Depth of field is the distance within which all objects will be in acceptable sharp focus. It is an area in front of and behind the principle point of focus that will also be in acceptable focus.

Shallow focus: the technique that keeps one part of an image in focus while the rest is out of focus.

Deep focus: a technique where all elements of an image—foreground, middleground, and background—are all in sharp focus.

1. Dolly Zoom: La Haine (1995)

This camera movement combines the dolly shot (tracking shot) and the zoom to create a visually jarring camera movement; an idea of confusion, shock or abnormality can be crafted through this camera movement, and has been used by many famous directors, originating from Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’.

2. Tracking Shot: Birdman (2014)

The tracking shot is usually used to express a character or thing’s movements without cutting between shots. This type of camera movement also enhances the viewing experience as it adds a sense that you are moving with the characters.

In Birdman, most of the movie utilises this type of shot; this movie satirizes the theatre world and therefore, the use of this shot type helps the audience to feel as if they are actually behind the scenes, learning things about the theatre that are usually unseen to the audience. This feature wouldn’t be demonstrated as effectively if generic movie editing was used in this film as the continuous movement adds an extra layer of verisimilitude to the film.

Depth of field is the portion of that distance or ‘depth’ that is ‘in-focus’. A higher depth of field would see the whole image from foreground to background sharp and in focus, a lower depth would result in blurry backgrounds and blurred elements in the foreground too.

Mise-en-scène is the stage design and arrangement of actors in scenes for film production, both in visual arts through storyboarding, visual theme, and cinematography, and in narrative storytelling through the direction.

What is considered mise en scene in film?It refers to everything placed on the stage or in front of the camera—including people. In other words, mise en scène is a catch-all for everything that contributes to the visual presentation and overall “look” of a production. When translated from French, it means “placing on stage.”

It is everything that appears before the camera and its arrangement—composition, sets, props, actors, costumes, and lighting.

Film Score: An original piece of music that’s written/tailored for a specific film. Film scores are composed to enhance a film’s story and emotion. Film score composers create the music for a film based on the direction given from the director.

Jukebox Score: When the majority of the songs are well-known popular music songs, rather than original music.

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One of my favourite movie soundtracks is the soundtrack of the film ‘Chef’ because the soundtrack is a combination of Latin Jazz, New Orleans Jazz and blues, which serve as background to the storyline as it moves through Miami, New Orleans. I particularly like how well the music matches both the vibes and locations of the film.

A “needle drop” moment within a film is when music is played diegetically, meaning that the characters within the narrative can hear it, using a song that wasn’t created for the film’s soundtrack. An example of this is present within Sony Pictures’ 2018 animated film Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, where the character of Miles Morales is listening to Swae Lee and Post Malone’s Sunflower in the opening scenes of the film.

Needle drops can also become non-diegetic and cut into a montage or another scene, which can be used to amplify the tone of each shot.

The sound could also be synchronous, such as in Edgar Wright’s 2004 film Shaun of the Dead, where, in the third act of the film, there’s a choreographed scene of the characters beating the Winchester’s owner with pool cues, synchronised to Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now.

Narration is a set of representational, organizational, and discursive cues that deliver the story information to the audience. The fiction film should be thought of as a text, a collection of narrative systems, each of which functions and exists in its own history, with its own stylistic options.

Narrative is important to understand a character’s motivation, their place in the story world, and their growth and change throughout a film. The narrative introduces characters and directs us through impressions of their character.

Taxi Driver is an example of a film that utilizes narration to help the viewer watch the slow mental decline of Travis ( the main character)

A leitmotif is a repeating melodic phrase in music that is used to represent a character, setting, emotion, or theme. 

An example of a Leitmotif in a film that adds an ambiance to a part of the film is the Nazi Motif from Raiders of the Lost Ark is a short, ascending leitmotif written by John Williams, representing the film’s German army villains. Williams purposely wrote the brassy, “campy” piece as an homage to the old 1930s Republic serials