Basic Elements of Film Language Active Viewing Actively engaging with the visual and aural elements of a film instead of letting them passively float by Units of Time and Space Frame The rectangle of the film s image on the screen The filmmakers choose what they put in the frame and also what they leave out of the frame Shot The basic unit of film time one continuous piece of filming without interruption Scene Several shots usually united by a common time and space Sequence Several scenes unified by a common time but not necessarily space Camera Distance Extreme Close Up The camera frames one small portion of the human body causing it to become an abstraction Clip V for Vendetta Chancellor Sutler s mouth Extreme close ups are often used to emphasize an important theme or moment in film Close Up A character s head fills the screen Close ups bring the viewer into a character s intimate space which may help us feel what the character is feeling Clip Pirates of the Caribbean The close up allows the audience to get a glimpse of Jack Sparrow s expression mid fight in order to understand his feelings about what is going on Medium Close Up From the chest up Medium Shot From the waist up American Shot Medium Long Shot From the knees up This is sometimes called the American shot because Classical Hollywood Cinema frequently used it Clip Lost in Translation Long Shot The entire character from the feet to the head Extreme Long Shot The character looks small in relation to the landscape This can be used to either make the character look insignificant or to glorify the landscape e g in westerns Clip Jarhead The characters are lost in the vastness of the dessert Camera Placement and Movement Rack Focus The camera changes focus from the foreground to the background or vice versa This technique is often used by filmmakers to manipulate where the spectator looks in order to emphasize something Clip Moulin Rouge makes a comparison between Harold Zidler playing the evil maharaja and the Duke who is in reality the same character Also emphasizes the Duke s feelings about the performance Deep Focus Both foreground and background are in focus at the same time Some film theorists have seen this as being more powerful for the spectator because the spectator has to enter the space and combine what is happening in the foreground background in order to gain meaning Clip Citizen Kane Window shot Here the young Kane plays in the snow while his mother signs some papers that send him to live with Mr Thatcher the banker If a spectator were doing active viewing he or she could put the foreground and the background together to perhaps discern the meaning of Rosebud early in the film High Angle Shot The camera looks down upon a character Traditionally this may be used to make a character look weak or frightened Clip The Big Lebowski A high angle shot looks down on the Dude to make him appear small and frightened Low Angle Shot The camera looks up from below a character Traditionally this may be used to make a character look powerful or frightening Clip The Big Lebowski The camera looks up at the large bowling ball as it bears down on the Dude making it look imposing and dangerous POV Shot point of view The viewer sees what a character in the film sees as if the viewer becomes the character Clip The Big Lebowski After the Dude is run over by the bowling ball and is apparently lodged in the finger hole the viewer is presented a POV shot from inside the bowling ball as it rolls toward the pins at the end of the lane Zoom A stationary camera adjusts a lens so that it appears to be bringing us closer to or further away from the action Usually used to emphasize something important Clip Pirates of the Caribbean At the beginning of the movie this zoom brings us in on the face of the important character of Jack Sparrow Pan The camera pivots to look from side to side Clip Pride and Prejudice The camera pans across Elizabeth Bennet s yard as she sits on her swing This is also a POV shot Tilt The camera pivots to look up or down Clip Hook The camera tilts down to show the entire window Crane Up or Crane Down The camera is actually lifted or lowered by a crane Clip Girl With a Pearl Earring The movie opens with a crane up on Griet walking through the streets Tracking Shot The camera moves atop a platform with wheels which is attached to a track much like a train track Clip Raiders of the Lost Ark After a close up of Indiana Jones the camera tracks across the faces of the love struck students Tracking Shot 2 Clip V for Vendetta We see how an actual tracking shot works Valerie the character is acting in a movie in which she is being filmed using a tracking shot Dolly Shot A dolly is a platform with wheels that is not attached to a track it thus can be moved in any direction the director wants Clip Touch of Evil In one shot a camera on a crane sits on a dolly so that it can go up and down and move through the street following the action of the couple walking alongside the car with the bomb in it Dolly In Shot The camera on a dolly moves closer to the action Pull Back Dolly Out Shot The camera on a dolly moves further away from the action Clip Girl With a Pearl Earring The shot begins with an extreme close up of the earring and then pulls back to slowly reveal the painting as a whole Steadicam Shot A harness holds the camera over the shoulders of the camera operator so that he or she can walk or run and the camera remains steady First developed for Kubrick s The Shining in 1980 Clip The Shining In the finale of the film Jack runs after Danny in a hedge maze but in reality a cameraman runs after Danny making is seem as if the viewer is Jack High Key Lighting A character s face is well lit having all shadows removed High key lighting is typically used in moments of happiness Low Key Lighting Shadows are left on a character s face Low key lighting is typically used in moments of horror or suspense This technique is very common in film noir Transitions Cut Two shots joined together Fade The screen gradually goes black A shot of one scene can fade to black fade out or can fade back in from black fade in to a different scene This transition traditionally signifies that a significant amount of time has passed between scenes Clip Snatch The scene fades out to black just as Mickey O Neil knocks out his opponent Dissolve Here one shot fades to black while another fades in from black but the two images overlap so we do not see …
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