Watch: 10-Minute Video Essay Explores The Importance Of Props In Filmmaking

Perhaps the most important part of filmmaking isn’t an unforgettable script, an original, raucous character or shooting the entire thing during magic hour (looking at you, Terrence Malick). There are elements often forgotten which bring entire tales together, can symbolize them as a whole, and change the course of cinematic history. This is an ode to the constantly-looked-over-yet-mysteriously-obligatory part of filmmaking — the prop.

In his astute, aptly-edited 10-minute video essay, Rishi Kaneria focuses on the myriad importances of film props: how they are used, what they represent, and how something so simple as the use of a color or fruit (oranges, for instance, in “The Godfather”) can change the way we look at, or what we remember from a film. Kaneria floats through the history of cinema — everything from “The Bicycle Thief” (and the titular bicycle) to “Citizen Kane” (oh, Rosebud) to “The Red Balloon” (need I say more) — carefully exemplifying the significance of...