This week lecture covered camera movements and composition: after analysing the theory I will be trying to apply this knowledge to the VR immersive project I am part of.
Just as it happened for a good book and a mesmerising painting, films have their unspoken language too, they communicate with a visual language which is used by directors to plan their movies, since from how a camera is placed it can tell a particular story. there is a “Shot Dialogue” since the most basic unit of a film is a shot. Each shot can mean something on their own.
Composition in storytelling
Composing an image is an incredible process that concerns where we place our subjects of interest and why they are positioned there through a simple shot we are able to tell a story and convey emotions: composition is a technique that can infuse meaning as well as visual splendour. It has the ability to attract audience attention the important thing is what should they be looking at, and how to you get them to look at it.
These elements above all contribute to make your composition better express and convey the desired message. In order to highlight an action, a movement or even a character creating a frame within a frame may be an efficient expedition: using lines in perspective that converge to a point where usually the character is placed; to help the composition not only windows or doors can create a frame every object can serve as one.
The control that a director can have on a scene can be categorised into artificial (the control of the aesthetic and where we should be looking) and primal (where power dynamics lies- what subject holds more weight in the narrative at that moment in time in reference to other people or environments)
“The size of an object in the frame should equal its importance in the story at that moment.”
Alfred Hitchcock
Composition does not have to be focusing on the one shot it can be a cumulative effort whose meanings emerge over the course of a film: just like in the narrative it can witness some evolvement and development taking different directions and intentions. However in order to achieve a better composition in a scene filling the frames with elements is not compulsory: even the lack of props or characters can convey meaning by reducing the amount on screen the director can create unique moods, less can be more.
When the camera frames a scene it make different moments either to follow the actors on the screen or to showcase a frame. Movements and Composition should be working hand in hand since when the camera is not static the lines and composition details of a frame may vary altering the overall meaning and power of it. They also help enhance one another showing an element at fist and then panning to reveal other elements.
Overall composition should carry meaning displaying emotions not only visual appeal.
Composing Movement
Akira Kurosawa implemented the movement in his film composition at his advance: he used natural movements of the elements, for example showcasing rain or fire that may reflects the characters state of mind, he also made use of group movements with which you can enhance emotion having crowds movements since it “feels bigger”. Regarding its use of the movement of the individual every characters has certain movements that make them distinctive to the eyes of the audience, this movements are also exaggerated e.g. when a character is sad and ashamed it stands down. He is also famous for his fluid camera moves: each movement created and narrated a story having a beginning a middle and an ending in it. He also has this characteristics of editing using cuts on movements and they would end up appearing to be very subtle almost invisible.
He understood that is the visual stimulation that hits the audience and that this various movements should “cooperate” with each other to create compelling compositions.
How David Fincher Hijacks Your Eyes
David Fincher visual style in his film is very distinctive this also depends the way he uses camera movements: the camera matches exactly the velocity of the moving character in the frame, what this moments achieve is to lock the audience in into the behaviour of the character: he makes you enter in his reality. Behaviour holds a very important role in this process since it can tell a lot about a character and its personality and feelings, in order to create an emotional bridge between what the character feels and make it accessible to the audience. Is not a coincidence that the word “emotion” itself carries “motion” in it since emotion express themselves physically.
What is Cinematography?
Cinematography comprehends how directors show an action within a scene: is all about communicating with the viewer. Even though
cinema is a language and like language you must learn how to speaks all the elements that are part of cinema.
Cuts & Transitions
Cuts and transitions are an important and dynamic aspect of editing in a film production process. The most basic edit that you can do is the cut going to one shot to another. But the are may other cut types: the cutting action- cutting to one scene to another when the subject is still in motion; the cut away- cutting to an insert shot of something and then back; the cross cutting- where two scenes are intercut to establish continuity; the match cut- that uses elements of one scene in the transition to the next scene; the fade in and out- when one scene closes with the image disappearing (fade-out), then transitioning into the next scene, which slowly comes into view (fade-in); the smash cut- abrupt transitions; the l-cut- in which the audio from preceding scene overlaps the picture from the following scene.
Which ever cut, transition or editing you may choose is when and how you use them to tell your story.
How can this be applied to the immersive project using VR?
So considering everything stated above, camera movements, editing and cinematography in general are an essential part in cinema and in particular in films. Our project consists in a person taking part in the Virtual Reality environment and witnessing a narrative involving two seagulls talking to each other (even with the player) and probably even having an acting role in it. I think that cinematography rules and notions cannot be applied in the “traditional way” since everything would be seen in variable perspective of the player, however these notions can be applied to the Previs stage to better visualise the development of the narrative and the positioning of the various characters, props and environments in the VR environment. In this regard the camera movement, even if in this case is employed slightly differently, can have a “common ground” which is attract the audience or, in this case, the player: the player must be included in the narrative, not just in an interactive way but also visually. For example we decided that the dialogues between the seagulls are going to be displayed using speech bubbles to resemble the comic style of which this project is an adaptation of but also to clearly show to the viewer what the seagulls are saying. Moreover, in the same way dynamic and movement is important to achieve a better composition, the dynamics in which the actions will take place in the VR will have an important role. Even though we are not producing a short film or video material but an immersive experience instead, there are going to be some sort or “transitions” between one comic sketch and the next where the player would have the possibility, by doing some action, to change scene along with the characters in the virtual reality environment.