...”A Shot in the Light”, group work: analysis and interpretation (30 minutes) 1) Characterisation: Characterise the two men in the story: the narrator and Ray. Use the following points to do so (read through all of them and use them in the order you please): a. What transformation have the two men undergone? Do they develop? - They undergo the transformation of friendship and learn to trust each other. Ray goes from being a mean and bad guy to stop trying to kill the narrator. b. Comment on the expression: “Why were you being so damn nice to me, man?” - He wasn’t used to being treated as well as the stranger treated him. Ray came from an environment were he was treated badly and didn’t trust anyone. c. Explain the ending of the story – concentrate on the word “blessed”. Consider whether the narrator can be seen as a Jesus figure. - Yes, he can be seen as a Jesus figure because he makes Ray a better person and forgives him for shooting him. He shows Ray the right way out of the criminality. He can see the good things in all people, and he didn’t die of the bullets. d. Do you think Ray will keep his promise? Why/why not? - Yes because the narrator makes an impression on Ray that might keep him from harming others. 2) Theme/ message: Discuss which theme(s) you think is/ are the strongest in the short story and whether there is a clear message about the theme. e. Have a look at your notes from last time for ideas about themes (if...
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...groundbreaking cinematography and mix of lighting (or lack thereof), low-angle shots, and deep focus, contribute to the audience’s awareness of the important events occurring throughout the movie while simultaneously evoking feelings of curiosity towards the seemingly mysterious and solitary life of Charles Foster Kane. In certain scenes throughout the movie, the lack of lighting, ironically, catches the audience’s eye. The first scene where the lack of lighting really stands out takes place when the few journalists assigned to write about Kane’s death are discussing the possible meanings of his last word, “rosebud.” The first thing the audience is presented with is a room encompassed in darkness, with the exception of two streams of light pouring in from the windows, barely seeming to effectively light up the room. When the men pass by the light, all that is visible are their profiles, and a few puffs of smoke. Although Welles uses a long shot and deep focus for the majority of this scene, the audience really doesn’t get a look into where the characters are spatially located within the shot or how many people are in the room, which leaves a lingering feeling of mystery and curiosity. After a couple of seconds, a second source of light comes through from the lamp sitting on a desk, however this still doesn’t give the audience much more information. Later in the scene the camera cuts to a leveled medium-long shot of two men talking to each other, with a giant white...
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...looking at this painting you view quickly from the right to the left and can almost feel the inevitable execution. There is also a line in the sand separating the light from the dark. Seems to be imply between the good of the Spaniards who are about to be executed, from the evil hooded men who are shooting. I believe that there is an implied line between the end of the gun and the man with his arms up. It is giving an action that you can almost feel the gunshot from the barrel executing the man. Especially how when looking from right to left it goes from dark to light, like the gun has been fired. B.)Shape-The geometric shape of the lantern stands out to me right away. Its rectangular shape and the triangle shape of the light which it creates draw my eye in this painting. It seems to paint a positive light on the people that are about to be executed. There are many more geometric shapes in this painting than organic. The organic shapes that I see are the rounded hill in the background and the contours that are created in the sand. These two in the painting are good examples of biomorphic shapes. C.)Mass-The mass is implied here and is created by the forms of the captives. They seem to go in all directions here with their arms and the way each is bent. It really creates urgency that they are about to be shot. There is no actual mass in this painting as this is seen in 3-dimensional art. It is the physical bulk of a solid body of material. You can only consider the...
