Film Evaulation Final Review

action acting

The kind of acting seen in action/adventure films. It demands skill in facial reactions and body language, physical strength, and coordination but little subtlety or depth in communicating emotions or thoughts.

adaptation

A film based upon a literary work.

advancing colors

Colors that, when given high intensity and dark value, seem to advance toward the foreground and make objects seem larger and closer to the camera: red, orange, yellow, and lavender.

allegory

A story in which every object, event, and person has an immediately discernible abstract or metaphorical meaning.

ambient sounds

Off-screen sounds natural to any film scene’s environment, such as telephones ringing in a busy office building or birds chirping in a forest.

analogous harmony

The effect created by colors adjacent to each other on the integrated color wheel, such as red, red-orange, and orange. Such combinations result in a soft image with little harsh contrast.

aspect ratio

The shape of projected screen images. Basically, two types exist: standard and wide screen.

standard (academy) ratio

width is 1.33 times larger than its height

wide screen ratio

Whose width ranges from 1.66 to 2.55 times its height

atmospheric color

Color is influenced by the various colors and light resources in a color-rich environment.

auteur

Literally, the “author” of the film. Auteur film criticism holds that certain directors provide the controlling vision for their films, conceiving the idea for the story, writing the script, producing, directing, and closely supervising most other steps in the filmmaking process.

blue-screen process

A special visual effects film technique by which actors who are photographed in front of a blue (or green) screen can later be inserted into various movie environments; a kind of matte shot.

caricature

The exaggeration or distortion of one or more personality traits; a technique common in cartooning.

cinéma vérité

“The term means ‘camera truth’ in French and applies to documentary films which strive for immediacy, spontaneity, and authenticity through the use of portable and unobtrusive equipment and the avoidance of any preconceived narrative line or concepts concerning the material.… A distinctive technique … is the filmmaker questioning and probing those interviewed” (Ira Konigsberg, The Complete Film Dictionary, 2nd ed. [New York: Penguin, 1997], p. 57).

Cinemascope

The widescreen is known by many trade names such as Cinemascope, Panavision, and Vistavision, a screen whose width varies from 1.66 to 1.85 to 2.35 to 2.55 times its height (as compared with the standard 1.33 times).

cinematic point of view

Essentially, there are four points of view that may be employed in a film: director’s interpretive, indirect-subjective, objective, and subjective.

director’s interpretive

Using the special techniques of the medium, the director manipulates us so that we see the action or the character in the way the director interprets them.

indirect-subjective

A viewpoint that brings us close to the action and increases our involvement. It provides us with the feeling and sense of immediacy of participating in the action without showing the action through a participant’s eyes.

objective

The viewpoint of a sideline observer, which suggests an emotional distance between camera and subject. The camera seems simply to be recording, as straightforwardly as possible, the characters and the actions of the story.

subjective

The viewpoint of a character participating in the action.

climax

The point in a story at which the complication reaches its maximum tension and the forces in opposition confront each other at a peak of physical or emotional action.

close-up

A close shot of a person or object; a close-up of a person generally focuses on the face only.

color

A purely human perception of a radiant energy creating a visual quality distinct from light and shade.

color palette

A limited number of specific colors used or emphasized throughout a film to subtly communicate various aspects of character and story.

color wheel

A standard reference device that artists use to clarify the relationships that exist between primary and secondary hues.

complementary harmony

The effect created by colors directly opposite each other on the integrated color wheel. Such colors react most vividly with each other, as in the case of red and green.

complication

The section of a story in which a conflict begins and grows in clarity, intensity, and importance.

computer-generated images (CGI)

Visual images that are created exclusively by computer commands rather than by standard live photography or stop-motion animation. This method has been widely used in many types of films, but only during the 1990s did entirely CGI features such as Toy Story and A Bug’s Life appear.

cool colors

Colors that seem to convey or suggest a cool temperature: blues, greens, and beiges.

cross cutting

Shots that quickly alternate back and forth between two actions taking place at separate locations create the impression that the two actions are occurring simultaneously and will possibly converge. (Also called parallel cutting and intercutting.)

dailies

Unedited footage of a day’s shooting that the director evaluates for possible inclusion in the final version of a film.

