Hunter College Media 160 Spring 2016

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

End of the Semester Extra Credit Opportunity

There is an EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITY - if you received below an A on Project #1 or #2 and you want to revise it to get extra credit you can. Please email me and let me know what project you want to revise and how you will do it. It must be upload to your Vimeo by no later than May 23rd at 5pm if and you must email me to let me know so I can look out for it. If you are revising Project #1, you can chose to revise it with your partner or on your own.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Screen Direction and Maintaining Continuity

What is screen direction?

Screen direction is the direction that actors or objects appear to be moving on the screen from the point of view of the camera or audience. A rule of film production is that movement from one edited shot to another must maintain the consistency of screen direction in order to avoid audience confusion.

"Camera left" or "frame left" indicates movement towards the left side of the screen, while "camera right" or "frame right" refers to movement towards the right side of the screen. "Foreground" refers to the apparent space close to the camera (and thus to the audience), and "background" refers to the apparent space in the distance away from the camera and the audience.

As an example of screen direction in use, if an actor is shown in one shot walking from screen left to screen right and then is shown in the next shot to be moving in the opposite direction (screen right to screen left), the audience will assume that the actor has changed direction and is walking back to where he started (in the absence of obvious contextual or environmental cues).

If the shot shows him again moving from screen left to screen right (as in the first shot), the audience will assume that the actor is continuing his previous movement and extending it to apparently cover a greater distance even if that is purely a fabrication of editing.

Another example would be if two characters are shown in a medium shot, say from the waist up, looking at each other, it is generally established that one is on the left of screen and the other on the right. The one on the left looks right to the other character and vice versa. When the editor cuts to a close shot of a person, it would be disorienting if the character looked the other way. The audience would assume that the character is looking at something else.

In the coverage of the scene, it is customary in film technique to be sure that screen direction is maintained. In a close up, the environmental cues are at a minimum.

It is the responsibility of the director, cameraman, and script supervisor on the set to maintain consistency of screen direction so that later during editing, the myriad short pieces of film can be properly assembled by the editor into a coherent film that tells the story intended.

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Blog #4: Field Trip / Museum of the Moving Image

At the museum you will find exhibits and demonstrations relating to many aspects of media production. Your assignment is to go to the museum and, with your group, experience at least one of those demos, and report on your blog about that participation. In this blog you should make an effort to explain what you discovered about a specific aspect of media production, what you learned that you didn’t know before, in a way that might communicate to the non-initiated. How have the changes in moving image technology changed the way moving images are created, how they look, and how we experience them?

This blog is 250 words in length. NOTE: Attendance is required.

DUE - Lab 11 - Monday, May 2nd

******

Directions:

The Museum of the Moving Image is in Queens, on 35th Avenue at the corner of 36th Street in Astoria.

See www.movingimage.us for more information.

You are welcome to stay afterwards. Please give your lab instructors $6.50 cash ahead of time.

From Hunter, you take the 6 train to 59th Street(or walk down). Then take the M or R train to Steinway Street (do NOT take the N train). Use the 34th Avenue exit near the back end of train. Walk south along Steinway Street; turn right on 35 Avenue. Proceed three blocks to the Museum entrance just past 37th Street. Check www.movingimage.us for other options.

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Continuity Scene -Project #3/ Final Project for Media 160

MEDP/FILMP 160 Final Project Spring 2016

Continuity Scene

Storyboard due: Lab 10
Filming: Lab 11
Editing: Labs 12 and 13
Completed video due: End of Lab 13

Download Storyboard here

Create a scene with a clear beginning, middle and end, using one actor. Your storyboard will have no more than 6-8 panels. Remember, each panel equals one shot only.

You MUST include a change of screen direction. You can fit a POV in the sequence, it's optional. You will base this on the shooting and editing principles you have learned for continuity editing.

There will be no dialogue. You may add music or sound effects in Premiere.

You will work with a partner, each person will submit his/her own idea. You will storyboard, shoot and edit your own video. Your partner will act in your scene. Both you and your partner will shoot both your videos in the same location on the Hunter campus, during one lab period. The editing will be completed in one lab session, and uploaded to vimeo or youtube.

Before shooting, you will workshop your storyboard with your lab instructor the week before.

If you wish to shoot in the library, you’ll need clearance beforehand.

You’ll use the school’s video cameras and editing stations. Using outside equipment is not permitted. Each group of two people will hand in two separate projects and edit separately.

Slides from lecture showing change of screen direction

Here are also some video clips you can review:

1) Change of screen direction tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RogoUz_pk4Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XOn5uxdSJc

2) Student Media 160 Film from last semester that demonstrates change of screen direction
https://vimeo.com/149199705 (right at 1:23 the screen direction change happens)

3) "Run Lola Run" (film shown in lecture):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tIuD5aqc4o

BLOG POST #3: Relationships Between Shots

BLOG POST #3: Relationships Between Shots

For this assignment, you will pick a section of linear media (any genre) and examine the way it is constructed. Pick an example where you think the editing has made a significant contribution to
the storytelling and the feel of the piece. What is the relationship of the sounds to the images? Of the images to one another? How are the shots organized in terms of their content, composition, color, movement, etc.? What determines how long the shots are and what order they are placed in? It there a “right” place to cut or not to cut? Are the cuts seamless or obvious? Why?

You should choose a short piece of media (2-3 minutes) you can watch several times, so preferably it will be available online or on DVD. Providing a link within your blog to the media, or embedding a clip (if you are able to - analyzing a piece of media allows you to reproduce it under the Fair Use aspects of Copyright Law) would be great but is not required.

250 Words Due in Lab #10