FILM ANALYSIS MIDTERM
3 Types of Montage (Bazin)
1) PARALLEL MONTAGE: use of crosscutting to create a sense of the simultaneity of two actions taking place in two different locations 2) ACCELERATED MONTAGE: composed of shots of increasingly shorter length to create the illusion of increased speed 3) MONTAGE BY ATTRACTION: re-enforcing the meaning of one image by association with another image not necessarily part of the same episode (Kuleshov effect)
2 types of POV shots
1) Perceptual: we hear and see what the character does 2) Mental: we can hear/see one's imagination/thoughts
4 types of meaning
1) Referential 2) Explicit 3) Implicit 4) Symptomatic
4 Elements of Mise-en-scene
1) SETTING a. Location b. color schemes c. props: object has function within ongoing action 2) COSTUME/MAKEUP 3) LIGHTING a. Highlights vs. Shadows - attached shadows: attached to object's face - cast shadows: cast by an object on a wall/surface b. Hard lighting vs. Soft lighting - hard: light source is small relative to object - soft: light "wraps around" subjects; light is close c. Direction - Frontal, backlighting, side, top, under - 3 point lighting system: key, back, fill d. High key vs. Low key - high key: low contrast - low key: high contrast, chiaroscuro e. Source - Natural - Artificial f. Color 4) STAGING: movement and performance a. Acting (realistic vs. individualized/stylized) b. Typecasting: when you see a character as one "type," so they usually play these roles c. Acting in the context of other techniques (editing, camera's distance)
3 types of duration
1) Screen time: how long does the film run for? 2) Plot time: how much time passes from the beginning of the film to the end? 3) Story time: how long does the entire story/backstory take place?
4 Ways to Write About Film
1) Screening Report: taking notes 2) Movie review: imdb.com 3) Theoretical essay: realism, psychoanalysis, film history 4) Critical essay: mixture of movie review and theoretical essay - Avoid lengthy plot summary - More specific than review (details, complexity) - Scene analysis
4 phases a movie goes through
1) Scriptwriting & Funding 2) Preparation for Filming 3) Shooting 4) Assembly
4 Types of Editing Relations
1) Spatial a. Constructive editing: The Kuleshov Effect (absence of an establishing shot, but we can assume two shots/images occupy the same space) 2) Graphic a. Graphic match: shapes colors, composition, movement 3) Temporal a. Order of events (flashbacks, flash forward) b. Elliptical editing i. Punctuation shot with a dissolve, wipe or fade ii. Empty frames -- character leaves one frame and we cut to the next iii. Cutaway or insert 4) Rhythmic a. Flash frames (for action films, a few frames of pure white, violent scene, or transition to flashbacks or subjective sequences/fantasy) b. Shot duration (steady beat, gradually shortened duration)
Name the 4 types of editing relations
1) Spatial 2) Graphic 3) Temporal 4) Rhythmic
What are 2 aspects of "traditional Hollywood cinema?"
1) Two plot lines -- love and crime 2) Three-act structure
3 Types of Focal Length
1) WIDE ANGLE (short focal length) - exaggerates depth - makes figures in the foreground seem bigger - makes figures in the distance seem farther away - makes it look like there are many planes - when figures move towards the camera, figures seem to cover ground more rapidly - depth is enhanced 2) NORMAL (middle focal length) - avoids noticeable perspective distortion - subjects don't appear stretched apart (wide angle) nor squashed together (telephoto) 3) TELEPHOTO (long focal length) - makes it look like figures are compressed to one plane - stretch space along frame edges -magnify action at a distance - depth is reduced
Six Hollywood Major Distributors
1) Warner Bros 2) Paramount 3) Walt Disney 4) Universal 5) Sony/Colombia 6) 20th Century Fox
3 Consequences of DEPTH OF FIELD (depth of focus) (as opposed to montage)
1) brings spectator into a relation with the image closer to which he enjoys in reality -- mimics the way we see the world 2) a more active, mental attitude on the part of the spectator and a more positive contribution on his part to the action in progress -- montage doesn't give you a choice in interpretation or what to look at; with deep focus, meaning is created by you 3) metaphysical -- reintroducing ambiguity int the structure of the image if not of necessity... at least as a possibility (Orson Welles, Citizen Kane); ambiguity: not knowing what is real/not
Formal elements
1) mise-en-scene 2) cinematography 3) editing 4) sound
What are 4 elements of mise-en-scene?
1) setting 2) staging/acting 3) costumes/makeup 4) lighting
Academy Ratio
1.37:1
Today's Aspect Ratio
1.85:1
standard film rate
24 fps
standard dimensions of film
720p x 1080 p
graphic match
when a filmmaker links shots by close graphic similarities (shapes, colors and overall composition or movement in shot A may be picked up in the composition of shot B).
reframing
when the camera moves only slightly to keep character in frame
jump cut
when you cut together two shots of the same subject and the shots differ only slightly in angle/composition --> noticeable jump on screen
cinematography
writing in movement
Screen Space
- Balances composition (framing) - Depth cues: volumes (solid, occupying a 3D area, having shape, shading and movement) AND places (layers of space occupied by persons or objects) - Aerial perspective (hazing of more distant planes) AND size diminution (objects rather far away from us are seen to be smaller)
Describe the films of the 1940s
- Describes what the director wanted to say - Focuses on the actual shot (cinematography) not just editing - Mise-en-scene - Realism
How would a neoformalist analyze film?
- Film consists of various devices - Each one has a potential for defamiliarization (to present something ordinary and make it into something that provokes thought or is interesting) - Devices perform functions in artworks, but the work must also provide some reason for including the device to begin with - The reason the work suggests the presence of any given device is its motivation - Motivation: a cue given by the work that prompts us (active spectators) to decide what could justify the inclusion of the device
Who was Andre Bazin?
- French film critic - Founded famous film journal - Shifted film criticism away from montage and towards elements of composition, such as mise-en-scene/cinematography
alternative editing
- JUMP CUT: when 2 shots of the same subject are cut together but are not sufficiently different in camera distance and angle (same medium shot, similar angle, instead of 30 degree rule) - NONDIEGETIC INSERT: metaphorical or symbolic shot - Discontinuity of order, frequency, and duration (non-linear editing, repetitive, non-matching action)
Describe the films of the 1920s
- Russian filmmaking - Connection from shot to shot - Evoked what director wanted them to say - 1927: The Jazz Singer (first sound film)
Alternative narratives
- many flashbacks - multiple narrators - experimental films (nonnarrative)
Sources of evaluating a film
- personal taste - realistic - moral - coherence - unity - intensity of effect - complexity - originality
Classical narratives
- plot development (logical, linear) - sense of closure - focus on characters - clear objective - realistic narration
What are the 4 basic types of motivation?
1) Compositional - justifies the inclusion of any device that is needed for narrative causality 2) Realistic - something we anticipate because it's "realistic" 3) Transtextual - involve any appeal to conventions of other artworks (most viewers should already know about) 4) Artistic - more abstract; note noticeable; only when 3 other types of motivation are withheld.
Corrigan's 6 Approaches to Writing About Film
1) Formalism/Neoformalism: formal elements 2) Film History: historical development, condition of production, and reception 3) Genres: film noir, musical, sci-fi, etc. 4) Auteurs: directors as authors (Hitchcock, Anderson, Nolan, etc.) 5) Ideology: socialist, capitalist, feminist, race, class, etc. 6) National Cinemas: cultural and nonfictional characters
Neoformalism looks at 2 other components other than just formal elements. What are they?
1) HISTORY 2) THE SPECTATOR
6 Aspects of Lighting
1) Highlights/Shadows 2) Hard/Soft 3) Direction 4) High key/Low key 5) Source: natural? artificial? 6) Color
narration
the perspective that organizes the plot according to certain emotional, physical, or intellectual POV (omniscient narration or restricted narration) moment by moment process that guides viewers in building the story out of the plot
editing
the relation of shot to shot
EISENSTEIN: "Dialectical Approach to Film Form"
Hegelian dialectics: a thesis, an antithesis, a synthesis Dialectical materialism: process of historical change arising from conflict and class struggle (negation=progress) "For art is always conflict" 1) Social mission: art is to reveal the contradictions of being 2) Nature: art consists in the conflict between natural being and creative tendentiousness 3) Methodology: shot and montage are the basic elements of film Montage: an idea that derives from the collision between 2 shots that are independent of one another - Each moving piece of montage in its own right - Artificially produced representation of movement - The case of emotional combinations not merely of the visible elements of the pieces but principally of the chains of psychological association - The emancipation of closed action from its concluding by time and space - A purely intellectual film: "synthesis of art & science"
fidelity
the sound is faithful to the source
PAUL SCHRADER: "Notes on Film Noir"
After war, new mood of cynicism/darkness Film noir --> not a genre Four Major Influences: 1) War and Postwar Disillusionment: boom in crime film after war; people eager to take a less optimistic view 2) Postwar realism: public's desire for a more honest/harsh view of America 3) The German Expatriates: Germans = masters of chiaroscuro 4) The Hard Boiled Tradition: "hard boiled" writers like Billy Wilder (Double Indemnity) Three Phases of Film Noir: 1) War time period: more talk than action (1941-46) 2) Post war realistic period: street crime, political corruption, police routine (1945-49) 3) Glory period: painfully self-aware; personal integrity, heroic conventions, loss of public honor Film noir -- remarkably creative - more interested in style than theme - works out conflicts visually rather than thematically
timbre
tone quality
PARALLEL MONTAGE
use of crosscutting to create a sense of the simultaneity of two actions taking place in two different locations
Time
Audio-visual synchronous sound Asynchronous sound - Simultaneous sound: character speaking in story time - Nonsimultaneous sound: sonic flashback vs. visual flashback (Prestige uses sonic flashbacks preceding visual flashbacks) - Sound bridge: sound belongs to an earlier scene
ramping
varying the frame rate during shooting sometimes used to emphasize action
Attraction of frontality
we gather more info from a character's face than from a character's back
ANDRE BAZIN: "The Evolution of the Language of Cinema"
Montage by attraction: Eisenstein - reinforcing the meaning of one image by association with another image not necessarily part of the same episode MONTAGE: the creation of a sense of meaning not proper to the images themselves but derived exclusively from their juxtaposition. 1940s: French realism Jean Renoir / DEEP FOCUS - replaced montage with frequent panning shots Citizen Kane / DEPTH OF FIELD Shooting in depth = you get more out of a scene 1) Depth of focus - brings the spectator into relation with the image closer to that which he enjoys with reality 2) More active mental viewing attitude 3) Montage rules out ambiguity of expression
The French utilized which type of editing style?
Continuous (Non-Montage)
Deep space vs. Deep focus
Deep space: captures depth of many planes, but not everything is in focus Deep focus: everything is in focus
According to neoformalism, what is cinema?
Each film is a piece of art Communication Spectator's perception
"form" vs. "style"
FORM: overall patterning of a film, the ways its part works together to create special FX STYLE: film's use of cinematic techniques Four Categories: 1) mise-en-scene 2) cinematography 3) editing 4) sound
PLACE & PETERSON: "Some Visual Motifs of Film Noir"
Film noir -- claustrophobia, paranoia, despair, etc. Low key lighting Intense shadows Greater depth of field -- wide angle lens Off-angle compositions -- unstable world Less establishing shots -- jarring Camera movements used sparingly Dark mirrors
What kind of filmmaking dominated in the 1930s?
French filmmaking / CONTINUOUS EDITING (NON-MONTAGE)
KRISTIN THOMPSON: "Neoformalist Film Analysis: One Approach, Many Methods"
Goals of film analysis: 1) Aesthetic approach: set of assumptions about traits shared by different artworks, procedures spectators go through in understanding all artworks, and about the ways in which artworks relate to society 2) Method: a set of procedures used in the actual analytical process Russian formalism: distinguishes between practical everyday info (ordinary speech) and artistic aesthetics Argues we should not distinguish between "high" and "low" art. Art for a formalist: set apart from everyday world (impractical implications) Defamiliarization: taking things we know but placing them in a different context so we see it in a different light Automatization: taking things for granted; not looking into deeper meanings DEVICES - more about context - motivation: reason for any given device Four Types of Motivation: 1) Compositional - justifies the inclusion of any device that is needed for narrative causality 2) Realistic - something we anticipate because it's "realistic" 3) Transtextual - involve any appeal to conventions of other artworks (most viewers should already know about); depends on our recognition of the device from past experience 4) Artistic - more abstract; contribute to creation's overall form; more noticeable; only when 3 other types of motivation are withheld. Neoformalism --> film's functions and motivations can only be understood historically Spectator's role: an active subject - meaning of film resides in viewers - must be an active spectator - not only analyze movie, but analyze self - audience's perception of film will differ every time
EISENSTEIN: "Beyond the Shot"
Intellectual cinema: visual exposition of abstract concepts Montage: conflict/collision of two factors gives rise to an idea
Long take vs. Long shot
Long take -- no cuts are used to display action, only one single shot or "take" Long shot -- refers to apparent distance between camera and object
What kind of filmmaking dominated in the 1920s?
Russian filmmaking / MONTAGE EDITING
Abbreviations to know:
S/RS : shot/reverse shot CT : cut LT : long take CRS : crane shot TRS : tracking shot
eyeline match
SHOT A: a character is looking at something off screen SHOT B: shows us what is being looked at
The Russians utilized which type of editing style?
Montage
unrestricted vs. restricted knowledge
Unrestricted: we know more, we see and hear more, than any of the characters can (omniscient "all knowing") Restricted: restricted to what a certain character(s) knows
How does film noir deal with issues?
VISUALLY rather than thematically
cheat cut
when a director "cheats" by using two shots that appear to be continuous, but really aren't
mental subjectivity
when a filmmaker goes deeper beyond the character's senses and into his/her mind (thoughts, memories, fantasies, dreams, etc.)
anamorphic process
process of using a special lens to squeeze the image horizontally, either during filming or printing
rear projection
projecting footage of a setting onto a screen then filming actors in front of it -- whole ensemble is filmed from the front
aspect ratio
ratio of frame width to frame height
MONTAGE BY ATTRACTION
re-enforcing the meaning of one image by association with another image not necessarily part of the same episode (Kuleshov effect)
exposure
regulates how much light passes through the camera lens
Symptomatic meaning
reveals social ideologies/phenomenons (In a society in which human worth is measured by money, the home and the family may seem to be the last refuge of human values. This belief is especially strong in times of economic crisis, such as that in the US in the 1930s.)
storyboard
series of comic strip-like sketches of the shots in each scene
preproduction
When funding is more or less secure and the script is solid enough to start filming, the filmmakers can prepare for the physical production
POV shot
shot from a character's standpoint
close up (CU)
shows just head, hands, feet, or small object
extreme close up (XCU)
singles out a portion of the face or isolates/magnifies an object
filters
slices of glass or gelatin put in front of the lens of the camera or printer to reduce certain frequencies of light reaching the film.
BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN
YEAR: 1925 DIRECTOR: Sergei Eisenstein THEMES: revolution, comradery, unity, peace MOTIFS: red flag, cross, children, religious rhetoric, KEY FORMAL ELEMENTS (w shot examples): - Accelerated montage (narrative moves faster, like Odessa steps sequence) - HA/LA shots - Sound (musical score) - Music --> needed due to lack of dialogue
GRAND ILLUSION
YEAR: 1937 DIRECTOR: Jean Renoir THEMES: comradery, war, strife, sacrifice, imprisonment MOTIFS: grand illusion, "marching feet," rope KEY FORMAL ELEMENTS (w shot examples): - Music ("it's not the music that gets to you...it's the marching feet") - Panning shots (men stunned by man dressed as women - Tilt shots : showcase power - Off-screen voice/space (Rauffenstein and butler) -
WIZARD OF OZ
YEAR: 1939 DIRECTOR: Victor Fleming THEMES: no place like home, adolescence MOTIFS: ruby slippers, KEY FORMAL ELEMENTS (w shot examples): - three-act structure - parallelism - superimposition of shots during tornado
DOUBLE INDEMNITY
YEAR: 1944 DIRECTOR: Billy Wilder THEMES: love, murder, duality MOTIFS: lighting cigarette, KEY FORMAL ELEMENTS (w shot examples): - Balanced shot composition (Phyllis in between husband and Walter / Walter in between Jackson and Keyes) - Low-key lighting - Cast shadows - Denial of frontal shot - Diffused lighting (Venetian blinds) - Dissolve editing (passage of time) - Costumes - V.O. narration - Flashback - Stationary eye-line (Mr. Dietrichson's murder in car)
NORTH BY NORTHWEST
YEAR: 1959 DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock THEMES: trust, mistaken identity, sacrifice, love, timing, modern technology MOTIFS: train, "baby," KEY FORMAL ELEMENTS (w shot examples): - Hollywood two plot lines: crime / love - Linear narrative - POV shots / shot-reverse shots - Combination of restricted and unrestricted knowledge
THE PRESTIGE
YEAR: 2006 DIRECTOR: Christopher Nolan THEMES: deception, sacrifice, love, betrayal, death MOTIFS: bird, time, "getting your hands dirty," red rubber ball, drowning KEY FORMAL ELEMENTS (w shot examples): - Alternative editing - Nonlinear narrative/Bookend structure (seeing last scene first) - Non-simultaneous sound - Nondiegetic sound ("Are you watching closely?") - Crosscutting (Borden in sink/Julie in tank) - Foreshadowing (Borden w bird & nephew)
Jean Renior film ideology
You must respect the continuity of dramatic space, and, of course, of its duration Opposed using excessive montage Liked long takes --> REALISM
Space
sound has a spacial dimension because it comes from a source - DIEGETIC: external (dialogue); internal (reading diary) - NONDIEGETIC: musical scores, sound FX
Special effects (composite filming)
superimposition, projection, and matte work
time
temporal order, temporal duration, and temporal frequency
plot
the arrangement of those events in a certain order or structure
closing
the climax
opening
the exposition & the set-up
narrative
a chain of events linked by cause and effect and occurring in time and space
Sound perspective
a loud sound appears closer a soft sound appears more distant
depth of field
a range of distances within which objects can be photographed in sharp focus, given a certain exposure setting
Overlapping editing
action from the end of one shot is partly repeated at the beginning of the next, prolonging action
Axis of action (180 degree system)
action that occurs along this line/vector 180 degree system ensures that relative positions in the frame remain constant
the story
all the events that are presented to us (plot) PLUS what we can infer that happened
post production
also knows as the assembly phase picture editing, special FX, sound editing, special versions, etc.
motif
any significant repeated element that contributes to the overall form
Duration of the image
average length of a shot in today's Hollywood film = 4 - 14 seconds per shot
rythym
beat, tempo, pace, a pattern of accents - COORDINATION: sound and movement and the rhythms of editing match - DISPARITIES: against natural speech rhythms of contrast between sound and picture
analytical editing
breaks an establishing shot into closer views
match on action
carrying a single movement across a cut
racking/pulling focus
change focal length while filming commonly meant to switch our attention between the foreground and the background
Patterns of Development
change in knowledge, goal-oriented plot, searches, deadlines, journeys, etc.
causality
characters, casual motivation
contrast
comparative difference between the lightest and darkest areas of the frame.
ACCELERATED MONTAGE
composed of shots of increasingly shorter length to create the illusion of increased speed
Referential meaning
concrete meaning plot summary (During the Depression, a tornado takes a girl from her family's Kansas farm to the mythical land of Oz. After a series of adventures, she returns home.)
Kuleshov editing is also known as __________ editing.
constructive
nondiegetic insert
cut from scene to a metaphorical/symbolic shot that doesn't belong to the time and space of the narrative
shot/reverse shot
cutting back and forth from one endpoint of the 180 degree line to the other
establishing shot
delineating the overall space of the scene
sound perspective
directly hearing what a character hears in that moment (Roger crawling up to Van Damn's window)
focal length
distance from the center of the lens to the point where light rays converge to a point of focus in the film
Continuity editing
easy to follow, goal is to make sure that audience doesn't get distracted - graphic qualities (shape, color, lighting, composition, movement) - spatial continuity: 180 degree system (axis of action) a. relative positions remain constant b. eye-line match c. consistent screen direction (movement) d. match on action - temporal continuity: order, frequency, and duration a. linear b. no repetition c. screen time is seldom made greater than the story time
flashforward
editing moves from the present to a future event and then returns to the present
dialogue coach
feeds performers their lines and speaks the lines of off-screen characters
long shot (LS)
figures are seen, but background still dominates
dialogue overlap
filmmaker continues a line of dialogue across a cut, smoothing over the change of shot
second unit director
films stunts, location footage, action scenes, etc.
medium close up (MCU)
frames body from the chest up
canted angle
framing is tipped to one side or other, not parallel to horizon
framing
how you position the shot
medium long shot (MLS)
human figure is framed from about the knees up
extreme long shot (XLS)
human figure is tiny or even lost (landscapes, bird's-eye view of cities, etc.)
superimposition
images are laid over one another, creating multiple perspectives within the frame
script supervisor
in charge of all details of continuity from shot to shot
second AD
liaison among the first AD, camera crew, and electrician's crew
matte work
matte (portion of the setting photographed on a strip of film) is joined with another strip of film containing the actors
third AD
messenger for director and staff
Implicit meaning
more abstract, not directly stated, interpretations but often universal (An adolescent who must soon face the adult world yearns for a return to the simplicity of childhood, but she eventually accepts the demands of growing up.)
iris
moving/circular mask that opens to reveal or closes to conceal a scene
narrative vs. narration
narrative: a chain of events linked by cause and effect occurring in time and space narration: the plot's way of distributing story information in order to achieve special effects
When a film has "unity" it has...
no gaps in its overall form
montage sequence
not to be confused with Eisenstein's montage brief portions of a process, informative titles, stereotyped images, newsreel footage, newspaper headlines, etc. are joined by dissolves/music to create a quick, regular rhythm and to compress a lengthy series of actions into a few moments
film "form"
overall set of relationships among a film's parts
mobile framing
parameters such as camera height, camera angle, camera level and distance may all change during the course of a shot.
pitch
perceived highness or lowness of the sound
cinematography
photographic properties of a shot
third man
places other mics, lays sound cables, controls ambient sound
first AD
plans each day's shooting schedule; sets up each shot for director's approval; keeps track of actors
cross-cutting
plot alternates shots of story events in one place with shots of another event elsewhere
plot vs. story
plot: explicit actions story: includes actions inferred from the plot but not actually fully represented in the film
Elliptical editing
presents an action in such a way that it consumes less time on screen than it does in the story.
Explicit meaning
pretty concrete what you are trying to get across (A girl dreams of leaving home to escape her troubles. Only after she leaves does she realize how much she loves her family and friends. Nothing she finds elsewhere can replace them.)