RTF 301D Media and Storytelling Analysis Final Exam Flashcarcds

Mise-en-scene

refers to contents of frame and how they are organized - "to put on stage"

Setting (set design, color, and props)

Setting in film refers to the overall visual environment in which the action of the story takes place, encompassing elements such as set design, color, and props to create the time, place, and mood of the narrative.

Costume, hair, and make-up

Conveys a characters personality or status. Part of mise-en-scene

Directionality of light

Frontal, side, back, under, and top lighting can dramatically alter how a subject appears and how viewers interpret a scene.

the angle and source of light in relation to the camera and subject. The direction of light can significantly impact the mood, texture, and visibility of a scene, and can help create depth and dimension.

Toplighting

soft makes angelic effect, hard makes distorted facial features

Frontlighting

makes image flatter, eliminates shadows

Underlighting

distorts features

Backlighting:

creates silhouette, separates actor from background

Side Lighting:

illuminate one side of the face and sculpt features

Source Lighting

where the light is coming from. Source lighting in film refers to the use of light sources within the frame, such as lamps, windows, or candles, to illuminate scenes naturally and enhance the visual storytelling by contributing to the mood, atmosphere, and realism of the setting.

3 point lighting

The Three-Point Lighting System uses a combination of key light, fill light, and backlight to create a balanced look. This technique was perfected during the studio era of classical Hollywood and is still widely used.

Key Light

This is the primary light source and is usually the most intense and direct light. It sets the overall look and feel of the lighting. The key light is positioned to one side of the subject, creating shadows on the opposite side, which adds depth and dimension.

High-key Lighting:

a style that uses bright, even illumination to reduce shadows and create a soft, airy look. This technique often involves multiple light sources and a lack of strong contrasts between light and dark areas.

Low-key Lighting

stark contrasts and deep shadows to create a moody, dramatic effect. It uses a limited light source, often with a high ratio of shadow to light, to emphasize contours and create a sense of mystery or tension.

Fill Light

This light is softer and less intense than the key light. It's placed on the opposite side of the key light and is used to fill in the shadows created by the key light. The fill light helps to balance the light and reduce harsh shadows, giving a more natural and even look.

Back Light (3 point)

Also known as the rim light or hair light, this light is placed behind the subject. It helps to separate the subject from the background by creating a rim of light around the subject's edges. This adds depth and makes the subject stand out more against the background.

Color

Can be more or less realistic.

Part of the scene (diegetic) or to emphasize certain aspects and emotions etc (non-diegetic)

Lighting - Highlights and Shadows

Lighting shapes objects by creating highlights (bright spots) and shadows, which define texture and space within the scene.

Hard vs. Soft Lighting:

Hard lighting creates sharp shadows and defined textures, while soft lighting diffuses and softens the scene.

Staging

involves not only the movement of human figures but also objects, animals, and other elements in the frame.

Performance (movement, gesture, expression, voice, etc.)

Acting is always part of the mise-en-scene, and actors' gestures and facial expressions work together with the setting and lighting.

Performance style (realist, individualized, stylized)

can be stylized, individualized, or realistic, depending on the film's context.

realist performance style

natural, believable, etc

Focuses on naturalistic acting, where performers aim to reflect real-life behavior and emotions accurately. The goal is to make the audience believe that the characters are genuine and relatable.

individualized performance style

Highlights unique and distinctive traits of a character, emphasizing personal quirks, mannerisms, and idiosyncrasies to create a memorable and specific portrayal. can be tied to things like star persona

stylized performance style

Involves exaggerated or heightened acting that departs from naturalism, often to fit the tone or aesthetic of a film. This can include over-the-top movements, speech patterns, and dramatic expressions.

Balanced vs. unbalanced composition

Balanced composition involves arranging visual elements symmetrically within the frame, creating a sense of stability and harmony. It conveys calmness and order.

Unbalanced composition, on the other hand, arranges visual elements asymmetrically, creating a sense of tension, dynamism, or unease. It highlights conflict or draws attention to specific elements within the scene.

Camera Distance

The space between the camera and subject it is filming.

Extreme Close Up (ECU)

Concentrates the audience's attention on a tiny detail of a character or small objects, often used to highlight something important or meaningful in the narrative.

Emphasizes a characters relationship to an object, Shows that this prop is important, Personifies an object, It can also foreshadow something, An extreme close-up is a concentration on something - whether the character is concentrating it or you should concentrate on it

Close Up (CU)

Allows the audience to see nuances of a character's behavior and emotion, enhancing the emotional connection with the story.

