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 James Monaco, J
 


x a writer uses the word 'rose', the reader is ree to imagine
any o a thousand di erent possible roses.

When a ilm-maker shows us a rose, we all see the same rose.

 ëut we can be told a vast amount about the rose, much more
than a writer can tell us, by the way it is ilmed

± rom above or below,

close or distant,
rontally lit
or back-lit,
moving or still, in ull colour,

black and white

desaturated colour,

or special e ect

accompanied by music or silence, and so on.

]tmosphere can be created, symbolism implied, metaphors
intended ± all in a brie moment.

 



]nd every image, every rame, o the ilm will be the result o
dozens o decisions about what will be shown ± and how.
 


diegesis
   
composition
   
a use ul word to know i you want to write e ectively about ilm

the diagesis is the 
 o the ilm

± the objects, events, spaces, and the characters that inhabit

those spaces,
and the things, actions and attitudes not explicitly presented
in the ilm but in erred by the audience.

The viewer constructs a   
 rom the material

presented in a narrative ilm

so that each ilm will have its own unique and distinctive world:
m 

    Ú

 J

Ú
 m  
   
Ú

m    

Ú


£i erent media have di erent orms o diegesis.

The worlds created in the theatre tend to be less naturalistic

than those o ilm.

Laurence Olivier's ilm o Shakespeare's play J  Ú is

mostly ilmed realistically on the battle ields o France.

ëut Olivier begins on the Elizabethan stage, so the initial

diagesis is one o actors per orming the play
The ilm opens with a long crane shot across a detailed
model landscape o th century London.
and swoops down into the
Globe Theatre where a placard
announces the play,

and the actors begin

their per ormances on
the stage o
Shakespeare's theatre.
]s the play gets under way, the action shi ts to France

xn other words, the ilm shi ts its      rom the
presentational orm o the Elizabethan theatre

to the representational orm o mainstream narrative cinema.

 ?



This re ers to all the things that are 'put in the scene',
as well as the way that we are shown them.

Or, put more technically, it means the arrangement o

visual weights and movement within a given space.
xn live theatre, that space is usually de ined by the
proscenium arch.
xn movies, it is de ined by the edge o the picture ± the 
that encloses the images.

Jugh Grant in ]  Ú



  

is the arrangement o people and objects within the rame

we can talk about 

 

and about    

sur ace composition is demonstrated by this shot rom the
head titles o   Ú

:

the ]uckland buildings are reduced to a sur ace

pattern o horizontals and verticals.
or in this shot o Oscar Kightley in the same ilm

the composition is quite lat; he makes a pattern o solid curves

close to the picture plane with contrasting so t indistinct
verticals behind

Je sits to the right o the rame, unbalancing the

composition, and suggesting the character's unhappiness.
as the camera pulls back, the composition remains a sur ace
pattern: the blank TV screen, the blank window, the white
cupboard doors and the unattainable woman in the picture are
all rectangles contrasting with the sagging curves o the
character.

it is no longer quite so unbalanced; the cupboard with its

white doors balances ]lbert in his white shirt.
now the composition is one   as well: the lines o the
carpet, the window on the door and the mirror, on the cupboard,
on the bedspread, all point towards the sad igure on the bed.
The  o the rame is an important actor in the
decisions about composition and how the     will
be presented.

The shape is decided by the    that the

director decides to use.

ëe ore the 
s, all ilms were shot in an aspect ratio o :3,
but the need to compete
with television, which
was keeping movie
audiences at home, led
to the increasing use o
wider and wider screens.
xn the :3 aspect ration, the classic TWO SJOT is intimate,
and ocuses attention on the two participants

as in this MCU TWO shot o John Grillo and Jeremy xrons rom
£       
Úa made- or-television ilm.
This MCU TWO creates a markedly di erent e ect in widescreen:

James Franco and Tobey Maguire in   ! Ú



and even more so in this shot rom " 
!   Ú



Steve Carell and Paul £ano˜

 aspect ratio o .33:

aspect ratio o .:

aspect ratio o .
:

 The shi t to widescreen in the 
s coincided with a shi t rom
interior, dialogue-dominated ilms:

Cary Grant, Katherine Jepburn and

James Stewart in m #

 
 Ú
, ilmed in .33:

James Stewart and Grace

Kelly in ]l red Jitchcock's
 
Ú, ilmed in
.:
 to exterior and action-dominated:

Peter O'Toole and Omar Shari in "
  ] Ú 

This shi t rom dialogue-dominated to action-dominated was not
necessarily caused by the rame change, but it is more di icult to
photograph intimate conversations in widescreen.
 

re ers to the relationship o the objects in the shot to the rame

  

is usually used or close shots.

The composition is so care ully balanced and harmonised

that the people photographed have little or no reedom o
movement.
 MS TJ EE o Ed Stoppard, ]drien ërody and Frank Finlay in
m #  Ú



The tight raming underlines the concern o the three at what

they are seeing.

 

usually in longer shots

The composition is looser and reer within the con ines o

the rame so that the people photographed have
considerable reedom o movement.
] much looser MS TJ EE shot

John Turturro, Tim ëlake Nelson and George Clooney

in Ñ   ]m $Ú




The loose raming is appropriate or an open road shot ± and

also has a more comic tinge.
Will Patton and £enzel Washington in   m  Ú



]dam Goldberg and ]nthony app in ] 
! Ú



loose raming ± and a beauti ully composed shot

which brings us to
 

  
or centuries, artists have ollowed this rule o composition, and
photographers and cinematographers have ollowed suit

The rule o thirds divides the rame into thirds both horizontally
and vertically.
The points where the vertical and horizontal lines cross are
aesthetically pleasing spots to place subjects or to have
perspective lines converge.

Look at the way these shots have been composed with the
'rule o thirds' in mind:
Note how each o the two igures is just to the le t o a vertical,
and how each o the nine segments contains a point o interest.
Thora ëirch in ]  Ú
Thora ëirch and Kevin Spacey in ]  
 ]  

O course, movement a ects composition; characters will not

always stay in the same relationship to the rame.
when an object is placed centrally, it can become con rontational

as in these shots rom ]  

the gun is right at the centre o the rame
The other mathematical basis or composition has also been
used or hundreds o years.

xt provided the measurements

or the beauti ul proportions o
ancient Greek Temples:

xt is variously called the 
 , the 


 , the 
, or the    

Without getting into complicated mathematics, it is a

proportion based on a ratio o :..
]lthough architects no doubt measured, artists,
photographers and cinematographers usually use their eyes:
it is the most pleasing o proportions

as in this superb shot rom ]  Ú

: the horizon

alls on the Golden Section.
Keira Knightley in ]  
  : the world created by the ilm

?

 everything that is shown within the

rame and the way it is shown

 : the arrangement o the people and

objects within each rame

o the three, ?

 is probably the one you will

use most when you write about ilm
Cinematic     encompasses both the   
  and the   :

set design,
costume,
props,
composition,
lighting,
and the general visual environment,
as well as camera placement and movement,
placement o actors,
and what they say and do.

x       
    

 
 Kevin Spacey at work in ]  

Everything in this shot is the result o a decision that has been

made: what is on Lester's desk, the placement o his desk, what
he is wearing, how he is sitting, what he is saying, the light and
colour and so on. xt all comes under the label o    .
xn this scene rom ]  Thora ëirch is seated
back in the picture space ± the table and objects in ront o her
separate her rom her parents as a visual metaphor o the
emotional gap between them.
ëuttercup Ú obin Wright, on the other hand, is com ortable in
her home which encloses her and surrounds her.

m #  Ú 

Paul ÚMatthew Mac adyen is ar rom com ortable visiting
his brother a ter a long absence.

x ! £ Ú



Jis stance is unrelaxed, the composition is unbalanced and

the rame seems to press down on the top o his head.
The di erent aspect ratios emphasise the di erence«
« which is why ilms need to be seen in the appropriate ratio.

