180° rule & Shot/reverse

180° rule

The 180° rule is a basic guideline in film making that states that two characters in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line, and when a new shot is taken from the opposite side, it is known as a reverse angle.

Shot/reverse

The shot/reverse shot is where one character is filmed facing another character, showing the back of the first character's head, then the shot switches to the other character's point of view, so to say. The audience would assume that the two characters are having a conversation, or are involved with each other, as they are each facing toward each other.

Jesus of Suburbia - partial analysis

Narrative
The music video ‘Jesus of Suburbia’ seems to tell the story of a young man who falls in with the wrong crowd. The character is seen at a party toward the beginning, and the first part of the actual song seems to be fitting for the scene it is setting. As the video progresses, we see that the man seems pretty isolated from the group of people he thought to be his friends; he is shown walking around alone a lot, and argues with them. His mother, also, seems to be quite dysfunctional; she drinks a lot, and even goes so far as to put out a cigarette in her son’s dinner.


Camera Angles
‘Jesus of Suburbia’ by Greenday features many varying types of camera angles throughout in order to give the video an edgy feel. A lot of side-angled shots draw attention to things just to the side of the characters, bringing to focus the surroundings and settings. Close-ups and big close ups make the characters’ eyes look bigger, making a big feature of them; they tell a story in themselves, really. When the shots become long or medium long shots, I think that we are supposed to be focusing on the background, mainly; such as when the ‘lead character’ is standing with his so-called friends.

Camera movement
The movements of the camera seem to be mostly jerky in this video, perhaps to show the inner turmoil of the young man, or to show the effects of alcohol and/or drugs, maybe. The zoom is used to draw attention to individual features upon a character or, for example, the writing on the walls in the cubicle in the music video. A steadicam is used when the young man is walking about the convenience store in the video; I think that this is to show that the man doesn’t particularly care what anybody else thinks of his actions, seeing as a stereotype has probably already been placed upon him because of his age and social group; he might as well act out, right?

Sound
With regards to the actual music, it appears to change depending on the circumstance which the character is in, and several different riffs are used during the piece; for example, an upbeat one for whilst the character is ‘partying’ and a more down-toned one when the character is isolated, etc.

Colour
There isn’t really much to say about colour, to be honest; a lot of greens are used throughout. However, ‘feature colours’ are used to emphasise different things in the background, etc, for example; the bright red wig one character wears, or the dark eyeliner which makes a feature of the main character’s eyes.

- jessica.

Brief of Study

There are two sections for the media course:

1. G321 - a portfolio in media. Print, video, audio or web design.
2. G322 - The key media concepts which consists of:

• Section A - Textual Analysis and Representation
• Section B - Institutions and Audiences

This year we have to do a preliminary task and a main task.

The preliminary task is a continuity task which involves filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom he/she exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate shot/reverse, match on action and the 180 degree rule.

The main task will be the opening of a new fiction film, and should last around two minutes. All of the video and audio input must be original and produced by the candidates, and any audio must be from a copyright free source.