"Film Riot": film-making skills and tips

http://www.youtube.com/show/filmriot

This is a great YouTube resource if you want to develop your creative skills in film-making.

Useful resources for productions

http://www.mediacollege.com/

How to analyse a scene in one of your focus films - FM4

Camerawork

• Are there dominant shot types? (e.g. close ups)  Is the spectator close to the action or distanced?  Does this change in the scene?
• Are establishing shots used? How do they represent locations?
• What angles are used?  High? (inc. helicopter shot)  Canted?  Low?  Inverted (upside down)?  What is their effect?
• What camera movement is used?  Tracking?  Tilts?  Pans?  Is camera movement used to avoid cutting?
• Are handheld cameras used?  How do they position the spectator?
• Are zooms used? (inc. 'dolly zoom')
• Is framing  formal (closed) or informal (open) or both?
• Is the style 'shot, shot, shot' or are there long takes or continuous shots where one camera follows a sustained period of action?
• How has camera focus been used? (e.g. focus pulls, blurring etc.)  What is the effect?
• Are visual effects used?  (e.g. screenflares, over-exposure etc.)
• Are point of view shots used?  From whose perspective?

Editing

• What is the editing tempo?  Slow?  Fast?  Hyperkinetic? (very fast and noticeable)  How does the editing tempo relate to the mood and themes of the film?
• Is there a montage sequence?  Why?  (The opening sequence of City of God is a good example of a montage as we see preparations for a street party and time is compressed.)
• Are flashbacks and/or flashforwards used?  Why?  (Tsotsi and City of God both use flashbacks such as the Buscape 'goalkeeper' sequence.)  C.O.G. also uses distinctive techniques to move time forward, such as the truck transition that brings in the 1970s.)
• Is ellipsis used to compress time?  Why?  ( e.g. C.O.G. uses distinctive techniques to move time forward, such as the truck transition that brings in the 1970s.)
• Is cross-cutting and/or parallel editing used?  Why?  (In Tsotsi, the editor cross-cuts between shots of Tsotsi running away after beating up Boston and the young David (Tsotsi as a boy) running away from home.  Bene's farewell is a very good sequence for parallel editing as we see different characters in different parts of the venue carrying out actions simultaneously.)
• Is slow motion and/or accelerated motion used?  Why?  (e.g. slow motion is used to represent the icy fear Buscape feels when he crosses Li'l Ze's path in the street.  Accelerated motion is used in C.O.G. when Ze and Bene kill the other dealers.)
• Are transitions used to move from scene to scene?  Which type of transition(s)?
• Are cutaways used at any time?  (e.g. when Ze and Bene argue at the party, there is a cutaway to a flashback of when they were children, laughing together.  In the final scene of La Haine there is a cutaway to an 'insert' shot of the clock after Vinz has been shot to show that this tragic incident took place in less than a minute.)
• Are any graphic matches used?  (e.g.the graphic match between the water entering the plughole and Marion's eye in the Psycho shower scene)
• Are there any significant eyeline matches?  (Bene's 'farewell' is good for this.)
• Are visual effects added?  (e.g. white flashes, the 'viewfinder effect', colour changes, muzzle flashes etc.)
• Is there a noticeable colour palette? (including monochrome - black and white)
• Do any graphics and/or text appear on screen? (e.g. the digital clock in La Haine and the chapters in City of God)

Sound

• How is diegetic sound (part of the character's world) and non-diegetic sound used?  What is the effect on characters?  What is the effect on the spectator?
• Is ambient sound used?  (e.g. the sound of waves in Jaws)
• Is asynchronous sound used?  (images and sound not in synch)
• Is a sound bridge used to blend two scenes?
• Is silence used?  What is the effect?
• What important words of dialogue can you identify in the scene?
• What music is used?  Why?
• Are there identifiable themes, phases or motifs in the music?  What are there effects?
• What does the music or sound represent to you?
• From whose sound perspective do you hear diegetic sound?  How does this position you?  Does the sound perspective make you feel you are in a particular position within the location?  Does this change?
• Are editing sound effects used?  (e.g. the scene where Vinz fantasizes about shooting the traffic cop; Bene's farewell and the sound effects that accompany the light transition)
• What foley sounds are used?  (Foley sounds are man-made and are added to the soundtrack.)

Mise-en-scene

• How have locations been used?  Is the film shot 'on-location'.
• What is the environment in which the film is shot?  How does this relate to the messages and values of the film?
• Are sets used?
• What do the costumes worn by characters represent? (also makeup and hair - Bene's blonde hair suggests a desire to be less 'negro' in appearance)
• How is lighting used?  (e.g. there is no electric light in Soweto - Tsotsi; the 'ghost ship' sequence in Jaws is great for lighting)
• What performances stand out?  How are these performances achieved? (techniques)
• What props are used?  Why are they significant?

Don't forget that micro features are not independent from messages and values.  For example, both La Haine and Tsotsi use wide shots of posters to present a message.  In La Haine, Said changes a poster that says "Le Monde est a vous" ('The World is yours') to "Le Monde est a nous" ('The World is ours').  This is a defiant statement - he seems to be reclaiming the world (or France) from the authorities who control it and institutionally oppress the underprivileged.  At the beginning of the film we see the same image of the earth (without the text) being hit by a 'Molotov Cocktail' and exploding.

In Tsotsi, we see a wide shot of the Johannesburg station concourse with a poster that states: "WE ARE ALL AFFECTED BY HIV AND AIDS - stand together against discrimination".  The message here is that this is a country (and continent) that is poor and struggling to deal with the disease and the stigma of infection.  Tsotsi's own mother seems to have been a victim of AIDS and her husband denied Tsotsi the opportunity to comfort and care for his mother.