Cinematic Composition Mastery: Film Stunning Scenes with Pro Techniques

1. Introduction: Hi, guys, welcome back. This is Gijo Sengupta. I am your sense, I am your teacher, I'm your professor, whatever you like to call it. So I love films. That is my background. Ever since I was 3-years-old, I've been wanting to do this ever since. I'm one of those people who are blessed and know what they want to do in their life. A little background, educational background about me. I did my bachelor's and my master's in films and animations with a specialization in VFX and CGI from the Rochester Institute of Technology in Upstate New York. Uh, when I was in school over there, when I was in college, I made sure I sneak into different classes and learn each and everything, each and every aspect that is there to do with film. So you can call me Jack of all trades, master of everything. So starting with CGI VFX, editing, color grading, color correction, animation, cinematography, color science, all of it. I am aware and I'm here to teach you guys. So the name of this class is cinematic Composition Mastery. So in this class, what we will be learning is how to compose your footage, be it in stop motion, animation, live action, or just pure motion graphics. How do I compose my film? It runs across every single vertical. There are certain rules, there are certain regulations that you have to follow in order to make cinema look like cinema. Now, I'm a huge believer of breaking the rules, but in order to break the rules, you need to know them first. So in this class, I'm going to be running through each and every single one of them. Regardless of whatever avenue of film you choose to proceed with, this is going to be relevant in every single one of them. Now, you could be even a marketer. You could be even like an Instagram social media person. These rules matter over there as well. These rules you have to have to know in order to make cinema look like cinema. Then once you know the rules, then go ahead and break. There needs to be a certain you need to have a certain creative ground as to why you are breaking them, and that is what I'm going to teach you and give you examples of where to break the rules and where not to break the rules. This class is for the beginners. It's for the people who are starting off immediately in films. So use this as your stepping stone into the next level. So I will have another class called Live Action Filmmaking Essentials. This will be kind of like step number one. That will be step number two. So you can follow this as a path. But yeah, let's get started. I'm excited. I'm calling this the creative grammar. So let's go, learn some grammar of film, and then make our next masterpiece. Let's go. 2. Rule of Thirds: Is composition. It is how you place things on the frame and where you place it in order to achieve the cinematic look. That is what composition is. So to begin, we have one of the most simple rules, but one of the most effective rules. This rule is purely dependent on how we perceive things. Our eyes tell our brains that the picture looks better if this rule is followed. Now, let me explain this through examples. We have rule of thirds. So let's get ready. So here, if you see we have a character, right? Let's say in this example, a simple actor is drinking tea or coffee. Now let's say she is just placed randomly somewhere on the frame. Notice how there's a lot of gap on her left and on her right, and that kind of seems weird, right? Now, the way rule of thirds work is that we divide the screen into three sections horizontally, and also we divide it vertically as well. Now, if we place her on the left third, notice how immediately it looks more pleasing to the eye. And this, my friend, is an example of what is called making it cinematic. Now, let's take an example of interviews. If you see in this example, you see how I have placed the main character on the left third. Now, what this does is it gives depth to the image, the background, and it also gives space for us to use lower thirds. So you can see lower thirds, there's a space. So this way, the screen is never overwhelmed and you have enough room to breathe. Again, the point is to get your audience comfortable. Now let's move to the horizontal lines. It's always good to place a character or an object in one of these lines. This is where playing with headroom is very, very important. Headroom is the space between your head and the frame. Let's take an example. You see the character is sitting and talking. Now, imagine if we move her to the bottom, that means there's too much headroom, too much gap. And to be honest, it looks awkward because her face is all the way down there, right? The other scenario is where you cut a person's head off. Now, nobody likes that. Even the actor won't like that, it doesn't look good, right? So what do you do? That is where you use these guidelines. To place, it's always beneficial to use these lines as reference. As and when you use it, eventually, you'll understand where these intersections lie. Now look, I place this character now on one of these lines. Look how beautiful the overall phone looks. Now that you've understood the rules, let's break them where we have a very, very strong creative standing. 3. Dominance: Moving to rule number two, we have dominance. This is one of those things that I see a lot of filmmakers not doing it properly and somewhat ignoring it. Filling the frame or having dominance is very, very important. A lot of filmmakers that I see have a bunch of dead space everywhere. It is very important to keep the subject or character dominant in the frame. There are many ways that you can use the rules to make the character dominant. Let's take some examples. For example, if you're trying to shoot a product, you see that there's a lot of extra space everywhere and a lot of distractions. As a filmmaker, it is important to guide the audience's eyes and remove these unnecessary distractions and make the character or object, in this case, stand out. First, let's use the rule of thirds and then arrange these subjects, and then move a little bit closer, and you see the other things automatically blur out, and that blur helps our eyes to guide to which object or character we should look at, to make them stand out in the frame. Sometimes placing a blur image right close to a lens also helps get the focused in dominance. So for example, sometimes you might not do it properly. So that's when in post production, you can zoom it a little bit. But you have to be careful about that because sometimes when you zoom in too much, your things might get pixelated. So don't always fix impost. Remember 4. Leading Lines: All right. Rule number three, leading lines. What are these lines? Where do they come from? Who gives them? Leading lines are lines that exist naturally in the world, and they exist in your frame that you choose to shoot, and those lines help your viewers direct their eye to the center of the frame or to your subject. Now, take a look at these images. How these leading lines help our viewers know what exactly the subject is. Depending on the lines, you can set your