This book, first published in 1979, was an effort to give undergraduates an orientation to film aesthetics. It offers, I think, the most detailed outline of the various techniques of the medium. Just as important, and the main reason we wrote the book, it places an emphasis on the film as a whole.





Many film primers don�t go beyond itemizing techniques. We try to show how the whole film is the most pertinent and proximate context for understanding how the techniques work. It isn�t enough just to recognize low angles or a match-on-action; we have to understand what they�re doing in the scene, and the roles they play across the entire movie. The book also introduces some doses of film history, in the belief that all techniques gain their significance in particular historical circumstances.