Introduction to Direction for Films

Module Number: 01

Module Name: Screencraft

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AIM:

To teach the students about directors screen grammar.

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Objectives:

The Objectives of this module are:

• Describe how to see with the movie makers eye

• Illustrate the picture composition and analysis

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Outcomes:

At the end of this module, you are expected to:

• Demonstrate how to see with the movie makers eye

• Summarize the picture composition and analysis

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Module Contents

1. A Director’s Screen Grammar

2. Seeing with a Moviemaker’s Eye
3. Picture composition analysis, static composition
4. Internal and external composition
5. Shooting Project How best to explore the basics, dramatizing an environment.

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A Director’s Screen Grammar

• "Screen language suggests a specific intelligence interacting with circumstances in which
it also takes part."
• As a director, it's critical that you understand the cinematic language as it's evolved, how
it's being used, and as it may be used or expanded to fit your dramatic needs.
• It's simple and easy to understand what a film conveys in terms of plot, emotions, and
ideas, but if you want to direct, you must also understand how films express all of this
meaning.
• Screen Grammar can be thought of as a set of guidelines, or tips, for properly developing
a film. Framing, the rule of thirds, the golden ratio, 180/30 degree rules, dramatic curves,
and transitions are all common Screen Grammar features.

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• The 1890s saw the emergence of screen language as camera operators and actors
competed to get basic stories in front of paying audiences as quickly as possible.
• As movies became huge business, they were soon joined by directors and editors, and
a production line emerged, needing further division of tasks.
• The majority of today's screen language originated in the first two decades of silent
filmmaking, despite the fact that the early films were quite simple.

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Fixed Camera Position

• A fixed camera position creates the sensation of
standing in one place and looking around.
• A static shot can express numerous feelings such
as being safe, fixed, locked, contemplative, wise,
or just stuck, depending on the circumstances.

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Brief Shots
Brief Shots are like a short look that finishes as soon as we find what we're looking for. This
is something we do all the time. We often do this to orient ourselves in a new setting or to
seek a large number of locations for something.

Held Shots
Held Shots are like the long looks we delight in. Perhaps we are too tired to glance around,
or something substantial or interesting, such as some perplexing street art, necessitates
persistent attention. Perhaps we are keeping an eye on a store client who we suspect of
shoplifting in the hopes of catching him. Perhaps it's a friend about to leave on a long
journey whose last smile we wish to remember. As a result, long looks are divided into two
categories: resting looks and studying looks.

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Close Shots
• Close Shots re-create the sensation of looking at something up close and personal.
• It could be something small, like a watch face, or something enormous, like the surface of
a massive weathered rock.
• Other, more psychologically motivated motives to concentrate on something exist.
Imagine a person who waits by a phone in a huge room.
• When the phone rings, the person on the other end will be informed of the results of a
medical test.
• For that person, the phone and its terrible aura of power are all that exists.
• In this case, the close-up captures a kind of emotional intensity that renders us oblivious
to even the most magnificent surrounds.

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Wide shots
• Wide shots are meant to represent how we take in something huge, busy, or far away. We
explore it till we find what we need to investigate further.
• Coming out of a dark church and onto a crowded street, for example, necessitates
adjusting to our new surroundings while we figure out how to get home.
• The term "establishing shot" refers to the process of establishing the nature of our new
surroundings.
• Consider this image to be the long period of time you spend establishing the room,
determining who is present, and determining who is conversing with whom when you
arrive at a party.

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Camera movements
Camera movements, like human movements, are never spontaneous. The three types of
motivation for camera movements are similar to active and passive methods of being
present at an event:
• Action-motivated, in which the camera moves in response to the action's stimulus. The
camera may adjust to a shifting composition or follow a moving subject. It's a subject-
driven, adaptable, and somewhat passive method of interaction.
• Search-motivated, in which the "thought" of the camera actively pursues a logic of
inquiry or expectation. This is a more active mode in which the action is probed,
predicted, hypothesized, or interrogated.
• Boredom-driven, in which the camera mimics our natural urge to gaze about while we're
bored.

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There are three phases to camera movements, each with its own set of considerations:
• Composition at the start (held for a particular duration before the movement)
• Motion (together with its specific direction, speed, and even topic to follow, such as a
moving vehicle)
• Completion of the composition (held for a particular duration after the movement)
• Panoramic shots are created when the camera pivots horizontally, simulating how we tilt
our heads when scanning a horizontal subject like a landscape or bridge.
• "Pan left" or "pan right" indicates the direction of travel.
• Tilt shots are similar to pan views, except the camera pivots vertically, simulating the
movement of looking up or down the length of a vertical subject such as a tree or tall
skyscraper.

