Cinematic Language
The greatest tool you have as a filmmaker.
You
Both a literary manuscript, conveying the dramatic story for a reader, and a technical document
that anticipates the logistics of the production.
Screenplay
A list of all the shots that
make up the film in the order in
which they will be shot.
Shot list
What is sightline?
The direction the character is looking.
What is a sequence?
A sequence is an expressive unit made up of editing together multiple shots to define a unified action or event, or passage of time and place.
A term derived from a French
theatrical phrase which means
“put on stage”
M I S E - E N - S C È N E
The 4 usual story elements, in order...
Exposition
Conflict
Climax
Resolution
The version of the screenplay you take into production, meaning it is the script from which your creative team will work and from which the film will be shot.
Shooting script
What is screen direction?
The direction the character travels in the frame.
What is Continuity-style shooting and editing?
Continuity-style shooting and editing is a system that assures us that individual shots, when cut together, will give us the illusion of smooth and continuous time, movement, and space, regardless of the order those shots were taken.
Coverage
Shooting a scene from various angles, and duplicating actions in more than one angle.
What screenwriting software can you get for free as a student for 18 weeks?
Final Draft
Essential pre-visualization tool worked out and simultaneously with the development of the shooting script.
Basically drawings of each scene from a bird's eye perspective; help figure out important details like the axis of action, camera placement, and character blocking (the movement of your characters in the space).
Overheads
Lighting crew completes their rigging, focusing, gelling and controlling all light sources.
The DP and AC take light readings to make sure that lighting, exposures and focus (and depth of field) are in line with the visual strategy of pre-production.
The camera department will rough in marks for pulling focus. The DP may ask an actor or stand-in to stand here or there or walk through the blocking again.
Setup
A term used when you move the camera in
order to follow or track a subject.
Tracking
Emphasizes the two-dimensional
screen surface.
Flat space
A very brief outline of the basic elements involved in your story.
It describes, in no more than a few sentences,
the essential dramatic engine that will drive
the movie.
Concept
Drawings of shots, arranged on paper, in the order they appear in a sequence.
Storyboard
What is blocking?
The coordination of the movements of the
actors in the scene.
• Entrances
• Exits
A specific combination of deep and flat space cues.
Limited space
Shots that are generally moving shots in
which the camera moves closer or farther
away from the subject.
Dolly
A dramatic event in which the action, decisions, or revelations of that moment move the plot
forward either by intensifying it or by sending it in a new direction.
Narrative beat
What are the 2 kinds of camera moves (generally) that should be compared and discussed in pre-production?
Stationary and Dynamic
What is the difference between physical and compositional frame?
Physical frame is each, individual, still image captured on film or in video, which when projected as a series, creates the illusion of motion.
Compositional frame is a two-dimensional space defined by its horizontal and vertical dimensions.
When the viewer is unable to understand the actual size or spatial relationship of objects in the picture.
Ambiguous space