What's in a Film? An Introduction to Filmmaking Techniques

What’s in a Film?

What’s in a Film? —> Main Elements

1. Cinematography

2. Mise en Scène

3. Sound

4. Story

5. Editing

What’s in a Film? —> Main Elements

1. Cinematography: at its simplest, cinematography refers

to the technical elements of filmmaking — from film

stock to lenses to lighting to framing to camera

movement.

What’s in a Film? —> Main Elements

1. Cinematography

2. Mise en Scène: this refers to the visual elements in the

frame of the film, from sets to costumes to lighting

What’s in a Film? —> Main Elements

1. Cinematography

2. Mise en Scène

3. Sound: this includes the aural elements of the film, from

dialogue to music to sound effects

What’s in a Film? —> Main Elements

1. Cinematography

2. Mise en Scène

3. Sound

4. Story: this refers to the development of themes,

characters, arc, plot, symbolism, and tone. While much

of this is done in the scriptwriting process, as important

are the aural and visual elements in developing a story.

What’s in a Film? —> Main Elements

1. Cinematography

2. Mise en Scène

3. Sound

4. Story

5. Editing: the techniques for piecing together the film into

a coherent whole. Transitions, framing, timing, and

more may be planned before shooting ever commences

through the process of storyboarding, but the editing

process is a creative activity that links all the elements

of the film together.

What’s in a Film? —> Main Elements

Let’s pull these elements together and

compare and contrast two films — each which

play with history in different ways.

What’s in a Film? —> Main Elements

First, here are three clips from Stanley

Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

What’s in a Film? —> Main Elements

In this first clip, which begins the section of the film

titled “The Dawn of Man,” a group of early hominids

discover a strange object in their territory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML1OZCHixR0

What’s in a Film? —> Main Elements

Soon thereafter, one of these hominids makes

a profound discovery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2iiPpcwfCA

What’s in a Film? —> Main Elements

In this third clip, the hominids encounter another

group and apply their new knowledge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtbOmpTnyOc

What’s in a Film? —> Main Elements

1. Without using any words, what does

Stanley Kubrick suggest about human

nature and the process of evolution?

2. How did the fade from prehistory to the

future suggest a narrative?

What’s in a Film? —> Main Elements

Let’s compare Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A

Space Odyssey (1968) to Baz Luhrmann’s

Romeo + Juliet (1996)

What’s in a Film? —> Main Elements

Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet (1996)

opening 8m 30s of film

What’s in a Film? —> Main Elements

1. How is Baz Luhrmann playing with and

reinventing a historical text? How does this

change its meaning?

2. How does the editing in Romeo + Juliet

differ from that of Kubrick? How does this

change the tone of the film?

What’s in a Film? —> Main Elements

Compare and contrast Kubrick’s and

Luhrmann’s approaches to cinematography.

What’s in a Film? —> Main Elements

Compare and contrast Kubrick’s and

Luhrmann’s approaches to cinematography.

How do their choices act as historical

interpretations?

• Cinematography

• Mise en Scène

• Sound

• Story

• Editing

Break

Some Basic Concepts for

Understanding Filmmaking

What’s in a Film? —> Concepts

Lenses

What’s in a Film? —> Concepts —> Lenses

http://av.jpn.support.panasonic.com/support/global/cs/dsc/knowhow/knowhow12.html

What’s in a Film? —> Concepts —> Lenses —> Focal Length

What’s in a Film? —> Concepts —> Lenses —> Aperture

Aperture is the size of the hole that allows light onto the film

when recording.

