Film Class Final

Fill lighting

a lighting technique using secondary fill lights to balance the key lighting by removing shadows or to emphasize other spaces and objects in the scene

Medium Shot

a middle-ground framing in which we see the body of a person from approximately the waist up. Very common.

1990s to present...

1990s see a rise in the number of independent films. Theatres continue to lure audiences with the promise of superior sound and visual technology. Digital cinematography have made filmmaking less costly and more possible for non-professionals.

Rack focus (pulled focus)

Dramatic change in focus from one object to another. Can be used to connect two characters, or two actions.

Narrative Duration and Frequency

Duration: length of time an event or action is presented in plot. Frequency: how often we see an event happen.

Editing history (1895-1918)

Early pioneers: Muybridge and Marey. George Melies: stop motion photography to create sense of editing. Scenery changed for a different shot. Edwin S. Porter = 12 Step shots. D.W. Griffith: parallel editing -> crosscutting = alternating between two or more strands of action to create the sense of simultaneous action boaN=emergence of continuity editing.

4 Attributes of the Shot

Framing, Depth of Field, Movement, Color

Lumiére Brothers

French. Credited with being first filmmakers to show the film to a public audience. In 1895, they invent an apparatus that could be used as a camera, printer and projector: cinematographe. 1895="birth of cinema"

Point of View

The position from which a person, event, or object is seen (or filmed). Subjective point of view: creates the perspective of a character Objective point of view: represents the more impersonal perspective of the camera Focus: the specific object highlighting within a point of view.

The Shot

The shot is the basic unit of cinematography. A shot represents a continuous point of view-it may move forward or backward, up or down, but cannot change, break , or cut to another point of view or image.

contrapuntal sound

two different meanings implied by the soundtrack and the image we see

Modernity and Cinema: Walter Benjamin

"The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction". FIlms and photography's ability to be reproduced meant that they didn't produce unique objects. The auro of the original art work could not be reproduced over and over. Movies and photography capture contemporary life.

Genre

"kind" or type. Refers to a category or film in which the individual films share similar subject matter and similar ways of organizing the subject through narrative and stylistic patterns. Has a set of conventions and formulas repeated and developed through film history. Rely on audience expectations about characters, narrative, and visual style.

Illusion of continuous motion

"persistence of vision" the brain retains images cast upon the retina of the eye for approximately 1/20 to 1/5 of a second after they've disappeared. So, the eye essentially 'remembers' the image it has just seen for a moment after the object has disappeared. Phi Phenomenon: causes us to see rotating blades of a fan a unitary circular form. Together, the phi phenomenon and persistence of vision permit the illusion of continuous motion upon which cinematography is based. (creates apparent movement at optimal projection speeds of 12 to 24 fps). Illusion is the operative term here. Most motion picture cameras today expose individual frames at the rate of 24 fps (exposure time of 1/48 of a second/per frame). (Speeds have traditionally been set at about 16 frames/second for silent films and 24 for sound). When we watch a film in the theatre, we are in the dark as much as 50% of the time.

Mise-en-scene

"placed in a scene". The scenic elements of a movie, including its actors, lighting, sets, settings, costumes, make-up, and other features of the image that exist independent of the camera and the processes of filming and editing. Those elements of the movie that are put into position before the filming actually begins and are employed in certain ways once the filming does begin. Key dimension of our movie experience. Foundations of mise-en-scene come from the theatre, where sets and costumes and actors and props and lighting are all crucial components of the theatrical experience. Earliest movies were almost entirely mise-en-scene.

Scenic realism

(the kind of realism that comes from mise-en-scene) is the most prominent vehicle for cinematic realism.

Marey's Chronophotgraphic Gun

-1882. Frenchman Juley Marey invents the chronophotographic gun. Instead of multiple cameras used to shoot action, he condensed them into one. It could shoot pictures at a rate of tweelve images per second. originally used a circular, rotating glass plate on which the images were imprinted. Using these pictures he studied: horses, birds, dogs, sheep, donkeys, elephants, fish, microscopic creatures, mollusks, insects, reptiles, etc.

