1. AUDIOVISUAL PRODUCTION
Audiovisual processes:
1) First process: Recording
2) Second process: Capture, Edition, Post-production
3) Third process: Export and display
1) FIRST PROCESS: RECORDING
BASIC CONCEPTS OF AUDIOVISUAL PRODUCTION
Producing an audiovisual production means looking at and showing the world in a
certain way to inform and/or express ideas.
Producing (or directing) means setting up a series of items in a pre-established script.
To do this, you need to know and control all the factors involved in this process, from
technical to more artistic ones.
Angle: Bird's eye view, high angle (looking down on the action or person) or low angle
(looking up at the action or person). Achieved by modifying the vertical axis of the
tripod head.
Level: usually at eye level to ensure a similar point of view. However, you can change
the angle to achieve a special effect or through movement (with a steadycam).
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2. Height: Typically the camera is placed at the eye level of the actors. This can be
modified to vary the composition for dramatic and stylistic effects. For example, how
would you shoot a child sitting on the floor?
Dynamic planning: frame and camera movement
Panorama (descriptive and associative value): camera movement on its own axis
(horizontal or vertical).
• Horizontal: to describe the environment, to follow the action, to connect
separate items, to show cause and effect, etc. Typically left to right.
• Vertical: to describe the environment, for physical descriptions, to show cause
and effect, to accentuate height and depth, etc.
• Up: increasing interest and excitement, communicating anticipation and
hope.
• Down: decreasing the interest and excitement.
• Clean sweep: fast pan (to change focus; create contrast; to suggest a change in
space or time; etc.)
Zoom: IN (Telescopic lens - Narrow shot) and OUT (Wide angle lens - Open shot).
• Changing the focal length. Changing the size of the object/subject without changing
the location of the camera.
• Problems with depth of field.
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3. Travelling: forward, backwards and side to side.
• Physical movement of the camera on-air. Unlike with the zoom, camera movement
changes the relative positions of subjects within a shot, i.e. involves changing the
perspective. Example: person hidden behind a tree.
• It is more expressive with short focal length lenses.
• Systems: camera on shoulder, dolly, guides and hydraulic systems.
• Travelling is used to create subjective effects, to explore areas, to call attention to
objects or individuals not present in the initial shot, etc.
Crane and steadycam: optical and camera movement is added.
• Steadycam: stability based on hydraulic systems, maximum ease of operation
(wireless connection), multiplicity of movement, etc.
Types of shots
General Shot: to place and describe relationships between items in a space.
Long Shot: (for characters) used to connect characters to each other.
American or ¾ Shot: a little above the knees, a shot that was commonly used in
Westerns.
Medium Shot: to the waist. For defining characters, one of the most widely used shots.
Medium Short Shot: To the chest.
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4. Close-up: down to the collar.
Extreme Close-up Shot: down to the chin. Used to emphasise a dramatic character, to
show their responses, reactions and emotions.
Description Shot: to show and emphasise a single detail.
General considerations:
• Your choice of a shot should always respond to a desire for information and/or
expression. You should always be able to justify your choice.
• In certain situations, as in the case of shot against shot or in the planning of a debate,
you might need to balance the size of the different characters in the action. This
consideration could lead you to make an unconventional shot choice but that's OK as
long as there is a justification for your choice in terms of information or expression.
• Avoid cutting off people's extremities unintentionally.
• Avoid making sudden exaggerated jumps. For the viewer, it can be disconcerting to go
from a General Shot to a Detail Shot.
Problems of long shots:
• When the scene involves characters, you can't effectively show their facial
expressions.
• In a multi-system camera production (or a set of small spaces), their use may
successively provide redundant information in relation to previous shots and create
optical breaks.
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5. Problems of short shots:
• We may lose interesting information from the rest of the scene.
• Excessive use can decontextualise people from their surroundings, making it difficult
to associate them with the physical items around them.
• If a character moves, they may move out of the shot.
• Typically, this kind of shot has a limited depth of field.
• It's difficult to do tracking for smooth and stable shots.
Composition
• Composition is a strategy based on available items in the image so the viewer feels
drawn towards what is shown. A particular composition may lead, for example, to a
sense of anticipation, anxiety and excitement, or calm.
Basic methods of composition:
a) design (rare), when the producer has the freedom to design the set and the movement
of the characters.
b) disposition, when the director may vary the items that make up the scene and may
limit the movements of the characters.
c) selection, when the director can only determine the composition through the
placement, framing and movement of the cameras (including/excluding items,
determining the extent of the shot, etc.)
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