FMS 100
Bertolt Brecht and the Distancing Effect
-Audience members should be keenly aware of the construction of performance. -Psychological distance stresses the artificiality of theatrical performance. -Direct-address (breaking the fourth wall) and multiple roles are byproducts of distancing.
Genre Transformations
-Genres are adapted to meet the expectations of a changing society (and audience). -Genre transformations reflect audience's pleasures, fears, and doubts. Ex.: Transformation of women in sci-fi/action movies.
Reflexive Documentary Mode
Calls attention to the conventions of documentary filmmaking and sometimes of methodologies such as fieldwork or the interview.
Focalization
Degree of correspondence of narrative information with character point of view—roughly how subjective the information is.
3 Act Narrative Structure
Exposition, rising action, climatic moment, falling action, resolution.
Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep
Hoffman would use Streeps deceased husband as a way to push her into giving more emotion in a scene
Expository Documentary Mode
Speaks directly to the viewer with voice over.
Narrative
Tells a story
Genres
The categorization of narrative films by the stories they tell and the ways they tell them. They tend to spring up organically, inspired by shifts in history, politics, and society. -Not all films reflect particular genres
Flat characters
Uncomplicated characters that exhibit few distinct traits and do not change significantly as the story progresses.
Film Movements
a group a like minded filmmakers consciously conspire to create a particular approach to film style and story. Examples: French New Wave, Dogme 95, Italian Neorealism.
Surprise
an unexpected or astonishing event, fact, or thing
Direct address narration
the narrator interrupts the narrative to speak directly to the audience, breaking the fourth wall.
Voice over narration
when we hear a character's voice over the picture without actually seeing the character speak the words.
Iranian Cinema
-Between 1931-1979, Iran produced 1,100 motion pictures. -1979 Revolution: Muslim fundamentalist theocracy, censorship imposed, filmmakers flee. -1990s-present: Steady regrowth, some relaxation of depictions of social issues and taboos. -Like in postwar Italy, Iranian filmmakers tend to shoot on location with nonprofessionals telling "everyday stories." -Cultural specificity: Hejab (veiling, modesty), chador (overscarf), Sharia law. -Must walk a tightrope between artistic & social expression and the moral demands of a fundamentalist Islamic state.
House Style
-Genres are cultivated by studios. -Studios become associated with the genres they are known for.
Social Functions of Genre
-Genres satisfy audiences because they reaffirm cultural/ideological values. -Genres also exploit ambivalent social values and attitudes. -Because genre films promise something new based on something familiar, they can respond to broad social trends.
Stanislavsky System
-Konstantin Stanislavky: Founder of the Moscow Art Theater. -Stanislavsky System: "One must be the character in order to successfully play the character." -Pioneered in the 1910s and 20s -Actors must be re-taught to move, behave, speak, and inhabit in the ways of their character.
Method Acting
-Lee Strasberg credited with this. -Popularized in the U.S. in the 1950s. Encourages actors to speak, move and gesture not in a stage manner, but just as they would normally. Permits improvisation, creativity, and extremely rigorous preparation off-set. Ushers in new levels of realism (naturalism) and subtlety.
Star Studies
-Richard Dyer -Cinema's mode of production manufactures the star image. -"Stars are involved in making themselves into commodities; they are both the labor and the thing that labor produces. They do not produce themselves alone." -Stars are constructed by their films, publicity, interviews, image. -Four categories of star-audience relationship: Emotional Affinity Self-Identification Imitation Projection
Duration (Summary, Stretch, Real Time)
-Summary: screen duration is shorter than plot duration. -Sketch: screen duration is longer than plot duration. -Real Time: screen duration corresponds directly to plot duration.
Propaganda
-Systematically disseminate deceptive or distorted information. -Persuasive documentaries produced by governments which carry their messages. -Example: Triumph of the Will
Documentary Voice (Reproduction vs Representation)
-The fact that documentaries are not a reproduction of reality gives them a voice of their own. They are, instead, a representation of the world. The voice of documentary makes us aware that someone is speaking to us from his or her own perspective about the world we hold in common with that person. -The voice of documentary can make claims, propose perspectives, and evoke feelings. Documentaries seek to persuade or convince us by their strength of their point of view and the power of their voice. -Documentary draws on evidence but are not themselves documents. They possess a voice and a perspective of their own with which they communicate to us.
6 Approaches to Writing About Film
-Timothy Corrigan 1. Film History 2. National Cinema 3. Genres 4. Auteurs 5. Formalism 6. Ideology
Rashomon Effect
-same Story events re-narrated in conflicting ways. -Truth is subjective and variable; versions of the truth are relative to the self-serving intentions of the individual witnesses. -Cinema has a unique capacity to call into question "objectivity." -No character is absolutely right or wrong; instead, it is up to the audience to select the most compelling version of events.
