Film and TV Unit 2

'Tentpole' films

"Tentpole" films: super-high-budget studio-distributed franchise blockbusters whose giant profits can make up for losses on flops or help subsidize investment into smaller films -- Movies like Avengers, Captain America, Inside Out, etc. -- Carefully timed to not overlap too much/be nicely separate from each other (like big avenger movies on summers, kid films when kids are out of school, etc.) -- Top grossers: superhero/action movies by Buena Vista (Disney), extensions/remakes of established universes -- Most targeted at "four-quadrant" audiences: men and women, young and old, will all come out for them

"Spectacle, Narrative, and the Spectacular Hollywood Blockbuster" reading notes

-- Blockbuster as spectacle -- Are big-screen spectacles different from small-screen ones? -- Narrative often comes second to spectacle -- Early components of the blockbuster: expensive: long, focusing on weighty/important/epic-mythic historical subject matter, largeness in the staging of onscreen events -> big emphasis on spectacular production, focusing on the cinematic spectacle -- Different types of spectacle use different techniques, like large vistas or extreme long shots for a bigscreen movie -- Widescreen films can be limited when confined to a small screen: forced to either reframe or "letterbox" to fit small screen confines -- Editing techniques don't suffer as much in the switch from bigscreen to small: lots of editing helps maintain engagement -- Typically, techniques from both bigscreen and smallscreen media are combined -- Tradition of giant-scale spectaculars, high-impact intensity and variety of spectacle helps create viewer engagement -- Spectacle bodes well in the long run -- Narrative and spectacle can coexist, one does not have to be sacrificed at the expense of the other -> Something with a good narrative can spawn rides and video games, it doesn't have to be all spectacle and no story to expand into other marketing channels --> Something can be driven by spectacle and still have a good narrative -- Classic Hollywood narrative: linear, forward-moving structure, based on cause-and-effect relationships between events, organized around the qualities and experiences of a distinctive small group of characters who undergo significant development -- Spectacles of today are generally faster-paced than their predecessors -- Narrative and spectacle on equal footing: each helps the other

Recording

-- Dialogue is a recorded sound, usually recorded in studio after location shooting via Automated Dialogue Recording (ADR) -- Music is almost never recorded during principal photography, almost always comes after the fact in postproduction --> Recording a score involves the composer leading musicians through the score while watching the footage to match cues -- Sound effects are also added in post --> Sound effects are often created via Foley sound design: creates noises tailored to each scene/action by recording "found sounds" in a sonically clean studio - finding imaginary auditory equivalents for the sounds heard onscreen -- Lots of postproduction sound is taken from sound libraries -- Sound track can be created before the image track, like in musicals where actors are miming to a prerecorded track or cartoons where animation is done to match sound

Cinematography: framing, specifically different angles of shots

-- Different angles of shots, named based on where the camera is positioned in relation to the subject: high angle above the characters, low angle below the characters, canted framing/canted angle, aka a Dutch angle, where the camera is slanted in relation to whatever it's looking at, combo of low and canted angle -- What matters is how shots and their framing, angles, etc. work together in relation to other shots and in relation to the whole theme of the film

Ortner's "Against Hollywood" reading

-- Independent filmmakers see themselves as challenging the usual routes of Hollywood, avoiding entertainment (fantasy, pleasure, happy endings) in favor of harsher, "edgy" stories about life in everyday society - trying to make "movies that matter" -- Indie films usually seen as antithesis of Hollywood studio movies: low budget, challenging the viewer with difficult subject matter/technique, often explicitly political or critical, highly realistic, probably not a happy ending --> Documentaries are an example of indie films -- Contemporary indie films are usually very dark in mood/tone/story - embracing a harsh realism to show the darker realities in everyday life and make demands on the viewer to experience and come to grips with those realities -- Indie movement started in the 1980s as an attempt to critique the dominant Hollywood culture, a reactive discourse against stereotypical Hollywood ideas - all are against Hollywood in some sense --> Indie gets started as a response to and challenge of larger social changes in U.S. society and culture -- Indie films as cultural critiques that make us question our assumptions, challenging both the dominant culture and the audience -- Indie films see themselves as different from/better than Hollywood -- Criteria of an indie film: take risks in content and style, embody a personal vision, funded by non-Hollywood backers (to make sure the filmmaker is truly independent), and put art over money -- Indie films as passion projects via the filmmaker's intense personal commitment to tell this story in this particular way - good films are made from passion, not money, and studios are soul-suckers -- Some indie filmmakers have made studio films and felt burned by the experience -- Indie filmmakers write to please themselves and a small group of people who share their POV

