Single Camera Report

Stefan Christophides

About single camera techniques:

Firstly, a single camera production is where you only use one camera for all various shots. These single camera productions are sometimes low budget and most likely used for music videos since you only need one camera to film the production. It can also be used to shoot Prime time dramas and adverts. There are some disadvantages to filming a single camera production because it’s more time consuming but it also gives the directors more control and power of each shot that is taken.

Advantage of a single camera production:

·         it is low budget so you are only using one camera, which means you don’t have to use multiple or spend a lot of money

·         by having one camera it has more flexibility with shots

·         easier to collect all the shots because they are all on one camera

·         easy to set up and take down

Disadvantages of a single camera production:

·         can be hard to reproduce scenes

·         if the camera gets damaged all your work could delete or not you would not be able to recover it

·         time consuming

About the setup:

A single camera production only consists of one camera and it is not viewed live. The setup also consists of the 180 degree rule, which states the two characters in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to one another. It also consists of the camera not crossing the axes because if so it would confuse the audience, the reason for this is that it would make the character look like they are talking to themselves.

Single Camera Setup (180 degree)

An example of this would be when Phil and Grant Mitchell from Eastenders have a one to one confrontation about their family.

                            

This is seen as a 180 degree set up because they have the two brothers sitting face to face in the local pub. The camera goes from left to right to show the two different characters facial expressions at different points in time, whether, one looks surprised, sad and/or angry.

Three examples of formats

There are different types of formats that films, TV programmes and TV films consist of series, serial, single drama, franchises and short films. Below, I will give an example of three and what they consist of.

Series:  An example of a series is The Walking Dead

Before the show starts it recaps the main parts of what happened in the previous episode, to let the viewer’s remember the main and important parts of series. Also, when the series is being recapped the main people from the group are normally the ones that talk about the last episode, this would be called the voice over.

The series ‘The Walking Dead’ is about one main group of people and others that are just roaming around in the same state since, they’re in America. This main group of people have to survive and adjust to their new surroundings because of the outbreak of a zombie apocalypse. In this particular episode the main group has been broken into smaller groups which had to show the different stories of the people in that group.

Notes

·         Lead characters (group of friends and main family)

·         Series is about a group of strangers that band together so that they can survive the zombie apocalypse and start caring for each other

·         Names – ( Rick, Carl, Carol, Daryl, Glenn, Maggie, Machone, Sasha)

·         Strangers have a much different life from before apocalypse (Police officer and Thief)

Serial: EastEnders

EastEnders is known as a serial because it is soap, which means that it focuses on many characters and their lives. EastEnders focuses on different family drama that goes on in a day and how some families get mixed up into trouble and very sad moments. In all the episodes of EastEnders there is no recap on last episode, mostly due to the fact that it is on every week day except Wednesday. However, on Sundays EastEnders hold a recap day that shows all the drama, that happened during the week.

On special days, such as Christmas day the serial EastEnders would be an hour long and something emotional, shocking and/or happy would happen which would cause a voiceover to happen, this is done by an actor or an actress.

Notes

·         No preview from last episode

·         Lead characters ( 5 main families)

·         Revisit same locations ( Families house, pub, park and garage)

·         Opening seen of EastEnders (Aerial/Birds eye view of London)

·         Names –(Phil, Ronnie, Stacey, Mick, Roxy and Linda)

Single Drama: Honey Trap

A single drama is broadcasted but only once, it provides a representation of real life.  It is often based on topics or issues that are more appropriate for television. This real life film was created to portray the story of a young teenage boy called Showkey. In this film it shows us that a young women made friends with two boys that had their differences, the boy she got closer to was the one who actually started threatening the young girl to get the boy (Showkey) to come meet her so that a group of boys could beat him up, but this led to him getting stabbed. This follows a standard narrative.

Notes

·         There was no preview of a last episode since it was a film for television

·         Inspired by true events

·         Lead characters (Group of teens that live in South London)

·         Names –(Layla, Troy, Shaun, Shiree and Tonisha)

·         Revisited locations (Block of flats, youth centre and park

Franchises:

This is a collection of media in which several movies has been made for one title. This can be carried on by other parties or partners that might have an idea for the film. For example, Fast Furious is probably the one best known for this since they are making number eight of the film now. Another, example of this is Harry Potter because they have made 7 films for their franchise.

Narrative Structures:

Tzvetan Todorov’s Theory

In 1969, Tzvetan Theory produced a theory which he thought he could apply to any film. The theory was that all films follow the same narrative pattern. Todorov thought that all films went through stages called the equilibrium, disequilibrium, resolution and new equilibrium.

