Film form: What is film construction? What does it mean to say a film has been ‘put together’?

If you are working your way through the whole or parts of this chapter you will find it useful to have watched Seven (Fincher, 1995) and helpful to have access to scenes, clips and single shots from at least some of the following films:

■ Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (Ritchie, 1998) ■ Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring (Jackson, 2001) ■ Whale Rider (Caro, 2002) ■ A Hard Day’s Night (Lester, 1964) ■ Mildred Pierce (Curtiz, 1945) ■ The Crying Game (Jordan, 1992) ■ East is East (O’Donnell, 1999) ■ Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960)

This chapter:

■ outlines the four key areas of film ‘language’ denoted as mise en scène, cinematography, editing and sound;

■ considers ways of analysing film construction techniques.