Ramirez, Edrea Jean V.

3LM2

HUMANITIES

THE ELEMENTS OF FILM

Story/Screenwriting
This is basically what the movie is all about as it is inferred from the content of the film.
The narrative is present as soon as a script is finished and before the production of the movie
even begins. For example, most films are based on a best-selling novel. It includes the theme, the
plot, setting, and the point of view.
In filmmaking, the story is initially developed in the screenplay. Every movie, short or
feature, begins with a script which the blueprint for the construction of the film. It supplies the
structure for a movie production and the source for the decisions made from the early stages of
pre-production to the final phase of post-production.

Mise-en-scne
Mise-en-scne is a French term from classic theater which means, literally, "put in the
scene" which is adopted in film though it has a wider connotation in the latter as it refers to
everything that appears before the camera within a shot. It is a type of analysis in which the
viewer identifies elements of composition in a single scene, explaining how the elements work
together to communicate mood and meaning. It can be realistic or abstract, purely background or
an interpretive active element. It consists of the composition itself: lighting, framing, set design,
movement of the camera, computer generated imagery, staged body motions and facial
expressions, the actors themselves, and general visual environment, even sound. It includes both
planned (as the aspects mentioned in the preceding sentence) and unplanned elements (e.g.
insects flying through the frame). Even the apparently motionless elements in the shot (like
architecture and landscape) still form of the shots mise-en-scne because the director
deliberately intended to include such elements in the frame for a purpose as the mise-en-scene is
obviously within the full control of the director.
It can also be delineated as the articulation of cinematic space as it is accurately space
that it is mainly concerned of. It involves cutting vis--vis time; the shot regards to what occurs
in a defined area of space, bordered by the frame of the movie screen and established by what the
camera has been made to record. That space, the mise-en-scne, can be unique, closed off by the
frame, or open, providing the illusion of more space around it.

Editing
Editing is defined as the linking of two different pieces of film or two different shots. It
usually follows some logic of development or is intended to create a statement through
juxtaposition that could possibly necessitate the viewers to fill in the gap. It has been called
the key to cinema because it is the only element that is exceptional to the medium. Editors are
considered the third storytellers of the movie, next to the screenwriters and directors, as they use
time and continuity as tools in order to present the narrative. They have the obligation to piece
the whole movie together from all of the scenes and different cameras with different editing
techniques. The most frequent technique is the cut where one shot just shifts abruptly into the
next. Other editing techniques, among others, are fade out, dissolve, and wipe. The practice of
continuity in editing is the art of the cut which is the contrast of one shot to the next as the length
of shots in juxtaposition to each other influences how we perceive material on screen (e.g. the
camera being still or slow for a long period of time makes a contemplative and solemn effect).
In addition, it provides a sense of space to the viewers, to literally build the world where
the narrative is. Therefore, there is no world of the story (called diegesis) without meticulous
editing. The following are some key concepts in spatial editing: (1) Establishing shot: A shot that
shows the spatial associations between the significant figures and setting in a scene which
generally framed from a distance; (2) Shot/reverse shot: A pattern where, by reason of the logic
of the conversation, cuts between individuals; and (3) Eyeline match: The joining of different
shots by following the logic and direction of a characters glance or look.
Editing entails not just about a theoretical deliberation of the outcome of a single shot
upon another, or a linear version of a script, or a mechanical measurement of frames but it also
involves rhythm, instinct, emotion, psychology, and art, as it arose from the total skill of the
editor, who collaborates with the director to produce a cumulative sensory event.

Cinematography
It is derived from two Greek words: kinema, which means movement, and graphein,
which means to record. It is commonly defined as the art and technology of motion-picture
photography. It is the act of capturing photographic images in space through the use of a number
of controllable elements or the manipulations of the film strip by the camera in the shooting
phase. It involves the general composition of a scene; the lighting of the set or location; the

