Everything is Artifice: The Key Elements of Film Form

Everything in a film has been carefully made and designed for the viewers, nothing is accidental in the Film industry. In recent years the budgets for new modern films have skyrocketed to the point where some films produced are nearly billions of dollars. No one would ever spend that much money if they weren’t making everything perfect.

When analysing a film, it can be broken down into 4 major parts of the key elements of film form:

• Cinematography

• Sound

• Mise-en-scène

• Editing

  

Cinematography

Cinematography is deliberate use of photography and lighting in films. Cinematography can be broken down into groups: Camera movements, focus and depth of field, Camera shots, Lighting, Composition, camera angles, Aesthetics. Some examples of camera movements are tilt and pan. The movement of the camera focuses the audience, for example a Tilt can make the characters seem more or less powerful. Camera angles also do this, with low angle shots possibly saying the audience is meant to feel scared of the character on the screen. When the subject is a person and closer camera shots are used, it makes us feel there emotions on a personal level, facial expressions also support this. Lighting and aesthetics also help set the scene and mood. Position of characters and colour of the lighting can completely change a film’s feel, making you feel more scared or joyful based on the situation being shown by the film producers. The Composition and Focus and depth of field once again works on directing the viewer’s attention to specific places at specific times.

Sound

Sound is always deliberate in movies, the two type of sounds are diegetic and non-diegetic sound’ . Diegetic sound is in the world of the film and can be heard by the characters. This includes dialogue, parallel sound, etc. Non-diegetic sound is added in post-production whilst editing the film, and it can not be heard by the characters in the film. This could be Sound effects, and music scores, etc. This type of sound can add emotion or tension to a scene. As well as that, the Aesthetics and Sound editing are important so that the sound fits the scene and has the best and impact on the viewers.

Mise-en-scène

Miss-en-scène is the partial or complete control of the environment in a film. Mise-en-scène is built up of 7 main factors:

• Aesthetics

• Symbols

• Blocking

• Make-up

• Settings

• Props,

• Costume

Blocking is important as when creating a film, it’s when you go through the exact positions of everything in a scene, this includes people. It also includes where the script begins to be brought to life, Aesthetics, Make-up and Costume. These all give the characters more personality and can symbolise to the audience what they may be like in the film and how important they are to be portrayed as. Symbols and Props can also help do this, along with foreshadowing something that may happen in later film. Settings are also very important because the tone immediately gives us ideas about the scenes, as it may be the first thing the audience sees at the start of a film.

Editing

This is the deliberate and considered pacing and sequencing of scenes and shots in a film. There are some main types and parts of editing, these are:

• Aesthetics

• Transitions

• Pace

• Visual effects

• Continuity

• Discontinuity

• Cross-cutting

• Sequencing

Stylised Visual effects and Aesthetics are very important, for example, in action or adventure films requiring more Visual effects it could change the overall success of the film due to how professional the editing looks. The edited pace could reflect the thoughts of a character, add comedic effect (e.g. slow motion) and much more. Stylised and Discontinuity editing are not necessarily in real time chronological order and they can be used to give more context to a character or scene, or leave out information that the audience would be so eager to find out about.This leaves them on the edge of there seat awaiting the upcoming scenes. The transitions and sequencing in a film are also important, since they can help build anticipation. Continuity editing helps connect the scenes and keep the fluidity of the film. Cross-cutting can make quite intense scenes, for example if a character is trying to make it somewhere in time.