Cinematography

Editing a scene is very important if you want to create the right mood and right effect. The camera should capture a Master Shot, which gets both characters in the frame, and a Mid-shot which will only focus on one of the characters at a time. The Mid-shots will be used throughout most of a conversation. Things that will improve how good your scene looks are things like parallel music and contrapuntal music.      

Recipe for James Bond Thrillers

Like his famous shaken-but-not-stirred martini's, all you need is: 

• One part dashing, sexy, and heroic secret agent
• One part eccentric villain of equal strength
• Two dashes of gorgeous women
• Ice cubes of exotic locations and plot devices 
• A glass filled to the brim with eye-popping, stunt-driven action from the top shelf of absurdity  

James Bond has expanded and developed an incredible amount. For example times have changed since Sean Connery was playing the 007 secret agent. The audience can see this mainly by the effects and camera work, however everything to do with the film in general is completely different. Feel free to look at these two clips to see the difference for yourself. 

Camera Skills

There are many different camera skills that directors use to create the right mood or effect in their film. Everything that the audience can see on screen has been purposely done. For example, the background, the characters appearance, body language, the angle of the shot, the speed of the cut, the lighting, the music playing etc. 

The background of every scene would have been thought very carefully about, because it is vital to create the right mood. For example if it was a romantic scene, as a director you might carry out the scene on a beach. Scenery that wouldn't link well with this kind of scene would be a cave or a dark alley. 

The characters appearance gives the audience quite a strong impression of what they're like. This camera skill is a good way to single out the "god guy" from the "bad guy" in a film. Also linked to this, is body language. Face-to-face communication is 60% body language, 30% the tone of your voice, and 10% of the actual words you use. This means that 90% of your communication, isn't even coming out of your mouth. This highlights how important an actors body language is.

The angle of the shot is probably the most important thing directors have to analyze. For example, where the camera needs to be in different situations. They also have to be sure they do not break the 180 degree rule. The 180 degree rule is best explained in this picture:

Also, the speed of the cut is important considering the mood it is creating and what Genre the film is. Action films will have fast short snappy cuts, to enhance how anxious and paranoid the character might be. Romantic films will have long slow cuts to show there is no rush, and that it's a calm atmosphere.

The lighting is also important in each scene as it can help us figure out what type of person a certain character is. For example, if someone is sitting in a dark room with a spotlight next to them so you can just see the silhouette of the body, then it shows that they don't want to be seen, they're mysterious.

Lastly, Non-Diegetic sounds can help create an impression of a certain character just by the music being played when they appear on screen.      

        

Media Task

This is a short clip that shows different camera angles used. Camera angles shown are Tilt, Long Shot, Tracking Shot, Birds Eye View, Handheld etc. The location of this short clip is in our school, we worked on it for about 20 minutes, getting the camera in the right places and sorting out the lighting for each scene. The idea of it was that Grace and Leon was going for a walk, not noticing Jimmy standing there watching them. 

Enjoy.