Visual Poetry Viewing & Film Studies: Camera Shots

Today, we will be doing the following:
A. Read and take notes about the different camera angles and shots. You should know the terminology of each of these shots and why they might be used in a film. You will be tested on this information so please read, understand, and be able to illustrate the different camera angles.

B. Watch a few visual poetry films from your peers. Fill out the comment/feedback sheet and turn in by the end of class. You are required to do at least 6 of these. See sheet. Complete this part of the class while you are waiting for the camera.

C. While you are working on this, please gather with your groups and shoot examples of the camera shots with the camera. You may shoot in the hallway, but you must stay on this level and nearby. Once you have completed your shooting, please return so other groups may illustrate and shoot their shots.

FILM VOCABULARY: Take notes!

Shot: How much subject matter is included within the frame of the screen.
In general, shots are determined on the basis of how much of the human figure is in view. Additionally, a shot is also an unedited strip of film, recording images from the time the camera starts to the time it stops.

Types:

1. extreme long shot - taken from a great distance, almost always an exterior shot; shows much of the setting or locale. They serve as spatial frames of reference. Used where locale plays an important role. (Historical, epics, westerns, etc.)

2. long shot (proscenium shot) - About the distance one would be from the theatre stage to the audience. Usually includes complete human form to a distance less extreme than the ELS.

3. Full shot - Fits the whole human form in the frame of the camera.

4. Medium shot - Usually contains a figure from the knees or waist up. It is useful for shooting exposition scenes, for minor movement and for dialogue.
A. Two shot (two people in the shot, usually from waist up)
B. Three shot (three people crowded in the shot)
C. Over the shoulder (focal point is the person the viewer can see, shot over another character's "shoulder" to show POV

5. Close up - Usually a person’s face (or neck and shoulders). Concentrates on a relatively small object. Elevates the importance of small details, often symbolic.

6. Extreme close up - Focuses on a very small item. The item usually fills the frame. Used to elevate importance of small details; again, often symbolic.

7. Deep Focus Shot (wide angle shot) - A long shot with many focal distances. Shot captures objects at close, medium and long ranges simultaneously.

Camera Movement Shots

8. Pan, panning shot: (short for panorama), a revolving horizontal movement of the camera from left to right or vice versa.

9. Tracking shot, trucking shot, dolly shot: A shot taken from a moving vehicle. Originally tracks were laid on the set to permit a smoother movement of the camera.

10. Crane shot: A shot taken from a crane (mechanical arm) which carries the cinematographer and the camera to move in any direction, vertical or horizontal.

Camera Angle:
This term refers to the point of view held by the focal point of the camera when it is positioned for shooting. Included in the angle is the perspective given by the camera to the depth of focus, height and width of the particular object and action being photographed. The angle also refers to whether the shot is taken from behind, in front, from the side or from the top or bottom of the particular view. Terms appropriated for these various angles include:

eye-level angle (general default for most film shots) The Eye-Level shot is the most common angle seen in movies. Scenes are shot at roughly the same level as an observer would see the scene.

high-angle (the camera lens is placed at a high angle) This angle looks downwards, tending to draw attention to the importance of the environment or setting for a scene. High angle shots also tend to make characters look small and are often used by directors to symbolically suggest insignificance.

low-angle (the camera lens is placed at a low angle) looking upwards, this angle has the opposite effect of a high angle shot. It tends to focus attention on the size and significance of a character or object. Often directors will use this kind of shot to symbolically announce the power and authority of one of their characters without literally telling the audience this information. For instance,
in Star Wars the first time the audience meets Darth Vader, he is shot from a low angle to announce his role as the antagonist.

Visual Poetry Project - Due Today! Begin Final Booklet!

Today use the time in lab to complete the Visual Poetry Project. When you are done with your film, please send it as a MP4 file to the workshop file with your name on it.

It is due today.

Also, the questions on Imagery are due also today. Please turn these in if you have not yet done so.

If you are finished with these projects, you can get a head start on your final portfolio/booklet (final exam).

What you need to do:

You will be collecting the following for your portfolio/booklet (more details to follow):
1. 3-5 of your FINAL drafts of short stories done throughout the year.
2. 2-3 JOURNALISM articles
3. 5-7 FINAL drafts of poems
4. 2-3 Play Scripts/Film projects
5. A 3-5 page self-evaluation

All work should be considered your FINAL drafts, with errors, grammar mistakes, weaknesses purged and removed through the process of CRAFTING your work. All pieces should include a title.

