Tuesday, 19 October 2010
Monday, 18 October 2010
Film techniques
Summarising film techniques from Alfred Hitchcock:
Step 1: The audience is the most important thing. They know when they watch a film they are safe and when they walk out in to real life they can continue with real life. Therefore they can completly engross themselves in to a film.
Step 2: Emotion is the ultimate goal for each scene so it is important where you place the camera. The closer the camera the more intense the film is.
Step 3: The camera should take on human qualities so that the audience feel like they are uncovering the true story. This idea came from silent films as they had to find ways to tell the story.
Step 4:Don't always use dialogue use body language and action to pull the audience in. Resort to dialogue last.
Step 5: If dialogue is not going to be used then a point of view shot is required to show what the character is doing. For example they may have the same expression but that expression may have two different meanings.
Step 6: Montage gives you control. Don't be afraid to use simple shots.
Step 7: Keep the story simple.
Step 8: Make all the characters the opposite of what the audience expect.
Step 9: Use humour to add tension.
Step 10: Build tension into a scene by using contrasting situations. Use two unrelated things happening at once. The audience should be focused on the momentum of one, and be interrupted by the other. Usually the second item should be a humorous distraction that means nothing (this can often be dialogue). It was put there by you only to get in the way.
Step 11: Showing the audience what the characters don't see creates suspense. The character must be completely unaware of what is going on.
Step 12: Once your audience has been built to suspense never let them guess what is going to happen. It should be a complete surprise.
Step 13: The MacGuffin is the side effect of creating pure suspense. When scenes are built around dramatic tension, it doesn’t really matter what the story is about. If you've done your job and followed all the previous steps, the audience is still glued no matter what. You can use random plot devices known as the MacGuffin.
Step 1: The audience is the most important thing. They know when they watch a film they are safe and when they walk out in to real life they can continue with real life. Therefore they can completly engross themselves in to a film.
Step 2: Emotion is the ultimate goal for each scene so it is important where you place the camera. The closer the camera the more intense the film is.
Step 3: The camera should take on human qualities so that the audience feel like they are uncovering the true story. This idea came from silent films as they had to find ways to tell the story.
Step 4:Don't always use dialogue use body language and action to pull the audience in. Resort to dialogue last.
Step 5: If dialogue is not going to be used then a point of view shot is required to show what the character is doing. For example they may have the same expression but that expression may have two different meanings.
Step 6: Montage gives you control. Don't be afraid to use simple shots.
Step 7: Keep the story simple.
Step 8: Make all the characters the opposite of what the audience expect.
Step 9: Use humour to add tension.
Step 10: Build tension into a scene by using contrasting situations. Use two unrelated things happening at once. The audience should be focused on the momentum of one, and be interrupted by the other. Usually the second item should be a humorous distraction that means nothing (this can often be dialogue). It was put there by you only to get in the way.
Step 11: Showing the audience what the characters don't see creates suspense. The character must be completely unaware of what is going on.
Step 12: Once your audience has been built to suspense never let them guess what is going to happen. It should be a complete surprise.
Step 13: The MacGuffin is the side effect of creating pure suspense. When scenes are built around dramatic tension, it doesn’t really matter what the story is about. If you've done your job and followed all the previous steps, the audience is still glued no matter what. You can use random plot devices known as the MacGuffin.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)