French New Wave
1959-1964 -After WWII: everywhere calls for change were coming from students, artists, intellectuals, and philosophers, particularly the existentialists. -The originators were influenced by several movements: French cinema including the 1930s cinematic style known as poetic realism; the philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre who believed that contemporary artists should rebel against the constraints of society, traditional morality, and religious faith; critic and director Alexandre Astruc who inspired the idea of the movie director as auteur (author); Italian Neorealism; British Free Cinema; contemporary developments in the French documentary film. -Stylistically, the films had a rough, intimate look that often reflected the informality of the filmmaking process. -Father of the New Wave: Andre Bazin. -Traits: rapid action, use of handheld cameras, unusual camera angles, elliptical editing, direct address to the camera, acting that borders on the improvisational, anarchic politics, and emphasis on the importance of sound, especially words.
Blaxpoitation
A U.S. film movement from 1971 to 1976 consisting of low-budget movies usually made by African American filmmakers, with black characters, for black audiences.
Maya Deren
Actress/Director in experimental flim Meshes of the Afternoon
Bechdel Test
At least two women (with names) in it Who talk to each other, about Something other than a man
Round Characters
Complex characters; possess numerous, subtle, repressed, or even contradictory traits that can change over the course of the story. More life-like
Preproduction Phase
Consists of planning and preparation. It takes as long as necessary to get the job done, on average a year or two. Initially, filmmakers develop an idea or obtain a script they wish to produce.
Digital Film
Digital uses a sensor, which transfers light as data onto a memory chip;
Performative Documentary Mode
Emphasizes the expressive quality of the filmmaker's engagement with the film's subject; addresses the audience in a vivid way.
Analog Film
Film uses silver nitrate particles embedded on celluloid.
Poetic Documentary Mode
Focus on visual and acoustic rhythms, patterns, and the overall form of the film. This mode stresses mood, tone, and affect much more than displays of factual knowledge.
6 Major American Genres
Gangster, Film Noir, Science Fiction, Horror, The Western, and The Musical.
Revisionism (Genre Transformations)
Generic transformation which questions the ideals and style of a genre. May include the same major visual icons, motifs, settings. Tends to be more realistic than romantic, drawing attention to moral ambiguity and complexity rather than absolute truth. Draws attention to the underrepresented.
Subgenre/Hybrid (Genre Transformations)
Horror Teen Slasher Zombie Exploitation Revisionist Horror Camp Mystery Fantasy Supernatural Erotic Thriller Psychological Thriller
Italian Neorealism (Historical Roots and Audiences)
Italy After WWI: -Rise of totalitarianism/Fascism (Benito Mussolini). -Relatively few attempts to commandeer and propagandize media (unlike Soviet Union and Germany). -Government invests in film culture, but global economic depression hinters growth. -"Cinema of distraction" Italy During WWII: -Cinecitta bombarded in 1943; did not reopen until 1946. -Mussolini executed in 1945. -Axis powers fall; Italy, Germany, and Japan left in shambles. -Sparse and hostile conditions forge the beginning of postwar Neorealism. Key Factors of Neorealism: -On-location shooting. -Nonprofessional actors. -Story takes place in contemporary setting. -The drama is the everyday dilemmas of real people. -Reality is upheld at all costs, both in form and content, but not necessarily interpreted.
Observational Documentary Mode
Looks on as social actors go about their lives as if the camera were not present.
Syntactic
Narrative structure (plot), Conflicts, Relationships, Meanings (explicit and implicit).
Technological Film Approach
Of all of the arts, cinema seems to rely the most heavily on technology. Historians examine the circumstances as well as the subsequent improvements surrounding the development of each technological advance.
Narrator
Person telling the story
3 Phases of Movie Making
Preproduction, production and postproduction
Marketing
Preview screenings, focus groups, final changes to the film, media coverage, festival screenings and awards, and audience word of mouth. Determination of the release date, number of theaters, etc.
White Telephone Films
Romantic melodramas. -Glossy, modern décor, with aristocratic characters. -Half of all Italian films between 1930-1945. -Launched the careers of many future filmmakers (De Sica, Fellini). -Distracted audiences during anxieties leading up to WWII.
Semantic
Setting (history and place), Character types, Actors and directors, Iconography, Formal elements (camera, music, mise-en-scene).