Visual Poetry Project & "Imagery" article

Please continue to work on your Visual Poetry Projects. Make sure you take at least 75 minutes to fool around with your cell-phones, hunt for prom clothes on the internet, watch music videos and otherwise waste your time in the lab.

Required: complete your visual poetry project (make sure you have the following: opening credits depicting your name and the title of the poem; closing credits that indicate music credits, photography, and director information; make sure your video has appropriate photos or film to impact the effectiveness of your words (pay close attention to mood); and include a music score to underscore the effect of the film.

And

Read the article "Imagery" by Mary Oliver. As you read, please answer the following questions to turn in for participation credit:

1. What is imagery? How does it improve a poem?
2. What is figurative language? How does it work?
3. What does Oliver mean regarding "particulars" and "texture" in a poem.
4. Why does the speaker of the poem "The Fish" let the fish go at the end of the poem?
5. What is a simile? How is it used in a poem?
6. What is a metaphor? How is it used in a poem?
7. What is personification? How is it used in a poem?
8. What is allusion? Why would we use this device in a poem?
9 & 10. Write a short ODE (a poem of praise) in which you use at least one of each of the following: allusion, figurative language, simile, metaphor, personification, imagery. To create an ode, you should choose an object or NOUN and praise its worth.

Here's an example from Pablo Neruda: Ode to My Socks. Look for imagery.

Visual Poetry Project

In order to get comfortable with iMovie and its abilities, choose one of your original poems and create a film, whereupon the text and/or voice of the poem is created. Use iMovie to edit and prepare the film. Your film should include a title, ending credits, and a sound track that appropriately sets the mood and tone of your poem. I suggest you use instrumental music (as opposed to lyrics) since this is text based.

Pantoum & Visual Poetry Project

Complete your Pantoum today in class. Send it to your workshop folder.

Finally, choose 1 of your 10 poems (or 1 of however many you completed) to create a film/video of it.

First, take a look at some of the samples in the workshop folder entitled: Sample Poetry Films. Then, create your own short film using iMovie and pictures you select from the internet. If you own your own camera, you can take specific shots to go with your poem.

Political Poem Draft & The Triolet & The Pantoum

Please complete and turn in your political poem draft in your workshop folder. Please make sure the file name includes "political poem" and your name.

After completing your political poem draft started last class, please try another closed form poem:

The Triolet

The Triolet was originally a French medieval poem often used to express humor (similar to the limerick). However, poets have used the form for other reasons (example politically, or spiritually).

The form includes:
8 lines (the poem is only eight lines long)
It uses two rhymes (An "A" and a "B" rhyme -- see scheme below)
5 of the 8 lines are repeated. This is called a REFRAIN.
The first line is repeated as the 4th and 7th line.
The second line is repeated as the 8th line.

Rhyme Scheme:
A
B
A Rhymes with 1st line.
A Identical to 1st line.
A Rhymes with 1st line.
B Rhymes with 2nd line.
A Identical to 1st line.
B Identical to 2nd line.

Some examples:

How Great My Grief
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

How great my grief, my joys how few,
Since first it was my fate to know thee!
- Have the slow years not brought to view
How great my grief, my joys how few,
Nor memory shaped old times anew,
Nor loving-kindness helped to show thee
How great my grief, my joys how few,
Since first it was my fate to know thee?

Untitled
Robert Bridges (1844-1930)

When first we met, we did not guess
That Love would prove so hard a master;
Of more than common friendliness
When first we met we did not guess
Who could foretell the sore distress,
The inevitable disaster,
When first we met? We did not guess
That Love would prove so hard a master.

To a Fat Lady Seen from the Train
Frances Cornford (1886-1960)

O why do you walk through the fields in gloves,
Missing so much and so much?
O fat white woman whom nobody loves,
Why do you walk through the fields in gloves,
When the grass is soft as the breast of doves
And shivering sweet to the touch?
O why do you walk through the fields in gloves,
Missing so much and so much?

Tips:
1. The repetition reinforces the most important line (and therefore idea). Make sure your repeated line is meaningful and important.
2. You may wish to create a strong couplet. These two lines should be interesting enough to open the poem and close the poem. (They also provide most of the material for the poem itself.)
3. The repetition should feel natural and add something to the poem. Revision should smooth out the rhythm and meter of the lines.