"Pixar and the Animated Soundtrack" reading notes

-- Intentional focus on sound -> Pixar works on the soundtrack from the beginning of production, rather than leaving it to the end like most others (holistic approach to production) -- Animated film template: musical with lots of songs, not as many if any non-diegetic music or sounds -- Most composers don't shift between genres - either compose for live action or animation, not crossovers -- Initially there was a prejudice against composing for animation, but it has started to wane/is really waning -> Now the POV is that composing music for animation is good -- Pixar is against the traditional idea of the Disney musical -- Animation seen as the medium of a film, rather than its defining feature - it can still have lessons and impact adults/have adult themes, rather than targeting just kids -- Worldbuilding makes the story stronger: building the soundscape from the ground up to create the world of the story --> Sound creates the space and gives it meaning --> Adventurous, stimulating music choices for animated films help to work efficiently, yes, but also help tell the story efficiently and effectively -- Pixar often focuses on themes of nostalgia and past --> UP and WALL-E: soundscapes create a feeling of longing, both for protagonists and viewers, and this helps viewers empathize with characters and their situations --> Ellie's Theme appearing at important moments in Carl's journey in UP: musical motif of one character motivates other characters, specific song/music piece as an idea starter and motivator for specific characters --> Short, memorable themes for characters helps tie specific feelings (evoked by the images seen while this music plays) to this particular piece of music - sound forges emotional connection -- WALL-E: sound drives the story, because the robots have so little dialogue and all their talking is created from their electronic sounds (music and effects drive the story completely)

Continuity Editing Techniques: Screen Direction

-- Keeping continuity consistent, making this really important - keep the visual language consistent -- Which way things are moving on screen can control where we look and keep us oriented in the scene

"Putting the Premium into Basic" reading

-- Network versus premium cable: institutional opposites -- Specific shows can raise the brand equity of the whole channel - shows like Breaking Bad, etc. are less about making money from the ads and more about raising the brand equity of the channel -- Shows a network produces can mirror/parallel (in narrative mode) the network's larger strategies and policies -- Advertisers pay the network in return for commercials: narrative is designed around commercial breaks -> short, sharp scenes --> Segmented plot and short, sharp segments make commercials appear aok --> Short shot lengths to fit shorter scenes --> Abrupt edits end the act right before commercials in mini-climaxes -- Premium cable: no commercials, all money comes from subscribers so no ads necessary -> longer scenes and slow burns --> Longer scenes allow for longer character exchanges, slower speed from one dramatic sequence to another to create a sense of pacing --> Slower speed allows viewers to focus on character interactions and setting, helps us see the environment as a character --> Longer scenes make the act breaks less abrupt (no pre-commercial cliffhanger), gives us time to linger on character and setting --> Closer, more sustained relationship with viewers (wealthy and educated) creates a sense of superiority over regular TV shows, the style of the series (shots, location, performance, etc.) play into this idea -- Basic cable has access to more money -> higher production quality, but there are still ads -- AMC: slower premium cable style narrative on a basic cable, ad-centric channel --> Same number of commercial pods, but each is shorter so the episode has more time for slower pacing - emulating HBO's lack of commercials --> More content per episode plus shorter seasons allow producers to spend more money on each episode -- Steadicam: allows for longer shot length and kinetic shooting style -- Shooting style can compliment premium-cable narrative and slower pace: longer shots, slower camera movement

Cinematography: Nature of the image, specifically Focal length

-- Normal or standard 500mm lens: like what we normally see, ordinary POV -- Telephoto lens, like 1000mm, allows filmmaker to magnify action at a distance, flattens space so midground and background seem on the same plane -- Wide-angle lens like a 20mm lens exaggerates the distance between foreground and background planes to make spaces look bigger, ends up distorting straight lines near the edges of the frame -- Telephoto effect: zoomed in --> Zoom lenses: shifting between wide-angle and telephoto settings in a single shot --> Works by changing the length of the lens (focal length) over the course of the shot, magnification instead of movement so your actors are appearing to stay in the same places

Mise-en-scène element: staging

-- Position of characters in the frame and their relations both to each other and the frame -- Can also involve how things are spaced within the frame to create a 3D look in the 2D space of the frame -- Staging in depth: using the foreground, midground, and background all at the same time to make layers of depth -- Compositional balance in staging: points of interest evenly distributed across the frame so each person has the same amount of power -- Compositional imbalance: drawn to the larger figure first, then we visually explore the background, gives added meaning to the closer figure --> "Compositional stress" can give added meaning --> Linear perspective in Edward Scissorhands traps the characters, context is key -- Size diminution: background looks smaller than foreground, depth effect where faraway objects look smaller

Mise-en-scène in Amélie, focusing on color and storytelling

-- Reflecting her fairytale view of the world, we see a green and gold palette with lots of red - creating an "explosion of color" and interplay between red and green --> Taking advantage of digital process to make everything possible and all the colors pop, or enhancing the colors in specific areas to attract the viewer's eye --> Digital filming also helps with special effects to convey emotion, like melts and beating heart -- Digital color correction used to create a bright look with saturated colors -- Blue as an accent color

Mise-en-scène element: setting, set design, and props

-- Setting: location, can contribute to the experience of the film --> Can also help reinforce the meaning of the film -- Can shoot on location and still use the location to reinforce the meaning of the film, especially by dressing up the location (like the mural that was painted for Do the Right Thing) --> Can reinforce themes and key ideas of the film, as well as ideas about characters (old office building to show how police are a step behind the serial killer) -- Props can establish space, but also convey meaning - defying their identities --> Props can be connected through cinematography to send a message or convey an idea --> Brass knuckles in Do the Right Thing, or the pan shot from the burning bat to the burning boombox

