Movie-Making

Your Task:• You are going to complete the task in groups that I put you in. • You will have a time limit for every task.

You have been contracted by New Line Cinema to make a re-make of Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.

Your last film did not do very well and you are under a lot of pressure to create a successful movie that is a faithful representation of the book. At the moment, you are currently filming the scene we have just read.

You are going to film your interpretation in groups of four, using your phones and editing the footage on the computers next class.

Tell me…

•What do directors do?

Directors: What are they doing?

They use camera lenses to visualise how each scene is going to look.

They decide on the camera angle.

Directors: What is Martin Scorsese doing?

They tell actors where to be, where to look, where to move to and how to act.

Directors: What are they doing?

They decide how to light a scene.

Directors: What is he doing?

…. and make the last minute decisions on sound.

Darth Vader and Princess Leah have a conversation about her home planet.

In this scene:

Who has the power?

Why?

In this scene:

Who has the power? Darth Vader

Why? Because he is above her eye level, she is also below the eye level of the guards.

What do these stills have in common?Who has the power? How tall is Yoda?

They are equal.Yoda is about 3ft, the director had to make a lot of adjustments to make sure Yoda and Luke are always the ‘same height.’The camera is always at Yoda’s eye level.

How will you use this information when filming Father and Bruno?

In which still are the characters more powerful?

Why?

In the following films stills…In groups discuss: Who has the power?

How are the characters positioned?Where is the camera?

In this picture, we don’t see Katniss’ face, the camera is over her shoulder …

What effect does this have?

When would you use this in filming your scene?

Some ideas…• Powerful character is on, or towards the left.• Powerful character is taller than the weaker one, or bigger. If people

in your group aren’t physically smaller, how can you position your camera to make them seem smaller? Remember Yoda and Luke.• Powerful character has some kind of furniture.• Powerful character can move freely.• Camera looks up to the powerful character.• Powerful character is either in front, or perspective makes them seem

taller than they are.

Do you think this happens by accident?

Match the camera angles to the stills.

• Overhead Angle

• Low Angle

• Over the Shoulder Angle

• Close up of person or object

* For L-cut, you need to see it in action…• L-cut

1.

2.

3.

4.

Which technique….

1. Makes characters look small or vulnerable?

2. Makes characters look bigger or more powerful?

3. Gives a character’s point of view and establishes empathy with whoever’s shoulder it may be?

4. Takes us into the mind of the character. This can make us feel extra comfortable or uncomfortable about a character?

5. Creates the flow of the film and stops conversations looking like a tennis match?

Low Angle

Close up Angle

L-cut Shot

Overhead Angle

Over the shoulder Angle

Which techniques are used in this scene from Harry Potter?

What effect do they have?

Class Discussion….