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Media Language: The Moving Image

All moving image texts use a specific language to communicate to their audiences, and this language can be broken down into six main areas:

  • Camera

  • Editing

  • Lighting

  • Sound

  • Mise-en-Scene

  • Special Effects: visual, sound and lighting

As a media student, I need to be able to identify what choices media producers have made and then consider the reasons behind these choices - this allows me to analyse media texts.

Media producers' choices can be seen as deliberate attempts to create certain meanings as they are aware of how audiences interpret their choices. By thinking about the six areas above, and identifying the way moving image media language is used, I can start to interpret texts more closely, and as a result, analyse them in a deeper and more meaningful way.

Sometimes, the way texts have been edited or lit, for example, is specific to the form or genre of the particular media text. I have to think about this when analysing media language, whether it be as part of a documentary, news broadcast, advert, television programme or film...

Camera

This is the main aspect of moving image media language. The use of the camera for a media text can be considered in two ways:

  • Positioning: The camera shows the audience of a media text exactly what the media producer wants them to see. When an audience watches a production at a theatre, they are able to look at any part of the stage they desire - left or right, front or back. But, when a media text is filmed with a camera, what the audience sees, and how they see it, is controlled by the media producer. This is where camera distance and camera angles come in:

  • Long Shot: This kind of shot contains a lot of information. It often allows the audience to view a location, and creates an idea of scale. As a result, this type of shot is often used at the start of a scene to establish exactly where the action is located. This is called an establishing shot. A variation of this shot is an extreme long shot, which is even wider, and can be an eye-level view of a landscape or an overhead shot of an expanse of a city.

  • Mid-Shot: This is often called a 'head and shoulders' shot when shooting actors. The subject(s) of the shot are clearly identified and the audience is able to see some aspects of their location or blocking in relation to other characters. Some detail can be seen in terms of facial expression, so the audience can see the actors' responses to situations and dialogue. This type of shot is often used when shooting conversations for this reason. Sometimes, a mid-shot of the speaker is framed over the shoulder of the listener and the camera swaps perspectives as speakers change - this is called an over the shoulder shot. In other cases, both speakers may be shown simultaneously in a mid-shot known as a two-shot.

  • Close Up: As the name suggests, this is where the camera is positioned close to the subject of the shot. If an actor was the subject of the shot, this type of shot would focus on the face - it would fill the screen and the audience would be able to view reactions or emotions. Close-up shots create an intimate feeling for the audience and allow the director of the media text to focus on detail.

  • Extreme Close Up: A small object or portion of the subject will fill this type of shot. In some cases, an extreme close up shot is used to focus the audience on an important piece of visual information. In other cases, it can be used to literally magnify emotional responses or reactions.

  • High Angle: The audience views the subject from above, looking down. This can often be used to create a sense of scale, and subjects can look small and/or vulnerable.

  • Low Angle: The audience looks upwards towards the subject. This can create a feeling of importance or foreboding.

  • Eye Level Shot: The audience views the scene as if they are there as a spectator and the camera is representative of this view.

  • Point of View Shot: The camera is used as if it is the eye of one of the characters. The audience sees what the characters sees.

  • Crane Shot: This type of shot can create a sense of scale and/or provide lots of information as the camera is attached to a crane and the audience is shown the scene from above it.

  • Movement: The media producer of any moving image media text is able to move the camera, and as a result direct the audience to the action on the screen. The most common types of camera movement are:

  • Tracking: The camera follows the action by moving horizontally and freely with the characters.

  • Panning: This is similar to tracking. The camera moves horizontally whilst remaining in its fixed position.

  • Tilting: This is similar to panning, but the camera moves vertically whilst it remains on its fixed axis point.

Editing

This is the process by which the media producer moves from one camera shot to another. Editing is part of the post-production process, so it is done after the shooting of the scene. This is an important aspect of the creation of a text because it brings everything together. Sometimes edits are called transitions as they are the method to used to get the audience from one view of the scene to another or from one scene to a new one.

It is important to look at the speed of editing as well as the style of edit. Some texts move between shots very quickly, whilst others move at a slower pace.

