BACKUP The Key Elements of Film Form: Cinematography COPY Flashcards
Filmmakers use a range of elements in constructing narrative meaning and generating response.
What are the five Key Elements of Film Form?
MSPEC
- Mise en scene
- Sound
- Performance
- Editing
- Cinematography
What are the 2 (in the spec) + 3 (from the book) Principal Elements of Cinematography?
- Camera shots (including point of view shots, focus including depth of field, expressive and canted angle shots, handheld camera in contrast to Steadicam technology)
- Composition (including balanced and unbalanced shots)
- Camera movement
- Lighting
- Colour
List 4 Creative Uses of Cinematography.
- Camera work (including subjective camera, shifts in focus and depth of field, mixed camera styles, filters)
- Monochrome cinematography
- Principles of 3 point lighting (including key, fill and backlighting)
- Chiaroscuro lighting (and other expressive lighting effects)
List 7 ways that Cinematography Conveys Messages and Values.
- How shot selection –> narrative development
- How lighting –> character and atmosphere
- How cinematography –> psychological insight into character
- How cinematography –> generates multiple connotations and suggests a range of interpretations
- Why different spectators –> different interpretations of the same camera shots and lighting
- How cinematography –> used to align spectators and relates to interpretation of narrative
- How cinematography –> contributes ideologies of film
What are the 3 Principal Elements of Mise-en-scene?
- Setting, props, costume and makeup
- Staging movement and off screen space
- How cinematography impacts mise-en-scene (in particular through variation of depth of field, focus and framing (this overlaps with cinematography))
List 3 Creative Uses of Mise-en-scene.
- How it can be used naturalistically and expressively
- How it can generate multiple connotations
- How changes contribute to character and narrative development
List 6 ways that Mise-en-scene Conveys Messages and Values.
- The significance of motifs
- How m-e-s –> generates multiple connotations and suggests a range of interpretations
- Why different spectators –> different interpretations of the same m-e-s
- How m-e-s –> used to align spectators and relates to interpretation of narrative
- How m-e-s –> contributes to ideologies of film
What are the 3 Principal Elements of Editing?
- The shot to shot relationships of continuity editing (including match editing and the 180 degree rule)
- The role of editing in creating meaning, (including the Kuleshov effect )
- Montage editing and stylised forms of editing (including jump cuts)
List 4 Creative Uses of Editing.
- How editing (editing motifs and patterned repetition) –> implies relationships between characters and contributes to narrative development
- How editing –> generates multiple connotations and suggests a range of interpretations
- How visual effects created in post production –> engage the spectator and create a emotional response
- How visual effects created in post production –> tension between the filmmakers’ intention to create a particular emotional response and the actual response.
List 3 ways that Editing Conveys Messages and Values.
- Why different spectators –> different interpretations of the same editing
- How editing –> used to align spectators and relates to interpretation of narrative
- How editing –> contributes to ideologies of film
What are the 4 Principal Elements of Sound?
- Vocal sounds (dialogue and narration), environmental sounds (ambient, sound effects and Foley), music, silence
- diegetic or non-diegetic sound
- Parallel and contrapuntal sound and the distinction between them
- Multitrack sound mixing and layering, asychronous sound, sound design
List 2 Creative Uses of Sound.
- How sound is used expressively
- How sound relates to characters and narrative development including sound motifs
List 4 ways that Sound Conveys Messages and Values.
- Why different spectators –> different interpretations of the same sound
- How sound –> used to align spectators and relates to interpretation of narrative
- How sound –> contributes to ideologies of film
What are the 4 Principal Elements of Performance?
- The use of non verbal communication including physical expression and vocal delivery
- The significance of the interaction between actors
- Performance styles in cinema including method and improvisatory styles
- The significance of casting
List 2 ways in which Performance is a Creative Collaboration.
- The role of directing as a ‘choreography’ of stage movement
- The relationship between performance and cinematography
List 4 ways that Performance Conveys Messages and Values.
- Why different spectators –> different interpretations of the same performance
- How performance –> used to align spectators and relates to interpretation of narrative
- How performance –> contributes to ideologies of film
What are the 4 common things to think about when analysing how the Key Elements of Film Form (cinematography, mise-en-scene, sound, editing, performance) convey Messages and Values?
- How [Camera shot / M-e-s / Editing / Sound / Performance] –> contributes to narrative development
- How [Camera shot / M-e-s / Editing / Sound / Performance] –> generates multiple connotations and suggests a range of interpretations
- Why different spectators –> different interpretations of the same [Camera shot / M-e-s / Editing / Sound / Performance]
- How [Camera shot / M-e-s / Editing / Sound / Performance] –> used to align spectators and relates to interpretation of narrative
- How [Camera shot / M-e-s / Editing / Sound / Performance] –> contributes to ideologies of film
Core Study Areas: Film Form
What is aesthetic?
