stop motion film

Photos above are some of the photos taken during the making of our set. The house in the photo is the main subject and the main character in the story. The structure of the house includes a weird feet below. The feet represents as the foundation of the house. The food above also has special role to. Each of it slowly climbs up inside the house and until some time, the house gets full and couldn't handle the load of candies any longer. It then starts to wobble and explodes with candy wrappers. 

The set design includes the brown curtain as the background of the set. The materials included in making the house were mainly the plywood as for the walls and we used the broom for the roof of the house. Lastly, the food we have chosen are the ones that really could cause the disease called diabetes since the whole point of the story is about this diseases. We have chosen this topic because its one of the top disease here in the Philippines. 

Basically, I have random roles in this production. I was assigned in doing some of the props and partly, one of the stop motion photographers. I have also provided some of the equipment for the production. 

oscas

Basic Camera Movements

There are several camera movements that are being used as of the moment. This camera movements adds more mood and style in the film. It give more interest to the viewers of the film and at the same time It gives different angles with the subject and the settings.

1.) Pan

   
     Panning is when you move your camera from left to right or vice versa with the camera positioned on a certain point only. This means that you only move the face of the camera but the camera is not being moved in another place. This type of shots can usually be used when you want show your viewers the different locations and angles of your setting.

2.) Tilt

     Tilt is when you moved the camera from up to down. It is most likely the same with panning because the camera is still positioned in a certain potion and only the face of the camera is being moved. The only the difference is that the movement of the camera is different than the panning. These shots are popular when you want to introduce a character especially when the character is a grandeur in a movie.

3.) Pedestal
     
     A pedestal is when you move the camera vertically up or down while it is fixated in one location. It is basically just moving the height of the camera up or down usually using a tripod. Usually pedestal shots are being used when you base the height from your subject. Example is when you take a shot of a flower or a kid, then you pedestal down your camera. This shot is used to get an "eye to eye" shot with your subject.

4.) Dolly

     A dolly is when you move the entire camera forwards and backwards using the dolly crane of a motorized vehicle. This type of movements can be used when you like to your viewers to see flowing effects of your film. When done correctly, this give a nice impression to the viewers.

5.) Truck

     Same with dolly, the camera is being place to a dolly crane but the direction is just different with dolly. The camera is being moved from left to right unlike the dolly which is being moved from forwards and backwards. These kind of shots are great for wide areas to fit the frame and when you like to see flowing motions.

6.) Arc
     
      An arc shot is a movement of the camera that covers a semi-circle around a subject. Arc shots give the viewers the attention to focus on the subject. Furthermore, this shot can be accomplished in a simple kind of way and that is to imagine a string connected to the camera and with the subject. This shots can  be most effective and useful when you shot a moving subject. If done correctly, then it will really pay off when the audience can't take of their eyes off the screen.

7.) Crane
      
      Crane shot is basically a shot taken by a camera on a crane. Crane shots are used to view the actors or the people above when the camera moves up and away from them. It gives a "birds eye view shot"This is commonly used to end a movie or a film. This shots are also used on a concert or an event where we can view a wide shot of the people.

8.) Floating Stabilizer Device

      This kind of shot are made with the use of an external accessory that stabilized the movement of the cam. This shots give a gliding effect so it does less shaking when taking a shot. To do this shot, a camera is being mounted to a Steadicam or glide cam  This type of shot is being used when you want to follow a moving subject without causing a lot of shakiness.

9.) Rack Focus

      Basically, you start the shot by defocusing the subject of the camera then slowly focus your subject. This is not much of a camera movement but it gives your viewers an effective way to change their focus. Usually this types of shots are used to start a film or to end a film. This shots are also great when you use it for macro mode.

Language of the Lens

What is great about DSLRs is that you are able to interchange the lenses depending on what or where you are planning to take your shot.  Lenses are the eyes of the Dslrs and they have different types and with different purpose. With the types of lenses you have, you can be able to see your subject that is distance away from you, you can blur your background and only focus your subject and many more effects that will surely satisfy your eyes. Lenses will lessen your hassle in taking some great and quality shots.

Types of lenses

There are different types of lenses that are used for different kinds of situation. Some lenses are best suited for portrait shots, some would be for landscape shots and also, some are great for taking subjects that are far away from you. 

1.) Wide Angle Lenses

    Wide Angle Lenses allows you take a very wide view of your foreground and background. They are great for taking landscape, architectural and interior shots where you would like to include a lot scenes and subjects. The focal lengths of these lenses are much smaller than the normal one. The focal lenght of the these lenses would start from 28 and lower. 

