Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Putting Everything Together

Although the main characters are often given the credit for the quality of a movie or TV show, it's the post-production editing that pulls together everything and defines the story. Without editing, there would be no sound effects, special effects, color changes, or animations inserted in to the production. If we think about all these things many of them are in fact what makes the final product make sense and so entertaining.

When considering the the merits of editing animated movies are a very good example. If you think about all the things that go into editing an animated film or TV show, it is a long and complicated process. Since animated shows don't have human actors you need to create voices for all the characters to go along with their animated bodies. That's beside the fact that with animation you need to create each character, every background, and all the scenes that go into your story because there are no real life backgrounds to use. Additionally, all the sound effects, color changes and graphics must be added to these animated shows and movies. Virtually, every aspect of animation uses post-production editing to create their final product.

Editing helps show what the video camera, actors and director cannot. Before going into the post-production editing stage it's necessary to shoot enough video so that after editing there is enough time in the movie or show left to fill in the allotted or target time. Although, editing tools are generally fairly easy to understand and execute, it takes an experienced editor to not just edit but create a story through the whole process.

In the end, editing can take an average movie and make it great or take fantastic filming and make it terrible. The purpose of good editing is to make the movie flow smoothly as if no one ever interfered. Poor editing is so noticeable because it steals your attention from the movie or show and focuses it on the production quality. That's why editing is possibly the most important part of the entire film production process.  


Daily Questions to Ponder:

1) Is editing more important to some movie genres than others?

2) When does editing start to decrease the overall product of a film or show?

Monday, October 22, 2012

A Scary Good Point of View

In today's reading the main topic is point of view.  What I mean by point of view is, in terms of filming, the way the camera shots help tell the story. There are a number of ways you can use point of view to change the meaning of the story you're telling. Often times you can use specific points of view for specific genres like action, romance, horror, etc. The key behind choosing which point of view you want to use to tell your story is first deciding what perspective you want the storyteller to take.

What I want to focus primarily on in this post is the point of view used in horror movies. Since it is October and my favorite holiday is Halloween, I figured it would be fun to take a further look into what makes the horror movies my friends and I enjoy so much so good. One of the most famous point of views used in scary movies is the long-moving camera shot. This is where the audience is looking through the eyes of the monster or predator in the story. Such examples of this are movies like Predator, Halloween, and many werewolf movies.  The long-moving camera point of view utilizes the ability to show the unsuspected prey being watched which helps build suspense.

By using this point of view along with reaction shots of terrified victims suspense is instilled into the story making it more enjoyable to watch for those who appreciate the genre. Without using the right point of view, the entire movie can be compromised because the story wouldn't be conveyed to the audience the right way. This is the same for all movie genres. If a director tried to use the horror movie point of view for a romantic movie the main character would come across as a stalker rather than being portrayed in a good light. Choosing the right point of view is vital to telling a story properly. More so than any other aspects of movie making, point of view is probably the most crucial.



Daily Questions to Ponder:

What points of view work for seemingly polar opposite genres?

Does the main villain or the point of view used make a horror movie scarier?


Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Reading Between the Lines

One of the focuses of today's article was the relationship between horizontal and vertical lines. It may seem absurd to think that orienting an image so it follows horizontal lines as opposed to vertical lines would make a difference, but there is a lot of evidence behind this idea. When an image or object follows horizontal lines it appears more tranquil and welcoming. On the other hand, when an image or object follows vertical lines it comes across as more powerful and dynamic. There are numerous examples that help prove this point.

When dealing with horizontal lines some examples you can examine are traditional one story houses and movie covers. If you look at the structure of a one story house, it extends outwards but doesn't rise high into the sky. The horizontal line of the house makes it feel like a more welcoming, family environment which is important when finding a home. From a different angle, you can look at horizontal lines for conveying emotion on a movie cover. For comedies or romantic movies, like Super Troopers, there are multiple people on the conver making the case look wider and is more inviting to viewers looking to relax.

When dealing with vertical lines, there are other examples to examine such as high rises and action movie cases. High rises, or skyscrapers, are built straight up on a vertical line. Due to this fact, skyscrapers seem exciting, adventurous and appear to defy gravity. Countering the horizontal line movie cover example, action movies often follow a vertical line design. If you look at the movie cover of Braveheart, the vertical line design gives Mel Gibson, who is features alone on the cover, a sense of intensity, aggression and dominance.

It's surprising how fixing an object or image on a horizontal or vertical line can make people look at it differently. The subtleties of a change in orientation can turn an image from being powerful to being calmer and more tranquil. Understanding these important ideas of design can help you improve your media literacy and design skills.

Daily Questions to Ponder:

1) What does an image that follows horizontal and vertical lines convey?

2) What examples are there of objects or images that don't follow this idea?

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Picture Perfect

In today's article on Multimodal Polyphony I was intrigued by the section on framing and cropping photography. It's amazing how by moving the focus of the picture or by cropping out certain parts of a picture you can convey an entirely different idea apart from the whole.  Additionally, you can use different photography techniques like the "golden section" in addition to cropping and framing to create the best product of the image you're portraying.

The golden section is when you divide a picture into three sections horizontally and vertically. By doing so, you give you're photograph a sense of depth and you can use natural elements, such as the horizon or color levels, to break up the photograph and key in on the most important parts. The golden section holds very similar concepts as another method of photography taking called the "rule of thirds." This is where an image is broken into sections and the goal is to place the key features of the image on the horizontal and vertical lines along with the meeting points. In both methods, the main idea is to adjust a photograph through framing and cropping so that the main features of the image you want to show stand out the most.

The fact of the matter is, cropped and framed photographs are more aesthetically pleasing and can relay more meaning than a photograph unchanged. Human error can account for many flaws or question marks in the meaning of a photo. It is only trough the use of cropping and framing that the author can really focus on what they desired to show. With the technology to shape and fix up photographs it has really improved newspapers, magazines, and television and internet pictures.



Discussion Questions to Ponder?

1) What is the difference between the golden section and the rule of thirds?

2) What percentage of magazine photos are cropped or framed?

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Imagined Communities

Something I pulled out of this week's article was the idea of imagined communities. This idea was first presented by Benedict Anderson and came about do to the invention of the newspaper.  The basic idea of the newspaper creating these "imagined communities" where through the reading of news around the country we are now connected with one another from further distances. The reason Anderson described these new communities as imagined is because the newspaper caused a relationship between unseen others who don't have physical contact with each other.

The imagined community is a very interesting concept. Imagine living years and years ago before newspapers or any form of mass communication and think about how isolated everyone was. You lived within your community or city and had no idea what was going on in other parts of the country. It would take days to weeks just to hear important news from a few states away. But, with the arrival of the newspaper, people from different states were given the opportunity to feel more united with each other despite their physical distance. Now rather than be in the dark about important occurrences nationally, people were able to form these imagined communities of information.

However, now that the technology involved in mass communication has grown and improved, we are even more connected with one another and our imagined communities are even larger. New technology like the internet and television have given us the chance to not only connect with others in our nation, but also with people from all over the world. Additionally, with the invention of things like web chat and messaging system, our distant communities are becoming less and less imagined. We can now put a face to the people we at one point could only imagine even if there is still no physical contact with them.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

A Clash of Two Titans

Since the creation of DMU at Furman University there has been a fight for intramural supremacy between the independent club and the Sigma Nu Fraternity.  These two sides have combined for 9 out of the last 10 intramural championships going into the 2013 season.  Now the question is, can one of these teams continue their dominance and if so who will come out on top? Click the "show info" button  in the top right of the screen after following the link below to receive the full effect.





Photoshop Before and After


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