horizon however you want. Setting the horizon honestly also falls under these leading lines because that line is important as to what you want the audience to see. What these leading lines actually does is it helps create a symmetry and it guides the eyes to the entire image or to your subject. Let's see some examples. See how these lines over here help bring up the character. They act as leading lines because these lines lead to your character to create a beautiful symmetry. Notice how we don't follow the rule of thirds over here, right? But this is where it was one of those examples where we break that rule and stand our creative ground. Always remember if you're shooting something interesting, on the ground, make sure to set your horizon up and do the opposite if you're trying to get a beautiful shot of the sky. Means horizon will be low. 5. Depth: Alright, moving on. Rule number four. This is called depth because we like going deep. I'm just kidding. This is one of the most famous rules of composition, creating depth, right? The most common way to do it is with an aperture of a camera. We will cover details of our camera operations in our intro to live action module. So more on that later. But when you follow the other rules and compose your short properly, it is important to make sure also that the background is somewhat a little bit blurred. This depends on what you're feeling for the particular character as well. That's why it's very important to keep your subjects in focus. Always maintain focus. When a subject is not in focus, it's called being soft. So if you are on set with filmmakers and you hear like, Hey, focus is soft, that means the focus needs adjusting. People focus not only to see the subject clearly, but to also create depth between this foreground and the background. So as a filmmaker, you will be challenged in various scenarios where the background and the subject may not be very far apart, right? You might not be able to create much of a depth through focus because it's together. So this is where you use lights to create depth. Now, in basic terms, it would mean changing the light of the subject and the light of the background to create that contrast in lighting. This in turn would give you a sense of depth where you don't have an option. But again, we dive deep into the lighting subject, again in our intro to live action module, where I will go in depth about how to light, what to light, and we'll consider these scenarios as well. So that's pretty much it for the rules of composition. Again, common below if you have any questions. Moving on. 6. 180-Degree Rule: Welcome to one of the most important rules of filmmaking. In this chapter, I will teach you to become the master of this rule and also when and how you can break it and when you need to. And, trust me, there will be times where you would need to break this rule. For this, the best way is to let's check this diagram, where we have two characters having a conversation. So let's assume we place the camera here. Now, as soon as you place the camera, there is an imaginary line that you need to create, which would directly dissect the characters from in between. Now, you see, guys, this line is the sacred line. You cannot you cannot cross it. I mean, you can with your feet, but not with the camera. That is a big, big, no. If you cross it, it will confuse the hell out of your audience, especially in this case, where we are trying to shoot a conversation between character A and character B. What it does actually subconsciously in the back of your audience, is that the audience loses track of the positions, the layouts of the film, and what that can do is make the audience start thinking about the technicality rather than the story and the characters of your actors who are doing something. And that is something that honestly you don't and never want from your audience. So when you break this 180, it will remove the audience from your story and your characters. And as you see, like right now on the screen, is if you cross it, it looks wrong, right? And it removes the way the audience feels and understands the location of where the characters are. It is about two things location and the feeling of the characters. So keep in mind, you can use all this space to shoot whatever you want. Even when you're shooting over the shoulders or something like that, just make sure your camera doesn't cross the line. That's the most important. So whether it be hip shot, whether it's, like, from the eyes, from, like, the feet, whatever it is, try to maintain that semicircle. Wherever you start off, maintain that semicircle. It's super important to keep your audience in check. Keep your audience's emotion in check. Now let's go to the next lesson and learn how to break this rule and when it is relevant. 7. Break the 180-Degree Rule: Okay, so as you saw over here, you can check that the audience, which is you guys, was always with us throughout the entire time. Why was this? Why do you think that we could cross the sacred line over here? Yes. The right answer is that we did not use guts. That is why we could cross that sacred line of 180. So without when there is no cut, what is what are you doing? You're bringing the audience with you throughout the entire journey, right? You're not cutting. When you're cutting, remember, you're transporting your audience to different locations at different times to show different perspectives. Over here, you are there continuous. When you're there continuous, the audience does not get confused of the location. The audience does not get confused of the perspective and the audience is with you thick and thin. All right? So remember that there are certain ways, certain times where you can actually break this rule. The one example is when you're not using carts to move around. Good examples are good action sequences in popular films where you see the punching, the kicking, they move around in circle. They're breaking 180 left right and center. They're breaking 360. So at that point of time, you can break it. If you think there are certain situations in your film that you feel that should I break it or not, leave a comment below and let me know what you guys think, whether there's something you can break or not. Thank you. Very important rule. So keep in mind practice small Cheers. 8. Camera Angles: Introduction: Angles, guys. That is one of the most important things that I love. My favorite thing is camera angles. When you see something that you like, you have the right angle to see what you like. You get me. So welcome. The angles of a camera, be it animation, live action is the most important to tell a story. And there are so many jokes when it comes to camera angles between you and your crew, you will know. So depending on how your angle is, it speaks differently to your audience, be it sexual, be it horror, be it funny. There's a lot of times we aren't really sure what type of angle to use and when to use it. So towards the end of this chapter, we will see some examples from some films that I've done and some things that I've shot especially for you guys, and see how they are used, especially only through camera angles. Let's dive in and let's make some magic and keep tabs of discord to understand the secret angle jokes. 