figure may represent a person but could also be an animal, a robot, an object, or even a pure shape. An actor’s performance consists of visual elements
appearance, gestures, facial expression and sound voice, effects.
11
The ultimate goal of any actor should be to make us believe completely in the reality of the
character. If this goal to be achieved, actors must either develop or blessed with several talents.
12
2. Cinematography
In the book Film Art: An Introduction, Bordwell 1993 gave his explanation about cinematographic properties as:
Mise-en-scène is at bottom a theatrical notion: The filmmaker stages an event to be filmed. But a comprehensive account of cinema as an art
cannot stop with simply what is put in front of the camera. […] The filmmaker also controls what we will call the cinematographic qualities of
the shot—not only what is filmed but also how it is filmed. Cinematographic qualities involve three factors: 1 the photographic
aspects of the shot; 2 the framing of the shot; and 3 the duration of the shot.
13
When making a film, filmmaker will pay more attention to what will be filmed in order to deliver his or her message to the viewer. Since film is a series of
frame that is projected onto a screen, a visual element becomes important thing in making a film. To deliver the right message, filmmaker will control what is filmed
and how it is filmed. To control how an event is filmed, filmmaker uses cinematographic qualities which are divided into three factors: the photographic
aspects of the shot; the framing of the shot; and the duration of the shot. Those factors will be explained as follows:
11
David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson 1993, op.cit. p. 158.
12
Joseph M. Boggs and Dennis W. Petrie 2005, op.cit. p. 269.
13
David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson 1993, op.cit. p. 185.
a. The Photographic Aspects of the Shot
The camera does what a human eye does. That is, it creates perspective and spatial relations with the rest of the world. However, unlike ones eye, a
cinematographer can select different lenses for different purposes. Variation in focal length is one of the chief benefits of such an advantage. The focal length of
the lens in particular, determines the angle of view and, therefore, the field of view. Bordwell 1993 said that there are three sorts of lenses on the basis of their
effects on perspective: the short-focal-length wide-angle lens; the middle-focal- length normal lens; and the long-focal-length telephoto lens.
14
There is one sort of lens that offers the director a chance to manipulate focal length and to
transform perspective relations during a single shot. A zoom shot is a single shot
taken with a lens that has a variable focal length, thereby permitting the cinematographer to change the distance between the camera and the object being
filmed, and rapidly move from a wide-angle shot to a telephoto shot in one continuous movement; this camera technique makes an object in the frame appear
larger; movement towards a subject to magnify it is known as zoom in or forward zoom, or reversed to reduce its size is known as zoom outback or
backward zoom.
15
Focal length not only affects how shape and scale are magnified distorted.
It also determines the lens’s depth of field. Depth of field the depth of composition of a shot, i.e., where there are several planes vertical spaces in a
frame: 1 a foreground, 2 a middle-ground, and 3 a background; depth of
14
Ibid. p. 191-192
15
Tim Dirks, Cinematic Terms, A Film-Making Glossary: Zoom 1996. Accessed on November 10, 2008.
http:www.filmsite.orgfilmterms20.html .
field specifically refers to the area, range of distance, or field between the closest and farthest planes in which the elements captured in a camera image appear in
sharp or acceptable focus; as a rule of thumb, the area 13 in front of and 23 behind the subject is the actual distance in focus; depth of field is directly
connected, but not to be confused with focus.
16
Depth of field should not be
confused with the concept of deep space. Bordwell 1993 explained that deep space is a term for the way the filmmaker has staged the action on several
different planes, regardless of whether or not all of these planes are in focus.
17
Like deep space, deep focus involves staging an event on film such that significant elements occupy widely separated planes in the image. Unlike deep
space, deep focus related to depth of field—refers to an adjustment made
technically to insure that a camera shot retains its deep focus throughout all the various planes fore, middle, and back.
18
Most cameras, including still cameras, are designed to focus on objects at different distances from the lens. Because the
eye is ordinarily drawn to what it can see best—that is, to the object in sharpest focus—the cinematographer can create a kind of three-dimensionality by using
rack focus—in one continuous shot focusing the camera lens, in turn, on objects
in different planes of depth different distances from the camera.
19
Special effects artists make things happen in films that might not normally occur in real life. When the real thing is too expensive, too dangerous or
impossible to shoot, special effects artists are bought in. The first special effects in
16
Tim Dirks, Cinematic Terms, A Film-Making Glossary: Deep of focus 1996. Accessed on November 10, 2008.
http:www.filmsite.orgfilmterms7.html
17
David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson 1993, op.cit. p. 194.
18
Tim Dirks 1996, op.cit. http:www.filmsite.orgfilmterms7.html
19
Joseph M. Boggs and Dennis W. Petrie 2005, op.cit. p. 131.
the cinema were created while the film was being shot. These came to be known as in-camera effects. Later, optical and digital effects were developed so that
editors and visual effects artists could more tightly control the process by manipulating the film in post-production. Bordwell 1993 explained that there are
five techniques of special effects: glass shots here portions of the setting are
painted onto a pane of glass and the camera shoots through it to film action
supposedly occurring in the painted setting; superimposition the exposure of more than one image on the same film strip; rear projection a technique for
combining a foreground action with a background action filmed earlier; front projection composite process whereby footage meant to appear as the
background of a shot is projected from the front onto a screen; figures in the
foreground are filmed in front of the screen as well; and matte shot a type of
process shot in which different areas of the image usually actors and setting are photographed separately and combined in laboratory work.
20
b. The Framing of the Shot
A frame refers to a single image, the smallest compositional unit of a films structure, captured by the camera on a strip of motion picture film - similar
to an individual slide in still photography; a series of frames juxtaposed and shown in rapid succession make up a motion or moving picture; also refers to
the rectangular area within which the film image is composed by the filmmaker— in other words, a frame is what we see within the screen.
21
20
David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson 1993, op.cit. p. 197-198.
21
Tim Dirks 1996, op.cit. http:www.filmsite.orgfilmterms10.html
Many films are shot with a camera that appears to be at approximately the same height as its subject. However, it is possible to film from a position that is
significantly lower or higher than the dominant element of the shot. In that case, the image is described as low angle or high angle respectively. Angle of framing
can be used to indicate the relation between a character and the cameras point of view or can simply be used to create striking visual compositions. According to
Bordwell 1993, there are three general categories of camera angles: the straight-on angle horizontal, on the same level, the high angle above it,
looking down, and the low angle looking up.
22
Not only can the angle from which a camera films but the height also be a significant element in a film. A low-level camera is placed close to the ground
whereas a high-level camera would be placed above the typical perspective shown in the cinema. Camera level is used to signify sympathy for characters who
occupy particular levels in the image, or just to create pleasurable compositions. Camera level is obviously used to a greater advantage when the difference in
height between objects or characters is greater. The distance of framing is the apparent distance of the frame from the
mise-en-scène elements. It is also called camera distance and shot scale.
According to Hayward 1996, there are: a close-up: the subject framed the
camera fills the screen, close up can be used an objects and on parts of the body
other than the face; b medium close-up: close-up of one or two sometimes three characters, generally framing the shoulders or chest and the head; c
22
David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson 1993, op.cit. p. 211.
