3.31.2010
3.19.2010
3.10.2010
Movement and Music
I have come to realize that I am a big fan of camera movement that is involved in dance sequences. I love the sweeping shots that really pull you into the rhythm and motion of the dancers. Music videos are a great place to work with this type of movement since dance can be an important part in them. In OneRepublic's "All The Right Moves" music video the camera rarely is still. It really goes along with the music in the video as well as the ballroom type dancing going on as well. I think the movement emphasizes the beat and sort of classical nature of the song. Also, toward the end of the song the beat is stronger and the camera moves faster. Around 3:27 the camera makes a sweeping motion around a pair of dancers as they twirl around the floor. The camera and its operator become dancers themselves here and it is a beautifully executed move. I haven't really thought about it before, but it does take a lot of skill in many areas to fluidly pull off a lot of these shots.
MuteMath - "Typical"
It might be cheating a little bit, but I feel like it's not just about the choice to move the camera. In the linked video the choice was to keep the camera completely still for most of the video except for a few slow zooms, pans, and tilts. It is a creative choice about movement. For this video it works great though because the stillness of the camera makes it objective and emphasizes the bizarreness of the action in front of it. The band created the movement in the scene mostly on their own by disappearing on and off screen and moving away and toward the camera.
Tiziano Ferro - "Sere Nere"
There is not a whole lot of movement in this music video. However, many of the shots were handheld that could have been shot easily with a tripod to stabilize them. Having a bunch of otherwise static shots that are noticeably shaky give the video a more rustic, earthy quality. The content of the song is also brought out in this choice. He is singing about being unable to be with the person he loves (very broadly, translation is hard to do since a lot of his lyrics are strange and sometimes riddles even to native Italian speakers.. but very, very pretty and touching nonetheless.. but I digress.) and so instability of the camera reflects his own emotions of being out of balance and lost.
Tiziano Ferro - "Non Me Lo So Spiegare"
I like how this one contrasts the other video from Tiziano above. It is simple, but the fluid movement of the camera revolving around the car resembling the passage of time and 'cycle' of life is a elegant way of telling a story.
3.06.2010
The Guild (Online Short Series)
The Guild is a web series that parodies the growing world of online gamers. The series started out small and blossomed into a youtube hit. It has been an inspiration of sorts to watch the series grow over its three seasons into a more professional looking piece.
The Guild manages to turn a group of people sitting around playing a video game a visually interesting and very funny story. Additionally they were not legally able to use any footage of the game they are playing (it is never named), so the series must hold the viewer entirely through images beyond the computer.
Each episode starts with the main character "Codex" speaking to the viewer directly. This is done by making it appear that she is keeping some sort of webcam blog on her computer. This is a neat little narration style to remind viewers of what happened in the previous week. Often this is used during the rest of the episodes when a character is speaking to someone through the computer. Almost like a computer point of view.
I also like the way much of the show is lit. As seen above Codex's character tends to keep a nice rim of light around her hair. This works for her character since she is the typical 'do no evil' character, always trying to fix everyone else's problems. Also, her interiors are generally lit in warm amber tones with fairly soft lighting. However the antagonists...
...shown here are generally lit with more shadows. His eyes are in shadow with a nice light hitting his cheekbones, sort of giving him a more hallow look. I also like the light coming in through the blinds, makes the shot feel like a dungeon of sorts. Another example of showing characters personality through lighting and set can be seen here:
This character is very snarky, but the often her tough exterior is all about hiding her more soft, girly interior. So the background of her room with all of the pink and orange tones coming through contrast her actions.
The show has also started to make use of depth of field a lot. Such as here...
While he is in focus in the back, the foreground objects give a sense of the cluttered, messy and very teenager-boy type space he is in. Also, it is simply more visually interesting and provides a convenient way of creating depth.
Ultimately, the show is supposed to be funny, and in sequences like this the comedy is not in words but in the way the scene was shot and edited. The characters are going to a sort of show-down with another guild and this is done with several jump-cuts timed to music. It was also slowed down to be more dramatic.
And after a few fast cuts of them coming closer to the camera. I also like the trick of the frame within a frame using the doorway that they are about to enter.
And finally, of course showing the rival guild that has been picking on them this whole time. Since they are more 'powerful' they are shot with the camera low to give them a looming feel.
The show has evolved quite a bit and I look forward to what is in store for season four. It definitely stays true to the quirky personalities found in the online gaming world.
2.22.2010
House, Season Four, Episode 15: "House's Head" Shot by Shot Analysis
This scene takes place shortly after a bus crash House has been in. Here he is just beginning to wake up after he hits his head hard. This also does not take place in real time. This is a memory House is attempting to relive.
In order to convey the state of confusion House is in, much of this scene continually goes in and out of focus. A lot of the shots are only partially in focus if at all. The shots are not level to give the viewer the sense of disorientation that House would be feeling. Additionally, the shots tend to stay tighter on the actors and reveal very little of their surroundings. Most of these shots take place very quickly, and the few movement shots that take place are handheld and jarring. However, most of the movement involves the actors moving in and out of focus instead of the camera moving.
The lighting functions on two levels. The constant flashing and flickering of lights suggests that there is commotion going on outside the bus. Presumably this would be the rescue effort in place. It also functions as a reflection of how the victims on the bus might remember the events that took place. Everything is a little bit hazy, and the lights flash in and out to give the feeling of someone grasping at memories.
(Shot)01.(Part)01
The first shot fades up from black into this close up of House's face. The light here is very blue and nothing in this shot is in sharp focus.
02.01
There is clear depth of field here as the foreground is blurred out and the woman becomes more in focus in the background. There is still that same bluish tint from the first shot. Again, nothing is completely in focus here.