Stars Onscreen Dominate the Mise-en-Scene

-Stars become focal points of the visual composition -Stars carry with them their accumulated onscreen and offscreen history. -Stars shape characters not just through their acting ability, but via their star image and our understanding of it.

Rules of Continuity Editing

1) Graphic qualities kept continuous from shot to shot. Figures are balanced and symmetrical in frame. Action is in the central zone. 2) Rhythm of cutting is dependent on camera distance of the shot long shots=longer, medium=longer than closeups. 3) Establishing shot to construct a 180 space. Initial long shot to establish the setting and orients viewer. Used in traditional film. 4) Approximate experience of real time by following human actions.

15 Aspects of Mise-En-Scene (Louis Giannetti)

1. the dominant 2. lighting key 3. shot and camera proxemics 4. angle 5. color values 6. lens/filter/film stock 7. subsidiary contrasts 8. Dnesity 9. Composition 10. Form 11. Framing 12. Depth 13. Character Placement 14. Staging positions 15. Character Proxemics

The Axis of Action, AKA the 180 Degree Line

180 line: imaginary line bisecting a scene. All shots taken from one side of this axis. They never break this rule. The scene's action is assumed to take place along this predictable line. Axis of action determines a half-circle around which action will be filmed. Establishes a sense of verisimilitude. A system of rules which does not violate spatial principles.

Eadweard Muybridge and Series Photography

1877 - former Gov. of CA-Leland Standford -- hires Eadweard Muybridge to prove that a horse lifts all 4 hooves when he runs. Muybridge set up 12 cameras along the horse track, and stretched wires across the track so that the hooves would trip the shutters: series photography. He did not invent moving pictures, but he did record live action continuously for the first time in history (but had to use 12 separate cameras)

Celluloid

1889 George Eastman. Revolutionizes the film industry as it eliminates the need for glass plates, making it possible to create more portable cameras.

Medium long shot

A framing that increases the distance between the camera and the subject compared with a medium shot; it shows most of the person's body, say knees up.

Medium close-up

A framing that shows a comparatively larger area than a close-up, such as a person shown from the shoulders up, typically used during conversation sequences.

Soviet Montage Theory (1917-26)

A group of Russian Soviet directors (Einstein, Vertov, Pudovkin, Kuleshov) developed a set of theories about filmmaking that highlighter the importance of editing. Montage is perceived differently. These soviets were among the earliest of intellectuals to posit theories regarding cinema as a unique art form that could influence people and that could bring them to the modern era. Film fit into their revolutionary ideals.

Following Shots

A pan, tilt, or tracking shot that follows an individual or object

Cue

A piece of music composed for a particular place in the film. Narrative cueing: music tells us what is happening in the plot Stingers: sound that force us to notice the significance of something

Staging: Performance and Blocking

Actors embody and perform film characters through gesture and movement. Performance= the actor's use of language, physical expression, and gesture to bring a character to life through voice and body. Blocking=arrangement and actors in relation to one another within the physical space of the mise-en-scene.

Edwin S. Porter

American. "Father of the Western". Directs The Great Train Robbery (1903). Cross-cutting/parallel editing to create simultaneous action in separate spaces were used.

Sound

An audiovisual medium. Complements the visuals, guides our interpretations of scenes. May be responsible for creating cinema's deepest impressions.

Tilt

An upward or downward rotation of the camera whose tripod or mount remains in a fixed position, producing a vertical movement onscreen. As if the camera's head is moving up or down. The entire camera does not change position-it tilts up or down.

Film Takes Off...

Around 1910, film becomes popular with a mainstream audience and filmmakers change the content to reflect the wider market. Between 1914-1920, the first movie theatres are built. Beginning of studio era. Star system develops.

