- Bullet time lighting - Thor:Ragnarok.
This scene is from Thor:Ragnarok (Dir. Taika Waititi) and this is actually the first time this technique has ever been used in a movie. Satellite Labs achieved this by having a rig of lights the surround the set and go off one after another. This allows the light speed and camera speed to go at different rates. Taika Waititi talks about it more here.
2. Long/Continuous shot - The haunting of hill house
The haunting of the hill house is a highly acclaimed adaptation of the book by Shirley Jackson. This scene uses the technique of a long/continuous shot. This means that the whole scene is filmed non-stop in one go. What makes this scene so interesting is it transitions between time periods, sets, involves people teleporting, and is 17 minutes long. That means this scene takes up almost half the episode. You can learn more about this scene and how they accomplished it here.
3. Wide shot - Oldboy
Oldboy is a Korean movie by critically acclaimed director Park Chan-wook. This is a fight scene that takes place in a hallway. By using a wide shot the hallway feels more filled even if it's not. If there was no one else in the hallway it can make it feel empty, which the director may want. The impression that a wide shot gives off all depends on who's in it and the background.
4. Costuming - Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory (1964)
Costuming is able to tell a viewer about a character. An example is in the 1964 movie adaptation of Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory. If you compare Willy Wonka's outfit to the background characters he looks odd and stands out. This is intentional because it tells us that Willy Wonka is a quite strange character.
5. Color association - (500) days of Summer
In (500) days of Summer the two main characters have distinct colors associated with them. Tom has the color brown associate with him while Summer is blue. This allows you to create scenes such as above and know what character is being represented. This technique also appears in Baby driver.
6. Motifs - Literally any Loona music video ever
A motif is usually when something is repeated throughout a visual text. Motifs are usually a movement, object, peice of clothing, and, most commonly, a peice of music (i.e theme songs). In Loona's music videos there are three main motifs; running, tape recorder, and the mobius strip. A motif can also be a symbol of something such as the mobius strip symbolizing the layout of the loona universe (aka loonaverse).
7. Subtext - Nightmare on Elm street: Freddy's revenge
Subtext is a technique which involves getting the reader/watcher to read in between the lines. This is most common in horror films such as Get Out, Jennifer's Body, and, most notably, Nightmare on Elm street: Freddy's revenge. Freddy's Revenge was long suspected of being about being gay and coming to terms with being gay. Things such as Freddy needing the main characters body to exist in the real world and Freddy coming out of his body. This was later confirmed. Subtext in movies/TV/music videos before 2011, when gay marriage was legalized in America (where most entertainment comes from) but you can still see this subtext in other countries. Popular TV and movies with this kind of subtext is Rock Horror Picture Show, Xena: Warrior Princess, Revolutionary Girl Utena, most movies in the 30's/40's, Rebecca, Moomin, and the anime that has the best subtext but still makes it super obvious and does this in an absolute amazing way is Sailor Moon. Like god damn their lesbian couple was so obvious the English dub couldn't hide it, and America broadcasting agency never picked up the last season because their was so much gay and non-binary subtext that they couldn't hide it.
8. Queerbaiting - Supernatural, BBC Sherlock, Riverdale and many more.
If you don't know what queerbaiting is, it's a technique used by creators to attract LGBT+ viewers/readers. Often this is shown by hinting and hinting that they are together but never explicitly showing this or never having them end up together. An important part to differentiate the difference between subtext and baiting is the context of subtext. Usually this subtext is used when something is representing something else (see example #7) and the time period/country the movie/TV was created in (i.e Fried Green Tomatoes, Revolutionary Girl Utena, etc.) Queerbaiting is more shows such as Supernatural, BBC Sherlock, Voltron, Teen Wolf, and a few more. Supernatural is known for it's queerbaiting between the two characters Dean and Castiel. There's been a long subtextual "romance" between the two (in fact over 10 years) with nothing confirmed and the writers only hinting that they might be together, just enough to keep LGBT+ audiences engaged but not to the point that they're actually confirmed. And with the show approaching it's final season I doubt they will ever confirm it and if they do then it's still technically queerbaiting. You can learn about queerbaiting more in this short. A lot of people think that if a TV/Movie has a LGBT+ character than all queerbaiting is forgiven. This is completely and utterly wrong in every way. Who knows I might write a more in-depth blog post about queerbaiting and queer media but who knows.
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