Journal #1

Michael Kelleher

Professor King

Com 241

31 August 2012

Journal Entry 1

I have been a fan of the show Lost for years now. I always admired the way the show was written and the wonderful acting from all of the characters. The plot twists and turns of Lost were what it was known for, however I never really noticed all of the direction from behind the scenes, that made the show work so well.

            The first scene of Lost shows the main character Jack waking up after a plane crash in the middle of the jungle. I’ve watched this scene many times before, but this time I noticed how many shot sizes are given in this scene. They do extreme close-ups, regular close-ups, and medium far away shots all in a matter of seconds. Right after this, Jack runs toward the beach when he hears screaming, and as he’s running, it shows a great example of leadroom. Another scene that shows an example of the golden mean is when Jack is standing next to the damaged plane. In this example, “A” would be the plane, while the .618 or “B” was Jack.

            Soon after all the chaos cools down, many survivors are just staring around, and I realized that this was a great example of the director showing lookspace. He gives a decent amount of space between for the actors to look out into the whatever, and it definitely adds to the scene. In one scene, characters Jack, Claire, and Hurley are in the middle of the picture while the plane is to the right and the ocean to the left, making this shot an example of “the rule of thirds.”

            While I do not own a television currently, I read in Making Media that a computer screen like mine would have a 16:9 aspect ratio. I watched a television movie Wish Upon a Star, a movie that I have seen many times back at home on my flat and wide screen television, and I definitely noticed the difference between a 16:9 ratio and a 3:2 ratio.