Embedded Files
Movies. Film. Cinema. Motion Pictures. Some people who want to sound fancy make a distinction between these terms, but they are pretty much interchangeable. This page describes some basic terms for formal analysis of film.
Films are created by a team of people with highly specialized jobs. While the director has a lot of influence over a film, so too do the screenwriter(s), the production designer, the editor, and the producers. Scholars therefore often use the generic terms filmmaker or filmmakers in formal analysis to represent the collective authorship of a film.
Building Blocks
Building Blocks
Still. The still image is the most fundamental technical building block of film.
When we see images moving on a movie screen, we are not actually seeing movement. We are seeing a quick succession of still images that our brains interpret as movement.
This zoopraxiscope demonstrates the phenomenon known as apparent motion. When the disk is spun at an appropriate speed, the donkey seems to humans like it is in motion.
A shot is an unedited series of still images.
When a filmmaker films multiple versions of a shot, those are called takes. The film's editor will choose which take (or takes) to use in the film.
A scene is a sequence of shots edited together.
Cinematic Language
Cinematic Language
No matter a film's verisimilitude (or apparent realness), it is always a mediation of reality. The filmmaker focuses the audience's attention, manipulating the composition of individual frames and shots, as well as time and space. Form is the means by which a filmmaker focuses the audience's attention.
Film didn't just burst into the world fully formed. Over a few decades (1890s-1910s), early filmmakers created a visual language for storytelling. The conventions and patterns of this language are called cinematic language, or film grammar.
Compare the two clips below, for example.
In Thomas Edison's 1893 silent film Boxing Cats, the camera does not move, and there is no editing. The film is one continuous shot. This film would have been watched by a single viewer on a device called a kinetescope.
The 1918 Charlie Chaplin silent film A Dog's Life demonstrates advances in cinematic language that were common by the late 1910s. Notice the different shot types and editing. The story is told through visual grammar.
Although film is an international medium, cinematic language is not entirely universal. As with any medium, conventions can differ by culture and time period. Compare the following clips, one from the 1990 American film Mermaids and the other from the 1959 Japanese film Good Morning.
In this clip from Mermaids (1990), the camera is placed at eye level, which is typical of Hollywood classical narrative style. The camera placement emphasizes individual character psychology.
The movement in the scene (the camera movements, the actors' movements, the soundtrack, and the visual business of the props and scenery) are all reminiscent of stereotypical American culture.
The movement in the scene (the camera movements, the actors' movements, the soundtrack, and the visual business of the props and scenery) are all reminiscent of stereotypical American culture.
In this clip from Good Morning (1959), the camera is placed low to the floor to mimic the POV of someone sitting on the floor, as is common in traditional Japanese culture. (This is a key feature of director Yasujiro Ozu's style.)
The stillness of this scene (the camera, the actors' movements, the sound) are characteristic of Japanese culture, as the director represents it.
The stillness of this scene (the camera, the actors' movements, the sound) are characteristic of Japanese culture, as the director represents it.
Mise-en-scene
Mise-en-scene
Mise-en-scene (pronounced meez-on-SEN) is a theatre term that refers to the staging of a play; that is, all the physical elements on stage. In film, it refers to everything physical that appears on screen. A film's design can help to establish the time period, location, and character mood or emotions.
Montage of stills from Black Panther (2018), for which production designer Hannah Beachler won an Oscar in 2019. Montage compiled by u/Vin13ish.
Movies can be filmed on a soundstage, on location, or a combination of both. A soundstage offers more control of the environment, particularly lighting and weather conditions. Location shooting can lend a film a heightened sense of realism (though not always).
Costumes, makeup, and hairstyling help to establish character personalities and emotions, as well as further the film's narrative.
The placement of all people, props, and lighting within the frame contributes to the shot's composition.
Framing the shot helps to focus reader attention. Just as a photographer or painter does, the filmmaker makes intentional choices about what to include in the frame and, sometimes more importantly, what not to include. Consider the following images of McCormick Hall taken by students during a Fall 2022 Introduction to Film class, for example. How does each image tell a story about McCormick Hall through framing?
Because film has a temporal quality, the composition of a shot can change. Reframing refers to the movement of the camera to change what appears on screen. Kinesis is movement within the frame. (The choreography of movement within the frame is called blocking.)
This shot from Singing in the Rain (1952) shows both kinesis (movement within the frame) and reframing (the repositioning of the camera to refocus audience attention). The spotlight, which is not part of the original scene, shows how the focus of the frame shifts.
