Showing posts with label Film Technique. Show all posts

Win a copy of the brilliant - Film: A Critical Introduction

Film: A Critical IntroductionThe other day I got an email from the fine literary folks over at Laurence King Publishing. Turns out they either think my film reviews are quite good or that I need some help with them - as they asked me to read one of their new books Film: A Critical Introduction, 3rd edition by Maria Pramaggiore and Tom Wallis.

I did get excited as it’s a book that - covers films and goes behind the scenes to deconstruct cinema via intelligent conversation. Something that is in unfortunate decline - with the rise of front room conversation critics and a shift from technique to celebrity culture.

Don’t be put off by the fact that the words student text book may appear in descriptions of the Film: A Critical Introduction, 3rd edition. Although I’ve only managed to scan it - It is a 468 page, eye pleasing, easy to digest reference book packed with photos and intelligent discussion on appreciating film and critical analysis. It transcends it entry level status and is invaluable for anyone that has: - an interest in film - wants to understand film with a richer appreciation – as well as those wishing to or already studying film.

As this is the third edition and only going to be released next month it not only an in-depth exploration of film as a concept in context referencing 100s of films, filmmakers and techniques, terminology, film production, critical thinking and writing - it also covers topical conversations such as; Avatar, Genre hybridity, Inglourious Basterds, Intertexuality, Knocked Up, Bromance Ideology, Mumblecore, Digital Technologies & 3D.

From the official description of Film: A Critical Introduction, 3rd edition
“The book illustrates basic film concepts in context and in depth. It addresses techniques and terminology used in film production and criticism, emphasizing thinking and writing critically and effectively.

Organized in three parts, the text focuses on the fundamentals of film analysis before moving on to more complex topics.

Parts I and II teach students to recognize how the components of film—narrative, mise en scène, cinematography, editing and sound— work together to produce meaning within an individual film text.

Part III introduces readers to interpretive frameworks that treat cinema as a cultural institution. This section encourages readers to move beyond textual analysis and consider the relationship between film and culture.

Readers learn to form sophisticated arguments about film in cultural, historical and economic contexts.”


Film: A Critical Introduction
Film: A Critical Introduction

My review of Film: A Critical Introduction, 3rd edition will be up once I have read it but as soon as I got my head around the book and understood a little bit more about the depth and breadth of knowledge it imparts. Not only did I realise that it would help my own writing but wanted to share it with others. So Laurence King has been kind enough to offer a copy up as a competition prize.

Anyone who reads my blog regularly knows that although free stuff (competitions and prizes) bring “readers” in droves theestablishingshot is about the love of film, knowledge sharing and insight not cheap reader harvesting tactics to ensure a whole lot of people not really interested in my content come to my site for free stuff – so you know that if I am offering this chance to win a copy of this book I really think it’s worth it.

All you have to do to win a copy of Film: A Critical Introduction, 3rd edition is send me your review of a film. It can be any film you have seen. The winning review will be the one that conveys your thoughts on film in a way that I get the gist (the point or substance of an argument, speech, etc.) of the film. Spelling and grammar are not criteria.

Send your entries to estfreestuff@gmail.com or if you wish to spam your friends tweet me a review @The_EST by March 14, 2011. If you win you'll be getting your copy of Film: A Critical Introduction, 3rd edition before it hits the shelfs.

Good luck!

The fine print
Although I am often compelled to write a 1 word review of a film, but your review has to be more than 70 words (and as long as you would like). It has to been your own work, it could have previously been submitted for on or off-line publication. You have to live within the UK (sorry), but you can enter as many times as you would like under as many pseudonyms as you would like. Blah, blah, blah do the right thing. Judges decisions are final.

Film: A Critical Introduction, 3rd edition
Release Date:
March, 2011

Authors:
Maria Pramaggiore & Tom Wallis.

For more info:
Head over at the Laurence King website

Win a copy of the brilliant - Film: A Critical Introduction

How to Build a Camera Jib for Under £140 ($200) - Film Riot

Film Riot brings you the best DIY filmmaking tips to help you do movie, video and film special effects on the cheap. It's not just how-to though. Delivered by real film makers, the show is interesting, entertaining, and wrapped in a hilarious easy to swallow coating.

How to Build a Camera Jib for Under £140 ($200) - Film Riot



Film Riot is a how-to trip through filmmaking from the hyper-active mind of Ryan Connolly. From how to make great effects to following Triune Films through production, Film Riot explores the art of filmmaking in a way you've never seen.

How to Build a Camera Jib for Under £140 ($200) - Film Riot

More info:Over at the Film Riot website

Robert Rodriguez: 10 Minute Film School

Anyone starting out in film should watch this. Quentin Tarantino once said that if he had gone to film school he would have graduated with a toothpick. But someone like Robert Rodriguez goes to film school and comes out with El Mariachi. I know this is true because I was there when he said it.

To add to his list of growing accomplishments; Director, Writer, Editor, effects, Composer, Producer, Studio Mogul, Chef and creator of film franchises. Rodriguez is also a pro-active teacher and evangelist of film making. His move to Producer is a natural progression.

Below I bring your 3, 10 minute sessions from his guerrilla film making school. In the first clip Rodriguez talks about guerrilla Film Making in general and in next two clips he goes in to detail about setting up and creating shots, using El Mariachi as a case study.