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...exposed to light to create an image. It encompasses many factors: the camera’s distance from the action, camera angle and direction, type of lens, camera movement, and lighting, among others. The art of cinematography also includes mise-en-scène—the arrangement of objects and movements in the frame. Shot Types The amount of visual information included in the image depends on the distance of the camera from the action and on the focal length of the camera lens. Throughout the history of cinema, filmmakers have favored certain combinations of camera distance and focal length, or shot types. * Extreme long shot: Captures a scene in its entirety; used for establishing location in exterior shots. Used frequently in epic genres such as westerns and war films, it reduces human beings to mere dots on the screen. * Long shot: Accommodates at least the entire bodies of figures (if that is all the shot includes, it is called a full shot). Captures movement, background, and broad gestures and expressions. * Medium shot: Contains a figure from the waist or knees up. It is a functional shot, favored in classical Hollywood editing, often used for scenes with dialogue. * Close-up: Includes very little if any background, concentrating on an object or, if an extreme close-up, a fragment of an object, such as the human face. Close-ups often accord great significance and symbolic value to the objects they portray. * Deep focus shot: A variation of the long shot that keeps...
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...March 2011 Lighting: The Way it Affects a Movie Set Lights! Lights! And More Lights! While on a movie set for any show, cinematographers are artists that paint motion pictures with light (Murphy 1). They must know that lighting is their main concern while in production. No matter if there is too much or too little lighting, lighting must always be controlled (Morales). In order to solve the problem of faulty lighting, cinematographers should know when lights should be used, where it should be placed, and who it should be focused on; therefore, they must communicate with the director and the lighting engineer at all times because the lighting sets the mood for the image (Morales). There are many techniques that a cinematographer works with and people wonder how. An example is that most people wonder how cinematographers control their lighting while indoors when the subject is placed by a window. If subject is in front of a window and there is too much sunlight, take some aluminum foil wrapped around a piece of cardboard and turn it towards the subject so the light will reflect on the person face which will act as a key or filled light. If there is another light around, put it a little closer to subject and the reflected light will act as the backlight to make it seem as three-point lighting (“Lighting Tricks and Solutions”). The need for this type of lighting is to make the subject’s face is clear and visible. If the light from the window is shinning on the subject too much...
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...4 Cinematography We are affected and defined by light. Light is the most important tool we have to work with, not only as cinematographers, but as people. —Laszlo Kovacs Courtesy Everett Collection Section 4.1 The “Look” of a Scene CHAPTER 4 Chapter Objectives After reading this chapter, students should: • Have a working knowledge of the cinematographer’s job • Understand the difference between cinematography and mise en scène and recognize the importance of each • Understand the importance of color and lighting and how they affect the tone and feel of a film • Be familiar with different methods of photographing a film, and with terms such as panning, tilting, tracking shots, deep focus, and aspect ratios • Understand how different focal length lenses affect the look of a shot • Recognize what special effects can do for a movie—and what they can’t do 4.1 The “Look” of a Scene W hen we are first introduced to Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather, played by Marlon Brando, the Mafia boss is sitting in the study of his home. Along with his consigliore, or adviser, Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), Corleone is listening to a line of people requesting favors on the day of his daughter’s wedding. Corleone is immensely powerful, as we learn by the scope of the favors he is asked to grant, which in one case includes the desire of a singer to be cast in a film to revive his musical career, and Corleone’s ability to grant them. However, it is not just what...
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...intensity of light. There are many ways to light a subject's face, but there are several common lighting plans which are easy enough to describe. Three-point lighting One of the most basic lighting plans is called three-point lighting. This plan uses three (and sometimes four) lights to fully model (bring out details and the three-dimensional of) the subject's features. The three main lights used in this light plan are as follows: Key-Light Also called a main light, the key light is usually placed to one side of the subject's face, between 30 and 60 degrees off center and a bit higher than eye level. The purpose of the Key-Light is to give shape (modelling) to a subject, typically a face. This relies on the first principle of lighting, white comes out of a plane and black goes back into a plane. The depth of shadow created by the Main-Light can be controlled with a Fill-Light. Fill-in light In modern photography, the fill-in light is used to control the contrast in the scene and is nearly always placed above the lens axis and is a large light source (think of the sky behind your head when taking a photograph). As the amount of light is less than the key-light (main-light), the fill acts by lifting the shadows only (particularly relevant in digital photography where the noise lives in the shadows). It is true to say that light bounces around a room and fills in the shadows but this does not mean that a fill-light should be placed opposite a key-light (main-light) and it does...
