Micro & Macro. What are they?

The simplest explanation is one that we used in class.


To put it simply Mirco is the snowflakes, those little things which make the picture where as Macro is the whole picture, it's how all the micro adds up and represents itself to the audience. We then normally apply the information we have gained by analysing both micro and macro to consider how the audience may react differently to these representations.

Micro
Micro includes such things as:

• Camera angles
• Shot types
• Composition
• Camera movement
• Editing Techniques
  
• Transition
• Sound
• Mise-en-scene
• Lighting

As you can see these are all the individual parts of a scene which add up to the entire picture, the macro.

Macro
Macro as previously mentioned is the entire picture, how the lighting represents someone. For instance if someone is shown from a low angle shot this makes the character look bigger thereby making the character look threatening, the way the camera is applied is the micro where as how it represents the character is the macro!

Simple Micro is the individual aspects of the product and the Macro is the implications of the Micro.