Includes index.

Contents: 1. Film structure: Structure and and the camera -- Structural design and creative choice -- The camera and the human perception: cinema's dual capability -- 2. Cinematography: Collaboration and previsualization -- The essentials of cinematography -- Cinematography and the digital domain -- Visual style and design quotations -- summary -- 3. Production design: What the production designer does -- Basic tools of production design -- The design concept -- Production design and special effects -- 4. Acting: Acting in film and theater -- Categories of film performers -- Methods and technical approaches to performing -- The performer as an element of visual design -- Performance, emotion, and the viewer's response -- 5. Editing: Making the cut: What is editing? -- Linear and nonlinear systems -- Functions of editing -- The principles of continuity editing -- Alternative to continuity editing -- Summary -- 6. Principle of sound design: Sound in the contemporary film -- evolution of film sound -- Types of sound -- Sound design -- Summary -- 7. The nature of narratives in films: Story and script -- the turn to narrative in early film history -- Elements of narrative -- The classical Hollywood narrative -- The viewer's contribution to narrative -- Film genres -- Summary -- 8. Modes of screen reality: Realism -- Expressionism -- Fantasy and the fantastic -- Cinematic self-reflectivity -- 9. Hollywood international: The global dominance of Hollywood -- International influence of Hollywood style -- Summary -- 10. Cinema in multiple contexts: Animation -- Documentary -- Independent film -- International film -- Women in film -- African American film -- Summary -- 11. Film criticism and interpretation: Why criticism exists -- The task of the critic -- Modes of criticism -- Creating criticism -- Summary -- 12. Models of Film theory: Realist models -- Auteurist models -- Psychoanalytic models -- Ideological models -- Feminist models -- Cognitive models -- Summary --