Elements of film

Chapter
 Elements of film
• Mise-en-scene
• Cinematography or camera work
• Editing
• Sound
 Mise-en-scene
• All that appears on stage
• All that appears in one frame/scene of a film
• Placed in front of the camera
– Sets (ATWIED – opening; ABM – 2:20; COAS – opening; LOTR – opening; BHD – 9:35)
– Lighting (video - net)
– Costuming (BHD - 16:00; Bnhr – opening: PAP – 2:00)
– Makeup (stardust – 1:45:00; R Crso – 27:50)
– Props
– Placement of objects and people
– The actors’ gestures and movements
 Sets
• Sets
– Those on location, artificially created, encompass
the physical space that the camera shows and in
which the characters move
– How the props are used in relation to the
background, the specific arrangement of the
props and characters
 SHOTS
• Alfred Hitchcock video – placement of shots
• Psycho – 46:45 – collection of shots – overall impact
 Static shot
• This is the simplest camera set up, but it is
also restricting, presenting what is happening
in frame like a play and making it impersonal
for the observer. In Barry Lyndon, Kubrick
predominantly used static frames to connote
the static structure of society.
 Aerial Shot

• An exterior shot filmed from — hey! — the air.

Often used to establish a (usually exotic) location.
All films in the '70s open with one — FACT.

• EXAMPLE: The opening of The Sound Of Music (1965). Altogether

now, “The hills are alive...“

• Opening of Shining; A&D – 11:24; BHD – 9:37; SI – 5:13

 Arc Shot
• A shot in which the subject is circled by the
camera. Beloved by Brian De Palma, Michael
Bay.
• EXAMPLE: The shot in De Palma's Carrie (1976)
where Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) and Tommy
Ross (William Katt) are dancing at the prom. The
swirling camera move represents her giddy
euphoria, see?
• TTM – 36:17 ?

• 36:14 locked down

 Bridging Shot
• A shot that denotes a shift in time or place,
like a line moving across an animated map.
That line has more air miles than Richard
Branson.

• EXAMPLE: The journey from the US to Nepal in Raiders Of

The Lost Ark (1981).
 Close Up
• A shot that keeps only the face full in the
frame. Perhaps the most important building
block in cinematic storytelling.
• EXAMPLE: Falconetti's face in The Passion Of
Joan Of Arc (1928).
 Medium Shot
• The shot that utilises the most common
framing in movies, shows less than a long
shot, more than a close-up. Obviously.
• EXAMPLE: Any John Ford film (i.e. The
Searchers), the master of the mid shot.
 Long Shot
• A shot that depicts an entire character or
object from head to foot. Not as long as an
establishing shot. Aka a wide shot.
• EXAMPLE: Omar Sharif approaching the
camera on camel in David Lean's Lawrence Of
Arabia (1962).
 Cowboy Shot
• A shot framed from mid thigh up, so called
because of its recurrent use in Westerns.
When it comes, you know Clint Eastwood is
about to shoot your ass.
• EXAMPLE: The three-way standoff in The
Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966).

• TLOPi – 1:18:29
 Deep Focus
• A shot that keeps the foreground, middle ground
and background ALL in sharp focus. Beloved by
Orson Welles (and cinematographer Gregg Toland).
Production designers hate them. Means they have
to put detail in the whole set.

• EXAMPLE: Thatcher (George Couloris) and Kane's mother

(Agnes Moorehead) discussing Charles (Buddy Swan)'s fate
while the young boy plays in the background in Citizen Kane
(1941).
 Dolly Zoom
• A shot that sees the camera track forward toward
a subject while simultaneously zooming out
creating a woozy, vertiginous effect.
• Initiated in Hitchcock's Vertigo (1959), it also appears in such
scarefests as Michael Jackson's Thriller video (1983), Shaun Of The
Dead (2004), The Evil Dead (1981) and The Goofy Movie (1995).
• It is the cinematic equivalent of the phrase "Uh-
oh".
• EXAMPLE: Police Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) sees the Kintner kid
(Jeffrey Voorhees) get it in Jaws (1975). Not the first but the best.
• Gf – 2:13:10
 Dutch Tilt
• A shot where the camera is tilted on its side
to create a kooky angle. Often used to
suggest disorientation. Beloved by German
Expressionism, Tim Burton, Sam Raimi and
the designers of the villains hideouts in '60s
TV Batman.
• EXAMPLE: The beginning of the laboratory
scene in Bride Of Frankenstein (1935).
 Establishing Shot
• The clue is in the name. A shot, at the head
of the scene, that clearly shows the locale the
action is set in. Often comes after the aerial
shot. Beloved by TV directors and thick
people.
• EXAMPLE: The first glimpse of the prison in
The Shawshank Redemption (1994).
 ESTABLISHING SHOT/
REESTABLISHING SHOT
• After this introduction, the camera moves forward
with several close-ups of both the musicians and
the spectators.
• At the end of the sequence, Hark shows us the
entire room in a larger shot.
• This final establishing shot is called a reestablishing
shot, for it shows us once again the spatial
relationships introduced with the establishing shots.
 Handheld Shot
• A shot in which the camera operator holds the
camera during motion to create a jerky, immediate
feel. Beloved by Steven Soderbergh and Paul
Greengrass. It basically says, "This is real life,
baby".

