Film

What is Film?
The film is an audio-visual artwork shown on the screen. Film is determined by the literary techniques that develop certain
features under the influence of films. Film's idiosyncratic modes of presentation—such as camera angle, editing, montage,
slow and fast motion—often parallel features of literary texts or can be explained within a textual framework. The major
developments of literary theory have therefore also been borrowed or adapted by film studies.

In spite of their differing forms and media, drama and film are often categorized under the heading performing arts because
they use actors as their major means of expression. In both genres, a performance (in the sense of a visual representation by
people) stands at the center of attention. The most obvious difference between film and drama is the fact that a film is
recorded and preserved rather than individually staged in the unique and unrepeatable manner of a theater performance.
Films, and particularly video tapes, are like novels, which in theory can be repeatedly read, or viewed.
The study of film has existed for quite some time now as an independent discipline, especially in the Anglo-American
world. Since its invention a hundred years ago, film has also produced diverse cinematic genres and forms, which no
longer permit a classification of film as product of drama. If film is dealt with from a formal-structuralist point of view,
however, its affinity to the novel often overshadows its links to the play. Typical elements of the novel-varied narrative
techniques, experimental structuring of the plot, foreshadowing and flashback, the change of setting and time
structure—are commonly used in film. The stage offers only limited space for the realization of many of these
techniques.

Sound was introduced to film in the mid-1920s, some of the progressive visual techniques of the
silent era were abandoned for a brief period in favor of sound and nusic. Because of the sheer
weight of sound equipment, camera mobility was initially hampered. The acoustic dimension
enabled the development of action through dialogues and not merely through the visual means of
the preceding decades.
In America, cinematic adaptations of narrative literature were carried out at the turn of the century. Among the first narrative
films are children's stories such as Georges Méliès' (1861-1938) Cinderella (1899) or novels such as Gulliver's Travels
(Georges Méliès, 1901) and short stories such as The Legend of Rip Van Winkle (Georges Méliès, 1905). Whle the early
films simply adopted the rigid perspective of the proscenium stage, the genre clearly departed from drama immediately prior
to and during World War I. New techniques such as camera movement and editing were invented. An early American
example in which these new techniques are applied is D.W.Griffith's (1875-1948) epic narrative film about the United States
rise to power, The Birth of a Nation (1915). Many of the major genres, such as the Western, slapstick comedies and love
stories were already existent in the early American silent movie. Already by World War I, Hollywood had become the center
of the film industry, with a widespread network of cinemas all over America.

Outside America, the Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein (1898– 1948) was one of the key figures in film history, inventing
new techniques in the field of film editing in the years after the Russian Revolution. In Germany between the wars, Robert
Wiene's (1881-1938) Das Cabinett des Dr Caligari (1919) and Fritz Lang's (1890-1976) Metropolis (1926) were famous
contributions to Expressionist Film.
The most essential elements of film can be subsumed under the dimensions of
space, time and sound.

Spatial Dimension Temporal Dimension

film stock slow and fast motion
lighting plot time
camera angle length of film
camera movement flashback
point of view foreshadowing
editing
montage

Acoustic Dimension
dialogue
music
sound effects
Spatial dimension
The deliberate choice of film stock, including black and white or
color, high-contrast or low-contrast, sensitive or less sensitive
material, produces effects which directly influence the contents of a
film. The insertion of black and white material in a contemporary
color movie, for example, can create the impression of a historical
flashback

A similar effect can be achieved through the use of old newsreels

from an earlier era of film. It is also possible to convey certain moods
or to create specific settings by varying the choice of film stock.
 "Spatial dimension" is a term often used in the
context of filmmaking and 3D technology. In the
context of film, it refers to the perception of depth
or the illusion of three-dimensional space in a
two-dimensional medium. Here are a few key
aspects of spatial dimension in film:

3D Films
Depth of Field:
Composition and
Framing
Camera Movements
Visual Effects
Temporal dimension
Film, like literature, can employ the dimension of time
in a variety of ways. Aspects of plot which have already
been mentioned, such as fore-shadowing and flashback,
or interwoven levels of action and time, can be
translated into film. The specific qualities of the
medium enable the treatment of time in ways that do not
exist in other genres. Simple examples of these
techniques are fast-motion and slow-motion, which
defamiliarize the action.
Acoustic dimension
It was not until the 1920s that the acoustic aspect was
added to film, bringing about a radical change of the
medium. Information was no longer conveyed merely
by means of visual effects such as facial expressions,
gestures or subtitles, but also through language
(dialogue or monologue), music and sound effects.
Thank You