Film Culture Midterm
cinema of attractions
"the cinema of attractions solicits a highly conscious awareness of the film image engaging the viewer's curiosity." Instead of having the audiences focusing on the narrative, I think the films from cinema of attractions encourage the audiences to remain aware of the act of looking, the impulse and excitement from the image. Obviously, this is very true for the early cinema, when there is not really a narrative involved in the films. Film was first invented to create visual pleasure, we can clearly see this idea from the film we saw in film history class (but I can't recall the name of the film), it was a series photographs demonstrating the movements of a naked lady. The reason it was a naked lady, as I remembered, was to create pleasure for the audiences, which in my opinion, also fits to the idea of cinema of attractions. Other early films from Lumiere brothers and Georges Melies can all be the examples for cinema of attractions; another film I immediately recall was the Hepworth Manufacturing's "How It Feels To Be Run Over", it definitely created visual impulse and shocked the audiences when they were watching, it is very similar to the example Gunning used in the essay (the arrival of a train).
Story
Narrative
continuity
1. The state or quality of being continuous. 2. An uninterrupted succession or flow; a coherent whole. 3. a. A detailed script or scenario consulted to avoid discrepancies from shot to shot in a film, allowing the various scenes to be shot out of order. b. Spoken matter serving to link parts of a radio or television program so that no break occurs. 1. logical sequence, cohesion, or connection 2. a continuous or connected whole 3. (Film) the comprehensive script or scenario of detail and movement in a film or broadcast 4. (Film) the continuous projection of a film, using automatic rewind 1. the state or quality of being continuous. 2. a continuous or connected whole. 3. a motion-picture scenario with all details of the action, dialogue, effects, etc., in order. 4. (on a radio or television program) narration or music that serves as an introduction or transition. 5. Math. the property of a continuous function.
newsreel
A newsreel is a form of short documentary film prevalent in the first half of the twentieth century, regularly released in a public presentation place and containing filmed news stories and items of topical interest. It was a source of news, current affairs, and entertainment for millions of moviegoers until television supplanted its role in the 1950s. Newsreels are now considered significant historical documents, since they are often the only audiovisual record of historical and cultural events of those times.[1] Newsreels were typically featured as short subjects preceding the main feature film into the 1960s. There were dedicated newsreel theaters in many major cities in the 1930s and 1940s,[2] and some large city cinemas also included a smaller theaterette where newsreels were screened continuously throughout the day.
point of view
A point of view shot (also known as POV shot or a subjective camera) is a short film scene that shows what a character (the subject) is looking at (represented through the camera). It is usually established by being positioned between a shot of a character looking at something, and a shot showing the character's reaction (see shot reverse shot). The technique of POV is one of the foundations of film editing. A POV shot need not be the strict point-of-view of an actual single character in a film. Sometimes the point-of-view shot is taken over the shoulder of the character (third person), who remains visible on the screen. Sometimes a POV shot is "shared" ("dual" or "triple"), i.e. it represents the joint POV of two (or more) characters.
proscenium
A proscenium (Greek: προσκήνιον) is the metaphorical vertical plane of space in a theatre, usually surrounded on the top and sides by a physical proscenium arch (whether or not truly "arched") and on the bottom by the stage floor itself, which serves as the frame into which the audience observes from a more or less unified angle the events taking place upon the stage during a theatrical performance. It is a social construct which divides the actors and their stage-world from the audience which has come to witness it. A proscenium stage is structurally different from a thrust stage or an arena stage.
ADR/looping
ADR, also known as "additional dialogue replacement",[1][2][3] "additional dialogue recording", and "looping",[4][5] in which the original actors re-record and synchronize audio segments.
André Bazin
André Bazin (French: [bazɛ̃]; 18 April 1918 - 11 November 1958) was a renowned and influential French film critic and film theorist. Bazin started to write about film in 1943 and was a co-founder of the renowned film magazine Cahiers du cinéma in 1951, along with Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca. Bazin's call for objective reality, deep focus, and lack of montage are linked to his belief that the interpretation of a film or scene should be left to the spectator. This placed him in opposition to film theory of the 1920s and 1930s, which emphasized how the cinema could manipulate reality.
direct sound
Any sound recorded directly from the event during the filming process. Opposite of post synchronization.
