It is essential that students understand how a film director uses the camera, lighting, and sound to create a mood and to communicate his vision. Once students understand these elements, it will be easier for them to understand and appreciate how director Robert Mulligan approached each scene and how he made certain decisions about how to portray it.

Language of Film: To Kill A Mockingbird: pages 7 -11 http://www.filmeducation.org/printpacks/secdocs/classics.pdf

Consider this published 1963 movie review:
 “…director Robert Mulligan has paced his picture so that it can affect us. He has perceived that the relationship of the children to their widower father is the central theme of the film, not the more volatile ingredients of an attempted lynching, the trial for rape, nor a red-necked farmer’s foul revenge against Atticus for defending the Negro he had accused. Each of these would lend themselves to the kind of excitement that pleases audiences easily, but which would 
have been completely inappropriate- if not indeed antagonistic- to the mood and purpose of his picture. Instead, Mulligan permits us to look with a child’s lingering curiosity at a broken swing on the porch of a ramshackle house, at the galleries of a courthouse where Negroes rise in silent homage to a white man who had defended one of theirs, at faces filled with gentleness, or hatred, or love.” 2 
                                                                    

Read the complete original NEW YORK TIMES movie review.

Questions to consider:

-         What is pace or pacing?

-         How does a director achieve pace in a film?

-         What elements can he use? 
(Consider: camera movement, lighting, editing, selection of music, etc.)

-         What is mood?

     -   What is purpose?

     Mise en scène
     This French term comes originally from the theatre where it refers to          'putting the scene together.'
     In film language it refers to 
     - setting and props (including architecture and interior design)
     - costume, hairstyles and make-up
     - body language and facial expressions of the characters
     - the use of colour and design 3
     

After studying the language of film, students may wish to consider these questions:
1. Why do you think the film was shot in black and white and not color?
2. Does the fact that it was shot in B&W have an impact on you?
3. Where is the camera placed during the very first scene, after the credits? Would you agree that this is an effective establishing shot? Why do you think the director chose that perspective? 
How does this “tell” the audience about the historical time period (Depression)?
4. How does the director introduce us to the main characters?
5. How do camera angles, lighting and music contribute to the overall success of what the director is trying to communicate?