Film style refers to recognizable

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 ...

used by filmmakers to create specific value in their work. These techniques can include all aspects of film language, including:

sound design Sound design is the art and practice of creating auditory elements of media. It involves specifying, acquiring and creating audio using production techniques and equipment or software. It is employed in a variety of disciplines including filmmaking ...

mise-en-scène (; or "what is put into the scene") is the stage design and arrangement of actors in scenes for a theatre or film production, both in the visual arts through storyboarding, visual themes, and cinematography and in narrative-storytelling through ...

, dialogue,

cinematography Cinematography () is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens (optics), lens to focus reflected light from objects into a real image that is transferred to some image sen ...

editing Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written language, written, Image editing, visual, Audio engineer, audible, or Film editing, cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing p ...

, or direction.

Style and the director

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

may have a distinctive filmmaking style that differs from other directors, similar to an author's own distinctive

writing style In literature, writing style is the manner of expressing thought in language characteristic of an individual, period, school, or nation. Thus, style is a term that may refer, at one and the same time, to singular aspects of an individual's writing ...

. Through the analysis of film techniques, differences between filmmakers' styles become apparent. Bordwell, David;

Kristin Thompson Kristin Thompson (born 1950) is an American film theorist and author whose research interests include the close formal analysis of films, the history of film styles, and " quality television," a genre akin to art film. She wrote two scholarly bo ...

(2003). ''Film Art: An Introduction'' (Seventh edition ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. There are many technical possibilities available to filmmakers. As a result, no single film will be made using every single technique. Historical circumstances, for example, limit the choices for the director. During the silent film era, filmmakers were not able to use synchronized dialogue until sound became possible in the late 1920s. Films before the 1930s were black and white; now directors have the choice of shooting in color tints or black and white. Directors can choose how to use film language. One of the most noticeable ways to affect film style is through

, or what appears on the screen.

Lighting Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aesthetic effects. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources like lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing daylight. ...

, costumes, props, camera movements, and backgrounds are all part of mise-en-scène. There are countless ways to create a film based on the same script simply through changing the mise-en-scène. Adjusting these techniques creates meaning and can highlight aspects of the narrative. Many filmmakers will create the overall film style to reflect the story.

Style and audience

Many films conform to the Classical Hollywood narrative film style, which is a set of guidelines that many filmmakers tend to follow. The story in this style is told chronologically in a cause and effect relationship. The main principle in this film style is

continuity editing Continuity editing is the process, in film and video creation, of combining more-or-less related shots, or different components cut from a single shot, into a sequence to direct the viewer's attention to a pre-existing consistency of story across ...

, where editing, camera, and sound should be considered "invisible" to the viewers. In other words, attention should not be brought to these elements. While many filmmakers conform to these guidelines, there are other filmmakers that ignore the guidelines and do bring attention to the film techniques. These filmmakers may violate the standard conventions of film in order to create an innovative style or draw attention to particular aspects of film language. The director decides what is and is not on the screen, guiding what the audience looks at and notices. Although the audience may not consciously absorb film style, it still affects the viewer's experience of the film. When viewers watch a film, they may have certain expectations based on previous experiences of film because some techniques are commonly found in film and have become conventional. For example, after a long shot there may commonly be a cut to a closer view. If a character is walking across the stage, the audience expects the camera to pan or follow the character's movement. Viewers expect to interact with and be a part of the film, rather than simply being shown a group of images. These expectations come from experiences with both the real and film worlds; we follow a character in our real world with our eyes, just as a camera pans to follow a character on the screen. The audience expects films to appear like real life, and be shot according to a certain style. Classical Hollywood narrative film styles and the conventions of other genres help to guide the audience in what to expect. Some film makers use styles that challenge these conventions.

Difference between genre and film style

Film style and film genre should not be confused; they are different aspects of the medium. Style is the way a movie is filmed, as in the techniques that are used in the production process. Genre is the category a film is placed in regarding the narrative elements. For instance,

Western films The Western is a film genre defined by the American Film Institute as films which are "set in the American West that mbodythe spirit, the struggle, and the demise of the Frontier Thesis, new frontier." Generally set in the American frontier b ...

are about the

American frontier The American frontier, also known as the Old West, and popularly known as the Wild West, encompasses the Geography of the United States, geography, History of the United States, history, Folklore of the United States, folklore, and Cultur ...

romance films Romance films involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their journey through da ...

are about love, and so on. Film style categorizes films based on the techniques used in the making of the film, such as cinematography or lighting. Two films may be from the same genre, but may well look different as a result of the film style. For example, ''

Independence Day An independence day is an annual event memorialization, commemorating the anniversary of a nation's independence or Sovereign state, statehood, usually after ceasing to be a group or part of another nation or state, or after the end of a milit ...