Highlights a character's emotions, Moments of significance, turning points or reaction shots

Medium Close Up (MCU)

Frames the character from the chest or shoulders up, including more body language than a close up while still emphasizing facial expressions.

Focus on characters expression and a little body language, It focuses on the character in frame and what they are thinking/feeling, We still understand the background, Shoulders/Chest up

Medium Shot (MS)

Also known as "Cowboy Shot," Frames characters from the waist up, balancing body language and facial expressions. It is often used to establish relationships between characters and their environment.

Waist up, More emphasis on subject, show some background still, Shows details of characters, Shows body language

Long Shot (LS)

Shows characters in their entirety along with a large portion of the surrounding environment, often used as establishing shots.

Full body of character is visible and some surrounding setting, Can also establish relationship to setting, Keeps us from getting too close to any character, Practically speaking it covers all of the characters and allows us to take in all that is in the frame

Extreme Long Shot (ELS)

Emphasizes the scale of a location with characters occupying a very small part of the frame. Often used to showcase vast environments or establish spatial relationships.

Visible subject but takes up very small portion of the frame, Serve as establishing shots which tell us where and when we are, More emphasis on environment/setting, Shows relationship of character to the landscape

Rule of Thirds

mentally creating equally spaced vertical and horizontal lines on a potential shot or image, then placing points of interest on this grid's lines and intersection points. The theory is that the filming style will create more pleasing visuals to the viewer's eye.

Headroom

the space between the top of the head and the upper screen edge

Frames within frames

a visual composition technique in film that creates a new frame within an existing shot.

Hitchcock's Rule

The size of an object in the frame should equal its importance in the story at that moment

Low vs. high camera angle

a low camera angle shot from below makes the subject appear more powerful and dominant, while a high camera angle shot from above makes the subject appear smaller and more vulnerable. These angles influence how the audience perceives characters and enhances the narrative's emotional impact.

Camera height

The position of the camera above the ground & in relation to the subject.

Framing

How elements are composed in a shot. Framing choices affect what's seen on screen and can include close-ups, medium shots, and long shots.

Masking

a technique that involves blocking out parts of an image to create visual interest or alter the impact of the image. like a binocular silhouette masked over the frame

Split screen/multiple frame

a technique where the screen is divided into separate sections, each showing different scenes or perspectives simultaneously.

Camera Movement

Movement of the camera, such as panning, tilting, tracking shots, and handheld shots, which influences the viewer's experience of the action. The angle, level height, distance, and framing.

Camera Tilt

Where the camera rotates upward or downwards

Camera Pan

Where the camera rotates sideways parallel to the ground

Camera Dolly

A rolling camera support. Camera dollies are used to move the camera in a straight line, or to follow a moving subject, allowing the camera operator to capture stunning and dynamic shots that add energy and visual interest to a film

Long Take/Sequence Shot:

A single, continuous shot that lasts for an extended period, without cuts, often used to create a sense of real-time and immersion.

High Contrast:

A style that features stark differences between light and dark areas, creating a dramatic, often moody effect.

Low Contrast:

A style that features more subtle differences between light and dark areas, creating a softer, more muted effect.

Exposure

The amount of light allowed to hit the film or sensor, determining how bright or dark an image appears.

Overexposure

Appears too bright, with blown-out highlights, often lacking detail in bright areas.

Underexposure

Appears too dark, with visible grain, and may lack detail in shadow areas

Freeze Frame

A single frame of a film is repeated so that it appears like a still photograph, usually for dramatic effect.

Telephoto Lens

telephoto lenses compress space, making distant objects appear closer together.

Long focal length, capturing a narrow field of view and compressing spatial relationships.

Depth of Field

the range of distance within a shot that appears sharp and in focus. A shallow depth of field means only a small part of the image is in focus, often used to highlight a subject and blur the background. A deep depth of field keeps most of the scene in focus, creating a clear, detailed view of the entire shot.

Fade in/out

a transition technique where the image gradually appears from black (fade-in) or disappears to black (fade-out), often used to signify the beginning or end of a scene.

Wipe

a transition technique where one image is replaced by another through a moving line or shape, creating the effect of one scene "wiping" away the previous one.

Graphic match

a transition technique that links two consecutive shots through similar visual elements, such as shapes, colors, or compositions, creating a smooth and visually meaningful connection between them.

