Chapter 17

The Elements of Film

To study film in any capacity, and here it is in conjunction with film adaptation of lit-
erature, one must have a basic understanding of how film works, and the elements that
can or do make up a film. The elements of film can be broken down into four divisions:
mise-en-scène, cinematography or camera-work, editing, and sound. It’s not possible to
learn all that goes into making a film and the minutiae and vagaries of the process and
product, especially in one sitting or even during one semester, but an understanding of
the basics is manageable, and necessary to be able to look at film from an analytical
perspective beyond personal preference and a purely entertainment perspective.

Mise-en-scène

Mise-en-scène is a term that comes from the theater referring to all that appears on
stage. In film, it’s most often used to represent all that appears in one frame of a film,
or in one scene. In other words, it refers to all the components placed in front of the
camera, and includes sets, lighting, costuming, makeup, props, placement of objects,
and people, and the actors’ gestures and movements.
Sets can be those on location, or those artificially constructed, but they encompass
the physical space that the camera shows and in which the actors move. Sets on loca-
tion are those that are found in the world and not constructed in a studio. Studying and
exploring the set represented in a film can help detect any special significance the set-
ting has for the film, especially how the props are used in relation to the background,
and the specific arrangement of the props and characters.
Lighting in a film helps to establish the mood and focuses attention on the details
of the film. The cinematographer decides on artificial or natural light, the direction it
should take, and its intensity. The system of three-point lighting is most often used and
describes three sources of light: a key light, a fill light, and a backlight. This allows
for balance in any given shot. The key light provides the primary light source. The fill
light fills in the shadows thrown by the key light. The backlight comes from behind
the subject, separating the subject from the background. Some basic lighting effects
that are used in films, operating under the three-point system, include high-key light-
ing, which means the scene is brightly lit, minimizing shadows. A scene with low-key
lighting is dimly lit and there is a lot of shadow. High-key lighting creates a brighter and

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more joyful mood, while low-key lighting creates a harsher and more somber mood.
Obviously, there are many others. It’s important to identify the mood that is being cre-
ated by the lighting, not only through the entire film, but also from scene to scene.
Costuming involves the clothes that the characters wear, varying from realistic dress
to extravagant costumes. Costuming is important in that it creates the time period in
which the scene is occurring, and provides insight into the characters. Hair styling must
coordinate with the costuming. And, makeup, although not always noticeable, is rec-
ognized as an art by the film world, since it receives an Academy Award and has since
1965. Cosmetics can enhance or change an actor’s natural appearance that works with
the role they’re playing in the film. Makeup becomes crucial especially in science fic-
tion, fantasy, and horror films.
Props are considered any objects or items used on a set or in a scene. The props used
and their arrangement can add realism or authenticity to the scene. However, it can
also create the effect of irony, something out of place, or not what the viewer would
expect. For example, in the futuristic film, Children of Men, viewers are expecting,
when they read that the story is taking place in 2027, that it will be a futuristic setting
of progress. Yet the first scene follows the main character out of a crowded coffee shop
onto a dirty street littered with garbage, a hovering fog of air pollution, and vehicles
that in their design show a regression rather than a progression, all of this effected
quite purposefully.
Finally, in a mise-en-scène analysis, one would study the actors and their gestures
and movements, or their figure behavior. The acting style, or how an actor plays a part,
differs obviously from one film to the next, and from one decade to the next. Actors are
cast based on all different kinds of reasoning, and based on various needs depending
on the film and its desired effect. To study figure behavior is to study the movements
and actions of the actors or other figures (animals, monsters, animated things, robots,
aliens) in a scene or given shot of a film. This allows for a deeper look into what the
film is attempting to do and how it does it.

Cinematography or Camera Work

The shot is the basic unit of film. It’s the single image that is seen on the screen before
the film cuts to the next image. But unlike a photograph, a single shot includes a lot
of variety and movement. It’s a single, continuous view of the scene that documents
uninterrupted action. And, the frame of the movie image forms its border and contains
all that is occurring in the scene, or its mise-en-scène.
The three most basic shots are as follows: the long shot, the medium shot, and the
close-up. The long shot (LS) shows the full human figure of a character or characters,
and often the figures are dwarfed by the background. An extreme long shot (ELS) is
one in which the human figure can barely be distinguished. The medium shot (MS)
is one in which we see the human figure from the waist up. The medium long shot
(MLS) frames the human from the knees up, and the medium close-up (MCU) allows
the viewer to move in closer and see the human from the chest up. The close-up (CU)
focuses in on a specific part of the human, most often the face. The extreme close-up
(ECU) focuses in on a portion of the face. All of these different types of shots describe
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the distance away from the human body, using the human body as the focal point of
reference. One can study in a certain frame the distance from the subject that is main-
tained and consider why and how this distance is in fact maintained. What does it add
to the scene? Why has it been filmed this way?
The camera angle is the camera’s position as it’s focusing in on the subject. The
camera might look down on the subject, from a high angle position. Or it might look at
the subject straight-on or at eye level. The low angle is when the camera is looking up at
the subject. Camera angles add meaning to the subject being filmed. One can study the
angle at which the camera frame represents the action and the significance of that angle.
Why is it filmed in this way? The height of the frame can be a factor in determining an
aspect of the scene, in that the placement of the camera determines how the viewer sees
the subject or subjects in the scene. Why has it been done the way it has?
Camera movement refers to any position the camera takes when viewing the sub-
ject that changes the perspective on its subject. A tilt shot involves the camera moving
up and down, so that the frame of the scene moves up and down. It may be following
the point of view of the character, or giving the viewer a perspective of what is around
the character, both high and low. A pan shot moves left or right, scanning the scene
horizontally while staying in the same place. A tracking shot moves forward, back-
ward, or laterally, while moving toward, away, with, or around the subject. That is, the
camera isn’t stationary but follows or intrudes on the action with the movement of its
own position. A crane shot is a high, overhead shot that looks down on the action and
implicates a dramatic change in perspective. The handheld shot is one in which the
camera is carried by the camera operator.
Film speed is another consideration to take note of when studying a shot. The rate
at which the film is shot is most apparent in instances of slow or fast motion. Slow
motion can be used to indicate a dream while fast motion can be used to enhance the
comical nature of a scene. The tone of a shot is important to note as well. Tone refers
to the range and texture of colors in a film image. One can study why certain colors or
tones might be used and how they relate to the themes of the film.

