By: Nazia Adnin"In crook stories it is almost always the necklace, What is MacGuffin? An object or device in a movie or a book that serves merely as a trigger for the plot. This is the literal definition of MacGuffin.
Generally, in fiction a MacGuffin (aka Magoffin) is desired or pursued by the protagonists. It works as catalyst and serves no further purpose. Very often, however, a MacGuffin is unimportant in the overall plot and lacks narrative explanation. Sometimes characters don’t even care about it at the end of the story. In some cases it only works as a driving force throughout the story. A Macguffin could be a prop, a character, a device, or a place. Other abstract types of MacGuffin include money, victory, glory, power or a driving force. Multiple Macguffins are known as “Plot Coupons”. The word itself is derived by the master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock from a Scottish story about two men in a train. The term was popularized by Hitchcock in 1930s but the concept pre-dates the term and has been using as a powerful storytelling technique for hundreds of years.
In TV interviews, Hitchcock defined a MacGuffin as the object around which the plot revolves, but as to what that object specifically is, he declared, "The audiences don’t care". George Lucas has a contradictory meaning or definition of the term. Although, in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Lucas considers R2-D2, the driving force of the story –an object of everybody’s search.
Examples in television include various Rambaldi artifacts in Alias, the orb in The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. and Krieger Waves in the Star Trek: the Next Generation episode "A Matter of Perspective.” Examples in literature include the television set in Wu Ming's novel 54; and the container in William Gibson's Spook Country. Film maker and drama writing theorist Yves Lavandier echoes Hitchcock while defining MacGuffin. He thinks the tool “is a secret that motivates the villain”. In a broader sense, says Lavandier, a MacGuffin denotes any justification for the external conflictual premises of a work. Now you know that what MacGuffin is, pay more attention to the props in your next film to add versatility in the story.
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By: Nazia AdninIn this article I am going to write about Aspect Ratio. No, I am not going to write about mathematical aspect ratio as I suffer from Arithmophobia. Don’t we all suffer from this phobia? hahaha. Knowledge and love of aspect ratio is a point of pride for many movie buffs and they try to keep themselves updated with ever evolving new formats of aspect ratio. Aspect ratio of an image is the proportional relation between its height and width. It is commonly expressed in two numbers separated by a colon .For instance 4:3 or 1:33:1 .Here, the first number refers to the width of the screen, and the second to the height. So for every 4 inches (or centimeters) in width, there will be 3 in height. From Academy ratio to IMAX, the world of cinema has experimented with different formats and techniques to enhance the experience of viewers over the years. “Go Wide” has always been a motto of film makers to give audience better viewing experience.
4:3 (1:33:1) standards:It is been the most common and highly used ratio since the early era of cinema especially in silent era. Usually it is called “Four three” or “Four by three”. This ratio is very close to Academy Ratio. In the beginning of 21st century the ratio has started to phasing out and new ratios are being used in all of modern different mediums, movie cameras and broadcasts. 16:9 (1.77:1) standards:21: 9 (2.370:1) standard:It is designed to show films recorded in Cinemascope or the modern anamorphic format of 2.39:1.This nearly a ratio of cinematic movie ratio.
By: Nazia AdninCamera shots are very important in order to demonstrate the different aspects of a film’s setting, characters, theme and characteristics. Camera shot is the amount of space, number of characters and other elements we see in one frame or shot. Each different shot has different purpose and effect. Change between two shots is known as Cut. We have to keep few factors in my mind such as length of the frame, angles and camera movement while composing a shot.
By: Nazia AdninCamera angles play important role to compose a shot. The different camera angle will have different effect on viewers. Cameras angles help create intense relationship between the viewers and the scenes along with other element in a film. Camera angles and movements together create sequence of an image. There are a number of camera angles such as High angle, low angle, Bird’s eye angle etc. Each angle has different usage and impact on audience.
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