RTVF 010 - Film Studies - Final Study (Concepts)

Graphic Relations (Editing)

Connecting through similar shapes, colors, movements

Rhythmic Relations (Editing)

Editors manipulate the rhythms experienced by viewers through juxtapositions of longer and shorter shots as well as through transitional devices that affect the viewer's sense of beat or tempo.

Spacial Relations (Editing)

Using the space provided to create the shots necessary for the movie (Continuity, Discontinuity, "Creative Geography", and Crosscutting)

Spacial Continuity

maintaining consistency in geography through which actions can flow in a logical and seamless manner; made to seem like all the shots are from the same area

Spacial Discontinuity

A films space doesn't flow as smoothly. Breaking 180 degree line, adding jump cuts, or nondiegetic inserts

"Creative Geography"

angling/editing shots together to create the illusion that they are of the same space

EX: gold rush climbing the mountain scene

Crosscutting

Editing that alternates shots of two or more lines of action occurring in different places, usually simultaneously.

Temportal (Time) Relations

The use of time in relation to how it is portrayed in the film (Temporal Continuity and Discontinuity)

Temporal Contiunity

Illusion that the film is during one continuous time (even if it really was shot over multiple weeks)

Temporal Discontinuity

A narrative or editing approach that disrupts the normal flow of time, creating an experience of temporal dislocation (not chronological)

EX: Montage Sequence - condenses time to show progression over a shorter period

"Intellectual" Relations

Combining shots to create an idea, Kuleshov effect

180-degree rule/system

maintains the illusion of spatial reality by shooting from one side of an imaginary line

30 degree rule

the camera must move at least 30º around the subject between consecutive, similar shots to ensure a smooth transition and maintain continuity

Jump Cut

Violation of the 30-degree rule; jarring bc the subject "jumps" slightly within the frame; discontinuity

Dialogue, Music, Sound Effects

3 Categories of Sound Analysis

Diegetic Sound

originates from within the story world (characters can interact); heard by both the audience and charatcers

NonDiegetic Sound

elements (music scores, narration, text) outside (characters do not notice); not heard by the characters, but by the audience

Timbre

the unique quality that distinguishes different sounds

(even when pitch and volume are identical)

Pitch

frequency: how high or low it is

Volume

amplitude: how loud or soft it is

Spacial Aspects (Sound)

enhances realism and immersion by creating a three-dimensional soundscape, allowing sound designers to position, move, and layer audio—including height and depth—beyond traditional surround sound

Temporal Aspect (Sound)

order, duration, and frequency of a sound

Analyzing A Film

1. Identify narrative structure

Salient Stylistic Techniques

2. Notable/Important/Standout

3. Patterns in the Salient (Notable) Stylistic Techniques

4. Pose/Suggest how these patterns function in relation to the narrative

Genre List

Horror

Romance

Comedy

Western

Thriller

Musical

War

Drama

Action

Expectations: Western

- Grizzled middle-aged white man as protagonist

- Action

- Widescreen

- Setting

Expectations: Horror

- Monster

- Makes you afraid

- Eerie music

- Dark lighting

- Fear of the unknown

- Atmospheric

- Uncanny: Something strange, or partially human

*Cautionary Tale*

Dual Structures

EX: (good vs evil, nature vs civilization, etc)

common in genre films

Genre Phases

Primitive, Classical/Mature, Revisionist, Parodic

Primitive Genre Phase (1)

Still forming, tropes are being founded and experiments

are made

Classical/Mature Genre Phase (2)

Tropes are formed, several films show off the

conventions

Revisionist Genre Phase (3)

After the genre has been well-established for a while,

someone will turn the tropes on their head

(EX: instead of cowboys good and natives bad, they'll flip that)

Parodic Genre Phase (4)

Spoofs and satires, like Scary Movie or Blazing Saddles

Formalist Theory

(1st) 1910s-20s

Promoted Film as an art form

Emphasized how the film medium differs from reality and connections to other artistic media

Differs:

- scripted narrative

- performance

- cinematography

- silent

- editing

Realist Theory

(Response, 2nd) 1940s-50s

Film is an Art form, Formalist Argument no longer needed

Recognized important connection between film and reality; film should maximize these

photochemical(light)/physical connections

Techniques:

- deep staging

- location shooting

- deep focus cinematography

- long takes

- moving camera

- color

- sound

- de-emphasized editing

*Does not mean story is "realistic"*

Neo-Formalist Approach

Bordwell-Thompson

Techniques of realism are also formal choices

formal devices create meaning and artistic expression rather than searching for hidden thematic messages

Hollywood Narration

Clear 3-act structure

*Quick exposition

*Conflict

*Resolution

Clear protagonist, traits and goals

Tight cause-effect chain of events

Style serves the narrative

Unified ending

*Coherent and Cohesive*

Art-Cinema Narration

- Delayed exposition

- Character traits and goals less clearly defined

- Looser cause-effect relationships

- Story events are de-dramatized

- "The Game of Form" — a different kind of "game" from hollywood

- Requires interpretation, indifferent levels — "commentary"

- Style for its own sake - or to reflect mental states of chars

- Lack of clear resolution

*ALL LEADS TO A HIGHER DEGREE OF AMBIGUITY*

A different approach to "realism"

º Art cinema sees "reality as less knowable, less coherent, more ambiguous º

Documentary Subgenres

More often related to approach than subject

- Educational

- "Talking Heads" - Interviews

- Compilation

- Direct Cinema/Cinéma Vérité

Robert Drew/Primary (1960)

D.A. Pennebaker/Dont Look Back (1967)

- Portrait - intimate, essence of individual

- Personal documentary - biographical

"Major Genres"/Supergenres

Fictional Feature (Horror/Sci-Fi/etc)

Documentary

Experimental

Experimental Film

'MTV BRAIN', Reflexivity, Direct Theory

'MTV BRAIN'

M- Mental imagery/psychological, dreamlike

T - Technical innovation/experimentation

V - avoidance of Verbal Language

B - Brevity (films tend to be brief)

R - Reflexivity (more to come on this one)

A - Acollaborative (not collaborative)

I - highly Independent in nature

N - Non - Narrative structures

Direct Theory

The films themselves address questions of film theory:

- what is cinema?

- how do we experience it visually and psychologically?

Experimental Film Sub-Genres

European Avant-Garde: 1910s-20s

American Underground: 1950s-60s

European Avant-Garde

Related to similar movements in other arts

Response to WWI - means of political/social change

Cubism / Futurism / Dadaism / Surrealism