1. Film Production:
Who Does What?

2. Preparation (Pre-Production)
Producer – oversees logistics
Executive Producer – the money
Line Producer – on-set liaison
Screenwriter – writes the script
Treatment – initial script proposal
Shooting script – writer’s intended screenplay, often changes during shooting

3. Shooting (Production)
Director – oversees all aspects of shooting
Production Designer – oversees the visual creation
Cinematographer (director of photography) – oversees camera distance, angle, etc., as well as lighting
Actors – bring the script to life

4. The Director’s Team Casting Director – recommends/selects actors
Script Supervisor – oversees continuity
Dialogue Coach – feeds lines to actors
Second Unit Director – shoots at secondary locations
Recordists – capture live sound
Clapper Boy – marks scenes and takes before each run of the camera

5. Production Designer’s Team
Art Director – another term for production designer
Set Decorator – selects objects/props for set
Set Dresser – places objects/props on set
Costume Designer – creates the vision for clothing
Storyboardists – draw or otherwise draft intended shots
Special Effects Teams (matte artists, model makers) – create visual effects that don’t exist in the natural world

6. Cinematographer’s Team
Camera Operator – actually photographs
Key Grip – lead stage hand
Gaffer – lead electrician
Best Boy – gaffer’s assistant
Loader – puts film in the camera

7. Actors
Stars
Supporting Players
Minor Players
Extras
Stunt Actors

8. Assembly (Post-Production)
Editor – oversees cutting and compiling shots into a coherent whole
Composer – creates musical score
Dailies – each day’s recorded shots
Rough Cut – the first compiled version of the film, often much longer than the final cut
Final Cut – the trimmed version to be released
Outtakes – leftovers between Rough & Final
Spotting – identifying places for sound to be edited in
ADR – automated dialogue replacement

9. Elements of Meaning
Film Form
And Content

10. Content/Meaning/Theme
Content = (Subject Matter + Form) + Context
Content is also known as Meaning or Theme
Subject Matter is what the film is about.
Form is how the subject matter is presented.
Context is when, where and how the filmmaker’s creation meets its perceiver.

11. Levels of Meaning Referential, a.k.a. Literal
observation of the recognizable
Explicit, a.k.a. Textual/Connotative directly stated meanings (lines of dialogue)
Implicit, a.k.a Universal
thematic inference drawn from implication
Symptomatic, a.k.a Cultural
broader social/symbolic meaning

12. Elements of Film Form Narrative Elements Plot Character Setting
Point of View
Metaphor
Stylistic Elements
Mise-en-Scene
Cinematography
Editing
Sound

13. Narrative Elements: Plot
Exposition (stasis) – Act I
Complication – Act I
Rising Action (conflict) – Act II
Climax – Act II
Falling Action – Act III
Denouement (resolution) – Act III

14. Standard Plot Structure

15. Plot vs. Story
Plot is everything seen and heard by the perceiver of the film – everything that is presented, whether it’s a part of the story or not.
Story is everything that happens in the lives of the characters – everything they experience, whether it is explicitly presented to the perceiver or not.

16. Diegesis

17. Plot and Time Temporal Duration – passage of time for the characters
Screen Duration – passage of time for the perceiver
Temporal Order – chronology (Flashbacks, flashforwards)
Temporal Frequency – repetition of events
Beats – major events in the plot

18. Character
Protagonist – central, dynamic character with whom the perceiver identifies/sympathizes
Antagonist – obstacle to the protagonist
Round – well-developed character whose motivations are clear
Flat – opposite of round
Dynamic – character who changes significantly
Static – opposite of dynamic
Characteristics (character traits)
Catalyst (goal vs. investigation)
Causal relationships – action/reaction

19. Setting Location – authentic, artificial, interior, exterior, etc.
Screen space – everything we see
Directed attention – director’s/ cinematographer’s control of what we see/hear
Imagery – meaningful objects, colors, sounds

20. Point of View Restricted Narration – a character’s POV
Unrestricted Narration – omniscient POV
Perceptual Subjectivity – we perceive what the character perceives
Mental Subjectivity – we perceive what the character is thinking

21. POV and the Perceiver
Cues – sights & sounds that cause expectations in the perceiver
Suspense – delay in fulfilling expectation
Surprise – incorrect, or cheated, expectation
Curiosity – cue causes perceiver to wonder about past events
Irony – disparity between characters’ & perceiver’s POV
Hierarchy of Knowledge – who knows what?

22. Metaphor Symbol – both literal and figurative
Iconography – symbol whose meaning transcends an individual film/story
Motif – repeated symbol or image (often related to temporal frequency)
Allusion – reference to another work of art