Everything in the rame is there or a purpose.

The two boys in this shot rom   m   are
talking to each other because they have to.
The distance between them underlines their mutual hostility, and
the scene is set against the stunning architectural background
which subtly evokes the entrenched racism o the establishment.
On a conventional :3 aspect ratio TV set, the scene loses its
visual impact and its metaphorical resonance because it is
shown like this:

and then this

even when the result is not as drastic as that, reducing
widescreen to a smaller ratio can make the picture looked
cramped,
as in this shot rom m ! %Ú
which should look like this:
The representation o  a ects the reading o a ilm.



when signi icant elements o an image are positioned

both near to and distant rom the camera

these objects do not all have to be in ocus

Gandal leaves the Shire in m 

    
Jess joins the practice in  x"  Ú
xn 

 the image is staged with very little depth.

Truman is trapped between a wall and two insistent characters, with a

hint o depth Úand reedom tantalisingly shown to one side.
The igures in the image occupy the same or closely positioned
planes, as in this shot also rom m m 
Ú

Jolland Taylor, Jim Carrey, Laura Linney

again, the metaphor o being trapped is power ully created by

the shallow space.
Shallow space can be staged, as this is;
or it can be achieved optically, with the use o a telephoto
lens, as in this shot rom   ! :

the telephoto lens reduces the distance between his own

house and that o the girl Peter Parker yearns or
 
 

an image shot with an extremely long lens

The e ect o using a long lens is to  the apparent

depth o an image, so that elements that are relatively close or
ar away rom the camera seem to lie at approximately the
same distance.
xn this shot rom ërian Jelgeland's # Ú, we can see
there is a considerable distance between the allen body and the
red car.
When a telephoto lens is used or a close-up o the shot Mel
Gibson, his ace looks as i it is pressed against the car.
The telephoto lens creates a shallow space which combines with
extreme canted raming to suggest the physical and psychological
disarray o a man who has been betrayed, shot and le t or dead.
Jere the shallow space ± created by wall and door ± added to
the mesh in ront creates an almost lat e ect ± an e ective
metaphor or the way this character is trapped in her own
world.
Mirando Otto plays an agoraphobic in x ! £ ˜
the deep space behind her son, however, creates a quite
di erent e ect
£eep space in the opening shot o m #
Ú &
 ollowed almost immediately ± within the same tracking shot ±
by this very shallow space, with Tim obbins hemmed in by the
window and the wall o his o ice.
This shot rom ]  brilliantly achieves both e ects
in one rame.

On the right, Wes ëentley stands with his camcorder in shallow

space; on the le t, the TV screen shows what he is ilming, and
so creates the illusion o deeper space.
]   does not re er to the actual width o
the shot, since the rame width cannot alter.

xt re ers more to the content and purpose o the shot.

]  
WS] gives a broad view o an area, and
conveys scale, distance, and geographic location.

Extreme wide shots

EWS] are o ten used as  
 
 ; they o ten have great depth as well:
Jobbiton, in m 

    
ëilbo's birthday party
"  
 
Ú


" 
!   
Wx£E EST. SJOTS can be o interiors also, as these two shots
rom    Ú

 illustrate:

Evey ÚNatalie Portman is shot in LS but the 

 o the
shot is to show her within her room, so it is better described
as a Wx£E Úor an LS Wx£E
]nother EWS shows the home that V has made or himsel in a
orgotten crypt.
 
  !" 
 

sometimes it takes more than one shot to set up a scene

xn the initial sequence o # Ñ

 Ú, director
Tsui Jark uses three shots to establish the locale.

Three musicians are

shown against a
ireplace in what looks
like a luxurious room.
 the second
establishing shot
shows us the other
hal o the room ±
shot/reverse shot ±
and reveals a party
going on.

] ter several close

ups, a third
establishing shot ± a
" 
 
 shows once
again the spatial
relationships
introduced with the
establishing shots.