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• "Tilt up" or "tilt down" indicates the direction of travel.

• A lens with an adjustable focal length is used to zoom in or out.
• Although zooming creates the sense of moving closer or farther away from the subject,
the image perspective remains the same since the proportion of foreground to
background items remains constant.

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Seeing with a Movie Makers eye

• As a director, it is critical that you have a complete understanding of the cinematic
language as it has grown, how it is now utilized, and as it may be used or expanded to
meet your dramatic goals.
• To achieve this, film students must view a large number of films and study them in a
systematic manner. It's simple to comprehend what a film conveys in terms of plot,
emotions, and ideas, but if you want to direct, you must also comprehend how films
express all of this meaning.
• The goal of film analysis is to discover the depths and complexity of the film's aesthetic
design that are likely not visible to the typical viewer but are crucial to understanding how
the picture functions and communicates meaning.
• Being an active spectator is the first rule of studying a film for its expressive technique.
You're not just interested in what you think about events, feelings, and so on; you're also
interested in how the film's design contributed to your comprehension and perceptions.
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• In addition, you should isolate and concentrate on each of the main elements in your study
at some point to comprehend their individual contribution to the film as a whole (i.e.
cinematography, editing, sound design, art direction and locations, performance, and so
forth).
• Then you should think about how these distinct sections are working together to tell the
entire, complex story.
Basic formal film analysis process:
• To begin, watch the movie without taking notes.
• After you've seen the film for the first time, write down your thoughts, specifically your
ideas about what it's about (beyond the plot) and what the general tone was.
• Define what you believe the film's central theme is, and then focus your study on
identifying the cinematic language that was used to convey it.

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• Then, while you watch the movie again, make notes everything you can about what you
learn/understand in each scene in order (tone, plot, character, theme, etc.)
• This is the portion of the analysis where you ask yourself, "What do I understand? "Re-
watch each scene now that you know what it's about to see how film language was
employed to convey that meaning to you.
• You must break down and observe the cinematic storytelling aspects (editing, camera
work, art direction, sound design, music, and so on) in isolation during this process.
• Consider how and how many ways the technique of the area under consideration (editing,
camera work, graphic direction, sound design, music, etc.) contributes to the message
being conveyed (themes, tone, narrative detail, character, exposition, mood, etc.)
• You might also wonder why the director picked this method over another.

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Picture Composition Analysis Static Composition

• Studying composition with a group of individuals or as a class is a stimulating and
extremely productive approach to do it. Though the following is intended for a study
group, you can complete it on your own if circumstances need it.
• The following items are required: A slide projector and/or an overhead projector to
expand visuals are desirable but not required for static composition. A video or DVD
player is required for dynamic composition.
• Object: To learn how to compose visual elements by examining how the eye reacts to
static compositions and then how it reacts to dynamic compositions, or compositions that
change with movement.

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Study Materials:
• A book of figurative painting reproductions (best used under an overhead projector so you
have a large image to scan) or, better yet, a dozen or more 35mm art slides projected as
large images are ideal for static composition.
• Impressionist paintings on slides are nice, but the more diverse your collection, the better.
Use any visually fascinating sequences from a favorite film for dynamic composition,
though any Eisenstein film will do.
• It's important to keep a discussion going in a class setting, but if you're working alone,
taking notes or sketching what you find is a fantastic method to keep track of what you
learn.
• Many books on composition make composition appear intimidating or formulaic, making
it difficult to apply to the moving image.
• Trust your eye to notice what's truly there and describe it with your own non-specialist
words rather than following guidelines.
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Strategy for Study

• If you're in charge of a group, you'll need to say something like this to convey what's
expected:
• We're doing this to figure out how each individual's visual perception works. I'll project a
picture into the monitor.
• Take note of where your eye first travels in the composition, and then follow it as you
explore the rest of the image.
• I'll ask someone to describe the path his eye took after roughly 15 seconds.
• You don't need any particular terminology; simply base your comments on the details of
each image.
• Please resist the urge to hunt for a tale in the picture or to guess what it's "about," even if
the picture suggests one.