Masks

Attachments to the camera that cut off portions of the frame so that part of the image is black. Masking also refers to black strip you see on the top and bottom of a widescreen image. Easiest way to create a widescreen image is simply to mask part of the frame height. This means that during filming, lightss and sound equipment may be in full view...but during exhibition the projector will mask the top and bottom parts of the image so those things will not be visible.

D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation

By 1908, D.W Griffith is making movies. He revolutionizes the film industry and art form through his highly complex cinematography, editing, and narrative. 1915 The Birth of a Nation. Famous for crosscutting between the rescuers and the victims in order to create identification with white "victims" 190 mins long. Advent of the feature film.

The Factor of Camera Height

Camera Height can also vary as an element of the film's style or to present a particular perspective. Camera height is tyically eye level, but there are many alternatives

Classical Film Narrative

Centered on 1 or more central characters who propel the plot with a cause and effect logic. Develop plots with linear chronologies directed at certain goals. Employ an omniscient or a restricted narration that suggests a degree of realism. Typically follow a three part structure: 1) the presentation of a situation or circumstance 2) the disruption of that situation 3) the resolution of that disruption.

Tracking Shot (dolly shot)

Changes the position of the camera by moving forward or backward or around the subject, usually on tracks that have been constructed in advance.

Like us, characters change...

Character development: Patterns through which characters move from one state to another. External: physical alterations a character may undergo, such as aging. Internal: changes from within. Progressive vs. Regressive: Improvement or advancement in some quality of character vs. deterioration or return to some previous state.

Other kinds of film narrative

Classical European Narrative: 1910-1950s. Tends to situate the story in large and varied social contexts that dilute the singularity of a central protagonist. Postclassical model: frequently undermines the power of a protagonist to control and drive the narrative. Alternative: dramatize disjunction between how individuals live and how those patterns conflict with social history that intersects with lives. Challenge linear, undermine centrality of main character, questions realism.

Character Coherence, Depth and Grouping

Coherence: expectation that we see people as fundamentally consistent and unique. Dividing/inconsistent: subvert rule of coherence. Intentionally craft inconsistent characters as a way of challenging our sympathies and understanding. Character doubling: Characters mirror each other. Grouping: social arrangement of characters in relation to each other. 1 or 2 protagonists and antagonists. Also secondary or minor characters.

Major Genres

Comedies, Westerns, Melodramas, Musicals, Horror, Gangster/Detective, etc.

Costumes and Make-up

Costumes: clothing and related accessories that define a character and contribute to the visual impression and design of the film overall. Costumes may be regular, common fashions or be fantastic costumes. Make-up: cosmetics that highlight, disguise, or distort certain aspects of the face or body. Sometimes a character becomes identified with a particular look or costume -Costumes and make-up are very important in supporting scenic realism

Elements of Editing

Cut=foundation of film editing. Refers to join or splice between two separate shots or scenes. Editing allows filmmaker to manipulate space and time to tell a story a certain way.

Race, Ethnicicity, and Representation

Deals with discourses of imperialism, colonialism, and nationalism, as well as how race and ethnicity are represented onscreen.

Reception Theory

Deals with how a film is received by its audience and what that can tell us about the film, but mainly about the audience. Reception theory claims that a films meaning is only achieved in its reception how an audience responds = meaning.

Genre during the Studio System

Economics of predictability: the production regulation and distribution of materials in ways that anticipate demand for those materials. Studio system runs of principe of Fordism. Studios became identified with a genre. Warner bros: gangster films. paramount: sophisiticated comedies. MGM: musicals and melodramas. RKO: literary adaptions. Columbia: Westerns. Universal: horror films.

Thomas Edison and W.K.L Dickson

Edison interested in creating a visual accompaniment for this phonograph. 1892. Edison and Dickson invent both the kinetograph (motion picture camera) and the kinetoscope (a peep-hole like device that allowed one to view a film strip). In the kinetograph, Dickson and Edison included an intermittent mechanism in the kinetograph (motion picture camera) so that each frame would stop before the lens long enough for the shutter to open and expoe the film, and perforations were added to the filmstrip to ensure that the film would be advanced by regular intervals. The perforations in the film made it possible for a clawed gear to hook on to the film and pull it in front of the lens, one frame at a time, ensuring synchronization of the filmstrip and shutter. Still used today.

Digital Age of Editing (1990s-now)

Editing done on computer. Allows for flexibility and endless possibilities.

Genre Theory

Emerged after WWII when French saw American film for the first time since the war began. French began to identify important commonalities to different categories of film. Place within its genre in order to better understand the films significance/contribution/the genre as a whole, what it's doing, etc...

Types of Shots

Establishing. Two-shot: relatively close shot of both characters. Establishes position to each other. Shot/reverse shot pattern: a pattern of shots taken from the opposite end of the axis of action, usually used in conversation sequences.

Extreme close-up

Even closer shot. Singling out someone's eyes or lips or petals of a flower.

Transitions

Fade-out: gradually darkens shot. Fade-in: lightens a shot from black. Dissolve: superimposes the end of shot A with beginning of shot B.

Nickelodeon Theatres, 1905-1915

First type of indoor space dedicated to exhibiting motion pictures to a public audience. At first, aimed mainly to immigrant working-class male population. Eventually attracted middle-class audience. Often noisy, boisterous atmosphere. Short films. Might feature live performance, sing-a-longs, musical accompaniment.

Classical film theories: realism and formalism

Formalism: Method of analysis that considers a film's form, or strucutre, to be primary. Meaning of film is found in the film itself. Close reading: study cinematography or shot duration and significance of it. Ruled in the 1920s and 30s. Realism: imitation of reality in the arts. How cosely an art form replicates real life. Andre Bazin: film reveals reality. Deep focus photography incorporated, less cutting necessary.

Camera Distance

Framing determines the image size by correlating with the camera's distance from its subject.

Elements of Film Genre

Generic conventions: identifying features of a genre, such as character types, settings, props, or events that are repeated from film to film.

Postwar Film Genres

Golden years of American film after dissolution of studio system. New genres (noir, road, buddy). Other genres revised by new Hollywood directors. Exploitation genres.

Diegesis

Greek word for story. The entire world that a film story describes or infers. Crucial to our understanding of film narrative because forces us to consider those elements of the story that narrative chooses to include or exclude from the plot. Nonpdiagetic: includes material used to tell the story that doesn't relate to the diegesis and its world, such as background music and credits. Adds to story and affects how we participate and understand it.

Diegetic sound

Has its source in the narrative world of the film

Soviet Montage (1919-1929)

Height of soviet cinema during the 1920s. Sergei Einstein - films ecnter on montage. Editing. Style which emphasizes the breaks and contrasts between images. Soviet Cinema was political.

Hollywood and Sound

Hollywood tends to be more conservative than the rest of the world in terms of its use of sound. Tends to stress parallelism and sound. Sound and image work together to increase the effect of verisimilitude. Even when image and sound have no connection, their simultaneity creates a connection

Eyeline match

If a character looks offscreen to her left, the next shot will likely show the character or object that the character is looking at in a screen position that matches her gaze. Shot/reverse shot often use eyeline matches to remind viewers of spatial continuity.

Movement: the Mobile Frame

If there is movement in the shot, the mobile frame follows the action, object, or individual.

Iconography

Images or image patterns with specific connotations or meanings.

Iris Ins and Outs

In: opens on small circular portion of the frame and expands to reveal whole image. Out: gradually masks corners of the frame, obscuring image so it looks like a camera shutter is closing.

Iris Shot

Iris Shot: masks the frame so that only a small, circular piece of the image is seen.

Types of Actors

Leading: central characters in movies-typically the 2-3 that appear most often in a film. Character: recognizable, but usually appear as secondary actors. Typically associated with a particular type. Supporting: secondary characters in film who serve as companions or foils to the primary character. Minor: character groups that function as a kind of unit rather than as individual personalities.

