I feel like slot of the things done in this part of the film were to point out to the audience that the man in the room is T'Chaka. Showing that he has superiority over everyone in the room. The suspicious nature at the beginning of the clip makes it seem like some one did something wrong. Especially when they used offscreen sound when N'Jobu's friend was asking whether or not to open the door and the camera was still pointed at N'jobu. It gave you the sense that what ever was behind that door was there for him only. The shot revere shots added to that feeling when the conversation was happening and the only two people the camera was on were T'Chaka and N'jobu. So overall I think the main purpose of this part of the movie was to show the power T'Chaka holds and what can be done if rules are broken or if challenged like he was.
Techniques for Dr. Vrooman’s Pop Culture Classes by Steven S. Vrooman, 2004-2020
special note: This is just the beginning of film knowledge. Please avoid overclaiming. Especially avoid the common assumption of college students when they first undertake this kind of analysis that in the “olden days” they couldn’t or didn’t know how to do x, y or z. The majority of film techniques, from shots to sound to editing are all created in the 1930s. About the only thing that “gets better” is special effects. When looking at a film, do not assume that the edits are slow or the film is grainy or the camera is stationary (or whatever) because they didn’t know any better. In almost every case this is an aesthetic choice by the filmmakers to create a certain effect. In other cases it is a question of budget constraints.
category
name
definition
example
the shot
A shot is an uninterrupted sequence of film/video bounded by edits. Note that camera and/or actors can move or zoom, and any elements below can change as that happens.
focal depth/
implied proximity
Closer to people’s faces seems more intimate and “about” the character, usually.
medium long shot (MLS)
medium shot (MS)
N'jobu pulls a gun out on T"Chaka from behind but is quickly
medium close up (MCU)
When the guards enter the room there is a medium close up shot on them
close up (CU)
When T'Chaka magically appears in the room it goes from a black screen to a close up of him in the mask
big close up (BCU)
extreme close up (XCU)
close on
There was a close on of the vial of vibrainium
angle
Looking up gives them power. Looking down disempowers them.
bird’s eye
high
There was a knock at the door an N'jobu looked out of the window down onto the streets to make sure it wasn't the feds
eye level
Durinb T'Chaka an N'Jobu's coversationlow
worm’s eye
canted/Dutch
.
movement
tilt
The camera was being moved up from N'Jobu's dead body to T'Chaka
ped/dolly
pan
crab/truck
crane/drone
POV/subjective/”I”/eye camera
handheld
dolly zoom/Vertigo shot
plane
foreground
midground
background
space
onscreen
offscreen
open
vs.
.
closed
Always felt closed in due to them being in a room the whole shot
diagonals
balanced/centered
oblique/unbalanced
lighting
Note the way 3-point lighting works, first. The fill light removes shadows. The back light makes figures pop from the background.
low contrast/high key
high contrast/low key
sidelit
underhead
overhead
Light came from above T'Chaka when he appeared in the room
backlit
frontlit
“Obie” or eye light
oddities
diagetic lights
lens flare
photography
aspect ratios
See this diagram – the top 3 traditonally used 35mm film.
1.33:1 (4:3)
1.78:1 (16x9) & 1.85:1
2.39:1
2.75:1
lens
Films often use various lenses.
wide angle
telephoto/zoom
image quality
Film is a sandwich of light-sensitive particles in fluidic emulsion sandwiched between harder layers of acetate. Less expensive and/or faster film leaves more unresponsive particles in the emulsion, leading to speckly grain. This can be an aesthetic choice (gritty, realistic, etc.)
film
grain
film was not grainy at all very modern
condition
restored
quality
16mm
8mm
video
“quad” tape
Hi8
digital
high res
degradations added/virtual grain
low res
exposure
The amount of overall light.
underexposure
extreme
somewhat
Wasnt too lit up but wasnt completely dark in some shots
“day for night”
“correct” exposure
Most of the film had a good mixture of lighting
overexposure
in darkness
in light
editing
The joining of shots together.
styles
“classical cutting”
The norm for editing for 100+ years. The idea is to explain scene transitions in and out of a space.
outside in
Went from N'Jobu's point of view looking down on the street to N'Jobu in third person
inside out
master shot & coverage
cross cutting/
parallel editing
montage
some cut types
For the examples below, look sharp! The edit is pretty immediate (and indicated by the “X” in my descriptions below.. And because edits can be quick, make sure you see the first one, otherwise 3 or 4 edits will go by and you’ll wonder which it is.
invisible (ish)
match on action
eyeline match
graphic match
Camera is behind T'Chaka showing his back and the two guys kneeling in front of him
shot reverse shot
There is a shot reverse shot during the conversation between N'Jobu and T'Chaka
the hook
lapping/sound bridge/
J or L cut
visible
jump cut
T'Chaka appeared out of thin air using this cut
flash/smash cut
symbolic match
dissolve
fade
wipe
iris
animation
sound
These 5 pairs of terms can overlap and serve to differentiate kinds of sounds. For example, a voiceover is diagetic…
diagetic
Really the sound of anything happenig during this shot
non-diagetic
onscreen
When one of the characters wa stalking
offscreen
N'jobu's friend is asking whether or not to open the door while the camera is not on him
simultaneous
When T'Chaka stabbed N'Jobu you here the stabbing sound as it happened
nonsimulataneous
synchronous
Same as simultaneous almost,, stabbing sound matching the stabbing action
asynchronous
external
Hi Mason. You did a really good job at finding the moments of the shots. You explained some of them and how you thought the film techniques helped create the overall desired effect in your introduction. In lighting you said there was a good mixture of lighting but maybe you could explain what kind of lighting you noticed (sidelight, under head backlit). For sound you could go more into detail about what made the sound in this specific shot diagetic.
ReplyDeleteMason, I really liked your analysis. I think you did a good job analysing everything, because you did a good job in finding the moment of the shots and explaining the purpose of each one. I agree with Britney that you should go into more detail about what specific sounds are happening.
ReplyDeleteI think you did a good job at filling what techniques you saw and describing that the overall theme of this scene is about power. However I would go more in depth about why the director uses certain techniques such as the sound or the lighting or the way the screen cuts to black before we see the mask and how those things are intended to make the viewer feel.
ReplyDelete