A PRIMER OF FILM GRAMMAR
in this new, practical three-part series, Dora Fitzgerald teaches us about the language of film and composition
In the first part of our new practical three-part series, Dora R. Fitzgerald teaches us about the visual language of film
In this series, we will take a slow and measured walk through the choices every filmmaker has to achieve meaning in the cinematic process. As a filmmaker, moving from the ideal (inside your head) to the real is no easy task. These lessons are not about new equipment or technology, but rather reflections on time-tested techniques. This is a journey of options based on understanding the medium you seek to master. From your first decision to your last, we hope to bring additional clarity to the activity of film construction. Your primary job as creator is to capture the eyes and ears of your audience, bringing them as close to your understanding of the material as possible. Your goal is for every shot to have meaning; to create every shot with the intention for audience comprehension. That is your task as a filmmaker – to make every shot an intentional piece of information for the spectator who comes to your work blind. We will use stills from Pixar’s
Monsters, Inc. to illustrate some of the major points in this essay. We will also look at an important sequence from Alfred Hitchcock’s 1946 film Notorious to illustrate basic shot composition. Studying live-action cinema can also enhance your work in many ways. It will supply you with an encyclopedic number of film techniques that have been developed over more than a century and used in animation past and present. A cut is still a cut, and a fade to black means the same thing, whether animated or liveaction. Viewing live-action cinema will also supply you with an index of thousands of facial expressions and body gestures from which you may harvest ideas about how to enliven the characters in your virtual space.
“YOUR goal is FOR every SHOT To Have Meaning; To CREATE every SHOT with THE intention FOR Audience Comprehension”