The Art of Cinema

An article by Ekanem Ukpong.

Hi guys, this is my first post for A’naala! I’m obsessed with movies so over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to delve deeper into the art of cinematic storytelling. For me, there are 3 ways to tell a story through film (or as I like to call them layers).     These are Visually, Auditory and Literary. In this article, I’ll be focusing on the first way- visually. Specifically, how to use the movement of an individual to tell a story visually.

                                               

   Movement of the Individual    

It’s really sad how nowadays in movies, there’s little movement in scenes that don’t involve large scale action or fight scenes. A lot of movies just have actors standing in one place and delivering their lines while the camera cuts back and forth between them and this static form of storytelling is visually displeasing.

This trend recently developed ironically with the success of dialogue heavy movies directed by Quentin Tarantino or screenplays written by Aaron Sorkin and TV shows like Suits. I say ironically because the movies (and shows) that the aforementioned industry veterans have worked on have a variety of movement by actors which help to breathe life into the witty dialogue each have written. However, many copy cats have seen their movies and think the way to emulate their success is just by having lots of witty banter and quick punchlines (in the case of comedies) or using “big”, “serious” words (in the case of drama) and this to me is lazy storytelling. That’s why sometimes it’s hard to get the average joe to indulge in dialogue heavy movies or TV shows because they get bored. This is even further exaggerated by the fact that our generation seems to have a relatively shorter attention span than that of previous ones. So, I watched a couple of movies from some of the greatest directors in history and noticed that one way of getting around this is through movement of an actor in a scene.

Now I believe this is particularly effective because the human eye is naturally drawn to movement. But more importantly, good movement it in itself tells the Story. How? Well first let’s consider a scene where a couple of girls walking down the street see a guy and one of them find him particularly attractive and you want to show this attraction visually. Instead of having her confess her attraction for the guy out loud, or having one of her friends make an expository side comment like “Omg Chloe, that’s Ryan Hollinger you should totally go talk to him”, Why not show her attraction through her movement and body language? If he’s looking directly at her and she wants his attention, the actor could open up her body and push out her chest to emphasize her breasts or rather if the character she plays is shy, she could play with her hair and make subtle facial gestures. This is just a simple example but it illustrates how effective movement can be to an audience. Let’s take another example.  Picture someone running down the street. What do you think about the person straight away? That the person is in a hurry or late for something, or maybe he’s being chased. But bottom line is you are able to infer that the person has an urgent need to be somewhere and that is expressed through movement. Now Imagine you see someone rummaging through the kitchen opening the fridge and cupboards multiple times and holding her stomach. What do you think is happening there? She’s hungry. This shows how important information can be conveyed to the audience through simple motion. It’s even more beautiful when you consider the fact that audiences are able to process it faster because they recognize the intent of such movements and this makes for a better cinematic experience.

Here's an example of a story told through movement.

It's also useful to tell us more about Character. From that same example; based on which action the character took, the audience could infer something about her personality. The best actors and actresses in the world realize how important movement is for expressing their character and many give their characters' specific traits, traits that might be small and unnoticeable but become imprinted on the mind of the audience to the extent where we begin to associate it with that character. One example of this is Heath Ledger's Joker. If you watch any joker video and pay attention to him carefully (which is really hard I know! It's just so easy to get lost in that performance!) you'll notice how often he licks his lips. especially after he talks. That might seem like a minor detail but it's really important to the portrayal of the Joker because its something we ascribe to him. Also, because human beings have small habits we often repeat that are not necessarily that noticeable, seeing a character onscreen portray their own peculiar habits makes it easier for our subconscious to process these performances and in turn make them more believable.

A great example of an actor who constantly used movement is the late Robin Williams. One of the things you notice when watching Robin Williams perform in a scene is how much he moves within the scene. Whether it be across to change his position, or his limbs or his body to emphasize an emotion or even just his hands, fondling with things as he talks or moving his thumbs (and these subtle movements are what really catches my eye) all of which makes his acting more memorable. Below is a great video tribute from Tony Zhou on Robin Williams and if you pay attention to him in a scene you will see an example of this.

You see that? Poetry in motion. So next time you’re watching an actor perform on the screen and you feel something is off, watch if he/she moves, Cause the best actors know that it’s not what you say that matters, it’s what you do.