Film Exam 1

  1. frame
    single image captured on strip of film--similar to a photograph

    smallest compositional unit of film structure
  2. diegesis
    the fictional world in which we presume the story takes place
  3. shot
    single constant take uninterrupted by editing, interruptions, or cuts

    can also refer to single frame
  4. take
    a single continuously-recorded performance, shot or version of a scene with a particular camera setup
  5. editing
    the process of selecting, assembling, arranging, trimming, structuring, and splicing takes of exposed footage into a complete, determined sequence of shots that follows the script
  6. deep focus
    a style or technique of cinematography and staging with great depth of field

    uses lighting, relatively wide angle lenses and small lens apertures to simultaneously render in sharp focus both close and distant planes (including the three levels of foreground, middle-ground, and extreme background objects) in the same shot
  7. continuity editing
    the system of editing that developed in the early 20th century to provide a continuous and clear movement of events/images in a film

    final edited structure of a completed film, with the events or scenes/sequences arranged as if they had occurred continuously

    degree to which a film is self-consistent without errors, jump cuts, or mis-matched shots and details
  8. overlapping editing
    the carry-over of dialogue, sounds, or music from one scene to another
  9. 180˚ rule
    involves imaginary line along action of scene between actors involved in conversation or direction of chase

    line should be clearly established and consecutive shots should not be taken from opposite sides of the line
  10. 30˚ rule
    change in camera angle at minimum of 30˚ usual for each new shot at same scene (for smoother editing--no jump cuts)
  11. mise-en-scène
    what is filmed--setting, props, costumes, etc.

    way of producing meaning in films (straightforward or complex depending on intentions/skill of director)

    (sometimes also how--cinematography--> mise-en-shot)
  12. classical Hollywood narration (cinema)
    particular narrative form exemplified by films at height of studio system (1930-1949)

    central protagonist, clear cause-effect relationship
  13. story
    the events that appear in a film

    "what"
  14. plot
    "how"
  15. art cinema narration
    usually characterized by way it differs from Hollywood cinema--drifting, episodic and open-ended narrative vs tight cause-and-effect narrative with characteristic closure

    common in Europe from 1950s on
  16. jump cut
    explicit and self-conscious editing decision to demonstrate a 'jump' in time and disrupt normal models of continuity editing
  17. parody
    a comedy that imitates or makes fun of existing work in absurd, non-sensical way, and exaggerates its characteristics
  18. pastiche
    patchwork of references from/imitations of other works
  19. postmodernism
    artistic or aesthetic style which privileges surface appearances over 'deep meaning' or 'truth'--emphasizes fragmentation of viewpoints within culture and notion that no one philosophical truth

    characterized by irony, intertextuality, pastiche, bricolage, eclecticism, self-reflexivity, and theoretical position which adopts skeptical attitude towards totalizing notions of truth, reality, and progress

    theories such as psychoanalysis/Marxism no longer viable because attempt to give all-encompassing view of society/culture

    contemporary historical movement (period after modernity)
  20. intertextuality
    designates ways in which film either explicitly or implicitly refers to other films triggering ideas/associations which might enrich our response

    various relationships one (film) text may have with others

    strongly linked with postmodernism
  21. metteurs-en-scene
    technically competent directors who merely execute the processes of filmmaking without consistently stamping their 'personality' on the material from one film to the next
  22. auterism
    critical approach to study of film which identifies director as responsible for whatever viewer finds of thematic, stylistic or structural interest in single film or across body of work
  23. genre theory
    genre--class or type of film that shares common, predictable or distinctive artistic and thematic elements or iconography
  24. shot scale
    range of shots which suggest apparent distance of object from camera

    defined according to framing of human form
  25. close-up
    face shown from neck up
  26. extreme close-up
    body part--eye, leg, etc.
  27. long shot
    human body from head to toe fills about 3/4 of height of screen
  28. extreme long shot
    human body head to toe fills small fraction of screen
  29. medium long shot
    body shown from mid-calf/knees up
  30. medium shot
    body shown from waist up
  31. two-shot/three-shot
    two or three people in shot
  32. angles
  33. high-angle shot
    camera looks down from above on to objects/scene
  34. low-angle shot
    camera looks up from below at objects/scene
  35. straight-on shot
    camera at same level as objects/scene
  36. canted frame
    camera not level causing mise-en-scene to appear slanted within frame
  37. mobile framing
    scan of scene horizontally
  38. pan
    camera itself remains in same place but swivels round horizontally
  39. whip-pan
    very fast pan
  40. track shot/dolly shot
    camera moves horizontally by travelling along ground (originally on 'tracks' on which a wheeled support-or 'dolly'- for camera could be mounted)
  41. tilt
    camera remains in one place but swivels up or down
  42. crane shot
    camera moves above ground in any direction (for which it is mounted on arm of special 'camera crane')
  43. establishing shot
    shot at start of film/scene which establishes spatial relationships within mise-en-scene and locates story within diegesis
  44. cut
    joining of two strips of film in editing room and resulting immediate change from one image to another on screen
  45. fade
    one of juxtaposed images is black screen

