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Cinematic Techniques
This article contains a list of cinematic techniques that are divided into categories and briefly described. Basic definitions of terms ;180-degree rule :A continuity editorial technique in which sequential shots of two or more actors within a scene are all shot with the camera on one side of the two actors so that a coherent spatial relationship and eyeline match are maintained. ;Airborne shot :A shot taken from an aerial device, generally while moving. This technique has gained popularity in recent years due to the popularity and growing availability of drones. ;Arc :A dolly shot where the camera moves in an arc along a circular or elliptical radius in relation to the subject ("arc left" or "arc right") ; Backlighting (lighting design) :The main source of light is behind the subject, silhouetting it, and directed toward the camera. ;Bridging shot :A shot used to cover a jump in time or place or other discontinuity. Examples are a clock face showing advancing time, falling c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
180-degree Rule
In filmmaking, the 180-degree rule is a guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene. The rule states that the camera should be kept on one side of an imaginary axis between two characters, so that the first character is always Screen direction, frame right of the second character. Moving the camera over the axis is called ''jumping the line'' or ''crossing the line''; breaking the 180-degree rule by shooting on all sides is known as shooting in the round. The 180-degree rule enables the viewer to visually connect with unseen movement happening around and behind the immediate subject and is particularly important in the narration of battle scenes. Examples In a dialogue scene between two characters, a straight line can be imagined running through the two characters. If the camera remains on one side of this line, the spatial relationship between the two characters will be consistent from shot to shot. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dolly Zoom
A dolly zoom (also known as a Hitchcock shot, ''Vertigo'' shot, ''Jaws'' effect, or Zolly shot) is an in-camera effect that appears to undermine normal visual perception. The effect is achieved by Zooming (filmmaking), zooming a zoom lens to adjust the angle of view (often referred to as field of view, or FOV) while the camera dollies (moves) toward or away from the subject in such a way as to keep the subject the same size in the frame throughout. The zoom shifts from a wide-angle view into a more tightly packed angle. In its classic form, the camera angle is pulled away from a subject while the lens zooms in, or vice versa. The dolly zoom's switch in lenses can help audiences identify the visual difference between wide-angle lenses and telephoto lenses. Thus, during the zoom, there is a continuous perspective distortion, the most directly noticeable feature being that the background appears to change size relative to the subject. Hence, the dolly zoom effect can be broken down ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Long Shot
In photography, filmmaking and video production, a wide shot (sometimes referred to as a full shot or long shot) is a shot that typically shows the entire object or human figure and is usually intended to place it in some relation to its surroundings. These are typically shot now using wide-angle lenses (an approximately 25 mm lens in 35 mm photography and 10 mm lens in 16 mm photography). However, due to sheer distance, establishing shots and extremely wide shots can use almost any camera type. History This type of filmmaking was a result of filmmakers trying to retain the sense of the viewer watching a play in front of them, as opposed to just a series of pictures. The wide shot has been used since films have been made as it is a very basic type of cinematography. In 1878, one of the first true motion pictures, '' Sallie Gardner at a Gallop'', was released. Even though this wouldn't be considered a film in the current motion picture industry, it was a h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jump Cut
A jump cut is a cut (transition), cut in film editing that breaks a single continuous sequential shot of a subject into two parts, with a piece of footage removed to create the effect of jumping forward in time. Camera positioning on the subject across the sequence should vary only slightly to achieve the effect. The technique manipulates temporal space using the duration of a single shot—fracturing the duration to move the audience ahead. This kind of cut abruptly communicates the passing of time, as opposed to the more seamless dissolve heavily used in films predating Jean-Luc Godard's ''Breathless (1960 film), Breathless'', which extensively used jump cuts and popularized the technique in the 1960s. For this reason, jump cuts are considered a violation of classical continuity editing, which aims to give the appearance of continuous time and space in the story-world by de-emphasizing editing, but are sometimes nonetheless used for creative purposes. Jump cuts tend to draw att ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vignetting
In photography and optics, vignetting ( ) is a reduction of an image's brightness or saturation toward the periphery compared to the image center. The word '' vignette'', from the same root as ''vine'', originally referred to a decorative border in a book. Later, the word came to be used for a photographic portrait that is clear at the center and fades off toward the edges. A similar effect is visible in photographs of projected images or videos off a projection screen, resulting in a so-called "hotspot" effect. Vignetting is often an unintended and undesired effect caused by camera settings or lens limitations. However, it is sometimes deliberately introduced for creative effect, such as to draw attention to the center of the frame. A photographer may deliberately choose a lens that is known to produce vignetting to obtain the effect, or it may be introduced with the use of special filters or post-processing procedures. When using zoom lenses, vignetting may occur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inter-title
