English Conversation: Learn to Talk About Film & Movies

So, one of the things about learning a language is you will find yourself in uncomfortable

situations where you don't really know what to say because you don't have a bank of phrases

to help you enter a conversation.

Now, what we're going to be doing in this lesson is talking about film.

First of all, we're going to be looking at the different roles so that when you're watching

a film and at the end when it says, like, all the people who did stuff, you understand

what that means.

But then in the second half of the lesson, we will look at phrases to help you talk about

film.

Okay?

Because at a social event, like an evening at someone's house, invariably you could bring

up a conversation about a film that you have just seen.

Okay?

So, very basically, we've got the more important roles on this side, and the slightly less

important in terms of the hierarchy of a film company.

The executive producer.

This is a word that I often hear mispronounced.

Can you practice saying that?

"Executive", "executive", "executive producer".

This is the man or woman tasked with financing the film.

So, maybe they'll be talking to investors, organizations that give grants for arts projects.

Maybe they'll be looking at selling the rights to the film.

Very, very key role, because without that, there is nothing.

The producers.

These are the project managers, and they will be in charge of things like locations, crew,

budget.

So, often it's the locations that really give a feel to a project.

I mean, think of, like, Game of Thrones.

I know it's television rather than film, but if you think about all those settings in Girona

and some of the places in Spain, it kind of gives that medieval feel that is so critical

to that project.

The director.

Yeah?

Often the sort of...

The person that you kind of associate with the film.

We don't really...

We're not so aware of these people, but we all know about Danny Boyle, for example.

He's the person who brings the story to life, or she.

They work with the actors and the crew.

They come up with the shot list, and it's a very sort of varied role because they're

also going to be doing publicity work, helping to get reviewers talking about the film and

giving interviews, etc.

And there are different styles of directing; some are more interested in working with the

actors and the emotional truth of scenes, and others are more technical.

The screenwriter.

Yeah?

It does what it says on the tin.

They write the script, the story.

The talent.

Slightly odd word, here, because all of these people have talent.

It's a sort of North American word, meaning the actors.

Okay?

Associate producer.

Let's just have a word about this, because you'll often have a couple of actors assigned

to a project, and it'll be those people that help to sell the film, so we're not really

talking about all of the kind of actors who are saying maybe, like, one or two lines.

We're just thinking about the top two at the billing.

So the origin of the word, here, it actually comes from the Bible, the story of the talents,

meaning a gift.

So is it a gift to be able to do some powerful acting?

It probably is.

Associate producer.

Now, I've put also known as "thanks for your help", so this person will have done something

special to help realize the production.

Maybe they've helped to secure filming in Buckingham Palace, a rare privilege, or maybe

they have gifted some money to the project.

Often that...

Often if people kind of give some money to the project, then they get credited at the

end of the film.

Production manager deals with logistics, and believe you me, there are hundreds of logistics

to deal with with a commercial or a cinematic shoot.

I was in a project that was filming in Barcelona in a five-star hotel there, and it was inside

a hotel, but they had to secure sort of...

The whole street kind of sealed off for one of the lanes of traffic just because they

needed a couple of buses to come in at some stage to unload some filming equipment.

So there's a huge amount of logistics and forward planning that is involved.

Assistant director.

There's first assistant director, second assistant director.

This person is not someone who you want to annoy.

They're often very, very busy, walking around sometimes, you know, the cliché is with sort

of the loudspeaker.

These days not so much.

They deal with the extras.

That makes it sound like the extras are kind of, like, running off and doing kind of, like,

naughty things all the time.

It's more that they're sort of organizing them and making sure they're in the right

place at the right time.

These people are also making sure the whole project, the shoot is on schedule.

It's running to time.

So, they will be very aware that if you run over time, then everyone has to be paid more,

and the budget goes, you know, out the window.

So, these people are important to our producers.

If you don't know what "extra" means, it's when you're watching something and I was watching

a program the other day, and you had sort of the actors entering this castle, and just

before they did, you had a couple of children sort of running in front of them to make the

whole scene look more lifelike, more realistic.

The extras are the people that are in the overall picture, but perhaps don't have a

speaking part.

They work long hours, not necessarily trained actors, although sometimes they are.

Director of Photography, DOP for short.

This person is looking at the camera angles.

They are in charge of the lighting, although they won't physically be doing the lighting

work.

That is more the work of the gaffer and the grip.

So, I did a Porsche car commercial a while back, and the gaffer on that project, because

it was an outdoor shoot and it was getting a little bit later, had this reflective material

that was just...

Just out of shot, so just below the camera, and kind of shining it so that we had enough

light on our face.

The grip - this person rigs the lighting, makes sure it's at the right height, pointing

in the right way.

