FILMS VOCABULARY
We love watching films (= movies
in American English) – either on TV, on DVD, downloaded onto our PCs or at
the cinema.
What sort of films do you enjoy? You've
got a lot of genres to choose from:
westerns (set in the American Wild
West) or spaghetti westerns (those
filmed in Italy) to action films
(fights, car chases etc), adventure, animated (cartoons), or horror (lots
of blood or ghostly visits). Perhaps you prefer comedy (or "romcom" – romantic comedy) or
dramas. Sometimes these are epics (long,
historical dramas) and sometimes these are
adaptations (adapted either from a
previous film or from a book or play). What about thrillers (or suspense), or musicals (with song and dance) and
science fiction (set in a futuristic
world)? Or maybe you prefer the old black and white films, or the classics.
In a celebrity-obsessed world, actors are as famous as politicians
(maybe even more so!) We like to see our favourite actors playing a character – even a
minor character – in films, whether
these are in lead roles (=main
roles), or supporting roles (not
main roles). Every year, the Oscars give
awards to lead actors and supporting actors, but never to the extras (the actors who play people in a
crowd, often without a speaking part.) We like reading the film credits, firstly to see who's in the cast (everyone who acted in the film)
and if there's a special appearance by
a famous actor who's only in the film for a couple of minutes.
Then
we like to see who the director or producer is, the screenwriter who wrote the screenplay
(the script that the actors speak) and who composed the soundtrack (the music background in the
film). We'll read film reviews to
find out more about the plot (or
storyline) and how good the
lighting, cinematography (art of shooting
the film) or costumes are. We
might even watch a trailer (short
extract from the film) to see the special
effects.
Describing a film
If you've just seen a great film, you might want to tell your friends
about it. Here are some tips for doing that.
Here
are some ways you can tell the story (plot) of a film you've seen.
It's set in…(New
York / in the 1950's).
The film's shot
on location in Arizona.
The main
characters are … and they're played by…
It's a mystery
/ thriller / love-story.
You can tell the story of the film in the
present simple tense.
Well, the main character decides to… (rob a bank) But when he drives
there…
Giving your opinion
I thought the film was great / OK / fantastic… The actors / costumes
/ screenplay are/is … The special effects are fantastic / terrible The best
scene / the worst scene is when… The plot is believable / seems a bit unlikely
Adjectives you can use: - Funny - Slow - Exciting - Cute - Boring - Fast moving
- Frightening - Violent - Mostly for girls - Amusing - Colourful - Romantic - Too long
- Lovely story
- Wonderful
- Interesting -
Clever - Mostly for children but fun for all ages
Not telling all
You don't want to spoil the film for your
friends, so you can say something like:
"I don't want to spoil it for you, so I'm not going to tell you
what happens in the end."
"You'll have to go and see it for yourself." "I don't
want to ruin the surprise for you."
Useful adjectives
All these are useful words and phrases to spice up your description:true-to-life (a real story)
the real story of
remarkable
(unusual, good)
masterpiece (the best work someone has done) oscar-winning