In films and videos, an intertitle, also known as a title card, is a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of (hence, ''inter-'') the photographed action at various points. Intertitles used to convey character dialogue are referred to as "dialogue intertitles", and those used to provide related descriptive/narrative material are referred to as "expository intertitles". In modern usage, the terms refer to similar text and logo material inserted at or near the start or end of films and television shows. Silent film era In the silent film era, intertitles were mostly called "subtitles", but also "leaders", " captions", "titles", and "headings", prior to being named intertitles, and often had Art Deco motifs. They were a mainstay of silent films once the films became of sufficient length and detail to necessitate dialogue or narration to make sense of the enacted or documented events. '' The British Film Catalogue'' credits the 1898 film ''Our New General Servant'' by R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flashforward
A flashforward (also spelled flash-forward, and more formally known as prolepsis) is a scene that temporarily takes the narrative forward in time from the current point of the story in literature, film, television and other media. Flashforwards are often used to represent events expected, projected, or imagined to occur in the future. They may also reveal significant parts of the story that have not yet occurred, but soon will in greater detail. It is similar to foreshadowing, in which future events are not shown but rather implicitly hinted at. It is also similar to an ellipsis, which takes the narrative forward and is intended to skim over boring or uninteresting details, for example the aging of a character. It is primarily a postmodern narrative device, named by analogy to the more traditional flashback, which reveals events that occurred in the past. Literature An early example of prolepsis which predates the postmodern period is Charles Dickens' 1843 novella '' A Chr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flashback (narrative)
A flashback, more formally known as analepsis, is an interjected scene (fiction), scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point in the Plot (narrative), story. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story's primary sequence of events to fill in crucial backstory. In the opposite direction, a flashforward (or prolepsis) reveals events that will occur in the future. Both flashback and flashforward are used to cohere a story, develop a character, or add structure to the narrative. In literature, internal analepsis is a flashback to an earlier point in the narrative; external analepsis is a flashback to a time before the narrative started. In film, flashbacks depict the subjective experience of a character by showing a memory of a previous event and they are often used to "resolve an enigma". Flashbacks are important in film noir and melodrama films. In films and television, several camera techniques, editing approaches and special e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fill Light
In television, film, stage, or photographic lighting, a fill light (often simply fill) may be used to reduce the contrast of a scene to match the dynamic range of the recording media and record the same amount of detail typically seen by eye in average lighting and considered normal. From that baseline of normality, using more or less fill will make shadows seem lighter or darker than normal, which will cause the viewer to react differently, by inferring both environmental and mood clues from the tone of the shadows. Natural skylight fill is omnidirectional and diffuse, with lower rate of inverse-square fall-off than artificial sources. A common artificial lighting strategy that creates an overall appearance similar to natural fill places the fill light on the lens axis so that it will appear to cast few if any shadows from the point of view of the camera, which allows the key light that overlaps it to create the illusion of 3D in a 2D photo with the same single-source patterns ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
180 Degree Rule
In filmmaking, the 180-degree rule is a guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene. The rule states that the camera should be kept on one side of an imaginary axis between two characters, so that the first character is always Screen direction, frame right of the second character. Moving the camera over the axis is called ''jumping the line'' or ''crossing the line''; breaking the 180-degree rule by shooting on all sides is known as shooting in the round. The 180-degree rule enables the viewer to visually connect with unseen movement happening around and behind the immediate subject and is particularly important in the narration of battle scenes. Examples In a dialogue scene between two characters, a straight line can be imagined running through the two characters. If the camera remains on one side of this line, the spatial relationship between the two characters will be consistent from shot to shot. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Over The Shoulder Shot
The over-the-shoulder shot (OTS or short over) is a camera angle used in film and television, where the camera is placed above the back of the shoulder and head of a subject. This shot is most commonly used to present conversational back and forth between two subjects. With the camera placed behind one character, the shot then frames the sequence from the perspective of that character. The over-the-shoulder shot is then utilised in a Shot reverse shot, shot-reverse-shot sequence where both subject's OTS perspectives are edited consecutively to create a back and forth interplay, capturing dialogue and reactions. This inclusion of the back of the shoulder allows audiences to understand the spatial relationships between two subjects, while still being able to capture a closer shot of each subject’s facial expression. In film and television, the filmmaker or Cinematographer, cinematographer’s choice of an OTS shot’s camera height, the use of focus and lenses affect the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eyeline Match
An eyeline match is a film editing technique associated with the continuity editing system. It is based on the premise that an audience will want to see what the character on-screen is seeing. An eyeline match begins with a character looking at something off-screen, followed by a cut of another object or person: for example, a shot showing a man looking off-screen is followed by a shot of a television. Given the audience's initial interest in the man's gaze, it is generally implied on the basis of the second shot that the man in the first was looking at the television, even though the man is never seen looking at the television within the same shot. Alfred Hitchcock's ''Rear Window'', for example, makes frequent use of eyeline matches. The main character, played by James Stewart, is confined to his apartment and often looks out its rear window at events in the buildings across from him. Hitchcock frequently cuts from Stewart looking off-screen to various people and events that are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
