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Dialog is one of the best known — and obvious — elements in a film. But the language of cinema is more subtle and sophisticated than dialog alone. From Metropolis to Kill Bill, this remarkable reference guide reveals 100 of the most potent storytelling tools of the film medium. It demonstrates how master screenwriters and directors depend on cinematic devices to pump up action, create characters, and energize a motion picture's plot.

Cinematic Storytelling compresses 100 years of film history, outlining the important connection between film technique and storytelling. It shows how the purposeful use of film techniques like lighting, editing, and sound can evoke audience emotions like fear, hatred, or anger without a word of dialog. It demonstiates how character values and themes are expressed cumulatively over time and nonverbally. In this, the reader is given both the critical tools to better understand modern moviemaking and the creative tools to more fully explore the dramatic potential of the medium.

Here's what you'll learn from this book:

• 17 basic building blocks of cinematic language
• 100 examples of cinematic techniques to create powerfully layered scenes
• 100 definitions of cinematic tools
• How to explore sound, picture, and camera motion as storytelling devices
• How to show character change without using dialog
• How filmmakers marry story with film technique
• All this and more iIIusliated through frame grabs and script excerpts from 100 of the most celebrated scenes in movie history

The mastery of cinematic storytelling unites all successful film artists in their shared fluency in the sight sound, and motion of movies. If you want to take your screenplay and or your film appreciation to the next level this book will get you there.