Film Vocabulary 101: Some Very Important Terms to Know

Every art form has its own language and its own vocabulary. A musician, for example, learns to read music and understand musical terms along with playing the instrument. Film is no different, and these terms are some of the most basic that all filmmakers and film actors should have a good grasp of.
 

Shot- From the moment the camera “rolls” (records) until “cut” is called, this is a shot.

Frame- 1. Each individual still image taken by the camera is a frame.

Four frames from Thomas Edison's Butterfly Dance (1894)

2. Also refers to the borders of what the camera sees and does not see, like a picture frame. Something visible onscreen is in the frame; everything else in out of frame.

Setup- Any time the camera is moved to a new position (either a fixed position or, if the camera moves during the shot, a new starting position), this is a new “setup.”

Coverage- How many setups are used to film a scene. If only one setup is used, this is no coverage. The more setups, the more coverage.

Wide Shot- A shot in which most of a person is visible.

 

Wide Shot.

Medium Shot- A shot closer than a wide shot (often this means a person is seen from the waist up).

Medium Shot.

Close Up- A shot close enough that a person’s head and shoulders fill most of the frame

Close Up.

Note: There are no exact definitions of Wide, Medium or Close Up shots, (in other words, what one person defines as a wide shot may be another person’s medium shot, etc.) but the general principle is important to understand.

There are many, many other sub-varieties of shot, and you can see examples of some of the most common types of shot here. For now, I'll only ask you know Wide Shots, Medium Shots and Close ups.

Master Shot- One shot that contains the whole scene from start to finish and sees all of the action; usually a wide shot. Best to shoot first.

Two-shot- A shot (usually a medium shot) that contains two characters. If it contains three characters, this is sometimes called a “Three-shot.”

Two-shot. (in this case, a Medium Shot)

Singles- A shot that contains only one person, usually a medium shot or close up.

Single. (in this case, a Close Up)

Insert/cutaway- something other than a character’s face that can be “cut to” if needed. Examples include close ups of important props, things characters see, close ups of hands or feet, dogs or cats under the table, etc.

Insert/ cutaway. (in this case, a shot of what Luke is looking at)

Master Scene Technique- A method of shooting the whole scene in a master, then moving to a two-shot, then singles of each character, and finally an insert or two. This gives the editor the most flexibility. Usually the master is a wide shot, the two shot is a medium shot, and the singles are close-ups. Just remember: Master shot, two-shot, single.

Eyeline- an imaginary line connecting the eyes of characters when they make eye contact. 

Eyeline.

Because the actors' eyeline is consistent and the shots are from symmetrical angles, the audience will understand where Luke and Obi Wan are in relation to each other just from where they look when speaking to one another.

Continuity Editing- Cutting on similar movement to imply no time passing between cuts.

Monday Film Class Re-cap 9/23/13

In class we began with "Director's Chair" and then discussed some key terms of filmmaking (I'll post these in a separate post). I'll try not to give you guys too many things to memorize, but these terms are essential to be able to speak about film and filmmaking.

We analyzed a scene from Star Wars (1977), discussing the coverage of the scene (how many setups were used and what type of shots were used). We found out that for this four-minute scene of dialogue between primarily two characters (where Obi-Wan Kenobi shows Luke his father's lightsaber and explains to Force), George Lucas used 17 separate camera setups. This is normal for a scene of this length. The scene in its final edit has 58 cuts, meaning the average shot length is around 5 seconds. As I said in class, this is actually fairly typical for a scene like this. Action movies today usually have an average shot length of around 2 seconds; the Hollywood average is 4-6 seconds.

I speculated in class as to how long it would have taken to film the scene; I have since looked this up in the incredibly thorough book The Making of Star Wars by J.W. Rinzler.  The scene was shot in a studio in London primarily on two 12-hour days, with an additional day of "pickups" (a term for the shooting of additional shots after seeing the footage and finding that it is not satisfactory).

I realize this activity was a bit dull for some of you (and went on a while), but I think the activity that I have planned fro next week (9/30) will make much more sense now that we have gone through this. I promise next week will be a bit more active.

We ended the session by beginning to edit our "magic trick" exercise from last week. We'll finish that up next week.