Sound design in games

-- Similar goals to film, tv, and animation -- Sound supports story and characters -- Creates mood and gets player to react emotionally -- Conveys narrative info -- Built on the three pillars of dialogue, sound effects, and music -- Creation of sound is similar: tools, recording/editing/mixing process and techniques are similar to doing sound for movies -- BUT! Games are interactive, so sounds have to... --> Cue gameplay stuff to the player --> Give feedback on player decisions and interactions with game systems --> Triggered dynamically in real time --> Be mixed with effects in real time (fight scene with music) --> Immerse the player in a world they have agency in

"Resurrection of the Sitcom" reading notes

-- Sitcom seen as the founding genre of TV, a transplant from radio -- Typical things disliked on sitcoms: laugh tracks, plot and dialogue conventions, sexist/racist/classist ideas -- Usually shot multi-camera style, modes of production key to definitions of genre and style -- Style and genre focus changes over time, writing leads to a TV style focus -- Early sitcoms like watching a stage show, relying on the live audience to sustain energy and get timing right, eventually switching from theater seats in a proscenium setting to a tv studio with audience on bleachers -- Established style choices: multi-camera, shooting on film or live broadcast - standardized craft practices for multi-cam sitcoms -- Schemas: rooted in any stylistic conventions that becomes linked with on-set craft practices and contemporary tech -- Limited sets lead to the creation of specific spaces (like an apartment on Big Bang theory) so the focus is put on dialogue to emphasize situations -- Characters move laterally (x-axis) across the shallow set, not much depth -- Choice of recording in HD with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, larger than the old tv ratio of 1.33:1 but smaller than theatrical film's 1.85:1 and 2.40:1 -- Shooting choices and style of stories connected to various traditions, like movies -- Proscenium boundary in multi-cam sitcoms creates slight separation between audience and action -- Laugh tracks pull viewers in, makes the action present and happening at the time it's being seen -- Soap opera: single take, sitcoms: multiple takes of each scene -- Single camera shooting allows for more flexible set design and with only one sightline, creates more options for staging things -- Single-camera allows for uncommon ways of rendering mise en scene that are hard or impossible in multi cam, like framing actors imprecisely rather than multi-cam style of tightly controlling framing -- Camera height, shot scale, and camera position all interconnected -- Intensified continuity techniques: accellerated editing, very long or short focal length, tight close-ups for dialogue, hyperactive camera movement, handheld camera, and visual effects -- More voiceover in single cam productions than multi-cam (always for single, never for multi) -- Music used differently in single camera shows than in soaps -- Single cam lends prestige to sitcoms because it associates them with primetime dramas and movies -- Sitcoms change as their host networks change (broadcast industry changing)

Recording, altering, and combining sounds

-- Sound usually falls into one of three categories: speech, music, or noise (aka sound effects), but a sound can belong to more than one category

Different special effects

-- Superimposition: laying images over each other to create multiple perspectives within the frame -- Rear projection: projecting footage onto a screen, then filming actors in front of it (in older films, the depth it creates isn't convincing) -- Matte work: a portion of the setting is photographed on a strip of film, usually with part of the frame empty, and then gets joined in the lab with another strip of film containing the actors --> Actors can't move into the painted parts of the frame without seeming to disappear, so filmmakers used a travelling matte: actor is photographed against a blank (usually blue) screen, and in the lab, a background is prepared and a moving outline of the actor is cut out of it, then the shot of the actor is inserted into the moving gap in the background footage --> This can be done digitally now: shoot in front of a blue screen and insert the background later

Changing the tonality of the film's colors in post-production

-- Tinting: dipping already-developed film into a dye bath so the dark areas stay black and grey, while the lighter colors pick up the color of the bath -- Toning: dye is added while the positive print is being developed, so the darker areas take up color while the lighter areas stay white or only get a little color Digital programs let the colorist target specific parts of the frame and maintain that adjustment even if that area shifts over the course of the shot

Cinematography: different ways to move the camera

-- Using a dolly, sometimes on tracks, to do tracking shots where the camera moves with the subject or allows multiple takes more easily -- Crane or jib shots (jib as the small-scale version) to shoot well above actors or reveal their relation to a larger space -- Handheld camera: allows camera to move with and around the subject, but fit into tight spaces better than dolly or crane shots -- Steadicam allows for the handheld look, but with less wobble

What are the main goals of continuity editing systems?

1. Establish clear spatial relationships: audience should always know where characters are in relation to each other 2. Establish clear temporal relationships 3. Style is second to narrative 4. Editing should be largely invisible

Short focal length (wide-angle) lenses

A lens of less than 35mm in focal length -- Takes a wide field of view, so straight lines near the edge of the frame get distorted (bulge out) and depth is exaggerated so foreground figures seem bigger and closer while background figures seem smaller and far away - as they move closer or further from the camera, they seem to cover ground more rapidly

Continuity Editing Techniques: 180 degree axis of action and how it's important to continuity

