Film studies midterm

Three act structure

Set-up in act 1, development in act 2, climax and resolution in act 3. Gives the story direction, momentum, and clarity

Narrative

Cinematic structure in which the filmmakers have selected and arranged events in a cause/effect sequence over time

Aesthetics

Palpably engage the sense, often elicit an emotional or intellectual response

Narration

Act of telling a story

Narrator

Who tells the story. In movies, it’s always the camera and sometimes a character

Classical Hollywood

Late 1910’s - 1960’s era of movies with an active, goal-oriented protagonist, external antagonistic forces, usually heterosexual romance involved. Stories are told linearly with A and B plots, unambiguous endings

Story

Chronological events in a narrative, both explicitly present and inferred

Plot

Specific actions and events, and the order in which the events are arranged to convey the narrative

Character coherence

Based on values, actions, goals, behaviors, and needs

Character depth

Personal mysteries that deepen and layer the dimensions of a personality

Character archetype

Reflection of an abstract state or process

Character stereotype

Set of consistent traits that identify a character in terms of a social, physical, or cultural category

Character development

Patterns through which characters move from one mental, physical, or social state to another

• external change = physical alterations (Mean Girls)

• internal change = internal transformations

Progressive development

Improvement or advancement in some quality of a character

Regressive development

A loss or a deterioration of a present state

Diegetic

What we see and hear on screen that comes from inside the world of the story

Non-diegetic

What we see and hear that comes from outside the world of the story (ex. credits, background music, location tags)

Linear chronology

Forward movement in time, logic and direction of the plot usually follows one character’s motivations. Past actions create present situations and decisions in the present create future events

Flashbacks/flash-forwards

Shift to an earlier/later time in the story

Deadline structure

Acceleration towards a central event that must be accomplished by a certain time (ex. Back to the Future)

Parallel plots

Implied simultaneity of 2 different plotlines, usually intersecting at one or more points

Story duration

Length of time the implied story takes to occur

Plot duration

Elapsed time the events explicitly presented in the movie take to occur

Screen duration

Film’s runtime on screen

Narrative frequency

How often plot elements are repeatedly shown (ex. recurring musical motifs like the Shire theme)

Real time

Actual time during which something takes place

Summary relationship

Screen duration is shorter than plot duration (ex. montage)

Stretch relationship

Screen duration is longer than plot duration

First person narration

V.O. narration of one character, usually a character in the story (ex. Double Indemnity)

Direct address

Occurs in first person narration, character breaks the fourth wall by speaking to the audience (ex. Emperor’s New Groove, Deadpool, Ferris Bueller)

Omniscient narration

Third person narration through which all elements of the plot are presented from many/all angles, unrestricted access allows for dramatic irony (ex. Barbie movie, the Princess Bride)

Restricted narration

Organizes story by focusing on 1-2 characters

Reflexive narration

Calls attention to narrative POV to complicate/subvert its authority as a reliable perspective (usually with direct address or as an unreliable narrator)

Multiple narrations

Uses several different perspectives to tell the story

Art cinema

Loosens cause and effect narration, more ambiguity, priority = realism, characters lack defined goals, loose structure allows characters to explain their psychologies, reaction is emphasized over action, no clear resolution. Characters experience an epiphany, breakthrough, or crisis that causes psychological change at the end of the movie

Auteur theory

From 50’s and 60’s France, the idea that the director is the overriding intelligence behind the finished product of a movie and that the directors have stylistic signatures that persist in all of their movies. Looks at a director’s entire body of work, not individual movies

Post-war art cinema market

End of vertical integration in Hollywood in U.S. v Paramount means the death of huge studios, fewer movies were being made so theaters needed products, and there was a lot of demand for art movies

Edits to foreign movies

Movies coming into the U.S. had to clear customs and the NY Board of Censors, so they were often edited for time and they cut prolonged nudity. They also usually changed the titles

Mutual v. Ohio

Supreme Court case that decided that film, unlike art and literature, was not protected by the First Amendment and could be censored and regulated. Caused movies to have to pass the NY Film Board to be distributed

Burstyn v. Wilson (aka “Miracle case” after the movie it was about)

Reversed Mutual v. Ohio and provided constitutional basis to appeal censorship, laisez-faire approach to movies

Hays code

Religious group threatened to boycott movies that contained “bad” content, so Hollywood created this code to censor and regulate themselves. Characters who did “bad” things weren’t portrayed as sympathetic. System of self-censorship until the MPA in 1968

Motion Picture Association

Organization that created the G, PG, PG-13, R, and X rating system, started in 1968

Post-war social changes that created art film audiences

Average income doubled, suburbanization, growth of middle class, leisure and consumer lifestyles. Culture and leisure activities became indicators of class status and social hierarchy, “legitimate taste”

Film noir

French term to retroactively characterize trends in 40’s/50’s American movies. Contained a lot of cynicism and angst, crime, morally-dubious protagonists, femme fatales, low key lighting

Mise-en-scene

French meaning = “put in place”, includes anything that visibly appears in the frame. Elements include actors and blocking, camera placement and movement, composition, lighting, depth and space, location, set design, props, costumes, hair, and make-up

Realism

The extent to which a film creates a truthful picture of a society, person, or something else. Can include psychological or emotional accuracy (acting), logical actions and developments (writing), and convincing perspectives of characters or events (both). Evaluations of this should consider function, motivation, and relation of elements to the rest of the film

