Crucial Concepts (6)

Crucial Concepts (6)

1. (1) Mode of film practice

   • HOLLYWOOD
     • clear narrative, predetermined ending, cause and effect, tight seamless editing.
   • ART CINEMA
     • Realism and authorial expressivity. More on plot than story. No predetermined ending. Episodic narrative structure.
   • AVANT-GARDE CINEMA
     • aka Experimental. non conformist. eccentric personal viewpoints/experiences. May tell no story. Explores non-narrative forms. Low budget.

2. (2) Film Form

   • NARRATIVE
     • chain of events linked by cause and effect and occurring in time and space.
       • Plot and story. Temporal order, duration ,frequency. Opening, closing and development. Climaxes. Restricted/unrestricted story.
       • Objective/subjective
   • CATEGORICAL
     • e.g. planet earth episodes diff each time e.g. ocean, desserts, forests etc.
   • EPISTOLARY
     • communication through letters
   • ASSOCIATIVE
     • suggests ideas and emotions to viewer by assembling images and sounds that may not have any logical connection. But prods viewer to look for some connection/association.

3. (3) Film Techniques

   • MISE-EN-SCENE
     • Setting, Costume and makeup, Lighting and Staging (performance)
       • Contributes to narrative progression.
       • Little makeup
     • Props as motifs e.g. seen on boxer patriot. End - boy has beret.
     • "Costume is a very important thing. It speaks before you do." - Harrison Ford
   • EDITING
     • Cuts e.g. fade-in, fade-out, dissolve, wipe
       • POV, retroactive POV - actor looks straight at camera as if facing character. POV cutting for uncertainty (did character imagine seeing something)..
         • Montage sequences - e.g. Spider-Man Peter imagining costume deigns around his head.
           • Nondiegetic editing - cuts to metaphorical/symbolic shot that doesn't belong in space/time of narrative.
       • Jump cuts - same scene, shot obvs diff angle.
     • Graphic, Rhythmic, Temporal, Spatial relations between shot A and shot B
       • Graphic - matches, clashes, contrast (motion and stasis), discontinuity (symmetry), transition, a matter of degree (staging)
       • Rhythmic - flash frames, rhythmic cutting.
       • Spatial - establishing and manipulating space, intra-frame editing (shots blended), constructive (The Kuleshov Effect) - when withholding establishing shot and can be shot in diff locations but viewers assume it's same space. Spatial continuity - 180 degrees axis of action. Cheat cuts - cheat MES and positioning of characters.
       • Temporal - order, duration, frequency, chronology, flashbacks, flashforwards, condense duration (elliptical editing, cutaway (action A - cut to action B - action A further along) or insert. Expand duration - overlapping editing. Also Repeat shot editing.
     • Continuity editing - narrative, smooth
       • Crosscutting - back and forth shots of two diff action events in film.
   • SOUND
     • Subjective silence - environment becomes isolated e.g. club music silences when girl sees boy.
       • Pitch - high/low. distinguish speech and music from background noise.
         • Timbre - voice nasal/mellow. accents. saxophone in seduction scene. mixing lion and lion sounds to get Beauty and the Beat animalistic side.
           • Loudness
           • Dialogue overlap
             • Musical motifs - to match environment/city e.g. 'Moon River' Breakfast at Tiffany's contrast New York singing about her rural past.
               • Diegetic - a source in the story world e.g. voice, live instruments, objects. Nondiegetic - outside. e.g. film soundtrack. (These relate to spatial space)
                 • Offscreen sound - e.g. phone ringing, bottles clinking suggest character been drinking again.
                 • Internal/external diagetic sound - Internal mind/thoughts/diary narrator. External character can hear out loud.
                 • Nondiegetic can become diagetic e.g. music turns to live orchestra in scene.
             • Rhythm
               • Fidelity - faithful sound e.g. barking noise from a barking dog.
                 • Synchronous/Asynchronous sound.
                   • Simultaneous/nonsimultaneous (e.g. sound flashback with image flashforward) sound.
                     • Sound Bridge - sound from previous scene lingers onto start of next scene.
   • CINEMATOGRAPHY
     • Range of Tonalities: Contrast, colour, black&white, exposure, blown out, filters, speed of motion (e.g. ramping - varying frame rate).
       • Perspective, the lens:focal length, depth of field and focus, racking focus (distant person in focus to closer person suddenly in focus), pulling focus.
         • Special Effects: superimposition - unrealistic, layered images to create multiple perspectives like double exposure. E.g. dreams, visions. Rear projection.
           • Matte work - backgrounds that are artificial paint/CGI.
           • Framing - angle, level, height, distance, close-ups. dimensions, shape, aspect ratios, academy ratio, masking hard matte, anamorphic process.
             • Mobile framing- framing of object changes, e.g. hand held camera, pan, tilt, tracking, dolly, crane shot.
               • Real time, length/duration of takes
             • POV shot - subjective
           • Framing onscreen/offscreen space.

4. (4) Film Style

   • REALISTIC
   • FUTURISTIC
   • MELANCHOLIC

5. (5) Film Genre

   • HORROR
   • SCIENCE FICTION
   • SATIRE
     • humour, exaggeration, irony, ridicule/expose/criticize someone/something.
   • PARODY
     • e.g. mockumentary with District 9
   • MYSTERY
     • restricted/suspense
   • DOCUMENTARY
   • FICTION vs NON-FICTION
     • Not real vs real

6. (6) Film Medium

   • LIVE-ACTION
     • non-animated characters in animation. co-existing.
   • ANIMATION
     • 2D Computer-generated image.
   • CGI + OTHER DIGITAL
     • computer generated. not live-action. special effects e.g. fantasy/science fiction.