A line that goes through your subjects, and you want to keep the camera always on the same side of the line -- If you violate that, you'll change the side of the frame that each character is on, and that confuses the viewer --> Violation of this rule can be used to create a sense of something being off, or in aggressive editing to convey a kinetic scene - strategic violations to make a point or evoke an emotion --> Violation example: jumping the line to show something is wrong - having both actors look left to right for over the shoulder shots rather than both cameras on the same side of the action line so one person is looking left to right and the other looks right to left -> used in a tense scene to convey something is wrong

High-concept film

A type of studio film with a simple, premise-based narrative Can be easily marketed A simple tagline/phrase can sell the movie to both studio execs and audiences Lends itself to widespread distribution because it can be marketed to lots of audiences Generates money through box office revenue and merchandising (making and selling products related to the film, with the studio licensing the rights to use a film's characters or brand on products) - puts an emphasis on worldbuilding -- Money also made through cross-promotion: advertising a film and product together either in the film itself (product placement) or in a product commercial -- Merchandising, theme parks, and licensing are all ways to make money: franchise-worthy characters and stories applied to lots of different mediums -- So how should we talk about high-concept blockbusters as film art/texts produced by auteur-directors? -- Can it be art if it's designed to make money and has to obey all these restrictions from the studio? -- It is possible to communicate artistry through a commercial form of storytelling, like big blockbuster films

Exposure

A way to alter tonalities in the image, it regulates how much light passes through the camera lens -- Can be affected by filters, aka slices of glass or gelatin put in front of the camera lens or printer to reduce certain frequencies of light reaching the film --> Filters can radically affect the tonality of the film

Reworking sound

After sounds are captured, they're put together just like the editing process for the image part of the film - picking and manipulating the best bits of sound -- Common form of manipulation: blending different sounds or types of sounds together to create a specific sound for this film

Racking focus

Also called "pulling focus," it allows you to change focus within a shot (usually to switch attention between foreground and background)

Continuity Editing Techniques: Jump Cuts

An elliptical cut that appears to interrupt a single shot and thus creates temporal discontinuity

Authorship in Hollywood blockbusters

Authorship: usually presumed to be the director -- Compare films by one director and you can see techniques they use often that shape their artistic vision -- Thematic and stylistic continuity between their works -- Films are influenced by more than just the director, other members of the team (like the editor and cinematographer) play key roles or might have even bigger/more work on the film -- Directors often have to defer to the business side of film - don't have complete creative freedom -- True "auteur" directors would rise above limitations to create distinct style -- Authorship criticism: presumes a single person is responsible for the most important formal features of the film, compare a lot of films by the same person and you can spot similarities (their "artistic vision") -- Studios are aok with this because auteur-ship can act as a marketing hook

Framing

Carefully considered by filmmakers, helps transition from everyday image to a cinematic event -- Basically, avoid cutting off people's heads!

Major sub-category of cinematography: photographic image

Choices in film stock, speed of motion, lenses, focus, depth, and visual effects

Selective focus

Choosing to focus only on one particular plane (like the foreground) and letting all the other planes blur, guides the viewer's eye to what is most visible -- Automatically steers our attention to the most important part of the shot

Contrast

Comparative difference between darkest and lightest areas -- Contrasts in image help guide the viewer's eye to important parts of the frame and give the shot an emotionally expressive quality -- Most professional cinematographers go for a middle range of contrast: pure blacks and whites, with a wide range of greys (black and white) or hues (color)

Time-lapse photography

Condenses a long event down to a short period of time -- Requires a low shooting speed, like one frame per minute, hour, or day

Exhibition of film: the economic side

Consolidation of theater chains down to three main groups -- Exhibition strategies: wide release, where a film opens in most major theaters across the nation on the same weekend in the hope of maximizing attendance in the first few weekends (usually applied to high concept films or known franchises) -- Transforms film screenings into community events -- Also maximizes the money the studio recoups -- they get the biggest cuts in the first few weeks, so doing a wide release allows the studios to make the most money -- Opening weekend revenue can help predict future potential value (marketing via cross-promotion, etc.) -- Putting things into theaters and just limiting it to that channel helps play on fear of missing out -- Platform release: a film opens in a few theaters in targeted locations in the early weeks of its release, strategy of building word-of-mouth buzz and gradually expanding to more cities (seen with lots of indie and art cinema films) -- Ancillary markets: any distribution channel a movie goes to after theatrical release, like on demand video or DVD or airplane movies Lots of ancillary markets today with streaming channels, a big help to indie and art cinema films

Dialogue overlap

Continuing a line of dialogue across a cut (so the speaker was on screen, now they're not, or vice versa) to smooth over the change of shot --> auditory continuity that distracts from the shot change and can help focus our attention on a specific character (either what they're saying or their response to what's being said) --> Same principle can be applied to noise as well as dialogue

Lighting

Controlling the distribution of light on the shot

Definitions of an independent film

Definitions of an independent film: Economics: financed and distributed without any involvement from the top studios -- Distribution: film financed independently and produced without any distributor attached until after completion -- Aesthetic: idiosyncratic, original, unconventional or innovative sensibility that doesn't seem to be made with a profit motive in mind

Cinematography: framing, specifically different degrees of shot scale

Degrees of shot scale: Extreme closeup, closeup, medium closeup (bust shot), medium shot (waist up), medium long shot (from studio era, all about communicating info), long shot/wide shot (seeing the whole body from head to feet), extreme long shot/extreme wide shot (establishes setting and space)

