Film language
I. Visual language (the camera)
1. Shot length – how far the camera is from the thing that it’s shooting
Shot can be generally be described as wide and tight, that is far or near.
- Wide shot – you can see the whole subject the whole scene just like watching a play on the stage. To let the action speak for itself
- Extreme wide shot – watch the whole scene from a distance. To establish a place.
- Medium shot – partial body shot of the subject easily from the knees or waist up. To show off a character
- Two shot – two subjects are in a frame. To show closeness
- Close up – complete detail of an actor’s face or an important object. To show powerful emotion
- Extreme close up – closer than a close up, can’t see the whole head. For exposition or disorientation use
2. Angle
- Eye level – the camera looks straight on at its subject where were actually at the level of the actor
- High angle – the camera looks down at the subject. Make a person seem small and kind of silly
- Low angle – the opposite of high angle, which looks up at the subject. Make a person seem large and menacing
- Dutch angle (Joyce angle) – the camera looks at the subject from a tilted angle. To make everything seem a bit strange
3. Depth of field – how much is in focus
- Deep focus – with a depth of field, everything in the shot is in focus
- Shallow focus – a shot of field, only part of the shot is in focus, it’s often used to show an important part of the frame
- Rack focus – changing the focus mid shot
- Tile shift – a special lens of digital post-production can selectively blur part of the image, this creates an artificial depth of filed to interesting effect
4. Lens
- Telephoto lens – to compress space
- Wide angle lens – give a space more depth
- Fisheye lens – can make some disturbing images
5. Movement
- Handheld shot
- Steadicam – a handheld shot but with a rig helps stabilise it
- Pan – only move the camera horizontally
- Tilt – only move the camera vertically
- Zoom
- Dolly/tracking shot – moving both the camera and the rig horizontally
- Jib/crane shot – moving both the camera and the rig vertically
- Dolly zoom (trombone shot) – the camera is dolly while zooming changing the depth of shot
II. Mise en scène (overall look of a film)
Decor
A director starts by setting a scene by choosing a setting for the shot, it can be outdoors, indoors, a real place, a set or composited on a green screen. Once the location is chosen, it gets filled first with objects, then with actors. The objects that are not used by actors call set dressing. The objects are meant to be used by actors call props. Character differences can be shown through costume.
Lighting
Three point lighting – a key light which serves as the main source of light missing, a fill light which fills in the shadows created by the key light and a back light which lights the back of the subject.
- High key lighting – bright lights, colours, strong key and fill
- Low key lighting – weak key and fill, but strong back light to emphasise the outline of the object
- Chiaroscuro – high contrast
- Hard lighting – tough
- Soft lighting – romantic
Colour
Space
- Balance
- Shallow space
- Offscreen space
- Blocking
III. Editing
- Sequence shot (long take) – usually over 1 minute
- Cut – transition between the end of one shot and beginning of another
- Dissolve – one shot slowly fades into another sharing the same space for a few second
- Wipe – Second shot rolls over the first shot
- Fade in and fade out – a common way to start or end a film going to/from a black/white screen
- Continuity editing – make you believe everything is happening simultaneously
- Screen direction – a common way to link together by continuing the action from one shot to another (match on action/continuous action)
- Eyeline
- 180 degree rule
- Crossing the axis – usually use while each character’s eyeline fixed and placement is made clear
- Cross cutting – the film jumps between two lines of action to show that they are happening simultaneously
- Slow motion – let audience see the tiny movements we would miss at normal speed
- Fast motion – make it feel comical
- Reverse motion
- Jump cut – a piece of time is cut out of a shot, can have some interesting effects from simply cutting out the dead weight of a scene to show connection between two objects
- Split screen
- Overlay
- Montage
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