Cinematic Language Understanding its Meaning

Cinematic Language: Understanding its Meaning Cinematic language is the methods and conventions of cinema that are used to communicate with the audience. This is often also referred to as visual storytelling, although this is only one part of cinematic language. Emotions and ideas are expressed in cinema visually through all types of techniques such as lighting, performance, mise-en-scéne, cinematography, editing and more. When understanding cinematic language, it is useful to consider the conventions of literature that are used to convey meaning and communicate with the reader. For example, literature often uses literary techniques such as symbolism or narration to portray meaning and communicate plot, characterisation or themes. The same is done in screenwriting, but with cinematic techniques. A montage can represent a cunning plan coming together or a singular experience had over different time periods. Lighting and colour can be used to indicate the mood of a scene. Pacing and dialogue can convey atmosphere. Clothes can convey character and themes. This is cinematic language. Cinematic language in film can come in many different forms. Take the following examples: Camera framing: a camera angle and framing can tell us how to feel about a character. For example, if the camera is looking at a character from a low angle, it shows the character is important or powerful. If the camera is looking from a high angle, it can show the character is small and weak. Lighting and colour: a dark and dull setting can tell us that we should feel tense or scared. Or a light and colourful setting can tell us to feel happy and warm. Performance: an actor’s performance is the key to understanding their emotions throughout a film. They can communicate this in a number of ways through facial expressions, body language, pace and tone. The writer might typically convey this intention through stage direction or a parenthetical. Cinematic Language in a Screenplay When writing a screenplay, cinematic language is a principle you should always have at the forefront of your mind. Camera directions and editing techniques are not explicitly your responsibility to write about. But cinematic language should be at the core of your screenplay. A good example of the use of cinematic language comes in Schindler’s List. The iconic use of colour in this famous scene (above) portrays many things: The film is entirely in black and white apart from this scene. The red coat, therefore, stands out. The young girl in the red coat is framed to be small and innocent against the heavy backdrop, filled with masses of people. It’s used as a way to symbolize hope, innocence and vitality amidst so much death and destruction. Steven Zaillian, who wrote this screenplay, creates an atmosphere that highlights the meaning of the red coat and therefore is speaking a language to the audience and screenplay reader. Auteur theory, It is a theory of filmmaking in which the director is viewed as the major creative force in a motion picture. Arising in France in the late 1940s, the auteur theory—as it was dubbed by the American film critic Andrew Sarris—was an outgrowth of the cinematic theories of André Bazin and Alexandre Astruc. A foundation stone of the French cinematic movement known as the nouvelle vague, or New Wave, the theory of director-as-author was principally advanced in Bazin’s periodical Cahiers du cinéma (founded in 1951). Two of its theoreticians— François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard—later became major directors of the French New Wave. The auteur theory, which was derived largely from Astruc’s elucidation of the concept of caméra-stylo (“camera-pen”), holds that the director, who oversees all audio and visual elements of the motion picture, is more to be considered the “author” of the movie than is the writer of the screenplay. In other words, such fundamental visual elements as camera placement, blocking, lighting, and scene length, rather than plot line, convey the message of the film. Supporters of the auteur theory further contend that the most cinematically successful films will bear the unmistakable personal stamp of the director.