Chapter 1:
Motion Picture Language (part 1)
Courtesy of Kendelyn Ouellette
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Chapter Objectives
• Create short motion pictures using visual
planning techniques.
•Investigate standard shots and techniques
that are the foundation of a visual language.
• Evaluate the effect of continuity and other
editing techniques in motion picture
sequences.
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Agenda
• Screens
• On-screen Communication
• Evolution of Moving Images
• Exercise: Storytelling
• Don’t Marry Her. Buy A House.
• Motion Picture Language
• Building Blocks of Visual
Communication
• Shots
•Group Field Exercise – Camera Shots
•Photoshop Shot List Exercise
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Note Taking Color Key
• Vocabulary – Green
• Key Terms - Blue
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Vocabulary
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Footage
Editing
Sequencing
Feature
Motion Picture
Language
• Head Room
• Lead Room
• Shots
• ECU
• MCU
• FCU
• CS
• MS
• FS
• TS
• Over The
Shoulder
• WS
• LS
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Objective
• Create
short motion pictures
using visual planning techniques.
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Screens
• What are the meanings of the word
“screen”?
• How do we use screens?
• As you go throughout your day, what
screens do you come in contact with?
• What types of screen do you look at and in
what situations?
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Screens
• As you go throughout your day, what
screens do you come in contact with?
• Computer
• TV
• Cell Phone
• Hand held Game
• Overhead Projector Screen
• Movie Screen at Theatre
• Average person spends about 9 hours a
day in front of screen.
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Screens
• Screens bombard use with various shapes,
colors, words and sounds.
• How are screens used to communicate?
• In what way do screens limit or change
opinions?
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Screens
• Moving image media are key modes of
communication for storytelling, advertising,
commerce, journalism and research for
societies across the world.
• Consequently, the comprehension,
analysis, evaluation and creation of motion
pictures is a vital skill for students of the
twenty-first century.
• As movies light up different screens to
inform, entertain, challenge, and inspire us,
it is important for us to understand and use
their images effectively.
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Communication On Screen
• If you have a video camera you might go
out with your friends and shoot some raw
footage.
• Once the footage is imported onto your
computer, you use an editing program to
cut up the material.
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Communication On Screen
• When filming, each time you hit the record
button and then hit the pause button, you
have created a shot, which is the basic
building block of motion pictures.
• When you begin the editing process, you will
cut and move these shots to create
sequences that will make up your completed
motion picture, whether short or feature
length.
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Evolution of Moving Images
• In the nineteenth century, a new method of
portraying the world was developed: photography.
• At this time, there already existed devices that
displayed movement through a rapid succession
of still images. As the versatility and quality of still
photography progressed through the nineteenth
century, it started to become clear that the
phenomenon of photography and visual principles
of animation toys could merge to lead to a new
medium of expression.
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Evolution of Moving Images
• By the end of the century, motion pictures
had been invented.
• The first movies were made up of a single
shot that lasted approximately a minute.
However, it took the development of the idea
of editing – or cutting together different shorts
to create a sequence of shots on film – to
transform these movies into the medium we
know as cinema.
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Assignment:
Storytelling Exercise Brainstorm
• Setting
• Be as descriptive as possible.
– What can you detect with your senses?
– Where is the story taking place?
• Characters
• What are the characters names? Their physical attributes? Their
personalities?
• Conflict
• What problem are the lead characters having?
• Originality
• Did you use any stereotypical commonalities?
– Blond hair, blue eyes, red lipstick
– Meeting at school by dropping books
Assignment:
Storytelling Exercise
• Don’t Marry Her. Buy A House.
• For this exercise, based on the short story
above, write a backstory: an intro (setting,
main characters) and a climax (conflict).
• You may write a conclusion if you like but
you do not need to for this assignment.
– Stephen R. Donaldson
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Assignment:
Storytelling Exercise
• Be sure to save your story. You will need it
for another assignment.
• To Submit:
– Log in to Jupiter Grades
– Upload your short story to the “Don’t Marry
Her” dropbox as a New Juno Doc.
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Assignment:
Storytelling Exercise Critique
• Log in to Jupiter Grades
• Check your File Locker
• Two of your classmates short stories
should appear
• Critique them using the outline on the
previous slide
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Assignment:
Storytelling Exercise Critique
• Are the following items clearly stated:
– Setting
• Where is the story taking place?
• Was the author descriptive?
– Characters
• What are the characters names?
