Some Techniques in Film

I read Roger Ebert’s “How to Read a Movie” and it showed me how to look at movies differently. I never really thought about how just pausing a movie could show you so much. He talked about how his students would call out “stop” during a movie and they’d all sit there and think about that one frame, kind of like how sports teams analyze a game frame by frame to find out what went right or wrong. I think this method works because it gives you time to actually see the details you’d normally miss when everything is moving so fast. You notice the little details like the shadows, where people stand, and how their eyes look, as those small things can tell you what a character is feeling or thinking without them saying anything. But I think this method might not always work for everyone because some people just want to feel the movie as it flows instead of stopping it all the time. For them, it might ruin the emotional build up of a scene. Well, normally you’d watch a film without pausing first before rewatching it to make your analysis. He also talked about how people on the right side of the screen feel more positive while people on the left side feel more negative. This seemed like a really foreign concept to me because I never noticed it before but I can see why it works. The connection I could make is that we read things left to right so when someone moves to the right it feels like progress or hope. If they move to the left it feels like going back or something sad. But I also feel like this might not always work depending on what culture you’re in. Like if you grew up reading right to left (the Arabic language for example) maybe it feels different. Still, it’s fascinating how directors use these small techniques to essentially guide how we feel about a scene without us even noticing we’re feeling this way because of it.

The two videos I watched taught me different cinema techniques. One of the videos I watched was “Hitchcock loves Bikinis.” I liked how simple it was but still made a big point. Basically, the video showed how putting two clips together can completely change how you see someone. Like when shown man looking at a mother with a baby, then back at him smiling, you think he’s a nice old man. But when the middle clip was changed to a girl in a bikini, suddenly he’s dirty. With the power of editing using cinematographic techniques, it can change what an audience thinks about a character without changing anything about the character themselves. I think that’s something fun to see when I’m trying to use it in my own projects. Just experimenting with seeing how switching out just a single clip can make a whole different meaning in filmmaking.

Another video I watched was “Tarantino // From Below.” It showed so many scenes where Tarantino filmed his characters from below looking up at them. It made them look super powerful and intimidating. Just seeing how from this perspective, it makes the viewer feel small compared to the character. Like the character is towering over you and it gives them that strong, dominant vibe. I think these techniques matter because it shows how movies aren’t just about telling stories with words and the props that are physically there, but also it’s about making the viewers FEEL something just by how you place a camera or what clips you decide to put together. Overall, I learned that reading movies is about looking deeper and seeing the choices that directors make to essentially guide your emotions without you even noticing.