9. Low Angle: Okay. First, we have the very, very most most important, I would say important and also very, very basic three most basic. Let's talk about three most basic types of angles. They are mainly used in the occurrence of regular shots. Alright? Number one, the low angle. This is usually taken from the bottom, showcasing the character to be up on a pedestal. So in your film, when you're trying to show someone maybe dominant or powerful. This is the angle that you used. It is sometimes used in horror films. It's used a lot actually to showcase the monsters, the ghosts. It's used in places where a character is being super angry at someone and your goal at that point of time, is to show them extremely powerful. It is also and it could also be used as an entry of a villain or in a film language, we call them an antagonist, which is the negative persona. Their only goal is to defeat the protagonist, which is the hero. 10. High Angle: Angle number two, we have the high angle. Now, this is literally the opposite of the low angle. We do this. Let me see if we can get some guesses to show someone who is not powerful and who is inferior. It is usually shown when you're trying to show someone a little less dominant. For example, in that example, we were saying the person who is shouting, in this example, it is a person who is being shouted at or being threatened with a gun. It is usually the one who is given this angle. So it's shot from the top where you see a high angle and you see the person looking like up there or to the character. So if you see, for example, in this example, this man is being controlled by this woman and this is a film that we recently released as a production house. It's called countless. And the choice of this angle, why we chose this angle, is to showcase that he is continuously being dominated by this particular woman, right? So take a look how he is just, like, standing there, and then he keeps falling down, right? He's trying to just he's finding something interesting, but he's falling down. So that's an example. 11. Dutch Angle: Angle number three. It's called the Dutch angle. Now, the camera has been rotated and the horizon has been shifted. Think about it like this. The primary use of a Dutch angle is to cause a sense of unease or disorientation for the viewer. So it could be, let's say someone took a drug pill or is getting high by smoking something. So somebody got hit in their face, their head is spinning, right? So these are all different types of scenarios and examples where you can actually see. So let's take the same film countless, for example. So this main character, right, he finally realizes that he's stuck in a loop. Way I decided to portray is to use a dolly and slowly switch the angle to Dutch. Even the audience feels uneasy because that, my friend, at that point of time, is the motif of the story, not motive. There's a difference between motif and motive. A motif, it spells with an F is a repetitive narrative element that supports the theme of a story. The theme of the story in this particular example was continuous loops and uneasiness. So remember, there's a difference between motif and motive. These two things mainly matter of how you're going to choose your angle. Whether that is something that is good for your audience, whether that is something how you want your audience to feel. You need to always think that. I tell everybody all the time, the angle that you choose, why are you choosing the angle that you choose? You need to think about what the audience wants to feel at that particular point of time. And if you feel that this is how the person should be feel, he should feel dominant, use a low angle. He should feel weak, use a high angle. So you need to play around with these a little bit more and understand and slowly with practice, you'll understand how it works and why it works. 12. Types of Shots: Introduction: Okay, so when it comes to shots, right, there's so many types. There's literally so many shots which are there. It's crazy. But let me break it down. Shots are usually used also for telling and conveying emotion, and it's a little bit different than angles because the way angles work is it's like the way you hold a camera, right? That is how angles work. So the difference between shots and angles is that a shot is where the camera is placed. You can make a dance move out of this and angles is up down, you can also make a dance but there are different types of dance moves. It's like a combination of the shots and the angles together is what you can create an emotion. 13. Medium Shot: All right. So the best way to show you what shots are is obviously through examples. So let us begin with the number one shot, which is the medium shot. I know, it sounds like I'm going to say something crazy, but this is medium short. Anyway, it's the most popular shot when you're trying to keep it regular, normal, not trying to convey too much, you know, too many high emotions. But also, I want to focus a little bit on the body language. So medium shot kind ends right here, as you can see on screen. 14. Close-Up Shot: Moving on to the next type of shot, this is called the close upshot. It's like when you're close to a person. Now, this is an interesting one. Usually when intense dialogue happens when intense expressions, reflections are shown, for example, somebody's screaming at someone, you want to show that mouth, how he's screaming. You want to show that. That's a close up shot. You go right to the face, you know, right to the face. No personal space over here. For example, there will be situations where you want to get the same person in different shots. So you can basically show both of those type of shots based on the intensity in your edit suite. That's the whole point of taking these different shots, right? So sometimes you want to take medium shots, sometimes of the same person, you want to take close up shots. Right. So basically what this does is in your edit, you cut between these two, and when a person is having some intense expressions or intense words, you cut at that point of time to that close up shot which you took. So basically, you can see playing with the audience's emotions, to direct it the way you want to direct it and the way you want to show it as a director or as a filmmaker is very, very important. That is why these different type of shots are there. 