Claude Levi-Strauss - Narrative theory

In this lesson, we went over Levi Strauss' Narrative Theory and the idea of binary opposition. The idea that every item, object or word has its own binary opposite or complete opposite for instance gender Boy is the opposite to Girl.

Stuart halls reception thoery

Stuart Halls reception theory was created in 1980s and talks about how directors or journalists in the media  create the media to give a specific meaning however people may perceive these in different ways

Numerous factors depend on audiences readings

• Their Life experience
• Mood at time of viewing
• Their age
• Their Culture
• Their Belifs
• Their Gender

Camera shots

In this lesson, we went over different camera shots and how shots can be used to portray a feeling or to show us a characters emotion  / a characters reaction

From closest to furthest the shots go;

• Extreme close up 
  

• Big close up 
  

• Close up 
  

• Medium close up 
  

• Medium shot 
  

• Medium long shot 
  

• Long shot 
  

• Establishing shot 
  

Camera Movement

in this lesson, we went over different types of camera movement and how there is usually two ways to do different types of camera movement one with a fixed camera and one with a moving camera. different types of movement include

• Pan (fixed camera moving horizontally)
• Crab (freely moving camera moving horizontally)
• Tilt (fixed camera moving From low angle to high angle or vice versa)
• Ped (freely moving camera moving vertically holding the same angle)
• Zoom (fixed camera zooms in on a point of interest along Z-axis)
• Track (freely moving camera moving towards something along Z-Axis)

We looked at various clips portraying different uses of the camera movement shots and showed how different shots were used more than others to portray different emotions.

In this scene from superman returns they use a extremely slow track to emphasize the rising tension throughout the scene and conversation

 We then looked at the Bourne identity fight scene to show how a handheld camera with a lot of tracking shots helps the audience become part of the movie itself

We looked at the 'Get out of the water' scene from jaws in which Spielberg tracks in with the camera while zooming out this kept the central picture the same while distorting the field of view to portray a perplexed feeling making the audience feel like somethings wrong

after this we decided to look at the book of eli hijackers scene to show how camera movement can be used to portray a heightening level of tension throughout a sinister feeling.

 We compared the 'Book of Eli' to a scene from an old star trek episode which used a static camera and a lot of zooms with a really slow paced fight scene and all the types of camera movement used make the scene very boring and feel extremely unrealistic and artificial not bringing the audience in and heightening their tension

we watched a clip from 'Moonrise kingdom' by Wes Anderson who uses a crab shot for the entire scene and all scene progression is moving to the right.

Camera angles

In this lesson, we watched a the bank heist scene (Bullet stopper) from superman returns in order to find practical examples of directors using camera shots to convey specific opinions of characters and who is in charge in scenes. Its very prominent in this scene using various close ups to establish emotions, using low angle shots to establish power in the scene and high angle shots to establish the opposite effect, the weakness and vulnerability of characters.

We also looked over different camera angles and how they can tell you about the characters in the scene and the movie itself

The different angles are;

• High angle shot (to show people in a vulnerable position)
• Low angle shots (to show people in a superior and more powerful position)
• Birds eye view
• Dutch angle (to suggest something about the scene queer)
• Eye level shot (equilibrium with a character)
• Reverse angle shot (to show a characters emotions to something then show what they see)