benshi
Benshi (弁士?) were Japanese performers who provided live narration for silent films
continuity editing
Continuity editing gives the viewer the impression that the action unfolds with spatiotemporal consistency. In most films, logical coherence is achieved by cutting to continuity, which emphasizes smooth transition of time and space. However, some films incorporate cutting to continuity into a more complex classical cutting technique, one which also tries to show psychological continuity of shots. The montage technique relies on symbolic association of ideas between shots rather than association of simple physical action for its continuity.
crosscutting
Cross-cutting is an editing technique most often used in films to establish action occurring at the same time in two different locations. In a cross-cut, the camera will cut away from one action to another action, which can suggest the simultaneity of these two actions but this is not always the case. Suspense may be added by cross-cutting. It is built through the expectations that it creates and in the hopes that it will be explained with time. Cross-cutting also forms parallels; it illustrates a narrative action that happens in several places at approximately the same time. For instance, in D.W. Griffith's A Corner in Wheat (1909), the film cross-cuts between the activities of rich businessmen and poor people waiting in line for bread. This creates a sharp dichotomy between the two actions, and encourages the viewer to compare the two shots. Often, this contrast is used for strong emotional effect, and frequently at the climax of a film. The rhythm of, or length of time between, cross-cuts can also set the rhythm of a scene. Increasing the rapidity between two different actions may add tension to a scene, much in the same manner of using short, declarative sentences in a work of literature. Cross-cutting was established as a film-making technique relatively early in film history (a few examples being Edwin Porter's 1903 short The Great Train Robbery and Louis J. Gasnier's 1908 short The Runaway Horse); Griffith was its most famous practitioner. The technique is showcased in his Biograph work, such as A Corner in Wheat and 1911's The Lonedale Operator.[1] His 1915 film, The Birth of a Nation, contains textbook examples of cross-cutting and firmly established it as a staple of film editing. Mrinal Sen has used cross-cutting effectively in his agit-prop film Interview which achieved significant commercial success. Christopher Nolan uses cross-cutting extensively in blockbuster films such as Interstellar, The Dark Knight and Inception - particularly in the latter, in which sequences depict multiple simultaneous levels of consciousness. Cloud Atlas is known for its numerous cross-cuts between the film's six different stories, some lasting only a few seconds and others spanning across 300+ years in different locations around the world. All stories, however, are held together by similar action between the narratives in each cut. Cross-cutting is often used during phone-conversation sequence so viewers see both characters' facial expressions in response to what is said.
180-degree rule
In film making, the 180-degree rule[1] is a basic guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene. An imaginary line called the axis connects the characters, and by keeping the camera on one side of this axis for every shot in the scene, the first character is always frame right of the second character, who is then always frame left of the first. The camera passing over the axis is called jumping the line or crossing the line; breaking the 180-degree rule by shooting on all sides is known as shooting in the round. The object that is being filmed must always remain in the center, while the camera must always face towards the object.
deep focus
Deep focus is a photographic and cinematographic technique using a large depth of field. Depth of field is the front-to-back range of focus in an image — that is, how much of it appears sharp and clear. Consequently, in deep focus the foreground, middle-ground and background are all in focus. This can be achieved through use of the hyperfocal distance of the camera lens. Deep focus is achieved with large amounts of light and small aperture. It is also possible to achieve the illusion of deep focus with optical tricks (split focus diopter) or by compositing two pictures together. It is the aperture of a camera lens that determines the depth of field. Wide angle lenses also make a larger portion of the image appear sharp. The aperture of a camera determines how much light enters through the lens, so achieving deep focus requires a bright scene or long exposure. Aperture is measured in f-stops (T-stops on lenses for motion picture cameras are f-stops adjusted for the lenses' light transmission, and cannot be used directly for depth of focus determination) with a higher value indicating a smaller aperture. Diagram of decreasing apertures, that is, increasing f-numbers, in one-stop increments; each aperture has half the light gathering area of the previous one. The actual size of the aperture will depend on the focal length of the lens. The opposite of deep focus is shallow focus, in which only one plane of the image is in focus. In the cinema Orson Welles and his cinematographer Gregg Toland were most responsible for popularizing deep focus.
index
Definition of exposure index : a number that is assigned to a photographic film or plate for use with an exposure meter to aid a photographer in obtaining the correct camera exposure
diegesis
Diegesis /ˈdaɪəˈdʒiːsəs/ is a style of fiction storytelling that presents an interior view of a world in which: details about the world itself and the experiences of its characters are revealed explicitly through narrative the story is told or recounted, as opposed to shown or enacted.[1] In diegesis the narrator tells the story. The narrator presents the actions (and sometimes thoughts) of the characters to the readers or audience.
direct animation
Drawn-on-film animation, also known as direct animation or animation without camera, is an animation technique where footage is produced by creating the images directly on film stock, as opposed to any other form of animation where the images or objects are photographed frame by frame with an animation camera.
profilmic
Everything placed in front of the camera that is then captured on film and so constitutes the film image. See also mise-en-scène. Unlike literary fiction, which is typically based on characters, situations and events that are entirely imaginary/fictional/hypothetical, cinema always has a real referent, called the "pro-filmic," which encompasses everything existing and done in front of the camera.
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas.[1][2] Expressionist artists sought to express the meaning[3] of emotional experience rather than physical reality.[3][4] Expressionism was developed as an avant-garde style before the First World War. It remained popular during the Weimar Republic,[1] particularly in Berlin. The style extended to a wide range of the arts, including expressionist architecture, painting, literature, theatre, dance, film and music. The term is sometimes suggestive of angst. In a general sense, painters such as Matthias Grünewald and El Greco are sometimes termed expressionist, though in practice the term is applied mainly to 20th-century works. The Expressionist emphasis on individual perspective has been characterized as a reaction to positivism and other artistic styles such as Naturalism and Impressionism.
figure/ground
Figure-ground organization is a type of perceptual grouping which is a vital necessity for recognizing objects through vision. In Gestalt psychology it is known as identifying a figure from the background. For example, you see words on a printed paper as the "figure" and the white sheet as the "background".[1]
long take
In filmmaking, a long take or oner is an uninterrupted shot in a film which lasts much longer than the conventional editing pace either of the film itself or of films in general, usually lasting several minutes. Long takes are often accomplished through the use of a dolly shot or Steadicam shot. Long takes of a sequence filmed in one shot without any editing are rare in films.[1] Alfred Hitchcock's Rope, a film which used long takes to create the illusion of "real time" The term "long take" is used because it avoids the ambiguous meanings of "long shot", which can refer to the framing of a shot, and "long cut", which can refer to either a whole version of a film or the general editing pacing of the film. However, these two terms are sometimes used interchangeably with "long take".
mickey mousing
In animation and film, "Mickey Mousing" (synchronized, mirrored, or parallel scoring) is a film technique that syncs the accompanying music with the actions on screen. "Matching movement to music,"[2] or, "The exact segmentation of the music analogue to the picture."[3][a] The term comes from the early and mid-production Walt Disney films, where the music almost completely works to mimic the animated motions of the characters. Mickey Mousing may use music to "reinforce an action by mimicking its rhythm exactly....Frequently used in the 1930s and 1940s, especially by Max Steiner,[b] it is somewhat discredited today, at least in serious films, because of overuse. However, it can still be effective if used imaginatively".[11] Mickey Mousing and synchronicity help structure the viewing experience, to indicate how much events should impact the viewer, and to provide information not present on screen.[12] The technique, "enable[s] the music to been seen to 'participate' in the action and for it to be quickly and formatively interpreted...and [to] also intensify the experience of the scene for the spectator."[6] However, Mickey Mousing may also create unintentional humor,[5][13] and be used in parody or self-reference. Note that often it is not the music that is synced to the animated action, but the other way around. This is especially so when the music is a classical or other well-known piece. In such cases, the music for the animation is pre-recorded, and an animator will have an exposure sheet with the beats marked on it, frame by frame, and can time the movements accordingly. In the 1940 film Fantasia, the musical piece The Sorcerer's Apprentice, composed in the 1890s, contains a fragment that is used to accompany the actions of Mickey himself. At one point Mickey, as the apprentice, seizes an ax and chops an enchanted broom to pieces so that it will stop carrying water to a pit. The visual action is synchronized exactly to crashing chords in the music.
