Understanding Aspects of Films

1. CHAPTER 2
Understanding Aspects of Films

2. Director- The Captain
• Often called the captain of the ship, the
Director is the primary creative force
behind a Film. He or she is the person
who translates the screenplay onto the
screen through a definite vision.
• It’s the Director’s unique interpretation
of the story and of the characters told
through an individual
cinematic aesthetics that makes the
Director the torch-bearer of a Film.

3. Writer: The backbone of all films
• Scriptwriting is the first frame or the potential backbone for any films
in which we add the vital elements, the muscles and bones on the
form of grit, camera and aesthetics to make it more beautiful.

4. What does it take to accomplish a good
script?
1) Conceptualizing
2) Blind Drafts
3) Drop your pen after the first draft
4) Criticize yourself
5) Share your script

5. What is Mise en Scène?
Mise en scène, pronounced meez-ahn-sen, is a term used to describe
the setting of a scene in a play or a film. It refers to everything placed
on the stage or in front of the camera—including people. In other
words, mise en scène is a catch-all for everything that contributes to
the visual presentation and overall “look” of a production. When
translated from French, it means “placing on stage.”

6. Components of Mise en Scène in Film
1. Actors: Actors, their performances, and their performance styles are
crucial parts of mise en scène. When an actor is on screen, they’re
typically the focal point, so their presence carries a lot of weight for the
overall look of the story.
2. Location: The location of the scene sets the mood and supports the
action. For example, in a scene in which a man proposes to his
girlfriend, a domestic setting sets a completely different tone than a
public one.
3. Set design: Set design refers to everything the audience sees within
a particular scene. These details help build out the world of the
location and add even more context to the story. If it’s a dorm room,
are there books and notebooks on the desk to indicate studying? Or are
there pizza boxes and red cups to indicate a party?

7. 4. Lighting: Lighting is often the tool that conveys mood most clearly.
High-key lighting, often used in musicals and romantic comedies, relies
on hard light to minimize shadows. Low-key lighting, often used in
horror movies, features a high-contrast lighting pattern to both
brighten and darken parts of the frame.
5. Shot blocking and camera placement: Blocking is working with
performers to figure out their body positions, gestures, and
movements on stage. In cinema, blocking also involves working out the
placement and movements of the camera, and can impact the lighting,
set design, and more. Both shot blocking and camera placement are
effective tools that convey things like characters’ status and
relationships to the audience.

8. 6. Composition: Composition is the deliberate selection of frames and
camera angles that make up a shot. Manipulating composition can
accentuate the emotional themes of the story and communicate a
sense (or lack) of meaning to the audience.
7. Depth of space: The depth of space is the distance between people,
props, and scenery, both in relation to one another and the camera.
Much like shot blocking, it can tell the audience a lot about the tone of
the scene and the status of the characters. Is the space shallow or
deep? Does this accurately capture the truth of the narrative?
8. Film stock: The film stock refers to the appearance of the movie on
the screen. Is it in black and white, or color? Is the film fine-grain, or
grainy? Each tells a different story.

9. 9. Costumes: Costumes are the clothes actors wear and how they’re
tailored to fit them. For costumes to be effective, a costume designer
must know which colors look right on a character, and then reconcile
this with the colors suited to the actor playing the part and the color
palette of the production design.
10. Hair and makeup: Hair and makeup are the physical touches that
help actors transform into their characters, such as prosthetics, blood,
or aging techniques. Like costumes, hair and makeup are fundamental
ingredients in the story being told.

10. Who Determines Mise en Scène in Film
Production?
• Cinematographer
• Production designer
• Prop master
• Location manager
• Gaffer
• Visual effects supervisor
• Costume designer
• Makeup artists
• Hairdressers

11. What Is Cinematography?
Cinematography is the art of photography and visual storytelling in a
motion picture or television show. Cinematography comprises all on-
screen visual elements, including lighting, framing, composition,
camera motion, camera angles, film selection, choice of lense, depth of
field, zoom, focus, colour, exposure and filteration.