15. Wide Shot / Long Shot: Number three, this is called the white shot or the long shot. Long meaning it's like long, far away from you. So this is usually used to give a break from the human element and go a little further away. Sometimes what happens, guys? In dialogues, intense scenes or just in general, this type of shot is usually used to give the audience a little bit breather, you know, because sometimes you're like, there's a fight secret, for example. It's like punch cake, punch cake or sometimes intense conversation, argument argument, argument argument. Sometimes the audience it gets a little bit too much, right? So at that point of time, what you do is you just go a wide. Show the location, show all the characters in the scene, and what that does. Number one, it gives the audience a breather. As I mentioned. Number two, it gives them a sense of location as well. Sometimes what happens in film, you're showcasing something you're so um involved and engrossed in this particular scene that what a lot of first time filmmakers do is they forget to get out, step out. It is important for an audience to also get that subconscious breather, like, Okay, I'm seeing things outside. It gives them you can use that as a point to transition into the next scene or not. But overall, try to include a couple of white shots in between some of the intense conversations. It helps give your audience a breather, a sense of comfort, a sense of location. 16. Establishment Shot: This type of shot is called the Establishment Strat. Now, honestly, this is so hard to explain. What is an establishment shot? Is the meaning there in the word? I don't know. Yes, guys, it is when you want to establish something. Literally, it is not at all complicated. It is when you want to establish something. So this shot is usually and purely used for establishing the location. All right? So what happens is sometimes location, it usually exists in the beginning of a scene, right? Starting of a movie, usually see like a city skyscape. Usually in superhero films, you only see it in America, so New York City maybe. Sometimes you see like a desert, sometimes you see the planet Earth, if it's like a sci fi thing, right? So it's an establishment shot. It gives a wider, wider feel to where this film, where the scene is located. Then sometimes it's like a house, it's a city. It could be a farm. It could be an airport, it could be like a station, whatever I have. It depends on your film. It depends what you have in mind. 17. Emotion & Sequence: Most important thing is you need to keep in mind is when you're planning these shots, these types of shots, remember that your audience is not just watching film, right? They are experiencing it. So keeping these right shots with the right emotions is very, very important. And out of all of these, the most important is the right sequence. Now, what I will do is I will show you a little short sequence. But instead, I will show you one in the right order and one in the wrong order, I will not tell you which one is right and which one is wrong. As an audience, you will immediately be thrown off guard and you will understand what I'm talking about. These are time and proven scientific methods that trigger your brain. So definitely follow this to the core. There's seldom times you can actually break this. Very, very few moments, but you need to have a super artistic stan as to why you did what you did. I better be a good one. All right, so let's watch this little shot that I created and you tell me which one is correct or which one seems right and which one seems a little bit off and you feel like, I'm not really feeling, right? So just before I show you, um, the shots that I've used establishment shots, close up shots, medium shots, white shots. All right. So the next I will not tell you anything. In the next lesson, there will be a quiz. In the quiz, you can choose between the right and the wrong, right? Okay, so now you guys saw both the videos. Now you can see planning emotions based on the type of shots is extremely, extremely important to keep your audience hooked at all the time. Alright? Now, go to the quiz and let me know which one is right, which one is wrong. If you have any questions, comment below. Check me up on Discord. 18. Framing: Levels: Alright, guys. So for this lesson, we are on set over here. Let me introduce you to these amazing people. We have Ashambl. Hello. And we have Santos Panigrahi. Hi. Over here on camera, we have Nikhil Bope. He's saying hi to you guys, I promise you. So we have covered types of shots. We have covered angles. We have covered many things. Now what we're gonna be talking about is how to frame a shot. So come with me. Let's go on set. We have a small little studio setup over here. The setup is basically a simple backdrop, couple of chairs, couple of stools. And what we're going to be talking about is number one. Levels. Levels are super, super important. So let's do one thing. Ashish over here. He is always our guinea pig, our actor, and he's good acting skills. And we're gonna use him as a guinea pig, and we're gonna show you guys how some works. And Santosh over here is going to be our DOP. So right at him, we have a simple him simple camera. Just talk about the camera a little bit, Santos. Yeah, it's like simple tripod and camera. Yeah. So we're using Sony a 6,300, so nothing fancy, very simple camera. We're recording in four K. The number one first level that we're gonna be talking about, right, in framing is eye level. Alright, so let's take this camera hand handheld, real quick. So why do you use eye level? Eye level is when you want to showcase expressions. If he's angry, if he's sad, if he's super happy, that's the time where you showcase eye level because eyes speak 1 million words. So let's remember the type of shots that we have done. Now, Santos over here, he's going to take a medium shot, right? He's going to take a medium shot. He's going to cut it off right over here. Right over he's going to cut it off. So at these points is where we have his eyes on the top third of the screen. Over here, at these type of shots, when you frame your subject like this is when his expressions, his dialogue is the most important. So you have to take in mind as you can see right now on your screen, is that he's looking at the camera. Usually what happens is actors don't look at the camera. Actors usually look at another person, and when he's talking, he has, like, he has some anger issues. He's very sad or he's very happy. He's having romantic, so he's looking off camera. Always remember your actors should not look directly at the camera while shooting if by chance, he looks at the camera, it destroys the whole audience's perspective. Alright? So Santos, he's doing a pretty handheld job. Obviously, it comes with experience. In the initial stages, it'll be hard for you to keep the camera stable. But with experience with practice, that will happen. So now we're going on to the next level, which is called the hip or the knee level, right? So hip level, Santosh can we little bit, let's go a little bit wider than a medium shot. Okay. Let's go a little bit wider than a medium shot, and we'll go a little bit head level. So over here, what do you think might happen? So you can see over here how he's holding the camera. Let me just move this tripod out of the way. So as you can see, again, we're maintaining medium shot over here, okay? We're maintaining medium shot. And as you can see on the screen, what Santoshinsing right now is a little bit odd angle. How can you frame this properly? We don't want to shoot his crotch, right? We want to shoot something which is important. So what is the object? The object, maybe it could be he's fixing his watch, right? He's fixing his