Laowangshuo photography

Lens language-we can usually see the photographer's intention through the pictures taken by the camera, because we can feel what the photographer wants to express through the lens from the changes of the shooting theme and pictures. This is the so-called' my lens can talk', which is also commonly known as' lens language'. However, most beginners are still in the stage of babies' learning to speak, so they can't clearly express what they want to say through' words', and even get confused and incoherent. Therefore, as long as you understand the' lens language', you can' speak freely' and make clear what you want to express in a few words, which makes people no longer feel inexplicable. Using' language' as a metaphor shows that photography is like speaking, the beauty of words is the second, and people can understand it is the most important. Therefore, you need to express an event through the lens, so that others can easily see what your movie is expressing. For example, if you take a picture of the door of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, everyone will understand it as soon as they see this picture, but some people are afraid that you won't remember it. It's like an old man with Alzheimer's disease repeating the same words in your ear. Are you tired of it? There are many people who shoot still life, such as flowers, utensils and pictures. However, for a beautiful but not very vivid theme, the camera has been stagnant for a long time, which is like explaining something clearly in a few words, but using a long speech. Of course, you won't have the patience to listen any longer. Similarly, in the video world, although the expression is different from the usual speech, the purpose is the same, so when you shoot, you fantasize that you are telling a story, so that your head will not be empty and you don't know what picture and content to shoot.

Chaos —— Subverting lens language

After watching Kurosawa's movie Chaos, I was depressed for a long time and had difficulty breathing. Although I am already familiar with this tragedy adapted from Shakespeare's King Lear, when the ending comes, my heart is still like a knife.

The mood is so strong, but the camera is so calm that I can't bear it!

The scene of Chaos subverts the language rules I learned before.

Almost all the shots in the film are far-sighted and full of mirrors, like a pair of wise eyes of an old man, watching the story from a distance and calmly. Cheating, parochialism, selfishness and other ugly aspects of human nature are exposed naked under this tolerant gaze.

In our experience, close-ups should be used to emphasize performance when the feelings of characters are generated, which not only expresses the emotions of characters, but also implicitly expresses the subjective feelings of directors, so that the audience can achieve an emotional unity.

Not in chaos.

I can hardly find the middle shot, let alone the close-up.

You can't see the actor's expression, which makes you feel that a tragedy is being staged in front of the camera, but there is a gloomy heart hidden under life.

In our experience, when the story reaches its climax, we must create a tense rhythm through the cutting rate of the lens and the jumping of the scene, so as to achieve the unity of internal rhythm and external rhythm.

Not in chaos.

A long shot that is always head-up, the characters move slowly, and there is almost no external movement in the shot. Its scenery also determines the jump without scenery.

Even the cruel and heroic war scenes are still long shots, fixed shots, visions and panoramic views.

Speak so slowly, so calmly.

This kind of lens language has caused a strong psychological contrast among the audience, which makes it difficult for me to vent my emotions through the lens, suppress them again and again, and then accumulate them again and again.

Finally, the victory came, and the third prince was shot by a cold arrow and died in the arms of Pharaoh. The surviving Pharaoh burst into tears.

The tragedy reached its climax, and the camera was still watching calmly in the distance.

I can't see Lao Wang's expression, only hear the wailing of grief.

At this point, the accumulated emotions finally broke out under a calm lens. I couldn't cry, but I almost fainted because of difficulty breathing.

Minimize all lens and editing techniques, discard external expressions and give way to stories, emotions and deep thinking of the audience.

General laws and methods of lens assembly

As we all know, no matter what film and television programs are, they are all connected by a series of shots in a certain order. These shots can be continued, so that the audience can see from the film that they are integrated into a complete whole. That's because the development and change of the lens should abide by certain laws, which we will describe in detail in the following content.

(1) The combination of shots must conform to the audience's way of thinking and the law of film and television performance.

The combination of lenses should conform to the logic of life and thinking. If it is not logical, the audience will not understand. The theme and central idea to be expressed in making film and television programs must be clear. On this basis, we can decide which shots to choose and how to combine them according to the psychological requirements of the audience, that is, the logic of thinking.

(2) The method of "step by step" should be adopted in the scene transformation.

Generally speaking, when shooting a scene, the development of "scenery" should not be too intense, otherwise it is not easy to connect. On the contrary, the "scene" has not changed much, the shooting angle has not changed much, and the lens is not easy to assemble. Based on the above reasons, we need to take a step-by-step approach to the development and changes of the "scene" when shooting. Gradually changing the lenses with different visual distances can create smooth cohesion and form various montage sentence patterns.