'' and ''

Cloverfield ''Cloverfield'' is a 2008 American Found footage (film technique), found footage monster movie, monster horror film directed by Matt Reeves and written by Drew Goddard. It stars Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller (in his film debut), Mic ...

'' are both sci-fi, action films about the possible end of the world. However, they are shot differently, with ''Cloverfield'' using a handheld camera for the entire movie. Films in the same genre do not necessarily have the same film style. Therefore, film genre and film style are two separate, distinct terms in film.

Types of film styles

Absolute Absolute may refer to: Companies * Absolute Entertainment, a video game publisher * Absolute Radio, (formerly Virgin Radio), independent national radio station in the UK * Absolute Software Corporation, specializes in security and data risk ma ...

Arthouse An art film, arthouse film, or specialty film is an independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. It is "intended to be a serious, artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal", "made prima ...

** Art horror ** Arthouse action **

European art The art of Europe, also known as Western art, encompasses the history of visual art in Europe. European prehistoric art started as mobile Upper Paleolithic rock and cave painting and petroglyph art and was characteristic of the period betw ...

Auteur An (; , ) is an artist with a distinctive approach, usually a film director whose filmmaking control is so unbounded and personal that the director is likened to the "author" of the film, thus manifesting the director's unique style or thematic ...

Bourekas Bourekas or burekas (),() are a popular Baking, baked pastry in Sephardic Jewish cuisine and Israeli cuisine. A variation of the Börek, burek, a popular pastry throughout southern Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East, Israeli bourekas are ...

Documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

Cinéma vérité Cinéma vérité (, , ) is a style of documentary filmmaking developed by Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch, inspired by Dziga Vertov's theory about '' Kino-Pravda''. It combines improvisation with use of the camera to unveil truth or highlight subje ...

Direct cinema Direct cinema is a documentary genre that originated between 1958 and 1962—principally in Quebec and the United States—and was developed in France by Jean Rouch. It is a cinematic practice employing lightweight portable filming equipment, han ...

Documentary mode Documentary mode is a conceptual scheme developed by American documentary theorist Bill Nichols that seeks to distinguish particular traits and conventions of various documentary film styles. Nichols identifies six different documentary 'modes ...

** Fly on the wall *

Cannibal Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecology, ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is also well ...

Experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

** Film-poem *

Film noir Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...

Neo-noir Neo-noir is a film genre that adapts the visual style and themes of 1940s and 1950s American film noir for contemporary audiences, often with more graphic depictions of violence and sexuality. During the late 1970s and the early 1980s, the term ...

Heimatfilm ' (, German for "homeland-films"; German singular: ') were films of a genre popular in West Germany, Switzerland, and Austria from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. '' Heimat'' can be translated as "home" (in the geographic sense), "hometown" or " ...

Kammerspielfilm ''Kammerspielfilm'' is a type of German film that offers an intimate, cinematic portrait of lower middle class life. History The name derives from a theater, the '' Kammerspiele'', opened in 1906 by a major stage director Max Reinhardt to stage ...

Narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether non-fictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller ...

* Underground ** German underground horror *

Spaghetti Western The spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's filmmaking style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...

* Realist **

Poetic Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

** Neorealist **

Socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

Social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives fro ...

*** Kitchen sink *

Structural A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as ...

Surrealist Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

Group styles

While film style can describe the techniques used by specific filmmakers, it can also be used to describe a movement or group of filmmakers from the same area and/or time period. * New Wave movements ** American ('

New Hollywood The New Hollywood, Hollywood Renaissance, American New Wave, or New American Cinema (not to be confused with the New American Cinema of the 1960s that was part of Experimental film, avant-garde underground film, underground cinema), was a movemen ...