choice of cameras, lenses, filters, and film stock; the camera angle and movements; and the
integration of any special effects which is controlled by cinematographer, first cameraman,
lighting cameraman, or director of photography, whose responsibility is to achieve the
photographic images and effects. Some would also include duration, or the length of the shot. By
means of cinematic point of view, the filmmaker not only controls what the viewer sees but how.
There are general aspects of cinematography to keep in mind:
1. Camera Angles (High, Low, Straight-on, Birds-eye): It is used to point out the relation
between the camera's point of view and the characters therein or can be utilized to produce
striking visual compositions. It is frequently used to imply vulnerability or power.
2. Camera Distances (Extreme long shot, long shot, medium, close-up, extreme close-up): When
the same thing was filmed at different shot scales, it would somehow suggest a vital meaning.
Shot scale can either foster intimacy with a character or it can swallow the character in its
environment.
3. Camera Movement (tracking/dollying, hand held, crane, pan, tilt, helicopter): Cameras can be
moved in various manners: in fluid long takes, rapid and confusing motions, etc. which affects
the rhythm and point of view of a scene.
4. Lighting: When one records using photographic instruments, he records light. Image is what
the mind does to the light once it is recorded and played back. The most experienced
cinematographers have full control over lighting and work with the director to create mood and
effect as well as consistent continuity throughout the film (e.g. a room that is brightly lit by neon
lights might seem to be sterile or a shadowy room might be eerie or scary). By controlling the
amount of light, a cinematographer can control what the audience sees. Light intensity can focus
attention on details of most importance while obscuring other, less-significant details.
Sometimes, however, the cinematographer wants to direct the audiences attention to the
darkness. A person standing in shadows, for example, may suggest the persons dark or
mysterious intentions.

Sound
Since people tend to think of film as a fundamentally visual medium, the essentiality of
sound is somehow disregarded regardless of the fact that it is a powerful film technique because
it can actively shape how the viewers perceive and interpret the image. The effects of sound

effects are varied to create mood and atmosphere and to create realism so that the viewers will
be familiar with what the characters experience. Nonetheless, not all film sound effects are
natural or realistic. Sound editors sometimes exaggerate a sound for stress or make up a sound to
satisfy the directors particular need. Regardless of its source, sound, in general, adds levels of
implication to a scene and can persuade the attitude or emotional response of the viewers. Sound
can be considered as the most powerfully visceral and subtly influential aspect of film.
There are three components of sound in film: dialogue, sound effects, and music. Music
is the most evident and striking of the components. Sometimes a films soundtrack can become
just as renown and remembered as the movie itself.
Sound has two categories in film: diegetic and non-diegetic. Once more, the films
diegesis is the world of the films story (which entails events that are assumed to have taken
place and actions and spaces not revealed onscreen). Diegetic sound includes any voice, musical
passage, or sound effect represented as originating within the films world (e.g. sounds of cars
and conversations during a scene depicting a busy metropolitan street). On the other hand, nondiegetic includes sound as coming from outside the films world (e.g. the voice of the narrator
and mood music).

Production Design
It is the overall look of a film that illustrates the setting and visual style of the story which
comprises of the design of the sets, location choices, choice and supervision of props. Also, it
can be described as the creation and organization of the physical world surrounding a film story.
Good production design means creating an environment with a polished aesthetic that
enables the story of the film to be told to greatest effect. For some films this will mean being
bold and ever-present much like an additional character.

Direction
It involves the task to interpret the screenplay and translate it visually. The director is the
artistic mind that decides the aesthetical and technical specifications to be implemented in his
vision. The director's vision and goals determines the look and feel of a film as he is responsible
for the dramatic structure, pace, and directional flow of the sounds and visual images. He is the
creative force that pulls a film together, responsible for turning the words of a script into images

on the screen. Actors, cinematographers, writers, and editors orbit around the director like
planets around the Sun. Director Roland Joffe (The Killing Fields) stated, "being a director is
like playing on a multilayered, multidimensional chessboard, except that the chess pieces decide
to move themselves." Every director has his own vision of what they feel directing entails.
Roman Polanski finds that "First of all, directing is an idea that you have of a total flow of
images that are going on, which are incidentally actors, words, and objects in space. It's an idea
you have of yourself, like the idea you have of your own personality, which finds its best
representation in the world in terms of specific flows of imaginary images. That's what directing
is."

References
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Part 3: Cinematography (n.d.). Retrieved from

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Pierson, T. (2013). The Five Formal Elements of Film: How to Critically Evaluate Movies.
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film-how-to.html

10

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11

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12

Production Design (n.d.). Retrieved from

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13

Production Design (n.d.) Retrieved from

http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Independent-Film-Road-Movies/Production
Design.html

14

The Art of Film Appreciation (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://screenwriting.lifetips.com//cat/58194/basic-elements-of-cinema/index.html

15

The Definition of Mise en Scene (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.steves-digicams.com/knowledge-center/how-tos/filmmaking-tips/the-definition
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16

The Film Director (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.filmmakers.com/stories/Director.htm

17

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http://www.steves-digicams.com/knowledge-center/how-tos/film-and-video-production/whatis-cinematography-in-film.html

18

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19

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