Stay tuned for a separate post with those important terms, along with some pictures and links to illustrate them. (Edit: you can find this post here.)

Film History: Georges Méliès

In our Monday night film class we talked a lot about Georges Méliès, and if you were in the BBBS April session, Georges Méliès is the filmmaker who inspired a lot of the special effects used in "A Night at the Theatre." I thought I would post a little more information and links to some of his films for anyone who might be curious.

Georges Méliès (1861-1938) was a stage magician in France before becoming one of the most influential filmmakers of all time. In 1888 he became the owner and manager of the famed Théâtre Robert-Houdin, a theater devoted to magic founded by the most famous magician of the 19th century, Jean Eugene Robert Houdin (American magician Ehrich Weiss adopted the stage name "Harry Houdini" in honor of this same magician). The purchase of the theater came along with many of Robert-Houdin's automata, which were performing robotic figures.

Performing as a magician and managing other magic acts, he began devising "Magic scenes." These were short plays or vignettes that told a story incorporating various magical tricks into the action. They were complete with hand-painted sets (designed and painted by Méliès), elaborate costumes (also designed by Méliès) and many mechanical wonders designed and built by Méliès. Often these "magic scenes" were based on fairy tales or other fantastical tales. Much of this would be applied to his films.

He was present at one of the first ever screenings of a projected film, shown by the Lumieres, and immediately attempted to buy a camera from the brothers. They refused, claiming they intended their invention only to document serious things and never frivolous things like magic (in truth they were protecting their ability to be the only ones making films, since they were the only ones with a camera capable of filming projectable film). Méliès bought a projector from them instead (they were happy to sell projectors as it meant they were able to sell more copies of their films) and converted it into a functioning camera.

His very first films were merely filmed versions of some of his popular stage magic acts. He soon realized that film allowed him to do tricks that were not possible otherwise. His first breakthrough came when he was testing his camera by filming traffic on a Paris street and the camera jammed for a few moments. When playing the film back, a city bus turned into a hearse (both of the horse pulled variety, or course). What had happened was the camera had jammed when a bus drove by and started again when a hearse was in the same spot. This, and his later experiments in double exposures became the basis of many of his special effects, for which he became famous.

By filming the scene multiple times, with black cloth covering anything unwanted, Méliès could duplicate himself or parts of himself, a  trick he used frequently.

By the late 1890's, his magic trick films were so successful being shown at fairgrounds that he expanded his business, building the world's first film studio. He began to make films that told a story- much like his "magic scenes," with elaborate sets and costumes and plots and featuring his special effects. He also directed the world's first commercials, which were projected on walls of buildings to advertise products to passersby.

Méliès at work building sets in his studio. It was made of glass to let in sunlight, as electric lights at the time were not yet bright enough to expose the film.

Soon his films were selling internationally. For the first decade of the twentieth century he was the most popular filmmaker on the planet. However, by about 1910 he was facing too much competition from Hollywood film studios and rival French studios like Pathe, which were producing films on a industrial scale. Méliès, who insisted on continuing to write, direct, star in and design and build all the set and costumes for his films, could not produce enough films to keep up with the demand. His films were also increasingly being pirated and shown illegally. This and changing public tastes as World War I broke out caused Méliès to abandon filmmaking, eventually selling his studio, cameras and even all his film prints to pay off debts. He then opened a toy shop in a Paris train station. It was there that he was rediscovered by film historians in the 1930's, who began to interview him and hold showings of his work. He died in 1938.

Méliès in his toy shop.

He is generally considered to be one of the first filmmakers to use film to tell stories, and his influence is still felt today. He made over 500 films; today about 270 have been found.

Here are some of his magic trick films:

"The Four Troublesome Heads" (1898)

"One Man Band" (1900)

"The Man With the Rubber Head" (1901)

"The Music Lover" (1904)

"The Devilish Tenant" (1909)

His most famous film, "A Trip to the Moon," is typical of his later fantasy films:

"A Trip to the Moon" (1902)

The most famous image from his most famous film, hand-tinted (as all his films originally were).

If you search "Georges Melies" on YouTube, you will find dozens more. These are just some of my personal favorites.

