Microfeatures

Cinematography -
angles
movements
shot size

Sound -
diegetic
non-diegetic

Mise-en-scene - 
setting
costume
prop
lighting
colour palette
casting

Editing -
title cards
speed of shot
cuts

All four elements combine to make aesthetic - the look or feel.

Camera Movements
track - in, back, left, right, with, behind
tilt
dolly - double dolly , zoom
zoom
pan - left, right, whip
crane - up , down


dutch angle - creates unsettling feeling
depth of field (shallow(only foreground)/deep(back and foreground)- focus pull - tells audience where to look
static/track  - long take - makes you feel like a spectator, immerses.


blurring background - audience fill in the gaps, more effective.




Lighting
key light - brightest, 45 degree angle to camera
back light - low intensity , uses diffusion
fill light - med intensity, 50-75% of key light
low key - duller
high key - very bright
top lighting
under lighting
chiaroscuro - harsh lighting creates contrast between areas of light and shade; used extensively in film noir, as well as in many horror films.


The short film opens up with a track back/with shot of a woman, noticeably handheld - the camera shake is quite drastic. The camera tracks back at a relatively fast pace, which when combined with the handheld look, creates a hectic atmosphere. This immerses the spectator, allowing them to understand the emotions the characters are going through using a medium different to facial expressions. By creating an empathetic link between spectator and character, the spectator can feel sorry or happy for the character (depending on the situation). Shot size is a medium close up, making it quite claustrophobic, as the woman fills up most of the frame, and the dark and narrow hallway adds to this effect.
The following shot includes all natural lighting, meaning there is no key or fill light coming from inside the staircase, only a back light coming from outside the window, at a high exposure. This creates a silhouette when she is going down the stairs, but what is more significant in this use of lighting is the inference that comes with it - the woman is making her descent into darkness, with the light in the background getting smaller until all that is left is its mark on the wall. This leaves the spectator with a dark impression of the introduction of the short film. This shot is then repeated with the two girls - they are following her in her path

One shot that stands out from the rest for its unique movement is where the last girl leaves the building - the camera pans left with her, however she doesn't stay centre frame, but rather escapes to the left. This creates the feeling that rather than just leaving a building, she has escaped, almost as if it is a prison, which could also be suggested by the iron bars of the fence, not too dissimilar to that of a detention centre. The shot lingers



Editing

Kuleshov - depending on the order of the shots, each shot can have a different connotation (Hitchcock -- woman and child/woman sunbathing , a man smiling).
elliptical editing - cutting out irrelevant bits from a scene to make it more succinct.
Pace - shorter shots = faster pace.
long shots = flow of movement, slower pace, feels more real, allows spectator to immerse themselves.
montage - long period of time compressed into a few minutes
graphic matching - two consecutive shots visually similar to create a link between them. e.g. 2001 : bone -> spaceship (beginning and end of use of tools)
jump cut - two sequential shots of the same subject in the same setting, can be used to show passing of time, or to cut out irrelevant parts (like elliptical editing)
cross-cutting - alternating between two or more spheres of action. allows storyteller to show grand scale of events, to tie in multiple storylines into one, to constantly leave viewers at a cliffhanger as it changes to a different sphere of action.


Sound

can tell you what to feel
constant noise leads to spectator not being able to notice the noise
motifs
leitmotif - certain pieces can be assigned to certain characters , ideas or situations and then used again to remind audience of those characters.
diegesis - the world of the film.
diegetic - coming from within the film e.g. dialogue, ambient soundscape
non-diegetic - coming from outside the film e.g. soundtrack, voice-over
hyper-real - between the two , exaggerated sounds e.g. heartbeats
contrapuntal sound - contrasting music to the visual

synchronous sound - sound that matches what we see on screen
asynchronous sound - sound that doesn't match what we see on screen
dissonance - unpleasant sound lacking harmony
sound bridge - sound carries over from one scene to the next
ambient sound - sounds of a given location
soundscape - a sound or combination of sounds arising from a particular environment
background music - sound that is harder to notice

music can be broken down into :
 rhythm
 instruments
 harmonies
 pitch - high/low
 tone/key (major key = happy, minor key = sad),
 timbre/mood/tone - smooth, deep, harsh, bright, piercing, warm, dark, rich, gentle, eerie
 tempo - fast, gradual, energetic, even, steady, frantic, slow, upbeat, joyful, lively
 crescendo - getting louder
 diminuendo - getting quieter
 texture
 dynamic

Foley artists = people who create sounds that are supposed to be diegetic.

when the music stops, the audience might expect something to happen, Silence also encourages the audience to be quiet, making them tense.

voiceover - used for exposition, can also make you empathise with a character e.g. with direct address
narration can be omniscient - can get into any characters head and know what they're feeling


mise-en-scene

can be used both naturalistically and expressively
framing/composition - rule of thirds, lines, symmetry, blocking, frame within a frame
colour palette - bright, pastel, monochromatic, muted, analogous (two different colours) , colour discordance (clash of colours), complement colour, hue , saturation
props
costume
setting
hair/makeup
casting


performance

melodrama - exaggerated
naturalism - daily routine, more kitchen sink type acting
realism
comedic

in the silent era, male and female stars were archetypal, and with the introduction of sound, male stars became more complex, resulting in genres being made around a certain star. Stars reach the spectator principally through their bodies, which is why there is a lack of roles for older women ,however older men are sometimes celebrated for their ruggedness/drunkeness

The star consists of : real person, reel person, and their persona (combination of the two, but still  independent

Star-image has 4 parts: what the industry puts out, what the media says (including critics), what the star says/does, what we say.

Stars can mean different things for different people (e.g. sidney poitier has different relationship to black and white people)

overall stars might be considered "intertextual" - a cluster of meanings and parts, often referencing one another.

stars can be considered as:
a deviant - life controlled by the studio and little room for resistance
a cultural value - shifting signifiers ; they reflect the time in which they work and their work becomes a sign reflected in society ; the stat is a mediator between the real and imaginary world
an object of star gazing - there are two audiences observing the star (diegetic/non-diegetic) - the spectator's look is often mediated (told how to react by how the diegetic audience reacts) through the diegetic audience. With regard to the female star, this look often becomes one of objectification/fetishisation.

Significance of casting:

stars sell firms ; they can help secure financial backing to get a project off the ground. They can be the deciding factor for whether a scene is or isn't kept e.g. brad pitt keeping the end of seven . Films can be vehicles for stars, allowing them to demonstrate a wide range of skills across genres.

typecasting - actor is inextricably linked to a role or genre.