Week 4 (10/10) : Composition & Aesthetics

In this weeks lesson we discussed the composition and aesthetic elements that relate to documentary video making as well as the theory of editing. First off we started by discussing the rule of thirds, which says that "if you were to divide a TV screen into thirds using lines, you'd find that where those lines crossed the eye is naturally attracted to". We were shown examples of this and instances where filmmakers had carried it out well and also not so well. It was interesting to see how this theory worked by looking at previous student work as it gave me an idea of how to frame shots throughout the progression of the project. We then moved on to discussing the 180 degree rule, which explains that "the 180° rule is a guideline that says two characters in a scene should maintain the same spatial relationship to eachother. When the camera passes over the invisible axis connecting the two subjects, it crosses the line and the shot becomes a reverse angle". It was really enlightening to learn about this rule as I had heard it mentioned briefly in previous Media courses I have taken but I never fully understood what it meant or how to put it into practice, so it was really useful to have it explained in depth. 

Connecting from this weeks set reading by Rabiger, Ch.16, we discussed the 'dramatic curve' and the three act structure, (more typically known as beginning middle and end). Deriving from Greek theatre the dramatic curve explains the progression of events throughout a plot/narrative; starting at the exposition, through the rising action to the climax, leading to the falling action and finally the resolution. I find the dramatic curve really exciting to learn about, I studied it briefly when I took A Level English Literature at college previously so I had a brief understanding, but learning about it more thoroughly was really interesting to me. 

Our groups were then asked to screen our 1 minute short documentary videos to the other groups and then discuss them afterwards. My group had some problems editing the footage that we had collected. I was unable to attend the editing session for personal reasons, and by the time I was available it was too late, so the rest of the group took over the editing for this little project. None of my other group members had ever used Adobe Premier Pro before so it was completely new to them and from what I heard they didn't get on with it too well! Nonetheless, I still think they did a good job considering they had never used the software before! The feedback that we got was constructive and we were able to learn from the editing mistakes that we had made like the obvious use of jump cuts, and the fact that we lost the save location of our cutaway footage so it appeared as "offline" on our editing timeline. This exercise was really useful as it gave us a chance to explore the new cameras, sound equipment, and editing software and get to grips with it a bit more before we go out and shoot our final creative project.