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...After saving her life Leon teaches Matilda to “Clean” and begins to track down her family’s killers at the cost of her teaching him to read and washing his place. As the film unfolds a relationship blossoms between the two characters as they learn to depend on each other. I wish to evaluate the showdown scene near the end of the movie. After Leon has killed nearly every member of Stansfield’s team, Stansfield decides to hunt down this hit man as well as the girl. Bringing all his might with the police he storms the building where Leon and Matilda live with hundreds of SWAT and police members. Matilda yet again, is returning from shopping, a mirror scene of when her family is killed. As Matilda returns the initial framing is a tight long shot of the hallway where she enters. This gives the audience a restrictive view point of Matilda’s perspective, the colours being very bleak, and no colour is particularly vibrant, even the green of the walls is greyish, this style is apparent throughout the places Leon and Matilda go and shows how bleak and almost hopeless their situation is. Though the hallway is evenly lit as to allow the audience to establish that it is clear. This is used to then surprise...
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...city on its side. There is a large mansion built upon it. The dim lighting gives off a creepy, unapproachable vibe. There is a long shot with a dark tone. The music is eerie and is like a warning to stay away from the mansion. 2: A close shot of the mansion shows that the building is not completed. There is still dark lighting except the glow from the windows. Dark tone, long shot. The foreboding music continues. 3: Zooms into a close up of a lady completing a puzzle, she turns to look at the voice calling out to her. Her clothing suggests she is wealthy. Low lighting, medium tone, with a glossy quality. 4: A man walks into the room to converse with the woman. Low lighting makes it hard to make out the set, besides the various statues. Long shot with a dark tone and high contrast. 5: Medium long shot not a very high tone, glossy. You can make out the woman’s details better. 6: The camera returns to the man who walks towards the woman. You can see more of the mansion as he moves. The man and woman talk about a trip to New York. He walks from low lighting to the medium lighting of the woman can see him better. There are many statues in the house, giving off a vibe of wealth. Long shot dark tone with high contrast. 7: The woman is still doing her puzzle. There is low lighting and you can see the expensive jewelry she is wearing. Close up shot, even contrast glossy. As the time slowly passes you can only hear the rhythmic ticking of the clock. The puzzle progresses. 8: The...
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...hotography and the camera Taking a Picture creating a photograph requires only the single act of 1. Framing the Picture pushing the button that triggers the shutter, which is a ■ Light enters the lens. moving curtain that lets light fall on the digital sensor for ■ Light bounces off reflex mirror and through pentaprism to viewfinder. ■ Photographer sees what the camera sees a set length of time. Everything else is preparation and internal mechanics. Photography, in other words, can be 99 percent anticipation and 1 percent action. The parallel through the viewfinder. between a photographer and a hunter, in which the trigger pull is analogous to the push of the shutter button, is obvious. Both shoot. But a hunter sends out a missile; a pho- 2. Taking the Picture ■ Photographer depresses button. artistic calculation beyond simple aim. Modern digital SLRs, ■ Reflex mirror rises. increasingly user-friendly, allow photographers to concen- ■ Shutter opens at designated shutter speed. ■ Aperture opens to designated measure. ■ Light travels straight to sensors. tographer draws in reflected light. He or she must make an trate more on that aesthetic than on mechanics. COVER: Octavian Radu Topai/National Geographic My Shot Hawaii, U.S. national geographic complete guide to photography: p hotography and the camera The Art of Photography professionals often say they “make,” rather subject than...
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...This typically includes a minimum of two professional camera bodies, several lenses, strobes, multiple memory cards, large quantities of batteries, brackets, extension cords, light stands, light modifiers, alternative lighting sources. While not every item will be utilized during every moment of the day, it is important to be prepared for every eventuality including, change in venue, bad weather, unexpected shots to capture, etc. Nonprofessional photographers usually do not carry back up photography equipment with them. This means that if anything goes wrong with one camera then they will not have another one to use and the remainder of the wedding goes unphotographed. An experienced photographer will know what to do if a memory card corrupts or if the battery runs out they will always have a...