Influence of sound on acting
Singin in the Rain -The coming of sound in 1927 began a period of several years in which the industry gradually converted to this new form of production. -Development of better microphones and the blimp. -Encouraged changes in actors' vocal performances. -Actors now had to limit their movements to the circumscribed sphere where recording took place. Eventually, technicians were able to eliminate this obstacle. -Ruined many acting careers while creating others.
Story vs Plot (Fabula vs Syuzhet)
Story vs. Plot (Fabula vs. Syuzhet) -Story: the story. Capital S Story (Fabula). Sum total of events plus character backstories and relevant events in the storyworld. Ex. In any post-apocalyptic narrative, the apocalypse and its causes are part of the story, even if they are not depicted in the film. -Plot: how it is told= Syuzhet = Roughly, "plot"; The order and manner in which the Story events occur. May be linear or shuffled by flashbacks or flash forwards. Cross-cutting- shows Story events that occur simultaneously but reorders them in plot sequence.
Difference between Analog and Digital film
The essential difference comes down to how the light is captured as an image.
Participatory Documentary Mode
The filmmaker interacts with his or her social actors, participates in shaping what happens before the camera; interviews are a prime example.
Social Film Approach
The movies serve as primary sources for studying society. Historians ask to what extent, if any, a particular movie was produced to sway public opinion or effect social change.
Independent System
The package unit system, controlled by a producer unaffiliated with a studio is a personalized concept of film production that differs significantly from the industrial model of the studio system. It governs the creation, distribution, and exhibition of a movie. An independent producer makes one film at a time, relying on rented facilities and equipment and a creative staff assembled for that one film.
Decline of the Studio System
The studios were victims of their own success -Several actions taken by the federal government signaled that the studio's old ways of doing business would have to change (labor unions, 1933 National Industrial Recovery Act). -The studios began to reorganize their management into the producer unit system. -A shift in relations between top management and creative personnel that loosened the studio's hold on the system. -WWII: severely restricted the studios' regular, for profit operations. -The rise of television.
Genre Films
The study of genre reveals patterns, attitudes, and ideologies influencing how films were/are made.
Nondiegetic
The things we see and hear on the screen that come from outside the world of the story, such as musical score and voice over comments from a third person voice over narrator.
Diegetic vs Nondiegetic
The total world of the story- the events, characters, objects, settings, and sounds that form the world in which the story occurs.
Parody (Genre Transformations)
When the recognizable manifestations of genre have been copied or imitated. Can be done for the purposes of mocking, satire, or self-conscious invoking.
Focalizers
a character on whose point of view the narrative is focalized. We know or perceive what they know or perceive—roughly corresponds to restricted narration in your book. A text can switch among multiple focalizers—often but not always signalled by shifts in visual POV or lone presence of character in scene.
Suspense
a state or feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen.
Nonprofessional Actors
actors who are often nonprofessional or people who are cast to bring verisimilitude to a part.
Anti-Persona Actors
actors who deliberately play against our expectations of their personae.
Chameleon Actors
actors who seem to be different in every role.
Persona Actors
actors who take their personae from role to role.
Studio System
an organizational structure that included a general manager, executive manager, production manager, studio manager, and individual production supervisors. Each studio had its own configuration. This system valued profitability above all else. The studio system established an industrial model of production through which american filmmaking became one of the most prolific enterprises in the world
Postproduction Phase
editing, preparing the final print, and bringing the film to the public (marketing and distribution)
Distribution
exclusive and limited releases, key-city releases, and wide and saturated releases. Hollywood is planning to bring movies to homes at the same time, or close to it, that they are released in theaters.
Omniscient narration
knows all and can tell us whatever it wants us to know.
Restricted narration
limits the info it provides the audience to things known only to a single character.
Financing
no rules govern the arranging of financing. Money can come from the studio, the producer, the investment community, or a combination of these. In the old studio system, the general manager determined the budget. Today, usually the producer or a member of the producer's team prepares the budget with the assistant director.
Aesthetic Film Approach
sometimes called the masterpiece approach or great man approach. Seeks to evaluate individual movies and or directors using criteria that assess their artistic significance and influence. Historians who take this approach do not necessarily ignore the economic, technological, and cultural aspects of film history, but their primary interest = movies that are not only works of art but also widely acknowledged masterpieces. Other studies on the auteur theory.
Narration
the action or process of narrating a story
Production Phase
the actual shooting, can last up to six weeks to several months or more
Economic Film Approach
the motion picture industry is a major part of the global economy. Historians help us understand how and why the studio system was founded, how it adapted to changing conditions, and how and why different studios took different approaches to producing different movies, how these movies were distributed and exhibited, and what effect this had on film history.