Elif Naz Aktas

I am Elif and I’m a 25 year old masters student in Berlin. Cinema is my passion and I completed a Film Studies certificate program during my Bachelors studies in History. We can explore the basic elements of Film and identify storytelling techniques to read films better. There will be four main parts to the course. First we will cover the basic narrative terms regarding story, plot, space and time. Then, we will move on to cinematography and step by step familiarise ourselves with main elements of cinematography such as framing, color, mise-en-scène, lighting, camera angles and movements. We will work on a lot of visual material and study examples to understand the concepts better and start practicing analysis. Later, we will cover the basic editing techniques to see how films are composed throughout history. In the first three parts, we will be working on both concepts and observe examples on specifically picked films for each topic. Then, in the final part of the program, we will start discussing specific movies from start to finish with the analytical tools we developed in the first part of the program. While there will be recommended movies that we can work on, I am open to discuss requested films and reading them together. At the end of the course, you will be familiar with a considerable film reading vocabulary. You will be able to identify cinematic storytelling techniques and analyse what the signify. You will be able to understand what films are directly and indirectly telling to the audience.