Film Techniques And Their Effects

[Irati Klute]

Movementcan be used extensively by film makers to make meaning. It is how a scene is put together to produce an image. A famous example of this, which uses "dance" extensively to communicate meaning and emotion, is the film, West Side Story.

To achieve the results mentioned above, a Lighting Director may use a number or combination of Video Lights. These may include the Redhead or Open-face unit, The Fresnel Light, which gives you a little more control over the spill, or The Dedolight, which provides a more efficient light output and a beam which is easier to control.[1]

In motion picture and television production, a sound effect is a sound recorded and presented to make a specific storytelling or creative point, without the use of dialogue or music. The term often refers to a process, applied to a recording, without necessarily referring to the recording itself. In professional motion picture and television production, the segregations between recordings of dialogue, music, and sound effects can be quite distinct, and it is important to understand that in such contexts, dialogue, and music recordings are never referred to as sound effects, though the processes applied to them, such as reverberation or flanging, often are. Necessary incidental units of sound, footsteps, keys, a polishing sound, are created in a Foley studio.

In traditional linear movies, the author can carefully construct the plot, roles, and characters to achieve a specific effect on the audience. Interactivity, however, introduces non-linearity into the movie, such that the author no longer has complete control over the story, but must now share control with the viewer. There is an inevitable trade-off between the desire of the viewer for freedom to experience the movie in different ways, and the desire of the author to employ specialized techniques to control the presentation of the story. Computer technology is required to create the illusion of freedom for the viewer, while providing familiar, as well as, new cinematic techniques to the author.

When the script was offered to me, I went to Hollywood to meet the producers and discuss changes and budget. The proposed budget was $4.5 million, which was impossibly low for that particular movie. In London we had been doing a kind of cost breakdown of the script and had estimated the budget at about $13 million, which was far too high for 20th Century Fox. I used to be an art director, so I had the tedious task of storyboarding the film, which took five or six weeks, while everybody else was budgeting along behind. We came down eventually to $8.5 million and went forward from there.

In the making of Alien, we were, of course, confronted with something more than actors. Once you accept a script like that, the next question that comes up very fast is: What form is the creature going to take? In this case the problem was made four times as difficult, because the Alien changes in varying degrees on several occasions. Therefore, you were dealing, in this instance, with four different entities. One could argue for months about what shapes they were going to be.

Of course, long before that stage was reached, the people at Fox had got wind of the fact that we were working on something special and I think that it grew in their estimation from the original $4.5 million film they had planned to something that might really have a shot for them the following year. And so, very soon, the May 25 release date became a fact that we had to stick to. Consequently, Fox then kept a very close eye on it all the way through.

There were several key people in the art department who worked closely with Michael Seymour, my production designer, who really steered the whole thing in terms of the way it looked and who designed an awful lot of separate things. It takes a lot of courage to handle a budget like that but he made it work.

Then there was the construction manager, Bill Welch, who saved the film company a lot of money by holding strictly to the schedule and always knowing where he was in relation to his budget. The carpenter and painter units working under him totalled nearly 200.

Films take us on journeys; we become immersed in worlds beyond our own. The best films lead us to ask questions about our world as well as ourselves. However, sometimes it can be difficult to translate our reactions to film into meaningful English analysis.

When filmmakers construct their films, they combine multiple techniques together to develop meaning. Film combines visual elements with auditory elements to develop meaning. To understand how the various techniques combine to create meaning, watch the following video we have put together that lists the techniques employed in various film scenes.

Camera angles refer to the tilt of the camera in relation to the scene and the characters. Unusual camera angles can emphasise an action sequence, disorientate the audience, and suggest the relationship between characters.

Cross-cutting is an editing technique where actions are established as occurring at the same time. The camera will cut away from one action to another action elsewhere to suggest these things are occurring at the same moment.

A transition that moves between one shot and another by overlaying one shot and fading the first image out while strengthening the second shot. This can denote daydreams, memories, the passing of time, or signify phone conversations and long-distance communication.

A dolly is a wheeled cart that the camera and operator are seated on. A dolly shot is a shot where the dolly is pushed along to move with the action. This is similar to a tracking shot, but without the tracks so that the camera can have a broader range of motion.

A type of cut where the shot of a character looking at something cuts to a shot of the thing they were looking at the same level. This type of cut is used to show the audience what they were looking at.

Similar to other editing wipes, this is a type of transition where the screen irises closed around a particular thing on screen. These can be used to signify daydreams, provide a dramatic transition, or signify the end of a scene.

A cut that moves fractionally forward in time. These shots focus on the same subject but either use a different angle or have the subject in a different position to illustrate that time has moved forward in time. Jump cuts are usually used to show time passing forward.

A montage is a type of editing sequence where a series of shots play rapidly to create a narrative. Often a montage will be accompanied by a unifying piece of music to convey the dominant mood connected with the sequence.

A type of sequence shot or tracking shot where the camera follows a character by following them and shooting over their shoulder. Like a Point of View shot, an over the shoulder shot focalises (that is, focuses in on) on the characters experience.

A sequence shot is a single long take shows a series of actions happening one after another within the same shot. Sequence shots are occasionally called long takes and one-shots. Sequence shots are very hard to do and can develop quite a lot of meaning.

An object used to suggest ideas in addition to, or beyond, their literal sense. For example, the glass slipper in Cinderella symbolises the opportunity that Cinderella has to live a different life. Watch films carefully to spot symbols and their potential meaning to the plot. If a symbol recurs throughout the film it is a motif.

I am new to filming effects. I was wondering how they create air effect, for example: many actors have their hair flying in scenes and in dances. Do they use fans in front of them or are there any other techniques?

Recently I watched Full Metal Jacket again, and during its city attack scene I noticed something that I've been wondering about for quite some time now: how are the effects of bullet impacts in concrete walls created?

For example, in the scene I'm talking about (linked here) Adam Baldwin shoots at a building, and you can clearly see it gets ripped to shreds by bullets. In this scene, I can imagine that live bullets are used, because you can leave the building empty and actually shoot at it.

However, I just watched Equilibrium the other night, and in this movie a lot of gunfire takes place inside buildings with actors all over the place (linked here). Here, use of live ammo is ofcourse impossible.

I've been searching around for an answer, but most threads are about bullet impacts on actors (blood with squibs) or through wooden walls (also squibs). However, none talk about concrete walls. Are the holes pre-made, the squibs inserted and then covered up? If that's the case, are they remotely detonated?

Some effects seem to also involve high pressure, but I can't imagine that drilling holes and rigging every single bullet hole to a high pressure machine is very feasible (especially in the case of Equilibrium, where dozens of bullet holes are created in a matter of seconds).

Of course it's not feasible, it's art! Movie budgets go into the millions for a reason. You get what you pay for, in man-hours, and for artistic reasons its done anyway. Entire companies and people make their lively hood by designing these special effect props. If that means drilling, loading, and transporting fake concrete for a sound stage, that's what they will do.

In addition to the flats/ false walls made out of plaster/ Gypsum plaster which are pre-inserted with squibs, the squibs that give that high-impact effect come with a small pressurized CO2 canister with the magnesium/pyro cap. The squibs are remotely detonated live within the shot.

3a8082e126