Cut

instantaneous change from one shot to another

Flash Frames:

The filmmaker can use shot duration to stress a single moment. Ex: a few frames of pure white. These may mark transitions between segments or signal flashbacks or subjective sequences.

Establishing and manipulating space

If you're a director, you might start with a shot that establishes a spatial whole and follow this with a shot of part of this space

Constructive editing:

cutting together portions of space in a way that prompts the spectator to assume a spatial whole that isn't shown onscreen

Analytic editing:

breaks down an establishing shot into closer views

Editing shapes chronology:

the order of presentation of the events. The filmmaker may control story chronology through the editing

Filmmakers almost always present their shots in chronological order but they are more likely to use editing to alter the duration of story events

Flashforward:

editing moves from the present to a future event and then returns to the present

Elliptical editing

presents an action in such a way that it consumes less time on screen than it does in the story. The filmmaker can create an ellipsis in three principal ways:

-Cuts, dissolves, fades, and wipes

-Empty frames

-Cutaway or insert

Overlapping editing:

The action from the end of one shot is partly repeated at the beginning of the next. This prolongs the action, stretching it out past its story duration

Continuity editing:

The menu of choices for a particular set of editing possibilities

A patterned use of a technique, based on filmmakers' decisions, that's designed to have particular effects on viewers. The continuity style aims to transmit narrative information smoothly and clearly over a series of shots. This makes editing play a role in narration, the moment-by-moment flow of story information.

Crosscutting

The plot alternates shots of a story in event sin one place with shots of another event elsewhere

Axis of function

The center line, or the 180° line/system. Any action can be thought of as occurring along a line or vector. This axis of actions determines a half-circle, or 180° area, where the camera can be placed to present the action.

-The 180° system ensures that relative positions in the frame remain consistent.

-The 180° system ensures consistent eyelines

-The 180° system ensures consistent screen direction

Jump Cut

When you cut together two shots of the same subject, if the shots differ only slightly in angle or composition, there will be a noticeable jump on the screen.

Expansion:

Stretching a moment out, making screen time greater than story time.

180 Degree Rule

Don't cross the 180 degree line to not disrupt the viewer

Perceptual characteristics of sound (4)

Pitch: high/low

Loudness (volume): soft/loud

Quality: timbre/texture/color (the properties of a sound)

Fidelity: (un)faithfulness to source

Pitch

The level of a sound. Pitch is defined by the frequency (or speed) with which it is produced (the number of sound waves produced per second)

Loudness

(or volume or intensity) of a sound depends on its amplitude, the degree of motion of the air (or other medium) within the sound wave.

Sound Quality

(also known as timbre, texture, or color) of a sound includes those characteristics that enable us to distinguish sounds that have the same pitch and loudness.

Fidelity

a sound's faithfulness or unfaithfulness to its source

Asynchronous sound:

Sounds that are not synced properly (intentional vs unintentional)

We are aware of it when we sense a discrepancy between the things heard and the things seen on the screen. Either a sound that is closely related to the action but not precisely synchronized with it or a sound that either anticipates or follows the action to which it belongs

External vs Internal Sound

Are we hearing the thoughts/feelings/dialogue of the character or is it omniscient (narration)?

External sound:

Comes from a place within the world of the story, and we assume that it is heard by the characters in that world.

Internal Sound:

Occurs whenever we hear what we assume are the thoughts of a character within a scene.

Environmental Sounds:

Ambient Sounds, Sound effects, Foley Sound

Ambient sound:

Emanates from the ambience (or background) of the setting or environment being filmed, is either recorded during production or added during post production.

Ambient sound helps set the mood and atmosphere of scenes, and it may also contribute to the meaning of a scene (ex: the sound of the wind)

Sound effects:

Includes all sounds artificially created for the sound track that have a definite function in telling the story. All sound effects, except those made on electronic equipment to deliberately create electronic sounds, come from "wild" recordings of real things, and it is the responsibility of the sound designer and the sound crew to pick and combine these sounds to create the hyperreality of the film's soundtrack.

Foley sound effects

Foleys are created and recorded in sync with the picture. Foleys are created and recorded in sync with the picture. Foley sounds are unique. Foley artists use a variety of props and other equipment to simulate everyday sounds—such as footsteps in the mud, jingling car keys, the rustling of clothing, or cutlery hitting a plate—that must exactly match the movement on the screen. These are sounds that are custom-recorded sounds created in post-production for a specific scene or film.

ex: A sound designer needed the sounds of arrows shooting through the air, so they set up stationary microphones in a quiet graveyard and shot arrows past the mics to record those sounds.

