Film Analysis – cinematic devices
In film the director (Regisseur) and/or the cameraman can use various cinematic devices to communicate and convey meaning. The first important aspect is the distance between the camera and the person(s)/ object(s) that is (are) going to be filmed. There are three broad categories: the long shot, the medium shot and the close-up. The long shot (Totale) gives a wide view of the visual field and a human subject usually takes up less than half the height of the frame (wörtl. Rahmen; Bild). A close-up (Großaufnahme) offers a very narrow view of the field so that e.g. a human face may fill the whole screen. The medium shot (Halbtotale) presents a view somewhere between the long shot and the close-up; a person may take up the full height of the screen or may fill it with half of his body. Within these three categories there is a variety of subdivisions. The two most important ones are the extreme long shot (Panoramaeinstellung), e.g. a tiny group of riders in a gigantic landscape in a Western, and the extreme close-up (Detailaufnahme) where only e.g. an eye or the mouth is seen.	Wer erstellt Graphiken zum Text? Mailt sie mir zu!         :-)
Another important element of visual composition is the angle (Blickwinkel) of the camera. When the camera is placed at a low angle the size and importance of the subject are emphasized. Low angle shots may be appropriate for instance if a child is the protagonist of a film and the director attempts to show us the scene from the child‘s perspective. The opposite effect is generally achieved by placing the camera above eye-level (Augenhöhe), creating a high angle shot, where the viewpoint makes the subject smaller and thus reduces its importance. When the camera adopts the perspective of a character the terms point-of-view (or POV-) shot or subjective camera are used. Voice-over means that a character speaks but is not shown while speaking or that a voice tells or comments on the story.	Wer erstellt Graphiken zum Text? Mailt sie mir zu!         :-)
When a film is shot the director must decide which of the actors and/or props (Requisiten) must later be sharp/in focus (scharf) and which blurred/out of focus (unscharf, verschwommen). As the human eye is automatically drawn to the object it can see best, that which is in the sharpest focus, the director may direct the viewer‘s attention by focussing on e.g. a certain object. The focal planes (Schärfeebenen) may change if e.g. our attention is guided from some action in the foreground to something that goes on in the middleground or background. Deep focus (Schärfentiefe) means that all three planes are in clear focus; using a special lens (Linse) one can approximate most clearly the ability of the human eye to see a deep range of objects sharply. When shallow focus is used only e.g. people in the foreground are in focus whereas the background is blurred; thus the importance e.g. of a dialogue may be visualized.	Wer erstellt Graphiken zum Text? Mailt sie mir zu!         :-)
The camera is seldom fixed all the time but can move in various directions. Horizontal movement of a stationary camera is called panning and corresponds to the turning of our head from one side to the other. A panning shot may be effective e.g. to present a sweeping panoramic view of a wide landscape e.g. in a Western. The equivalent of moving our head up and down vertically is referred to as tilting. The zoom lens gives the camera the apparent power to vary its distance from any subject. It creates the effect of smooth and fluid movement toward or away from the subject without actually requiring any movement of the camera. The camera itself may be moved with the help of a dolly (Kamerawagen) or a crane (Kran). Such a mobile camera may be used e.g. to follow a person from behind (forward tracking shot, Verfolgungsfahrt) or following e.g. a driving car parallel to it (parallel tracking shot). Sometimes a deliberately jerky picture (verwackeltes Bild) is achieved by using a hand-held camera.	Wer erstellt Graphiken zum Text? Mailt sie mir zu!         :-)
The smallest structural unit of film is the shot (Einstellung). With the help of cuts (Schnitt) several shots form a scene. A group of consecutive and interrelated shots forms a sequence. The creative process of assembling various shots to a meaningful film is called editing (Schneiden), the person is referred to as the editor. When two shots overlap we talk of dissolve (Überblende). When a picture fades into black (or another colour) to mark the transition [trÃn`zISn] (Übergang) between two shots we have a fade-out  (Abblende); when an image evenly appears out of a black field a fade-in (Aufblende) is employed. A sequence of (mostly rather brief) shots that are edited in a particularly artistic and effective way is called montage(e.g. the murder in the shower in Hitchcock‘s Psycho.	Wer erstellt Graphiken zum Text? Mailt sie mir zu!         :-)