My Montage

Below I write about what I learned from my class reading and helpful examples that assisted me in completing my montage.

My Montage:

In Tom Schroeppel’s, Bare Bones, he discusses how still film cameras record light patterns on film coated with light sensitive chemicals. Movie cameras work the same way but take multiple pictures each second to make the images appear like they’re moving. “The viewer’s mind fills in the gaps between the individual frames, due to a physiological phenomenon known as persistence of vision”(3). In the camera, the lens focuses on light patterns on an image sensor and the surface of the sensor contains thousands to millions of tiny light sensitive areas called picture elements aka pixels which end up changing based on the color and intensity of the light hitting them. The image formed by all the pixels taken together is electronically collected off of the sensor at a very fast rate. Exposure is the amount of light that comes through the film. Aperture is what controls how much light comes through the camera and can be adjusted with something called the f/stop. The smaller the f/stop, the more light that is allowed in. He also advises to adjust your white balance before you start anything else. ISO indicates the speed or sensitivity of the film. A low ISO means more light is needed while a high ISO means less light is needed. A normal lens is a lens that captures an image and reproduces it with almost the same perspective as the human eye.

There are also different shots you can take with a camera. Using a tripod helps stabilize the images and eliminates distractions. The rule of thirds gives a more interesting look at a picture as the person behind the camera is aligning the subject or object on one of the points in the grid. When a person is looking off camera, it’s important to give enough nose room where they are looking to keep the picture balanced. Angled photos and frames can give more of a three-dimensional view a frame that makes an impression on the viewers. Using a frame within the frame gives more attention to the subject of the picture and makes it more compelling to look at.

In chapter 5, Schroeppel discusses camera moves. A camera move should contribute to a viewer’s understanding of he or she is seeing. If camera moves distract and calls attention to itself, it is being used wrong. Camera moves also limits editing. It can be visually jarring or boring if there isn’t enough audio to go over the shot.

The basic camera moves are zooms, pans, tilts and a combination of the three. Zoom ins direct attention to the thing being zoomed in on and it’s important to make that subject or thing something interesting or important. A zoom out reveals new information and sometimes tells the audience where they are. Pans and tilts also can be used to reveal new information. One potential issue with panning is vertical lines like fenceposts, doorframes etc. will strobe and leave a ghost image behind if the camera person goes too fast. If you want to use a long pan, follow a smaller object like a person walking or a car so that it’s more visually engaging for the audience. Camera moves are interesting in terms of composition purposes but it’s important to begin and end every move with a well composed static shot or else it’s going to be very distracting for the audience. Another rule Schroeppel writes about camera movement is to always move from an uncomfortable position to a comfortable position. If you start in a slightly uncomfortable position and end in a comfortable position, your muscles as a camera person will loosen up and be relaxed by the end of the shot. This can make a shot look cleaner.

When editing the videos together it’s important to focus on the interesting aspects of the videos. Decide what your establishing shot is and go from there. As a film or video editor you are essentially editing the reality of the audience, you have control over what they are seeing and hearing so make sure it’s interesting. Making sure the viewers have enough time to absorb and process the shot is important and when you introduce new information in a shot, give the viewers enough time to understand and absorb it.

Researching to Inform:

I thought this was a cool informational video about the different types of editing techniques and it gave a lot of cool visuals and how to’s in the short four-minute period. I think for a beginner this would be a good video to watch to understand the basics of editing and shots.

I thought this was a great video explaining some basics of film editing. The shots he included were cool and I thought the narration was awesome. There were some helpful tips like getting the intention of film before you start editing and he included some things that happened in the past that can be avoided. Overall awesome video for beginners.

This guy talks about the different types of cuts and how to edit them. I thought this was a great short video that didn’t have too much overwhelming information in it and could really help beginners.