Film Studies Week 1-8

Cinematic language

the systems, methods, or conventions by which the movies communicate with the viewer

Shot

An unbroken span of action captured by the camera. It lasts until it's replaced with another shot, typically via a cut or transition.

The "shot" is the building block or cell of a film.

It can also be an arrangement of elements captured in a specific composition from ONE camera position.

Editing

The process where an editor combines and coordinates individual shots to form an entire film; the basic creative. force of cinema

Cut

The process of an editor selecting an inpoint and outpoint of a shot as part of the editing process.

Can also refer to a direct change from one shot to another. The precise points at which shot A ends and shot B begins.

Alternitively, it can refer to an edited (or unedited) version of a film.

Storyboard

A shot-by-shot breakdown that combines sketches or photographs of how each shot is to look and written descriptions of the other elements that are to go with each shot, including dialogue, sound, and music.

Blocking

The physical relationships between figures and settings. Includes the process of building said relationships during rehearsals.

Director

The person who provides for the creative vision and management of a movie, including supervision of the writing, direction, and design. At the top of a film's creative hierarchy.

Showrunner

The person responsible for the day-to-day operation of a television series, often also the series creator and sometimes its chief scriptwriter as well.

Cutting-on-action or match-on-action cut

An editing technique that smooths transitions between shots potrayting a single action by switching to multiple camera angles.

Narrative

A story or account of events

Narratiion

The act of telling the story of a film through the camera

Primary narrator

The camera

First-person Narration

Narrator that lives in the film's universe

Omniscient narrator

Narrator that is not in the film's universe

Third-person narrator

Narrator from outside of the film's diegesis

Restricted narration

Information is only revealed when a character learns of it; the viewer knows just as much as the protagonist.

Normal world

The state of the character and setting before the inciting incident.

Screenwriter

Responsible for coming up with a story, builds narrative structure, and plan every setting, character, action, and line of dialogue

Script page length

1 minute of screentime

Script doctor

Screenwriter hired to review and improve a screenplay

Story

All implicit or explicit events we see or hear on screen.

Diegetic

Events, characters, objects, settings, sounds that come from the story's world. What the characters can hear or see.

Non-diegetic

Events, characters, objects, settings, and sounds that come from OUTSIDE the story's world. What the viewer can hear or see.

Plot

Specific actions and events that filmmakers select and the order they are arranged.

Event hierarchy

1. events that seem crucial to the plot

2. less crucial or subordinate role of events

Duration

any quantity of time. 3 main types.

Screen duration

Movie's run time on screen

Plot duration

Time elapsed during the events on screen

Story duration

Time frame of the events in the narrative

Stretch relationship

screen duration is longer than plot duration

(slow motion)

summary relationship

screen duration is shorter than plot duration (sped up, montage)

real time

plot duration=screen duration

Scope

instrument for viewing. Number of characters, space, timespan

Broad scope

Long timeline, spans large distances, many storylines

Narrow scope

Short timeline, spans short distances, few storylines

Mise-en-scène or Staging

Literally "putting on scene." Everything SEEN in a shot.

4 types; setting, lighting, costume/makeup, and staging.

Design

Process of determining settings, props, lighting, actors

Production designer

the artist who selects or designs the sets, settings, locations, and props seen in the film, in accordance with the film's visual style. Works closely with director.

Hard light

shining directly on the subject

Soft light

Light emitted from a larger source that is scattered over a bigger area or reflected off a surface before it strikes the subject. Minimizes facial details, including wrinkles

3 Point Lighting

key light, fill light, back light

Key light

The main source of light in a film. Positoined on one side of the camera. Creates deep shadows.

high key lighting

The scene is flooded with light, creating a bright and open-looking scene. Low contrast. Used in musicals, comedies.

low key lighting

Darkness and shadows. High contrast. Creates suspense/suspicion. Used in horror, noir.

Fill light

Opposite side of the key light. Responsible for filling (or not filling) shadows.

Rim/Back Light

Positioned behind subject, used to highlight.

Backlighting

Lighting from behind to create a silhouette

Bottom Lighting

Direct lighting from below, often making the subject appear dangerous or evil.

Top Lighting

lighting coming from above a person or an object, usually in order to outline the upper areas of the figure or to separate it more clearly from the background

Front lighting

When light shines from behind the camera and illuminates the front of the subject, producing few or no shadows.

Ratio

Relationship between light and shadow

Quality

Light diffusion

High quality lighting

Low diffusion, hard lighting

Low quality lighting

High diffusion, soft lighting

Direction

angle that light hits the subject

Composition

organization, distribution, balance, and relationship of STATIONARY objects in a frame.

Previsualization

Aids for visualizing each shot's composition and editing

3 techniques- storyboards, overheads, and animatics

Overhead

Diagram or layout of set from above, helps with blocking and camera position

Animatics

storyboard images are filmed, cut together and played with sound

Rule of Thirds

A composition rule that divides the screen into thirds horizontally and vertically, like a tic-tac toe grid placed over the picture on a television set. Almost all of the important information included in every shot is located at one of the four intersections of the horizontal and vertical lines

Headroom

The amount of space above the subject's head.

Compositional stress

Mood/meaning created by framing subjects and objects to deny expectations of balanced composition (breaking the rule of thirds)

Eye room

Space placed on the side of the frame where a subject is looking

Lead room

Space on the opposite side of the frame from a character's lateral movement (when filmed by a moving camera)

Negative space

Empty space

Deep space composition

Places significant visual and narrative info on 2 or 3 planes in depth. Emphasizes depth and therefore info, mood, and meaning.

Kinesis

movement on screen

Figure movement

Anything moving that is used as a mise-en-scène element.

Blocking

The planning and working out of the movements of actors on stage.

German Expressionism

A film style that emerged in the 1910s in Germany. It was heavily indebted to the Expressionist art movement of the time and influenced subsequent horror films and film noir

Props

Objects that function as part of the set, tools used by actors

Instrumental props

objects displayed and used according to their common function

Metaphorical props

Objects reinvented or employed for an unexpected, even magical purpose

cultural props

Objects that carry meanings associated with their place in a particular society

contextualized props

acquire a meaning through their changing place in a narrative

performance

An actor's gestures, language, and physical expression to bring a character to life, communicate their important dimensions to the audience.

Graphic Blocking

Arranges characters or groups according to visual patterns to portray spatial harmony, tension, or some other visual atmosphere

Ratio of High-Key lighting

2:1 key:fill

Ration of low-key lighting

10:1 ratio

chiaroscuro lighting

1/2 illumination, 1/2 dark

Naturalistic

Recognizable and/or realistic

Everyday

commonplace; ordinary

Theatrical

overly dramatic, exaggerated in behavior

Expressive

Elements assert themselves independent of characters

Constructive

World can be shaped through work or desire of characters

Cinematography

art of making motion pictures