Progressive sentence pattern: This narrative sentence pattern refers to the transition of scenery from distant view and panorama to close-up and close-up. Used to express the development of emotions and plots from low to high.

Backward sentence pattern: this narrative sentence pattern is from near to far, indicating that there are depressed emotions from high to low, which are expressed in the film from details to all.

Circular sentence: it is a combination of positive and negative sentences. From panorama-middle shot-close shot-close shot, and then from close shot-close shot-middle shot-distant shot, or we can use it the other way around. Show emotions from low to high, and then from high to low. This sentence pattern is often used in film and television feature films.

When the lens is assembled, if it meets the same plane, the pictures of the same scene and the same subject cannot be assembled. Because the scene of the shot doesn't change much, a pair of pictures all look the same, as if the same shot is repeated constantly. On the other hand, when two shots with little change in position and scenery are connected together, as long as the scenery in the picture changes slightly, it will jump in people's field of vision or it seems that a long shot has been interrupted many times, which has the feeling of "pulling a foreign film" and "running a lantern", which destroys the continuity of the picture.

In this case, shooting these shots from the beginning (which can solve the problem for programs with few shots) is a waste of time and financial resources for other films with the same location and the same scene. The best way is to use transitional lenses. For example, shooting from different angles and then assembling, interspersed with subtitles, so that the position and movements of the performers can be changed before assembling. In this way, the assembled picture will not feel jumping, discontinuity and dislocation.

(3) The shooting direction and axis in lens assembly are regular.

When the subject enters and exits the picture, we need to pay attention to the general direction of shooting and shoot from the side of the axis, otherwise the two pictures will be connected together and the subject will "crash".

The so-called "axis law" refers to whether there is an "axis jump" phenomenon in the shot picture. When shooting, if the camera position is always on the same side of the main motion axis, then the motion direction and placement direction of the picture are the same, otherwise it should be "off-axis", and the off-axis picture cannot be assembled except for special needs.

(4) The lens assembly should follow the rules of "moving with" and "static connection and static connection"

If the actions of the same subject or different subjects in the picture are coherent, the actions can be followed by actions to achieve the purpose of smooth and concise transition, which is called "moving and moving" for short. If the motion of the subject in the two pictures is incoherent or there is a pause in the middle, then the combination of these two shots must have a moving shot from static to start after the subject completes a complete action in the previous picture, which is called "from static to static". In the combination of "static connection and static connection", the moment when the previous shot ends is called "left picture", and the moment when the latter shot is still before moving is called "framing". The interval between framing and the left picture is about one or two seconds. The combination of moving lens and fixed lens also needs to follow this law. If a fixed lens is followed by a swing lens, the swing lens should start from a frame; On the contrary, a shaking lens is followed by a fixed lens, so the shaking lens should have a "left picture", otherwise the picture will give people a beating visual sense. For special effects, there are also static or dynamic shots.

(5) The time length of lens assembly

When we shoot a film and television program, the length of the dead time of each shot is first determined according to the difficulty of the content to be expressed and the acceptance of the audience, and secondly, factors such as picture composition should be considered. For example, due to the different scenes selected in the picture, the content contained in the picture is also different. A picture with a large lens, such as a middle shot in a distant view, contains a lot of content, and it takes a long time for the audience to see the content clearly, while a picture with a small lens, such as a close shot and a close-up, contains less content, so the audience can see it clearly in a short time, so the picture stay time can be shorter.

In addition, other factors in a picture or a group of pictures also restrict the length of the picture. Just as the bright part of a picture attracts more attention than the dark part. Therefore, if the picture is to show the bright part, the length should be shorter, and if it is to show the dark part, the length should be longer. In the same picture, the moving part attracts people's visual attention before the static part. Therefore, if the focus is on the moving part, the picture should be shorter; When the static part is represented, the duration of the picture is slightly longer.

(6) Unity of lens combination tone

Tone refers to the black picture. The scenery on the black screen, no matter what color, is represented by many black and white levels with different soft and hard shades. For color pictures, there is another color problem besides hue. Whether it is a combination of black and white or color pictures, we should keep the consistency of tone and color. If two lens groups with strong light and dark or color contrast are connected together (except for special needs), it will make people feel stiff and incoherent, which will affect the smooth expression of the content.