George Melies

Made highly imaginative early science fiction films. Many of his films employed stop motion photography (primitive editing) and elaborate sets and costumes to create magical landscapes. Early special effects. A Trip to the Moon (1902) is his most famous work.

Key Lighting

Main source of non-natural lighting in a scene. High key light: is even (ratio between key and fill light is high) Low key light: shows strong contrast (ratio between key and fill light is low)

Elliptical editing

Means the editing can present the action in such a way that it consumes less time on screen than it does in the story. Editing allows a filmmaker to condense a lot of story into a little time.

Modern Disjunctive Editing, Post-studio era (1960-89)

More experimentation with alternative styles of editing. Disjunctive editing emphasizes disjunctions or disconnections. Sometimes creating ruptures or gaps in the story. French new wave: Godard. Jump cuts edits that intentionally create gaps in action. MTV in the 80s and fast paced commercials influenced rapid, flashy editing.

Post WWII (esp 1950s)

Movie studios and theatres face fierce competition when TV is invented and becomes affordable for the average American. New technologies, such as 3-D, color processes like Technicolor, widescreen processes such as CinemaScope, are employed to draw audiences into movie theatres. Rise of the Art House Theatre. Drive-in Theatres.

Motives

Musical themes assigned to particular characters.

Narration or narrative perspective

Narration: telling of a story or description of a situation. First-person: particular P.O.V. Omniscient: version of third person, all elements of the plot are presented from many or all potential angles. Limited third person: focuses on one or two characters. Unreliable: can't trust our narrators. Sometime's it's the cinematography and selection ofimages that dictate the narration, sometimes it's a voiceover.

Early Film Theory

New art appeared and theorists were excited about it. Asked basic questions about the medium. Questions asked: Is cinema art? How does it relate to photography, painting, literature, and other art forms? Does film resemble language or have a language of its own? Is films primary responsibility to tell a story? Is film by nature a realist medium? What is the place of film in the modern film?

1960s and 70s

Now firmly in post-studio era. Independent films now possible. "New Hollywood" emerges, with a different style of filmmaking and different subject matters. Theatres shift from multiple "acts" to single feature film. Censorship relaxes.

How the 180 Degree Line Works

Positions of the characters and objects in the frame will remain consistent. Ensures consistent eyelines. Ensures consistent screen direction.

Lighting

One of the most important and one of the most subtle dimensions of mise-en-scene. Lighting is also a function of cinematography, as cinematography requires lighting to function.

Onscreen and Offscreen Space

Onscreen: the space visible within the frame of the image. Offscreen: the implied space of world that exists outside the film frame.

Evolution of the Motion Picture

Origins: Cinema evolved from scientific innovation and experiments with the field of optics and photography. optical illusion toys, like the magic lantern c. 1640, which used light and shadows to reproduce images & the Zoetrope (1834)(a revolving disk holding transparencies lit from behind) created the illusion of moving images. Early forms of photography being developed in the 1830s, 40s.

Plot vs. Story

Plot: orders the events and actions of the story according to particular temporal and spatial patterns, selecting some actions, individuals, and events, and omitting others. May be highly detailed or basic. Describes everything visibly and audibly action we see. . presents in the film before us. Story: what we understand to have happened, whether we see it onscreen or not.

High Angle Shot

Point of view directed from a downward angle on individuals or a scene

Introduction of Sound and Color

Progression in realism. 1926 - Warner Bros introduces the Vitaphone, a system that synchronized sound on disks with the moving images on film. Fox developed the Movietone sound system, which recorded sound optically on film. The Jazz Singer (1927) known as the first talkie. Orchestra pits no longer needed. Color processes appear in late 20s but don't take off until the 1930s.