• Are their personalities exhibited?
• Are their physical characteristics described?
– Conflict
• What’s the main problem between the lead characters?
– Originality
• Did you use any common stereotypes or story elements?
– Blond hair, blue eyes, red lipstick
– Meeting at school by dropping books
Objective
• Investigate standard shots and techniques
that are the foundation of a visual
language.
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Motion Picture Language
• What does motion picture language (aka film,
language, screen language or film grammar)
mean?
• Motion picture language is the way in which
visuals on the screen convey information and
express ideas and emotions without words.
• This term is used to describe communication
through sequences of images on the screen along
with the sound that accompanies them.
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Motion Picture Language: Shots
• In order to discuss shots in motion pictures,
filmmakers use a variety of terms for standard
framings.
• When you review the following terms for shots, keep in
mind that use of framing vocabulary varies in different
traditions, such as for feature films, television shows or
commercials.
• The terms that we will go over are the most applicable
to how humans are depicted in motion pictures.
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Building Blocks of Visual Communication
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Extreme close-up (ECU)
Medium close-up (MCU)
Full close-up (FCU)
Close shot (CS)
Medium shot (MS)
Full shot (FS)
Wide shot (WS)
Long shot (LS)
Two Shot
Over the Shoulder
Head Room
Lead Room
Courtesy of Kendelyn Ouellette
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Building Blocks of Visual Communication
• Extreme close-up (ECU)
– The frame is filled by a specific part of the
subject
– Used for emotional moments
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Building Blocks of Visual Communication
• Medium close-up (MCU)
– In general, when the frame is filled by the face
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Building Blocks of Visual Communication
• Full close-up (FCU)
– Roughly includes the entire head down to the
shoulders
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Building Blocks of Visual Communication
• Close Shot (CS)
– The frame line crosses the characters chest
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Building Blocks of Visual Communication
• Medium Shot (MS)
– The frame ends at the waist of the character
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Building Blocks of Visual Communication
• Full Shot (FS)
– Includes the entire human figure
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Building Blocks of Visual Communication
• Wide Shot (WS)
– A view of the entire scene (surroundings and
principal characters)
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Building Blocks of Visual Communication
• Long Shot (LS)
– When the camera is far away from the subjects
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Building Blocks of Visual Communication
• Two Shot (TS)
• When two people are featured in a shot
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Building Blocks of Visual Communication
• Over-the-Shoulder
Shot
• When the camera is
placed behind one
character so that
part of the frame
shows the edge of
the character’s
shoulder (and
possibly the neck
and head)
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Building Blocks of Visual Communication
• Head Room
• The amount of
space between the
characters head and
the top of the frame
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Building Blocks of Visual Communication
• Lead Room
• The space between
the front of the
characters face and
the side of the frame
toward which he or
she is turned
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Groups:
Field Exercise – Camera Shots
• In groups, get passes, check out a video camera, go outside, set-up
and shoot each of camera shots discussed in this lesson. (Take a
cheat sheet with you!)
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Extreme close-up (ECU)
Medium close-up (MCU)
Full close-up (FCU)
Close shot (CS)
Medium shot (MS)
Full shot (FS)
Wide shot (WS)
Long shot (LS)
Two Shot
Over the Shoulder
Head Room
Lead Room
Groups:
Field Exercise – Camera Shots
• Once you’ve gotten all your shots, return to the
classroom and upload your shots to the Field Exercise –
Camera Shots folder on the class server.
• We will discuss them as a class.
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Photoshop Shot List
Storytelling Exercise – Don’t Marry Her, Buy A House
• Download the Shot List Template from the class
website
– Download and Save – DO NOT JUST OPEN THE
FILE
• You will be using Photoshop and the Shot List
Template for your next assignment.
• We will go over the template as a class.
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Assignment: Photoshop Shot List
Storytelling Exercise – Don’t Marry Her, Buy A House
• Don’t Marry Her. Buy A House. – Stephen R.
Donaldson
• In the last exercise, you wrote a backstory (the intro)
and a climax for the short story above.
• For this assignment, you will create a shot list for
your story.
– The shots need to be described (WS, MS, CU) and you need to
state what the audience will see in the shot.
– The whole movie should be no longer than 2 minutes
(approximately 20 shots)
– Pay attention to composition of shots: characters, background
images, objects
• Submit to Jupiter Grades assignment dropbox as a
.pdf file when finished
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning