Film Studies Final Terms

Stand-in's

Actors who take the place of the Star Actor who looks reasonably like them in height, weight, coloring, and so on and substitute for them during the tedious process of preparing set-ups or taking light readings

Grip

All-around handy person on a movie production set, most often working with the camera crews and electrical crews

Dolly Shot

- Also known as traveling shot - A shot taken by a camera fixed to a wheeled support called this. - When it runs on tracks,or when camera is mounted to a crane or an aerial device such as an airplane, helicopter, or balloon it is called a tracking shot

Properties

- Also referred to as props - Objects such as paintings, vases, flowers, silver tea sets, guns, and fishing rods - Help us understand the characters by showing us their preferences in such things.

DW Griffith

- American film pioneer - Worked out movements and gestures for his actors rather than training their voices because he worked during the silent film period

Deep Space Composition

- An approach to composition within the frame that places figures in all three planes (background, middle-ground, and foreground) of the frame - Creates an illusion of depth - Often shot with deep-focus cinematography

Eye-Line Match Cut

- An editing transition that shows us what a particular character is looking at. The cut joins two shots: 1) The character's face with his/her eyes visible 2) Whatever the character is looking at - When the second shot is of another character looking back at the character in the first shot, the resulting reciprocal eye-line match cut, and the cuts that follow, establish the 2 characters' proximity and interaction, even if only one character is visible on screen at any one time

Figures

- Any significant things that move on the screen- people, animals, objects.

Action Film: Facts

- Arose in the 1960s with decline of Westerns and rise of film technology enabling more realistic looking special effects - Rise of action coincided with economic globalization and shift of power from governments to corporations - Like traditional Westerns - provides modern mythological heroes and hero stories - James Bond franchise in 1960s cemented many of the elements of this genre o More than other genres, it has been influenced by foreign films (e.g. Hong Kong action cinema) and graphic arts/comics

2 Lighting Sources

- Artificial and Natural - Natural is daylight and most convenient source for industry- why Hollywood is perfect- always sunshine

Issue Film: Key Elements

- Based on a current or historical fact, event or cultural dynamic- tackles a real issue or social problem - Often the plot is based on or depicts a real event or person - Emphasizes the protagonist's distress to illustrate the issue, forces the protagonist to choose between justice and injustice, and test his or her commitment in the face of extreme personal risk - Typically blends realism (depicts authenticity of the problem) and melodrama (develops audience emotional investment) -Follows melodrama in highlighting moral values in a confusing world, provides sharp contrasts between good and evil

Shot

- One uninterrupted run of the camera - Can be as short or as long as the director wants, but cannot exceed the length of film stock in the camera

Shot

- One uninterrupted run of the camera and - The recording on film, video, or other medium resulting from that run - Can be as short or as long as necessary

Iris Shot

- Optical wipe effect in which the wipe line is a circle, named after Iris the camera - The Iris-in begins with a small circle which expands to a partial or full image - The Iris-out begins with a large circle, which contracts into a smaller circle or total blackness

First AC

- Oversees everything having to do with the camera lenses, supporting equipment, and the material on which the movie is being shot

Non-Naturalistic Acting

- Performances seem exaggerated or even overacted - Employ strange or outlandish constumes, makeup, and hair - Aim for effects beyond the normal range of human experience -Intend to distance or estrange audiences from characters - Frequently found in horror, fantasy, and action films

Stunt Double

- Persons who double for actors in scenes requiring special skills or involving hazardous actions, like crashing cars, jumping from high places, swimming, riding and falling off of horses

Extreme Long Shot (XSL, ELS)

- Photographed at a great distance - Subject is often a wide view of location which includes background as information

Second AC

- Prepares the slate that is used to identify each scene as it is being filmed, files camera reports, and feeds film stock into magazines to be loaded into the camera

War Films: Goals

- Privileging of collective goals over individual goals

Extreme Close Up (XCU or ECU)

- Produced when the camera records a very small detail of the subject

Zoom Lens

- Produces images that stimulate the effect of movement of the camera toward or away from the subject - Rather than actually moving through spaces, merely magnifies image - Can make shot seem artificial to audience

Comedy & Gags

- Verbal Gags - jokes, dialogue punch lines, witty repartee - Physical Gags - sight gags or slapstick (facial expressions, slipping or falling, mishaps with props or locations)

