Film Studies & Cinematography / Task 2 / Pitch Bible

29.5.2024 - 26.6.2024 (Week 5 - Week 10)
Elysa Wee Qi En / 0355060 / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Film Studies & Cinematography
Task 2 / Pitch Bible

LECTURES 

Week 9 / Film Grammar

There are four main aspects of film grammar:
1. Framing
2. Staging
3. Motion
4. Editing

Film grammar can be thought of as piecing clips, shots, sound effects etc. to form a 'sentence', or rather a film. It adds visual interest. 

Major and minor beats:
- Major beats are usually a sequence (consisting of one or two scenes)
- Minor beats are what make up major beats, usually the shots in a scene to convey the points

Shot types: 
- Wide shot / establishing shot: Far away from characters to establish location or character
- Medium shot: Like having a conversation, usually chest-up
- Close-up shot: To emphasize a moment

Composition:
- Rule Of Thirds is the most common composition style
- But the focus of the scene can

sometimes be placed in the middle. This gives stability.
- Put the camera to show what a character is looking at or what the audience should be focusing on 
- Using close-up shots sparingly so that their impact remains
- *But remember that rules can be broken sometimes for some decisions or reasons

Fig. 1.1. Angled shots

Static vs Dynamic shot:
Static shot: when the camera is fixed
Dynamic shot: when the camera moves during the shot
    - Pan: Camera moves horizontally or vertically to give more information
    - Dolly: Camera moves parallel to the ground
    - Zoom: Camera zooms in or out from a subject
    - Track: Camera follows a particular moving subject
- Dynamic shots draw more attention to itself
- But remember not to rely too much on a moving camera, because it can lose the audience 

Fig. 1.2. Types of dynamic shots

- Remember that when framing conversations with over-the-shoulder shots, don't switch the sides of the characters even when you switch perspectives from one character's shoulder to the other's

Fig. 1.3. 180 degree rule

INSTRUCTIONS

Fig. 2. Module Information Booklet

Task 2: Pitch Bible

For this project, we were required to create presentation slides about of the specifications of our final project. They were already pretty much planned during Project 1, so it was mostly about expanding on and finalising the ideas and pitching them in a video. 

FINAL Pitch Bible Submissions

Fig. 3.1. Pitch Bible Slides (12/8/2024)

Fig. 3.2. Pitching Video (12/8/2024)

REFLECTIONS

Experiences
I tend to put off projects that require me to film myself, which unfortunately I did again for this project. I am glad that I managed to get it done in the end, even if it's a short video. At the end of the day, my pitch fit in the video I did no matter how short, and I did explain and talk about it, so I hope it's off sufficient length. I do need to improve in the aspect of delaying such projects though,

Observations
This second assignment, I'm thinking, is so simple because the third assignment would take so much time and effort. Especially with my workload, I should be more aware of deadlines next time in order to gauge the workload of the next assignments. It's a good way to estimate the amount of time it will take, apart from just guessing based on the MIB.

Findings
From the lectures I learnt new terms. Such as the the dolly type of camera movement. I also learnt what a story beat is and its role in creating a full story. Not just that, but looking back on the notes now, I realise how they apply to creating storyboards as well. It makes sense, since creating a storyboard means planning out the scenes and shots, but I can use this knowledge in the future if I ever have to create another storyboard, or even just plan the story beats, scenes or shots of a story.