Elements of Cinema Essay

* Since the images of moving pictures move in time, time is the most important element of the cinema. In the cinema it is subject to contraction, expansion, breaks or leaps through the manipulation of the director. The three aspects of the time 1. Physical time is the time taken by an action as it is being filmed and as it is being projected on the screen. A film may actually show what is happening in real life. * Physical time in the cinema can be distorted through slow motion, accelerated motion, reverse motion, and stopped motion. * Slow motion happens when the camera takes pictures faster than the projector can show them on the screen. * Accelerated motion occurs when the camera takes pictures slower than the projector can run them on the screen. * Reserve motion conveys an undoing of time * Stopped motion is not often used. Instead of stopping the action of an otherwise moving sequence, still photographs are used. 2. Psychological time is our emotional impression of the duration of the action that we experience as we watch film. In real life our mental state affects the way time passes for use. Time seems to move fast when we are happy. Boredom, idleness, or tragedy makes time lag. * In the cinema, time also go quickly and induces in us a feeling of exhilaration and excitement, while a slow pace can induce a melancholy mood or grief and slow down time. 3. Dramatic time refers to the time taken up by the events which are depicted in the film. the cinema may use a story-line that covers a single day in the life of a character or the whole history of a civilization. * A story that embraces a long period of time may utilize flashbacks, include a plague or an epilogue, or exclude that inessential since it can be controlled from the shot. * A film that depicts a brief period of time may be extended through repetition of different aspects on the events or the inclusion of scenes which to us may seem to flash across the screen when in truth it covers a few minutes. Read more:Â  Analysis on Philippine Cinema