Internal Sound

-A form of diegetic sound in which we hear that thoughts of a character and hear that character's thoughts

Zoom in

-A shot in which the image is magnified by movement of the camera's lens only, without the camera itself moving - Magnification is essential difference between the zoom in and dolly in

Long take & Acting

-Long takes carry the weight of scenes and require adult actors to work closely together

Establishing Shot

- When ELS is used to provide an informative context - Even when humans are included in such a shot, the emphasis is not on them as individuals but on their relationship to the surroundings

Camera Crew

Technicians that make up two separate groups- one concerned with the camera, the other concerned with electricity and lighting

Color Film Production

- 1936-1968 - Slow Process - For nearly 60 years of cinema history color was an option that required much more labor, money, and artistic concession than black and white - Reluctance ensued due to difficulty and Great Depression (less ticket sales) - 1939 movies like Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind employed color

Group POV

- A POV captured by a shot that show what a group of characters would see, but at the group's level, not omniscient or single POV

Single Character POV

- A POV that is captured by a shot made with the camera close to the line of sight of one character (or animal or surveillance camera) - Shows what that person would be seeing of the action

Steadicam

- A camera that is suspended from an articulated arm that is attached to a vest strapped to the cameraperson's body, permitting the operator to remain steady during "handheld" shots - Removes jumpiness and often used fro smooth, fast, and intimate camera movement

Rack Focus

- A change of the point of focus from one subject to another - Guides audience attention to a new clearly focused point of interest while blurring the previous subject in the frame

Match Cut

- A cut that preserves continuity between two shots - Several kinds of match cuts exist: eye-line, graphic, and match-on action

External Sound

- A form of diegetic sound that comes from a place within the world of the story, which we and the characters in the scene hear but do not see

On-Screen sound

- A form of diegetic sound that emanates from a source that we both see and hear. - May be internal or external

Off-Screen Sound

- A form of sound, either diegetic or non-diegetic that derives from a source we do not see - Consists of sound effects, music, or vocals that emanate from the world of the story - When non-diegetic, it takes the form of musical score or narration by someone who is not a character in the story

Graphic Match Cut

- A match cut in which the similarity between shots A and B is in the shape and form of the figures pictured in each shot - The shape, the color, or the texture of the two figures matches across the edit, providing continuity

Reframing

- A movement of the camera that adjusts or alters the composition and point of view of a shot

Method Acting

- A naturalistic acting style, loosely adapted from ideas of Russian director Stanislavsky by American directors Elia Kazan and Lee Strasburg - Encourages actors to speak, move, and gesture not in a traditional stage manner but in the same way they would in their own lives - An ideal technique for representing convincing human behavior - Used more on stage than on film

Production Designer

- A person who works closely with the director, art director, and director of photography, in visualizing the movie that will appear on screen - Both artistic and executive

Reflector Board

- A piece of lighting equipment - A double-sided board that pivots in a U-shaped holder: -one side is hard and smooth and reflects hard light; -other side is soft and textured surface that reflects softer fill light

Dailies

- Also known as rushes - Usually synchronized picture/sound work pints of a day's shooting that can be studied by the director, editor, and other crew members before the next day's shooting begins

Rule of Thirds

- A principle in composition that enables filmmakers to maximize the potential image, balance its elements, and create the illusion of depth - A grid pattern, when superimposed on the image, divides the image into horizontal thirds representing the foreground, middle ground, and background planes - And into vertical thirds that break up those planes into additional elements

Duration

- A quantity of time. - In any movie there are three kinds of duration: 1) Story duration 2) Plot duration 3) Screen Duration

Sound Track

- A separate recording tape occupied by one specific type of sound recorded for a movie (one track for vocals, one for sound effects, one for music, etc)

Dutch Angle Shot

- A shot in which the camera is tilted from its normal horizontal and vertical positions so that it is no longer straight - Gives the viewer the impression that the world in frame is out of balance.

Master Shot

- A shot that covers the action of a scene in a continuous take - Usually composed of long shots so that all characters in the scene are on-screen during the action of the scene - Editors rely on this to provide coverage, so that if other shots of the scene's actions (MS, CU) fail to provide useable footage of certain portions of the scripted scene, the director won't need to reshoot the scene.

Eye Level Shot

- A shot that is made from the observer's eye level and usually implies that the observer's attitude is neutral toward the subject being photographed

High Angle Shot

- A shot that is made with the camera above the action - Implies, usually, the observer's sense of superiority to the subject being photographed

Low Angle Shot

- A shot that is made with the camera below the action - Typically places the observer in a position of inferiority

Sound Effects

- A sound artificially created for the sound track that has a definite function in telling the story

Foley Sound

- A sound belonging to a special category of sound effects - Technicians are known as Foley artists. -They create these sounds in specially equipped studios, where they use a variety of props and other equipment to stimulate sounds such as footsteps in the mud, jingling car keys, etc.

Mechanical Effect

- A special effect created by an object or event mechanically on the set and in front of the camera

Laboratory Effect

- A special effect that is created in the laboratory through processing and printing

In-Camera Effect

- A special effect that is created in the production camera (the regular camera used for shooting the rest of the film) on the original negative - i.e., montage, split screen

Freeze Frame

- A still image within a movie, created by repetitive printing in the laboratory of the same frame so that it can be seen without movement for whatever length of time the filmmaker wants

Continuity Editing

- A style of editing - dominant throughout the world- that seeks to achieve logic, smoothness, sequential flow, and the temporal and spatial orientation of viewers to what they see on screen. - Ensures the flow from shot to shot - Creates a rhythm based on the relationship between cinematic space and cinematic time - Creates filmic unity (beginning, middle, end) - Establishes and resolves a problem - Tells a story as clearly and as coherently as possible

Discontinuity Editing

- A style of editing less widely used - Often but not exclusively used in experimental films - that joins shots A and B in ways that upset the viewers expectations and cause momentary disorientation or confusion - The juxtaposition of shots in films edited for this can seem abrupt and unmotivated - But meanings that arise from such discordant editing often transcend the meanings of the individual shots that have been joined together

Jump Cut

- A sudden jump forward in the action that intentionally defies our expectations on continuity

Stanislavsky System

- A system of acting developed by Russian director in late 19th century - Encourages students to strive for realism, both social and psychological - Bring their past experiences and emotions to their roles

Three-Point Lighting System

- A system that employs three sources of light- key light, fill light, and backlight, each aimed from a different direction and position in relation to the subject

Wipe

- A transitional device between shots in which shot B wipes across shot A, either vertically or horizontally to replace it

Issue Film: Facts

- Also called SOCIAL PROBLEM film - Have been consistently made since the 1910s - Many genre films portray social problems. - Use plot to educate, persuade or raise awareness of an issue - rather than primarily using an issue to provide dramatic setting for plot - Are usually also categorized in other genres - Often criticized for simplifying issues, turning issues into personal experience for audiences, commercializing issues, or reproducing dominant cultural patterns of representation

Parallel Editing

- Also called cross-cutting - The intercutting of two or more lines of action that occur simultaneously - Familiar convention in chase or rescue sequence

Match-on-action cut

- Also called cutting on action - A match cut that show us the continuation of a character's or object's motion through space without actually showing us the entire action

Long Take

- Also called sequence shot - A shot that can last anywhere from 1 to 10 minutes (today shots usually last 6-7 secs, in 1930's 8-11 secs)

180 Degree Rule

- Also known as axis of action - An imaginary line connecting two figures in a scene that defines the 180 degree space within which the camera can record shots of figures

Aerial View Shot

- Also known as birds-eye-view - Omniscent POV shot that is taken from an aircraft or extremely high crane and implies that the observer can see all

Key Light

- Also known as the main light or source light - The brightest light falling on a subject

Black and White Stock

- Because of its use in docu films (before 60's) and in newspaper and magazine we ironically associate it with a stronger sense of of gritty realism than that provided by color film stock - It's distinctive contrasts and hard edges can express an abstract world (a world from which color has been abstracted or removed) is perfectly suited for the kind of morality tales told in Westerns, film noirs, and gangster movies.

Black and White: morality and ethics

- Black and white costumes have been used to distinguish between the bad and good - Familiar pattern in film noir and westerns

The Camera & The Close-Up

- Camera creates a greater naturalism and intimacy between actors and audience than would ever be possible on stage - Screen Actor's most important collaborator - Most evident in close-up: isolates an actor, concentrates on the face - Camera can be active: commenting on something just said or done, reminding us who is the focus of a scene - Camera can be passive: revealing an actor's beauty

Framing & Composition for Acting

- Can bring actors together in a shot or keep them apart. - This inclusion and exclusion creates relationships between characters, and these in turn create meaning - The physical relation of the actors to each other and to the overall frame (height,width, and depth) can significantly affect how we see and interpret a shot.

