1. Film Terminology
English Language Arts

2. Literary Aspects of Film
Those aspects that films share with literature:
plot
characters
setting
themes
point of view
recurring images
symbols

3. Questions to ask when viewing on a Literary Level:
Who are the characters?
What is the setting?
What is the plot?
From whose point of view is the story told?
What is the film’s theme?
Are there any symbols or recurring images?

4. Dramatic Aspects of Film
Those elements film shares with live drama:
actors portraying characters through dialogue, costumes, and makeup
sets and/or locations
directors who leave personal stamp on final product

5. Questions to ask when viewing on a dramatic level:
How effective is the acting? Why?
How does the set affect understanding and enjoyment of the story?
How are the costumes and makeup effective in establishing a character?

6. Cinematic Aspects of Film
Elements unique to film
Requires some knowledge of technical terms

7. Other Ways to Organize a Film Study
Genre Studies
Film History
National Cinema (Culture, Politics, Etc.)
Auteurs (Directors)
Foreign Films
Thematically

8. Basic Film Terms

9. Low Angle (l/a) Camera is located below subject matter
Increases height and power of subject
The Patriot

10. “Eye-Level”
Roughly 5 to 6 feet off the ground, the way an actual observer might view a scene
Most common, like walking down the street

11. High Angle (h/a) Camera looks down at what is being photographed
Takes away power of subject, makes it insignificant
Gives a general overview
High Noon

12. Crane Shot a crane shot is a shot taken by a camera on a crane.
The most obvious uses are to view the actors from above or to move up and away from them, a common way of ending a movie.

13. Aerial Shot or Bird’s Eye View
Camera is placed directly overhead
Extremely disorienting
Viewer is godlike
usually done with a crane or with a camera attached to a special helicopter to view large landscapes
Beverly Hills Girl Scouts

14. Subjective or Point of View (POV)
A shot taken from the vantage point a particular character, or what a character sees
Hollow Man

15. Cross Cutting
an editing technique most often used in films to establish action occurring at the same time in two different locations.
In a cross-cut, the camera will cut away from one action to another action, which can suggest the simultaneity of these two actions

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

17. Close-Up (CU) A shot of a small object or face that fills the screen
Adds importance to object photographed
Under Pressure

18. 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
The Talented Mr. Ripley

19. Long Shot (LS)
(A relative term) A shot taken from a sufficient distance to show a landscape, a building, or a large crowd
Austin Powers and
the Spy Who Shagged Me

20. Establishing Shot (or Extreme Long Shot)
Shot taken from a great distance, almost always an exterior shot, shows much of locale
ELS
Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom

21. Pan
The camera moves horizontally on a fixed base.

22. Tilt
The camera points up or down from a fixed base

23. Zoom (Zoom In/Out)
Not a 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

24. Tracking (dolly) shot
The camera moves through space on a wheeled truck (or dolly), but stays in the same plane of motion
Dolly shot

25. Hand Held Camera
a film and video technique in which a camera is literally held in the camera-operator's hands--as opposed to being placed on a tripod.
The result is an image that is perceptibly shakier than that of a tripod-mounted camera.

26. High Key Light
a style of lighting for film, television, or photography that aims to reduce the lighting ratio present in the scene.
High-key lighting is usually quite homogeneous and free from dark shadows.

27. Low Key Light
attempts to create a chiaroscuro (contrast between light and dark) effect.
accentuates the contours of an object by throwing areas into shade while a fill light or reflector may illuminate the shadow areas to control contrast.

28. Back Lighting the process of illuminating the subject from the back.
lights foreground elements from the rear, is not to be confused with a background light, which lights background elements (such as scenery).