Setting

Real or fictional place where the action/events of the movie occur

Set

A constructed setting on a studio soundstage

Shooting on location

Benefits include realism, cost-effective, natural-looking

Drawbacks include less control over the space

Shooting on a soundstage

Benefits include greater control of the environment, safety

Drawbacks include cost and possible artificial look

Scenic realism

Physical, cultural, and/or historical accuracy of backgrounds, objects, and other figures in a movie

Expressionism

Term comes from paintings, refers to a genre of art from early 20th century Europe. Characterized by a rejection of realism and Western conventions and a distortion of reality for emotional effect and to convey the subjective experience of the characters

Historical context for German expressionist films

During WWI, the German government wanted to ban foreign movies, but they produced so few of their own movies that they couldn’t, so they invested in the film industry for propaganda. They stopped investing after the war, so expressionism filled the hole in the market

UFA

German propaganda film company during the war, made a lot of expressionist films in the interwar years. They merged with another company and had a near-monopoly

Characteristics of German expressionist films

• expression of feelings in an extreme, direct way

• externalization of mental health

• over-acting (silent films)

• distortion to represent emotional realities

• important mise-en-scene

• non-realistic, distorted, stylized sets

• exaggerated, angular gestures in acting

German expressionism influence on Hollywood

Dracula (1931) with exaggerated acting, low-key lighting, dark shadows, harsh angles. Also Tim Burton

3 tenets of auteur theory (Andrew Sarris)

Technical competence, distinguishable personality, and interior meaning

Props

Objects that function as part of a set and/or tools used by actors

Instrumental prop

Objects used according to their function

Metaphorical props

Objects reinvented or employed for an unexpected purpose or invested with metaphorical meaning (ex. symbolism of knives in slasher movies)

Cultural props

Objects that carry meaning associated with their place in a specific society

Contextualized props

Objects that acquire meaning through their changing place in a film’s narrative

Staging

Mise-en-scene term that includes performance, composition, and blocking

Performance

An actor’s use of language, physical expression, and gestures to bring a character to life and communicate important dimensions of that character to the audience

Composition

Organization, distribution, balance, location, and relationship of actors and objects in each shot

Rule of thirds

Grid pattern that divides an image into horizontal thirds representing the foreground, middle ground, and background planes, and vertical thirds. Helps achieve balance and visual continuity

Compositional stress

When you break the rule of thirds on purpose to mess up the balance and highlight something, can also feel uncomfortable (ex. Severance office cubicles blocking the characters in)

Negative space

When a significant area of the frame does not contain much visual information, creating tension and anticipation

Deep space composition

Uses more than one plane of depth of field for placement of important elements

Blocking

The arrangement and movement of actors in relation to each other within a physical space

Social blocking

The arrangement of characters to accentuate relationships among them (ex. Zava standing in front of Ted Lasso when he meets the team)

Graphic blocking

The arrangement of characters according to visual patterns to portray spatial harmony or some other atmosphere (ex. arranging people in the shape of a letter)

Costumes

Clothing and accessories that define character and contribute to the design of a film

Prosthetics

Synthetic materials attached to an actor’s face or body to change the actor’s appearance, frequently used in fantasy and sci fi movies (ex. clickers in the Last of Us, Mrs. Doubtfire)

Lighting (in mise-en-scene)

Refers to light sources that are visible in the scene itself, like a candle or a lamp, used to shade or accentuate figures, objects, and spaces

Natural lighting

Lighting from a natural source like the sun

Directional lighting

Directs light in ways that define or shape the object or person

Three point lighting

Most common technical lighting scheme, consists of three different lights: key, fill, and back

Key light

Main source of illumination, usually positioned near the camera, levels of other lights are based on this

High-key lighting

Balanced lighting with little contrast and few shadows, used in musicals or comedies (low “key:fill” ratio, ex. 2:1)

Low-key lighting

Stark contrasts between light and dark, used in horror, film noir, or some action movies (high “key:fill” ratio, ex. 10:1)

Fill light

Minimizes shadows, used to balance out key light or emphasize other objects in the scene

Highlight (aka back light)

Sometimes used to separate subject from background, other times used to emphasize characters/objects and charge them with significance

Chiaroscuro

Side lighting technique that obscures half of a character’s face

Mise-en-scene as an external condition

Surfaces, objects, and exteriors define the material possibilities within a space or place, delineates the material limits of a film’s physical world

Mise-en-scene as a measure of character

Dramatizes how an individual or group establishes an identity through interaction with the surrounding setting and sets

Naturalistic mise-en-scene

Appears realistic and recognizable

Historical mise-en-scene

Recreates a recognizable historical scene

Everyday mise-en-scene

Commonplace backdrops

Theatrical mise-en-scene

Appears unfamiliar, exaggerated, and/or artificial

Expressive mise-en-scene

Elements assert themselves independently of characters, describe an emotional or spiritual life (ex. patronus)

Constructive mise-en-scene

The world can be shaped or altered through the work or desire of characters (ex. the Matrix or Inception)

“Cinematography” word origin

Writing in movement

Cinematographer/director of photography (DP)

Their job is to transform the script and production design into moving images, works closely with the director to translate their vision

Camera crew - Camera operator

Controls the camera

Camera crew - First and second assistant cinematographers (ACs)

1 - Oversees camera and lenses and adjusts focus

2 - Prepares the slate and notes lenses

Camera crew - Loader

Only for film cameras, feeds film stock into magazines and loads the camera

Camera crew - digital imaging technician (DIT)

Archives digital data

Camera crew - gaffer

In charge of lighting

Camera crew - best boy

First assistant gaffer