Establishing Shot Notes

Questions answered:
- What is establishing?
- What kind of shots are typically used?
- Why is establishing important?
- How long (what duration) are establishing shots?
- What are audience associations with establishing?
- How is establishing linked to genre?
- How does the soundtrack go with establishing?

Donnie Darko Movie Poster Semiotic Analysis (notes on semiotics)

This is a movie poster for the film 'Donnie Darko'. It is quite a minimalistic poster, only using three colours to make each part of the poster stand out. The juxtaposition between the flat black background and the eerie whites and blues used in the foreground succeed in creating a mysterious, spooky feel to the poster.
The black background of the poster signifies fear, maybe of the unknown. This intrigues someone who may be looking at the poster and the background doesn't give much away about what the film is really like. The unusual foreground image, of the character's faces merged into a sinister looking rabbit's head, may signify that all the characters are linked to this rabbit in some way. This is quite an objective technique.
The use of bright, bold, white writing in the foreground for the title and actor's name connotes that the designer of the poster really wanted them to stand out to whoever was looking at the poster.
By using light shadowing around the title, 'Donnie Darko', it again connotes to any potential audiences that the title is the centre of attention on this poster.
The black background and the name 'Darko' may correspond together to represent that this film may have a lot of darkness in it and may be quite scary.
The foreground image may be quite frightening for some people and so by this, a potential viewer of this film can understand what the target audience is.
The mix of pale colours in the foreground image make it look almost as if it is illuminated and vibrating off of the background. This symbolises that the film is fast paced and enigmatic at times.
Overall, I would say that the simplicity of this poster is definitely very effective to draw an audience in and make them want to watch this film.

Camera Movements

The main types of camera movements are:

Pans. This movement scans a scene horizontally. Often used when following a moving object which is kept in the middle of the frame.



Tilts. This movement scans a scene vertically.



Dolly shots. This movement is when the camera is placed on a vehicle and moves alongside the action. This movement is sometimes called a tracking shot.



Hand-held shots. This movement is used a create a fly-on-the-wall sort of effect. Often used to make the audience feel as if they are part of the scene.



Crane shots. This movement is just like a dolly shot but is instead in the air.



Zoom lenses. This movement means that a camera can get a 'close up' shot while still being far away from the action.



Aerial shot. This movement is similar to the crane shot except it is usually taken from even higher up, e.g in an in flight helicopter.

Camera Shots and Angles

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Camera shots and angles have many different affects on media. They can change a scene completely, making it more tense, dramatic, happy, sad and much more.

The main types of camera shots are:

Extreme long shot. This type of shot is usually used to set the scene. The shot generally has very little detail in it and is of an outside area.



Long Shot. This type of shot is usually used to make objects and people seem life sized. The shot focuses on a person but also shows background to set the scene.



Medium Shot. This type of shot is usually used to reveal half of a figure, with minimal background imagery. This also includes the over-the-shoulder shot.



Close-Up Shot. This type of shot is usually used to focus on a face or a close-up of an object. It is quite an intimate shot to use.



Extreme Close-Up Shot. This type of shot usually focuses on a mouth or eyes with no background detail. It is usually used for dramatic effect.




The main types of camera angles are:

The Bird's-Eye view. This angle is usually taken from very high up, as if taken by a flying bird. It sometime makes the focused object seem unrecognisable



High Angle. This angle is usually taken above eye-level. It is often used to make the character or object in focus become part of a wider setting.



Eye Level. This angle is taken at the level of a person's eyes. It is used to make it seem as if a person is actually watching the scene.



Low Angle. This angle is usually used to increase height and make things seem more imposing. It is usually used to make the character in the scene seem more powerful than the audience.



Canted Angle. This angle is usually tilted or off balance. It is usually quite popular in horror films.

About Me

Welcome to my blog. My name is Alys Short and I'm taking the following subjects at The Cherwell School sixth form: Media Studies, English Literature, History and Sociology. I chose to study Media Studies because I find different media outlets such as tv, music, newspapers and film all very interesting.