Onscreen Spaces

- Cinematic spaces that exists inside the frame

Offscreen Space

- Cinematic spaces that exists outside the frame

Fast Motion

- Cinematographic technique that accelerates action on screen. - Films the action at a rate less than the normal 24 fps - When shot is played back at standard 24 fps, cinematic time proceeds at a faster rate than the real action that took place in front of the camera.

Slow Motion

- Cinematographic technique that decelerates action on screen - Films the action at a rate greater than normal 24 frames per second. - When shot is played pack at standard 24 fps, cinematic time proceeds at a slower rate than the real action that took place in front of camera

War Films: War Theater vs. Home Front

- Civilian reintegration of active duty or veteran soldier

Long Shot (LS)

- Contains the full body of one or more characters almost filling the frame but with some surrounding above, below, and to the sides also visible

Film Noir Lighting

- Conventionally uses high-contrast black and white tones to symbolize the opposing forces of good and evil

Open Frame

- Designed to depict a world where characters move freely within an open, recognizable environment - Employed in realistic (verisimiliar) films; provides many views

Closed Frame

- Designed to imply that other forces (fates, social, educational, or economic background, or a repressive government) have robbed characters of their ability to move or act freely - Sometimes employed in anti realistic films - enclosing and limiting the world by closing it down and providing only one view

Inherent Thoughtfulness or emotionality & Acting

- Does the actor convey the character's thought process or feelings behind the character's actions or reactions? In addition to a credible appearance, does the character have a credible inner life? - An actor can find the motivations behind a character's actions and reactions at any time before or during a movie's production. - Come to light in script, in discussions with the director or with other cast members, and in spontaneous elements of inspiration etc.

Appropriateness & Acting

- Does the actor look and act naturally like the character he or she portrays as expressed in physical appearance, facial expression, speech, movement, gesture? - Also called transparency: character is clearly recognizable: in speech, movement, and gesture- for what he or she is supposed to be that the actor becomes in a sense invisible

Expressive Coherence & Acting

- Does the actor use these two qualities to create a characterization that holds together - Behavior must be intrinsic, not extraneous to the character, "maintaining not only a coherence of manner, but also a fit between setting, costume, and behavior. - Allows for complex characterization and performance to express thoughts and reveal emotions of a recognizable individual without veering off into mere quirks or distracting detail

Rerecording

- Dubbing

Intercutting

- Editing technique that juxtaposes two or more distinctive actions to create the effect of a single scene -For example, cutting between two people involved in the same telephone conversation. The distinction between this and cross cutting is one of compression of time. - Can be used to speed up a scene and eliminate large pieces of time that would slow a story down.

Setting

- Element of Design - Spatial and temporal - The environment (realistic or imagined) in which the narrative take place - Creates a mood that has social, psychological, emotional, economic, and cultural significance. - Either on location or on set

Ensemble Acting

- Emphasizes interaction of actors, not the individual actor - Evolved as a step further in creating a verisimiliar mise-en-scene for both the stage and the screen -Typically experienced in theater -Actors working together continuously in a single shot

War Films: Masculinity

- Explored through stock characters -- adolescent recruit, professional soldier, independent super soldier, warlord/general

War Films: Culture

- Focus on rivalry/relationships between men

Point of View

- Framing implies POV - At times it presents us with the POV a single character- subjective POV - At times it implies a view that seems to be coming from no one in particular - omniscient POV - Other times framing can be so varied that it creates a desirable ambiguity, one in which viewers are required to reach their own conclusions about the moral issues at hand

Mise En Scene

- French for staging or putting on an action or scene - Sometimes called staging - In critical film analysis it means the overall look and feel of a movie- the sum of everything the audience, sees, hears, and experiences while viewing it. - Subtly influences the audience mood while we watch

Lighting

- Fundamental to the recording of images on film - Has many important functions in shaping the way the final product looks, guiding our eyes through the moving image and helping to tell the movie's story - Essential element in drawing the composition of a frame and realizing that arrangement in film - Through highlights it calls attention to shapes and textures through shadows - Masks and conceals things