Rodriguez is more than happy to share his learnings with others while offering inspiration. If these clips interest you keep an eye out for his book: " Rebel without a Crew: Or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker With $7,000 Became a Hollywood Player."



Robert Rodriguez: 10 Minute Film School Part 1



Robert Rodriguez: 10 Minute Film School Part 2




Robert Rodriguez's: 10 Minute Film School.

The Dutch Tilt

The Dutch Tilt, also known as The Dutch angle, Dutch tilt, German angle, oblique angle or canted angle or Batman Angle.

The Dutch tilt is a camera shot in which the camera is deliberately slanted to one side. This can be used for dramatic effect and helps portray unease, disorientation, frantic or desperate action, intoxication, madness, etc.

Dutch tilts are typically static shots but can also be used with simultaneous panning and/or tilting.

Dutch angles are frequently used by film directors who have a background in the visual arts, such as Tim Burton (in Edward Scissorhands, and Ed Wood), and Terry Gilliam, who used Dutch angles in Brazil, The Fisher King, Twelve Monkeys, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Tideland to represent madness, disorientation, and/or drug psychosis. In the Evil Dead trilogy, Sam Raimi used Dutch angles to show that a character had become possessed.

Dziga Vertov's 1929 experimental documentary Man with a Movie Camera is known to contain one of the first usages of the Dutch angle, among other innovative techniques discovered by Vertov himself.

Other notable uses of the Dutch tilt can be seen in:

Batman, Dutch angles were used extensively in the original TV series and 1966 film of Batman, where each villain had his own angle. Scenes filmed in any villain's hideout, when only the chief villain and his henchmen were present, were invariably shot at an angle departing extremely from the horizontal.

The Third Man makes extensive use of Dutch angle shots, to emphasize the main character's alienation in a foreign environment. An anecdote of cinema lore alleges that once filming was completed, the crew presented director Carol Reed with a spirit level, to sardonically encourage him to use more traditional shooting angles.

It was used a lot in German films of the 1930s and 1940s. This is where the name German angle came from. The Dutch term is said to have been a mistranslation of the German Deutsch.

@flickerdrome adds: Generally horrible technique, but can be a great effect – Evil Dead, The Haunting (Robert Wise's) & Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf.

Video: 100 Years of Visual Effects Inspiration

Visual Effects: 100 Years of Inspiration. A collection of clips and making-of footage from notable visual effects films of the past century.

LIVING LEGEND RAY HARRYHAUSEN SIGNING AT FORBIDDEN PLANET LONDON

RAY HARRYHAUSEN and TONY DALTON will be signing An Animated Life at the Forbidden Planet Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR, on Saturday 24th October 1 – 2pm.

The last great animator before the introduction of CGI, Ray’s book takes us through sixty years of bringing dreams to life. From harpies and skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts to the six-armed Kali in Sinbad, Ray explains the films' journeys, from original concept through to the critics' reviews, as well as the basics of special effects and stop-motion animation. Now re-issued in softcover, An Animated Life is a wonderland guide through a golden age of SFX magic.

Mr Harryhausen is responsible for the barrier breaking animation in much loved classic films such as; Clash of the Titans, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, One Million Years B.C., First Men in the Moon, Jason and the Argonauts, Mysterious Island, The 3 Worlds of Gulliver, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and many more.




Where
Forbidden Planet London Megastore
179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR

When
1-2pm Sat 24 Oct, 2009
The Establishing Shot: LIVING LEGEND RAY HARRYHAUSEN SIGNING AT FORBIDDEN PLANET LONDON

Establishing Shot

In film and television, an establishing shot sets up, or "establishes", a scene's setting and/or its participants. Typically it is a shot at the beginning (or, occasionally, end) of a scene indicating where, and sometimes when, the remainder of the scene takes place. It's usually a long (wide-angle or full) shot at the beginning of a scene (or a sequence) that is intended to show things from a distance (often an aerial shot), and to inform the audience with an overview in order to help identify and orient the locale or time for the scene and action that follows; this kind of shot is usually followed by a more detailed shot that brings characters, objects, or other figures closer; a re-establishing shot repeats an establishing shot near the end of a sequence.

For example, an exterior shot of a building at night, followed by an interior shot of people talking, implies that the conversation is taking place at night inside that building. (Of course the conversation may in fact have been filmed on a studio set far from the apparent location, because of budget, permits, time limitations, etc.) Establishing shots may also use famous landmarks – such as the Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum, the Empire State Building, or the Statue of Liberty – to identify a city.



Alternatively, an establishing shot might just be a long shot of a room that shows all the characters from a particular scene. For example, a scene about a murder in a college lecture hall might begin with a shot that shows the entire room, including the lecturing professor and the students taking notes. A close-up shot can also be used at the beginning of a scene to establish the setting (such as, for the lecture hall scene, a shot of a pencil writing notes).



Establishing shots were more common during the classical era of filmmaking than they are now. Today's filmmakers tend to skip the establishing shot in order to move the scene along more quickly. In addition, scenes in mysteries and the like often wish to obscure the setting and its participants and thus avoid clarifying them with an establishing shot.



An establishing shot may also establish a concept, rather than a location. For example; opening with a martial arts drill visually establishes the theme of martial arts.
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