Some are sample shots using a wide angle lens.

2.) Telephoto Lens

     Telephoto Lens are ideal lens for sport or safari. These lenses are usually great when you want to take a shot that is distance away from your subject. They have a high number of focal length

(320 mm focal length)

3.) Prime Lens

       A Prime Lenses is either a photographic lens whose focal length is fixed, as opposed to a zoom lens, or it is the primary lens in a combination lens system. They are smaller, lighter and are more compact than the zoom lenses. They tend to be faster and offers wide apertures of f2.8 ,f1.8 orup f/1.4. Prime Lenses are ideal to use in taking HD videos.

4.) Macro Lenses

      Macro lenses are designed for extreme closeup work. Such lenses are popular for nature shooting such as small flowers, as well as for many technical applications. As most of these lenses can also focus to infinity and tend to be quite sharp, many are used as general-purpose optics. Macro Lenses can be useful for a shooting tiny objects just like flowers, insects and others. They have a high number of apperture that is the background tends to blur more.

Samples of Macro Shots:

5.) Kit lens

    A kit lens is your "starter" lens which can be sold with an interchangeable-lens camera such as a single-lens reflex camera. It is generally an inexpensive lens priced at the lowest end of the manufacturer's range so as to not add much to a camera kit's price.

Oktapodi - Animated short Film

Animated Short films come its way to a whole new level especially that technology is now getting better and better. With the help of your computers and your drawing tablets, animation can be done easier and faster. Animators are now given the chance to showcase themselves through different kinds of animation and with the help of the internet, they can now share they're talent of art anytime and anywhere.

But animation is not just done through just a series of drawings. They also coincide with the basics of cinematography. Cinematography is still a necessary tool to help your film look better and attractive to the viewers. Although the animation made by a series of drawings is already amazing, its still needs the cinematography in order to showcase a beautiful film.

The animated short film "Oktapodi" was nominated and won as the best animated short film of 2007. It's a comedy short film that shows a love story of the two octopus and unfortunately, one was separated so the other one chases the love of his life. he went through all the trouble he has to face just to get her and that is the funniest part of the short film. Later then, they got escape from the catcher. All they thought they are already tied to each others arms again then unfortunately another challenge comes along.

Every piece of this animation was really incredible. This is a beautiful piece of an art. The cinematography was indeed the greatest. The coloring was fantastic and is really eye catching to the viewers. Every shadows, midtones and highlights were properly exposed and the way they showed Santo Rini was perfect. Even thought the scenery was fast, they were still able to portray perfectly the city of Santo Rini. The chasing scene started when the orange octopus got escape from the aquiarium and starts to walk towards the exit. I just loved how the camera was positioned and the camera was moving following the subject. Its just so smooth and catchy.

Above is the view of Santo Rini streets. This also astonished especially the movement of the camera. At first it only focused on the subject then it follows the car then the amazing view of the city appeared. What a lovely way of showing it. I love the worms eye view shots and I just taught that they used this kind of shot in some scenes and it was really appropriate. Also, I would like to include the transition of every scene. I love the part that its really not quite obvious or you cant anticipate what will happen next. Most of the time, the camera would only focus on the subject and follow the subjects movement. The camera is usually framed closer to the subject. The panning was also really great since it gives a clear view of the houses in the city.

above are some of my favorite cinematography scenes. The idea of positioning the camera and the adjustments of colors were really the most amazing part of the animation.

No Portal Escape - live action film

Films of this generation has made a lot of innovations and still continues to improve every now and then. Back then, Cinematography weren't the focused of creating films. But nothing will stop technology from improving things and filming has its own way to go along with technology. 

The live action film "Portal no Escape by Dan Trachtenberg" is one of the best short film I've every seen that really tells me that filming has already gone to a new level. Its almost a seven minute short film that is all about a woman who happens to lost her memory and tries to escape from a room where she was prisoned. She was able to escape using a gun that allows how to enter a portal and escapes the room. Then she realized that everything was only a product of imagination made by the portal gun. 

I love the story line of this film but the most amazing part is that how it was portrayed by the cinematographer. So far, this is really the best short film that I have every seen. The coloring adjustment of this film is smooth and surreal. The indoor coloring is just appropriate for the film and theres a good amount of exposure for the subject even though I can imagine that the room has a deam light in reality. 

So above are some of my favorite cinematic scenes. The position or the angling is really good for every scene especially in the scenes above. The area and the subject are positioned perfectly in the frame.