Georges Méliès
Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès, known as Georges Méliès (/meɪˈljɛs/;[1] French: [meljɛs]; 8 December 1861 - 21 January 1938), was a French illusionist and filmmaker famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema. Méliès was an especially prolific innovator in the use of special effects, popularizing such techniques as substitution splices, multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, dissolves, and hand-painted color. His films include A Trip to the Moon (1902) and The Impossible Voyage (1904), both involving strange, surreal journeys somewhat in the style of Jules Verne, and are considered among the most important early science fiction films, though their approach is closer to fantasy.
mise-en-scène
Mise-en-scène (French pronunciation: [mizɑ̃sɛn] "placing on stage") is an expression used to describe the design aspects of a theatre or film production, which essentially means "visual theme" or "telling a story"—both in visually artful ways through storyboarding, cinematography and stage design, and in poetically artful ways through direction. It is also commonly used to refer to multiple single scenes within the film to represent the film. Mise-en-scène has been called film criticism's "grand undefined term"
onscreen/offscreen space
Offscreen space is space in the diegesis that is not physically present in the frame. The viewer becomes aware of something outside of the frame through either a character's response to a person, thing, or event offscreen, or offscreen sound. In this video clip from American Beauty, without seeing Ricky or his video camera, the viewer becomes aware that someone present in the room is videotaping Jane, who is onscreen. The noise from the video camera and Ricky's response to Jane's comments enlightens viewers as to what is going on. In using offscreen space, directors employ a more creative method of conveying information to the viewer.
photogenie
Photogénie occurs at the meeting of the profilmic (what is in front of the camera) and the mechanical and the filmmaker. It is above all a defamiliarization of the spectator with what appears on screen. It is a property that cannot be found in "reality" itself, a camera that is simply switched on does not record it, and a filmmaker cannot simply point it out. As Aitken summarizes, "...fully realized photogénie could only be manifested when its latent power was employed to express the vision of the film-maker, so that the inherent poetry of the cinema could be harnessed, and developed in a revelatory manner by the auteur" 8. However, the narrative avant-garde lacked a theoretical and philosophical base upon which these notions rest and thus the concept of photogénie is always on the edge of an inexplicable mysticism that many critics cannot accept.
Plot
Plot refers to the sequence of events inside a story which affect other events through the principle of cause and effect. The causal events of a plot can be thought of as a series of sentences linked by "and so." Plots can vary from simple structures such as in a traditional ballad to complex interwoven structures sometimes referred to as an imbroglio. The term plot can serve as a verb and refer to a character planning future actions in the story. In the narrative sense, the term highlights the important points which have important consequences within the story, according to Ansen Dibell.[1] The term is similar in meaning to the term storyline.[2][3]
rendering sound
Rendering: The use of sounds to convey the feelings or effects associated with the situation on screen - often in opposition to faithful reproduction of sounds that might be heard in the situation in reality. Rendering conveys a feeling associated with the sound source. Shots of a bear do not automatically convey the bears strength, its odor, weight, and animality but sounds aid in rendering all these qualities. Bart, the big bear in Annoud's The Bear made an impression of a crushing mass largely from cavernous footsteps, we heard in synchrony with the monster's stride. (The animal's sounds was recreated in a Foley studio.)
Isomorphic sound
Sound and image have the same shape - and they shape each other. For example: "skeleton dance (1929)" where sound is replicated by image
Non-diegetic sound
Sound whose source is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action: narrator's commentary sound effects which is added for the dramatic effect mood music Non-diegetic sound is represented as coming from the a source outside story space. The distinction between diegetic or non-diegetic sound depends on our understanding of the conventions of film viewing and listening. We know of that certain sounds are represented as coming from the story world, while others are represented as coming from outside the space of the story events. A play with diegetic and non-diegetic conventions can be used to create ambiguity (horror), or to surprise the audience (comedy). Another term for non-diegetic sound is commentary sound. to Diegetic sound
diegetic sound
Sound whose source is visible on the screen or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film: voices of characters sounds made by objects in the story music represented as coming from instruments in the story space ( = source music) Diegetic sound is any sound presented as originated from source within the film's world Digetic sound can be either on screen or off screen depending on whatever its source is within the frame or outside the frame. Another term for diegetic sound is actual sound Diegesis is a Greek word for "recounted story" The film's diegesis is the total world of the story action
subjectivity (narrative, structure, camera)
Subjective Camera - Shots simulating what a character actually sees; audience, character, and camera all "see" the same thing. Much subjective camera involves distortion, indicating abnormal mental states. Shots suggesting how a viewer should respond are also called "subjective" (for example, a high-angle shot used to make a boy look small and helpless).
synaesthesia
Synesthesia is a neurologically based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. There are many occurrences of synesthesia in books, television and film. In a scene from the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, Jack Donaghy is in the hospital. Liz Lemon goes up to him, and Donaghy says, "They gave me some drugs. Now my mouth tastes like purple." In a scene from the Fox medical drama House, a character played by Essence Atkins is in the hospital asking for House's help and says, "I started to hear through the eyes."
