The Art of Film: Tech Task 12

Ecmp class last Wednesday was spent learning about videos and filming. We learnt about flip cameras and experimented with them by creating short videos, some of which turned out unreal!

I chose a clip from the movie August Rush. If you have not yet seen it I highly recommend. It is a story of a musically gifted young boy who is homeless. The story has a great plot line. I chose this clip because it uses a variety of filming techniques that we have discussed. I counted the number of different shots and there were approximately 55 in the almost two minute clip. Although this may be distracting to some, I thought it made the scene more productive and effective. With all of these shots we understood that this boy is very musically inclined and that the other characters are rather impressed by his skills.

The clip includes close-ups and extreme close-ups: shots of his fingers, the strings and frets, his face, etc. It includes pans: going up and down the guitar neck and going from the window outline down on an angle towards Robin Williams sleeping. This short clip also includes many tilts where the camera moves up and down. An example of a tilt is when the camera moves from a shot of the guitar up to the boys face. A variety of shot angles are used including low, high, straight on and canted. An example of a high angle shot is when the camera is looking down on the boy playing guitar showing his inferiority as compared with Williams who is looking down on him. There is a point of view shot when Williams is standing in the door way and we see the boy as he sees him. An eye line match is used when Williams is walking down the stairs and it goes from a shot of him looking to the left to a shot of how he would see the boy. Techniques like zooms are used when the camera moves quickly in towards the guitar strings.

It is amazing how much work goes into making a film with all of these interesting techniques. We can see through this short clip that the people filming this movie put a lot of effort into each take and shot in order for an effective product.

Enjoy!