The term "Foley sounds" comes from Jack Foley, who invented the technique in the 1920s

Traditional sound effects are created and recorded "wild" (recorded on location or pre-recorded) and then edited into the film. Traditional sound effects can be taken directly from a library of prerecorded effects (e.g., church bells, traffic

Music

dramatically motivated . . . music composed more often than not by practitioners specializing in the art to interact specifically with the diverse facets of the filmic medium, particularly the narrative

Score

a musical composition that accompanies a film, created by a composer or composers to enhance the emotional impact and dramatic narrative of a scene.

Silence

when the filmmaker deliberately suppresses the vocal, environmental, or musical sounds that we expect in a movie. Silence frustrates our normal perceptions. It can make a scene seem profound or even prophetic. Furthermore, with careful interplay between sound and silence, a filmmaker can produce a new rhythm for the film—one that calls attention to the characters' perceptions

Functions of Sound

Sound helps the filmmaker tell a movie's story by reproducing and intensifying the world that has been partially created by the film's visual elements. A good sound track can make the audience aware of the spatial (space) and temporal (time) dimensions of the screen, raise expectations, create rhythm, and develop characters. Either directly or indirectly, these functions give the viewer clues to interpretation and meaning. Sounds that work directly include dialogue, narration, and sound effects (often Foley sounds) that call attention (the characters' or ours) to on- or offscreen events.

Sound can define sections of the screen, guide our attention to or between them, and influence our interpretation.

Sounds create expectations.

Sound can add rhythm to a scene, whether it's accompanying or juxtaposed against movement on the screen

Genre

has been described through multiple metaphors: as a blueprint or structure on which a text is built; as a label for marketing a product to the audience; as a contract or viewing position established among the text, its producer, and the audience consuming it; and as a language, or shared set of signs, that allows audiences to make sense of the text.

a more precise set of conventions, including plots, characters, and settings, which portrays long-standing dramatic conflicts vital to the culture. These conflicts arise from a characteristic subject, such as the settling of the American frontier in the western, the impact of new technology in science fiction, or courtship, gender, and sexuality in romantic comedy.

Iconography

the use of recurring visual elements to convey meaning, evoke emotion, and establish a film's narrative identity. These elements can include: costumes, props, settings, lighting, color, hand gestures, and facial expressions.

Ex: Westers typically take place in 1800s desert towns, with cowboy characters, and have images of tumbleweeds, saloons, horses, etc

Musical Iconography

Musicals typically feature bright, vibrant colors, elaborate costumes, and spectacular set designs. Common imagery includes musical instruments, theatrical stages, dance sequences, and scenes of performance that highlight the glitz and glamour of the genre.

Horror Iconography

Horror films often utilize dark, eerie settings, with haunted houses, foggy graveyards, and abandoned buildings. Recurring imagery includes shadows, blood, and grotesque creatures, creating an atmosphere of fear and suspense.

Plot Formulas

a commonly used narrative structure that outlines the sequence of events in a story. It often includes established patterns such as the introduction of characters and setting, the inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. These formulas help create a familiar framework for storytelling, making it easier for audiences to understand and engage with the plot. Different genres often have their own specific plot formulas to suit their unique storytelling needs.

Plot Formulas in Musicals:

Musicals often follow a formula where the protagonist faces a personal or societal challenge, which is eventually resolved through the power of music and dance. Key elements include a romance subplot, a turning point marked by a dramatic musical number, and a grand, uplifting finale.

Plot Formulas in Horror:

Horror films typically follow a formula where a group of characters encounters a terrifying threat, such as a monster, ghost, or serial killer. The plot often involves uncovering the mystery behind the threat, characters being picked off one by one, and a climactic confrontation with the antagonist.

Themes

the underlying messages or main ideas explored throughout the story. They can address universal concepts like love, power, identity, and conflict, providing deeper meaning and resonance to the narrative.

Themes in Musicals:

Musicals often explore themes of Harmony,

Unity, Community, Perseverance, love, aspiration, personal growth, and the transformative power of art and music. They frequently emphasize the importance of following one's dreams and overcoming obstacles through creativity and collaboration.

Themes in Horror:

Horror films typically delve into themes of fear, the unknown, survival, duality, repression, and the darker aspects of human nature. They explore the impact of terror on individuals and societies, often highlighting the struggle between good and evil, and the consequences of human actions.