1. Principle Elements of Film
Theory
CMT 190 Digital Video Production

2. Understanding Film
Analysis of film comes through content (what is in the film)
and form (how the film is portrayed).
Types of Films (Realism, Classical, Formalism)
Shots
Angles
Lighting
Color
Sound
Editing
Mise-en-Scene

3. Characteristics of Realism:
Realism • Unprofessional actors
• No special effects
A filmic style that favors the • On location sets and props
commonplace, portrays its subject • Minimal editing
objectively, and attempts to emulate • Natural lighting
real life without manipulation. • Documentary-style
The Bicycle Thief Once
(dir. Vittorio de Sica, 1948) (dir. John Carney, 2006)

4. Characteristics of Classical
classical Cinema:
• Professional actors
The mode that falls between the two
• Minimal or no special effects
extremes of Realism and Formalism;
• On location or in studio
strives to achieve authenticity of real
• Editing used for time-lapse
people and real events but with the
• Lighting and sound used to
manipulation of its creative
create a mood
production elements.
Citizen Kane Milk
(dir. Orson Welles, 1941) (dir. Gus Van Sant, 2008)

5. Characteristics of Formalism:
Formalism • Professional actors
• Relies heavily on special effects
• Editing speeds up or slows down
A filmic style which alters reality and
time
showcases the director’s subjective
• Lighting and sound create
experience.
exaggerations
• Breaks illusion of reality
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless The Seventh Seal
Mind (dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1958)
(dir. Michel Gondry, 2004)

6. Shots
Extreme Close Up Close Up Medium Shot
(ECU) (CU) (MS)
Full Shot Long Shot Extreme Long Shot
(FS) (LS) (ELS)

7. Shots (Cont’d)
Deep Focus Over-The-Shoulder (OTS)
American Shot POV Shot

8. Angles
Eye Level Angle High Angle
Low Angle Oblique Angle

9. Lighting
High Key Lighting Low Key Lighting
Chiaroscuro Lighting Silhouette/Back Lighting

10. Color
The use of red in We Need to Talk About Kevin (dir. Lynne Ramsay
2011)

11. Color (cont’d)
Saturated Color:
conveys
happiness, fantasies,
romance, or some
idyllic scenery
Desaturated Color:
conveys the
past, struggle, depre
ssion, or some other
dystopic scenery

12. Sound
DIEGETIC: NON-DIEGETIC:
Sound whose source is Sound whose source is not
visible on the screen or visible on the screen nor has
whose sound is implied to be been applied by the action of
present by the action in the the film; basically any sound
film; also characterized by off- that comes outside the story
screen or on-screen place
Examples: Examples:
• Voices of characters • Narrator’s commentary
• Sound made by props • Sound effects added for
• Music coming from dramatic effect
instruments in film • Mood music

13. Editing STyles
 Continuity: collapse of time and space while preserving
fluidity
 Classical: first popularized by D.W. Griffith, this style jumps
from long shot to medium shot to close up for dramatic effect
 Radical Subjective Continuity: cuts of different time and
space for dramatic effect
 Thematic: edits that are driven by a particular theme
 Associative: juxtaposition of two shots that when combined
have meaning (but separate, they do not)
 Dialectic: edits driven by expressing a contradiction

14. Mise-En-ScÉne
A french word that means
1. Placement around
“placed on stage.”
frame
Everything that appears before the 2. Face to camera
camera and how it’s arranged on the
screen to convey meaning in the film.
3. Territorial space
4. Frame constraints

15. Placement around the
frame

16. Face to camera
Full Turn Three Quarter Turn
Quarter Turn Back
Half Turn (Profile)

17. Territorial space
Background
Mid-ground
Foreground

18. Frame Constraints
Tight Frame: conveys subject’s
intensity, importance and
inability to escape
Open Frame: conveys
desolation, space, freedom, or
insignificance

19. Analysis Activity
Consider:
 Shot  Placement around frame
 Angle  Face to camera
 Lighting  Territorial space
 Color  Frame constraints

20. Homework
Due: Thursday, January 31
Do a shot-by-shot analysis of a scene from a film of your choosing.
Determine if the scene is characteristic of Realism, Classical, or
Formalism, and support your assertion by analyzing each individual shot
based on:
 Type of shot
 Angle
 Lighting
 Color
 Sound
 Editing Style
 Mise-en-Scene (placement of frame, face to camera, territorial
space, frame constraints)