watch. So here, if you see the level, is hip level. So which is like, right here. So, again, the shot the type of shot that is, it is a medium shot. So usually eye level, hip level, these type of shots are usually good when you're doing medium shots. I'll tell you why does. It looks weird if you're doing wide shot. Show them how it's done wrong. Let's go wide. Let's go super wide. Now, as you see over here, his head is his forehead is cut off, right? His forehead is cut off. It doesn't make it doesn't bring that cinematic that feel. But now, let's come closer. Let's fix your ring or something where your ring. And what we'll do is in the hip shot, we'll go a little bit towards the right, and then you see he's fixing his ring. But then what that does is it tells a story that something's bothering him. If he's a married person, he's missing his wife. You know, if he's fixing his watch, it's like he's late or he's like, just not having a he's having a bad time. So now, imagine this, right? Hip level, I cut to eye level, and he's thinking, he's looking at his watch. So imagine when you cut between eye level and hip level, how that creates a nice cinematic edit, alright? Now, moving on to the next level. Ground level. Basically for a ground level, very, very simple. What do you do? You throw the camera down on the floor. No, I'm just kidding. No, I would do that. Alright? So let's go. Thank God, you didn't do it. So let's place the camera down on the ground, and let's see how it looks. Alright, now you can see over here the main motto of ground level is to showcase or give a sense of curiosity to who this person is. We have no idea who this person is. Now, let's Ashish, we'll have him act out something nice. So basically what you do Ashish Santos you stay still, right? Be ground level, Ash come right behind Santos. Right behind Santos? And right here, what we'll do is we'll have a revealing shot of just his feet, right? So you just walk towards the coffee mug, right? Slowly. So you can see on the screen, you can see like he is going over there, we see his shoes. And then what you can do is you can literally try to understand that this is a mysterious character. We have no idea who this person is. So then you can cut to another type of shot, which is a eye level. Hip level, ground level. All right. So these are the things that we focus on. Let's go back. Sot real quick. Can you come showcase one, two, three, just to show, Okay, now you can see on your screen. We have eye level, medium shot, keep that in mind, eye level, go down to hip. Take a look at how he's standing. Look, take a look at how he is standing. Take a look at his posture. Alright? Your dominant hand should be in the front, all at hip level, look at where he's looking at. Don't just aim at the hip level for the sake of it. There needs to be a purpose, like I said. And the last but not the least, we have the ground level, which is something related to the feet, something to build curiosity, something like that. All right? Now, let's move on to the next one. 19. Single Framing: Have super super type my favorite types of framings, right? These framings are called. First one is called a single shot. Now what is a single shot? Let's use this studio space to set it up, right? So actor? Yes, please have a seat. So basically, remember, we're doing a single shot, right? So now let's do this Santos. Do you think you want to do handle or do you want to use the tripod real quick? I can do tripod. Tripod? Alright, let's set it up. Let's see. Again, simple man photo tripod that is there. You get it at Uh, I don't know how much this cost, but we'll put the amount on the screen, and we'll give also an Amazon link for you guys to buy it just in case. Now, take a look. He was just adjusting his legs of the tripod to make sure we have a single shot. So what is a single shot? While he adjusts it? Sorry. While he adjusts it? Basically, what is a single shot? A single shot is something that there's only one object or one person in fame. So it's single. Now, remember how the Rule of Thirds was. So rule of Thirds, remember the interview shot, how we showed on the left third or the right third. So that is a single framing shot. That's what good framing is. So, we use the rule of thirds, and we're going to praise him on one of these points. Alright? And we're going to use a single frame shot to just showcase because he's the actor. He's drinking coffee. He's pondering about life and whatever. Whatshi What are you thinking about? You actor? I'm trying to remember my lines right now. Remember your lines. That's usually actors are trying to remember their lines. So that's usually something that they're going to be doing. So now let's take a look at what Santos is working on. This is an eye level, right? So over here, if you see, he's just adjusting the legs manually micro adjustments, but he's trying to keep it at a single framing shot. Now, obviously, as you can see right now, he is somewhat in the center, so we need to frame it in a way that we can make sure that he's on one of those thirds. So let's put him on the right third Santos. As you can see, we're going to put the lines on the screen of what Santos is doing at the moment, and we'll put him on the right third. So just like that. Perfect. Now I can see over here, Ash's looking at me. We have a conversation, blah, blah, blah. How are you doing? What did you eat for breakfast today? Bread and butter. Bread and butter? Nice. Did you add some sugar in it or no? No. Do you like coffee or tea? Coffee. Coffee. Black coffee? Yeah. With sugar? No sugar. No sugar. Hate sugar. You hate sugar? No sugar, guys. So as you can see, right now, this framing that is done. We have kept him on the right third, right? This is called a single framing shot. 20. Two/Three Framing: The way how it changes, which is the next type of framing is called a two shot. So two shot works is when there are two people on the same screen. So as you can see on your B roll is we have two people. So place me on the left third and place him on the right third. So as you can see, like over here, take a look at Santos at how he's framing it. So now he's adjusting. Basically with one arm, he's holding the tripod. What I want to be doing, I'll just open this im so let's do a still shot for now. Let's do a still shot for this. And don't worry about it. I'll do. Thank you. Welcome. So now, as you can see, he has locked the tripod in. Now, for a two shot, usually it's difficult to do it movement wise. Over here, it's a static shot. So we're doing two shots. Over here, is usually the way we do it is a dialogue. Conversation. Conversation. So, how was your breakfast? How was bread breed in but was white bread, Brown bread? No, white bread. White bread? White is right? Yeah. White bread. Yeah, that's true. Brown bread is not good for you guys. So anyway, as you can see, this is a conversation. Sometimes what happens is, you're like, shaking hands. Is a good time to, like, have a two shot. It's easy. Sometimes what happens is sometimes a person is a little bit back and he's looking at me, like over here, can you guess what I'm getting at? 