The Basics of How to

Read a Film
Films can be read like texts. Their images should be unpacked just as we would unpack the
imagery in a written passage. Think carefully about how visual or aural (sound) tools enact,
reshape, change, or critique an author's textual expressions.
Framing: What is in a shot? What is excluded? What is centered?
Close-up: takes up majority of the frame
Medium Shot: people seen from the waist up
Long Shot: taken from a distance, shows the full subject and surrounding
environment
Establishing Shot: sets the scene
Depth of Focus: What is in focus and what is blurry? Focus creates foreground and
background; it can create relationships between objects and/or characters within the shot.
Soft focus: slightly out of focus, slightly blurry
Rack focus: shifting the focus from one subject to another without cutting the scene
Deep focus: foreground and background are equally in focus
Camera Angle: Linked with the shot's size, camera angle creates focal points. Is the
camera looking upward, downward, or level? The figure in the shot is manipulated by the
camera angle (aggrandized or diminished). Camera angle indicates point of view, much like
the narrator. Is the camera acting as the eyes of the character (first person narration) or as
the eyes of the audience (omniscient narrator)?
Low angle: camera is below the subject looking up
High angle: camera is above subject looking down
Eye level: camera is even with characters eyes
Canted angle: camera is tilted in relation with the horizon
Camera Movement:
How does the camera shift to change frame,
depth of focus, the size of the shot, or the camera
angel? Movement affects point of view and
viewer equilibrium. It can be lyrical or turbulent,
slow or fast-paced, disorienting or "grounded,"
creating psychological moods in the viewer.

Adapted from http://wire.rutgers.edu/p_reading_film.html

And Reading In The Dark by John Golden

By Holly Blackford, Rutgers University

Lighting: What is lit and what is not? Is the lighting harsh or soft? Are there shadows?
What colors are highlighted? Light/shadow and color interact to produce psychological and
symbolic effects.
Sound: Sounds add important, yet often devalued, emotional components to film.
Frequently certain characters will have musical themes and aural associations that can be
made quite apart from the visual.
Diegetic: sounds are natural to the scene (ambient noise, character dialogue)
Non-diegetic: sound that cannot be heard by the characters and only by the
audience
Scene Design: Where is the scene? How is the scene constructed? What visual strategies
are being used to create atmosphere or develop characters, plot, et.
Editing: What is the rhythm of the editing in a particular scene-long and lyrical, or short
and clipped? Does the rhythm speed up or slow down? How are the scenes connected-by
cutting, by dissolving, by fading, by blackout? Often one thing will dissolve into another,
creating a symbolic link.
Fade: scene fades to black or white
Cut: one scene transitions to another with a hard cut
Dissolve: an image or scene fades into another
Flashback: scene change represents a passage of time usually accompanied by a
change in lighting, music, sound, voice over, color scheme, etc.
Crosscutting: cut to action that is happening simultaneously (usually happens more
than once)
Eye line match: a shot of a person looking, then cut to what he or she saw, followed
by a cut back for reaction.
Miscellaneous:
Does the film use slow or fast motion at key moments?
How do figures move within a frame (sometimes a character will take another's
place, symbolically showing us that he/she is taking over the other's space)?
What other sound effects are used?
Is there a voiceover?
Do things happen offstage?
How does the film gesture to the author?
Are there cameo appearances?
Is the director offering homage (an honorable wink) to another film?

Adapted from http://wire.rutgers.edu/p_reading_film.html

And Reading In The Dark by John Golden

By Holly Blackford, Rutgers University