The film Hugo (2011), directed by Martin Scorcese and based on the book "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Brian Selznik, is a fictional account of the rediscovery of Méliès in the 1930's. Both the book and the film are excellent, and the Méliès material is more or less accurate. The film has the advatange of showing clips from actual Méliès films. Hugo is currently streaming on Netflix and available on DVD; most of the public libraries have copies of both the film and the book.

Film History: The Very First Films

The very first films in the early 1890's (what the very first film is depends on your definition of film; for all the contenders see wikipedia) were very short (sometimes only a few seconds) and viewed simply as novelties. The attraction was merely that they were pictures that moved. Audiences did not expect a story.

The first film to be displayed for paying audiences (and the first to be copyrighted) was produced by Thomas Edison in 1894 and is known as Fred Ott's Sneeze. It is short enough to be shown in its entirety in gif form:

 

Early films in many ways are more comparable to animated gifs on the internet today than movies. Within a short while, cameras were made that hold more film, and films became longer (30 seconds!) and longer (a whole minute!), but were still used mostly as a novelty. For example, silly cat videos:
 

 

To view one of Edison's films, you paid a nickel (a lot of money back then) and had to look into a box known as a kinetescope, also known as a "Nickelodeon."

The first projected films were made in France in 1895 by the Lumiere brothers. They titled their films "actualities," stressing that they were documenting things that really happened. Their most famous film is "A train arriving at a station." As depicted in the film Hugo, the first audiences were terrified because they thought a train was heading straight towards them.

It is stage magician Georges Méliès who is generally credited with being the first to explore the potential of movies to tell stories. I'll post more of his work along with links to some of his best work in a separate post.

Monday Film Class recap 9/16/13

We started class with some acting games and then continued our discussion of Georges Méliès. We watched an excerpt from the film Hugo dramatizing the career of Méliès that featured some clips of actual Méliès films. We also saw a brief clip from a documentary about Méliès that showed how he did his tricks.

After a brief acting exercise to work on movement ("mirror"), we set about making a Méliès-esque magic trick film as an exercise. We'll edit it next week, but if you are curious to see it before the magic, click this link:
http://youtu.be/Dx66VC8-HwM

If any of you are curious to see some more of the early films I talked about or learn a little more about the history of early films, I've posted a separate post about early films. I'll soon post another with links to Méliès films. I'll do this sort of thing from time to time, and you can find all of these sorts of postings by searching for the label "film history."

See you next week!

Monday film class recap 9/9/13

Thank you all again for signing up for this class, and especially thank you for taking the time to complete the in-class survey- it will really help me shape the class into something that is good match for you. Your feedback is invaluable. 

Based on the feedback you guys gave, I'll will be shifting the focus of the class to include a lot more film acting. We'll try to devote roughly half of each session to acting, sometimes more. I'll focus less on film history, although I still intend to include a fair amount of film history mixed in with film theory. It will be much less formal than what I had in mind originally. 

I'm also working to adapt Harmony's "Orbs of Progress" for film. I'll let you know the details when I have them worked out.

What we did in class:

We began by discussing the class and the rough syllabus I handed out. Once again, please keep in mind we will not be following the schedule exactly- I am already revising it- but we will probably cover all of those topics. I gave a you tentative schedule to give you a sense of what I had in mind for this class (again this is changing).

We discussed the various jobs of people on a film crew and what I term the “elements” of film- the tools that filmmakers are able to use in order to tell a story. I'll post a handy list of all these jobs and their duties soon.

We then talked a little about the very beginnings of film and in particular Georges Melies. We'll begin the next session by talking a little more about Melies before doing some acting exercises and filming a short exercise in the style of a Melies film.

Last but not least...

If you know anyone else who might be interested in this class or in our similar class that we are hoping to offer on Saturdays for ages 15-18, please encourage them to fill out an application- it is not too late!

Welcome to the Harmony Film Blog!

This blog was created by me, Alex Weston, Filmmaking Instructor at Harmony Theater Company and School as a place to post materials relating to all of our various film programs. I will post periodic updates on ongoing projects, photos from film shoots, re-cap of subjects studied in class, links to extra resources for those curious about topics we have covered, and news about upcoming events and programs. If you a participant in one of Harmony’s many programs, feel free to add your voice to the conversation by leaving a comment, or if you would like to add a post email me (aweston@harmonytheatre.org) and I will post it to the blog.

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