The composition of a shot can be categorized generally as open framed or closed frame. Compositions that are open framed include a fair amount of negative space and freedom for characters to move within and outside the frame. Closed framing feels claustrophobic, and characters feel trapped.
Still fromThe Wind (2018), open framed composition.
Still from The Searchers (1956), close framed composition.
Action or sound in a scene can occur on-screen or off-screen.
Cinematography
Cinematography
The term cinematography refers to everything the camera is doing. The composition of a shot is created through a number of technical strategies. (Examples in this section are taken from Spike Lee's 1989 film Do the Right Thing.)
Film frames are, by convention, rectangular. A film's aspect ratio is the ratio of the film's width to height. There are several standard aspect ratios, but the two most common in the United States are Academy (1.375:1) and American widescreen (1.85:1).
Academy aspect ratio (1.375:1)
American widescreen aspect ratio (1.85:1)
The implied proximity of a shot refers to the implied distance between the camera and its subject. Common distances include the following:
establishing shot
extreme long shot (XLS)
long shot (LS)
medium (cowboy) shot (MS)
medium close-up shot (MCUS)
close-up shot (CUS)
extreme close-up shot (XCUS)
Camera angles can create a variety of psychological and emotional effects. A low angle, for example, lends an air of authority or respect to the subject, while a high angle makes subjects seem smaller. Dutch (or canted) angles can suggest anger, fear, or other heightened emotions.
bird's eye angle
eye-level
low angle
high angle
dutch angle
To give a sense of three dimensions (or depth) to a flat artistic medium, filmmakers often compose shots in multiple planes, including the foreground, the middle ground, and the background.
shallow focus on the foreground
multiplane composition in deep focus
Camera movement adds another dimension to a shot. The term pan refers to the camera pivoting from side to side. Tilt refers to the camera pivoting up and down. In a tracking shot, the camera moves through space, on a dolly, a crane, or handheld.
In the shot to the left, the camera tilts up and pans to the right slightly, reframing the shot from the boombox to the character (Radio Raheem). Notice that the camera is not moving through space (i.e., tracking) in this shot. It simply pivots up and to the right slightly.
In the shot to the right, the camera is tracking alongside the character (Mookie) and continues moving when he stops, panning to the right to keep focus on him. The composition is reframed from a one shot (one person as the subject of the shot) to a two shot (two people as the subject of the shot). Mookie is clearly annoyed by this.
In the shot to the left, the camera tracks backward with the character (Mookie), pans to the right as Mookie passes, and then tracks forward to follow the trash can. The movement of the camera adds energy to this shot and foreshadows the riot that is about to break out.
Film stock comes in several formats (or gauges): 8mm, Super 8mm, 16mm, 35mm, 65mm, and 70mm. In general, the wider the film stock, the better the quality and the more expensive. 35mm is the most common format for commercial films.
Source: Clipoemsart - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.
The quality of the image is influenced by a number of factors, including the speed of the film stock.
Fast film is sensitive to light and is therefore appropriate for low-light situations. Because fast film stock has fewer areas that are sensitive to light, it tends to have a grainier look, especially when exposed in bright settings. Slow film stock is not as sensitive to light and therefore needs a lot of it. It tends to capture finer detail, however.
Lighting for a shot can come from natural and artificial sources. The sun is an obvious source for natural lighting. Artificial lights include spotlights, which throw hard lighting, and floodlights, which throw soft lighting. Light from a spotlight is focused, whereas light from a floodlight is more diffused.
floodlight (left), spotlight (right)
The most common convention for lighting in feature films is three-point lighting, which includes a key light (the main source of lighting), a fill light (which fills in shadows created by the key light), and a back light (which defines the subject against the background).
Three-point lighting. Hard key light is coming from the right of the screen, low-watt fill light from below and to the left of the camera, natural lighting as back light. In this scene two characters (Sal, the restaurant owner, and Radio Raheem) are arguing about loud music. This is a low-angle POV shot from Sal's perspective. The low fill light, which functions as an up-light, creates shadows on the character's face and (along with the canted angle) suggests Sal perceives Radio Raheem as slightly menacing. The sweat on Radio Raheem's forehead in this shot and on Sal's forehead in the next shot suggests both the literal heat of summer and the metaphoric heat of rising tempers.
Three-point lighting. Hard key light is coming from behind the camera, from the top left of the frame, creating sharp shadows in the background, very low-watt key light from the right. Back light seems to be bounce from the key light on the reflective surfaces in the background. This shot is a high-angle POV shot from Radio Raheem's perspective. The hard light, square lines of the kitchen equipment, and sharp shadows suggest that Radio Raheem sees Sal as rigid and unyielding.
