film exam 1

three most important film qualities

production, distribution, and exhibition

4 primary elements of mise-en-scene

set design, costuming & makeup, lighting, and blocking

set design qualities

on location, cgi, studios; building blocks of the world

costuming and makeup qualities

character traits, character stature, character reference

lighting qualities

mood, tone, characterization

3 point lighting system

key light (brightest, creates shadows), fill light (fills in leftover key shadows), back light (fills in shadows behind you)

blocking qualities

depth, spatial relationships, theatricality of film (roots in live theater)

Thomas Edison

created kinetograph & kinetoscope, black maria studios; stole ideas from assistant WKL Dickenson

kinetoscope

first viewing machine for films, included a phonograph for sound

kinetograph

first film camera, used flexible film material, 40 frames per second, 500 pounds

Eadward Muybridge

racehorse photographs turned into first moving picture in 1878

second industrial revolution

transformative period in late 1800’s, made technology bring sound and communication to life (telephone, phonograph, motorwagen)

Lumiere Brothers

worked with father to create the cinematograph 2 years after seeing Edison’s first camera showing, created films like The Sprinkler Sprinkled and Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory, showed films to larger audiences

cinematograph

11 pounds, could film wherever, no kinetoscope, could project the film itself, could show films up to a minute long, 12-16 frames per second

early nations pioneering film

US, England, France

Alice Guy Blache

worked as assistant to owner of Gaumant Film Company, began directing films for the company, saw potential to use film to tell stories, first to utilize scripts, continuity editing, set building, and moving the camera, began Solak Studios, made A Story Well Spun, On the Barricade, Falling Leaves, often erased from history

Lyman H. Howe

mini-model showman, made his own camera (Animotiscope) after being unable to see his own camera, toured films over US, contributed to expansion of film as a nationwide artform

animotiscope

brighter bulb sat farther away, made scene larger for larger audiences

nickelodeon theaters

typically storefronts converted into small theater spaces, held 50-200 people, played short films continuously, not meant for comfort so people would leave & be replaced

movie palaces

theaters with massive screens, ornate designs, comfortable seats; came from a need for more space in theaters and disinterest in nickelodeons from wealthy people

Buster Keaton

raised in a vaudeville act family (The Three Keatons), worked with Fatty Arbuckle in his films after Arbuckle got him his first role, found his niche as “The Great Stoneface", given his own small film company (Buster Keaton Productions), lack of language barrier made films accessible nationwide, believed in escalation, signed with MGM and lost creative freedom

George Melies

created A Trip to the Moon, on of the first to do narrative in film, new pieces of fiction, science fiction, and fantasy on screen, used magician for film

main countries where cinema developed

Italy, Russia, and France

Siegfried Kracauer

film theorist who attempted to use film as a way of viewing and understanding society and its systems, believed that popular films were popular because they reflect a shared dream amongst a society/culture, film provides insight on unconscious/subconscious of the audience, film is replacing memory

german expressionism

a mostly filmic art movement that gained momentum in Germany during the 1910’s, hitting peak in 1920’s, many films reacted to horrors experienced during WWI, part of a larger expressionist movement that prioritized individual emotion over objective reality

1916

Germany banned all foreign film imports, increasing its domestic production

UFA

universum-fil aktiengesellschaft, combined all film companies, distributors, & exhibitors under one umbrella; united all German production, focusing on both domestic success & international export; controlled all film aspects

german expressionism characteristics

subjective viewpoints, “essence", uncanny, abstraction, anti-realism

uncanny

feeling of thinking you know something, but it turns out to be not what you thought it was; often deals with familiarity of humans

“essence”

the character at their core, what you think that is, subjective

WWI Allied Powers

USA, UK, France, Russia, Italy, Japan, Belgium

WWI Central Powers

German Empire, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria

catalyst for WWI

assassination of Franz Ferdinand (heir of Austrian-Hungary empire) by Serbian-Bosnian assassins

WWI weapons and warfare tactics

machine guns, grenades, tanks, fighter planes, submarines, poison guns, trench warfare- led to unparalleled horror

reasons US joined WWI

sinking of Lusitania, Germany cut off US trade with allied powers and impacted economy, Zimmerman Telegraph

Zimmerman Telegraphs

US intercepted messages from Germany to Mexico to invade US if they were joining WWI, offered back land taken by US; Mexico said no

Lenin Proportion

Soviet Union leader Vladimir Lenin believed all films should be a mix of entertainment and education, films had to meet this standard, front for Soviet Union propaganda and ideas

Dziga Vertov

believed that the human and the machine would merge through the technology of the camera, extension of the human eye, cinema must move away from its foundations in theatrical performance & instead adopt the rhythms and flows of the machine, believed in “optical unconscious”

important soviet union film theorists

Dziga Vertov, Lev Kuleshov, Sergei Eisenstein

Lev Kuleshov

ethnographic work, observed audiences in theaters, especially young adults b/c they were the first generation born into a world with film, believed films in the US were extraordinary in regard to montage for their shot length, emphasized capabilities of montage as “the joining of shots in predetermined order” and “the organization of cinematic material”, Kuleshov Effect

the Kuleshov Effect

finding new meaning in an image based on what it’s associated with

Sergei Einstein

film director turned film theorist, one expression combined with one expression = one entirely new expressions (like engines on a machines), montage is not inherent to cinematic visuality but rather language itself

kuleshov effect

Russian Revolution (1917)

Russia needed an armistice because the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, were threatening the country and its leadership

importance of Phantom of the Opera

an example of the US copying German Expressionism, falsifying the aesthetic

camera work in German Expressionism

adds to emotion, a key factor in Expressionism; new angles introduced to further emotion and action; subjective viewpoints

optical unconsciousness

created by Vertov, the idea that it’s impossible to tap into the unconscious self, so film is able to tap into unconscious ideas or concepts and show them optically

state operated production

films in the Soviet Union needed government permission to be produced, had to follow the Lenin Proportion

Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton

some of the first international film stars, known more as their characters

Italian film in WWI

post WWI, made lots of epic war films celebrating Italian victory, always ended hopefully; one of the first film cultures to create the star system

star system

using the same stars in similar roles in multiple films; caused people to go see films because of who starred in them

WWI impacts on American film

Chaplin’s “Shoulder Arms”; tended to make jokes about the war

French film culture

Lumiere brothers, Blache, loved short-films and prioritized them over feature films, saw huge success exporting films to the US, less US imports negatively impacted French film culture and funding

expansion of film in the US and beyond

Edison’s patent led others to make their own film and push past his boundaries, more US films were exported and led to US stardom and popularity

Expressionist art characteristic

emotion over reality