The Elements of Films [Screenwriting Fundamentals]
Before start firing up the word processor and hammering out the script to our film, we'll first spend sometime making sure we are familiar of all the components that work together to form the final film.
FRAMES - when we watch a film, we are in fact watching a succession of photographs. By taking photographs at a rate of 24 per second, it is possible to give the illusion of movement, which forms the basic principle of film.
SHOTS/TAKES/CUTS - a sequence of frames shot continuous. Great shots leave an indelible impression on us, conveying the emotion of the situation. Excellent directing is all about getting the right shots. Stanley Kubrick had a talent for composing some of the most fabulous shots in the history of cinema: the firing squad at the end of Paths of Glory, Slim Pickens riding the atomic bomb in Dr Strangelove, the ape throwing the bones in 2001 - A Space Odyssey , the slow zoom out of Alex in the Korova milkbar at the start of A Clockwork Orange and the eerie camera moves following Danny around the haunted hotel in The Shining.
Through the appropriate camera set up, blocking, costume, lighting, set design etc., the director can go beyond just showing something taking place, film makers have the power to take the viewer inside the action.
SCENES - typically, a scene comprises of a number of shots from a single location depicting an event. Most scenes tend to be made up of a number of different shots edit together to give the impression of continuous action.
Some directors prefer to shoot whole scenes in single takes. Orson Welles opens Touch of Evil with a complex 3 ½ minute shot that introduces the key characters and sets up the main action in just one shot. Robert Altman used a breathtakingly elaborate eight minute shot to introduce the main character and his environment at the start of The Player. Alfred Hitchcock spliced together just ten shots to make his 1948 film Rope. Shot to give the impression that you were watching the events unfold in real-time, the edits between shots are carefully concealed by the camera passing close to particular characters, allowing their backs to completely fill the frame, thus hiding any joins.
Great scenes stay clear in the memory; the shower scene from Psycho, Ursula Andress emerging from the sea in Dr. No, the taxi scene from On The Waterfront, Tom Hanks' “feet piano” scene in Big, the alien bursting out of John Hurt's chest in Alien, Omar Sharif emerging from the mirage in Lawrence of Arabia, Chaplin's Little Tramp dinning on a boiled leather shoe in The Gold Rush - the list is endless. When you are writing your film, think about your favourite scenes, and try to understand why they work so well, and how you can apply such ideals to your own work.
SEQUENCES - scenes are grouped together to form sequences, which represent a series of events. This is the cinematic equivalent of a chapter in a book.
Think of the classic chase sequence in the French Connection: Gene Hackman's character (Popeye Doyle) is just out walking, when a rooftop sniper starts shooting at him. Popeye chases him on foot, but he snipper manages to escape onto a train. Not to be outdone, Popeye commandeers a car and then races to the next train station. Meanwhile, the snipers fumbles a hijacking of the train resulting in a crash, where Popeye finally catches up with him, and delivers the infamously shot in his back. The sheer adrenaline of this sequence has made it one of the all time classics.
Great opening sequences are extremely effective at pull the audience into a film. The James Bond and Indiana Jones films are famous for their elaborate opening sequences. The sublime opening of Apocalypse Now is so hypnotic, it is impossible to turn away. Saving Private Ryan gets going with an amazing battle sequence on the beaches of Normandy. The realism of this sequence amplifies the terror that the soldiers must have experienced.
Again, when planning your film, study similar films in the same genre, and hunt down the memorable sequences and dissect them to gain a better understanding of how scenes have been combined to form powerful sequences.
ACTS - A collection of sequences combine together, culminating in a big event that throws the story into a new direction. Aristotle's Poetics describe stories as being structured into three acts. The classic Three Act Structure comprises a Beginning, Middle and End - which screenwriters like to regard as the Setup, Complication and Resolution. A popular metaphor of the act structure is: chase your character up a tree, throw rocks at them, then get them down out of the tree.
In Kind Hearts and Coronets, Louis Manzzini's mother is outcast from her wealthy family. Upon her death, she is not allowed to be buried with the rest of her family (act one, setting up the story). This provokes Manzzini to systematically murder all the heirs until he inherits the Dukedom, and then Manzzini is ironically imprisoned for a murder he did not commit (forming the complication at the end of act two). He is later acquitted - however, upon tasting his first few breaths of freedom outside the prison, he realised he left his memoirs in the prison cell, which incriminate him in the killing spree (act three).
Modern film making, like with any other art form, is obsessed with changing the nature of the form. Change is the only constant. Despite our own sense of individuality telling us to shun the three act structure, it stills forms a very good starting point. Back in the 1960s Jean Luc Godard summed it up well when he said “Every film has a beginning, a middle, and an end... but not necessarily in that order.”
In the later sections, we will look at the three act structure in more detail.
Test Your Knowledge
To test your knowledge of this subject, why not attempt one of the assignments? When making a film, it is essential to make something that you would want to enjoy, so we have designed these assignments to help you think about what you like about films and how you can apply this to the films you want to make. Chances are, if you like your film, someone else will too!
My Favourite Bits
This assignment is in three parts. Select your favourite shot, scene and sequence from any of the films you have seen. For each, tell us the title of the film and discuss why they impress you, what storytelling devices they used, the use of visuals and dialogue, and how they relate to the film as a whole.
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