Moving Images, Understanding Media

10 Moving Images: Making Movies, Understanding Media

Using Images to Communicate

When early fi lmmakers fi rst chose framings for shots a century ago, they were

not following a set of rules. Defi nitions of shots are general descriptions of

what viewers see on a screen, and they are not a menu of choices for how to

make a movie. Th ese terms can simply help in describing what you see on the

screen or in preparing to set up a shot you want to execute for a project.

Motion picture language is not the collection of words used on a set by

the people who make movies. It is not simply “fi lmmaking vocabulary.” It is

a concept that expresses the process by which motion pictures communicate

ideas to the viewer through the visual and aural articulation of actions, ideas,

and emotions on the screen.

Linking Shots

For example, imagine seeing a shot of a character sitting at a kitchen table.

Aft er a few moments, there is a dissolve (which is when one shot fades away

as another emerges into view) and the same character is standing near the far

wall, at the kitchen counter making a cup of coff ee. As this action continues,

another dissolve begins and in the next shot that emerges as the previous

one fades the character is standing to the right of the frame, looking out the

window while the coff ee cup is sitting on the table. In each of these three

shots, the framing stayed the same. What do we guess from this sequence?

Why were there dissolves between the shots? Th e dissolves were done for

a few purposes, but one of the main reasons was so that the viewer would

understand that time passed between each shot.

Viewers comprehend this because of motion picture language: you did not

need to see a message on the screen telling the time or to hear the character

Figure 1-15 Wide shot for this scene – note

that there are many possibilities for a wide

shot, but the term is used in relation to the

space of the scene and usually indicates a

wide-angle lens (or wide setting on a zoom for

a consumer digital camera). (Courtesy of Carl

Casinghino).

Figure 1-16 Long shot – as with the wide

shot, there are a variety of interpretations of

the long shot, but this shot generally indicates

a signifi cant distance between the camera and

the scene and may also be a shot that uses a

long lens (or telephoto setting). (Courtesy of

Kendelyn Ouellette).

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