VOTD: Twenty Cinematic Techniques In Eight Minutes

Medium shots, long takes, parallel editing, whip pans, rack focus. Out of context, film techniques kind of sound like medical terms. But in practice, these ways of moving the camera, setting up a shot, or putting two pieces of film together can do more than simply heal you. They can make you feel good, bad, scared, romantic, tense, or just about any other single emotion in existence. The names might sound clinical but to see them in practice is magical.

Film student Oscar Feiven put together a cool little video editing together clips from movies such as Children of Men, Lord of the Rings, Inception, Cloverfield and other recent films to show twenty film techniques in practice. Check it out below.

Thanks to Oscar Feiven for the video. Check it out.

On the YouTube channel, Feiven lists the movies features as well as the techniques. Here are his lists. The films:

Children of Men, Star Wars Episode IV, Shaun of the Dead, Reservoir Dogs, Lord of the Rings, Atonement, Cowboys and Aliens, Citizen Kane, Mission Impossible, Cloverfield, Inception, Zombieland, Kill Bill Vol. 1, The Other Guys, Limitless, 8 Mile

And techniques:

Establishing Shot, Long Shot, Doggie Cam, Steady cam, Pan, Fast Cut/Rapid Zoom, Low Angle Shot, Crane Up, Dutch Angle, POV, Special Effects, Slow Motion, Panoramic Traveling, Horizontal Traveling, High angle, Tilt, Limitless Zoom, Camera Split

Admittedly, the scope of these "techniques" is pretty broad. "Special Effects" and a "Dutch Angle" don't exactly belong in the same conversation. But you've got to be impressed with this as a project for school. I wonder what grade Feiven got.

Can you think of any major techniques he missed? Though these are all relatively new movies, do you feel like he should have used more classic instances? Or does the fact that so many of the films are from within the last decade simply prove the timelessness of technique?