12. Why Is Cinematography Important to
Filmmaking?
• Sets and supports the overall look and mood of a film’s visual
narrative.
• Each visual element serve and enhance the story.
• Filmmakers often choose to spend the majority of their budget on
high-quality cinematography to guarantee that the film will look
incredible on the big screen.

13. What Does a Cinematographer Do?
• A cinematographer, also known as a Director of Photography, is in
charge of the camera and the lighting crew.
• They’re responsible for creating the look, color, lighting, and for
framing of every single shot in a film.
• The film’s director and cinematographer work closely together, as the
main job of a cinematographer is to ensure that their choices support
the director’s overall vision for the film.
• The cinematographer may also act as the camera operator on more
low-budget productions.

14. 6 Duties and Responsibilities of a
Cinematographer
• Chooses a visual style for the film.
• Establishes the camera setup for every shot.
• Determines the lighting for every scene.
• Explores the potential of every location.
• Attends rehearsals.
• Elevates the vision of the director.

15. Cinematic Technique Terms and Definitions
Cinematographers should think carefully about every shot, considering
the angle, the light, and the camera movement, because there is an
infinite number of choices they can make.

16. • Close-up: a shot that closely crops in on a character’s face or on an
object.
• Extreme close-up: A tightly framed close-up shot.

17. • Long shot: a shot showing a character in relation to their
surroundings.
• Extreme long shot: a shot so far away from the character, they are no
longer visible within their surroundings.

18. • Establishing shot: a shot at the beginning of a scene that gives
context for the setting.

19. • Tracking shot: a sideways-moving shot that captures a landscape or
that follows a character as they move. Often used interchangeably
with “dolly shot,” though they technically refer to different motions.

20. • Dolly shot: a shot where the camera moves toward or away from a
character on a dolly track. Technically, a dolly shot refers only refers to
backwards and forwards camera motion, though the term has come to
mean any camera movement tracking a character.
• Crane shot: an overhead shot where the camera is suspended in the
air on a moving crane.

21. • Steadicam: a lightweight camera stabilizer that captures smooth
moving shots. A Steadicam is either hand-held or attached to the
camera operator’s body, giving them more freedom to move while
filming.
• Medium shot: a shot that shows an actor from the waist up.

22. • High-angle shot: a shot where the camera is placed higher than a
character or object.
• Low-angle shot: a shot where the camera is placed lower than a
character or object.

23. • Point of view shot: a shot that shows the action through the eyes of a
specific character.
• Panning: a shot where the camera turns left or right on its vertical
axis.

24. • Tilting: a shot where the camera turns up or down on its horizontal
axis
• Cross-cutting: an editing technique that cuts between multiple events
happening at the same time.

25. • Side lighting: lighting used to illuminate the areas in a scene that aren’t
lit by key light.
• Backlighting: when the main light source comes from behind a
character or object.

26. Difference between Mise-en-scene &
Cinematography?
• CINEMATOGRAPHY: The way in which the camera is used to create
meaning.
• Mise-en-scene: The look of a film created through VISUAL elements
within the frame.
What is Filmed is MISE-EN-SCENE
What will be Filmed is CINEMATOGRAPHY

28. Create Meaning Through Editing
• Editing is the process of selecting and combining shots into an overall
work, at its most basic level.
• Editing can be as simple as inserting a dissolve transition between
two shots, but can also be so complex that it alters the meaning of a
scene or an entire work.
• It is often called “The Invisible Art” because a good editor will make a
film so fluid that the audience will not be aware of the editing.

29. • Another editing technique that creates meaning is through
juxtaposition of shots—or cross-cutting. In this technique, the
relationship between two shots—played one after the other—creates
a new meaning.
• For example, if we see a shot of a child lighting a match and then cut
to a shot of a burning house, it leads us to believing the child may
have started a fire.

