Genre looks

Twenty-seven genres, and the wording that gets the look of each one.

A genre look is a bundle: a lighting style, a palette, a way of moving the camera and a kind of place. Name it and a model brings the lot. That is useful when it is the look you want, and a trap when you wanted one part.

Noir and the dark genres

7

Hard shadow, a world lit at night, and a threat that stays mostly off screen.

Film Noir: Hard shadow, venetian blinds, and a world lit at night.

Hard shadow, venetian blinds, and a world lit at night.

Neo-Noir: Noir structure in colour, with neon standing in for the old hard key.

Noir structure in colour, with neon standing in for the old hard key.

Tech Noir: Noir shadows in a near future lit by screens and machines.

Noir shadows in a near future lit by screens and machines.

German Expressionism: Sets and shadows are built at impossible angles to show a state of mind.

German Expressionism

Sets and shadows are built at impossible angles to show a state of mind.

Giallo: Saturated primary light, high style and a threat you only glimpse.

Saturated primary light, high style and a threat you only glimpse.

Southern Gothic: Heat, decay and old secrets in a humid rural setting.

Southern Gothic

Heat, decay and old secrets in a humid rural setting.

Cosmic Horror: Scale and darkness suggest something too large to see whole.

Scale and darkness suggest something too large to see whole.

Looks that pretend nothing is staged

6

The camera is meant to read as a witness. Real light, real rooms, and the mistakes left in.

Documentary: The camera records rather than composes, with real light and real spaces.

The camera records rather than composes, with real light and real spaces.

Cinéma Vérité: The camera observes and never arranges what it sees.

Cinéma Vérité

The camera observes and never arranges what it sees.

Found Footage: The footage looks recovered rather than shot.

The footage looks recovered rather than shot.

BTS: The shot shows the making of the thing rather than the thing.

The shot shows the making of the thing rather than the thing.

French New Wave: Loose shooting, natural light and jump cuts that refuse to hide.

French New Wave

Loose shooting, natural light and jump cuts that refuse to hide.

Stylistic Suck: The shot is deliberately made badly, and the badness is the style.

The shot is deliberately made badly, and the badness is the style.

Big screen looks

6

Styles built for scale: a wide landscape, a high polish, or a world that is nearly ours.

Blockbuster Gloss: Everything is lit, graded and finished to a high commercial polish.

Blockbuster Gloss

Everything is lit, graded and finished to a high commercial polish.

Spaghetti Western: Extreme close-ups, wide empty land and sun with nowhere to hide.

Spaghetti Western

Extreme close-ups, wide empty land and sun with nowhere to hide.

Wuxia: Martial movement rendered weightless, in wide painterly landscape.

Martial movement rendered weightless, in wide painterly landscape.

Dystopian: A worn future where the systems still run but nothing is cared for.

A worn future where the systems still run but nothing is cared for.

Magical Realism: One impossible thing sits inside an ordinary world and nobody remarks on it.

Magical Realism

One impossible thing sits inside an ordinary world and nobody remarks on it.

Arthouse: Long held frames, restrained colour, and meaning left for the viewer to find.

Long held frames, restrained colour, and meaning left for the viewer to find.

Drawn and rendered

4

The frame is not photographed. It is drawn, rendered, or held like a still.

Animation: The frame is drawn rather than photographed.

The frame is drawn rather than photographed.

Pixel Art: The image is built from a coarse grid of visible pixels.

The image is built from a coarse grid of visible pixels.

Video Game: The frame renders like a game engine rather than a camera.

The frame renders like a game engine rather than a camera.

Photography: The frame is composed and held like a still photograph.

The frame is composed and held like a still photograph.

Internet-native looks

4

Styles born online. Familiar places made wrong, or nostalgia assembled out of old consumer imagery.

Dreamcore: Familiar spaces feel wrong and empty, like a half-remembered dream.

Familiar spaces feel wrong and empty, like a half-remembered dream.

Weirdcore: Low quality images of ordinary places made to feel wrong on purpose.

Low quality images of ordinary places made to feel wrong on purpose.

Vaporwave: Eighties consumer imagery in pink and cyan, arranged as nostalgia.

Eighties consumer imagery in pink and cyan, arranged as nostalgia.

Maximalism: Every part of the frame is filled with colour, pattern and object.

Every part of the frame is filled with colour, pattern and object.

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Open a video model

Other techniques

Shot typesTwenty-five ways to frame a shot, and the wording that gets each one.25 shot types Camera anglesNineteen places to put the camera, and the wording that gets each one.19 camera angles Camera movementEighty-six ways to move the camera, and the wording that gets each one.86 camera moves CompositionThirty-two ways to arrange a frame, and the wording that gets each one.32 composition rules LightingForty-one lighting setups, and the wording that gets each one.41 lighting setups Lenses and opticsSeventeen lenses, and the wording that gets the look of each one.17 lenses Colour and film lookNineteen colour looks, and the wording that gets each one.19 colour looks Time and motionTwenty-one ways to bend time in a shot, and the wording for each one.21 time effects Cuts and transitionsTwenty-three ways to get from one shot to the next.23 transitions In-camera and optical effectsFifty-seven effects a camera can make on its own, and how to ask.57 effects Atmosphere and weatherThirteen ways to fill the air, and the wording that gets each one.13 atmosphere effects Viral looksForty-four looks that travel on short-form video, and how to ask.44 viral looks

One hard source, deep shadow, and a pattern cut into the light, usually blinds. It is black and white, shot at night, and most of the frame is dark.