Additional Terms (in bold italics): Reel, Frame Rate, Soundtrack, Digital Format, Framed/Framing, Angle, Extreme Close-Up, POV (point of view), Flashback, Flashforward, Intercut/Crosscut, Character, Protagonist, Antagonist.
There are two types of film structure: visual structure and story structure. First, we will discuss visual structure.
The smallest unit of visual film structure is a frame.
Each image is a frame of film. There would be holes at either side, called sprocket holes, that pulled the film through the projector, much like how a bike chain is pulled by the sprocket to turn a bike wheel. Film is pulled through a projector at 24 frames per second, usually written as 24 fps, which is called the frame rate or the rate of speed that the film passes through the projector. Also on this frame, there would be a bumpy sort of line running along the edge of the image (see left side of image) and this is the film's soundtrack.
Film and video are not the same. They have different frame rates–film; 24 fps, video: 30 fps. Film is made by chemical process and video is electronic. Because we are now in the middle of a major shift in media technology, the movie business is quickly changing to a digital format, and film reels and videotape will become as antiquated as vinyl records became when CDs and then MP3 digital music players came onto the consumer market.
If you were to examine large lengths of the film on your reel, you might see the image suddenly change, showing a different location or view. This indicates a new shot. A new shot begins when the camera is stopped, the image is framed differently so that we see either a new image, or the same image taken from another angle. For instance, you might see a shot of a kitten playing with a toy mouse. Then you might see a shot of it's brother kitten watching from behind a chair. Then another shot of the brother kitten watching, only this time an extreme close-up of only his eyes. Then a POV (point of view) shot of the toy mouse that he is watching. Then a shot of the brother kitten as he pounces on the toy mouse from behind the chair. Then a shot of the first kitten hissing in anger as his brother carries the toy mouse off in his mouth.
There are 6 shots altogether, which make a scene.
Shot 1. Kitten plays with toy mouse
Shot 2. Kitten's brother watches from behind chair.
Shot 3. Extreme Close up of brother kitten's eyes.
Shot 4. Brother kitten's POV of toy mouse.
Shot 5. Brother kitten pouncing on mouse.
Shot 6. Kitten hissing as brother steals the toy mouse.
A frame is the smallest unit of film. Each shot is made up of many frames (remember, 24 frames per second), and a scene is usually (not always) made up of several shots.
A scene is defined as action that takes place in the same location or the same time. There are exceptions to this, such as if a character has a flashback, or flashforward, or the scene intercuts or crosscuts between two locations with action happening at the same time.
A sequence is usually made up of several scenes. Taking the kitten example, say this scene came from a movie titled, "9 Lives–A Cat's Story." In this movie, there might be a kitten sequence, which was made up of several scenes about the protagonist cat as a kitten. The second sequence might be the cat as an adolescent, and this sequence might be a series of scenes of the cat going outside for the first time, the cat meeting up with the antagonist dog next door, the cat getting stuck on the roof. A third sequence could be the cat now fully grown keeping the dog next door in line, prowling the neighborhood, falling in love with a female cat, having kittens of his own.
So, the visual units of film go from smallest to largest: frame, shot, scene, sequence.
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