Young Sharjah royal showcases filmmaking techniques at Xposure 8

Shaikh Ahmed called cinema a collaborative medium and concentrated on the main aspects –Shots, Lights and Cutting techniques. He categorised shots into full, medium and close-up and even gave examples from popular movies such as Lord of the Rings, Goodwill Hunting and Parasite to familiarise the audience with variations of the shots from extreme wide shot, medium long short and medium close-up. He pointed out that animations used the same shot compositions.

The interactive session then examined framing – single shot with isolation of characters, two shot, ‘dirty’ shot which is a single with more people in the frame, an over-the-shoulder shot, and an ‘insert’ where the director zooms in on an object like a knife for emphasis. He revealed the 180-degree rule where an imaginary line divides two people in a shot as well as the camera.

Next in the filming exercise was the role of lights, and he showed how a three-point lighting – key, backlight and fill – gave a halo effect to the object of the shot. Cutting techniques made use of an ‘L cut’ – where the audio of the first shot cuts into the video of the second shot – and a ‘J cut’ – where the viewer hears audio from the upcoming scene before the picture changes, the esteemed filmmaker noted. He also gave illustrations of ‘cutting on action’, an editing technique used to give a sense of continuity and smoothness in an action sequence.

“These are all techniques that are taught and used but in the end, you don’t need to know what they are called and whatever works in your head is the most important thing; you just need to light the scene the way you want it, feels right for you, and whatever you want your audience to feel. There are people who haven’t learnt any of them who are doing amazing things,” concluded Shaikh Ahmed in all his modesty. The Sharjah royal, whose profound dedication to storytelling and character exploration helped him hone his craft over the years, also has extensive on-screen acting experience.

Storytelling, the MediaStorm way
In Brian Storm’s engaging talk “Storytelling @ MediaStorm”, the founder of MediaStorm – an award-winning film production and interactive design studio – explained how some of the top photojournalists redefined their storytelling capabilities to include audio reporting with an eye on publication in multiple media. He elaborated how their work is earning acclaim around the world at a time when reader’s attention spans are running short. Noting that storytelling opportunities continue to evolve as a result of technological innovations and an expanding media universe, Storm showed how long-form, in-depth visual storytellers satisfy both their journalistic and financial needs in this environment. 

Organised by the Sharjah Government Media Bureau (SGMB), the exhibition is running from February 28 to March 5 at the Expo Centre Sharjah.