Aspects of Feature Films

There are five key aspects of a feature film.  If we wanted to get specific there are hundreds - but for the sake of our simplicity we're going to say there are five.  Trust me on this, and let us just go with it.

The five aspects we will be focusing on are:
Acting, Scripts, Audio, Cinematography, and Special Effects.

Acting
Star Trek is a great place to look at examples of both [ bad acting ] as well as [ good acting ].

Things to consider:
1. What makes the good acting different than the bad acting?
2. How much is the fault of the script?
3. Can a good actor make a bad script feel less terrible?
4. Is acting a product of its time?

Scripts

Aside from the overarching narrative of a film one of the most important aspects is dialogue.  Dialogue must seem natural, without actually being natural.  In most cases real conversations are boring, and lack the witty intensity of well scripted dialogue.  But then there are cases where...  well it doesn't always work out.

Here is an example of [ good dialogue ] and an example of [ bad dialogue ].

Things to consider:
1. What makes a conversation feel natural?
2. Is it more important to have strong dialogue or strong actors?
3. Why does some dialogue seem forced, while other parts seem natural?
4. Why does a recreation of a real conversation not work well on film?

Audio
There are really two types of audio in film.  There is the soundtrack, and there are the sound effects.  Without either of them, a film can feel flat - muted - and less engrossing.

Here is an example of [ foley artistry ] and an example of [ the importance of soundtracks ].

Things to consider:
1. How does the soundtrack affect our understanding of a film?
2. Is it more important to have music, or sound effects?
3. Why can't they use natural sound effects from the filming?
4. How does audio in movies affect our perception of real life?

Cinematography
There are a number of ways the camera can trick us into thinking about things differently.  The angle we shoot on, the distance we are from the subject, the length of a shot before cutting away.  All of these things change how we view a film, and how we understand it.

Here is an example of some very well done cinematography from [ Children of Men ]

Things to consider:
1. How is shooting a subject from a high angle (above their head) different from a low angle?
2. How does a tightly cropped framing on a subject feel different from a wide shot?
3. Why would someone choose to do a one shot, over multiple cuts?
4. On average how long is a shot before the camera cuts away to a new one?

Special Effects
We have come to expect a lot from our movies.  Reality is not something that seems to be desired anymore.  In fact, reality doesn't seem to be something that is filmed anymore either.  It is often easier to digitally recreate a city, than actually move there for the shooting.  And none of this would have happened if not for those paving the way nearly one hundred years ago.

Here is an example of [ the history of special effects ] and [ modern special effects ]

Things to consider:
1. Why were special effects invented?  What is wrong with reality, as it is?
2. How have special effects evolved over 100 years of cinema?
3. When are special effects detrimental, rather than helpful?
4. How can we trust anything we on film these days?  Should we?