CST 151 Exam #2

a class or type of film. Films belonging to a particular genre share narrative, visual, and/or sound conventions.

A musical in which some or all musical numbers are not motivated by the narrative; for example, characters sing and dance throughout the film but at least some performance are not stages for an onscreen audience.

(Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors of America)

an organization designed to help the industry regulate its own content. It ensured that the American film industry kept supposedly subversive content in check.

theater managers would allow Micheaux to screen films for black audiences at midnight.

an alternative to continuity editing, this style of editing was developed in silent Soviet cinema, based on the theory that editing should exploit the difference between shots to generate intellectual and emotional responses in the audience.

term coined by Maori filmmaker and theorist Barry Barclay to describe the filmmaking practices of indigenous people, also called aboriginal people or First Nations. Fourth World filmmakers have been committing their experiences to film, garnering an international audience in the process.

Documentaries that rely exclusively on interviews are often called "talking heads" documentaries.

present contemporary or historical events rather than fictional stories.

Documentaries that trace the lives of individuals and, as a result they resemble fiction films with characters, goals, and obstacles. 

(Man on Wire)

also called cinéma vérité, a documentary style in which the filmmaker attempts to remain as unobtrusive as possible, recording without obvious editorial comment.

a fiction film (often a comedy) that uses documentary conventions on fictional rather than real-world subject matter.

Man Ray, Walter Ruttmann, and Hans Richter established a different tradition, one of abstract filmmaking. Their films abandoned human figures altogether. Their animated, geometrical forms reflect their creators' idea that filmmaking was painting with motion.

Sound recorded on a set, on locations or, for documentary film, at an actual real-world event, as opposed to dubbed in post-production through ADR or looping.

Translates as "author." A term for film directors that was popularized by French film critics and refers to film directors with their own distinctive style.

That combined with the dark lighting and characteristics in films designed to bring the viewer into the story, it is difficult for people to break away from the ideology that is being portrayed in a movie.

Practice of self-censorship by Hollywood. It was how Hollywood would monitor and control the content of movies.

A long shot in which the film frame resembles the proscenium arch of the stage, distancing the audience.

Audiences assume that the sounds that accompany images are true to life.

sound played outside the world the characters inhabit.

A single take that contains an entire scene.

Everything audiences hear when they watch a sound film. The soundtrack is the composite of all three elements of film sound: dialogue, music, and sound effects.

System of beliefs, values, and opinions that are influenced by family, cultural background, personal experiences, education, and popular culture.

A standard shot pattern that dictates that a shot of one character will be followed by a shot of another character, taken from the reverse angle of the first shot.

Extremely low budget, DIY American independent filmmaking, beginning in the early 2000s. Often compared to the French New Wave because of its improvisational style and personal subject matter.

Early films that documented everyday events, such as workers leaving a factory.

A process of blending the free elements of the sound track (dialogue, music and effects) in post-production.

Writers, directors and producers design a project with a specific star in mind, hoping to capitalize on audience expectations.

Materials intentionally released by studios to attract public attention to films and their stars. Promotion differs from publicity, which is information that is not (or does not appear to be) intentionally disseminated by studios.

a business model adopted by the major studios during the Hollywood studio era, in which studios controlled all aspects of the film business, from production to distribution to exhibition.

An outlawed studio era practice, where studios forced exhibitors to book groups of films at once, thus ensuring a mart for their failures along with their successes.

The practice of Hollywood studios contracting out post-production work to individuals or firms outside the U.S.

an assortment of images joined together in a sequence.

A technique of cutting back and forth between action occurring in two different locations, which often creates the illusion that they are happening simultaneously. Also called "cross cutting."

The reverse angle of the original shot. Usually used in conversation or dialogue between two characters.

(automatic dialogue replacement) a technique for recording synchronized dialogue in post-production, using a machine that runs forward and backward. Also called "looping" because it is achieved by cutting several identical lengths of developed film and having actors record the dialogue repeatedly.

A musical accompaniment written specifically for a film.

A technique of depicting two layered images simultaneously. Images from one frame or several frames of film are added to pre-existing images, using as optical printer, to produce the same effect as a double exposure.

• Studio System - hollywood effiencent mode of production, distribution and exhibition.
• Relied on a division of labor to generate products rapidly and cheaply. 
• Producers used that same production team to ensure the speed.
• Used the same camera placement, reused sets, and used stars as marketing devices. 
• Five major studios - MGM, Paramount, Warner Brothers, Twienthieth Century Fox, RKO
• Would make most of profits internationally.

• During production:
• a boom operator extends the mic to record dialogue on set
• During Post:
• foley artists and effects editors experiment with making sound effects. 
• the ADR supervisor rerecords dialogue
• supervising sound editor makes sure everything is in sync with the film

a historical reference in the dialogue

During the 1910s and 1920s. The earliest years of cinema.

