Elements of Film Structure

Elements of Film Structure

• Structure—The audio-visual design of the film and the tools needed to create that design: camera, lighting, set, performance, editing, sound.

• Content—The story, theme, and characterizations.

The Film-making Process

Pre-production Production Post-production

Script (optioning, writing, revisions

Filming & Sound recording of scenes

Editing of sound & film

Hiring of cast and crew Music scoring Foley recording (sound effects)

Design of sets/costumes

ADR (automated dialogue replacement)

Planning of cinematography

Digital Effects

Rehearsals Lab work and release of prints

The director—coordinates and organizes the work of the cast and crew.

The producer—has administrative control over budget and schedule.

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.)

• Internal structural time—the tempo of a film, which is affected by length of shots and editing of film.

• A shot is the time occurring between the camera being turned on and shut off.

Spatial components

• Frame—the projected area on screen, but also an individual image on a strip of film.

• Camera positioning—– Long shot (often used as an establishing shot)– Medium shot– Close-up (may be used to show expressions)

• Camera angles– Low (used to make figures appear to tower)– Medium (eye-level views)– High (used to diminish subjects in size)– Canted angle (gives an off-kilter effect)

Angles must be used in context with scenes.

Low angle

Medium Angle

High angle

• Focal length—the distance between the film and optical center of the camera’s lens.– Normal range lens is 50mm– Telephoto lens has greater focal length– Wide-angle lens has shorter focal length– Zoom lens

• Depth of field—the amount of area from near to far that will remain in focus. (Wide-angles have greater depth of field than telephotos.)

• Camera Movement– Pan and tilt– Dolly or tracking– Boom or crane– Steadicam

• Motion perspective—the changing distances of framed objects due to the motion of a moving camera, such as one with a zoom lens.

The Dolly Shot

The Zoom

Panning

Tilting

Creative choices

• Flashing—exposing film to a small amount of prior to filming in order to mute color and shadows.

• ENR (Ernesto N. Rico)—a developing process that makes shadows darker and edges crisper.

Perception of film

• Perceptual transformation—the ability of the camera to show things in a way that differs from human visual perception.

• Perceptual correspondence—the camera showing things in a way common with visual perception