A unique guide to the visual narrative techniques that form the "language" of filmmaking. This language is basic to the very positioning and moving of players and cameras, as well as the sequencing and pacing of images. It does not date as new technologies alter the means of capturing images on film and tape. The guidelines offered here will inform almost every choice that the director, the cinematographer, and the editor will make. Through lucid text and more than 1,500 illustrations, Arijon presents visual narrative formulas that will enlighten anyone involved in the motion picture and television industry (including producers, writers, and animators)

• Film language as a system of visual communication
• The importance of parallel film editing
• Defining the basic tools
• The triangle principle
• Dialogue between two players
• Three-player dialogue
• Dialogue involving four or more persons
• Editing patterns for static dialogue scenes
• The nature of screen motion
• Cutting after the movement
• Motion inside the screen
• Motion into and out of the shot
• Player A moves towards player B
• Using master shots to cover motions on the screen
• Player A moves away from player B
• Solving difficult editing situations
• Other types of motion
• Twenty basic rules for camera movement
• The panning camera
• The travelling camera
• The camera crane and the zoom lens
• Action scenes
• Editing in the camera
• Moving from zone to zone
• Combined techniques
• Film punctuation