Developing film camera techniques

We begun looking at work from the famous Alfred Hitchcock, who specialised in shots such as the trombone shot. We saw this in effect from the film 'Psycho' in which a man falls down the stairs, while we see the background getting bigger, it is a very effective technique. Although the film was made in 1960, the camera shot still works just as well as it did back then.

We then looked at a video by La Roux - Bulletproof. This video contains an effective use of the tilt shot. The artist is leaning against a wall (or so it seems), and then the camera tilts and she is lying down, which then cuts to her getting up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUsbpmQ9-mc

Here's a screenshot of the shot in action:












At 1.27 into the music video, you see this shot in action. It is so quick that you wouldn't think much of it.

We discussed about several shots including;

- Trombone shots
Tracking back, whilst zooming in

- Lip Synching
Pretending to sing to the music,
Can be done by speeding up the track and then slowing down on iMovie.

- Lip Synching with time lapse
One example of this is ;
Guns N Roses - Garden of Eden
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jweI0kDOgtI

- Time Lapse
Speeding up the background around the character
e.g film 10mins of the character standing still, then speed it up to about 2-3mins
One example of this is;
Lazee ft Neverstone - Hold on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uWZ0KD1A4M
example ;
Orbital - The box

- Cutting on XCUs

- Cutting on black

- Tilt moving shots

- Tilt static shots

- Disappears

- Floating heads
Black background, and increase contrast

- Headcam fixed shots

We then went out to attempt to make some of these shots ourselves. This was very challenging as most of these we had not tried before, and had little experience with