Editing Techniques

• Continuity: Continuity editing is the process, in film and video creation, of combining more-or-less related shots, or different components cut from a single shot, into a sequence to direct the viewer's attention to a pre-existing consistency of story across both time and physical location.
• Non continuity: Non-continuity editing is when shots are mismatched to disrupt the impression of time and space. This draws the audiences' attention to the process of cutting and disturbs the illusion of 'reality'. An example is the use of flash backs.
• Parallel Editing: Parallel editing (cross cutting) is the technique of alternating two or more scenes that often happen simultaneously but in different locations.
• Intercut: An intercut is a type of edit where two or more actions in distinct locations are edited together into one scene.
• Jumpcut: A jump cut is a cut in film editing in which two sequential shots of the same subject are taken from camera positions that vary only slightly if at all. This type of edit gives the effect of jumping forwards in time.
• Cutaway: In film and video, a cutaway is the interruption of a continuously filmed action by inserting a view of something else. It is usually followed by a cut back to the first shot.
• Action match: matching on action refers to film editing and video editing techniques where the editor cuts from one shot to another view that matches the first shot's action. A common example is a man walking up to a door and reaching for the knob.
• Eyeline match: An eyeline match is a film editing technique associated with the continuity editing system. It is based on the premise that an audience will want to see what the character on-screen is seeing.
• Graphic match: occurs when the shapes, colors and/or overall movement of two shots match in composition, either within a scene or, especially, across a transition between two scenes. 

Deconstruction of Film Openings

Deconstruction of Hot Fuzz (2007) opening scene
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Lqd-UwZmJ4

• Camera: 

A long establishing shot is used to introduce a setting (the police station) and the main character; this practice is common in films. Explaining the character's background and narration are also used to introduce the main character and to explain his importance. It does contain a few opening credits before the main action of the scene.

Almost every shot of Angel walking through Police Headquarters is a tracking shot, which signifies his importance as the main character. It switches between medium shots to close up shots to extreme close up shots in succession. This variety of camera angles makes the introduction fast paced. The montage frequently uses zooming both in and out to further increase the pace of the intro, and so that there is always movement.

• Editing:

The editing emphasizes the fast paced action by lots of close ups and medium shots in quick succession. It also uses overlays during the action parts to represent the character's determination. Match cuts are used to switch between scenes in the montage, which creates continuity and makes it feel fast paced. The editing feels more like that of a trailer, as it uses many techniques specific to trailers such as rapid cuts and overlays. This cements this sequence as a parody of action films, by using tropes common to them and giving them a comedic twist.

• Sound:

Almost every action is accompanied by its sound being emphasized, from drifting a car to clicking a pen. Most of these sounds are non-diegetic such as voice over and background music, with sounds being amplified to make actions seem more important than they are. The music is very upbeat to accompany the montage, but simultaneously it has a sound which suits itself to comedy. 

• Mise en scene:

The costume is the police uniform. Lighting is dull and in the shades of blue. Setting is of a police headquarters. 

Reading Film Genres

Drama Genre:

Conventions of drama genre are discussed under my blog: https://emaanansari.blogspot.com/2019/12/research-conventions-of-drama-genre.html

Horror Genre:

A horror film is a film that is made to be unsettling as it has a purpose to scare audience. Some examples of horror movies are Annabelle, Cabin in the woods and It. 

Camera Angles:

1. Extreme close ups in order to emphasize the facial expressions of the victim.
2. Tilt in order to create disorientation 
3. Establishing shot to highlight the location
4. Handheld in order to look realistic
5. Tracking to follow character's footsteps
6. Point of view so the audience feels as if they are the characters so they can relate while watching the film and feel the fear.

Sound: 

Horror films often use quite dramatic music or sounds effects in order to empathize when something is going to happen. For example if there's a creek in the floor boards it will be extremely loud to create a suspense of fear towards the audience. Secondly the music is often very dramatic and the sound will become louder when a substantial event is going to happen. Usually piano is used for background music to add uneasiness and fear. 

Mise en scene:

A horror film often includes props such as weapons as they have an association with death. These include; knifes, chainsaws, axe's. However all the weapons included are those which inflict slow and torturous pain. Also these weapons often create more blood with is also a connotation of a horror film. Therefore a weapon like a gun isn't usually included. For example the film 'Texas Chainsaw' the deaths are caused by the chainsaw as its a slow painful death. Conventionally, the lighting is usually dull and dark, the location includes minimal amount of people which is generally a dark area. Costumes of the character also tend to be dull. However, some movies such as Midsommar follow unconventional ways such as using bright lighting and clothing, with ordinary locations to create a unique horror movie.

Editing:

Pace: The pace used in horror films is often fast, this is to build tension. It also creates a sense of urgency for viewers. Fast pace editing also disorientates the audience so that they feel uneasy. However this is mixed with one or two scenes with slow paced editing. This is as it draws in the audience and gives them a sense of security before scaring them. 

Editing techniques: 

• Cut away - to show characters reaction to the situations they are facing.
• Jump cut - allowing passage of time to show whilst also sometimes using it to scare the audience,
• Fade to black - Gives a mysterious and tense feeling

Genres & their openings

Different genres have different openings. For example, a horror movie may have a slightly disturbing opening in order to make the audience feel uneasy and create engima as in what type of disruption the character is facing.
In drama movies, the opening scene may have an equilibrium. However, disequilibrium may be created right at the end of the opening to create enigma.
Thriller movies may start with a chase scene, or a crime scene. 

Semiotics & Decoding Meanings

Semiotics is the study of signs and their meaning in society. A sign is something which can stand for something else – in other words, a sign is anything that can convey meaning.  So words can be signs, drawings can be signs, photographs can be signs, even street signs can be signs.  Modes of dress and style, the type of bag you have, or even where you live can also be considered signs, in that they convey meaning.
The signifier and the signified are terms in media which refer to semiotic coding. The signifier is the object, the word, the image or action. the signified is the concept behind the object that is being represented. For example, the cross symbol is a signifier on a simple basis because it is two lines crossed over one another. but the Chrsitian faith and the morals that come with it are the signified.
According to Ferdinand de Sausser, one of the founding father of semiotics, semiotics is the study of how people make meaning through both linguistic and non-linguistic ways. It is a philosophical theory concerned with understanding how people use signs and symbols in meaning-making

History & Evolution of Film

Lumière brothers, French inventors and pioneer manufacturers of photographic equipment who devised an early motion-picture camera and projector called the Cinématographe (“cinema” is derived from this name). Augustè Lumière and his brother Louis Lumière created the film La Sortie des ouvriers de l’usine Lumière (1895; “Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory”), which is considered the first motion picture.

Sons of a painter turned photographer, the two boys displayed brilliance in science at school in Lyon, where their father had settled. Louis worked on the problem of commercially satisfactory development of film; at 18 he had succeeded so well that with his father’s financial aid he opened a factory for producing photographic plates, which gained immediate success. By 1894 the Lumières were producing some 15 million plates a year. That year the father, Antoine, was invited to a showing of Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope in Paris; his description of the peephole machine on his return to Lyon set Louis and Auguste to work on the problem of combining animation with projection. Louis found the solution, which was patented in 1895. At that time they attached less importance to this invention than to improvements they had made simultaneously in colour photography. But on December 28, 1895, a showing at the Grand Café on the boulevard des Capucines in Paris brought wide public acclaim and the beginning of cinema history.

The Lumière apparatus consisted of a single camera used for both photographing and projecting at 16 frames per second. Their first films (they made more than 40 during 1896) recorded everyday French life—e.g., the arrival of a train, a game of cards, a toiling blacksmith, the feeding of a baby, soldiers marching, the activity of a city street. Others were early comedy shorts. The Lumières presented the first newsreel, a film of the French Photographic Society Conference, and the first documentaries, four films about the Lyon fire department. Beginning in 1896 they sent a trained crew of innovative cameraman-projectionists to cities throughout the world to show films and shoot new material.

What Is A Film Opening

The purpose of a film opening is to entice the audience into carrying on watching a film by creating an engima. A film opening also establishes characters and genre. Directors do this in many ways through the following methods:

1.  1) Flashback: A scene that the narrative back in time usually to a key event for a couple of minutes or the whole movie.
2.  2) Planning of landscape/establishing shot: This is used to set the scene and inform the audience where the film is taking place.
3.  3) Narrations: Easy and effective way of getting the audience involved straight away. Technique used to give background information on what has been happening or who the characters are, giving the audience an insight so the rest of the film make sense.
4. 4) Action scene: A fast paced opening to a film attracts the audience straight away and will make them want to carry on watching. As well it automatically shows the genre of the film if included in the opening.
5. 5) Chase scene: Similar to the action scene, also catches the audiences attention. It involves them as they will want to see what happens after the chase.
6. 6) Production Logos: At the start of most films they will always show the production or distribution logos. If the film has a high budget the logo will be adapted to reflect the genre and story line of the film.
7. 7) Title sequence: All films have title scenes too, these show the cast and production team for the films. The titles can be a way of building up suspense and can show the genre of the film.
8.  8) Animation: To portray the beginning of the film in a creative way and visibly show the difference between the film itself and the opening sequence. e.g. Juno
9. 9) Compilation of photographs: For example Blue Valentine which is a romantic film, shows photographs to portray to the audience the theme and the relationship between the couple.
10. 10) Narrative content: This includes the context (Where/when/who). As well the pace of the narrative increases as level of engagement increases
11.  12) Soundtrack: This is the use of tone, volume, and tempo, which will generically start quiet and slow-paced.

1.  Some directors prefer to have an unconventional opening to portray a sense of mystery or giving the film an artistic edge.E.g. Lack of credits, Lack of establishing shot, Main characters are not introduced.

Key Media Concepts

Institutions

Institutions are the organizations and people whose operational processes and practices enable or constrain moving-image media production and use. Without institutions, there would be no media. They include Hollywood as a global media industry, the British film and television industries, the video games industry, the newspaper industry, individuals making media products on computers at home, and thousands of others around the world.

In Media studies, it is also important to consider the company or organisation that produce or broadcast the media texts that we receive. Different media institutions have different aims and visions and they often have different audiences or compete with each other for the same audience. Some media institutions are huge and they own lots of different media forms; Rupert Murdoch owns a company called ‘News Corp International’ which owns Sky TV, The Sun newspaper, The Times newspaper, FOX TV and 20th Century Fox films. 

Media Language

Media language is the way in which the meaning of a media text is conveyed to the audience.One of the ways Media Language works is to convey meaning through signs and symbols organised through codes and conventions to create meaning in moving-image media production and use. Media languages are the elements that form the building blocks of communication. These include rules, sometimes called codes, relating to the technical, symbolic and narrative aspects of media.Technical codes include shot types, camera angles, framing and composition, editing style, the use of various fonts and elements of sound. Symbolic codes are elements such as body language, facial expression, props and costumes, location design, dialogue and lighting. Narrative codes are the story based elements relating to the story, plot, character, setting and theme. All media products can be deconstructed to identify how various elements come together to communicate a message.

Representations

Representations are constructions of people, places, events, ideas, and emotions that are applied to create meaning in moving-image media production and use.Media representations relate to the ways in which people, places, ideas, emotions and beliefs are portrayed in media and popular culture. Media products are selective constructions of the real world, not the real world itself. All media representations are the product of someone's point of view or perspective and reflect competing beliefs and biases in society. 

Audience

Audiences are individuals and groups of people for whom moving-image products are made, and who make meanings when they use these products.
Media audiences are the people media products are produced for. Audiences use media products in many ways, often not intended by the producers. While media products are sometimes perfectly directed towards their target audience, many fail because they are simply rejected by the audience. An example of this is advertising. We know now we are being manipulated, and don't buy every product advertised.Increasingly, media audiences now too, are becoming producers of media themselves, through digital content, such as websites, blogs, myspace, and other digital forums. Audiences have a complex relationship with the products they consume. Media producers intend audiences to read their product in a certain way, but in actual fact everyone 'reads' and enjoys a product differently due to the individual's background and lifestyle. Media audiences may be consuming different types of media at any one time (such as listening to an iPod, watching TV, chatting on the Internet) and be engaging at different levels – for example, the television may be turned on whilst a family has dinner. Media consumers are organised into identified groups (based on such things as lifestyle or earning power) by producers, broadcasters, and advertisers who can then target consumers.

Evaluation Questions

Question 1

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zKKw6Xt698DGxHyW7348-hiEp1WgVsDH/view?usp=shari

Question 2

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JBIX1kDqJd6ub6iJfeGlhIBbRao_ignZ/view?usp=sharing

Question 3

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lcpUDG5yLbkZjzZ0TTesxgR0wwQU5kPT/view?usp=sharing

Question 4

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WcY97_PhuYgthqHZmz7mYwt-VNLiPPcI/view?usp=sharing

Opening Film

Google Drive:-

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18VX6BQmbrUXAoq_GruNb6tBmui5L2zld/view?usp=sharing

YouTube:- 

https://youtu.be/VQl48v3uAPM