• EXAMPLE: The pool hall fist fight in Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973).
• CoM – opening
• AWTR – 24:45 – follow
 Low Angle Shot
• A shot looking up at a character or subject
often making them look bigger in the frame.
It can make everyone look heroic and/or
dominant. Also good for making cities look
empty.
• EXAMPLE: Darth Vader stomping around the
Death Star corridors in Star Wars Episode IV A
New Hope (1977).
 High Angle Shot
• A shot looking down on a character or
subject often isolating them in the frame.
Nothing says Billy No Mates like a good old
high angle shot.
• EXAMPLE: Little Charlie (Teresa Wright)
realizes her uncle (Joseph Cotton) is a serial
killer in Hitchcock's Shadow Of A Doubt
(1943).
• SC – 3:03
 Locked-Down Shot
• A shot where the camera is fixed in one
position while the action continues off-
screen. It says life is messy and can not be
contained by a camera. Beloved by Woody
Allen and the dolly grips who can take the
afternoon off.
• EXAMPLE: Ike (Woody Allen) and Mary
(Diane Keaton) walk in and out of shot whilst
flirting.
 Library Shot
• A pre-existing shot of a location — typically a wild
animal — that is pulled from a library. Aka a "stock
shot", it says this film is old. Or cheap.
• EXAMPLE: Every shot of an animal in a black and
white Tarzan movie.
• Library Shot
• Stock footage shot or other footage which is germane
to a given visual presentation but which was not
generated for that specific film or television
presentation.

• TTM – 1:26:00 – originally planned to do but did not do it

 Matte Shot
• A shot that incorporates foreground action
with a background, traditionally painted onto
glass, now created in a computer. Think the
Raiders warehouse or the Ewok village or
Chris Hewitt's house.
• EXAMPLE: The final shot of 1968's Planet Of
The Apes.
 Money Shot
• A shot that is expensive to shoot but deemed
worth it for its potential to wow, startle and
generate interest.
• EXAMPLE: The White House blowing up in
Independence Day (1996).
• CR – 10:20
 Over-The-Shoulder Shot
• A shot where the camera is positioned
behind one subject's shoulder, usually during
a conversation. It implies a connection
between the speakers as opposed to the
single shot that suggests distance.
• EXAMPLE: The opening of The Godfather
(1972).

• AWTR – 25:00
 Pan
• A shot where the camera moves continuously
right to left or left to right. An abbreviation of
"panning". Turns up a lot in car chases and on
You've Been Framed (worth £250 if they use
a clip).
• EXAMPLE: Brian de Palma's Blow Out (1981)
— a 360 degree pan in Jack Terry (John
Travolta)'s sound studio.
 POV shot
• A shot that depicts the point of view of a
character so that we see exactly what they
see. Often used in Horror cinema to see the
world through a killer's eyes.
• EXAMPLE: The opening of Halloween (1978)
told from the point of view of the child
Michael Myers (Will Sandin).
• TGG: 2:00:00; Eragon – 27:09
 The Sequence Shot
• A long shot that covers a scene in its entirety
in one continuous sweep without editing.
• EXAMPLE: The 3 min 20 secs opening of
Touch Of Evil (1958) in which Mike
Vargas (Charlton Heston) and Susie (Janet
Leigh) cross paths with a car carrying a ticking
bomb.
 Steadicam Shot
• A shot from a hydraulically balanced camera that
allows for a smooth, fluid movement. Around
since the late '70s, invented by Garrett Brown.

• Beloved by Stanley Kubrick, Brian De Palma, Martin Scorsese,

Alfonso Cuaron. A lengthy Steadicam shot is the directorial
equivalent of "Look ma, no hands!"

• EXAMPLE: Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) taking his new girl (Lorraine
Braco) through the Copa by the back entrance in Goodfellas
(1990). If you have the time, also see Russian Ark, a 99 minute
Steadicam shot.
 Tilt
• A shot where the camera moves continuously
Up to Down or Down To Up. A vertical
panning shot. A tilt to the sky is traditionally
a last shot in a movie.
• EXAMPLE: The last shot of Robert Altman's
Nashville (1975).

• TDWTP – 36:45; 37:58

 Top Shot
• A shot looking directly down on a scene rather
than at an angle. Also known as a Birds-Eye-View
shot. Beloved by Busby Berkeley to shoot dance
numbers in patterns resembling snowflakes.
• EXAMPLE: The camera moving over the carnage
left by Travis Bickle at the end of Taxi Driver
(1976).

