Production Elements

Production elements are the technical aspects of filmmaking. Without these, the story wouldn't be told in an effective way. Just try watching a film with poor production values (that means bad acting, lighting, sound, etc). It's pretty tough going and, even if the script (story) is good, it's usually pretty tedious to watch. This is because the writer's intention has not been realised by the director - the production elements have undermined the story elements.

On the flip-side of this, have you ever watched a film and walked away saying, 'Man, that story was terrible, but the special effects were great!' These days, a criticism levelled at Hollywood is that it tends to favour production elements, such as special effects, over story elements. Whether or not you believe this is true, when a film's production and story elements combine, they make a winning combination. A great example of this would be 'Terminator 2', which is still regarded as a classic action movie and loved by fans of all ages, despite the fact that it's more than 15 years old.

So which production elements do you need to know, and what do you need to know about them? Let's start with the one you will be most exposed to as a film goer - camera.

A camera is more than a machine that funnels light onto a recording device. On set, it's the stand-in for the viewer's eye. The angle of the camera, the way it moves, its focal length and distance from the subject, combine to create a visual experience for the viewer that goes beyond mere words on a page. Consider the following scene from 'Man on Fire'. It is incredibly intricate, as the camera performs a range of visual tricks that are designed to unsettle the viewer while honing their attention on particular details in the scene. See how many of the camera elements listed above you can spot in the scene, and think about why the movie's director (Tony Scott) and the cinematographer chose to present the action in this way.



By contrast, check out this scene from 'The Third Man' (directed by Orson Welles). Perhaps the most striking difference is the tiny number of shots for such a long scene (by today's standards, that is). This creates a visually striking but slower-paced scene than that of 'Man on Fire':



Intricately tied to the camera is another production element, 'visual composition'. Sometimes referred to as 'mis en scene' - from the French term for 'putting on stage' - visual composition encompasses the framing and angle of a shot as well as the positioning of everything (and everyone) in front of the camera. Of particular importance is the relationship between the people, the camera and the things in the frame, for example whether they are placed in the foreground or background, and how big they appear in relation to one another. Check out how much you can tell about the family who own the house in the next scene, from 'American Beauty' (Sam Mendes, 1999), through the visual composition. (Feel free to turn the volume off if it makes it easier to concentrate on the framing, characer position, costumes and props):



Another key to understanding the how the visuals of a film are constructed is to look at the lighting. This can be naturalistic (replicating natural lighting such as the sun) or expressionistic (designed to convey a particular mood or meaning to the viewer). In the following clip from 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' (1985), lighting is used to draw a clear distinction between two very different characters. The first character is lit with a naturalistic, high-key (essentially that means bright) light, that makes him almost blend in with the painting he's looking at; by contrast, his best friend Bueller and Bueller's girlfriend are lit, from behind, by a cool blue glow that creates a sense of romance:



Lighting is, of course, a great way to create suspense. In this famous scene from the original 'Cat People', the play of shadows creates a chill that terrified audiences at the time:



In all of the clips you've seen so far, acting has created a sense of character. But what is acting exactly? It's not just the words that somebody says. It's also the non-verbal cues they give, in their facial expressions and body language. It might be easy for you to remember as action, reaction and interaction. In the following scene from 'Taxi Driver' (one of the most famous scenes of all time), you can see how the very talented Robert De Niro conveys a huge amount about his character in only a few words.

When considering the performance of an actor, it's important remember that actors are cast not only for their ability to play a character, but because they can draw a crowd (from a specific demographic) and because their audience has a certain expectation about the sort of character they will play. Robert De Niro is the perfect example: having worked with Martin Scorsese (the director of 'Taxi Driver') on more than ten films, he is often thought of as a 'gangster' type, and it has sometimes been hard for him to find projects that allow him to express the other facets of his acting persona. In 2008, the movie 'Righteous Kill' played upon De Niro's 'bad guy' reputation by having him begin the film by saying that he was the killer (knowing that the audience would take this at face value). On the other hand, for the movie 'L.A. Confidential', the director chose two actors who would be virtually unkonwn to American audiences at the time (Guy Pearce and Russel Crowe), feeling the lack of expectations about the sorts of roles they usually played would heighten the mystery at the heart of the film.

As well as visuals, most movies (since the silent film era) have relied on sound in order to convey meaning and/or mood to the viewer. It is sometimes intrusive, sometimes barely registered by the viewer, but it's always there. Even the use of silence is, today, a choice made by the director in consultation with a sound engineer. In movies, sound is made up of three parts: dialogue, music and sound effects. Listen to the way each is used in the following scene from 'Blade Runner' (Ridley Scott, 1982) in order to give the viewer an immediate sense of the future noir world in which they find themselves:



So what about tying it all together? Whose job is that? That mammoth task is left up to the editor (and other post-production staff) who will take visual and sound elements and form a cohesive and engaging film based upon the director's instructions. During the editing process, choices will be made about which shots to use and which to leave on the 'cutting room floor', controllling the pace and rhythm of the final product; filters and special effects may be added to the footage to heighten its impact or create meaning; and the sound will be mixed to combine dialogue, music and sound effects. As the final stage in the filmmaking process, editing is so crucial that directors like Robert Rodriguez ('Sin City' and 'From Dusk Til Dawn') insist on doing it themselves.

Below, I have included the opening scene from 'Donnie Darko', which combines all the production elements outlined in this post to create a stunning scene. See if you can see how they work in conjunction to convey the director's vision: