like this?

ACE

If you want your script at least opened, rather than thrown in the bin at once, yes. There’s more standard detail, still, so that producers can work out timing. But try and lay it out like this…

DRAW BACK FROM Ace as he carries on talking, so we see the students noting down what he says. Keen now looks pleased.

INT. COLLEGE – CANTEEN

A monument to British catering at its finest, full of tidy, quiet students. Keen is talking to two other students.

KEEN

Now I know what to do.