21. Over the Shoulder: I am getting at an OTS shot. That's also type of two shot, but it's also how a conversation works. Now, for example, if you see I'm talking with him, what angle is What angle is that? It's wide, right? So for an OTS, we always go medium. So we see a little bit of his shoulder and you see me. So what happens is, this is what OTS is. It's usually when I'm speaking and he's listening, that is something that N OTS shot. It is to focus on a person's face. Again, what is the level over here? We have eye level here. Eye level. Single shot, okay? But this is actually, if you take a look at it, I call it 1.5 shot because it's only half of the other person, and this is a one person. So it's technically not a two shot. It's not a 1.5 shot because you see a little bit of the shoulder. Now, a lot of things that people do. OTS is very common, right? You see this in dialogues and films where people are talking to each other, a lot of things that rookies usually do. Is they usually only have the OTS of a person who's speaking. Right, which is something I do not agree with. You should also shoot OTS of a person listening. Alright? So, what happens is when I'm speaking, if you see now if we switch, right? If we switch, something just tell us the framing, whether we're okay. This is good. Now we have we have a Look here, it's fine. So, fine. That's fine. Alright, so if you can see, like, over here, what Santos is shooting right now, I'm having a conversation. But look at Assh's expression. He's listening intensely. So capturing this also is super, super important because it's not only the fact that whoever's speaking is Uska deka, it is also about who's listening. Capturing those expressions are also important. Like, for example, if I'm shouting like, Hey, how could you do this? How can you do this to that? And so his reactions are also super important. So you can see, every time OTS is not just about who is speaking, it is also about who is listening. So that is what I will talk about in the edit suite in that module. When we are editing some OTS shots, I will talk about when intensity matters and when conversations, speech matters. If I'm super angry, I'm like, shouting at that time, maybe Santos can go over there and he can shoot me. But he is also at that time, if I'm shouting, his reactions are super important. At that time, hearing and seeing those reactions are also very important. Now, this is what we're going to do next, right? We are going to mix a level and an OTS together. Look at me here. It's a surprise. Alright, so now, what we're going to be doing is we're going to be mixing two things. So Ashis is gonna stand here. Don't show to the camera yet what it is. We're we're gonna mix two levels over here, right? That sorry, we're gonna mix a level. And a type of framing. We're going to mix OTS and we're going to mix hip level. Alright, Santos. My cinematographer, let's go hip. You got to do like a OTS and with the gun, yeah. So now let's see how Santos is framing this. Now Ashis Why don't you do the cowboy thing just like this. Yeah. So you see this. So you see this shot. What is this shot? This is an OTS, but from a hip level. Now, what this does, if you take a look at over there, just Nik Win, you just like, take a look at what he's doing. And as you can see, I'm just going to run across the camera and I'm going to see what he's doing. So if you see this is an OTS from a gun. Now, Ash move your hand right over here and go like this. Gun right now is on the right third of the screen, right? It's on the right third of the screen. The gun is also on the hip level of Ashish. And also, technically, it is over the shoulder as well. So you see how we have mixing all these shots. Now, what is this most popular shot that you see? It's called the cowboy shot. Remember, in the old Western old shots where there's two people standing. There's like people go on the back. One, two, three, four, they turn around and that is that shot. So they think about it what back in the, this innovation wasn't there. So it was OTS. But from the shoulder, they were innovative. They were creative enough to go down and use that to a hip level is what you see on screen right now. That hip level? Dole of thirds, which is what the gun is on the left throat or the right throat right now. Right. It should be on the right throat. That is correct, my friend. So you can see mixing all of these, these framings together, you create cinema. And that is how you frame a couple of shots. Now, again, it could be an object. So now let's take a simple object, for example, right? I'm going to shoot a coffee mug. All right? So let's go over here. So now we have let's do a single framing with this coffee. Keep it on the right third. As you can see on the screen, even a simple coffee cup is super important, right? A simple coffee cup is super important. So when it focuses, you see the coffee cup is on the right third, but even that is considered single framing. It could be anything. Even like, for example, for hm, if I come here, if I get, like, let's say, one of these boxes, one of these mics that we are recording in right now, right? Check, check. Mic check. So let's say I put these two together just as, like, a framing. Like, it could be obviously, it's not a box that you'll do it. I'd probably be something together. This is considered too short. 22. Point of View: To continue the last type of framing is one of my favorite framings. We have point of view. Shot. So point of view is basically, when you're trying to show a perspective of a particular person. Santos, why don't you explain what POV, how you're going to take the POV shot over here? So, obviously, the actor over here, he's drinking coffee. I mean, it's empty cup. But I'm just trying to showcase what POV shot is. So Santos, why don't you like, explain what you're trying to do here. Yeah. So Ashish, like, drinking coffee, yeah. So I will take the full shot first to explain. The scene actually co Karnak. Okay. So first, Ashik karao coffee perra. Switch to B roll. Okay. Mmm. Coffee Bee? Yeah. This is, like, Ashish. I mean, normally coffee perra, but Isco Melena point of view shots, then. Okay. Mausco the first actual films, today, I'm a shoot. Like OB OB That's a jacket. He's take the shot. Able Ashish. Same. So if you see from the B roll, we see that, um, Ashish we're looking from Assh's eyes. But if you want to elevate it, what I would suggest is you can even go over here, tilt it down and actually use the camera. So usually POV shots are good from a handheld. If you're starting out, obviously, there are people which have, like, full blown rigs which can actually move movements, but when you're starting up, we do a handheld. So you can move these cameras, like, slightly, like like Upache side to side, and like, Oh, like, is that coffee? And then, like you and you start drinking it. So if you see over here, what I've done is I'm mimicking the eyes. That's what? Excuse me. I just ate lunch. So, this is what usually POV means. That's all about perspective. And sometimes the actors might not be comfortable when you hold them like that. So sometimes what you