When we think about cinema, what do we think of? I think of drive-ins, popcorn, and my favorite films. Warning: I will use the words “movies” and “films” synonymously in this article, not to confuse you. Growing up in the United States, movies were not only used for entertainment value, but to educate and enlighten the American public. Movies are the world’s most powerful art forms. Their abilities are endless. With each director comes a new story, a new team, new ideas, and new feelings. The power of cinema is incredible but it is certainly overlooked.
When I took my first broadcasting-related course my freshman year, it was called Intro to Visual Theory. I adored this course because the core of the course was analyzing visual aspects of movies. It’s one thing to watch a movie and to know that the movie is fake (obviously there are many stunts and visual graphics and such). But it is another thing to understand the visual theory of movies. Actually, it’s incredible to understand.
The main thing I want you to know: each and every part of a movie has a purpose to the storyline or the feeling of the film. That is cinema’s power. The power is this visual genius.
The problem behind this visual genius is that sometimes it can be so great that it completely takes you away from the film. I love being taken away in a good film. I like being lost and so attached to the screen that I won’t even get up to go pee. But after taking this class, I thoroughly enjoy being able to look at films as a piece of art. I have a new respect for movies and I know that they are more than shooting with a camera.
When you watch certain genres, you expect things out of them. For instance, if you are watching a horror film or a thriller, you want to be scared or at least on the edge of your seat. If you watch a rom-com, you want the romance but you also want to laugh. But these are general things from these genres. There are also visual conventions as well. Let’s stay with horror films.
Horror films are good examples of visual theory. In horror films, you expect to see darkness, a damsel in distress, and some sort of a scene where something creeps up behind. When you watch these scenes, pay attention to how the frame is set up. If the main character is on the right side of the screen and there is a bunch of open space on the left side, then something will shortly be there, whether it’s good or bad. There is a reason for every open space on screen, whether it means putting the scary thing there or simply hinting at it, it will scare you. Thus, the horror film is doing its job.
Without actually going through this course, it will be hard to understand the message that I am trying to convey to you. I just want you to know that there is so much more than meets the eye when watching a film. It will really open your eyes if you try to look at things differently than just letting them take you away. Either way, appreciate films. They do more than you think.
