This article details a system titled “Camera as Mediator” that was built to aid undergraduate Film Studies students study camera placement and shot composition techniques. Learning how camera placement impacts a film is a common educational outcome in undergraduate Film Studies classes. However, building a controlled set with proper lighting, actors, and props is a cost- and time-prohibitive task in a typical introductory course. A virtual system can give students more hands-on experience and leave ample time to focus on core learning outcomes. To this end, we constructed a photorealistic virtual environment to replicate a scene from the Charlie Chaplin film “The Gold Rush” using computer-generated models and three-dimensional scans of actors dressed as the characters from the movie. An interface was designed to allow students to navigate around the scene with a virtual camera and capture shots from perspectives not visible in the original movie. By saving and comparing these different shots, students are easily able to explore how the mood and feel of a story changes with the camera’s perspective. Doing this virtually enables undergraduate students in large classes and/or online classes and with potentially limited time and equipment to study film making techniques in greater depth than they would otherwise.

中文翻译：

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通过虚拟体验增强电影教育学习成果

本文详细介绍了一个名为“Camera as Mediator”的系统，该系统旨在帮助电影研究专业的本科生学习相机放置和镜头构图技术。了解相机放置如何影响电影是本科电影研究课程的常见教育成果。然而，在典型的入门课程中，构建一个具有适当照明、演员和道具的受控场景是一项成本和时间限制的任务。虚拟系统可以为学生提供更多的实践经验，并留出充足的时间专注于核心学习成果。为此，我们构建了一个逼真的虚拟环境，使用计算机生成的模型和打扮成电影角色的演员的 3 维扫描来复制查理卓别林电影“淘金热”中的场景。设计了一个界面，让学生可以使用虚拟相机在场景中导航，并从原始电影中不可见的角度捕捉镜头。通过保存和比较这些不同的镜头，学生可以轻松探索故事的情绪和感觉如何随着相机的视角而变化。这样做实际上使大班和/或在线课程的本科生能够在时间和设备有限的情况下更深入地学习电影制作技术。