In a given scene, a live recording orchestra will give a completely different feeling to a song coming from a recorded album. And not all movies out there have this quality. There is such a thing as “cinematic sound”. It all comes together to feel like a movie. Dull when portraying the dessert and the political struggles, but also bright when exploring the inner thoughts of the protagonist. The color palette and color grading, also plays an important role in Dune. This helps us to be empathetic with the character’s motivations. The depth of field and the long, open shots allow the viewer to feel like they’re part of this world. Greig Fraser ( Dune‘s director of photography) said that his choices were based on the characters in order to create a specific visual mood for each one of them. Dune uses these tools very appropriately to create the world this story takes place in. Think about Dune, a knowingly cinematic movie. Technical decisions such as the aspect ratio or color correction will help make your film more or less cinematic. These collect some specific elements of cinematic language (framing, lighting, etc). Visual Elementsįirstly, we have the visual elements of being cinematic. But let’s look at how this definition of cinematic can actually manifest within screenwriting as well as filmmaking. Putting all these elements together, we can conclude that in screenwriting, “cinematic” is the potential of something feeling like the movies. So cinematic should not just be related to film, but rather make us feel that this couldn’t exist anywhere else. And finally, “in a way that would not be possible in another medium”.This means that cinematic is not just a look, but a way to tell the story itself. So it’s not just about the angles, shots or color palette. First off, he says “Effectively using the tools of cinema”.Patrick’s definition gets us closer to what cinematic really means in terms of filmmaking and screenwriting. But in the media landscape, not everything quite qualifies as such.Ĭinematic: “Possessing the quality that comes from effectively using the tools of cinema to tell a story (…) in a way that would not be possible in another medium.” Patrick Willems, filmmaker. If this were true, then ANYTHING that is related to cinema would be cinematic. In the dictionary, cinematic means “relating to cinema”. But what is the real definition of “cinematic”? Many people in the industry use this term, some of them quite lightly. Film reviews, job offerings, script feedback, award acceptance speeches.
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The Definition of Cinematic in TV Series.Using Cinematic Language to Achieve “Cinematic”.Mise-en-scène in the Definition of Cinematic.