Editing

Editing is the linking together of one shot to the next, and usually follows a logical
connection between the two. Very few films contain only one shot, and thus most join
many shots together. Editing is also choosing the best camera shots taken and putting
them together in a way to build a scene, a sequence, and finally, a completed film.
When considering editing as the joining of shots together, there are several types
of edits. The most common is the cut; the first shot ends where the second begins.
The shots are spliced together. A dissolve joins two shots together by blending
them; the beginning of the second shot is briefly superimposed on the end of the first
shot. The fade-in means the beginning of the shot gradually goes from dark to light.
Conversely, the fade-out means the end of the shot goes from light to dark. The wipe is
when a line moves across an image to gradually clear one shot and introduce another.
This tends to show a connection between the scene ending and the one beginning.
A jump cut is one in which a continuous shot is suddenly broken in that one shot is
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abruptly replaced by another that is mismatched, calling attention to the cut and dis-
concerting the viewer. The iris edit is the new image opening as an expanding circle
in the old image (iris-in) or the old image closing as a contracting circle disappearing
into the new image (iris-out).
Looking at the film from a less specific and more global perspective, continuity
editing is editing the viewer doesn’t notice. This editing style is referred to as invis-
ible editing because the filmmaker doesn’t want the editing to distract from the story,
so avoids cuts and transitions between images. Continuity editing relies on shots
called establishing shots. An establishing shot is one that begins a scene or sequence
by clearly locating it in a specific place so that the shots that follow are part of that
scene or sequence but as more detailed shots. Crosscutting uses alternating shots of at
least two sequences of action happening in different places at the same time. The shot/
reverse shot is an exchange between two characters that goes back and forth between
the two characters as they speak to or look purposefully at the other character. An
eyeline match means that the next shot shows the viewer what the character in the pre-
vious shot sees. A match on action follows a character’s action into a new space, from
a different focal point.
Disjunctive editing is continuity editing’s opposite in that it emphasizes the cut
from one shot to another, making it clear that the scene has changed. The term mon-
tage takes disjunctive editing further by calling attention to the discontinuity of shots.
The montage technique is the juxtaposition of dissimilar shots, designed to incite the
viewer to make conscious connections between the shots.

Sound

The four types of sound that are heard and can be analyzed in films are speech, music,
sound effects, and silence. Speech is dialogue, spoken by the actors onscreen. Music
refers to the score that establishes patterns throughout a scene, a sequence, or the entire
film. Music is also used to evoke emotional reactions in the audience. Sound effects
are noises made by people and objects in each scene shown. The absence of sound in
a scene is called a dead track and often surprises the audience.
To analyze sound in a particular film, one must listen closely to how sound is
being used in the film. There are terms that help in analyzing the use of sound in a
film. Ambient sound is background noise or music that surrounds the main action and
dialogue. Overlapping dialogue is the mixing and overlapping of the speech of the
characters. Voice-off is the speech of a character who is not yet seen on the screen or
who was seen on the screen but who is not on the screen at the time their voice can be
heard. Voice-over is the voice of a narrator who is not a part of the story and cannot
be heard by the other characters. Narrative cueing is the use of a sound or pattern of
music that correlates to a moment or motif in the story. When these cues are sudden,
they’re called stingers.
Issues that can be addressed when analyzing sound in a film include determining the
relation of the sound to the image in a specific scene. The sound might be used to link
images, or become more important than the image being shown. The musical numbers
might have a special relation to the narrative structure. Dialogue might be difficult to
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discern purposefully. Silence might play a role in a scene or the movie as a whole. The
rhythm of the sound might be parallel to the rhythm of the editing. These are all issues
that can be addressed when analyzing the sound sequences and patterns in a film, in
order to identify the significance of the use of sound in that film.
These are some very basic elements of film. The four headings could be developed
in much more detail, but for our purposes here, and as an introduction to film, these
will suffice so as not to overwhelm the viewer. Film studies is a course of study in aca-
demia, and that’s where the idea of film and the endless array of filmmaking techniques
are studied in great depth. The next section will briefly introduce film theory and film
analysis, in a way to get your feet wet, but not so that you’ll feel like you’re drowning.
I recognize that it’s difficult to go from viewing film simply as entertainment to view-
ing film as texts worthy of and requiring exploration and analysis, but there is a way
to balance both, without having to give up one or the other. I think students need to
understand this so that they don’t feel resistant when learning how to analyze and delve
deeper into the meanings and intricacies of film in general, and specific films.