Grammmar of the Film Language is a unique guide to the visual narrative techniques that form the "language" of filmmaking. This language is basic to the very positioning and moving of players and cameras, as well as the sequencing and pacing of images. It does not date as new technologies alter the means of capturing images on film and tape.
The guidelines offered here will inform almost every choice that the director, the cinematographer and the editor will make. Through lucid text and more than 1500 illustrations, Arijon presents visual narrative formulas that will enlighten anyone involved in the film and tape industry (including producers, writers and animators).
The hardcover edition of this magnum opus has found an avid audience among student and professional filmmakers everywhere. Non for the first time, it is available in a reasonably priced paperback edition.
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Specifications
Book Details
Imprint
Silman-James Press,U.S.
Table of Contents
Contents:
1. Film Language as a system of visual communication
2. The importance of parallel film editing
3. Defining the basic tools
4. The Triangle Principle
5. Dialogue Between Two Players
6. Three-Player Dialogue
7. Dialogue Involving Four or More Persons
8. Editing Patterns for Static Dialogue Scenes
9. The Nature of Screen Motion
10. Cutting After the Movement
11. Motion Inside the Screen
12. Motion Into and Out of Shot
13. Player a Moves Towards Player B
14. Using master Shots to Cover Motions on the Screen
15. Irregular cases
16. Player a moves away from player B
17. Players move together
18. Solving difficult editing situations
19. Other types of motion
20. Twenty basic rules for camera movement
21. The panning camera
22. The travelling camera
23. The camera crane and the zoom lens
24. Action scenes
25. Editing in the camera
26. Moving from zone to zone
27. Combined techniques
28. Film punctuation
Contributors
Author Info
Daniel Arijon has worked professionally since 1959 as a film editor, screenwriter, and director of documentaries and features. He has lectured on filmmaking and has authored a number of magazine articles on the subject. His Grammar of the Film Language has been translated into japanese, french and Spanish.