1. Equilibrium - the start if a film where it shows the family as being happy
2. Distribution - this is when the conflict happens
3. Resolution - this when someone resolves the conflict
4. New equilibrium - this is the new start of the family

This is what Todorov thought that all films consisted of.

A film that follow these steps perfectly is Die Hard.

1. Bruce Willis is coming home to his family for Christmas and all is great and calm. The Equilibrium

2. Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and his team of terrorists take over the nakatomi building which is hosting a Christmas part of which Willis and his wife are attending. The Distribution

3. The police try sending in a SWAT team in which fails. The situation is solved by John Willis throwing Gruber out of a high floor window which kills him. The Resolution

4. The police got Willis, his wife and the other hostages out of the building, and the Willis leave in a police car. The resolved Equilibrium

Vladimir Propp’s Theory

Vladimir Propp had a different approach to films. In 1920, Propp was a critic and he was most interested in fairy tales. He had noticed that all fairy tales consisted of the same character profiles.

The characters he found were: (Example,Thor)

• The hero- Thor (he is the main character that saves the world)

   

• The villain- Loki (he was taken in by Thor's family when he was young only to find out that he was not really a part of their family, and then turn evil)

• The donor- Odin (he was the father of Thor that took away his powers and gave it back when he realised that Thor learned from his mistakes)

    

• The dispatcher- Heimdall (the man who has the visions and helps Thor on his journey)

 

• The helper- Professor Erik Selvig (when Thor was taken down to earth he was helped by a Professor that gave him a place to stay because he was fascinated about space)  

• The princess- Jane ( she was also a helper but she also caught the eyes of Thor which makes her both princess and helper)

 

The reason why I chose to talk about the Marvel film Thor is because it is a great example of Propp’s theory about character profiles, this is because Thor consists of all the profiles that Vladimir Propp talks about.

Claude Levi-Strauss:

Levi Strauss was a social anthropologist that believed movies consisted on binary opposites. Levi Strauss studied myths of tribal cultures, he also realised that stories reflect the values, beliefs and myth of a culture. Strauss thought that these finding of his would be expressed as binary opposites.  Binary opposites are a pair of related terms that have an opposite meaning. For example, good and bad, beautiful and ugly, strong and weak.

An example of this binary opposites is the film ‘Twilight: New Moon’. The reason why this consists of binary opposites is because in this film it’s a fight between a Vampires and Werewolves. In this case the two opposites are the vampires and werewolves because the two mythical creatures have been at war for a very long time, we know this because in every film that consists of vampires and wolves it tells us that the grudge between the two have been going on for years.

In the image above it shows the three main characters from Twilight and in the background it shows what the two males are and what they associate in. The man on the left (Edward) is shown to be more pale than the over two and in his background you can see people in red over coats, because of the makeup used for Edward we can tell he is associated with vampires. Also, on the left next to the red coats we can see a church that can link back to vampires. The man on the right (Jacob) is more tanned and in his background you are able to see a wolf, which then we can say that Jacob is also a wolf. We can also associate him to being a wolf is because on his side we are able to see a moon and the woods which are known elements of wolves.  

J. Stuart Blackton (Pioneer)

 

James Stuart Blackton was born on January 5^th, 1875 in Sheffield, England and died on August 13^th, 1941 in Los Angeles, California. J. Stuart Blackton was an Anglo-American film producer and director of the silent era. The silent era is when there was no sound for films and clips, so they would mostly use mimes for films. J. Stuart Blackton was also seen as a pioneer of motion pictures, he founded Vitagraph Studios in 1807. Vitagraph Studios was a US motion picture studio and by 1907 it was the most productive company. Blackton was the first to make films that consisted of stop motion and drawn animation, this allowed him to take upon the name ‘The Father of American Animation’.

In 1906 Blackton released a short silent animated cartoon ‘Humorous Phases of Funny Faces’. This is seen to be the first animated film recorded on standard picture film. This would be another reason why people saw Blackton as a pioneer for animation.

In the scene above it shows a male and female, which are animated hand drawn scenes that appear on a chalkboard. In this scene the man starts to stare at the women and then he starts to smoke a cigar and the smoke fills the whole chalkboard, after this is created Blackton rubs out the board and starts a new short story. In the beginning, Blackton decided to show his hands when he started to draw the man but for the women the drawings just appeared. The images are then moved by themselves which aided by stop motion.

Blackton left Vitagraph Studios in 1917. In 1921 he came to England, where he directed three lavish costume dramas in Prismacolor (brand of professional artist). ‘The Glorious Adventure’ (1922) and ‘The Virgin Queen’ (1923)

However, though, Blackton was seen as the ‘Father of American Animation’ the Warner Bros took over Vitagraph studious in 1926. He then retired but in 1929 there was a crash which led to him losing all his money, this forced him back to work. Blackton ended his days working for the Anglo American film company. He was then killed in a car accident.

In my opinion I would say that the pioneer James Stuart Blackton played the most important role in animation. The reason why I think that Blackton played the most important role is because if he didn’t start working on animation, then the people who were inspired by his work and carried it on would have not had the determination to enter the animation world. The people that were inspired by Blackton’s work were Emile Cohl which then inspired Winsor Mcay and then led to a man called Goldwin. This can be seen as the domino effect, so the reason why Blackton was most important is because he can be seen as the first domino creating a reaction. If he didn’t starts producing then the others may have not followed.  

 

The Development of Animation

Zoetrope:

The Zoetrope was invented in the 19th century, this was invented by William George Horner. The first Zoetrope was introduced in England in 1834. It is also known as the wheel of life because when you put a strip of drawings in a circular drum and spin it at a certain pace it would look like the drawings are actually moving and turns it into a short animation clip. The persistence of vision creates an illusion of movement whereby a series of images turn into one picture. 

Phenakistoscope:

The Phenakistoscope was invented by a Belgian physicist called Joseph Plateau in 1832. The Phenakistoscope is also known as the "spindle viewer". This would give the illusion of movement and it is also regarded as the firsts forms of moving media. (also can be compared to as a GIF)

Flip Books:

This was created by John Barnes Linnett. Flip books were the first form of animation to employ a linear sequence of images rather than circular. They were created in 1868, they are normally considered as a toy or novelty for children. However, they were also used for adult purposes such as pornography.

Praxinoscope:
This is another animation device. The Praxinoscope was invented in France in 1877 by a man named Charles-Emile Reynaud. It used a strip of pictures placed around the inner surface of a spinning cylinder.


Paleolithic:
The Paleolithic era was known to be where they found the first Stop Motion Animation. Even though, the cave paintings were not able to move or give off the illusion of movement they still established the cave paintings as the first ever Stop Motion.


Thaumatrope:
This was invented in 1825 by a man called Dr John Ayrton in Paris. The Thaumatrope was the first optical toy that created the illusion of movement. The name that they gave this toy was the magic turn which consisted 2 pieces of paper and the quick flashes is interpreted as one continuous image.

Stop Motion Animation

Stop Motion Animation

What is Animation?

Animation is the illusion of movement created by showing a range of different still images at a fast pace, or giving life inanimate objects and or puppets. Animation can include different products such as, Disney and Pixar which are the two main products.


The first animations were found around 2.5 million years ago. This would be known as the paleolithic era also known as the stone age. These animations were found in caves that were probably drawn by cave men to show and share their experiences to others. Even though the cave paintings were not creating the illusion of movement, people still classified as first animations founded.

 Disney:                                                                                                                                                                                 

• The Lion King
• 101 Dalmations
• Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs
• Cinderella 
• The Jungle Book
• Sleeping Beauty
• Dumbo 
• Bambi

The main company is 'Walt Disney' which was founded on October 16th, 1923.

Pixar:

• Finding Nemo
• Brave
• Inside Out
• Monsters Inc
• Toy Story 
• Cars
• Coco
• The Good Dinosaur

The main company is 'Pixar' which was founded on February 3rd, 1986. 

Minimalist Film Posters 

  As you can see in the poster, this film is called 'The Lion King'. However, if the name was not mentioned in the poster the majority of the people would know what this film is since it is a classic. We would also know what the film is because in the poster we can see a big lions head, which tells us that it is probably the main animal in the film. Furthermore, we can see that the lion eye is the sun which is mighty, powerful and the over looker of the world. This shows that the lion is all mighty and has dominance over all animals; we can see this in the poster because it shows the animals following the lion. Also, by the lion roaring it shows us that it's not to be messed with, since it is fearless and dangerous.

The poster above is from the movie jaws. We can tell that it is the movie jaws because of the fin which is in red. This could be seen as being a gory film since the shark fin is in red, this could be portrayed as the shark being a killer and dangerous. Also, the red colour on the poster should really be blue because it is meant to be water, but the reason why they done this is maybe because the shark is a predator so when they actually kill another fish or a human the ocean will turn from blue to red (blood). This can also be seen as the shark leaving a trail of blood from its victims. However, this poster can be portrayed as being poly semi because the shark fin can be something of multiple meanings. For example, it could be a character from another film or even a weapon.