Film Language and the history of animation and film

Flim Language

I love to watch movies and animation in my spare time, but to read more about movies and animation, I need to learn knowledge about visual language. The online tutorial introduces the film language through different aspects.

1.Camera

the wide and tight of the camera cause different shot length, movie use shot length to exaggerate the atmosphere and show the surrounding. It could be extremely wide to extremely close, the much closer the camera the many details will show up.

the camera can be set in different Angle, eye level, low angle, high angle, and dutch angle. the dutch angle is oblique, high angle makes things in the scene look small.

The camera just like the human’s eyes, which is called depth of field. where the shot focus will be clear, where did not will be a blur. deep focus is a big depth of field, shallow focus is a small depth of field. rack focus is the shot will changing into different objects. Tilt-shift is a special lens, make the thing look small like toys in the large scene.

the camera can be changed into a different lens, the telephoto lens which is a long lens, shrinking the space into the same scene. the other lenses are the wide-angle and fish-eye lens.

the movement of the camera makes a movie called movies, the first one is the handheld shot, less control. the opposite one is Steadicam, which makes the scene looks smooth and flowing. pan is to move the camera left or right. tilt is to move the camera up or down. zoom is wide or tight. The dolly shot is to move your camera with the moving subjects. jib shot is to move up or down to your main subject. Dolly zoom, is to zooming and changing the depth of shot.

2.Editing

sequence shots have no cut in a part. To cut the shot have different after-effects, dissolve, wipe, fade-in, and fade-out. Screen direction, match on action, eyeliner these different ways to control the shot is used for continuing editing, it will make the cut looks reasonable and natural. The 180-degree rule is to help the audience won’t lose the track of the scene. when the shot breaks the 180-degree rule can be called crossing the axis, the camera will jump across all the places in the scene. but it still looks reasonable when everyone’s eyeliner or placement is correct. If doesn’t is because the film editor wants to use this in a stimulating scene. Establish shot is to show the place, the master shot is to show what happens in this place. cross-cutting create a unique style.

Discontinuity editing will use such as freeze frame, slow motion, fast motion, and reverse motion. Jumpcut can be related to an object or different frames in the same scene. split screen, two or more shot shows on the same screen or overlay. montage is linking different shots together through time or place, quickly summarize a period of time or the background story. Montage could be symbolism or realistic.

3.Mise en scene

the film’s setting can be shown through the character’s costume and environment, or the props in their hands.

lighting is one of the principles to show the setting. three-point lighting is the most common setting. key light, fill light, and backlight. high key lighting makes the color look saturate and bright. Low key lighting makes the scene dark and hard to see, but one strong light to emphasize the outliner. light can be divided into soft light and hard light, they have different emotion feels.

color, with the growth of technical skills, they have more principles to give movie tone, different tone control by saturation, hue, lightness, and darkness. the different color palette has a different meaning.

the object’s position in a shot will cause different feeling, like balance, shallow space, off-screen space, blocking.

All these things create Mise en scene.

History of Flim and animation

Films moved from a single shot, completely made by one person with a few assistants, towards films several minutes long consisting of several shots, which were made by large companies in something like industrial conditions. Auguste and Louis Lumiere began filming 10 short sequences for exhibition to the public. At first, there is no music and color. with the growth of technology, the industry adds music and color easier.

animation, the documentary introduces animation through the Disney animation movie snow-white, how people record the sound and music, and how the character design in this animation. how the frames related to the fluency when the audience sees the film. 3D skill use in animation how animation makes a motion capture, to make realistic style animation.