An Introduction

into
Film Aesthetics

The following notes quote at length from

Bordwell, David and Kristin Thompson. Film Art: An Introduction.
Seventh edition. New York: McGrawHill, 2003.
 Scene:
Scene a segment in a narrative film that takes place in ONE TIME AND SPACE or
that uses CROSSCUTTING to show two or more SIMULTANEOUS actions.

Shot:
Shot (in the finished film) one uninterrupted image with a
SINGLE static or mobile FRAMING.

Shot sequence:
sequence a moderately large segment of the film involving ONE
COMPLETE STRETCH of action. It can be the equivalent of a scene, but
it does not have to.
 STORY VS. PLOT

Story:
Story all the events that we see and hear, plus all those that
we assume to have happened, arranged in their CAUSAL
relations, CHRONOLOGICAL order, DURATION,
FREQUENCY, AND SPATIAL locations.

Plot:
Plot the ACTUAL PRESENTATION of the events in the film .
 MISE-EN-SCENE

It includes all of the elements placed in front of the camera:

•the setting and props;

•lighting
•costumes and makeup

•figure behavior

A careful analysis of the mise-en-scene will often reveal the major

themes of the film (see the following clips):
 SETTING
By comparing the setting in the following clips one can have a better grasp at the
class and ethnic difference between the two men in Haneke’s Caché (2005):

The Frenchman’s kitchen:

The Algerian’s “kitchen”:
 LIGHTING

Three-point lighting: a common arrangement which uses three directions

of light on a scene:
• Key light:
light the brightest illumination coming into the scene.

• Fill light:
light illumination from a source less bright than the key light,
used often to soften deep shadows in a scene.

• Backlighting:
Backlighting illumination cast onto the figures in the scene from the
side opposite the camera, usually creating a thin outline of highlighting
on those figures.

This balanced lighting creates mild shading (the shadows are almost
transparent as in the following clip):
 Lighting can be classified according to its intensity:

• High-key lighting:
lighting illumination that creates LITTLE CONTRAST between the
light and dark areas of the shot.
• Low-key lighting: illumination that creates STRONG CONTRAST between
the light and dark areas of the shot, with deep shadows and little fill light (see the
shot below):
 CINEMATOGRAPHY

Cinematography refers to the MANNER in which objects

are filmed. It involves three factors:
•the photographic aspects of the shot (which refer to the
quality of the film stock, its exposure to lighting, the use
of filters or lenses, etc);

•the framing of the shot;

•the duration of the shot.

 FRAMING

The ratio of frame WIDTH to frame HEIGHT is called the

aspect ratio. The standard ration is 1.33: 1 (in most prints,
this works out to 1.37:1. This ratio was established in the
1930s).
•ANGLE: this refers to the angle at which the camera is
positioned and which can be:
• straight-on angle:
• high angle (1):
• high angle (2):
• low angle:
 DISTANCE
This refers to the distance between the camera and the mise-en-scene.
• extreme long shot:
• long shot:
• medium long shot:
shot
• medium shot:
• medium close-up:
• close-up:
•extreme close-up:
• point-of-view shot (POV shot): a shot taken with the camera placed
approximately where the character’s eyes would be, showing what the
character would see (an optically subjective shot). Caché: 0:38:00
 MOBILE FRAMING
This term refers to the changing of the framing of the object (the camera
angle, level, height, or distance changes during the shot).
•
The pan (short for panorama) rotates the camera on a vertical axis
(from left to right/right to left). The camera as a whole DOES NOT move.
(Caché 15: 27)
• The tilt rotates the camera on a horizontal axis. The camera as a whole
DOES NOT MOVE. The impression is of space unrolling from top to
bottom or bottom to top (Caché 08:20)
In the tracking (dolly) shot, the camera travels in any direction
ALONG THE GROUND. It often follows a character as he/she moves
within the frame (Caché 05:45).
In the crane shot, the camera MOVES above ground level (it rises or
•

descends, often thanks to a mechanical arm that lifts and lowers it). Caché
1:19:03
• The use of a hand-held camera (common especially in the 1950s
with the growth of the cinéma-vérité documentary) lends an air of authenticity
to the shot. It is often (but not always) used to suggest a subjective point of
view (Caché 1:15:30).
 DURATION
•The LONG TAKE is a shot that continues for an unusually lengthy time
before the transition to the next shot.It is NOT interrupted by any type of
punctuation (cut, dissolve, fade, etc.) It should not be confused with the
long shot. A take is one run of the camera that records a single shot. Caché
05:25