Types of Characters

Protagonist: 1 or 2. Positive forces in film. Antagonists: oppose protagonists as negative forces. Character types: typical damsel in distress, tough guy, class clown. Very recognizeable. Figurative types: so exaggerated or reduced that they no longer seem realistic and instead seem more like abstractions or emblems. May resemble good, evil, or innocence.

Relations in Editing

Rhythmic: each shot is of a certain length of a strip of film, length corresponds to duration the shot will be onscreen (editing allows director to determine duration). Length of shots in relation to one another. Temporal: filmmaker controls time of action of the story through editing. Order of action presentation. 1, 2, 3? 2, 3, 1? Spatial: Editing permits the filmmaker to relate any two points in space through similarity, difference, or development.

Studio System (1920s-1950s)

Several important studios emerged after WWI - Warner Bros, Paramount, MGM, Twentieth Century Fox, RKO. The studios had a ton of control over the actors, cinematography, and story-writing. Very formulaic. Controlled every aspect of filmmaking from production to distribution to exhibition. Studios became identified with certain genres. Efficiency allowed studios to make several motion pictures at one time. Huge # of films produced during this time. Stars were on a 7-year contract. Paramount Decision of 1948: the Supreme Court declares studio systems were a monopoly that had to be dismantled.

Wipe

Shot B replaces shot A by moving a boundary line across the screen. Line might be vertical, horizontal.

Long Take

Shot that lasts a long time before cutting to another shot. A typical shot will lasts maybe 10 seconds or so before cutting to another shot. By contrast, the long take, by stretching out the shot, becomes almost a replacement or alternative for editing. Rather than a series of shots, we stay with a single shot, for some kind of purpose. Rope=8 long takes.

Graphic Editing

Shots linked by graphic similarities meaning shapes, colors, overall composition, or movement in shot A to shot B. Can be broad, meaning similar colors or patterns used to link to shot or very specific, in the form of a graphic match (a dominant shape or line in one shot provides a visual transition to a similar shape in the next.) Creates a connection between two different images and therefore produces a meaning.

USA Editing during the studio era (1930-59)

Sound effected editing. Classical and Hollywood style. Cinematic realism became a primary goal of Hollywood filmmaking. Verisimilitude (appearance of being true) encourage. Sometimes this meant fewer cuts -> editig to allow viewer to immerse themself into the story and not be distracted by film elements or cuts. Most films today still adhere to basic rules of continuity editing.

Steadicam

Stabilization system introduced in the 1970s that allows a camera operator to film a continuous and steady shot without losing the freedom of movement afforded by the handheld camera: wear on the shoulder with mount to avoid jarring

Elements of Narrative FIlm

Story: actions/events; subject matter, raw material, of the narrative. Characters: individuals who motivate the events and perform actions of story. Most characters are a combo of both ordinary and extraordinary qualities. This allows characters to be relatable and interesting at the same time.

Feminist Film Theory

Studies representations of gender (both men and women) in film. Laura Mulvey in 1970 noticed how Hollywood camera in narrative film replicates the male gaze. Camera (and narrative) conquer the females. Women in the film are to be looked at, passive objects, while the men in the film replicate the gaze of the camera, looking at/subjugating females. "Women as image/man as bearer of the look"

Different Types of Acting...help define performance

Stylized Acting: actor employs highly stylized gestures or speaks in pronounced tones with elevated diction. Actor seems fully aware he/she is acting. Naturalistic: asks an actor to fully and naturally embody the role that he or she is playing. Very "realistic" acting.

Sound Effects

Taken for granted because they appear to be unmanufactured, but they are quite deliberately and painstakingly created for the film's soundtrack. Often added later. Give the image depth.

The Rise of the "New Hollywood"

The 1960s ushered a new wave of directors and actors loosely known now as the "New Hollywood". Directors marked a new era for Hollywood, one far more experimental in style and content and one driven, in part, by the sex, drugs, and rock n' roll culture of the '60s counter-culture movement.

