'Films are the art of directing.'We hear this often when working in a film business and it basically means how important the directors' job is in making films, which clearly implicates the fundamental characteristics of films. Then, what is the fundamental characteristic solely applicable to films? What defines films is the very existence of 'cameras'.
It is not that only films are the only media that makes use of cameras. There are also cameras used for making TV dramas, which makes it little different from films.
It is just that there is a critical difference between films and TV dramas in how they utilize cameras. Cameras for TV dramas have somewhat mechanical functions in that they are primarily used for filming the development of stories rather than for capturing the aesthetic aspect of scenes.
On the contrary, cameras for films go one step further to having aesthetic meaning than for TV dramas. Directors who make films use their cameras, in showing the subjects, to work harder on how they go about 'telling' the story rather than focusing on the story itself. This paper explores communication methods in films that can maximize the media characteristics of films. Specifically, it examines the excellent cases where messages are delivered by the utilization of visual approaches using cameras and Mise-en-Scene as well as the use of aural approaches to film communications. This will surely help us to better understand what roles those approaches play in films.