Nine Primary Filmmaking Tools Beyond Script

• Film tells stories through image and sound just as much as through script
• Core tools for visual storytelling:
  • Casting
  • Locations
  • Production design
  • Lighting
  • Camera
  • Actors
  • Picture editing
  • Sound
  • Music
• Functions of these tools:
  • Communicate story beats
  • Give context (socio-economic status, decade, occasion)
  • Direct viewer’s eye
  • Suggest character’s state of mind
  • Underscore relationships between characters
  • Underscore themes, ideas, and tone
  • Evoke emotions

Casting and Character Development

• Emotional resonance more important than physical characteristics
  • Example: Three actors in “Moonlight” don’t look alike in real life but have right emotional resonance
  • Character becomes character through emotional personality qualities
• Physical qualities considerations:
  • Age, race, ethnicity, gender, physical ability
  • Fashion sensibility, tattoos
  • Only important if they affect the story
• Key question: How does each trait affect your character in this particular story?

Setting and Locations

• Setting vs. Locations distinction:
  • Setting: Story world with connotations of place, time, genre (given by script)
  • Locations: Specific places selected within that setting to create vision
• “The Graduate” example: 1960s Southern California suburb
  • Focused on wealthy, preppy areas (not broader LA cross-section)
  • Upper crust, college-educated social milieu
  • Hotel, church, backyard, pool all reflect this world
• “Moonlight” example: Liberty City housing project in Miami
  • Very specific location crucial to story
  • Football field with train tracks running through it
• Location selection considerations:
  • What era is story taking place?
  • Real or fictional world? If fictional, what are the rules?
  • What part of world? Get specific (not just Miami, but Liberty City)
  • What socioeconomic class?
  • Where do characters spend their time?
  • What spaces best highlight character’s experience?

Production Design Elements

• Props vs. Set Dressing:
  • Props: Something character handles or interacts with
  • Set Dressing: Background elements not directly interacted with
  • If called out in script, it’s a prop
• Motifs as storytelling device:
  • Repetition of certain patterns, images, or ideas to reinforce theme
  • “The Graduate” motifs:
    • Animals in captivity (grid patterns, cages)
    • Water (drowning, suffocation, being adrift)
    • Jungle (predator/prey dynamic, primal instincts)
• Aquarium as perfect prop example:
  • Combines two motifs (captivity + water)
  • Identical framing of Ben and fish shows he’s the animal in captivity
• Costume Design principles:
  • Lightest color draws the eye in any scene
  • Mrs. Robinson always wears animal prints (predator motif)
  • Other women in black and white (blend into background)
  • Elaine in pink (stands out, connected to father initially)
• Hair and Makeup storytelling:
  • Anne Bancroft made to look older with gray streak
  • Tan lines show upper-class lifestyle (spends days by pool)
  • Sexy but sophisticated look maintained

Lighting and Camera Techniques