In low-key lighting, there is high contrast between light and shadows, whereas in high-key lighting subjects are lit evenly without many (or any) shadows.
Soft, high-key lighting. The room and the characters are evenly lit, for the most part. Notice also that the mise-en-scene (sets, props, etc.) is saturated with cool pastel colors. This is a departure from the rest of the film, which is saturated with warm tones and colors (e.g., oranges, yellows, and browns) to represent both the time of year (summer) and heightened racial tensions. The mise-en-scene of Jade's apartment shows that she is outside of much of the film's actions. The bird decorations on the wall (and the flowers and prints of flowers) suggest a desire to escape the city environment.
Low-key lighting. The primary lighting in the scene is a naturally-sourced back light (the sun), which is positioned to the left of the frame. A very low-watt fill light near the camera and directed at the center of the shot provides enough light to see some details of the props on the table and, to a lesser extent, the characters' faces.
Camera lenses fall into two categories: prime and zoom. Prime lenses include three basic categories of focal lengths:
Short (or wide-angle) lenses (12.5-25mm) make objects in the frame seem farther apart than humans typically perceive.
Medium (or normal) lenses (35-50mm) approximate depth as perceived by humans.
Long (or telephoto) lenses (85-500mm) make objects in the frame seem closer together than humans typically perceive.
Zoom lenses are characterized by the ability to change focal lengths. Changing the focus of a continuous shot is called rack focus.
Filmmakers can combine rack focus and tracking (a technique called a push pull shot) by tracking forward at the same time the lens's focal length is shortened. This type of shot is often used to represent a character's surprise or disorientation.
Editing
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and arranging components of a film in order. A film editor cuts and splices shots to clarify or manipulate the audience's understanding of the spatial and temporal relationships between them.
Source: Nashville Film Institute
The Kuleshov effect explains how viewers make meaning from one shot to another: when two shots are juxtaposed (i.e., placed next to each other), audiences look for meaning in their pairing. The image on the left is an example. The shot of the man is the same in each pair of shots, but audiences perceive his expression differently based on the shot that follows.
Common editing techniques that establish temporal relationships between shots include flashback (which represents events in the past), flashforward (which represents events in the future), ellipsis (which indicates missing time), and montage (which compresses time).
This clip from Citizen Kane (1941) is a flashback, a story from the past told by an old man. The transition to the flashback is achieved through a lap dissolve, and the flashback is edited as a montage that shows the passing of time and the breakdown of the couple's relationship. The passage of time is indicated by a quick shot of a fast-moving passenger train. The mise-en-scene (including the breakfast table setting and the costumes) shows the characters' increasing emotional distance from each other.
The film editor also establishes the rhythm of a film through the duration (or length) of shots. The longer the shot, the more detail the audience is able to see. The slower the shot, the less detail the audience can see.
Michael Jackson's 1983 music video for "Thriller" uses fairly slow editing (i.e., relatively long duration shots) to give the audience time to soak up the supernatural mise-en-scene and dancing.
In comparison, the 2016 Glee performance of a "Thriller" / "Heads Will Roll" mashup uses very fast editing. The editing is so fast that audiences can see very little of the dance performances.
Editing styles can be categorized generally as continuous or discontinuous.
In continuity editing (sometimes called invisible editing), the film editor tries to give the impression that all the shots in a scene are taking place in the same physical space and in continuous time. Audiences are not even supposed to notice the editing. Continuity editing is used in many narrative films and is designed to help audiences follow the action on screen. Graphic, spatial, and temporal relations are maintained from shot to shot
In the master scene technique, the entire scene is filmed in one long shot (a master shot) to establish blocking, kinesis, and dialogue for the whole scene. The filmmakers then film a variety of shots (close ups, medium shots, etc.) that will be intercut with the master shot in editing to focus audience attention and create visual variety and rhythm.
The 180-degree rule is the most common feature of continuity editing because it ensures that action and movement on screen are consistent. By making sure that the camera stays on one side an imaginary line called the axis of action, filmmakers ensure that audiences can keep track of the action and movement on screen. There are a few cases in which filmmakers may decide to cross the axis of action to create a specific effect, but the 180-degree rule is the norm in continuity editing.
Source: Grm wnr. Wikimedia.
Other common techniques in continuity editing include the following:
Shot / reverse shot is a common technique used to edit a conversation or character reactions. For audiences to understand the interaction, shots must be filmed on the same side of the imaginary axis of action, often over the shoulder of one character.
In an eyeline match, the first shot shows a character looking offscreen, while the second shot shows what the character is looking at. The shots must be filmed on the same side of the imaginary axis of action so that the audience understands where the character is looking.