30. Editing Process
• The editor has to review the angles of all of the different cameras
used for a particular shot to edit the best shots together for the
scene.
• The editor uses a time code to link thoughts to specific shots. For a
long project, the first edit would be a simple version consisting of all
of the wide shots strung together. This assembly would contain the
fewest number of edits required to tell the story.
• The assembly edit allows the editor to get a sense of the project, as a
whole, before specifics are focused on.

31. • The editing procedure is like any creative job, such as any type of
writing. In writing, the stages of the creative process are to write, re-
write, re-write, and re-write.
• The editing process is view, re-view, re-view, review, and view again.
• When the shots are edited into scenes, certain terminology is used
that refers to what the editor is looking for in the final product, along
with terminology that is used when describing the type of edit that
was used.

32. The Importance of Sound in Film
• The importance of sound in film is often overlooked. Though film is
considered a visual medium, all it takes is one click of the mute
button to tell exactly how much movies depend on audio to convey
emotion, the story and even the voice of a particular filmmaker.
• Good sound design, editing and scores can make a decent film
phenomenal, just as bad sound can detract from its success.
• Films are produced using three types of sounds: human voices, music
and sound effects. These three types of sounds are crucial for a film
to feel realistic for the audience.

33. • The sound effects you hear in any given scene of a film are often not
the sounds that were recorded in production. Most sound effects,
such as car horns, footsteps, gunshots and general ambient noise, are
recreated and added in later by sound editorial.
• Sounds and dialogue must perfectly sync with the actions in a film
without delay and must sound the way they look. If a sound doesn’t
quite match the action on screen, the action itself isn’t nearly as
believable.
• One way to achieve believable, high-quality sounds is to use original
sound clips rather than relying solely on sound libraries for sound
effects.

34. • Another way to make a film more believable using sound is it
incorporate what are known as asynchronous sound effects – often in
the form of background sounds.
• These sounds do not directly correlate to the action occurring in a
scene, but they can bring a film to life.
• Including sounds typical of a city or rural area can help to make the
film’s setting more realistic.

35. Components of Film Sound
• THE HUMAN VOICE: Dialogue
Dialogue authenticates the speaker as an individual or a real person
rather than the imaginary creation of a story teller. As is the case with
stage drama, dialogue serves to tell the story and expresses feelings
and motivations of characters as well. Often with film characterization
the audience perceives little or no difference between the character
and the actor.
The viewer sees not an actor working at his craft, but another human
being struggling with life. It is interesting to note that how dialogue is
used and the very amount of dialogue used varies widely among films.

36. • SOUND EFFECTS: Synchronous and Asynchronous sounds
Synchronous sounds are those sounds which are synchronized or
matched with what is viewed. For example: If the film portrays a
character playing guitar, the sounds of the guitar are playing.
Synchronous sounds contribute to the realism of film and also help to
create a particular atmosphere. For example: The “click” of an elevator
being opened may simply serve to convince the audience that the
image portrayed is real, and the audience-may only subconsciously
note the expected sound. However, if the “click” of an opening door is
part of an ominous action such as a getting away after burglary, the
sound mixer may call attention to the “click” with an increase in
volume; this helps to engage the audience in a moment of suspense.

37. Asynchronous sound effects are not matched with a visible source of
the sound on screen. Such sounds are included so as to provide an
appropriate emotional nuance, and they may also add to the realism of
the film.
For example: A film maker might opt to include the background sound
of an police siren while the foreground sound and image portrays an
arguing couple. The asynchronous police siren my underscores serious
problems in their surroundings and at the same time the noise of the
siren adds to the realism of the film by acknowledging the film’s city
setting.

38. • MUSIC: Background Music
Background music is used to add emotion and rhythm to a film.
Usually not meant to be noticeable, it often provides a tone or an
emotional attitude toward the story and/or the characters epicted. In
addition, background music often foreshadows a change in mood. For
example, dissonant music may be used in film to indicate an
approaching (but not yet visible) menace or disaster.
Background music may aid viewer understanding by linking scenes. For
example, a particular musical theme associated with an individual
character or situation may be repeated at various points in a film in
order to remind the audience of salient motifs or ideas.

39. THANK YOU