Black Maria
The Black Maria (/məˈraɪ.ə/ mə-ry-ə) was Thomas Edison's movie production studio in West Orange, New Jersey. It is widely referred to as America's First Movie Studio. In 1893, the world's first film production studio,[1][2] the Black Maria, or the Kinetographic Theater, was completed on the grounds of Edison's laboratories at West Orange, New Jersey, for the purpose of making film strips for the Kinetoscope. Construction began in December 1892[3] and was completed the following year at a cost of $637.67 (approx. $15,272.99 in 2010 dollars). In early May 1893 at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, Edison conducted the world's first public demonstration of films shot using the Kinetograph in the Black Maria, with a Kinetoscope viewer. The exhibited film showed three people pretending to be blacksmiths.
Lumière Brothers
The Lumière (pronounced: [lymjɛːʁ]) brothers, Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas [oɡyst maʁi lwi nikɔla] (19 October 1862, Besançon, France - 10 April 1954, Lyon) and Louis Jean [lwi ʒɑ̃] (5 October 1864, Besançon, France - 6 June 1948, Bandol),[1][2] were the first filmmakers in history. They patented the cinematograph, which in contrast to Edison's "peepshow" kinetoscope allowed simultaneous viewing by multiple parties. Their first film Sortie de l'usine Lumière de Lyon' (1895) is considered the "first true motion picture."[3]
actuality
The actuality film is a non-fiction film genre that, like the documentary film, uses footage of real events, places, and things, yet unlike the documentary is not structured into a larger argument, picture of the phenomenon or coherent whole. In practice, actuality films preceded the emergence of the documentary. During the era of early cinema, actualities—usually lasting no more than a minute or two and usually assembled together into a program by an exhibitor—were just as popular and prominent as their fictional counterparts.[1] The line between "fact" and "fiction" was not so sharply drawn in early cinema as it would become after the documentary came to serve as the predominant non-fiction filmmaking form. An actuality film is not like a newspaper article so much as it is like the still photograph that is published along with the article, with the major difference being that it moves. Apart from the traveling actuality genre, actuality is one film genre that remains strongly related to still photography. Despite the demise of the actuality as a film genre around 1908, one still refers to "actuality footage" as a building block of documentary filmmaking. In such usage, actuality refers to the raw footage that the documentarist edits and manipulates to create the film.
avant-garde
The avant-garde (from French, "advance guard" or "vanguard", literally "fore-guard")[1] are people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics. The avant-garde pushes the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm or the status quo, primarily in the cultural realm. The avant-garde is considered by some to be a hallmark of modernism, as distinct from postmodernism. Many artists have aligned themselves with the avant-garde movement and still continue to do so, tracing a history from Dada through the Situationists to postmodern artists such as the Language poets around 1981.[2] The avant-garde also promotes radical social reforms. It was this meaning that was evoked by the Saint Simonian Olinde Rodrigues in his essay "L'artiste, le savant et l'industriel" ("The artist, the scientist and the industrialist", 1825), which contains the first recorded use of "avant-garde" in its now customary sense: there, Rodrigues calls on artists to "serve as [the people's] avant-garde", insisting that "the power of the arts is indeed the most immediate and fastest way" to social, political and economic reform.[3]
horizontal/vertical narrative
The horizontal axis contains some of the following storytelling elements · - Incident and event · - Character action in reaction to incident and event · - Plot development · - Background information (exposition) · - Narrative structure (within scenes and their sequels, also the meta-structure of the whole narrative of the short story/novel/film) · - Pace · - Build-up of physical excitement and tension · - Plot turning points · - Breather scenes · - Act and story climaxes · - Denouement · - Character development The vertical axis includes the following storytelling elements · - Personal meaning and resonance · - connection · - Questions of/to character interiority, e.g: - why did he/she react that way, where does that reaction come from, what was its genesis - a moment in their past? How does/will that moment and its fallout affect her? · - Subtext · - Emotional backstory · - Psychological backstory · - Metaphorical significance · - Symbolism and motif · - Denouement · - Character development
Variety Cinema
Vaudeville (/ˈvɔːdᵊvɪl/; French: [vodvil]) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment. It was especially popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. A typical vaudeville performance is made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. Types of acts have included popular and classical musicians, singers, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, female and male impersonators, acrobats, illustrated songs, jugglers, one-act plays or scenes from plays, athletes, lecturing celebrities, minstrels, and movies. A vaudeville performer is often referred to as a "vaudevillian." Vaudeville developed from many sources, including the concert saloon, minstrelsy, freak shows, dime museums, and literary American burlesque. Called "the heart of American show business," vaudeville was one of the most popular types of entertainment in North America for several decades.[1]
anti-visual film
Visual film is a film that cannot be told. Work for the screen should not consist of story. Germaine Dulac "from visual to - anti-visual film", pure optic sense, conventional film is not visual, uniquely optical harmonies, traditional form vs. new art, higher aesthetic, film is as unique to sight as music is unique to hearing, wrong focus on dramatic action, story rather than visual expression, cinema the seventh art, commercial cinema as anti-visual, a visual film is a film that cannot be told. Works for the screen should not consist of a story
sound bridge
When the scene begins with the carry-over sound from the previous scene before the new sound begins.
