A historical drama (also period drama, period piece or just period) is a dramatic work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television, which presents historical events and characters with varying degrees of fictional elements such as creative dialogue or fictional scenes which aim to compress separate events or illustrate a broader factual narrative.
It's easy to think that buying or hiring expensive equipment will just yield great camera movements naturally; however, this isn't the case. When using specialized gear such as a Steadicam or any sort of airborne device, it is advised that an experienced operator is hired. Although it is possible to hire grip equipment for relatively little money, do not fall into the trap of using inexperienced operators as you'll make a better film if you keep your shots simple rather than use an inexperienced operator on an exotic bit of grip equipment. Learning a piece of equipment without guidance can also be harmful to a production. Learning incorrectly is a good way to learn bad shortcuts and habits. It is also an extremely easy way to break expensive equipment such as a hib.
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE FILM MEDIUM Deakins works with directors who take advantage of the medium. This may be the most important advice you’ll ever hear. Many films don’t do this, and that’s why they don’t deliver. Cinema is different from television because of the economics, but in the last ten years, that gap has slowly been closing. Curiously enough, some movie makers have lost sight of why television is catching up. They instead have elected to absorb the principles of early television which prioritizes writing and efficiency rather than aesthetics. Deakins does not, and neither do the directors that he works with. They use visuals, camera movement, sounds design, and film grammar all to their advantage whenever possible
Lighting a scene Using just a key light results in a high-contrast scene, especially if the background is not illuminated. A fill light decreases contrast and adds more details to the dark areas of an image. An alternative to the fill light is to reflect existing light or to illuminate other objects in the scene, which in turn further illuminate the subject. The key light does not have to directly illuminate the subject: it may pass through various filters, screens, or reflectors. Light passing through tree leaves, window panes, and other obstacles can make a scene more visually interesting, as well as cue the audience to the location of the subject. The key light also does not have to be white light—a colored key (especially when used with fill or back lighting of other colors) can add more emotional depth to a scene than full white alone. In mixed indoor/outdoor daytime scenes, sunlight may appear to be a warm white, and indoor lighting to be a neutral or artificially-toned white. By contrast, moonlight appears to be cooler than indoor lighting.
Find the right camera angle Both the shot size and camera framing is augmented by the various camera angles. For example, depending on the context, a Dutch angle can elevate panic or a compromised mental state. A low angle is often shorthand for a confident, powerful character. Conversely, a high angle literally looks down on a weak or vulnerable character. Explore all these angles and more in the following breakdown.
Build up the tension It's important to include elements of visual tension, especially as your video approaches the denouement. Use different types of shots to do this, from extreme close-ups to wide-angle shots. By reframing the camera from a neutral subject to the final scene you ensure a smooth transition to this final phase. Use short shots to build tension. Remember that you can always shorten a longer recording. So film a few extra seconds before and after the content you actually want to film.
Formats Different layers of video transmission and storage each provide their own set of formats to choose from. For transmission, there is a physical connector and signal protocol. A given physical link can carry certain display standards that specify a particular refresh rate, display resolution, and color space. Many analog and digital recording formats are in use, and digital video clips can also be stored on a computer file system as files, which have their own formats. In addition to the physical format used by the data storage device or transmission medium, the stream of ones and zeros that is sent must be in a particular digital video coding format, of which a number are available
Monochrome images are not direct renditions of their subjects, but are abstractions from reality, representing colors in shades of grey. In computer terms, this is often called greyscale. Black-and-white photography is considered by some to add a more emotional touch to the subject, compared with the original colored photography. Monochrome images may be produced in a number of ways. Finding and capturing a scene having only variants of a certain hue, while difficult and uncommon in practice, will result in an image that technically qualifies as a monochrome photo. One can also artificially limit the range of color in a photo to those within a certain hue by using black-and-white film or paper, or by manipulating color images using computer software.
Happenings are difficult to describe, in part because each one is unique. One definition comes from Wardrip-Fruin and Montfort in The New Media Reader, "The term 'happening' has been used to describe many performances and events, organized by Allan Kaprow and others during the 1950s and 1960s, including a number of theatrical productions that were traditionally scripted and invited only limited audience interaction."
Launched in 1965 by Eastman Kodak at the 1964–65 Worlds Fair, Super 8 film comes in plastic light-proof cartridges containing coaxial supply and take-up spools loaded with 50 feet (15 m) of film, with 72 frames per foot, for a total of approximately 3,600 frames per film cartridge. This is enough film for 2.5 minutes at the professional motion picture standard of 24 frames per second, and for 3 minutes and 20 seconds of continuous filming at 18 frames per second (upgraded from standard 8 mm 16 frame/s) for amateur use. In 1973 the system was upgraded with a larger cartridge, which includes film with magnetic sound.