Soundtrack part 1/3: Dialogue

Dialogue is often the most important thing, but the hierarchy of what's most important can change from scene to scene depending on what's happening -- Dialogue can be improved/replaced via ADR, Automated Dialogue Replacement, also called looping (where dialogue gets recorded in the studio after the initial shooting is complete so that it can be heard better), to get the best sound quality in the final product -- Dialogue overlap: a continuity editing device where a line of dialogue started by a speaker in the first shot is continued across the cut to the shot of the listener in the second shot --> Dialogue can be started by a character onscreen and then continue after a cut to someone else, or the dialogue can start while a character is still offscreen and then keep going once they get onscreen

The three components of the soundtrack

Dialogue, sound effects, and music

The three pillars of sound design

Dialogue: textual, directly conveys narrative info Sound effects: can be textual (door opening and closing as someone walks into a room) or subtextual, focuses attention, emphasizes action, expresses meaning and emotion --> Effects can be layered to create new meanings and emotions Music: subtextual, engages with the subconscious and elicits emotion in viewers --> Can reveal a lot about characters, location, events of the story, etc.

Cinematography: framing, specifically different framing options

Different types of framing: pans, tilts, rolls

Different categories of network and content outlets, each with different economic conditions

Economic drivers of each different category help determine the content they produce -- Broadcast networks: NBC, CBS, ABC, the CW, PBS -- Basic cable: AMC, TNT, CNN, ESPN -- Premium/subscription channels: HBO, Showtime, Starz -- Video on demand streaming services: Netflix, Hulu, Amazon -- Almost all channels are part of larger media conglomerates, which themselves are then part of larger industries -- nothing you see exists outside of broader economic and ownership considerations

Zoom Lens

Enlarges some part of a shot -- Changes framing and focal length - resizing what's shown and changes the image's perspective

Continuity Editing Techniques: Establishing/reestablishing shots, shot reverse shot, and cut in

Establishing/reestablishing shots: Shots that establish the scene or setting, usually wide or long shots -- First is the establishing master shot that orients the viewer to where everyone is, usually in a wide shot in a single, unbroken take -- Then are cut-ins or punch-ins (closeups) to get a view of specific characters speaking to someone off-camera -- Shot-reverse shots for conversation, often over the shoulder shots --> Often with eyeline match to show how the characters are looking at each other during the conversation --> Composition of shots (deciding sequence of shots) can determine how shots are read (erotic, conversational, etc.)

Depth of field

Every lens has a specific one -- range of distances within which objects will show up in sharp focus if you use a certain exposure setting -- Not the same as deep space, where action is on lots of different planes and not all of them necessarily have to be in focus -- Lenses of shorter focal length, along with more sensitive film stock and higher light levels, help create a greater depth of field in a practice called deep focus --> Problem with deep focus: tends to make several areas equally visible, so we have to use other things to guide the viewer's eye, like sound or lighting or staging

Pre-visualization exercises

Exercises to help get control over film and prepare for shooting

What does the detail of the pre-production stage look like?

Financing/scripting/funding and pre-production -- Money usually comes from the studio, either with a line of credit or a group of investors -- Budget usually dictated by potential returns: if we think it'll be a blockbuster and bring in tons of money at the box office, it'll get a bigger budget -- Producers as the main controllers at this stage, working to assemble a team for filming -- Director is also key at this stage

Long-focal-length (telephoto) lens

Flattens space along the camera axis, reducing cues for depth and volume and squishing planes together (makes a background figure look unnaturally close to a foreground figure) -- Take in a narrower angle of vision -- Movement of a person takes more time to cover what looks like a small distance, as someone walks towards the camera -- Usually 100mm or longer, used for sports to magnify action at a distance from the camera

Mise-en-scène element: costuming

Helps define characters and show their personalities -- Jackie Robinson jersey: shows how Mookie is a black man working in a white man's world -- Lots of thought into each item and what it means for the characters and setting

Distribution of Hollywood films

Hollywood studio distribution: studios are the main financiers of the film Most distribution is digital today, rather than physical film reels Where most of the economic power lies: only a few companies have access to most screens around the world, therefore most return on investment Most of the money comes back to distributors, so streaming is changing the game

Cinematography

How a shot is filmed, covers the categories of -- Framing -- Different angles of shots -- Nature of the image (film stock used, speed of motion, lenses, depth, etc.) -- "Writing in movement," depends a lot on photography ("writing in light") -- Cinematographer is almost always the person who arranges the lighting so they're in the best position to control the tone of a shot

High-speed cinematography

Lengthens a short event, like a bullet shattering glass, out over a long period of time -- Needs to shoot at a high speed and expose hundreds or thousands of frames a second

How lighting can play into mise-en-scène and add meaning to the film

Lighting can be used to change meaning across a film: three point lighting early for good situation to backlight for bad -- Do the Right Thing example: even lighting for scenes of character harmony, scenes of character divide have high-contrast lighting (lighting amplifies idea of division)

Does mise-en-scène have to be present in a film?

Mise en scene has to be there, there are things that are essential to a film (unlike edits, which you could do without) -- Product of a team effort: art direction, wardrobing and prop design is crucial --> Example: color to denote clues/things tainted by the "other" world in sixth sense movie --> Things get their significance based on context and how they're used over the course of the film - meaning depends on context -- How things are staged for the camera and what the film includes -- Mise-en-scène creates a whole system within the film

Mise-en-scène element: performance and acting

Movement, posture, and gesture create our impressions of the character -- Actors put their own spin on the lines and actions to create a unique character -- Standards of realism change over time, and not all films strive for realistic effects

Soundtrack part 3/3: Music and film scoring

Music usually creates a mood that underscores with what you see -- Can signal a genre or a mood, tells us what the scene should feel like -- nondiegetic music can tell us how to feel/react to the scene -- Film score sets the stage to build suspense and urgency, stings (jolt of sound paired with a scare), non-scary sounds, natural sounds that aren't typically scary, and lack of sound to ratchet up tension

What does "mise-en-scène" mean?

Placing things into the scene, aka the stuff in front of the camera, from the props to the actors to the setting to the dialogue

What does preproduction look like for the creative team?

Pre-production for the creative team -- Storyboarding, etc. to figure out what the film will look like - lots of planning beforehand -- Pre-visualization techniques include storyboards, etc. -- Digital version: turning traditional storyboards into a rough animation to plan shots and big effects -- The more pre-shoot planning you can do, the smoother the process will go later

Production, distribution, and exhibition of indie films

Produce it, get it on the festival circuit, it gets picked up by a distributor and they'll pay for the rights to it and it'll go to the major movie theaters -- Sundance as the birth of indie film -- Initially focused on finding new talent and seeing films that wouldn't make it into big theaters, then people started using it to hunt for the next big thing -- Studio execs swoop in and nab the rights for the most marketable films -- Studios have deep pockets, unlike indie filmmakers cobbling together funds -- Moonlight: script written based on a theatrical play, got production and financing/distribution in place before shooting started, shot really quickly (25 days) mostly on location in Miami -- Premiered at film festivals, these were launching pads for Oscar wins

Phases of making a Hollywood studio film

Production: process Production: Directors as authors Distribution: studio conglomerates Distribution: blockbuster/tentpole strategy Secure finances, shoot it, edit it, release it

What goes into the production stage?

Production: the process of creating the film Primary stages include development (scriptwriting and funding), preparation (pre-production), shooting, and assembly (post-production)

Cinematography: framing, specifically reframing

Reframing: short panning, tilting, or dolly movements to adjust for character's movements to keep people onscreen and centered -- Classical Hollywood technique, all about keeping the eyeline in the same place -- Camera movement conventionally tries to be subtle and tries to keep viewers from realizing they're watching something edited

What happens in the shooting (principal photography) stage?

Shooting, aka principal photography -- Usually shooting things out of order to take advantage of locations or specific actors -- Post will usually ramp up before shooting is done -- sound, creating rough cuts, visual effects, etc.

Single-camera versus multi-camera productions

Single-camera TV productions: shot like a feature film where it stops and starts to set up individual shots Multi-camera production: done in a studio like a play before an audience

How sound guides the eye and mind

Sound can alter our understanding of what we see -- Steer our attention within the image, or give us clues to anticipate what comes next (creaking door -> we expect someone to enter) -- Sound prods us to form expectations that can (in the case of horror films) be delayed -- Adds value to silence: quiet can create tension, or an abrupt silence in a noisy spot can jolt us -- Like editing, different parts of sound can be mixed to form a cohesive whole -- Sound processes of today create wider ranges of frequency and volume, and crisper timbres, than could be achieved previously (today, sound editors can individualize specific sounds or voices quite a bit, making it easier to edit specific sounds in specific ways)

Foundations of sound design

Sound design is like a painting: lots of little brushstrokes that make up the larger picture It takes time to create the whole thing

Soundtrack part 2/3: Sound effects

Sound effects (sfx) and Foley artists: filling out the storyworld and making it more realistic -- All done in postproduction, rather than on location, to create sound match with what you see --> Foley sound work: using found objects, etc. to create sounds that sync up with the image (cornmeal to create the sound of walking on snow, for example)

Function of sound in film

Sound makes the universe work and come to life -- Power of sound to guide and define what we see -- narration/dialogue and accompanying diegetic/nondiegetic music can offer different ways of understanding footage and give it different layers of meaning -- Sound design is so natural, it can be hard to discuss and analyze it because it's so closely interlinked with other elements in the film

Perceptual properties of sound: loudness

Sounds result from vibrations in the air -- Amplitude, or breadth, of the vibrations creates the sense of loudness/volume (filmmakers play with volume all the time) -- Loudness is relative for the listener: a long section of loud sounds (high amplitude) might not sound as loud as a lower burst of sound after a burst of silence -- Sound track gets our attention through the contrast between loud sounds and quieter ones -- Loudness relates to preconceived distance: louder sounds seem closer to us -- Film can exploit abrupt changes in volume (aka changes in dynamics) with things like a quiet scene being interrupted by a loud noise -- Changes in loudness can be combined with cutting or camera movement to reinforce our sense of movement towards/away from the source of the noise -- In action sequences, the threshold for loudness is raised, so you might have to introduce sounds of different frequencies or textures to make sure the details stay audible

