| I The Language of Film |
|
FIELD
SIZES (Einstellungsgröße/Bildausschnitt) |
|
long shot (Totale)  |
The camera is at a great
distance from the subject being filmed and presents the entire setting. |
| medium long shot | The subject of the shot, e.g. a couple, is shown together with its surroundings. |
| full shot (Halbnaheinstellung) | a shot of a subject that includes the entire body and not much else |
| medium shot (Naheinstellung) | The camera is not quite as near to its object as in a close-up; with human subjects the person is shown down to the waist or hips. |
normal shot (Normale)  |
comprehensive term for all field sizes between long shot and close-up |
close-up (Großaufnahme)  |
The camera is very close to the object; with human subjects, the face and its expressions are shown. The slightest nuance of expression in an actor's face is shown and can become significant. |
| extreme close-up/detail shot (Detailaufnahme) | a shot of a hand, eye, mouth or object in detail |
| POINT
OF VIEW (Darstellungsperspektive) The position from which the camera is filming, e.g. |
|
| establishing shot | generally a long shot that shows the general location of the scene |
| point-of-view shot (POV) | shows the scene from the point of view of a character |
| over-the-shoulder shot | The partner in a dialogue is seen from the perspective of a person standing just behind and a little to one side of the other partner so that parts of both are in the frame. |
| reverse-angle shot | a shot from the opposite side |
| CAMERA
ANGLES (Kameraperspektive) |
|
| high angle/overhead (Obersicht/Vogel- perspektive)  |
In a high-angle shot, the camera is placed at an angle above the scene of action, thus objects and people appear smaller and less important. In an extreme form, it becomes a bird's eye view. |
| low angle/below shot (Untersicht/Frosch- perspektive)  |
Objects and people are filmed from below, the importance
of what is shown tends to be enlarged thereby. In an extreme form,
it becomes a worm's eye view. "The camera shoots from a low angle." |
| eye-level/straight-on angle (Augenhöhe) | the fairly conventional angle at which the camera is pointed at the subject; it is often used to convey the idea of realism, authenticity and objectivity |
| CAMERA
MOVEMENT (Kamerabewegung) Movement of the camera during the shot |
|
pan(ning) (horizontaler Schwenk)  |
This is a movement from left to right or vice versa
around the vertical axis. The panning movement can lead smoothly from
one image to the next, or from one character to another. "The camera pans across the picture." |
tilt (vertikaler Schwenk)  |
movement of the camera upwards (tilt up) or downwards (tilt down) around the horizontal axis |
| tracking (trucking) shot (Kamerafahrt) | These expressions are derived from the early film practise of putting the camera on a truck or on a small waggon running on a metal track. |
| zoom | Technically this is not a moving shot because the camera itself does not move; the zoom is produced by a system of lenses whose focal length is adjusted during the shot; zoom-in: the subject appears to come closer; zoom-out: the subject appears to move farther away."The camera zooms in on Mr. W.'s face." |
| MONTAGE/EDITING | |
| The arrangements of the shots in a structured sequence. The segments in a film and the individual shots are never filmed in the same order as one watches them. They are always edited after filming. Montage is the use of editing to create a meaningful relationship between the individual shots. For example, by means of montage a director can show what is going on in a person's mind. Frequent forms of montage are: | |
| parallel action/cross-cutting | intermingling the shots of two or more scenes |
| flashback (Rückblende) | scene or sequence that is inserted into the "present time" and deals with the past |
| flash-forward (Vorausschau) | scenes or shots referring to future time |
| match cut | The two shots or scenes are linked by visual, aural or metaphorical parallelism. |
| PUNCTUATION Refers to the way in which shots are linked. The most common are: |
|
| cut (Schnitt) | a simple switch from one image to the next |
| fade-in (Aufblendung) | The screen is black at the beginning, gradually the image appears brightening to full strength. |
| fade-out (Abblendung) | the opposite of fade-in |
| dissolve (Überblendung) | the old image disappears, fades away and the new image gradually appears |
| MISCELLANEOUS | |
| shot (Filmeinstellung, Aufnahme) | a single piece of film without cuts exposed continuously |
| scene (Szene) | |
| sequence (Sequenz) | |
| segment (Segment) | larger unit in a film composed of a number of shots; usually unifying elements are place, time, theme, etc. |
| film transcript | transcript of the final film according to the individual shots giving field size, camera angle, camera movement, action, dialogue etc. |
| screenplay (Drehbuch) | the script of a film containing a rough description of the location, the dialogue and some of the camera movements |
| storyboard (Aufnahmeplan) | sketch of what is going to be filmed |
editor  |
the person in charge of splicing the shots of the film together |
| director (Regisseur) | supervises the production of a film and is responsible for action, lighting, camera behaviour, music and for giving substance to the intention of the author |
| producer (Produzent) | responsible for the financing and marketing of a film |
| casting (Besetzung) | choosing actors to impersonate the characters |
| credits (Vorspann/Nachspann) | list of people who were involved in the making of the film |
| mis-en-scene | direction of actors, placement of cameras, lighting, arrangement of the shot |
| subtitle (Untertitel) | |
| inserted caption (Zwischentitel) | |
| voice over | the voice of the narrator speaking while other sounds including voices of the characters continue |
| (voice) on | The speaker (narrator/character) is shown in the picture. |
| (voice) off | The speaker (narrator/character) is not shown in the picture. |
| MAKING A FILM: A SIMPLIFIED FLOW CHART | |
|
|
Quelle: E. Platz-Waury/U.
Rösner/M. Seletzky: „Hemingway/Young: Soldier’s
Home“, Langenscheidt-Longmann, München 1986, S. 22 |
|
Teil II: Questions for Film Analysis |
|
 |  |  |