• not only does aperture size affect how much light reaches

the film, but also the quality of the image (a smaller

aperture allows for greater depth of field while the larger

aperture creates an increasingly shallow field)

• the size of the aperture is measure by the f-stop

• used with shutter speed, which controls how long light

can go through the aperture, cinematographers can

create a range of effects

What’s in a Film? —> Concepts —> Lenses —> Depth of Field

An example of deep focus from Orson Welles’s Citizen Cane (1941)

What’s in a Film? —> Concepts —> Lenses —> Depth of Field

An example of shallow focus from Jean Renoir’s La Grande Illusion (1937)

What’s in a Film? —> Concepts —> Lenses —> Depth of Field

Lighting in Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon (1975).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmSDnPvslnA&t=213

What’s in a Film? —> Concepts —> Lenses —> Depth of Field

To shoot the candlelight scenes in Barry

Lyndon (1975), Stanley Kubrick did not use

artificial lighting. Instead he used a modified

Mitchell BNC that took advantage of Leitz

lenses created for NASA to photograph the

moon. These lenses has F-stops of O.75

and 0.95. Mike Carrol. Stanley Kubrick, Part

3: Cameras & Lenses.” (20 April 2013).

http://nakedfilmmaking.com/2013/04/20/stan

ley-kubrick-part-3-cameras-lenses/

Framing

What’s in a Film? —> Concepts —> Framing

Stephen Spielberg. Saving Private Ryan

What’s in a Film? —> Concepts —> Framing —> Establishing Shot

Stephen Spielberg. Saving Private Ryan

What’s in a Film? —> Concepts —> Framing —> Medium Shot

Stephen Spielberg. Saving Private Ryan

What’s in a Film? —> Concepts —> Framing —> Close Up

What’s in a Film? —> Concepts —> Framing —> Angle

top angle

bird’s eye view

high angle

neutral angle /

eye level

low angle

worm’s eye view

What’s in a Film? —> Concepts —> Framing —> Angle

What kind of angles are these?

Quentin Tarantino. Inglorious Basterds (2009)

What’s in a Film? —> Concepts —> Framing —> Angle

What kind of angles are these?

Carl Theodor Dreyer. La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928)

What’s in a Film? —> Concepts —> Framing —> Movement

What’s in a Film? —> Concepts —> Framing —> Movement

Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (1960)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P5nPMXtz6w

What kind of movement is happening here?

What’s in a Film? —> Concepts —> Framing —> Movement

The steadicam tracking shot from Joe Wright’s Atonement (2007)

https://vimeo.com/91846884

What’s in a Film? —> Concepts —> Story

1. narrative: this includes both the seemingly straightforward presentation of the plot as

well the details that the film implies by way of symbolism, genre, music, editing, etc.

2. genre/subgenre: a taxonomic category that allows us to group films by form, style, or

subject

3. themes: central or dominant ideas that permeate the work (e.g. hope, alienation, or

ambition)

4. character: this includes both the actions of individuals in films as well their sensibilities

— often defined as round/flat; dynamic/static

5. narrative arc: the structure of the film which hinges on key moments that change the

direction of the film (e.g. Gustav Freytag’s five-part dramatic arc: exposition, rising

action, climax, falling action, and dénouement

6. plot: cause and effect sequence of events or development of character

7. symbolism: use of symbols to represent events or ideas

8. tone: the attitude that the film conveys (e.g. somber, playful, or ironic)

What’s in a Film? —> Concepts —> Composition

Steven Benedict. 2013. The Passions and Techniques

of Steven Spielberg. https://vimeo.com/47105733

Fernando Meirelles. City of God (2002)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd68fZq_af4

What’s in a Film? —> Concepts —> Scene Analysis

Using what you’ve learned, let’s analyze this scene from Fernando Meirelles’s City of God (2002)

What’s in a Film? —> Short Online Introductions to Film Analysis

• Yale Film Studies. 2002. “Film Analysis Web Site 2.0”.

http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/.

• Antonios Papantoniou. 2014. “Brian de Palma Shot by Shot

[Untouchables]”

https://vimeo.com/69746940

• dky29. “A Guide to Basic Cinematography / Filmmaking.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQnKGXHbgMA

• Ian Freer and Olly Gibbs. 2013. “30 Camera Shots Every Film Fan

Should Know.” Empire. http://www.empireonline.com/features/film-

studies-101-camera-shots-styles/p1