Film Final Exam Review

Narrative

A chain of events like by cause and effect, and occurring in time and space

Film Form

The overall set of relationships among a film’s parts; patterns created through repeated stylistic, narrative, and material elements.

Narrative

A chain of events like by cause and effect, and occurring in time and space

Film Form

The overall set of relationships among a film’s parts; patterns created through repeated stylistic, narrative, and material elements.

Referential Meaning

The film’s story; part of film form

Explicit Meaning

The film’s point or message; part of film form

Implicit Meaning

A viewer’s interpretation of a film; part of film form

Symptomatic Meaning

Ideological meaning of a film; part of film form

Mise-en-scene

The physical elements within a given shot; elements include sets, props, costumes, makeup & hair, blocking, performance special effects, and lighting.

Blocking

The staging, arrangement, and planed movement of performers in a scene

Three-Point Lighting

Standard lighting technique; utilizes three light sources (key, fill, and back lights) to illuminate a subject and create depth, dimension, and balance in the image.

High-Key

Even lighting throughout the image; no shadows and soft light

Low-Key

Uneven lighting throughout the image; prevalent shadows and hard light

Verisimilitude

Appearance of being real

Cinematography

How the camera is positioned to capture subjects

Camera Movements

Tilt, Pan, Dolly Push, Dolly Pull, Dolly Zoom, Handheld, Crane, Tracking Shot

Shot Scales

Extreme close-up, Close up, Medium close-up, Medium shot, Medium long shot, Long shot, Extreme long shot

Camera Angle

High Angle, Low angle, Straight-on, Canted angle, Birds Eye, Worms Eye, POV Shot

Depth of Field

Refers to how much of an image is clearly legible

Deep Focus

When an entire image is clearly in focus

Shallow Focus

When only the foreground or background of an image is in focus.

Racking Focus

When focus moves from one plane to another

Focal Length

How strongly the lens converges or diverges light (ex. Wide angle or telephoto lens)

Zoom

Changing the focal length of a lens

Editing

The task of selecting and joining camera takes; the set of techniques that governs the relations among shots.

Continuity Editing

Style and system of editing which works to establish and maintain a coherent system of spatial relations.

180 Degree Rule

Invisible line in a given scene that the camera cannot cut across; breaking the rule disrupts spatial reason

Chaos Cinema

A video essay by Mathias Stork; argues the filmmakers increasingly use sound to maintain spatial coherence instead of editing.

Sound

All sonic elements within a film. Qualities include pitch, volume, and timbre.

Diegetic Sound

Sounds that occur within the story space and are heard and/or created by characters.

Nondiegetic Sound

Sounds that occur outside of the story space

Sound Bridge

A sound used to connect two scenes or locations in film.

Perspective

The point of view from which the audience receives sound.

Leitmotif

A music motif which recalls a specific person, place, or idea.

Vertical Integration

Studios control production, distribution, and exhibition; studios control practically every element of a film’s life cycle from conception onwards.

The Hays Code

Morality code enforced from the 1930s to the late 1960s; prevented things like drinking, sex, interracial romance, and extreme violence from being depicted in Hollywood films.

Discontinuity Editing

Disregards rules of continuity editing like the axis of action or shot reverse-shot; leads to an obscure, confusing story (if any narrative at all) and demands active viewership.

Montage

Editing style developed by Soviet filmmakers; emphasizes the relationship between shots and the meaning made in their juxtaposition

Metric Montage

Cutting to a meter or measure of time, regardless of the content; ex. rapidly cutting to create a sense of chaos.

Rhythmic Montage

Cutting according to the actions of shots; ex. continuity editing

Tonal Montage

Cutting based on the emotion, or tone, of shots; ex. linking separate shots via sonic or visual qualities.

Overtonal montage

cutting based on the emotion, or tone, of shots; ex. cross-cutting according to the mood.

Intellectual montage

Cutting in accordance with a shot’s relation to an intellectual concept; ex. expressing ideas through cuts

Neorealism

A style of filmmaking that depicts the everyday lives of ordinary people in a realistic way. Often uses non-professional performers and on-location shooting; developed in Italy following WWII.

Verite

French word for truth; a style of filmmaking that creates the illusion that events unfold naturally.

Iranian New Wave

Film movement beginning in 1890s Iran; follows regular people in rural Iran; often features children or lower-class characters.

Genre

A category or classification of a group of movies in which individual films share similar subject matter and similar ways of organizing subject through narrative or stylistic patterns.

Marketing

Selling films to audiences based on recurring tropes; provides trend of success and trends to follow

Audience expectations

Viewers know what to expect going in and know their likes/dislikes; structures your expectations

Template

For filmmakers, provides a sort of mold for how to make something; some are able to break or subvert these expectations

Genre Subversion

A challenge to or deconstruction of a genre’s core themes, producing films that are more reflective, satirical, or politically charged; twisting genre tropes to make something new

The Canon

List of works considered to be permanently established as the highest of quality

Counter Cinema

Film movements, genres, and makers producing work to counter mainstream film practices and/or politics.

Male Gaze

Relations of looking created by classical film editing; positions men (subjects) as dominating and controlling of women (objects) through their look.

Oppositional Gaze

Form of counter-looking that reads against dominant practices or readings of narratives. Finds power in the disenfranchised.

Mode

A way or manner in which something occurs or is experienced, expressed, or done

Medium

The material or film used by an artist, composer, or writer; the overarching artistic medium

Modes of Documentary Filmmaking

Poetic, expository, observational, participatory, reflexive, performative