The style adopted by an artist or a film movement
Core Study Areas: Film Form
What is production?
The period of actual shooting
Core Study Areas: Film Form
What are auteurs?
Certain directors will have a strong aesthetic
Core Study Areas: Film Form
What is pre-production?
The period prior to filming, where key decisions are made, including securing funding, selecting actors and creative personnel, choosing locations, building sets, designing costumes and determining the film’s aesthetic and planning the production schedule.
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography
What is a cinematographer?
Responsible for the look of the film; in charge of the camera technique and translates the director’s vision onto the screen advising the director on camera angles, lighting and special effects
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography
What is film stock?
The type of film used to shoot the film on
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography
What is aspect ratio?
The shape of the image; this affects the composition of the shots
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography
What is frames per second?
The frame rate or the speed that individual frames are projected to give the allusion of movement
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography
What is the definition of a ‘shot’ from the perspective of a cinematographer?
The movement the camera starts rolling (action) to the end (cut)
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography
What is the definition of a ‘shot’ from the perspective of an editor?
The continuous scene or sequences between two cuts or edits
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography
What is the definition of a ‘shot’ with regard to process?
The process of shooting e.g “we shot 4 minutes of screen time today’
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography
What is the definition of a ‘shot’ in terms of measurement?
There are different types of shot, which refer to the distance between the camera and the subject
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Types of shot
What are the 8 types of shot?
- Extreme long shot (ELS) or Establishing shot
- Long shot (LS)
- Medium-long shot (MLS)
- Medium shot (MS) or Midshot
- Two-shot
- Medium close-up (MCU)
- Close-up (CU)
- Extreme close-up (ECU)
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Types of shot
Describe Foreground (FG) and Background (BG) shot
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Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Types of shot
What is depth of field?
The distance between the nearest and furthest objects in a scene that are in sharp focus in a shot
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Types of shot
Discuss depth of field in terms of shallow focus and deep focus.
Deep focus has the foreground, middle ground and background all in remaining in sharp focus
Shallow focus is where one thing is in plane focus and the background out of focus
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Camera angles and perspectives
List the 8 types of camera angles and perspectives.
- Aerial shot
- Overhead shot
- Eye-level shot
- Over-the-shoulder shot
- High-angle shot
- Low-angle shot
- Objective
- Subjective
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Camera movements
List the 6 types of camera movements.
- Fixed axis
- Shifting axis
- Zoom
- Crane shot
- Hand-held
- Steadicam
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Lighting
Film spectators are usually attracted to the most brightly illuminated area of the screen. Filmmakers play on this when lighting a shot.
What are the 2 key elements to consider when studying how a scene is lit and what further information you can draw from the lighting?
- Source: (3 point lighting)
- Key light
- Fill light
- Back light
- Direction:
- Front lighting
- Side lighting
- Back lighting
- Under lighting
- Top lighting
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Lighting: Element 1: Source
Cinematographers can either use _______ available light or deliberately placed _________ light.
- Natural
- Artifical
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Lighting: Element 1: Source
What are the 3 types of light in the three-point lighting combination?
- Key light
- Fill light
- Back light
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Lighting: Element 1: Source
What is chiaroscuro lighting?
- It refers to the bold use of dark and light.
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Lighting: Element 1: Source
What 4 things can the extremes of both dark and light lighting support or develop?
- Narrative themes of good versus evil
- characters’ situations e.g a sense of peril (if well lit) and wrong-doing (if in the shade)
- A physical allusion to characters’ psychological state of mind
- Themes of duplicity, claustrophobia and fatalism
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Lighting: Element 2: Direction
What are the 5 different directions that light can be directed from source to object?
- Front lighting
- Side lighting
- Back lighting
- Under lighting
- Top lighting
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Lighting: Other elements
What 2 other aspects of lighting do cinematographers need to consider besides the Source and the Direction of light?
- Intensity
- Quality
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Lighting: Element 3
In addition to the Source, Direction, Intensity of and Quality of lighting, what element of light is also important to Cinematography (but primarily a consideration of mise-en-scene?
- Colour
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Lighting: Element 3: Colour
What is post-production and what type of work is done during that phase of filmmaking?
- It’s the work that is required to complete the film, after shooting, including the edit, sound mix, music composition, colour grading and CGI special effects
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Lighting: Element 3: Colour
What is grading and when is it done?
- Colour grading is the process of improving the appearance of an image and it can visually emphasise the mood of the scene
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Lighting: Element 3: Colour: Black and White
What are some important considerations when filming in black and white?
- It is not the hue of the colour that makes an impact but the brightness