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Conventions
a tradition, a dominant style, a popular form—some such elements will be common to several different artworks
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Symptomatic meaning:
the way in which the message reflects a particular set of social values or beliefs characteristic of a particular place and time. It can reflect a certain time’s prevalent notions of social order, class relations, gender roles, and view of race, among others.
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Function (motivation):
Because films are human constructs, we can expect that any one element in a film will have some justification for being there. This justification is the motivation for the element
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Motif:
formal repetitions; any significant repeated element in a film
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Segmentation:
a written outline of the film that breaks it into its major and minor parts, with the parts marked by consecutive numbers or letters.
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Criteria for evaluating film:
o Coherence: often referred to as unity, has traditionally been held to e a positive feature of artworks
o Intensity of effect: if an artwork is vivid, striking, and emotionally engaging, it may be considered more valuable
- o Complexity: a complex film engages our interst on many levels, creates a multiplicity of relations among
- many separate formal elements, and tends to create intriguing patterns of feelings and meanings
o Originality
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Story vs. Plot
o Story: presumed and inferred events and explicitly present events within the story world; all diegetic information
o Plot: explicitly present events and added on non-diegetic material; all the things audibly and visibly present in a film
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Narrative and its aspects
Cause and effect> usually the agents of cause and effect are characters. Characters create cause and register effects.
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Story duration:
total time span of explicitly or implicitly referred to in the film
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Plot duration:
since plot chooses parts of the story to show explicitly, the overall time encompassed by the plot is the “plot duration”
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Screen duration:
the length of time which the movie lasts on the screen; the sliced of time taken from the plot duration and shown explicitly
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Narration:
“plot’s way of distributing story information in order to achieve specific effects. Narration is the moment by-moment process that guides us in building the story out of the plot”
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Range (restricted vs. unrestricted)
o Restricted: what one person knows
o Unrestricted: we know more, we see and hear more, than any of the characters can (omniscient narration)
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Depth (objective vs. subjective)
- o Objective: where a plot confines us wholly to information about what
- characters say and do: their external behavior
o Subjective:
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Perceptual subjectivity:
visual or auditory point of view offers a degree of subjectivity
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Mental subjectivity:
we might hear an internal voice reporting the character’s thoughts, or we might see the character’s inner images,representing memory, fantasy, dreams, or hallucinations
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Cinematography:
how something is filmed. In deciding how to film something, the filmmaker has to make choices related to three areas:
o (1) the photographic aspects of the shot,
o (2) the framing of the shot, and
o (3) the duration of the shot
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Speed of motion (and the ways this can be manipulated):
an effect of the relationship between the rate at which the film is shot and the rate at which it is projected; (fps) frames per second, time lapse, slow motion
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Focal length and the three types of lenses (what are
the effects of each lens?):
distance from the center of the lens to the point of focus on the film
- o short-focal-length (wide-angle) lens—less than 35mm
- § exaggerates depth
- § distorts straight lines lying near the edges of the frame, bulging them outward
- o medium-focal-length (normal) lens—35mm to 50mm
- § seeks to avoid noticeable perspective distortion
- o long-focal length (telephoto) lens—75mm to 250mm or more
- § distort space laterally
- § flatten the space along the camera axis
- § magnifies action at a distance
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Depth of field:
range of distance in front of the lens within which objects appear in sharp focus
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Deep focus:
objects in both the foreground and background are in focus
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Racking focus:
shifting the area of sharp focus from one plane to another during a shot; the effect on the screen is called rack-focus
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Framing:
the use of edges of the film frame to select and to compose what will be visible on screen
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Framing: main aspects (angle, level, height, and
distance):
- o angle of framing: the position of the frame in relation to the subject shown: above it, looking down
- (a high angle); horizontal, on the same level (a straight-on angle); looking up (a low angle)
o level framing: the frame can be more or less level—that is, parallel to the horizon. If the frame is tipped to one side or the other, it’s said to be canted.
