MOMI Visit: Reflection

Visiting the Museum of the Moving Image helped me better understand how intricate film production is. The extremely long list of jobs people perform on and off the set made the complexity of creating an award winning moving image clear to me.

One of the first demo’s I saw was a clip of the film: The Great Train Robbery. Not only was this film shot on various locations, but it was edited in post – and was the first to do so. Additionally, this film is of great importance because it featured a close up, which was something people have never seen before. Once the audience first saw a close up of a man shooting a gun towards the camera, they actually got frightened and thought they were getting shot at.

Nowadays, close ups are used to better show emotion on a character’s face. Without them, all shot would be all the same – long shots portraying the characters and the setting, but lacking a deeper connection between the characters that make up the scene. Furthermore, the addition of different locations helped include a larger setting. This not only makes the film more interesting, but creates depth and space in the motion picture. Editing serves to piece all the bits together. Without it, the story would be lost and the audience would be left confused.

Learning that The Great Train Robbery was the first to feature these crucial tools was very interesting to me. Of course, in today’s age, when we watch our favorite films or television series we don’t necessarily react to close ups the way the audience of The Great Train Robbery had. We don’t even mind them or realize them because of the film’s seamless editing. But without these features, films would be less three dimensional and dull even if those phenomena had not been introduced in The Great Train Robbery.

Project 2: A Story About A Visit

Sadia's Interview: A Story About A Visit

 

Relationships Between Shots: Scene Editing Analyzation

In Season 1, Episode 3 of Game of Thrones, there is a short scene titled "Fear is for the Winter".

This scene is an example of continuity editing. The first shot of the raven is followed by a close-up shot of the boy. The second shot follows the 180 degree rule and eyeline match; since he is in bed looking up at the window and is also looking towards the left of him. This allows us to understand that this is what he is currently seeing. It then cuts to a long shot of the boy and the grandmother which introduces the setting and another character. The following shot introduces a new viewing angle or perspective: over the grandmother's shoulder. Shuffling between the boy's and grandmother's angles, the 180 degree rule is not broken. When the cut is made at 0:29, the grandmother's action is matched as she moves her arms down onto her lap. The next series of shots switching between the boy and the grandmother, their eyelines are never broken since she continues to look slightly downwards and he is looking up at her from the bed. Additionally, each time the shot is cut to, the zooming in effect intensifies to give a dramatic effect that hints at the audience to look or listen closely. The non-diagetic music intensifies as well, matching the cinematography. 

The scene focuses on two main viewing angles until the door is unlocked and we see a quick shot of the boy turning his head towards the opening door. I have noticed that in each shot the subject – whether it be the raven, young boy, grandmother, or young man – is either on the left third or right third of the screen. Therefore, there are no graphic matches, but instead they are direct opposites from each other. This helps to create movement where there is little action, help identify point of views, create look space, and keep it suspenseful. The color theme chose for this scene has a dark blue/grey look to it. It makes the environment look gloomy, thus adding to the suspenseful or horror-like theme of the scene.