• CR – 33:26
 Tracking Shot
• A shot that follows a subject be it from
behind or alongside or in front of the subject.
Not as clumsy or random as a panning shot,
an elegant shot for a more civilized age.
Beloved by Stanley Kubrick, Andrei Tarkovsky,
Terence Davies, Paul Thomas Anderson.
• EXAMPLE: The dolly shots in the trenches
during Stanley Kubrick's Paths Of Glory
(1957).
 Two-Shot
• A medium shot that depicts two people in
the frame. Used primarily when you want to
establish links between characters or people
who are beside rather than facing each other.
• EXAMPLE: Quiz Kid Donnie Smith (William H.
Macy) and Thurston Howell (Henry Gibson)
discuss love in Magnolia (1999).
 Whip Pan
• A shot that is the same as a pan but is so fast
that picture blurs beyond recognition.
Usually accompanied by a whoosh sound.
Beloved by Sam Raimi and Edgar Wright.
• EXAMPLE: Any one of a dozen sequences in
Hot Fuzz (2007).

• CR – 48:55
 Zoom
• A shot deploying a lens with a variable focal
length that allows the cinematographer to
change the distance between camera and object
without physically moving the camera. Also see
Crash Zooms that do the same but only quicker.
• EXAMPLE: The slow descending zoom that picks
out Mark (Frederic Forrest) and Ann (Cindy
Williams) out of a crowd in The Conversation
(1974).
 Crane Shot
• A shot where the camera is placed on a crane or jib
and moved up or down. Think a vertical tracking shot.
Beloved by directors of musicals. Often used to
highlight a character's loneliness or at the end of a
movie, the camera moving away as if saying goodbye.
• EXAMPLE: Gone With The Wind (1939). As Scarlett
O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) arrives at the train depot, the
camera heads skyward to reveal hundreds of
wounded confederate soldiers around her.
• 1:15:10
Wide angled shot
 Shots
• Three most basic shots
– The long shot
– The medium shot
– The close up
 The long shot
– The long shot (LS)
• Shows the full human figure of a ch/chs and
often the figures are dwarfed by the
background
– The extreme long shot (ELS)
• Is one in which the human figure can barely be
distinguished
 The medium shot
– The medium shot
• Is one in which we see the human figure from the waist
up
– The medium long shot
• Frames the human from the knees up
– The medium close-up
• Allows the viewer to move in closer and see the human
from the chest up
 The close up
– Medium close shot or bust shot (MCU)
• A little headroom, just below the bust or in the
middle of the chest
– The close-up (CU)
• Focuses in on a specific part of the human, most
often the face, Below the neck above the head
– Big close-up (BCU)
• A tight shot of a person’s face – forehead, just under
the chin, lip
– The extreme close-up (XCU)
• Focuses in on a portion of the face
 Lighting
• Lighting
– Helps to establish the mood, focuses attention on details,
cinematographer decides about artificial light or natural
light, the direction it should take, and its intensity
– Three point lighting is most often used and describes three
sources of light: a key light, a fill light, and a backlight
• The key light provides the primary light force
• 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 used in films, operating under the
three-point system,
• include high-key lighting which means the scene is brightly lit,
minimizing shadows. High-key lighting creates a brighter and more
joyful mood.
• A low-key lighting is dimly lit and there is lot of shadow. low-key
lighting creates harsher and more somber mood.
 Costumes
• Costumes
– Vary from realistic dress to extravagant costumes
– Imp as it creates the time period in which the scene is
occurring and provides insight into the characters
– Hairstyling must coordinate with the styling
– Makeup although not always noticeable, an art since
Academy Award (1965). It becomes crucial especially in
science fiction, fantasy, and horror films.
– Cosmetics can enhance or change an actor’s natural
appearance that works with the role that they’re playing
in the film
 Props
• Props
– Are 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
– It can also create the effect of irony, something
out of the place, or not what the viewer would
expect.
 Gestures and movements /
figure behaviour
– Acting style or how an actor plays a part obviously differs
from one film to the next and from one decade to the
next
– Actors are cast based on different kinds of reasoning,
and based on various needs depending on the film and
the desired effect
– To study figure behaviour is to study the movements of
and actions of the actors or other figures (animals,
monsters, animated thing, robots, aliens) in a scene or
given shot of a film
– It allows a deeper look into what the film is attempting
to do and how it does it
 Cinematography or camera work
• Shot is the basic unit of film
• The single image that is seen on the screen
before the film cuts to the next image
• It’s a single, continuous view of the scene that
documents uninterrupted action
• Frame of the movie image forms its border
and contains all that is occurring in the scene,
or its mise-en-scene
 Relevance
• All of these different types of shots describe
the distance away from the human body as
the focal point of reference
• To study in a certain frame the distance from
the subject that is maintained and consider
why and how this distance is maintained
• What does it add to the scene
• Why has it been filmed this way
 Film speed
• Film speed
– To take note of while 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
the scene
– The tone is equally important
• Tone refers to the range and texture of colours in a film image
• Why certain colours or tones might be used and how they
relate to the themes of the film
 Grounds
• Foreground clouds
• Middle ground ship
• Background greenery/ground

• TTM – 1:21:08
• All covered