Romance Film: Facts

- Getting our "R"s straight: • Romance (Medieval genre of adventure and chivalry) • romance (modern genre of love between two equals) • Romantic (Literary & cultural movement 1790-1830) - Truth comes from emotion, not rationality - Romantic comedies have a long film history - Many genre films have romance elements or subplots or are hybrid romances (e.g. romantic comedies, historical romances)

Design

- Helps express a movie's vision - Create a a convincing sense of times, spaces, and moods - Suggest a character's state of mind - Relate to developing themes - Should be appropriate to the narrative - For example: a Western needs open skies, noir needs shadowy rooms, horror movies must have creepy expressionist effects.

Option Contract

- If actor had made progress in being assigned roles and demonstrating box-office appeal, the studio picked up the option to employ that actor for the next 6 months and gave them raises - If not the studio dropped the option, and the actor was out of work - Did not allow actor to move from studio to studio - Studio had complete control of star's image and services - Studio had right to change the actor's name and his publicity and image

Expressionism

- Important development in art direction that emerged from Germany - It's goal is to give objective expression to subjective human feelings and emotions through the use of objective design elements like structure, color, and texture - Aims to heighten reality by relying on nonobjective elements like symbols, stereotypes, and stylization

4 Criteria for Assessing Acting Performance: Wholeness & Unity

- In spite of the challenges inherent in most film production, has the actor maintained the illusion of a seamless character; even if that character is purposely riddled with contradictions? - Achieved through the actor's ability to achieve aesthetic consistency while working with director, crew, etc.

Lighting and Setting

- Lighting can be used to influence audience mood and impressions. - It can be used to create a menacing, dark and deep shadows, lots of contrast - It can be used used to create a soft romantic vibe

Low Key Lighting

- Lighting that creates strong contrasts - Sharp dark shadows and overall gloomy atmosphere - Contrasts between light and dark often imply ethical judgements

High Key Lighting

- Lighting that produces and image with very little contrast between darks and lights - Even, flat illumination expresses virtually no opinions about the subject being photographed

Fill Light

- Lighting, positioned at the opposite side of the camera from the key light - Can fill in the shadows created by the brighter key light - Can come from reflector board

Backlight

- Lighting, usually positioned behind and in line with the subject and the camera - Used to create highlights on the subject as a means of separating it from the background and increasing its appearance of 3 dimensionality

Color Film Production: Disadvantages

- Making technicolor film would cost 30% more than B&W, technicolor camera required a lot of light, size and weight restricted its movements and potential use in exterior locations, had to use special technicolor makeup

Comedy: Facts

- May function culturally to relieve tension or fears of possible events or fortunes (economic ruin, marital strife, war, death) - One of the oldest and strongest genres since the early silent era with many iconic films and actors (e.g. Charlie Chaplin) - Prominent subgenres include: slapstick, screwball, romantic, parody or spoof, dark comedies. - Hybrid genres cross almost all categories: action, war, science fiction, western, gangster - Can be very linguistically, culturally and generationally

Assistant Camera Persons (AC)

- Member of the camera crew who assists the camera operator

Omniscient POV

- Most common POV portrayed in movies - Allows the camera to travel freely within the world of the film - Shows audience the narrative's events from a god-like, unlimited perspective that no single character in the film could possibly have

Dolly Out

- Movement of the camera away from a subject - Often used for slow disclosure, occurs when an edited succession of images leads from A to B to C as they gradually reveal elements of a scene - Each image expands on the one before, changing its significance with new information

Medium Long Shot (MLS)

- Neither a medium nor long shot but in between - Used to photograph one or more characters usually from the knees up, as well as some background - This indispensable shot permits the director to place to characters in conversation and to shoot them from a variety of angles - Used a lot in American film thus it's also called plan Americain

Expressionism characterization

- Objective to create a totally unified mise-en-scene that increases emotional impact of the production on the audience - Characterized by extreme stylization in sets, decor, acting, lighting, and camera angles - Grossly distorted abstract sets are meant to be as expressive as the actors, if not more. - Lighting is deliberately artificial, emphasizes deep shadows and sharp contrast

Naturalistic Acting

- Occurs when actors re-create recognizable or plausible human behavior for the camera - Actors not only look like the characters should (costume, makeup, hair) but also think, speak and move the way people would off-screen

