CAMELS and Film Techniques
CAMELS and Film Techniques
A film is a narrative- just like a novel. It is more than just presenting a script. The director carefully adds
production techniques to the narrative to create what we finally see on the screen.
We can use the acronym CAMELS to help us analyse the film techniques used.
CAMERA
Shot type- close ups, long shots, mid shots, wide shots, extreme long shots and extreme close ups
Camera movements- track, tilt, pan, still, hand-held effect
Angle- point of view shots, high, low, side
ACTORS
Gestures
Expressions
Tone of Voice
Age/Size/ Race/ Gender
Actions- what are they doing?
Inside or outside?
Features of the landscape/ room
Dominant colours
Costumes
Time- day/night? Period in history? (How do we know?)
Props in the scene
EDITING
Length of shots
Transitions- cuts, fades, dissolves, wipe
Sound matching vision (eg. when the sound for the next scene cuts in before the current scene is
finished)
LIGHTING
Colour
Brightness
Shadow
Natural or Artificial
SOUND