A match on action shows continuous motion from shot to shot. This type of transition can be as simple as switching from a long shot to a medium shot of the same action, but it can also be used to establish a new axis of action in a scene.
In a match on graphic, a shape or graphic image (or sound) in one shot is echoed in the next shot.
A point of view (POV) shot shows the perspective of a character or group of people.
This scene from Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (1971) is a good example of the 180-degree rule in practice. The scene mixes long shots, close ups, and medium close ups from different angles, and uses master shot, shot / reverse shot, eyeline match, and match on action editing techniques. The camera always stays on the same side of the imaginary line of axis, which in this case is a literal piece of machinery.
Discontinuity editing, which was pioneered in the 1920s by the Soviet montage filmmakers, does not attempt to give the impression that shots represent the same time and place. In fact, discontinuity editing brings attention to itself as editing. In this type of editing, filmmakers rely on the Kuleshov effect. Viewers must make their own meaning from shots that do not seem to take place in the same time and space.
The 1929 film Man with a Movie Camera is a famous example of Soviet montage editing. The film does not have a plot, but the scenes and sequences are edited to depict a city from morning to night. The film's rhythm, achieved through editing, mimics the rhythm of a lively urban city. At some points, the film even investigates its own production, including the editing process.
Other common editing transition types that can be used in any type of editing include:
dissolve
fade out / fade in
iris in / iris out
freeze frame
wipe
jump cut
splitscreen
Sound
Sound
Sound can be defined by four primary characteristics:
The pitch of a sound refers to its frequency. In music, pitch is indicated by notes, which can be high or low.
The amplitude of a sound is also known as its volume, or loudness.
A sound's quality, or timbre, is its harmonic content. This is how listeners can tell the difference between different sources of sound, such as different musical instruments.
The fidelity if a recorded sound is its faithfulness to the original sound.
Film sound can have many sources. Sound that has a source in the world of the film and can be heard by the characters is called diegetic. Examples of diegetic sound include dialogue and sound effects. Nondiegetic sound has its source outside the world of the film and cannot be heard by the characters. Nondiegetic sound may include included a musical soundtrack or voiceover narration.
When the source of a diegetic sound is visible in the frame, it is called on-screen. When the source is not visible, it is called off-screen.
Internal sound refers to the inner thoughts of a character that can be heard by the film's audience but not the other characters. External sound is audible to the characters in a scene.
Types of sound in a film may include dialogue, narration, music, and silence. Environmental sounds may include ambient sound (such as background noises), sound effects (which can be recorded from their natural sources), and Foley sounds (which are created by sound artists).
In the opening sequence of There Will Be Blood (2007), sound and silence serve several functions, but mostly to establish the protagonist's emotional and mental state. Ambient sounds inside the shaft include the sound of the protagonist's ax, shovel, and dynamite as he digs for gold, but notice that the scene does not include any ambient sounds of nature (except for the wind when the protagonist, Daniel Plainview, is forced to stop digging for the night). The intense focus of the diegetic sound in this scene (and the corresponding silence) signals the protagonist's single-minded focus on finding gold. The nondiegetic sound at the beginning and end of the scene - a high-pitched, scratchy siren - establishes an ominous tone for the film. The sound design thus tells the audience that the protagonist's intense focus on gold will lead to trouble (and a blatant disregard for nature).
The sound design of this scene from There Will Be Blood is complex. As the oil rig drills into the earth, ambient diegetic sounds of the drill and working men establish a calm rhythm until the drill hits a gas pocket and torches ignite an explosion. When Daniel Plainview's adopted son is blown over by the explosion, the ambient sounds are muffled for a few seconds to establish that his eardrums have been destroyed. After this point, the sound is dominated by several layers of asynchronous clicking, rattling, and pounding sounds. It isn't clear whether the sounds are nondiegetic (representing Plainview's sense of panic) or interior (representing the sounds his son hears in his head when his eardrums are destroyed). As the scene continues, the different layers of rhythmic sound eventually synchronize into a single rhythm that echoes the rhythm of the oil rig at the beginning of the scene. Again, it isn't clear whether the sounds are diegetic (Plainview's excitement at finding oil becoming more important than his concern for his son), or internal (the sound of the son's pulse in his head). Perhaps the sounds are both.
Narrative
Narrative
General Resources
General Resources
There are several good introductory textbooks on film analysis. Richard Barsam and Dave Monahan's Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film, 5th ed., was the primary source for this page.
Want to learn more? Check out these video tutorials from Studio Binder:
Page updated
Report abuse