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• Choose someone new to comment on each new image. There will be interesting talks
regarding the variances because not everyone's eye reacts in the same manner.
• Everyone is led to establish thoughts about visual responses and what compositional
components the eye finds appealing and absorbing because there will usually be a great
degree of agreement.
• It's best to start simple and work your way up to more abstract images, then completely
abstract ones.

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Static Composition
1. Review your starting point after your eye has taken in the entire scene. What caused it to
arrive at that point in the image? (Common reasons include the brightest point in the
composition, the darkest spot in an otherwise light composition, a single area of
arresting colour, and a significant intersection of lines that creates a focal point.)
2. What did your eye do when it moved away from its initial attraction? (Lines, whether
physical lines like the line of a fence or an outstretched arm, or implied lines like the
sightline from one character to another.) Sometimes the eye simply shifts to another
significant place in the composition, unsteadily moving from one structured area to
another across the intervening disorder.)

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3. How far did your eye move before returning to its original position?
4. What drew your attention to each new location?
5. What shape do you get if you draw an imaginary line across the artwork to indicate the
path your eye took? (This can be a circular pattern, a triangle, or an ellipse, but it can also be
any shape.) Any shape can show a different organization that allows you to see past the
horrible and dominant assumption that every picture tells a story.)
6. What, if any, roles do the following characters play in a particular film?
• textures • convergence
• non-naturalistic colouring • divergence
• light and shade • curves
• straight lines
• human figures • strong verticals
• repetition • strong horizontals
• parallels • strong diagonals
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7. In a close-up shot, how much

headroom is given above a person?(In a
group image, the edge of the frame
may cut off the top of a head or may
not show one head at all.)
8. How often and how purposefully are
people and items put at the picture's
margins, forcing you to guess what is
missing? (By displaying the frame's
limitation, you can elicit the viewer's
imagination to fill in the gaps outside
the "window's" margins.)

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Internal and External Composition

• So far, we've focused on composition that is unique to each photo.
• The momentary relationship between an outgoing shot and the next, incoming shot is
another type of compositional relationship.
• External composition, as a relationship, is a concealed aspect of film language. It's
concealed because we don't realize how much it affects our perceptions and expectations.
• When a character leaves the frame in the outgoing shot (A), the spectator's eye is drawn to
the exact spot in shot B where an assassin would emerge from among a large and restless
crowd. In a busy composition, the eye is drawn to the right spot.

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• Another example might be the framing of two complementing close shots of two
characters having a heated discussion. The compositions are symmetrically opposing but
comparable.
• The two-shot (A)  gives a decent overall impression for the scenario, but the man and child
are too far away.
• The close shots (B) and (C) keep the scene's atmosphere while efficiently eliminating the
dead space between them.
• The heads aren't centered because each person has lead (rhyming with "feed") space in
front of his face, which represents his two-shot stance.
• As in the corresponding two-shot, the guy is high in the frame and looking downward,
while the youngster is lower in the frame and looking up.

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Shooting Project How best to explore the basics, dramatizing an environment

• This project requires extensive research, and you will need to spend several hours simply
observing with a notebook in hand.
• Choose a unique location, such as a harbor, a motorbike café, a farmyard, a fairground, a
bookstore, or an airport lounge.
• You prefer a physical entity than a human event. Convert your observations into a script
that includes the best of your material.
• You can even use an acted POV character as long as he or she is believable.
• Develop a two-minute mood sequence with no speaking characters that has a framework
that is organic to the location's daily life and that develops and intensifies.

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Consider the following when creating your sequence:

• What is inherent in the sequence that might shape it? (What about passengers who arrive
at an airport and then exit from the departure gate? What is the progression of time?
Increasing the action's complexity? Forward camera movement for exploration?)
• Can you make subsequences out of the cause-and-effect shots? (In a winter forest scene,
add icicles melting, drops of water dropping past a shack's window, drops falling in a pool,
a trickle of water flowing through ice, and so on.)
• Are there any natural rhythms that can be exploited (water pouring, passing cars, a street
vendor's repetitive call, dog barking, etc.)?
• Do the sequences go from micro to macro or the other way around? (Start with ECU water
droplets and work your way up to a view of the entire forest; or start with an overhead
view of the city and work your way down to a single, overflowing garbage can.)
• Are you able to generate a tipping point that signals the start of heightened or altered
sensibility? (For example, the camera discovers a single, smoking lit cigarette in a deserted
sandy cove.) Following that, there's an unpleasant sense of a lurking human presence.) 32
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• Here, fiction and documentary combine, and the environment has become a character for
the Storyteller to study and enjoy.
• We make the same dramatic demands, requesting that the perspective of the location
grow and change in such a way that it entertains us to react and become involved.
• The standard three-act structure  originated in theatre, but it may be applied to the
contents of a single sequence, a short film, or even a feature-length fiction film, as we've
seen.
• The environment can be viewed extremely differently depending on your story Observer
(kid, elderly guy, foreigner, cat, traveler, someone rediscovering his history, etc.).
• You can assume the watching awareness of a specific person in a specific mood from what
you present, even if that person is only seen rarely or never.