03.01
Here more of House's immediate surroundings are revealed. However much is still blurred with the same blue tint.
04.01-04
This pan shakily movies from the bus floor up this womans body and eventually lands on her face. The light here moves with the pan: starting out dark and eventually growing brighter as the pan reaches her head. Still the shot does not come into clear focus.
05.01-02
House is washed out by the light in the first picture. The light is still very blue, but fades as his eye comes into clearer focus as he starts to regain consciousness of what is going on around him. The eyelight also helps pull the focus of the viewer directly to his eye. His face is tilted in the shot so he still is not entirely clear what is going on.
06.01-02
Here is his focus: Amber. Depth of field is played well here. Her legs take up the bottom right of the screen and are well out of focus creating depth through foreground objects. By doing this, distance between her and House has been established. Also, the lights here fade out sharply on her and she goes out of focus quickly.
07.01-02
The same effect here with the lighting takes place as the previous shot of his face. In this shot he is more level with the ground. Things are beginning to make more sense to him, so he is framed more level with his environment. In the second picture, the light once again draws focus to his eye as it creates a circle around it in highlight.
08.01
More even lighting and a closer, clearer shot of her face show House's clarity coming back. The way her head is tilted and her line of sight motivates the next shot. Also, by keeping the light with lower contrast and having her arm create a shadow over her forehead, the severity of the wound on her head is not yet revealed.
09.01
Which is a close-up of her main injury. Here the pipe itself is more in focus than anything else in the shot.
10.01
Moving back to her face the lighting has changed to create higher contrast and show that House now sees the extent of her injuries. The high contrast clearly shows depth in her head wound.
11.01
And by moving the shot out even more, it is revealed that the pole is actually going straight through her leg. This series of shots is a clever way of leading the viewer into the situation. At first it is clear that she is injured, but moving, so it might not be that bad. However, each shot builds upon the last to create a sense of severity to her injuries.
12.01
Once again the same eye stays in focus while the rest of the image is out of focus or probably blurred by some sort of filter. The light is still hitting around that left eye.
Once again the same eye stays in focus while the rest of the image is out of focus or probably blurred by some sort of filter. The light is still hitting around that left eye.
13.01
While the first shot of Amber established distance between her and House, this shot fully reveals just how far he has to go to get to her. Her leg with the pole sticking out is out of focus, once again creating depth of field. The white thing on the left of the frame bothers me. It is just so bright it attracts my attention to it too much. This could have been used to pull focus toward House's face, but it still seems to pull the viewer's attention away from him.
14.01-02
15.01-02
This is interesting because the bus is slanted, but house is somewhat parallel to the frame of the picture. Notice how the light (probably a search light of some sort) flares up particularly bright at this point, but House's face is within the dimmest beam of light to hold focus on him.
16.01
In the first picture the brightest light is behind House, creating a halo effect around his head and body. From Amber's point of view this is her seeing him as a vision until he becomes more real as the light fades again and he is engulfed in more natural shadows. This lighting is emphasized by the low camera angle since she is looking up at him.
18.01 - 21.01
This starts out with the reverse shot from the above shot of House. Here the camera is looking down on here and the lighting has gotten colder again, washing out her face to highlight her fear. Again we see the close-up of the pole in her leg as House decides what to do about it.
22.01-25.01
Here comes a jerky movement shot as he pulls the scarf from around her neck and then back to him. These shots are still in perspective, but not as extreme as when he first crawled over to here. They are more even with one another.
26.01
26.01
Here she says something along the lines of "I'm cold". There is some sort of gobo being used in the light here to cast a pattern on her face. The pattern makes her skin look transparent as though you can see her veins. It gives the feeling that she really has gone 'cold'.
27.01-03
House says "Stay with me," and the lights follow this as they fade in and out as he says the line. From her point of view he is fading in and out.
28.01-02 - 29.01
The camera follows her line of sight as it pans down her waist and then cuts to House tying the scarf around her leg.
30.01
Another close-up of her wound. However, this time the focus is on the actual leg, blood, and scarf instead of the pole. This creates nice depth of field. This is important due to an earlier scene House had when trying to remember these events. At the time it was not clear to him why his vision was asking him to tie a scarf around her leg. Now, with everything but the pole in sharp focus that earlier scene becomes clear to him.
31.01-02
As House begins to lose consciousness again almost all light on him fades out and the background provides only ambient lighting. Here he is slipping into darkness and the next series of shots happen very fast as a series of fade in and outs to suggest passage of time and a shaky memory.
Once again the entire image is out of focus, but her face is in most focus with everything around it going into a blur. This is probably a filter of some sort. And as mentioned before she too fades into black.
33.01-38.01
These series of shots are all either over-exposed or under-exposed. She is his focus and what he is trying to stay awake for, so her shots are bright as he struggles to stay awake. While the men that are coming in to take her away are silhouetted by the light coming from the opening behind.
Again, a close-up of House's face. Now we see all of it. The shot starts out dark and then lights up as he 'wakes up' again. There is very little of the blue light on his face this time suggesting a different level of clarity. At this point, his colleagues are trying to wake him up from this memory and so this is suggesting a bit of present time starting to creep in as he pulled away from the lighting around him.
The last glimpse he has of her being carried away. Everything is in focus. He doesn't want to let her go.
41.01-03
This is my favorite shot in this scene. It starts with the focus on his face as he reaches out for her as she is being carried away. Particularly his eyes are lit up here to draw focus to his face. The light changes to suggest the moment being taken away from him and the focus is pulled from his face to his hand as it is the last effort of trying to reach her.
She is being taken into this bright light here. It is very intense as if she is leaving the world House is in and moving on. This foreshadows her death later on.
43.01-44.01
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