' or 'Movie Brats') **

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

('Australian Film Revival') ** Brazilian ('

Cinema Novo Cinema Novo (; 'New Cinema'), is a genre and movement of film noted for its emphasis on social equality and intellectualism that rose to prominence in Brazil during the 1960s and 1970s.Dixon & Foster, 293. Cinema Novo formed in response to class ...

' or 'Novo Cinema') **

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

Czechoslovak Czechoslovak may refer to: *A demonym or adjective pertaining to Czechoslovakia (1918–93) **First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–38) **Second Czechoslovak Republic (1938–39) **Third Czechoslovak Republic (1948–60) ** Fourth Czechoslovak Repu ...

** French (''Nouvelle Vague'') — the inaugural New Wave cinema movement ** German ('

New German Cinema New German Cinema () is a period in Cinema of Germany, West German cinema which lasted from 1962 to 1982, in which a new generation of directors emerged who, working with low budgets, and influenced by the French New Wave and Italian Neorealism, ...

') **

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

— a movement led by director

Tsui Hark Tsui Hark (, , born 15 February 1950), born Tsui Man-kong (), is a Hong Kong filmmaker. A major director in the Golden Age of Cinema of Hong Kong, Hong Kong cinema, Tsui gained critical and commercial success with films such as ''Zu Warriors from ...

** Indian ('

Parallel cinema Parallel cinema, or New Indian Cinema, is a film movement in Cinema of India, Indian cinema that originated in the state of West Bengal in the 1950s as an alternative to the mainstream commercial Indian cinema. Inspired by Italian Neorealism, ...

') — began around the same time as the French New Wave **

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

(''Nuberu Bagu'') — began around the same time as the French New Wave ** Malayalam ('

New generation "New Generation" is the third and final single from English rock band Suede's second album, '' Dog Man Star'' (1994). The song was released on 30 January 1995 through Nude Records and was the first single to feature music by new guitarist Rich ...

') ** Mexican (' Nuevo Cine Mexicano') ** Nigerian (' New Nigerian Cinema' or 'New Nollywood') ** Persian/Iranian — began in the 1960s **

Philippine New Wave Philippine New Wave (known as Filipino New Wave or Contemporary Philippine Cinema) is a filmmaking term that has been popularly associated with the resurgence of independent film, independent, digital film, digital and experimental films in the P ...

, also known as Filipino New Wave or Contemporary Philippine Cinema **

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

** Thai American groups/movements: * American Eccentric Cinema *

Cinema of Transgression __notoc__ The Cinema of Transgression is a term coined by Nick Zedd in 1985 to describe a New York City–based underground film movement, consisting of a loose-knit group of artists using shock value and black humor in their films. Key players ...

Classical Hollywood In film criticism, Classical Hollywood cinema is both a narrative and visual style of filmmaking that first developed in the 1910s to 1920s during the later years of the silent film era. It then became characteristic of United States cinema du ...

* Film gris * L.A. Rebellion *

No wave No wave was an avant-garde music genre and visual art scene that emerged in the late 1970s in Downtown New York City. The term was a pun based on the rejection of commercial new wave music. Reacting against punk rock's recycling of rock and r ...

British groups/movements: * Brighton School *

British New Wave The British New Wave is a style of films released in Great Britain between 1959 and 1963. The label is a translation of ''Nouvelle Vague'', the French term first applied to the films of François Truffaut, and Jean-Luc Godard among others. Stylis ...

Documentary Film Movement The Documentary Film Movement is the group of British filmmakers, led by John Grierson, who were influential in British film culture in the 1930s and 1940s. Principles The founding principles of the movement were based on Grierson's views of docu ...

Free Cinema Free Cinema was a documentary film movement that emerged in the United Kingdom in the mid-1950s. The term referred to an absence of propagandised intent or deliberate box office appeal. Co-founded by Lindsay Anderson (but he later disdained the ' ...

French groups/movements: *

Cinéma du look Cinéma du look () was a French film movement of the 1980s and 1990s, analysed, for the first time, by French critic Raphaël Bassan in ''La Revue du Cinéma'' issue no. 449, May 1989, in which he classified Luc Besson, Jean-Jacques Beineix and ...

Cinéma pur Cinema may refer to: Film * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking ** Filmmaking, the process of making a film * Movie theate ...

