Sunday, January 29, 2023

3 Ways to Establish Visual Rhythm in Your Film

By V Renée
August 26, 2018

What is visual rhythm and how can you use it to make better, more interesting films?

Visual rhythm is incredibly important in filmmaking because it establishes the flow of a story, a flow that can really make or break your film. While both good and bad rhythm put your audience on the edge of their seat, one finds them there because they're excited and engaged and the other finds them there because they're getting up to head for the door, so it's supremely important to know how to use visual elements wisely.

In this video, the team over at The Film Look shows you three ways in which they established the rhythm of their film The Asylum Groove to create an interesting, engaging, and meaningful story using visual techniques that are not difficult to implement into your own projects. Check it out below:


Keep in mind, I'm not talking about pacing here. When we talk about pacing, typically we're talking about the timing of the editing, like fast and frenetic cuts that pump up the action versus slow and meandering ones that let audiences marinate in the moment. Rhythm has more to do with story progression, like establishing a clear beginning, middle, and end and creating patterns to reveal important narrative information.

Let's take a look at the four techniques mentioned in the video:
First and final frames

Video essayist Jacob T. Swinney's "First and Final Frames" series taught us so much about the importance and power of bookending your film. It can show you if you've got a clear beginning and end, how your protagonist has changed over the course of the film, and it can also tie up your story nicely if you add a little visual hat tip to the beginning of the film at the end.

The Rule of Three

I'm not sure why this is a thing, but it is. Many theorists say that when something shows up three times in a film (or anything really), it establishes a pattern. "Why do patterns matter in filmmaking?" Because they give those repeated elements more importance, which means your audience is going to pay more attention to them. "But why do patterns matter in terms of visual rhythm?" Because, as the video points out, it's often just the right amount of information your audience needs to recognize something as vital to the scene, character, or entire film without belaboring the point and boring them.

Bridging shots

The Film Look shows you a great way to create a nice flow between your shots and different sequences. By adding an element, whether it's a certain color, object, or movement, from the previous shot/scene/sequence, you create a visual bridge that allows your audience to make a connection between the two otherwise separate events.


If you want to see how the Film Look team used these techniques in their own work, check out The Asylum Groove below.


Wednesday, January 25, 2023

ASSIGNMENT 2: Shooting for the Edit

 READ THE SECTION on Continuity Editing:

WATCH THE FOLLOWING SHORT VIDEOS AND ESSAYS

Bleat 

  1. Continuity and Narrative: Coverage, zoning, cutting on action



Cameraman

LINKS: 

Basics- Read this chapter on montage and editing

Film as phenomena: Simultenaeity and the shattering of the solid world 

One shot: observing the world

  1. Continuity and Narrative: Coverage, zoning, cutting on action


Discontinuity 

  • Jump cuts:  Note: not all the examples in this otherwise great tutorial are true jump cuts. Some are zoned cuts on action. See if you can figure out which is which.


Story Denali- storytelling from POV of dog 

Experimental: Found footage and layering: creating a dialogue


Example films from students 

Montage made from the everyday 

SIUC Student works:

In his essay about the long take as used by 

Quattro Volte Film Clips

LINKS: Basics- Read this chapter on montage and editing • Moving Pictures by Russell Leigh Sharman o Soviet Montage and the Kuleshov effect o Kelly Reichart on Elaborated Time Film as phenomena: Simultenaeity and the shattering of the solid world • Picasso and Braques go to the movies: Braque believed an artist experienced beauty "… in terms of volume, of line, of mass, of weight, and through that beauty [he] interpret[s] [his] subjective impression...”[17]"objects shattered into fragments... [as] a way of getting closest to the object... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Braque One shot: observing the world • Bela Tar by Kevin B Lee • Bela Tar Visions of Europe Continuity and Narrative: Coverage, zoning, cutting on action • How To Shoot A Scene With A Single Camera • How to tell a story in 5 shots • Graphic matches and matches on action • Graphic matches in I want Candy from Marie Antoinette • Dulac, The Seashell and the Clergyman : Note: Dulac is known as an experimental maker Discontinuity • Jump cuts: Note: not all the examples in this otherwise great tutorial are true jump cuts. Some are zoned cuts on action. See if you can figure out which is which. Story Denali- storytelling from POV of dog • My Dudus (story) Experimental: Found footage and layering: creating a dialogue • Songs for Earth and Folk by Cauleen Smith https://vimeo.com/71024774 • My name is Oona by Gunvor Nelson clip https://vimeo.com/242768525 Example films from students Montage made from the everyday SIUC Student works:

Saturday, January 21, 2023

Analog film links. Spring 2023

1- Structuralism


Other links




CIN 302 LINKS

READING: Moving Pictures by Russell Leigh Sharman

Sharman book  editing chapter
  1. Continuity and Narrative: Coverage, zoning, cutting on action


Acid Brass

LINKS: 

Basics- Read this chapter on montage and editing

Film as phenomena: Simultenaeity and the shattering of the solid world 

One shot: observing the world

  1. Continuity and Narrative: Coverage, zoning, cutting on action


Discontinuity 

  • Jump cuts:  Note: not all the examples in this otherwise great tutorial are true jump cuts. Some are zoned cuts on action. See if you can figure out which is which.


Story Denali- storytelling from POV of dog 

Experimental: Found footage and layering: creating a dialogue


Example films from students 

Montage made from the everyday 

SIUC Student works:

In his essay about the long take as used by 

Quattro Volte Film Clips