Setup

- One camera position and everything associated with it - Basic component of the film's production process and component on which the director and cinematographer spend the most time collaborating

Shot/Reverse Shot

- One of the most prevalent and familiar of all editing patterns - Consists of parallel editing (crosscutting) between shots of different characters, usually in a conversation or confrontation - When used in continuity editing the shots are framed over each character's shoulder to preserve screen duration

Action Film: Genre Hallmarks

- Resourceful, fit, physical male hero who fights alone and/or independently against overwhelming odds - Hero faces high-level secretive or supernatural evil, delivers deadpan one-liners/is savvy and streetwise/highly trained - Fast pacing, chase scenes, hand-to-hand combat, high body count - Attention to weapons, creative fight choreography - Elaborate/global settings - Many subgenres: martial arts films, superhero films, spy films, disaster films, action comedy, action thriller, action sci-fi

Production Designer: Responsibilities

- Responsible for overall design concept- the look of the movie - Responsible for individual sets, locations, furnishings, props, and costumes - Supervises heads of many departments (art, costume design and construction, hairstyling, makeup, wardrobe, location) that create that look

Crane Shot

- Shot that is created by movement of a camera mounted on an elevating arm (crane) that, in turn, is mounted on a vehicle that, if shooting, requires it, can move on its own power of be pushed along the tracks

Medium Close-Up Shot (MCU)

- Shows a character from approximately the middle of the chest to the top of the head - Provides a view of the face that catches minor changes in expression and provides some detail about the character's posture

Comedy: Elements

- Situational - characters caught in unexpected, ludicrous, embarrassing and/or compromising situations (I Love Lucy plots) -Farce - wacky plots, mistaken identities, misunderstandings - Timing - rhythm, tempo, line delivery, beats, pregnant pauses - Happy Endings

Dolly In

- Slow movement of the camera toward a subject, making the subject appear larger and more significant - This gradual intensification is commonly used at moments of the character's realization and/or decision - Or as a POV shot to indicate the reason for the character's realization

War Films: Facts

- Some critics limit the genre to combat films set in 20th-21st century wars. - Others include 19th century wars and/or any film portraying aspects of war and/or its aftermath - Often studied in era categories: WWI films, WWII films, Vietnam films because social context of production is key to representation of war - Many nations with prominent modern war histories have strong traditions of war film (US, Japan, China, Russia) - Come in many modes, hybrid and subgenres: biopic, melodrama, action film, issue film, comedy, propaganda

Lighting From Below

- Sometimes called Halloween Lighting - Creates eerie, ominous shadows on the actor's face by reversing the normal placement of illumination and shadow - Appropriate for horror genre

Asynchronous Sound

- Sound that comes from a source apparent in the image but that is not precisely matched temporarily with the actions occurring in the image

Ambient Sound

- Sound that emanates from the ambience (background) of the setting or environment being filmed -Either recorded during production or added in postproduction - Incorporates other types of film sound: dialogue, narration, sound effects, Foley sounds - It does not include any unintentionally recorded noise made during production

Non-simultaneous Sound

- Sound that has previously been established in a movie and replays for some narrative or expressive purposes - Occur when a character has a mental flashback to an earlier voice that recalls a conversation, or to a sound that identifies a place, event, or other significant element of the narrative

Simultaneous Sound

- Sound that is diegetic and occurs onscreen

Director of Photography

- Stands as the natural assemblage of the two main streams of activity in the production of a film- where imagination meets the reality of the film process - Visualizes the picture purely from a photographic POV - Determined by lights and the moods of individual sequences and scenes - Determines how to use angles, set-ups, lights, and camera as a means to tell the story

Sound Design

- State of the art concept, combining the crafts of editing and mixing, and involves both theoretical and practical issues - Represents advocacy for movie sound

War Films: Morality

- Suspension of civilian morality and war justification or rationalization

Tonality

- System of tones - Distinguishing quality of black and white film stock - System includes the complete range of tones from black to white - Anything on set- furniture, makeup, costume etc., registers these tones - Distinction is made by manipulating the colors being photographed and through the lighting of them