* French impressionist *

Lettrist Lettrism is a French avant-garde movement, established in Paris in the mid-1940s by Romanian immigrant Isidore Isou. In a body of work totaling hundreds of volumes, Isou and the Lettrists have applied their theories to all areas of art and culture ...

New French Extremity New French Extremity describes a range of French films made at the turn of the 21st century that were considered extreme or transgressive. Films of the New French Extremity are characterized by graphic depictions of violence, especially sexual vio ...

Nouvelle Vague The New Wave (, ), also called the French New Wave, is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of i ...

German groups/movements: * Berlin School *

German Expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

New Objectivity The New Objectivity (in ) was a movement in German art that arose during the 1920s as a reaction against German Expressionism, expressionism. The term was coined by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, the director of the ''Kunsthalle Mannheim, Kunsthalle' ...

* Prussian film Italian groups/movements: *

Calligrafismo ''Calligrafismo'' (; ) is an Italian style of filmmaking relating to some films made in Italy in the first half of the 1940s and endowed with an expressive complexity that isolates them from the general context. ''Calligrafismo'' is in a sharp co ...

Cinecittà Cinecittà Studios (; Italian for Cinema City) is a large film studio in Rome, Italy. With an area of 400,000 square metres (99 acres), it is the largest film studio in Europe, and is considered the hub of Italian cinema. The studios were constru ...

Commedia all'italiana ''Commedia all'italiana'' () or Italian-style comedy is an Italian film genre born in Italy in the 1950s and developed in the 1960s and 1970s. It is widely considered to have started with Mario Monicelli's ''Big Deal on Madonna Street'' in 1958 ...

Hollywood on the Tiber Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

Italian futurism Futurism ( ) was an Art movement, artistic and social movement that originated in Italy, and to a lesser extent in other countries, in the early 20th century. It emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such as the ...

Italian neorealism Italian neorealism (), also known as the Golden Age of Italian Cinema, was a national film movement characterized by stories set amongst the poor and the working class. They are filmed on location, frequently with non-professional actors. They p ...

* Poliziotteschi * White Phones *

Telefoni Bianchi ''Telefoni Bianchi'' (; white telephones) films, also called deco films, were made by the Italian film industry in the 1930s and the 1940s in imitation of American comedies of the time in a sharp contrast to the other important style of the era ...

Other groups/movements: *

Budapest school The Budapest School (; ) was a school of thought, originally of Marxist humanism, but later of post-Marxism and dissident liberalism that emerged in Hungary in the early 1960s, belonging to so-called Hungarian New Left. Its members were student ...

* Cinema da Boca do Lixo *

Dogme 95 Dogme 95 (; Danish for "Dogma 95") was a Danish avant-garde filmmaking movement founded by Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, who created the "Dogme 95 Manifesto" and the "Vows of Chastity" (). These were rules to create films based on the t ...

* Erra Cinema * Nigerian Golden Age * Grupo Cine Liberación * New Queer *

Persian Film Filmfarsi (, literally ''Persian Film''), is a term used in Pre-revolutionary Iranian cinema criticism that was coined by Iranian film critic Hushang Kavusi. The term is used to describe what was perceived as low-quality films mostly copied from ...

* Polish Film School *

Praška filmska škola The Prague film schoolPure Film Movement * Remodernist *

Soviet Montage Soviet montage theory is an approach to understanding and creating cinema that relies heavily upon editing ('' montage'' is French for 'assembly' or 'editing'). It is the principal contribution of Soviet film theorists to global cinema, and int ...

* Soviet Parallel * Swedish realism *

Third Cinema Third Cinema () is a Latin American film movement formed in the 1960s which critiques neocolonialism, the capitalist system, and the Hollywood model of cinema as mere entertainment to make money. The term was coined in the manifesto ''Hacia un te ...

* Video film era *

Vulgar auteurism Vulgar auteurism is a movement that emerged in early 2010s cinephilia and film criticism associated with championing or reappraising filmmakers, mostly those working in the horror, sci-fi and action genres and whose work has otherwise received lit ...

Yugoslav Black Wave Yugoslav Black Wave (also referred to as Black Wave; or sh-Latn-Cyrl, label=none, separator=" / ", Crni talas, Црни талас) is a blanket term for a Yugoslav film and broader cultural movement starting from the early 1960s and ending in ...

References

External links

*{{Commons category-inline, Films by genre