Basic Film Terms

Time components of film Running time—the full duration of a film. (Feature films are generally 90-120 minutes.) Story time—the amount of time the plot covers. (Could be hours or centuries.)

Principle Parts of Film Frame – the rectangle itself in which the film appears & each still photograph that makes up a strip of film Shot – what is recorded in a single operation of the camera from the time when the director gives the command “action” to the time the director says “cut” Scene – a group of shots that are coherently related to each other with continuous action usually in a single location but not always Sequence – a group of scenes forming a self-contained unit

Types of Shots A shot is the time occurring between the camera being turned on and shut off. Shots vary in time from subliminal (a few frames) to quick (less than a second) to “average” (more than a second but less than a minute) to lengthy (more than a minute)

Long Shot (LS) (A relative term) A shot taken from a sufficient distance to show a landscape, a building, or a large crowd (FS) a full body shot

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II (2011)

The Dark Knight (2008)

Establishing Shot (or Extreme Long Shot) Shot taken from a great distance, almost always an exterior shot, shows much of locale ELS

The Godfather (1974)

The Good, The Bad , and The Ugly (1966)

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Medium Shot (MS) (Also relative) a shot between a long shot and a close-up that might show two people in full figure or several people from the waist up Most common type of shot The Talented Mr. Ripley

The Godfather, Part II (1974)

Fight Club (1999)

300 (2006)

Close-Up (CU) A shot of a small object or face that fills the screen Apocalypse Now

Extreme Close-Up (ECU) A shot of a small object or part of a face that completely fills the screen Rocky Horror Picture Show The Saint In London

X-Men: First Class (2011)

Rocky Horror Picture Show

Donnie Darko (2001)

Types of Angles The angle is determined by where the camera is placed not the subject matter Angles can serve as commentary on the subject matter

High Angle (h/a) Camera looks down at what is being photographed Without Limits

Big Fish

The Big Lebowski

Blade Runner

Low Angle (l/a) Camera is located below subject matter The Patriot

Jurassic Park

The Patriot

Across the Universe

“Eye-Level” Roughly 5 to 6 feet off the ground, the way an actual observer might view a scene/a camera films a subject from the same plane Most common

The Dark Knight

Inception

The Shining

Camera Movement

Pan The camera moves horizontally on a fixed base. Usually a stationary camera in a smaller space

Panning

Tilting The camera points up or down from a fixed base

Tilt

Tracking (dolly) shot The camera moves through space on a wheeled truck (or dolly) but stays in the same plane

The Dolly Shot

Zoom Not an actual camera movement but a shift in the focal length of the camera lens to give the impression that the camera is getting closer to or farther from an object

The Zoom

Boom The camera moves up or down through space

Crane A camera that is high up on a crane

Lighting High key lighting – the set, the stage, or scene is flooded with light

Low Key lighting The set, the stage, or the scene is partially/dimly lit

Lighting continued… Front lighting- to characterize and/or bring attention to a certain item/detail Back lighting- make something look supernatural Bottom lighting – make something look evil

Focalization – point of view Subjective – a shot filmed from the pt. of view or perspective of a character Authorial - a shot filmed from the pt. of view of the director Neutral – a stationary camera films whatever is near it

Sound Diegetic – sound that characters (key word) in the film can hear Non-diegetic – sounds that in the film that characters cannot hear

Editing techniques

Cut Transition between scenes when one scene ends and another one begins Most common

Dissolve A gradual transition in which the end of one scene is superimposed over the beginning of a new one. You see 2 shots at the same time.

Fade-out/Fade in A scene gradually goes dark or a new one gradually emerges from darkness

Wipe An optical effect in which one shot appears to push the preceding one from the screen.

Two Shot or Reverse-Shot- Reverse focusing on one shot and reversing the shot (camera) to film the other subject or shot

Cross-cutting When you cut from one scene to another, then change the scene or setting; however, both scenes are happening at the same time

Eyeline Match When you film a person’s eyes in one shot, and in the next shot, you show what the person is looking at.

Flashback Cutting from one scene to another that goes back in time

Final Things to Note: Framing (left, right, bottom, top, center) Dialogue/music lyrics Costuming/colors The Filter 2 basic philosophies of film-making