Traditionally, the "director's cut" is not, by definition, the director's ideal or preferred cut. The editing process of a film is broken into stages: First is the assembly/rough cut, where all selected takes are put together in the order in which they should appear in the film. Next, the editor's cut is reduced from the rough cut; the editor may be guided by their own choices or following notes from the director or producers. Eventually is the final cut, which actually gets released or broadcast. In between the editor's cut and the final cut can come any number of fine cuts, including the director's cut. The director's cut may include unsatisfactory takes, a preliminary soundtrack, a lack of desired pick-up shots etc., which the director would not like to be shown but uses as a placeholder until satisfactory replacements can be inserted. This is still how the term is used within the film industry, as well as commercials, television, and music videos.
The 30-degree rule is a basic film editing guideline that states the camera should move at least 30 degrees relative to the subject between successive shots of the same subject. If the camera moves less than 30 degrees, the transition between shots can look like a jump cut—which could jar the audience and take them out of the story. The audience might focus on the film technique rather than the narrative itself. The 30 degree change of angle makes two successive shots different enough to not look like a jump cut. However, camera movement should stay on one side of the subject to follow the 180-degree rule.
The arrival of computers and the Internet in the 1980s created a global environment where videography covered many more fields than just shooting video with a camera, including digital animation (such as Flash), gaming, web streaming, video blogging, still slideshows, remote sensing, spatial imaging, medical imaging, security camera imaging, and in general the production of most bitmap and vector based assets. As the field progresses, videographers may produce their assets entirely on a computer without ever involving an imaging device, using software-driven solutions. Moreover, the very concept of sociability and privacy are being reformed by the proliferation of cell-phone, surveillance video, or Action-cameras, which are spreading at an exceptional rate globally.
The concept of time travel by mechanical means was popularized in H. G. Wells' 1895 story, The Time Machine. In general, time travel stories focus on the consequences of traveling into the past or the future. The central premise for these stories often involves changing history, either intentionally or by accident, and the ways by which altering the past changes the future and creates an altered present or future for the time traveler upon their return home. Some stories focus solely on the paradoxes and alternate timelines that come with time travel, rather than time traveling itself. They often provide some sort of social commentary, as time travel provides a "necessary distancing effect" that allows science fiction to address contemporary issues in metaphorical ways.
Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, magazines and other popular mass-media outlets; and academic criticism by film scholars who are informed by film theory and are published in academic journals. Academic film criticism rarely takes the form of a review; instead it is more likely to analyse the film and its place in the history of its genre or in the whole of film history.
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apocalyptic events, and religious or folk beliefs. Horror films have existed for more than a century. From origins in silent films and German Expressionism, horror only became a codified genre after the release of Dracula (1931). Many sub-genres emerged in subsequent decades, including body horror, comedy horror, slasher films, splatter films, supernatural horror and psychological horror. The genre has been produced worldwide, varying in content and style between regions.
There are many pathways to becoming a film director. Some film directors started as screenwriters, cinematographers, producers, film editors or actors. Other film directors have attended film school. Directors use different approaches. Some outline a general plotline and let the actors improvise dialogue, while others control every aspect and demand that the actors and crew follow instructions precisely. Some directors also write their own screenplays or collaborate on screenplays with long-standing writing partners. Other directors edit or appear in their films or compose music score for their films.
A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, and composition. Creative works require a creative mindset and are not typically rendered in an arbitrary fashion although some works demonstrate [have in common] a degree of arbitrariness, such that it is improbable that two people would independently create the same work. At its base, creative work involves two main steps – having an idea, and then turning that idea into a substantive form or process. The creative process can involve one or more individuals. Typically the creative process has some aesthetic value that is identified as a creative expression which itself generally invokes external stimuli which a person views as creative. The term is frequently used in the context of copyright.
Concept art is a form of visual art used to convey an idea for use in films, video games, animation, comic books, television shows, or other media before it is put into the final product. Concept art usually refers to world-building artwork used to inspire the development of media products, and is not the same as visual development art, though they are often confused.[citation needed] Concept art is developed through several iterations. Multiple solutions are explored before settling on the final design. Concept art is not only used to develop the work but also to show the project's progress to directors, clients, and investors.
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began with AM radio, which came into popular use around 1920 with the spread of vacuum tube radio transmitters and receivers. Before this, most implementations of electronic communication (early radio, telephone, and telegraph) were one-to-one, with the message intended for a single recipient. The term broadcasting evolved from its use as the agricultural method of sowing seeds in a field by casting them broadly about.It was later adopted for describing the widespread distribution of information by printed materials or by telegraph. Examples applying it to "one-to-many" radio transmissions of an individual station to multiple listeners appeared as early as 1898.
