Film Technique and Meaning

Class last monday was really interesting to me, from an artist's point of view. Lately I've been taking a lot of photography classes and we learn all about things like lighting, perspective, framing, setting, color ect. Everything that goes for photography even more so can be applied to the making of a film. I loved seeing all the different clips from all the different movies as well. It helped give a very broad look at different techniques and styles of getting through to people esthetically. For me, the one that got to me the most was the first one, “Bunny.” It wasn't only clever and funny, but it was also quite moving. It was surprising to me how all the little details tucked in (such as the tilted picture on the wall, or the speckled oven walls turning into a starry sky) could make such a difference in the effectiveness of the film. Too often I assume whether a film is powerful or not is merely found within the script and acting, but in reality a HUGE amount of it truly is in the things I too often take for granted such as the artistic work, and forethought of design that goes into making a movie. One thing that we didn't touch on in class, but I feel is worth mentioning, is the aspect of music in film. I think this goes hand in hand with things like color, lighting, contrast ect. Music has a HUGE handle on people. Its draws an emotional reaction out of us, and makes a movie more engaging and real. I would go as far to say, it could be even more important than many of the aspects we learned about in class. Music can make all the difference to me in whether I'm excited and interested in a film. But all together, I really enjoyed that class a lot and would like to study film as an art form more in the future.