Sometimes when you see the camera sort of panning across like that - panning, wrong

word - moving across like that, it's on dolly tracks, and it will be the grip who has actually

assembled the track for the dolly.

Dolly means like a support for a camera.

The runner - the person who's running around doing all the different jobs.

Maybe they're driving someone, picking someone up from a hotel, making the coffee, but it's

a bit of a cliche to say that they're the coffee maker, they're quite physical workers

who often have to move things around.

Okay, I'm now going to give you some phrases so that you can make intelligent comments

about a film, basically review a film.

So, this could be how to write about a film or to speak about a film.

First of all, it's important to know what genre the film is.

Genre is a French word.

It means type.

So, is it a romantic comedy?

Is it a thriller?

Is it an action-adventure?

Is it a chick flick?

So, think about that, because when you're talking about the film, you should refer to

it knowing what type of film, okay?

Have you ever seen a film by that director before?

What kind of reputation does that director have?

So, it could be a good thing.

It could be, like, for a film directed by Quentin Tarantino, I...

My expectations were met.

I was happy.

I thought it was even better than I thought it was going to be.

Or it could be the opposite.

It could be a disappointment.

For a film directed by Quentin Tarantino, I was left a little bit underwhelmed.

Yep, let's write that down.

Pen.

Underwhelmed.

Okay, it's a good word.

Underwhelmed.

Okay?

Disappointed. Right.

Now we're going to talk about reviewing different aspects of the production.

So, first of all, the actual writing.

If you liked the way it was written, you might say it was tightly written.

Not a word was wasted.

The script sounded really exciting when you were hearing it, and, you know, it moved fast.

The opposite of that would be to say that it was a little bit pedestrian.

Now, if we look at the beginning of this word, "ped" is a Latin word meaning "feet", so you

might think of a centipede as having 100 feet.

A pedestrian is someone who walks.

Now, if the script is walking, it's going a little bit slow.

Okay?

So that would be a criticism of the script.

A little pedestrian.

The setting, it's set in the Pyrenees.

It's set in Ireland.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Obviously, if it's in Ireland, we think of it being sort of wild and, you know, it's

going to be in the countryside, and there's going to be wind, and sea, and all those kind

of things.

Acting.

Now, this is more a thing where you're going to say whether it's good or bad.

If you believe the acting, you might say the acting was very believable.

If you thought it was particularly good, you might say that such a person gave an astonishing

performance.

Astonishing means sort of surprising, impressive.

If you didn't believe the acting, you might say that it was a little bit overacted.

They were doing a bit too much.

They didn't seem like a real person.

And then the opposite, you could say that the acting was very convincing.

Okay?

Good acting...

Good adjective to describe whether something is believable or not.

So-and-so gave a convincing portrayal of an 18th century farm worker.

The plot.

What happened?

Yeah, the actual kind of events in the story.

If it's good, full of tension and climax, you never know what's going to happen next.

But if you didn't believe it, it was far-fetched.

Yeah?

If the dog fetches the stick, it goes and gets it, but if the plot has been got from

a little bit too far away and it doesn't really make sense, then it's far-fetched.

And then we've kind of made some quite generalized comments, so it's good now to zoom in on the

particular and talk about what your favorite scene was and why you enjoyed it.

So I'm going to think of Notting Hill, a slightly dated film now, but an absolute classic.

One of my favorite scenes in the film is it's got to involve Spike.

What was Spike doing?

Something naughty.

I just thought that was so hilarious when he was da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

Okay, a few more adjectives that you can have to talk about aspects of cinema.

Breathtaking.

So that could be to describe the settings, the costumes.

Compelling.

That could be about a performance, a particularly compelling performance.

So we are asked...

We're really asked to sort of believe that.

We're compelled.

We're, like, forced to go along with the story.

Gripping.

If you're gripping onto something, you have to find out what's going on next.

Like, there's no other place that you can be.

You want to know what's going to happen in the next scene, what's the character about

to do.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah, if it's gripping, it's so exciting, it's so kind of involving.

But if it's bad, then you're like...

It's disappointing.

It's predictable.

You know what's going to happen next.

You don't need to see the next scene.

So, what you need to do now is have a go at our quiz, just to make sure that you're using

this...

These phrases accurately, and that you remember the different roles in a film.

So the next time you go to the cinema, and you're going to see that word "gaffer", and

you'll be like...

"Yeah, I know what that means, obviously."

Well, hope you've subscribed, and I will see you in the next video.

Remember, film is one of the ways that you can improve your English, so you might want

to see one of my other videos where I talk about ways to improve your English, and I

will be talking about things that you can watch that help your English.

See you in the next one.