"Dream Palace" Theatres, 1920s

The Birth of a Nation catapults the American film industry forward. Birth of feature film. Featured a number of acts on the program.

Narrative

The art and craft of constructing a story with a particular plot and point of view. Comes out a long cultural, artistic, and literary tradition of storytelling. Follows three part structure: beginning, middle, end. Has to do with the way we organize patterns of time and history in our lives. Scripts (screenplays) helped standardize and advance film narrative. The story is of primary importance in Hollywood film.

Framing

The framing of a shot contains, limits, and directs the point of view within the borders of the rectangular frame. Typically even, but if it is unbalanced or askew: canted frame. The aspect ratio (relationship of the width to height of the film frame as it appears on a movie screen or TV) determines the shape of the frame. In turn, shape of the frame determines the film composition.

Editing

The process of selecting and joining film footage and shots. =The coordination of one shot with the next. How these shots are joined together is the decision of the film editor. Done after shooting. Part of post-production process.

Depth of Field

The range or distance before and behind the main focus and within which objects remain relatively sharp and clear; could be deep focus and short/shallow focus.

Auteur Theory

Theory says a film bears the creative stamp of one individual, usually the director. 1950s is when it emerged. Auteur theory = certain filmmakers have amassed a body of work that is important and that has identifiable traits from film to film. Key to auteur theory: have to know the body of work to be able to make those arguments.

Star Studies

This subset of cultural studies and or industry studies focuses on the performers who captivates our attention and what they bring to him. Stars persona is made up of: performances, public appearances, publicity, appearance, and fashion/style, acting style.

Continuity Editing

Uses cuts and other transitions to establish verisimilitude and tell stories efficiently. Associated with Hollywood film - still used now. Each shot has a continuous relationship to the next. Editing is smooth - cuts invisible. Also known as: invisible editing.

Mid-late 1980s. Home-viewing entertainment

VCRs (and Beta players) revolutionize the film industry when they bring movie-viewing to the home. Rise of the video store. Rentals. Shift from public entertainment to individual viewership. Small independent theatres struggle to stay afloat. To combat threat of VHS and cable TV, movie industry relies primarily on big blockbusters at suburban multiplexes to attract audiences to theatres.

History of Film Sound

Visual spectacle and music have been paired together since Greek theatre. Melodrama: "music plus drama" Theatrical genre popular in 18th century France that combined spoken text with music. 19th c. Stage melodrama becomes increasingly popular on the American stage-this will influence film sound greatly. 19th c. minstrel tradition and vaudeville theatre - very popular in the U.S. in late 19th century and early 20th century. Incorporated lots of singing and music into visual performance. 1950s-stereophonic sound 1970s-Dolby and surround sound 1990s-digital sound

Contemporary Film Theory - 1970's and on...

Weds psychology with film studies. Movies act as a mirror. We identify with the images onscreen and project onto those images our own fantasies, desires, anxieties.Psychoanalytical film theory does not always draw on Lacanian theory, but it is interested in issues of viewer identification, as well as psychoanalytic readings of the characters.

Match on Action

When you have the direction of an action linked with a continuation of that action. Often obscures the cut itself. Combines a match-cut with movement.

Zoom-in/Zoom-out

Zoom-in: the camera remains stationary as the zoom lens changes focal length to narrow the field of view on a distant object, bringing it into clear view and reframing it in a mediu shot or close-up Zoom-out: reverses this action, so that objects that appear close initially are then distanced from the camera and reframed as small figures. Zooms often confused with tracking shots.

German Expressionism

a style of film popular in Germany in the early part of the 20th century. Rejected scenic realism in favor of using mise-en-scene to represent irrational forces and psychological mood. Concentrated on the dark fringes of human experience. Distorted and strange shapes and set design communicate what characters cannot.

Pan

camera is stationary in a fixed point, but omves the frame from side to side without changing the position or axis of the camera. Gives impression fo a frame horizontally scanning space as if the camera turns its head right or left

Crane Shot/Overhead Shot

camera moves above ground level, rising or descending-mechanical arm attached to the camera. Depicts the action or subject from high above, sometimes looking directly down on it.