• Origin of genre traced back to greek philosopher Aristotle.
• Genres allowed studios to conceptualize, produce, market, and distribute their products effecitnely and rapidly. 
• They could reuse sets, story lines, costumes.
• Romance films have the same lovey couple, action films have the same male superhero.
• Audiences that love horror movies will return to see the newest ones same with romance films.
• Audiences are looking to see if they can surprise or break their idea of a romance.

• Continuity editing or invisible editing. 
• Cutting is so seamless from one shot to the next that audiences in the theater are not even aware that they are seeing a sequence of images.

New York.

Walking

• Stars are actors who the studios create an image for. They have a fan base, a specify reputation, are seen in the media and play similar roles. They were originally held in multi-year contracts but now they are free agents.
• Stars are paid with percentages of profits and cash break zeros. They make a small amount of money up front and then a portion of the profits.

At first, filmmakers Eisenstein, Pudovkin, and Alexandrov were not supporters of the sound technology. They thought movies wouldn't convey their artist meaning. Eventually, they became supporters. 

Murnau's film Sunrise, was one of the masterful in using sound technology to create meaning in film. With no dialogue, the film used music and horns to give meaning.

They created the Coalition against Blaxploitation and protested the films.

1940s and 1950s.

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, film scholars have addressed the ideologies implicit in cinematic representations of disability.

Dialogue

They abandoned human figures all together.

graphic form, rhythmic editing, anything.

• Origin of Genre can be traced to greek philosopher Aristotle.
• Before the 1960s, genre films were thought to be repetitive entertainment. Critics overlooked their intellectual potential. Now genre films inspire popular criticism.

Classic Hollywood.

• commercial
• documentary
• avant-garde

Oscar Micheaux - Within Our Gates.

One, Kathryn Bigelow. Won for Hurt Locker in 2010.

1948 Supreme Court Decision that called the Paramount Consent Decree - ordered Hollywood studios to cease monopolistic businesses.

Birth of a Nation. D.W. Griffith.

The cynicism following World War II.

• An editor pieces together all of the film footage to create the final piece. They need to collaborate with the director and their vision to make the movie. 
• Its is important because the wrong cut, the wrong angle can immediately distance the audience from the story world.
• Insured continuity

I counted a total of 59 shots in the beach scene. The editing in the scene must have been complicated. Verna Fields had to use good timing to make sure that each time someone walked in front of Brody, the camera zoomed in closer to his concerned face. The pacing of the scene started out with long shots. Each one watched each person in the water and then would cut back to Brody watching them; the woman floating, the dog - pipet, the couple, Alex on his raft, and Brody's son and friends. When people started to get in Brody's face and distract him, something happened with each person to alarm the viewers and Brody; the woman floating had the old man with the grey cap swim underneath her, looking like a shark and the couple were horsing around and the girl screamed. As it flips to each person and shows the viewers what each person is doing, it builds the excitement because we don't know who is going to be killed. Allowing the viewers to see the ordinary people doing ordinary activities on the beach, it not only lets the viewer get emotionally attached to each person but the viewers can relate to what everyone is doing, making the thought of getting attacked by a shark, that much more scary. As the shots get closer to the attack, the shorten, telling the viewers that its coming. It isn't until we're looking at the underwater view that we know the shark is here. Once Alex is killed, the shots flip from the front to the back of the panic and people running. I think this allows the viewer to be involved with the chaos. Finally, at the end of the scene, the shots get longer and quiet as Alex's mother discovers her son is dead.

• Sound design is the planning out of how sound will be portrayed in a film.
• Dialogue, Sound effects, and Music
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• Genre refers to a group of films that share a set of narrative, stylistic, and thematic characteristics or conventions. 
• Subgenre - smaller clusters of films that adicitonal conventions come into play. 
• Horror films - low lighting, monsters, dramatic music. 
• Westerns - open space, white settlers, whiskey, horses, cowboy hats, spurs, extreme long shots. 
• Detective Film - mysteries, police officer
• Action film - thrill, male hero
• Science Fiction - space travel, futuristic societies, 
• Musical - highly choreographed dance routines,

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• narrative documentary - trace lives of individuals and resemble fiction films
• voice of authority - voice over narration with images (Planet Earth)
• Talking heads - rely mostly on interviews
• Director-Participant - director is involved in the film (Supersize me)
• Direct Cinema - observational style (cinema verite)
• Self-reflective documentary - includes process of filmmaker as part of subject matter
• Mockumentary - Fiction films that pose as documentaries (Cloverfield)

Man on a Wire was a narrative documentary that detailed the story of how he got to walking the wire across the twin towers.

• They evoke frustration because they confront us with a situation we were sure we understood.
• Approach the medium as an aesthetic, philosophical and/or political means of expression. 
• Utopia One had a piece called The Stream which paralleled the meaning of a stream flowing into the ocean to life.