Nils' Niche: Computer History & The Language of the Screen (Week 3)

Computer History

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gas2Xi0rW6A

Computer Time Line with your favourite kitty, Dinky (Watch only if drunk or high...seriously)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H614c4_xJM

ECU could be......

The Electronic Control Unit - "controls the fuel injection system, ignition timing, and the idle speed control system. The ECU also interrupts the operation of the air conditioning and EGR systems, and controls power to the fuel pump (through the control relay). The ECU consists of an 8-bit microprocessor, random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), and an input/output interface. Based on information from the input sensors (engine coolant temperature, barometric pressure, air flow, etc.), the ECU determines optimum settings for the output actuators (injection, idle speed, ignition timing, etc.)."

http://autorepair.about.com/cs/generalinfo/l/bldef_160.htm

European currency Unit - "A composite monetary unit consisting of a basket of European Community currencies that served as the predecessor to the Euro."

http://www.investorwords.com/1655/ECU.html

écu - "Can refer to one of several French coins. The first écu was a gold coin (the écu d'or) minted during the reign of Louis IX of France, in 1266. Ecu (from Latin scutum) means shield, and the coin was so called because its design included a shield bearing a coat of arms. The word is related to scudo and escudo. The value of the écu varied considerably over time, and silver coins (known as écu d'argent) were also introduced."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cu_%28coin)

....Although in terms of the language of the screen ECU (hopefully) stands for......

Extreme Close Up (ECU)
"A closer frame value than a close-up; i.e. showing parts of the face or greater detail of an object. See also close-up."

http://www.eicar-international.com/definition-extreme-close-up.html

Wide Shot (WS)

"In the wide shot, the subject takes up the full frame. In this case, the girl's feet are almost at the bottom of frame, and her head is almost at the top. Obviously the subject doesn't take up the whole width and height of the frame, since this is as close as we can get without losing any part of her. The small amount of room above and below the subject can be thought of as safety room — you don't want to be cutting the top of the head off. It would also look uncomfortable if her feet and head were exactly at the top and bottom of frame."

"As with most shot types, the wide shot means different things to different people. However the wide shot seems to suffer more from varying interpretations than other types. Many people take the WS to mean something much wider than our example, i.e. what we would call a very wide shot."

http://www.mediacollege.com/video/shots/wide-shot.html

Very Wide Shot (VWS)

"The very wide shot is much closer to the subject than an extreme wide shot, but still much further away than a wide shot. The subject is (just) visible here, but the emphasis is very much on placing her in her environment. This often works as an establishing shot, in which the audience is shown the whole setting so they can orient themselves. The VWS also allows plenty of room for action to take place, or for multiple subjects to appear on screen."

http://www.mediacollege.com/video/shots/very-wide-shot.htmll

Extreme Wide Shot (EWS)

"In the extreme wide shot, the view is so far from the subject that she isn't even visible. The point of this shot is to show the subject's surroundings. The EWS is often used as an "establishing shot" - the first shot of a new scene, designed to show the audience where the action is taking place. The EWS is also known as an extra long shot or extreme long show (acronym XLS)."

http://www.mediacollege.com/video/shots/extreme-wide-shot.html

Medium Shot (MS)

"the medium shot (MS) is generally defined as a waist-up shot of a person. Medium shots help place a subject in context--and they are also necessary for people who gesture a lot. This is the shot that Jay Leno does his monologue in, for example. The problem with medium shots is they don't show as much detail as a close-up and they introduce more of the background which can be distracting to the viewer."

http://www.video101course.com/300shotcomp250.html