syntax
any orderly arrangement or system The cinema, for Eichenbaum, is a "particular of figurative language," the stylistics of which would treat filmic "syntax," the linkage of shots in "phrases" and "sentences." In linguistics, syntax (/ˈsɪnˌtæks/[1][2]) is the set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentences in a given language, specifically word order. The term syntax is also used to refer to the study of such principles and processes.[3] The goal of many syntacticians is to discover the syntactic rules common to all languages.
trickality
both lumeire and melies addressed spectators in the same way by presenting them with attractions. narrative is only a pretext for presenting the audience with a series of attractions. the trick film is in itself a series of displays, of magical attractions, rather than a primitive sketch of narrative continuity
classical film narrative
n classic narrative the events in the film are organised around enigma and resolution. At the beginning an event takes place disrupting the social world. It is the task of the film story to resolve the disruption and create a new social world. There are 8 important elements to class narrative film making: 1. The film has a beginning where social harmony is disrupted. It begins with an enigma when something happens which starts the story. For example, (i) a person is killed, or (ii) something is stolen, or (iii) something dangerous going to happen. 2. The film has a middle, where the everything tries to resolve the enigma. Here the starting event is expanded. (For example, usually a hero, (i) investigates who killed the person and why, or (ii investigates who stole the money and why, or (iii) tries to stop the dangerous event. 3. The film has an end where the enigma is resolved, and social harmony is restored. The end of the film explains all that has happened in the film. (For example, the end of the film (i) explains who killed and why, or (ii) explains who stole and why, or (iii) shows the danger is stopped.) 4. Events on the film follow one another in a sequence of cause and effect. 5. Time is chronological: time moves in one direction, forward. Time in classic narrative film looks like natural time. With natural time the sun rises in the morning, crosses the sky and goes down in the evening to be followed by night. Time in classic narrative moves in a similar manner to everyday time. 6. The actions of the people in the film are the reason why things happen in classic narrative films. The actions of people create a series of cause and effects. (Action A causes B. B then causes action C. Action C causes D, and D causes action EÉ and so on to the end of the film.) 7. There is always a hero seen in classic narrative film The actions of the hero are the most important for events and resolving the enigma in the film. The hero is the most important person in the film. Viewers are expected to identify with the hero as someone good. (The hero is someone like Indiana Jones, or James Bond, or Ripley in Alien or Lara Craft in Tomb Raider. 8. There is verisimilitude. This means that the place and story of the film looks like they could have happened. The place and story look possible and real in the everyday life people know. Classical Hollywood cinema, classical Hollywood narrative, and classical continuity[1] are terms used in film criticism which designate both a narrative and visual style of film-making which developed in and characterized American cinema between 1917 and 1960 and would become the dominant mode of film-making in the US.[2] Classical Hollywood is characterized by a set of norms, with most Hollywood films exhibiting an "unstable equilibrium" of these norms. These norms concern the use of particular technical devices (three-point lighting, continuity editing, framing, musical scores, etc.) to establish three main interrelated systems: narrative logic (causality), cinematic time, and cinematic space. The narrative logic of classical Hollywood treats film narration much like literary narration, with a plot centered around the psychological motivation of the characters and their struggle towards a goal. Likewise, the visual approach towards storytelling treats film much like a photographed play, using the manipulation of cinematic time and space to make the film appear as real as a production on the stage. The "Classical Hollywood" approach to narrative and visual storytelling would become the most powerful and pervasive style of film-making worldwide.
iconic sound
sound used as a symbol, the use of a well-known symbol or icon; a means to analyze the themes and various styles in a film