•When an entire scene is rendered in only one shot, the long take is known
as plan-séquence.
plan-séquence
 EDITING
Editing is the coordination of one shot with the next. There are various means
of joining two shots:

• A fade-out gradually darkens the end of a shot to black.

• A fade-in lightens a shot from black.

• A dissolve briefly superimposes the end of shot A and the beginning of

shot B.

• In a wipe, shot B replaces shot A by means of a boundary line moving

across the screen.

• The cut is the most common means of joining two shots.

 There are four types of relations between two shots:

• Graphic relations, which exploit the pictorial qualities of the two

shots (there can be graphic matches or conflicts between two shots).

• Rhythmic relations, which refers to the the way in which the

director adjusts the length of the shots in relation to one another.

• Spatial relations, which help construct the space of the film. The
Kuleshov effect:
effect any series of shots which, in the absence of an establishing
shot, prompts the spectator to infer a spatial whole from seeing only parts of
the space.

• Temporal relations, which refer to the order, duration, and

frequency of events. These include flashbacks, flashforwards, ellipsis,
overlapping editing (the same event is repeated in the two consecutive
shots)
 CONTINUITY EDITING

In the continuity style, the space of a scene is constructed around

what is called the axis of action/the center line/the 180º line.
line The
camera can be put at any point as long as it stays ON THE SAME
SIDE OF THE LINE.

This ensures

•that the relative positions in the frame remain consistent;

•consistent eyelines;

•consistent screen direction.

One good example of continuity editing is the shot/reverse-shot pattern
in which one end point of the 180º line is shown and then the other. In the
following clip, the shot/reverse-shot pattern also exemplifies the eyeline
match.
match Caché 50:00
•A jump over the 180º
line usually adds dynamism
to the shot and renders it
more dramatic (21 Grams
07:56). These are two shots
connected by a cut.
 Other types of cutting:

• Crosscutting: editing that alternates shots of two or more lines of

action occurring in different places, usually at the same time.

• A jump cut is an elliptical cut that appears as an interruption of a single

shot. Either the figures seem to change instantly against the constant
background or the background changes instantly while the figures remain the
same.
 SOUND
The full interpretation of a film should also take into consideration the interplay
between image and sound.
sound For example, in the following shot, the intensity of
an off-screen sound is exaggerated to indicate the on-screen child’s fear and
helplessness. Caché 38:43.
 Sound can be:

•NONDIEGETIC—when its source lies outside the story world (for example, the score that
may accompany a certain scene).

• DIEGETIC—when its source is part of the story world (as in the previous clip).

•The diegetic sounds can be either onscreen or offscreen (as in the

previous clip).

•They can also be internal (when they come from inside the mind of a
character and are subjective) or external diegetic sounds (when they are
given a physical source in the scene and are objective. E.g. The
rooster’s flapping is an offscreen, external diegetic sound.
 Sound can also be:

• simultaneous with the image (in most cases).

• nonsimultaneous with the image (for example, in flashbacks,

when we may see a character onscreen in the present, but hear
another character’s voice from an earlier scene).

• A sound bridge is the prolongation of the sound from one scene over the image
from the next scene.
 ANALYZING FILM STYLE

• Determine the organizational structure of the film, its narrative or nonnarrative

formal system (story vs.plot, manipulation of causality, time, space; the pattern of
development, etc.)

• Identify the salient techniques used (color, lighting, framing, editing, sound).

• Trace out patterns of techniques within the whole film (what is

repeated, developed, paralleled, quoted, etc).

•Propose functions for the salient techniques and the patterns they form
(style shapes meaning, emotional response, and even viewers’ perceptions).
Now you’re ready to watch films 