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...and whether the trailer conforms or challenges the stereotypical conventions of the genres of sci-fi and horror. Conventions are all the things that make a film a particular genre. A horror film would have things like blood and gore, death, killer, victim or psychopaths for example. A sci-fi film would include things like space exploration, aliens, space ships, and good vs. evil or futuristic things. But it can always be argued because this movie is a Hybrid as it contains horror and sci-fi. When the film was released in was age rated at 18 because of the violence and gore, but compared to today standards it would have been lowered to an age rating of 15. During the trailer there are a few scenes where you see a ginger cat in a close up shot; this scene does not fall into sci-fi or horror. There are rather a few scenes in the trailer which conforms into sci-fi and horror like space suits, space ships and...
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...The film the descent uses a range of shots, sound, editing and symbolisation to create an ominous atmosphere; in effect this makes the horror aspect in the film really stand out as it leaves the viewer deciding what happens in specific parts of the film, which all ties in with the films ending. This all makes the film very subjective and leaves much of the opening scenes open to interpretation which is very enticing for a horror movie. The films opening sequence contains many things which symbolise the events in the movie and starts to define what genre the movie is, because the music is fairly ambient and deep suggesting danger which implies it’s a horror or a thriller movie. When the opening credits appear light effects illuminate the names in a circle like manner, only showing only parts of the credits. The part of the view is cut because it cleverly foreshadows the events to come in the film; the illuminating light implies the flash lights the crew hold and the cut of view of the credits suggest that they wont be able to see everything down in the caves. The opening shot is a long shot of the trees and the sky to show the isolation as well as being a clear representation of Mise-en-scène because everything in the shot is well thought out and crafted; you can see more things than what the obvious may just suggest, because there is a contrast between light and dark (sky and the trees) which symbolises a barrier between good and bad (binary opposites). The trees also foreshadow...
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...made works titled The Café Terrace on the Place du Forum. He utilized a cluster of vivid colors like orange, blue, yellow, green, and white with oil paints that appears to move over the canvas to make this delightful magnum opus. Light and religion put a crucial part in this piece, which to Van Gogh can mean the same thing. A wellspring of light in The Café Terrace on the Place du Forum is originating from the windows on the building to the right of the painting. In 1860 English physicist Sir Joseph Wilson Swan imagined an electric globule and by 1878 the new electric lights were seen in England (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2014). Furthermore, the accompanying year Thomas Edison took the configuration and modified it to permit the knob to smolder 1500 hours or more from the 40 hours of the first electric globule. By 1888 urban communities everywhere throughout the world were lit up with luminescent electric lights. In Café Terrace on the Place du Forum, structures to the right are adorned with windows transmitting light brighter than what basic oil lights and candles could do before the electric lights occurred. Vincent van Gogh was of Dutch nationality and experienced childhood in the congregation, an alternate wellspring of light to his life and impact to his canvases, as his father was a minister (Van Gogh Gallery, 2013). In the same way as other of his artistic creations he incorporated the stars in the night sky, which appeared to hypnotize him...
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...The movie Dr. Strangelove has cinematic, theatrical, and dramatic elements. These elements have given the film four Academy Awards and also seven BAFTA Awards, of which it won four. These elements are low-key soft lighting, tracking shots, shot/reverse shots, and reaction shots. In both of the scenes, low-key soft lighting is given off by a couple light sources in the scenes. The first being the war room where the U.S. president and all of his staff, as well as the Russian ambassador. Here they are discussing what to do about the bombers that are on there way to bomb targets inside Russia because a general gave them the order to do so without the U.S. president's approval. The low-key soft lighting gives a dark and intense mood do to the situation. The other scene which is in the office of the general who gave the order to attack Russia. The people in the war room gave the order to another army unit to go and get the 3 letter code needed to call back the bombers. Unfortunately, the base that the general is on, is in lockdown...
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