← Visual/oral text essay

A technique toolkit across media

Precisely naming a film/dramatic technique is worth marks on its own — "good cinematography" is as vague as "good imagery" in the written-text essay.

Technique	What it is	Why it usually matters
Camera angle (low/high)	The vertical position of the camera relative to the subject	Low angle grants power/dominance; high angle suggests weakness or vulnerability
Shot size (close-up, long shot)	How much of the frame the subject occupies	Close-up intensifies emotion; long shot can isolate a figure within a space
Lighting and colour	Key lighting, colour temperature, and palette shifts	Warm tones signal safety, cold/blue tones isolation; a palette shift can track a character's change
Diegetic vs non-diegetic sound	Sound the characters can hear (in-world) vs sound added for the audience only	Non-diegetic score directs audience emotion without the characters' awareness; its removal (silence) can intensify a moment
Editing (cross-cutting, montage, long take)	How shots are joined and how long each is held	Cross-cutting builds parallel tension; a long take lets tension build in real time without the relief of a cut
Camera movement (pan, tracking, handheld)	How the camera itself moves during a shot	Handheld suggests instability/immediacy; a smooth tracking shot maintains calm intimacy with a subject

Naming the technique is the floor — every row needs a SPECIFIC scene and an explained effect to reach Merit or Excellence, exactly as in the written-text essay.

✕

"Good cinematography" and "effective editing" are not specific enough

These broad phrases describe a whole department of filmmaking, not a specific technique. Name the actual device — a low-angle shot, cross-cutting, a colour-palette shift — and then discuss the actual choice made in a specific scene. A sentence that could describe almost any competently made film has not named a specific enough technique. ℹ

Techniques rarely work alone

A strong scene usually combines several techniques at once — a low-angle shot, cold lighting, and a swelling score might all serve the same moment together. Naming ONE technique in isolation, while accurate, undersells a scene where several choices are reinforcing each other; a Merit-and-above paragraph often benefits from showing how two or three techniques in the same moment work toward the same effect.

Practise just this