Master Scene Technique

- Technique based on the coverage, meaning that a scene is photographed with a variety of individual shots, running from the general to the specific (long/medium/close-up) - Taken from from various distances and angles - Coverage is strategy used specifically with the editing in mind - Usually directors began shooting a scene with a long shot (master shot) that covers the characters and action in one continuous take - Then proceeds to cover scene with whatever additional shots (MS, CU) the editor might need to create finished scene

Special Effects

- Technology for creating images that would be too dangerous, too expensive, or simply impossible to achieve with traditional cinematographic materials - Goal is to create verisimilitude within the imaginative world of even the most fanciful movie

Blocking

- The actual physical relationships among figures and settings. - The process during rehearsal of establishing those relationships

Production Values

- The amount and quality of human and physical resources devoted to the image

Kenesis

- The aspect of composition that takes into account everything that moves on screen

Close up Shot (CU)

- The camera pays very close attention to the subject, whether it is an object or a person - Mostly used in close-ups of actors' faces - Traditionally shows full head (sometimes shoulders) - Can also be used to show another part of the body like hand, eye or mouth - When on face it can provide an exclusive view of the character's emotion and state of mind or lack of emotion or thought

Costume

- The clothing worn by an actor in a movie - Contributes to settings -Suggest the specific character traits, such as social station, self-image, the image that character is trying to project to the world, state of mind, overall situation, etc. - Verisimilitude is important for wardrobe design - Other important factors include: style, fit, condition, color, patterns.

Decor

- The color and textures of the interior decoration, furniture, draperies, and curtains

Screen Direction

- The direction of a figure's or object's movement on the screen

Focal Length

- The distance (measured in mm) from the optical center of the lens to the local point on the film stock or other sensor when the image is sharp and clear (in focus) - Affects how we perceive perspective- the appearance of depth- in a shot - Influences our perception of size, scale, and movement of the subject.

Rhythm

- The editor controls the beat of the film- the pace at which it moves forward- by varying duration of the shots in relation to one another and thus control the speed and accents.

Fidelity

- The faithfulness or unfaithfulness of a sound to its source

Pan Shot

- The horizontal movement of a camera mounted on the gyroscopic head of a stationary tripod - Like the tilt-shot it is a simple movement with dynamic possibilities for creating meaning

Pre-production

- The initial, planning and preparation stage of production process

Shooting Angle

- The level and height of the camera in relation to the subject being photographed.

Take

- The number of times a particular shot is taken

Composition

- The organization, distribution, balance, and general relationship of actors and objects within the space of each shot. - General relationship of stationary objects and figures, as well as light, shade, line, and color within the frame

Art Director

- The person responsible for transforming the production designer's vision into reality on screen - Assess the staging requirements for a production - Arranges for and supervises the work of the members of the art department

Framing

- The process by which the cinematographer determines what will appear both within the borders of the moving image (the frame) during a shot

Mise-en-Scene: Design

- The process by which the look of the settings, props, lighting, and actors is determined - Set design, decor, prop selection, lighting setup, costuming, makeup, and hairstyle all play important role

Mixing

- The process of combining different sound tracks onto one composite sound track that is synchronous with the picture

POV editing

- The process of editing different shots together in a way that the resulting sequence makes us aware of the perspective or POV of a particular character or group of characters - It usually starts with an objective shot of a character looking toward something outside the frame and then cute to a shot of the object, person or action the character is looking at

Deep Focus Cinematography

- The process of rendering the figures on all planes (background, middle ground, and foreground) of a deep-space composition in focus

Lighting Ratio

- The relationship and between illumination and shadow - The balance between key light and fill light -Low-Key Lighting: If the ratio is high- shadows are deep - High Key Lighting: If the ration is low- shadows are faint or non-existent and illumination is even

Production

- The second stage of the production process, the actual shooting.

Scale

- The size and placement of a particular object or part of a scene in relation to the rest - a relationship determined by the type of shot used and the placement of the camera

Post-Production

- The third stage of the production process, consisting of editing, preparing the final print, and bringing the film to the public

Coverage

- The use of a variety of shots of a scene- taken from multiple angles, distances, and perspectives- to provide director and editor a greater choice of editing options during post-production

Chiaroscuro Lighting

- The use of deep gradations and subtle variations of lights and darks within an image

Colorization

- The use of digital technology in a process, similar to to hand-tinting, to paint colors on movies meant to be seen in black and white - Failed to create verisimilitude- failed.