    • fade-out--image slowly darkens
    • fade-in--image slowly emerges from darkness
  46. dissolve
    first shot fading out to be simultaneously replaced by second shot fading in
  47. ellipse
    gap in continuity of time/space of narrative
  48. movement image
    cinema in which image is at service of narrative and audience experience is of 'movement' of film towards closure of narrative resolution

    Gilles Deleuze
  49. time image
    cinema in which narrative priorities of mainstream commercial cinema replaces by ones which are more reflective--our understanding/experience of time becomes central

    development from movement image
  50. sensory motor mechanism (SMM)
    mental processing of audio-visual information in ways that allow us to 'place' and 'manage' film experience

    automatic processing (part of relatively passive pleasure of mainstream commercial cinema--other kinds of cinema disrupt SMM)
  51. studio system
    1920-1950

    period of Hollywood history in which major studios controlled all aspects of production, distribution, and exhibition of their products
  52. first run
    film shown in important cinemas immediately following theatrical release

    (second/third runs etc. for smaller, local cinemas)
  53. vertical integration
    where a company is organized so that it oversees a product from planning/development stage, through production, through market distribution, through to the end-user--the retail consumer

    film--company controlling production, distribution, and exhibition of film
  54. oligopoly
    state of limited competition between small group of producers or sellers
  55. exclusive run
    where film only screened in one cinema
  56. multiple run
    film shown simultaneously at number of cinemas
  57. platform run
    movie shown in a few cities to build up word-of-mouth enthusiasm (for off center--mainstream but not blockbuster--films)
  58. saturation run
    film opens 'wide' and is shown simultaneously at enormous number of cinemas accompanied by heavy media promotion

    "superwide openings"--event films
  59. paid advertising
    promotion on TV, radio, billboards, printed media, and internet
  60. extratextual
    designates 'outside' of film/text--range of cultural texts which relate in some way to film/text

    non-filmic intertexts which in varying degrees relate to film/text (such as marketing, and promotional materials, film reviews, etc.)
  61. genericity
    shift in production/consumption initiated "by ever increasing number of entertainment options and fragmentation of what was once though to be a mass audience into a cluster of 'target audences'" --Jim Collins
  62. palimpsest
    literally- manuscript written over previous text that has been entirely or partially erases

    figuratively- film/text with multiple levels of meaning created through dense layers of intertextuality--associated with postmodernism
  63. eclecticism
    aesthetic style in which new composition composed wholly or in part from elements selected from a range of previous styles, forms, texts, genres, drawn from different periods and from both high and popular culture

    one of the principal strategies of postmodernism
  64. synergy
    combined or related action by group of individuals or corporations towards common goal, the combined effect of which exceeds the sum of individual efforts
  65. Production Code (Hays)
    former rules of Hollywood
  66. star image
    star system- buildup of stars and their centrality to advertising/promotion of films
  67. functions of stars
  68. Star as Celebrity
    "real" lives of stars become most important (reality TV--celebreality)

    film output unimportant, category functions freely
  69. Star as Commodity
    studio era-->contracts-->star image

    guarantee of predictability and profit (star sells movie)

    often generated false romances
  70. Star as Professional
    same role over and over, playing themselves (limiting)
  71. Star as Performer
    • method acting
    • "true talent" --> Oscar winners
  72. Star as Text
    star as a person does not matter

    • intertextuality between roles (in many movies)
    • also extratextual (commentary, etc.)
  73. Star as Object of Desire
    spectator plays role--how we relate to star (are attracted to--> women often "stop" movies)

    sexualization
  74. method acting
    actors who give realistic performances based upon and drawn from their own personal experiences and emotions

    a style of acting first expounded by Konstantine Stanislavsky in the early 1900s, and popularized by Lee Strasberg
  75. spectatorship
    individual response to a film
  76. audience
    collectives of people responding to a film
  77. response studies
    identification of certain groups' responses to film (ex: members of Women's Land Army)--communities of interest

    • response draws on whole of self
    • -social self--makes meaning in ways similar to others with similar ideological formation
    • -cultural self--makes intertextual references based on bank of material posessed
    • -private self--brings memories/personal experiences
    • -desiring self-brings conscious and unconscious energies/intensities to film beyond surface content
  78. spectator and early cinema
    Early Cinema needed to find ways of controlling look of spectator as part of move towards producing more appealing/standardized product