There are a number of editing techniques that can be used. The most common is the straight cut. This technique reflects the eye movements of the audience in many ways as it creates an apparently natural movement between shots. Other editing styles include:

  • Dissolve: This involves bringing the new shot into focus as the old one disappears from focus. At some point, both shots are on screen at the same time.

  • Fade: This is where the old image disappears gently before the new image appears. The old image will normally fade to a black screen.

  • Wipe: This is the name of the editing style where the new image comes onto the screen and appears to 'push' the old one off with its distinct shaped edge. There are various types of wipes where the new image enters from different positions or appears as different shapes.

Lighting

This is an important aspect when it comes to creating moving image texts. The media producer has to make choices about whether or not the lighting should be seen as natural or unnatural, whether shadow is needed or if the scene should be brightly lit. Lighting can also be coloured in order to give a specific look and feel to the text, so there is a lot to consider in terms of lighting in moving image texts:

  • High Key Lighting: This is not always bright light, and is a technique used as much for nightime scenes as it is for daytime ones. All areas of the frame are lit through the use of multiple lights.

  • Low Key Lighting: Unlike with high key lighting, some areas of the frame are lit more than others and, through the use of selected lights, areas of shadow and darkness are created.

  • Coloured Lighting: This is exactly what it says - lighting that is coloured. It is used to give a particular effect to a scene.

  • Diegetic Lighting: Like diegetic sound, this is lighting that appears to come from a source within the scene.

  • Location of the Light Source: Positioning is very important. The placement of the light source can create dramatic effects within a frame. Up lighting is where the source of the light is below the subjects so it can often be used to create strange shadow effects. Overhead lighting is the opposite, and tends to act as a spotlight. It may be used to create a glow over the subject.

Sound

This includes the use of music, dialogue, sound effects, special effects and voice-overs. There are a number of different types of sound:

  • Diegetic Sound: This is sound that comes from an object and exists in the world of the text.

  • Non-Diegetic Sound: The opposite of diegetic sound, this is sound that does not exist in the world of the text.

  • On Screen Sound: This is diegetic sound that comes from objects observable within the frame.

  • Off Screen Sound: Similar to on screen sound, this is diegetic sound. However, it comes from objects that are not seen within the frame.

  • Parallel Sound (Synchronous): This is sound or music that matches the kind of action that the audience can see on screen.

  • Contrapuntal Sound (Asynchronous): In contrast to parallel sound, this is sound or music that does not match the action on the screen.

Mise-en-Scene

This means 'that which is placed within the scene', so mise-en-scene relates to the large number of choices made by the media producer in the construction of what the audience can see on screen. Some aspects include:

  • Location and Setting: This can be internal or external and is the physical place that the scene is set. The location and setting is chosen carefully to add to the meaning that is required by the scene or the text.

  • Set Dressing: This is how the setting is presented to the audience and can include décor of an internal location or the landscape shown of an external location. Set dressing will also include props, which are the objects which are used by actors

  • Costume: As is the case with make-up, the clothes chosen for characters to wear are often an indicator of status or personality.

  • Dialogue: This acts to develop the action of a narrative. The words of a script are, of course, key in informing the audience about the character types they see.

  • Casting: The choice of actors is an important part of the creation of a text. An actor needs to have the right 'look' for the character the director wants to create. Part of this may be the actor's public persona.

  • Body Language/Acting Styles: The style of acting and the way the actors respond to the action is part of the meaning of a text.

  • Framing/Blocking: This is the relative positioning of actors and objects within a frame.

Special Effects (SFX)

These are used to enhance the images and sounds of a scene in a media text. Normally they are added after filming, like sound effects (which may be added to emphasise certain moments).

A number of special effects are used to create images that cannot be created by the camera. Images can be superimposed onto one another through the use of Green/Blue Screen Technology. This technique also allows actors to be placed into different locations. Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) is used to add to what can be created on film. It is an expensive technology so is more likely to be seen to be used on higher budget TV texts and Hollywood film productions, rather than soap operas with shorter production times, for example. Whole characters and locations can be generated.


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