Everything Is Artifice: The Key Elements Of Film Form
A guide to how ‘fake’ the film industry is…
Throughout this course, no matter what i am doing, I am using the ‘Key Elements of Film Form’. These elements are:
Cinematography (including lighting)
Mise-en-scène
Editing
Sound
Now, I’m not going to lie, I have a mind map all prepared that contains information and key words for all 4 of these elements. The only problem is that the mind map is huge…
You probably can’t read any of that. So instead, for your benefit, I have made a separate mind map for each one.
Cinematography (including lighting)
This element is all about how the film is filmed, e.g. camera angles, focus, lighting etc.
This section has the most to remember, with a lot of technical terms (especially for lighting and camera movements). These terms also hold some of the weirdest names out of all of the elements (Sepia, Chiaroscuro I mean come on)
Sound
This elements has considerably less to remember than cinematography, though has quite a few intriguing names.
Sound is pretty self explanatory. There are 2 main types in film, diegetic and non-diegetic. Diegetic is sound that appears to be coming from the world of the film (e.g. dialogue and sound effects), non-diegetic sound is added in post-production to have an effect on the audience (e.g. narration and score).
Mise-en-scène
Mise-en-scène is described as ‘partial or complete control of environment’. What that basically means is everything you see in one scene of a film has been specifically chosen. From the setting to small props, they all work together to give you an impression of what’s going on.
Editing
Editing is incredibly important in the creation of film. Without it, films would be not only out of order but excruciatingly long. I would say this section is the second largest out of the four elements, with a fair chunk of key information to remember.
Superb!