(7) Camera combination rhythm

The theme, style and style of film and television programs, as well as the environmental atmosphere of the plot, the emotions of the characters and the ups and downs of the plot, are the general basis for the rhythm of film and television programs. The film rhythm is not only reflected by the actors' performance, the transformation and movement of the lens, the coordination of music and the temporal and spatial changes of the scene, but also by the combination method to strictly control the size and quantity of the lens. Reorganize and adjust the lens order, and delete redundant details. It can also be said that the combination rhythm is the last link of the overall rhythm of the teaching film.

To deal with any plot or a group of pictures of a film festival, we should deal with the rhythm problem from the content expressed in the film. If you change with a fast-paced lens in a quiet and peaceful environment, it will make the audience feel abrupt and unacceptable. However, in some rhythmic and exciting scenes, various influencing factors should be considered to make the change rate of the lens meet the psychological requirements of young viewers, so as to enhance the excitement of young viewers and achieve the purpose of attracting and imitating.

(8) Method of assembling lens

In addition to the means of optical principle, the combination of lens pictures can also be directly switched between lenses through the connection law, which makes the plot more natural and smooth. Here we introduce several effective combination methods.

Connection and assembly: A series of two or more connection shots show the action of the same theme.

Queue connection: connected shots but not connected with the same theme. Due to the change of the subject, the next subject will appear, and the audience will associate the relationship between the upper and lower pictures, which will play the role of echo, contrast and metaphor. Often can creatively reveal new meanings.

Black and white grid combination: create a special visual effect, such as lightning, explosion, flash effect of photo studio, etc. When assembling, we can replace the parts that need to shine with white frames, assemble several black frames at the moment when various vehicles meet, or use black and white frames at an appropriate time, which will help to strengthen the rhythm of the film, render the atmosphere and enhance suspense.

Two-stage lens combination: it is a combination mode in which the close-up lens jumps directly to the panoramic lens or switches directly from the panoramic lens to the close-up. This method can make the development of the plot change from dynamic to static or change in static, give the audience a strong sense of directness, form a sudden change in rhythm and produce special visual and psychological effects.

Flashback lens assembly: Using flashback lens, such as inserting the lens in which the characters recall the past, this assembly technique can be used to reveal the inner changes of the characters.

Same shot analysis: use the same shot in several places respectively. When using this combination technique, it is often in such consideration: or because the required picture material is not enough; Or deliberately repeat a scene to show a character's hair and memory; Or emphasize the unique symbolic meaning of a painting to print and distribute the audience's thoughts; Or to make the endings satisfy each other, so as to achieve a complete and rigorous feeling in the artistic structure.

Splicing: Sometimes, although we shoot outdoors many times and the shooting time is quite long, the available lens is very short and can't reach the length and rhythm we need. In this case, if there are shots with the same or similar content, we can combine some of them to reach the necessary length of the program picture.

Insert shot combination: Switch between shots and insert another shot representing a different subject. If a person is walking on the road or sitting in a car and looking out, he suddenly inserts a lens (subjective lens) representing the subjective line of sight of the character to show what the character unexpectedly sees, his intuitive feelings and the lens that causes association.

Action combination: with the help of people, animals, vehicles and other actions and dynamic connection. As well as the consistency and similarity of actions, it is used as a means of lens conversion.

Close-up combination: The last shot ends with a close-up picture of a certain part (head or eyes) of a person or an object, and then starts from this close-up picture, gradually expanding the field of vision and showing the environment of another plot. The purpose is to unconsciously change the scene and narrative content without making people feel uncomfortable when the audience's attention is focused on a person's expression or something.

Combination of scenery lens: Overuse of scenery lens between two lenses. Among them, there are shots with scenery as the main theme and objects as the foil, which can show different geographical environments and scenery characteristics, as well as the changes of time and season, and also express the scenery lyrically. On the other hand, it is a lens with objects as the mainstay and scenery as the foil, which is often used as a means of lens conversion.

Voice transition: The use of narrative transition, this technique is generally more common in science and education films. Use voice-over and voice-over alternately, just like some telephone scenes. In addition, singing is also used to achieve the effect of transition, and various contents are used to change the scene.

Multi-screen transition: this technique is called multi-screen, multi-screen, multi-screen and multi-screen. It is a new technique in modern film and television art. Dividing the picture into multiple parts can make double or multiple plots go hand in hand and greatly reduce the time. For example, in the phone scene, there are people on both sides when making a phone call. After the phone call, the caller's play is gone, but the caller's play has begun.

The combination technique of the lens is a variety of petals, which are created according to the creator's intention and the content and needs of the plot, without specific regulations and restrictions. In the specific post-editing, we can try our best to play according to the situation, but we can't be divorced from the actual situation and needs.