Structure of a Film

Micro properties of film structure

• Difference between formalist and realism
• Mise en scene/ shot
• Colour in film
• Continuity editing- point of view cutting, cutting on the action, direction
• Montage versus long takes
• (fast and slow motions)
• Montage
• Digetic and non digetic sound

Macro properties of a film

• Narrative- what’s happening or what is depicted in films.
• Narration- how that narrative is presented to the film spectator.         

Narrative structure

• What is narrative structure based on?
• Narrative logic
• Cause and effect- NOT random events. This is what drives the narrative.

Narrative logic in action

Event A a man is shot A points a gun in an off screen direction and fires. In shot B another man is shown collapsing to the ground. Because of the way the shots are edited (shot B immediately following shot A) the spectator reads the event in shot A as the cause of the event in shot B.