Variations: Alter the punctuation used in the refrains, or use homonyms.
While a refrain line should sound identical to the line it echoes, its meaning does not have to be fixed. Puns and other wordplay may enrich a triolet.

The Pantoum

Similar to the triolet & villanelle, the pantoum uses refrain and repetition, as well as rhyme in a series of quatrains.

The effect of the pantoum with its repeated lines and back-and-forth motion may suggest a topic. People describe its effect as hypnotic, doom-laden, dreamy, or wading in treacle. According to writer Joyce Carol Oates, it is a form which communicates “extreme states of mind: mania, paranoia, delusion.” Additionally, the poem’s repeating lines may suggest something that recurs as a subject (“Calendar” is a pantoum about the cycling of seasons):

Example: Violet Nesdoly's Calendar

Essence of spring drifts from the sticky buds,
Robin's lively lilt now wakes me early.
Under the clouds, crocuses clutch a tight bouquet.
Humming lawnmowers are summer's elevator music.

Robin's lively lilt now wakes me early,
The smell of sunscreen seeps through all my clothes.
Humming lawnmowers are summer's elevator music.
Fruit stand has berries and apples by the box!

The smell of sunscreen seeps through all my clothes;
Your fun is over, mocks the drenching rain.
Fruit stand has pears and apples by the box:
Houses don sequins and tuxedos.

Your fun is over, mocks the drenching rain.
We laugh and push each other's cars through mounds of snow.
Houses doff sequins and tuxedos:
Naked trees stand pensive in the cold.

We laugh and push each other's cars through mounds of snow
Under the clouds, crocuses clutch a tight bouquet.
Naked trees stand pensive in the cold;
Essence of spring drifts from the sticky buds.

The form looks like this:
1. Lines are grouped into quatrains (4-line stanzas).
2. The last line is the same as the first line.
3. The poem can have ANY number of quatrains (try at least 3).
4. Lines may be of any length, but count syllables and keep your meter/rhythm fluid.
5. The Pantoum has a rhyme scheme of ABAB in each quatrain--lines rhyme alternately.
6. For all quatrains (except the first), the first line of the current quatrain repeats the second line in the following quatrain; and the third line of the current quatrain repeats the fourth line of the next quatrain. (See below)
7. In addition, for the last and final quatrain, its second line repeats the (so-far unrepeated) third line in the first quatrain; and its last line repeats the (so-far unrepeated) first line of the first quatrain.

The pattern of line-repetition looks like this--where the lines of the first quatrain are represented by the numbers "1 2 3 4":

1 2 3 4 - Lines in first quatrain.
2 5 4 6 - Lines in second quatrain. The second line of the first stanza is the first line in the second quatrain. The last line of the first quatrain is the THIRD line of the second quatrain, etc.
5 7 6 8 - Lines in third quatrain.
7 9 8 10 - Lines in fourth quatrain.
9 3 10 1 - Lines in fifth and final quatrain.

This is an example for 5 quatrains. You could have more or fewer. REMEMBER: The last line of the poem is the 1st line of the poem.

Further examples:
Parent's Pantoum by Carolyn Kizer
Another Lullaby for Insomniacs by A.E. Stallings

Please complete this poem (the Pantoum - first draft for next class). The Triolet is due at the end of today's class and should be turned in with ALL the poem drafts you have completed this marking period. By the way, today is the last day of the marking period. Period. No late work will be accepted after 8th period today.

The Political Poem

Much slam poetry and performance poetry tends to be political. The tradition of writing politically can be found in many poets' work. We'll go through some of these poems together in class.

Here's a few great ones:

Langston Hughes
Harlem
Theme for English B

Wilfred Owen
Anthem for a Doomed Youth

Maya Angelou
Caged Bird

Allen Ginsberg
Howl (text)
Howl
Johnny Depp on Allen Ginsberg
Andy Warhol on Allen Ginsberg

After reading these samples, choose your own political point and write a political diatribe. Give it a title and call it draft one. If you usually use long lines, try short ones. If you usually write in short lines, try longer ones. Expand your technique.

Political ideas: freedom (or lack thereof), war (pro), war (anti), life of the under privileged, economic issues (poor), gender issues, religion, etc.