Film Elements

Elements of Film Language

Camera

Camera Shots

• Wide Shot Taken from far away, shows characters and a background

• Medium Shot Shows torso, face and some background

• Close-up Shows head and shoulders of a character

• Point of View Shot Shows you what a character is seeing

Camera Angles

• Low angle The camera is placed below eye level, looking up

• High angle The camera is placed above eye level, looking down

• Camera Movement

• Pan The camera moves up, down or side to side

• Tracking Shot The camera is moved forwards, backwards or side to side on ‘train’ tracks

Focus: How clear or sharp an image is

• In focus When an image is clear and sharp

• Out of Focus When an image is blurry

• Soft Focus When a character or subject has soft edges

• Deep Focus When the foreground, middle ground and background are all in focus (sometimes called deep-staging)

• Shallow Focus When one part of the image is in focus, and another part is not

Mise-en-Scène: How the scene is set or staged

• Composition Describes how things are positioned in the frame

• Colour Palette The range of colours chosen for a scene

• Setting Where a scene takes place

• Props Any items used in a scene

• Costume & Makeup Anything worn by an actor

• Includes lighting but lighting also has it's own section

Lighting

• Hard Lighting Direct, e.g. a street on a sunny day, or a character in a spotlight

• Soft Lighting Indirect, e.g. a street on a cloudy day, or a character at a candlelit dinner

Sound and Music

• Composed Score Music written by a composer for a film

• Dialogue Words spoken between characters

• Narration A voice that tells the story

• Sound Effects Sounds that are added to a scene

Editing How shots are put together

• Cut When one shot ends and another one begins.

• Rapid cutting e.g. action scenes

• Slow cutting e.g. suspenseful or dramatic scenes

Performance

• Performing: The way in which actors play with facial expressions, body language, voice as they perform.

Task 1: 

In his seminal work “What is Cinema” Andre Bazin identifies two essential elements in silent film: 

Editing/Montage 

& 

Image/Plastics

Please describe these different elements and explain the different qualities an impacts that each can have.