Frame rate and speed of motion

Speed of motion seen onscreen depends on both the rate at which the film was shot and the rate of projection, both calculated in frames per second -- Standard rate for film shooting (established when sound came in at the end of the '20s) was 24 fps, cameras of today (35mm film cameras) usually allow a range of options between 8 and 64 fps -- Professional HD cameras are usually standardized at around 24, 25, or 30 fps

Sound design: text and subtext

Textual sound design is literal: no hidden meaning/subtlety, engages with our conscious -- can be used to ask the audience questions --> What we would expect to see and hear if we were actually in that space Subtext is suggestive: reveals hidden meaning and engages with our subconscious --> Communicates something new that couldn't be communicated through visuals alone --> Unsaid directly, but is really important for the audience --> Suggestive, speaks to our emotions --> Reflects the POV of characters or reveals something about their emotional state that they might not want to show onscreen --> Strong sound design uses both textual and subtext sound to create contrast and give us drama

The major distribution companies/firms for Hollywood movies/big studio films

The "big six" film distributors: Disney (absorbed 20th Century Fox in March 2019), 20th Century Fox (takeover by Disney complete), Warner Bros. (owned by Time Warner/AT&T), Universal (owned by Comcast/NBCU), Paramount (owned by Viacom), Sony Pictures Entertainment (also owns Columbia) -- They're the dominant ones because they own the main distribution channels - they're like the postal delivery guys for films -- Movie studios today manage films more than they produce them - high degree of financial commitment, so they offer lots of oversight and input -- Big 6 studios also own subsidiaries like HBO and Marvel and Miramax -- Disney/Buena Vista took in 31.8% of the box office grosses in 2019 (next leader: Warner Bros, 15.5%) - explains why we see the same patterns in studios: a hit fills the coffers, so stick with the tried and true hit formulas

How sound design functions specifically in visual media

The core principles of sound design: text and subtext, the three pillars of dialogue, sound effects, and music, and counterpoint All about conveying an emotion to the audience

Focal length of a lens

The distance from the center of the lens to the point where the light rays converge in a point of focus on the film -- Focal length alters the size and proportion of the objects we see, as well as how much depth we perceive in the image

Televisuality

The excessive exhibition and stylization of TV shows -- Carrying meaning and calling attention to itself

Perceptual properties of sound: pitch

The frequency of sound vibrations affects the pitch, aka the perceived highness or lowness of the sound -- pitch helps our ear sort out the sounds and all their different frequencies -- Low-pitched sounds = rumbling, high pitched sounds = tinkling -- Pitch helps us differentiate between music and speech and background noise, or to distinguish different types of objects

Perceptual properties of sound: timbre

The harmonic components of a sound that give it a certain color or tone quality -- key to describing the texture or feel of a sound -- Taken together with loudness and pitch, timbre combines with the other two to define the sonic qualities of a film

Lens

The lens of a photographic camera gathers light from a scene and transmits that light to the surface of the film or a video chip to form an image representing size, depth, or other dimensions of the scene -- Different kinds of lenses render perspective in different ways

Selecting the right sounds to guide viewers' attention

The microphone is unselective, so the sound designer has to make what's important stand out by emphasizing certain sounds -- Soundtrack is clarified and simplified to make the most important sounds stand out - dialogue is the big transmitter of story info, so it's made the most clear element, while sound effects aren't as important, and music is also less important than dialogue -- There are times when dialogue isn't most important: sound effects get top billing for action sequences, or music can take tops for dance sequences or emotional moments -- By choosing to emphasize only certain sounds, the filmmaker guides our perception of the action --> Sound can be used unrealistically to shift our attention to things that are narratively or visually important --> A chosen sound might have its acoustic qualities transformed for a particular purpose -- Guiding viewers' attention also depends on mixing (combining) sounds - sound track as a stream of auditory info, where each sound takes its place in a larger pattern that links events in time and layers them together --> Lots of decisions about how sound will mesh with image, like how blending sound will play well with the principles of continuity editing

Cinematography: framing (general discussion)

Things to think about: distance, angle, level, height, mobility, on and off screen space -- Areas of offscreen space: the four frame edges, plus the z-axis (background) and the space behind the camera -- Think about what you see in the frame, as well as what kind of offscreen space the director is creating and how they're using that space --> Different types of perspective on action: a range of shot scales, from extreme long shots (widest) to extreme close-ups (smallest) -- Different types of shots and framing have different emotional meanings and values -- Analyzing shots: what is it, how was it done, and why did they make that choice?