o height of framing: the distance of the camera above the ground, regardless of the angle of framing
o distance of framing: how close/far we appear to be in relation to the figure on the screen
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Distance and its measure (extreme long shot, long shot, medium long shot, medium shot, medium close-up, close-up, extreme close-up)
o extreme long shot: human figure is barely visible
o long shot: figures are more prominent, but the background still dominates
o medium long shot: human figure is framed from about the knees up
o medium shot: frames the human body from the waist up
o medium close-up: frames the body from the chest up
o close-up: traditionally the shot showing just the head, hands, feet, or a small object
o extreme close-up: singles out a portion of the face (often eyes or lips)
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Point-of-view shot
When a shot’s framing prompts us to take it as seen through a character’s eyes, we call it an optically subjective shot, or a point-of-view shot
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Mobile framing and types of camera movement:
refers to the way in which framing is adjusted during the shot through the movement of the camera
o Pan (panorama) movement: rotates the camera on a vertical axis. The camera as a whole does not move to a new position
o Tilt movement: rotates the camera on a horizontal axis. It is as if the camera’s head were swiveling up or down
- o In the tracking or dolly shot: the camera as a whole does change position, traveling in any direction along
- the ground—forward, background, circularly, diagonally, or from side to side
o In the crane shot: the camera moves above ground level. Typically, it rises or descends, often thanks to a mechanical arm that lifts and lowers it.
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Mise-en-scene:
refers to all that appears in the film frame such as the setting, lighting, costume, amd make-up, and staging (acting)
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Setting:
- where the action takes place, instead of being a mere
- background for the action, however, the setting can also have a narrative function
- o On location/studio
- o Set-design, color, props
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Lighting and its four main features
quality, direction, source, and color.
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Lighting quality:
refers to the relative intensity of illumination. Hard lighting creates defined shadows, crisp textures, and sharp edges. Soft lighting creates diffused illumination
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Light Direction:
refers to the path of light from its source or sources to the object lit
- § Frontal lighting: eliminates shadows
- § Sidelight (also called a crosslight): to sculpt the character’s features
- § Backlight: comes from behind the subject filmed; tends to create silhouettes
- § Under lighting: light comes from below the subject
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Light Source:
light also characterized by its source
§ CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD: The backlight comes from behind and above the figure, the key light comes diagonally from the front, and a fill light comes from a position near the camera
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Light Color:
can match motivating light source, can be used to represent a characters emotional/psychological state
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Three-point-lighting
a common arrangement using three directions of light on a scene; from behind the subjects (backlighting), from one bright source (key light), and from a less bright source balancing the key light (fill light)
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Key light:
primary source; providing the dominant illumination and casting the strongest shadows. Most directional light and it usually correspond to the motivating light source in the setting.
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Fill light:
less intense illumination that “fills in” softening or eliminating shadows cast by the key light
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High-key lighting
refers to an overall lighting design that uses fill light and backlight to create low contrast between brighter and darker areas
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Low-key lighting:
creates stronger contrasts and sharper, darker shadows
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Screen space:
balance right and left halves; bilateral symmetry
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depth cues:
suggest that a space has both volume and several distinct planes
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Shallow-space
staging the action in relatively few planes of depth
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Deep-space
an arrangement of mise-en scene elements so that there is a considerable distance between the plane closest to the camera and the one farthest away. any or all of these planes can be in focus.
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Documentary
being provided with factual information that explains or helps us understand “real world” events; creation that provides a certain perspective of the subject matter
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Documentary genres
compilation film, interview documentary, direct-cinema, nature documentary, portrait documentary
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compilation film:
produced by assembling images from archival sources
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interview documentary:
records testimony about events or social movements
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direct-cinema:
characteristically records ongoing event as it happens
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portrait documentary:
centers on scenes from the life of a compelling person
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Editing:
in filmmaking, the task of selecting and joining camera takes. in the finished film, the set of techniques that governs the relations among shots
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Dimensions of film editing
graphic, rhythmic, spatial, temporal
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Editing: Graphic Relations
editing together any two shots permits the interaction, through the similarity and difference, of purely pictorial qualities of the two shots. the four aspects of mise-en-scene and most cinematographic qualities all furnish potential graphic elements
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Editing: rhythmic relations
when the filmmaker adjusts the length of shots in relation to one another
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Editing: spatial relation
Kuleshov Effect; any series of shots that in the absence of an establishing shot prompts the spectator to infer a spatial whole on the basis of seeing only portions of space
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Editing: temporal relation
plot can manipulate story time; order of presentation of events; flash-forward
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Graphic match:
two successive shots joined so as to create a strong similarity of compositional elements (e.g., color, shape)
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Crosscutting:
editing that alternates shots of two or more lines of action occurring in different places, usually simultaneously
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Flashbacks:
an alteration of story order in which the plot moves back to show events that have taken place earlier than ones already shown
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Flash-forward:
an alteration of story order in which the plot presents moves forward to future events and then returns them to the present
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Elliptical editing:
shot transitions that omit parts of an event, causing an ellipsis in plot duration
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Continuity editing:
a system of cutting to maintain continuous and clear narrative action. relies on matching screen direction, position, and temporal relations from shot to shot.
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