    • -ensure meanings intended by filmmakers were those taken by audience members
    • -replicate realism of effect (like life outside of camera)
    • - provide greater pleasure in act of looking
  79. interpellation
    process whereby spectator of a film is drawn inside the psychic and physical life of fictional world depicted

    voyeurism?
  80. hegemony
    set of ideas, attitudes or practices becomes so dominant that we forget they are rooted in choice and exercise of power--appear to be 'common sense' because so ingrained--alternative seems 'odd'

    Hollywood example -- genre based narrative
  81. affect and excess
    approach to spectatorship

    emphasizes "lack" and need to complete it

    melodrama
  82. negotiated response/reading
    reading that involves certain give-and-take between our own views and experiences and those presented in film text by its creator
  83. preferred reading
    spectator takes intended meaning, aligning with messages and attitudes of those who created text
  84. oppositional reading
    rejects intentions of creator of text (often associated with displeasure)
  85. aberrant reading
    so far off track it may be described as "wrong"

    aberrant--deviates from usual course/norm
  86. alignment
    experience story through character('s eyes)

    involuntary
  87. recognition
    we recognize/know how to place character from experience as a particular type/narrative function

    automatic process
  88. allegiance
    how we choose to associate imaginatively with character based on our assessment of their worth/appeal

    constructed by forces outside our control/ we are manipulated (unless take oppositional reading)
  89. feminism
    based on belief that we live in society where women still unequal to men

    feminists argue media reinforces status quo by representing narrow range of images of women (carer, passive object, object of desire)
  90. ideology
    dominant set of ideas/values which inform any one society or culture, but which are imbued in its social behavior and representative texts at a level that is not necessarily obvious or conscious
  91. cultural myth
  92. offscreen space
    action or dialogue off the visible stage, or beyond the boundaries of the camera's field of vision or depicted frame
  93. early film form traits (Cinema of Attractions)
    • -camera static before action/character--technical limitations of equipment
    • -camera 'eye' assumes position of member of audience
    • -shots full of people/variety of action without any guidance as to which action or character particularly significant

    • spectator began to be drawn into particular relationship with screen:
    • -camera mvmt toward/away from object (fixed to train/car) to create physical involvement
    • -camera position nearer/further from object to 'direct' attention/increase emotional engagement
    • -mise-en-scene organized to enhance meaning/emphasize significance
    • -frame exploited to create interest in offscreen
    • -editing to organize shots:

    • - parallel editing--two events shown simultaneously to encourage forming dramatic connections
    • - editing used as montage--to encourage particular interpretation of one shot by influence of others
    • - editing used to move spectator between POVs
  94. early stages of cinema (cinema of attractions)
    [in class notes]
    • -space dictates scene--camera doesn't move, actors do
    • -more theatrical than cinematic
    • -pan shot
    • -little interest in linear narrative
    • -spectacle more important than story
    • -start not attractions--projectors advertised!
  95. Birth of a Nation
    advance in development of narrative film/mainstream film form BUT very racist (KKK)
  96. focalization
    focus? -- degree of sharpness or distinctness of an image
  97. Wood
    (in Grant reading)
  98. regressive (reactionary)
    in horror--happy status quo looks awesome
  99. apocalyptic
    in horror--status quo so contaminated that when monster eliminated happiness is not guaranteed-->disappointment at monster elimination-->monster becomes sympathetic (point of identification)

    ex: Carrie
  100. supraauteur
    someone who gets designation even though have nothing to do with movie (Disney)
  101. film distribution: new age of film distribution
    • -since 1940s power base in industry shifted from exhibition to production finance and distribution
    • -shift reflects fact that film revenue no longer purely function of cinema receipts
    • -access to major's worldwide distribution/marketing network now determining factor in film's financial success (DVDs, marketing)
    • -Majors dominate marketing/promotion--distributors stand between producers and exhibitors
  102. production types
  103. cameraman system
    companies ensured dominant position in industry by holding patents in camera/projection equipment

    films largely creation of one individual who would be responsible for planning, writing, filming and editing

    ex: Edwin Porter (worked for Edison)

    (until 1907)
  104. director system
    director responsible for overseeing group of operative workers, including cameraman--central to planning, filming, and editing stages of production

    (MPCC era)
  105. director-unit system
    directors in charge of autonomous production units within companies, each with separate group of workers (for efficiency)

    (MPCC era)
  106. central-producer system
    fully structured hierarchical system with strict 'scientific' division of labor

    production-line filmmaking under central control of producer (who used detailed shooting scripts to plan budgets before giving go-ahead to studio projects)

    (MPCC era)
  107. producer-unit system
    • -company appointed head of production to oversee running of studio
    • -several producers appointed under head to supervise production of group of films, deliver films on completion to head of production

    (Studio era)
  108. WWI & WWII relation to cinema
    30s--all horror foreign

    40s--focus on sexuality-evil women (because during WWII women gaining independence)
Author
AlbiDragon
ID
44989
Card Set
Film Exam 1
Description
concept review list
Updated