Tilt Shot

- The vertical movement of a camera mounted on the gyroscopic head of a stationary tripod - Like pan shot it is a simple movement with dynamic possibilities for creating meaning

Mise-En-Scene: Visual elements

- These elements are all crucial to shaping our sympathy for, and understanding of, the characters shaped by them.

Lighting From Above

- To make character appear vulnerable or threatening and mysterious

Dissolve

- Transitional device in which shot B, superimposed, gradually appears over shot A and begins to replace it at midpoint in transition. - Dissolves usually indicate the passing of time

Fade in/Fade Out

- Transitional devices in which a shot fades in from a black field on black and while film or from a color field on color film, or fades out to a black field

Lillian Gish

- Under DW Griffith she invented the art of screen acting - Studied the movements of ordinary people to develop her physical skills with regular exercise, and to tell stories with her face and body

Medium Shot (MS)

- Usually shows a character from the waist up - Somewhere between long shot and close-up - Most frequently used type of shot because it replicates our human experience of proximity without intimacy - Can include several characters - Reveals more nuance in characters' faces than can be captured in MLS

Romance Film: Elements

-Two people meet, fall in love, and are kept separate by obstacles -The plot is structured around what keeps them apart -They must defeat or escape and external enemy and/or achieve an individual internal realization in order to be united - The plot ends with the couple united - traditionally marriage (plot pattern = meet-separate-unite-or married-divorce-remarry) -If the plot end in the couple's separation it is a tragedy not a romance (e.g. Romeo & Juliet, Brokeback Mountain) - The couple's love is of enduring, once-in-a-lifetime quality

4 Types of Actors

1) Actors who take their personae from role to role (personality actor) 2) Actors who deliberately play against our expectations of their personae 3) Actors who seem to be different in every role (chameleon actors) 4) Actors, often nonprofessionals or people who have achieved success in another field (sports or music), who are cast to bring verisimilitude to a part

4 Categories of Cinematographer responsibilites

1) Cinematographic properties of the shot (film stock, lighting, lenses) 2) Framing the shot (proximity to camera, depth, camera angle and height, scale, and camera movement) 3) Speed and length of shot 4) Special Effects

Montage

1) French for editing: To assemble or put together 2) Former Soviet Union 1920s: the various forms of editing that expressed ideas developed by theorists and filmmakers 3) Hollywood in 1930's : a sequence of shots often with superimpositions and optical effects, showing a condensed series of events

4 Principles of Sound Design

1) Sound should be integral to all three phases of film production, not after-thought to be added in postproduction only 2) A film's sound is potentially as expressive as its images 3) Image and sound can create different worlds 4) Image and sound are co-expressive

6 Segments of Offscreen Spaces

1) the 4 infinite spaces that lie beyond the four borders of the frame 2) the spaces beyond the movie settings, which call attention to entrances and exits from the world of the frame 3) the space behind the camera, helps the viewer define the camera's POV and identify a physical point beyond which characters may pass

Walk-On

A role even smaller than a cameo, reserved for highly recognizable actor or personality

Cameo

A small but significant role often played by a famous actor

Bit Player

An actor who holds a small speaking part

Character Role

An actor's part that represents a distinctive character type (sometimes stereotype): society leader, judge, doctor, diplomat, etc.

Ellipsis

An omission of time- the time that separates one shot from another- to create dramatic or comedic impact

7 Functions of Film Sound

Audience Awareness, Expectations, Expression of POV, Rhythm, Characterization, Continuity, Emphasis

Gaffer

Chief electrician on a movie production set

Tracking Shot

Dolly Shot

Best Boy

Fist assistant electrician to the gaffer (Chief elec) on a movie production set

Major/Minor Role

Lead actor vs supporting actor

Screen Duration

The actual time that has elapsed to present the movie's plot, i.e., movie's running time

Camera Operator

The member of the camera crew who does the actual shooting

Cinematography

The process of capturing moving images on film or a digital storage device. - Comes from 3 Greek roots- Kinesis- movement; photo- light; graphia- writing - Intricate language that contribute to a movie's overall meaning as much as story, mise-en-scene, and acting. - Camera is the maker of meaning

Story Duration

The time that the entire narrative arc- whether explicitly presented on screen or not- is implied to have taken

Plot Duration

The time that the events explicitly shown on screen are implied to have taken