Three point lighting

combines key lighting, fill lighting, and backlighting to blend naturally the distribution of light in a scene.

Color

describes the spectrum of color grades and hues used in a film

Set Lighting

distributes an evenly diffused illumination through a scene as a lighting base.

Non-diegetic sound

does not belong to the characters' world

Extreme long shot

even greater distance between the camera and the object, so that the larger space of the image dwarfs the object(s) or human figures.

Hand-held Shots

film image produced by an individual carrying a lightweight camera, creating an unsteady shot that may suggest the point of a view of an individual moving.

Long Shot

framing that places considerable distance between the camera and the scene, object, or person so that the object or person is recognizable but is now defined by the large space and the background it is part of.

Types of Genres

hybrid genres: created through the intersection of different genres to produce fusions. Subgenres: specific versions of a genre denoted by an adjective

Friffiths innovations include...

its own original music score written for an orchestra, intro of night photography, use of outdoor natural landscapes as backgrounds, elaborate costuming to achieve historical authenticity and accuracy, many scenes filmed from many different and multiple camera angles, the technique of the camera "iris" effect, moving, traveling, or "panning" camera tracking shots, the effective use of close-ups to reveal intimate expressions, high-angle shots and panoramic long shots, dramatization of history in a moving story, battle scenes with hundreds of extras, extensive use of cross-cutting (parallel editing) between two or more scenes to generate excitement and suspense and to encourage identification with the white protags.

Narrative Patterns of Time

linear: actions proceed one after other in forward movement in time. Deadline structure: creates tension or excitement by providing some kind of deadline - an action/event must be done by certain hour/day. parallel plots: simultaneous plot lines. Usually intersect at some points. Flashback. Retrospective: flashback tells of past events from the perspective of present or future. Flashforward.

Directional lighting:

more apparent. may appear to emanate from a natural light source, but actually directs light in ways that define and shape the object or person being illuminated. ---Frontal lighting, sidelighting, underlighting, top lighting-used to illuminate the ubject from different directions in order to draw out features or create specific atmospheres around the subject. ---Backlighting-highlighting technique that illuminates the person or object from behind; it tends to silhouette the subject.

Cinematography

motion picture photography. "Writing in movement" The visual experience of the film. A series of still photographs played at such a speed that to our eyes it looks like continuous image. Persistence of vision and phi phenomenon are responsible for allowing the illusion of movement upon which cinema is based.

Deep focus

multiple planes in the image are in focus

Background music/underscoring

non-diegetic music vs. source music: music has an onscreen source

Shallow focus

only a narrow range of the field is in focus. What is closest to us is clear, the background is fuzzy/undefined

Elements of Mise-en-Scene

set and setting, props, staging (actors and performance), costumes and makeup, lighting.

Tone

shading or intensification of colors.

Props

short for property. Instrumental props=objects displayed and used according to their common function. Metaphorical=those same objects reinvented or deployed for an unexpected or symbolic purpose. Cultural=a prop that carries a specific cultural/historical meaning associated with it

Close-up

shows details of a person or object, indicating the importance of that object or revealing the character's feelings. Extreme close-up: even closer shot.

Asynchronous sound

sound does not have a visible onscreen source. Offscreen sound

Parallelism/parallel sound

soundtrack and image "say the same thing"

Realism

the extent to which a movie creates a truthful picture of a society, person, or some other dimension of life (psychological, emotional accuracy.)

Synchronous Sound

the sound we are hearing has a visible onscreen source

Highlighting

use of different lighting sources to emphasize certain characters or objects or to charge them with special significance.

Natural Lighting

usually assumes an incidental role in a scene. Derives from a natural source in a scene or setting.

Low Angle

view from a lower position than its subject

Three major elements of a soundtrack

voice, music, sound effects