Middle-focal-length (normal) lenses

Usually a 50m lens, avoids major perspective changes/distortion -- Horizontal and vertical lines are unaffected, parallel lines recede to vanishing points, foreground and background aren't too separate or too close

Focus

What can be seen clearly

How to analyze a film: things to think about

What is the film's overall form -- think about how the film is put together as a whole What are the film's main techniques? -- identifying key techniques What patterns are formed by the techniques? -- looking at how key techniques are organized and stylistic patterns that reinforce the unfolding narrative What functions do the techniques and patterns fulfill? -- what role style plays in the overall form of the film - spot the effects of the film on our viewing experience, like emotion, meaning, and perception

Counterpoint in sound design

When the sound design or music is at odds with the picture -- Audio contrasts with the visuals to create a new meaning --> Can be achieved through contrast in mood, pacing, tempo, tonality, etc. -- concepts that can be applied to both image and sound, each adjusted independently to contrast with each other --> Can create an effect that's funny, ironic, disturbing, etc.

Continuity Editing Techniques: match on action or cutting on action

a continuity that splices two different views of the same action together at the same moment in the movement, making it look like one continuous thing

Culture Industry

an industry that mass-produces cultural goods for financial gain (basically, covers all popular culture, different from high arts like opera) -- For TV, the cultural goods are the TV shows themselves, produced by multimedia conglomerates with the shows financially supported by ad revenue or subscription fees

3 point lighting scheme

backlight (behind the dominant actor), fill light (to the side of the dominant actor), and key light (facing the dominant actor) -- Key light is the main lighting from the scene, stronger -- Fill light fills in shadows cast by key light to make them less intense -- Backlight creates an edge of light around the figure and makes the character stand out against the background -- 3 point high key lighting: presents the image smoothly and encourages the colors to pop, whereas low key creates sharp contrast between light and dark areas (refers to lighting that creates strong contrast between light and dark)

Industry Analysis

both exploring the economic conditions that are supporting the media industries, and figuring out how the conditions affect the aesthetic forms of film and TV shows -- How are these things shaped by their specific economic environments? -- How is the environment affecting what the show can and can't say, and how it's saying it? -- How is narrative style serving economic functions, and vice versa? -- Economic considerations like how commercial breaks are structured into the narrative and why certain formal considerations are tied to advertiser interest -- how do factors like this determine what kind of TV is made and why?

Cinematography: nature of the image

choices in film stock, speed of motion, lenses, focus, depth, visual effects

Sound mixing

combining dialogue, sound effects, and music on the soundtrack to make a cohesive soundscape

Continuity Editing Techniques: cheat cuts

cut that presents continuous time from shot to shot hut mismatches the position of objects to maximize narrative info (next sentence of the conversation, but a different camera position to hide the artifice of editing and cinematography and making the fictional world exist)

Overlapping Editing

discontinuity cuts that repeat part or all of a story action -- Sense of disequilibrium, emphasizes the shot -- Seen in both Hollywood films and Art Cinema -- Strategically playing fast and loose with the rules to achieve an emotional goal

Cinematography: Nature of the image, specifically Focus

in focus means something has sharp outlines and textures, anything out of focus is going to be fuzzy and indistinct

Continuity Editing Techniques: Types of shots

long/wide shots, medium shots, close ups, and over the shoulder/close ups (depending on depth - how much is shown in the shot/how far away actors are from the scene)

Sound design in animation

nothing comes free, you need to create all the sound, in contrast to live-action where real-world production audio can be captured on set -- Animation: get sound effects from recordings in the field, Foley studios (live performance acting out and recording sounds in real time, in sync with the picture), sound effect libraries, and in-studio dialogue performance -- Animation gets dialogue recorded first, then animators animate the visuals to match the dialogue

Continuity Editing Techniques: Intensified Continuity

rapid edition in an action film that still obeys the 180 degree rule -- Moments of discontinuity are often used as an accent within a series of correctly matched cuts through things like a shift in screen direction or a jerkily matched movement -- All about violating, within certain norms, rules of the 180 degree system to achieve a greater effect

Cinematography: Nature of the image, specifically film speed

standard shooting and projection rate of 24 fps on film, 30 fps for video -- Fast motion effect: shoot fewer frames per second to compress the overall effect -- Slow motion effect: shoot more frames per second to extend the overall effect -- Film speed can have an emotional effect on the viewer, or can convey a transitory space (like Amélie going up the escalator fast when searching for the toy box owner

Cinematography: Nature of the image, specifically Depth of field

the range of distance (across foreground, midground, and background) within which objects appear and are or are not shot in sharp focus -- Large depth of field creates deep focus, lots of things or a large area in focus (foreground, midground, and background all in focus) -- Shallow depth of field creates shallow focus, just a few things or a small area in focus (only one plane of action is in focus, while the rest of the shot is out of focus) -- Typical Hollywood pattern: establish the shot in deep focus, then shift to shallow focus when doing close-ups so we are forced to focus on the characters -- Deep space (an arrangement of mise-en-scène where considerable depth is shown with any or all of the planes in focus), versus deep focus (an effect of cinematography where lots of depth is shown with all planes in sharp focus) --> Deep space can work with all degrees of focus, from shallow to deep -- Racking focus: shifting the area of sharp focus from one place to another within a single shot

Ramping

varying the frame rate during shooting, which alters exposure, so lighting levels on set have to be coordinated with the frame rate

Categories of mis en scene (placing into the scene)

what's in front of the camera -- Lighting -- Set design, set, and props -- Costume and makeup -- Staging and use of space -- Performance and acting