do is you have the actor completely like, Hey, actor, you're done. You fire to go. You have the DOP. He sits over here and he does it himself. So those are some things what you can do in case your actor is not really comfortable with shooting with, like, a DOP just like on your back. So sometimes that happens. And do you have any things for POV or anything in particular? Mm. I don't know. Maybe it is more comfortable when I hold a camera while shooting. Yeah, for me, it might not be for every actor, since he's actually also in production, obviously, so that's why he's comfortable with it. But yeah, that's basically what POV. And if you think about it, this POV is one of those things where just an entire movie which is made. It's one of my favorite types of, like, angles and types of framing. This is huge, beautiful filmmaker called Alfred Hitchcock. Alfred Hitchcock, he made an entire film just through POV shots. I'll put the link on the description below so you can check it out. It's called Rare Window. Like, he is a master horror filmmaker. Back in the day when he used to make films in Hollywood, basically, the way he used to work is he used to release a film. He would play it on the theater. And once he would play it on a theater, he would go outside the theater. And he would just listen to his film from outside, and he would be like, he would do that, and the audience would scream because he would know when he has directed it so that the audience would scream. So he's that intense about as a filmmaker, what he does. So he made an entire film with just POV shots, POV shots, which is amazing. I highly recommend you should watch it if you want to understand how advanced POV shots can actually get. Alright? Moving on to the next lesson, we talk about camera movements. We're going to move on how we converse on set, how we talk on set, and how we use movements to enhance these framings, these rules. Alright? Next lesson. 23. Camera Movements: Introduction: Alright, so now we're going to be talking about camera movements. I think that is one of the most important things, especially when it comes to film. Because till now what you've learned, you've learned how to frame your object or your subject. You've learned where to place them. You know exactly where to place the camera. Now, how do you move? 24. Static: The first type of movement is very, very simple. It's static, right? It's where static means camera is on a tripod. It's there. So as you can see, we have a camera set on a tripod. What we're going to be doing is we're going to be using Ashish again because we are going to use him the entire day today. So he's going to be sitting over here. We're going to be doing a couple of shots where we're going to come closer. We're going to be doing a couple of shots. We're going to be showcasing how still shots make a difference, how some movements make a difference. So to summarize, we're going to be talking about three types, static pan and tilt. Alright? So we're going to see how that makes a difference. So the first is, let's cut to B roll. We have a static shot with static framing ready, so I should why on to have a seat. So as you can see in the frame, right now, let me also go check because you guys can see the Bro. You can cut, but I can't cut over there. I have to see it behind the camera. So as you can see, he's placed on the right third. And this is a full shot where you see his knee length, eye level, right third, right? So, keep in mind what I'm saying so you can recapitulate back to what we're talking about. So like over here, you see Ashis just simple. Ashis tying to pretend to have a dialogue with somebody. As you can see in the Bro over here, he's just speaking, it's static, right? 25. Pan: So now, this is what we're going to do, right? Keep the focus on the camera. What we're going to be doing is we have a prop, one of our favorite props, which is called the gun. So what we will be doing is now we're going to be introducing to this thing called a pan shot. Now, what is a pan? A pan is when you go. Move the camera. From the left to the right, right? So now, when do you use pan shots when you're trying to showcase the environment? Now over here, what I've done, come over here. So what I've done is I've placed a simple object, which is like a guns not a real gun. Don't worry. So we have placed a gun over here. Now, what Santosh over there is going to be doing. He's gonna first showcase this and then pan to Ashish. So basically, it gives a sense of, like, he might he's thinking about the gun, he's thinking about killing someone, so have your expressions accordingly, okay? So let's go. Let's go cut to be roll. So one thing that I think one more thing, what do you think can make this better Santos, I think if you close up a little bit more, I think we can go a little bit more, right? So let's do a medium shot. So think about it like this. When you do pan, you have to think about the first way of starting to frame that, right? You need to frame that. And where you're starting and where you're ending, you need to make sure your beginning and your ending are framed using the film rules. So let's go a little bit medium. So we're changing the focal into a 70. So the starting frame is we see the gun on we can keep it center. Let's keep it left third. Left third. All right. So we have the gun set up on the left third. Now what we're going to be doing is now we have the first frame set. Now we go to the last frame, which is Aish. Let's go there. Yeah. So you see over here, we have Ashish, which is ceiling. So what we did from a gun to Ashish, that is what a pan is. All right. So let's do it one more. So now we go from a gun. Left third and cut to B right now and action. As on center. But ideally we should keep him on the right third. So you need to just make sure that your rule of thirds are always always set. So here we have it on the right third. So you go from here, from left third and pan pan to the right third. Perfect. So that is what a simple pan. 26. Tilt: Can see that over here, not only if we just do a simple pan, sometimes you might need to go up and down, right? So remember, pan left to right, tilt, up to down, right? Or down to up. Tilt is going from down to up. So over here, let's use a tilt shot to reveal Ashe. So usually tilt is used to reveal a subject, an object, a character, or it could be sometimes a building as well, because buildings are tall, right? Remember, pan is environment. Tilt is a subject or something tall. So now let's see we have Ash's shoes ready over here. So let's go all the way down. So we have a revealing shot. So now we tilt up. And look at that. He does his movement because he's natural like that. And then once we go, we see Ashish looking outside, giving that hero look with his jaw line ready to cut open a girl's heart. So that my friend is what a tilt shot is. Now sometimes what happens is you might want to pan tilt together, so that is what makes a difference. 