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Article – Using Camera Angles for Best Effect

When you hear a movie director critiquing another’s movie you often hear the choice of camera angle criticized for one reason or another. I think it’s worth exploring the use of angles a bit in this post to let you all know what they are talking about, and how to choose a good mix of angles for your own productions.

The vast majority of any movie is going to be shot with standard angles, height and perspectives. Think of unusual angles as salt. A sprinkle here and there adds flavor to any dish, overdo the salt and it spoils it.

In my opinion, it’s better to get the standard shots in the bag first. Concentrate on the long, medium and close ups from natural angles. Get the vanilla footage down first, then think about adding a little salt by planning a couple of unusual angles for the piece. Depending on the scene you could stand on a ladder, sit or lie on the floor. Looking down on someone can make them look insignificant and weak, whereas looking up at them does the opposite. It can make them look powerful. Using shots like this can add drama to a piece and add dialog to your movie without having to say a word.

To add a little extra flavor to a scene what about placing the camera inside something? Inside a refrigerator when a subject is getting something to eat, inside a suitcase when they are packing/unpacking. Your imagination is the only limiter here, just keep it sensible and make sure the message still gets through loud and clear.

The other way to spice up a scene is by adding focus pieces to it. Find something interesting to put in the fore or background. How about a nice bottle of wine in the foreground of a wide shot of a couple at dinner? A bunch of flowers in a romantic scene? Something that adds to the scene or dialog can make all the difference to how your movie communicates to it’s audience.

To learn about camera angles, do what movie makers do best, watch each other’s work. Especially that of the greats. Looking at still pictures in a gallery or book can also be an inspiration when looking at composition and placement within a scene. Take inspiration from anywhere you want as long as you use it creatively, and sparingly within a piece.

Remember an unusual angle is the salt, not the main ingredient. It should never overwhelm or become the main view of any scene, but the little extra ingredient to make it that much more interesting.

Orlando Video Production is a post from: Fort Myers Web Design

RT Design offers a wide range of video production services throughout Naples, Fort Myers, and the rest of SWFLA. From video editing, production, or promotion, we can do it all. If you have any questions or would like to speak with someone please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Article on Digital File Formats – Part 2

Video compression is a balancing act between making the file size more manageable and keeping a decent level of quality in the recording.  Some of the file formats used are lossy, like the aforementioned .wmv.  The format is excellent for size sensitive movie use, but not to so good if you want quality playback.

We are going to continue the discussion of file formats and will explore some of the others on offer.

Apple wasn’t late getting in on the act and produced the .mov file format.  They are just the same as .avi files, not very compressed.  They look good but then they should if they are up to twenty times larger than a .wmv file.  Apple users will probably extol the virtues of this format, but if you’re a Windows or Linux user, it doesn’t offer anything new.

Flash also have their own file format in the .flv.  This is the middle ground between .avi and .mov as the file size is reasonable but it retains much of the original quality.  The .flv format is the most popular web-based movie format there is.  Sites like YouTube will take a movie of any format and encode it to .flv format in order to be able to stream it.

No list of file formats would be complete without mentioning MPEG.  In this case MPEG2.  This is the format of the domestic DVD.  These files are also large as they are completely uncompressed.  MPEG2 is not suitable for any kind of streamed or portable media at all, but is ideal for home use with a DVD player.  MPEG2 is often the final phase of a production as once it’s MPG2 you can’t edit it or modify it in any way.  Many digital movie cameras will shoot in MPEG2 to offer consumers the ability to “plug and record” home movies straight into their DVDE players.

The other MPEG entry is MPEG4.  This is a more recent file format that combines a good file size with decent quality.  MPG4 is popular for sharing movie files as the size is small enough to be able to download without hitting any bandwidth caps.  It’s also becoming more popular with mobile video providers too as it is easily small enough for a cell phone but good enough quality for some of the higher resolution screens now available.

Those are just some of the most popular file formats around.  They all offer something different and lend themselves well to different situations.  If you want a small file size to email then use .wmv, if quality is utmost then use MPEG2, if you want to export to a mobile device MPEG4, or use on the internet use .flv.

Fort Myers Video Production is a post from: Fort Myers Web Design