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Adding Music
• Add some music now, but no songs. Instead of a verbal narration, focus on emotional
associations and behavioral narration.
• Audition various pieces against your scenario before settling on the best one and adjusting
your film around it.
• Allow special noises to flow through the song in appropriate spots when laying music.
• Determine why and where you want pure music without any diegetic sound. Making these
choices raises crucial questions about when music should be "clean," and when noises
from the "actual" world can increase its impact and significance.
• Be prepared to change shot durations and cutting points to match the music's structure.
There should always be mutual reactivity between images, diegetic sound (when
employed), and music.

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Developing a Short Scene

• Establish ground rules for a three- to four-minute improvised scene between two people
that includes an emotional change in one character from happy to angry.
• The idea is to experiment with camera coverage and editing rather than to create big
drama.
• Cover the scene with your hands once it has become relatively steady and safe.
• The idea is to get enough coverage so that you can clip the scene together and deal with
the inevitable deviations that come with improvisational work.
• Bring your camera operator in early because the quality of the coverage during improv is
dependent on him or her.

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• Because the director cannot set up each shot in a direct cinema documentary, also known
as observational camera coverage, the camera operator must have the mind of a
dramatist, not merely that of a technician or still photographer.
• A director rapidly determines whether the operator is looking through the viewfinder for
merely composition or for dramatic meaning and focus inside a picture.
• Some do, and some can learn, but be aware that some camera operators will continue to
work as disconnected visual designers.

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Summary
• Screen language suggests a specific intelligence interacting with circumstances in which it
also takes part
• The 1890s saw the emergence of screen language as camera operators and actors
competed to get basic stories in front of paying audiences as quickly as possible
• A fixed camera position creates the sensation of standing in one place and looking around
• Brief Shots are like a short look that finishes as soon as we find what we're looking for. This
is something we do all the time
• Held Shots are like the long looks we delight in
• Close Shots re-create the sensation of looking at something up close and personal
• Wide shots are meant to represent how we take in something huge, busy, or far away. We
explore it till we find what we need to investigate further
• Studying composition with a group of individuals or as a class is a stimulating and
extremely productive approach to do it 37
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Self Assessment Question

1. A form of filmmaking characterized by photographing inanimate objects ____

A)           Inanimate objects

B)           Lights
C)         Images
D)         Colors

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Self Assessment Question

2. When these images are projected at the standard speed of _____per second, the images appear to move

A) 16 frames
B) 24 frames
C) 30 frames
D) 25 frames

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Self Assessment Question

3.   A written description  of a film’s dialogue and action ________

A) Dialogue
B) Budget
C) Script
D) Log

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Self Assessment Question

4. Story works from experience, creativeness, and ________

A) Attitudes
B) Concept
C) theme
D) Intuition

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Self Assessment Question

5. _______ is the manner in which content is presented

A) Form
B) Space
C) Time
D) rhythm

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Self Assessment Answers

Self-Assessment Answers

Question No. Answer

1 A

2 B

3 C

4 D

5 A

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Terminal Questions

1. Explain in detail how to see with the movie makers eye .

2. Sketch out the picture composition and analysis.

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Activity

1. Analyze any picture of your choice and give the details

2. Write a short story with two character conversation

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Video Links

Topics URL Notes

Link will explain about Movie makers

eye
Movie makers eye https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLfZL9PZI9k

Link will explain about Picture

Picture composition composition analysis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPhHSz-rJ9A
analysis

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Document Links

Topics URL Notes

https://booksite.elsevier.com/samplechapters/9780240812175 Link will explain about Movie makers

Movie makers eye /01~Front_Matter.pdf eye

Link will explain about Picture

Picture composition https://www.egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/74346/1/
analysis Unit-7.pdf composition analysis

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