27. Dolly: Moving on to the third type of movement. Now, let's make our quick gimble Santos. Turn this tripod into a gamble, please. Yeah, just hold it like that. Yeah. That should be fine. Now, obviously, as you guys are starting out, you might not have a gimble or whatever. You might have just a simple tripod. So look at that. How's holding. Use your dominant hand, guys, use your dominant had forwards, hold it both together like this. A dolly shot is very different than a Zoom shot. A dolly shot is basically moving forwards or moving backwards in a straight line. That is what dolly means, right? So now we cut to the camera B, you can see Santos is static, right? Now, the way you say it on set on camera is, right, Santos, dolly in. You see he's moving straightforward. You've cutting cabiro. You can see we're maintaining framing, we're keeping him in range. We're checking focus. So that my friend is what a dolly. Obviously, it's not as stable as a simple dolly. You can change that in post production. You can stabilize it. And ideally with a tripod, you're not supposed to be doling, but with practice, if you're stable, even with handheld, you can move slowly. So you can see some thshis slowly doling in smoothly with practice, it might be it'll come back. So Dolling in, go dolly in. And our dolly out is the opposite way. It's going out of the subject. Dolly in is going inside, Dolly out is going outside. So keep that in mind. Now, why is Dolly so important? Dolly is important because it creates a sense of dynamic behavior, right? So now what we'll do is we'll do a simple dialogue ask you just think of anything that you have to say, or simple dialogue where we will show one with static and one with a small Dolly. Alright, so let's go. You can look at me if you want for reference. I'll be right here. You can talk to me. Something intense, alright? Something very, very intense. Like, you're very sad about I did something very wrong to you, right? Because usually when it comes to Dolly, that's something that's super important, is it needs to be intense. This time is static, okay? Got to be and action. How could you do this to me? I just don't understand. What's wrong with you, bro? ****. You shouldn't have done this. Please tell me that was a lie. Alright, so now that was, guys. So that was static, right? So that was static. Now, we'll do the same thing this time, Santos. What are you gonna do? Len. Yeah. Slowly and steadily, very slight. You see the difference. So, you can go to post production on your Edit suite, and you can just zoom in, but those are the rookie things to do. You know why? Because in real life, when you zoom in, you can actually see the environment. It creates this thing called parallax, which is you see what is behind, you see the contours of a face, the contours of a body. It's already on footage. It's flat, right? So you're zooming in with just over here, you're giving dimension to the character. Alright? So let's do the same thing, same thing with a simple Dalian. You ready? Yep. Alright. Same framing, right? Perfect. Same framing. Alright. And got to be and action. I'm sorry. I just happened. Okay. Actually, actually, it's okay. I think it was all my fault that I trusted you. Alright, so now we'll do the same dialogue. So now we're going to doing the same dialogue. We're going to add slow movement, right? Slow movement, and Satoshi's already ready in his position. So again, for these type of things, usually on real production sets, so there's usually a whole rail and people sit on it and somebody moves the rail slowly. So it's static or use a gimble. But as you're starting off, there is a good way to do it. Open the tripod legs, hold it like that, hold it like that, and then slowly on your toes, just move. Alright? And action. You man. You're telling me to be a man. Stand on my place, and then you'll come to what I'm getting in. You will never understand until it's happened to you. I did. I take it. Right, cut. So you see, we went all the way from a full shot all the way to a close up shot. Now, obviously on a tripod, it's not that stable. So we did a little trick. We did add some stabilization in post production. I'm not going to lie to you. But hey, that's something we will teach in the Edit suite how even with a simple tripod, how you can add stabilization to make sure that footage even looks like a dolly. The reason why I took it is because it added dimension. I added if you come over here. So think of it like this, right? If we have something like this, right? Just a simple thing like this. If you zoom in, you're just going like this, right? It's flat because it's on a screen, and you're zooming in on a screen. If it's three D with a camera, when you're zooming in, you're starting to see the dimensions of a face, dimensions of a body. You're able to see the depth behind the character and the background. So these are the things that are super important in the dolly shot, which is why people dolly. Otherwise, if it was that easy, people would always zoom in, right? People would shoot on 17 K and just zoom into HD, then the whole point of dolly would go away. So that is what a dolly shot is. So these are the three most important camera movements that you have, and that will exist in any any shot. So mixing all of these up guys starting from the rule of thirds, starting from the types of shocks, starting from the angles, starting from every single thing, right? Framing, movements, all of these together is what builds cinema. Alright? So I will see you guys in the next lesson, which is live action and where we will dive deep into this little baby over here, right? Little baby, I love how your plot pays the position right in front of you. It's nice. But this little baby, we'll be getting into the in depth on how to operate this, how to talk about the technical aspects of what a camera is and how it compares to our eyes. All right, so get ready. This is going to be exciting. Start taking notes as to what is what, and I'll see you guys there. 28. Thank you!: Alright, so thank you guys for attending this class. So as you can see, these rules, these applications can be done across through all verticals of film. It doesn't matter what type of film you're making. So now, what are the next steps that I should do as a student after I learn this? First, you need to think about what avenue you want to go to, what avenue you are passionate about. But I will recommend go into live action if you are a starting filmmaker, if you are a person who wants to understand the basics of how live action sets work and understand how cameras work and some basic lighting areas, some basic lighting, I would suggest you go to this class called Live Action filmmaking Essentials. So this class will cover those things, and it will help you gain your basic knowledge in filmmaking. And then you can make an educated decision as to what direction you are more passionate about, and then you can move ahead in your filmmaking journey. So if you have any questions, please comment below, and I'm more than happy to have a discussion with y'all and actually help y'all make your career and make your career ready for whatever field you want to go into. All right? All I require from you is passion, which you showed. Thank you for attending my class. I'll see you in the next one.