Screenplays are usually a page a minute. If an action scene
in a film is supposed to last for five minutes, there should be five pages of
the screenplay focused on the action scene.
The protagonist/hero normally enters the scene for the first
time from the left hand side of the screen, walking to the right, and the
villain generally enters from the right hand side, and walking towards the
left. It’s subconscious, and the viewer tends to like/dislike a character more
because this is the way that people have learnt to watch films.
Leading the eye is a detail in which can be put into the
script. Parts of the scene can be focused upon by lighting, sound, character
positions, camera angles and camera movements, to make things seem more
important than others. Paranormal activity doesn’t have these cues to tell the
audience where to look, which is why it is scarier to watch it in a cinema as
you are unsure of where to look compared to normal films.
Symmetry is something that people always look for. It’s easy
to throw the audience off by unbalancing something on screen, as it feels like
something is missing or wrong, whereas a balanced and symmetrical shot feels
calmer and safe. If a shot is described as having something missing, the
audience will assume it is something important.
The size of things in the shot is important too, as framing
can make things seem larger or smaller than usual, giving them more
significance or less significance than usual. Something small like a nail or a
ring could have a huge impact if it fills up the screen compared to if it was
portrayed as its usual size in a wide shot. Framing could be used in this too,
and help to get information across.
People often look for boundaries and lines within shots, things
that stop characters and others from reaching their goals, or to relay
important information – like Brody being unable to cross the boundary from the
beach and into the sea due to his fear of water which is information that is
relayed to the audience quite a lot. Lines breaking across the screen could be
used if a character ‘crosses the line’, and it would be almost like a visual
representation that the character has taken something too far.
Sound is another detail that is used a lot in films. In
Jaws, the famous theme song is never used for fake shark scares, it’s only used
for genuine scenes with the shark because otherwise the audience would stop
paying attention to the music and wouldn’t tense up when the shark is actually
nearby.
Some things shown on screen are just pieces of information
to show or suggest things relating to the story, and aren’t something that
characters in the film would be looking at. This allows the audience to link
two things together, for example, and add to the story without them literally
needing to be told.
Camera movements such as contra shots can be used to make
the audience feel uneasy, or make something seem more important within the
film.
Colours are sometimes used to represent things – such as the
colour yellow appearing a lot throughout Jaws to represent danger and the
shark, and it sets the audience up to subliminally recognise the colour when
something bad is about to happen.
When going from one scene to another, always have something
to lead the audience by the hand into the next scene. Whether it is a huge
contrast, something exactly the same, or carrying something on from the previous
scene – such as characters walking into a house from the rain being soaking wet
rather than cutting to them being indoors and already dry. There should always
be a continuity or a discontinuity between all scenes.
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