Point of View

Point of view determines who the view identifies with in a scene and works alongside other graphical and editorial techniques such as framing, which determines the level of involvement a viewer has with characters on screen. Point of view often changes throughout a narrative film and is largely invisible to the audience and the effects of the changes profoundly affects the way in which the audience interprets and scene. There are three types of narrative in film:

• First person point of view
• Third person restricted point of view
• Omniscient point of view

First person - Exemplified in the subjective techniques established by Hitchcock, we see through the eyes of the character - the 'I' of the story. 

Third person - Presents the action of the film as seen by an ideal observer. The most common style in mainstream Hollywood cinema but rarely the sole viewpoint.

Omniscient - To be truly omniscient we have to also know what the characters are thinking. This is usually achieved through narration, voice-over and graphics. 

Grindleford Location Recce

This afternoon myself, Hannah and Alex from my group went to Grindleford to look around this location and find some inspiration for our film. From first arriving there we noticed that it is a heavily wooded area, which is good for our film idea since it's going to be quite a dark film. We found an area over the bridge at the train station to the right that would be great for our film. The further we got into the woods the more beautiful the scenery would get, for example there were huge tress with twisted roots and branches, which we are planning to use as the tree the stalker sits the girl next to as she is passed out. There is also quite a big area of the woods that is full of rocks that all pile up, which could work really well in the part of the film where the girl is trying to run away but trips over. Overall we were happy after taking the trip to Grindleford as it's going to be a great area to film in, and this trip also helped us understand the importance of going for a location recce. This is not just because it's good to see what could be a problem when filming and what extra resources we'd need, it helped us come up with more creative shots for the film, and gave us a much clearer view of what that Grindleford scenes will look like.

     
                                                   

 

                       

Lighting

Last week we were shown the basic set up of lighting equipment that would be used on film sets, and how the cinematographer can use light effectively. We discussed the many different ways you can describe light e.g. warm, cold, harsh etc. and also looked into the different areas that can be adapted in order to create different moods/tones and effects to shots within the film:

INT. (Intensity) - how bright or dim you desire the light to be, the intensity could range from something as dim as candle light to something as bright as sunlight.

DIR. (Direction) - the direction of the light can be controlled to create intended effects e.g. one side of someone's face in light while the other side is in darkness.

QUAL. (Quality) - whether a hard light or a softer light is being created by either the use of a small light source, which should create a hard light, or a larger light source, which should create a soft light.

C.T. (Colour Tome) - the use of certain colours to create a specific tone/mood or emotion by attaching Coloured Gels to the barn doors of the light, e.g. the use of red in 'Only God Forgives' (Dir. Nicholas Winding Refn, 2013) could be used as a reflection of the brutality of the violence within the film and symbolise blood. 

SPR. (Spread) - the intention to spread the light easily or focused on something specific within the shot. The use of a lens will help with wanting an even spread of light upon the shot, or buy using black card a dappled effect could be created by allowing the light to fall through the cuts in the card to create desired effects e.g. trees, or it could be used to focus on one thing within the shot.

DUR. (Duration) - The consistency of the light e.g. creating the effect of a light bulb flickering on and off and a flashing light, or a more constant spotlight could be used for the longer duration of a shot. 

Colour in Film and its Significance

In this weeks seminar we were introduced to cinematography and how colour works as a tool in film. All colours are associated with different emotions and are used in films to convey certain tones and moods:

RED - anger, love, power, heat, blood, violence, danger, passion, aggression

BLUE - tranquillity, calm, cleanliness, depression, cold

YELLOW - joy, happiness, imagination, hope, hazard, illness, wisdom, dishonesty,  betrayal

GREEN - soothing, peace, nature, jealousy, envy, health, good luck, generosity

ORANGE - energy, warmth, humour, vibrant, enthusiasm 

PURPLE - royalty, power, intimacy, wisdom, spirituality, mysterious, cruelty, arrogance

PINK - love, happy, charming, playful, feminine, romantic, soft

BLACK - elegance, evil, fear, mystery, unhappiness, style, remorse

WHITE - purity, love, protection, innocence, youth, death, simplicity, birth, peace

We also discussed colour themes within films, as viewers will notice that throughout films where different emotions are provoked by the colour changes within these scenes. For example here are some stills from films along with their corresponding colour palettes.

Colour palette showing themes in Drive (Dir. Nicholas Winding Refn, 2011)

   Colour palette showing themes in film Alice in Wonderland (Dir. Tim Burton, 2010) 

Both images come from http://moviesincolor.com/