SCREEN CRAFT
Learn How Filmmakers Tell Stories Without Words
Why does a low camera angle make a character seem powerful? Why can a close-up make an audience suddenly feel connected to someone? Why does one scene feel warm and inviting while another feels mysterious or unsettling?
Those choices are all part of screen craft—the visual language of filmmaking.
In Screen Craft, students learn how directors and filmmakers use the camera, lighting, composition, movement, sound, and other creative choices to communicate ideas and emotions to an audience.
Rather than simply watching movies, students learn to look at them like filmmakers.
We explore different types of shots and camera angles and discuss how each can change the way an audience experiences a scene. Students learn about wide shots, medium shots, close-ups, point-of-view shots, high and low angles, camera movement, framing, perspective, and composition.
Students also explore lighting, color, production design, locations, costumes, sound, and music—and discover how all of these elements work together to create mood, establish character, and tell a story visually.
Throughout the course, students have opportunities to put these concepts into practice. They may create storyboards, design shot lists, analyze scenes, plan sequences, experiment with different compositions, or shoot their own footage.
Students May Explore:
| • Shot composition and framing | • Wide, medium, and close-up shots |
| • Camera angles and perspective | • Camera movement |
| • Visual storytelling | • Storyboarding |
| • Shot lists and scene planning | • Lighting and mood |
| • Color and production design | • Sound and music |
| • Directing actors and scenes | • How filmmakers guide an audience’s attention |
| • Analyzing scenes from film and television |
Screen Craft is ideal for students who love movies and want to understand how filmmakers transform words on a page into images on a screen.
Don’t just watch the story. Learn how to create it.