The language of Film

  

Lynne Ramsay - The Poetry of Details from Tony Zhou on Vimeo.

      Film has a completely different language and way of conveying ideas then other art forms. Cinematic language is needed for you to understand how to watch a movie. Shots are the way the camera captures the images. Shots can be used in multiple different ways to make the viewer feel something. Quick shots can make the scene feel urgent, while longer shots may be used to slow down the film. There are also different compositions of shots, these include tight, medium and wide shots. The tight shots can be used to show a lot of details and close ups of actions or parts of the set. Medium shots help us see interactions between characters and show us some of the background. The wide shots help set the scene up and show us where we are and who is there. Low angle shots are also used to make the character seem more dominant or powerful. We are looking up to the character and they seem to have more respect from this angle. The other shot would be the opposite, this shot is a high angle shot, where we are the powerful ones. We look down on the character or situation and see it from that point of view. The shots help us feel what we need to be feeling when watching the film, and it's a major part of us understanding how to watch a movie. 

Another part of cinematic language is editing, which is the way the story is told. You can have all these amazing shots, but if it is not edited properly it will look awful. Editing arranges the shots to tell the story we as viewers are watching. Editing can contain different types of transitions between shots. There are the typical fade ins and fade outs, along with dissolves but there is more to transitions. The slowly fading out of shots, the slow drifts into black can set up certain actions. If someone is falling asleep in the film, the screen will fade into black making it seem like we are closing our eyes. This is made to be seen as invisible to the viewer because of how well it fits in the scene. This is the main part of editing, to try and tell the story as smoothly as possible, making the viewer feel more into the film. J cuts or hard cuts are the least noticed cuts, these occur in most action scenes. They can also occur in typical shots, say someone is walking and they grab a door handle. The shot will go from a medium shot of the person to a tight shot of the person's hand on the handle, to another medium shot of them walking through the door. Throughout this there are all hard cuts, they go unnoticed that's the point of them. When it comes to understanding the language of film editing is a huge part. 

Finally after watching the video on The Poetry of Details by Lynne Ramsay we look at the framing of shots and the story telling in them. Framing can affect how the viewer feels about the importance of the shot. Some shots where the character's face is hidden makes you assume what the character is feeling. But you are not told specifically how the character is feeling, so the director wants the viewer to think about what's happening, and connect the dots on their own. Another way the film can make people think/connect the dots is by repetition of details. Repetition of details can help deepen the stories and connect plot holes together. This can be as simple as posture or certain actions the characters do. Either way we can see connections between details, which makes us go into deeper thought on the film. They can use this along with film composition to make us feel certain ways about certain scenes in movies. The way they use the lighting and or music can also affect how we feel. These are all things we need to look out for when we try to understand a film. So using these tools, film makes us think and we now know that we have to understand the language of film to truly get films.