day-for-night

Filming technique sometimes used by makers of silent movies. Because film stock was too slow for night shooting, daylight footage was underexposed to simulate night scenes.

dead screen

A frame in which there is little or no dramatically or aesthetically interesting visual information.

dead track

The complete absence of sound on the soundtrack.

deep focus

Special lenses allow the camera to focus simultaneously and with equal clarity on objects anywhere from two feet to several hundred feet away.

dénouement

A brief period of calm following the climax, in which a state of relative equilibrium returns.

desaturated color

A color of lowered intensity or value. A color is desaturated by being made lighter or darker than its normal value.

developing or dynamic characters

Characters who are deeply affected by the action of the plot and who undergo some important change in personality, attitude, or outlook on life as a result of the action of the film.

diegetic sound

Any sounds that emanate from within a film’s own world—either as evidenced on-screen or off. This term is often used to identify music (versus an extraneous soundtrack) that is clearly being played live or produced electronically in a narrative’s identifiable environment.

direct cinema

A type of documentary that developed in America during the1960s and was given this name by filmmaker Albert Maysles to suggest its direct, immediate, and authentic approach to the subject matter. A planned narrative and approach are avoided.… Events seem recorded exactly as they happened without rehearsal and with minimal editing. People are allowed to speak without guidance or interruption.… The zoom lens focuses directly on subjects, waiting for them to expose themselves.… Direct cinema and cinéma vérité, which developed in France at the same time and employs many of the same techniques and … equipment, have been confused …, but cinéma vérité is quite distinct, with the filmmaker’s voice intruding into the film, interviewing and probing the subject with questions in order to elicit the truth and create the dramatic exposure and situation” (Konigsberg, p. 96).

director’s cut

A special version of a motion picture that differs from its theatrical-release form. It most often appears on videocassette, laserdisc, or DVD under the personal supervision of its director, whose right of final edit may originally have been superseded by the film’s producers or studio.

dissolve

The gradual merging of the end of one shot with the beginning of the next, produced by superimposing a fade-out onto a fade-in of equal length or by imposing one scene over another.

Dolby-Surround Sound

A multitrack stereophonic system for theaters that employs an encoding process to achieve a 360-degree sound field—thus creating the effect of more speakers than are actually present.

dramatic acting

Acting that requires emotional and psychological depth, usually involving sustained, intense dialogue without physical action.

dramatic or objective

A viewpoint wherein we are not conscious of a narrator, for the author does not comment on the action but simply describes the scene, telling us what happens and what the characters say, so we get a feeling of being there, observing the scene as we would in a play.

ensemble acting

A performance by a group of actors whose roles are of equal importance.

establishing shot

A beginning shot of a new scene that shows an overall view of the new setting and the relative position of the actors in that setting.

exposition

The part of a story that introduces the characters, shows some of their interrelationships, and places them within a believable time and place.

expressionism

A dramatic or cinematic technique that attempts to present the inner reality of a character. In film, there is usually a distortion or exaggeration of normal perception to let the audience know that it is experiencing a character’s innermost feelings.

external conflict

A personal and individual struggle between the central character and another character or between the central character and some nonhuman force such as fate, society, or nature.

extrinsic metaphor

A brief comparison that helps us understand or perceive one image better because of its similarity to another image, usually achieved through the editorial juxtaposition of two images in two successive shots. Two types of visual metaphors are commonly used in films: extrinsic and intrinsic.

extrinsic metaphor

A metaphor that has no place within the context of the scene itself but is imposed artificially into the scene by the director.

intrinsic metaphor

A metaphor found within the natural context of the scene itself.

eye-line shot

A shot that shows us what a character is seeing.

fade-out/fade-in

A transitional device in which the last image of one scene fades to black as the first image of the next scene is gradually illuminated.

fast motion

The frantic, herky-jerky movement that results when a scene is filmed at less-than-normal speed (24 frames per second) and then projected at normal speed.

film noir

“A term coined by French critics to describe a type of film that is characterized by its dark, somber tone and cynical, pessimistic mood. Literally meaning ‘dark (or “black”) film,’ the term … was coined to describe those Hollywood films of the ’40s and early ’50s which portrayed the dark and gloomy underworld of crime and corruption.… The film noir characteristically abounds with night scenes, both interior and exterior, with sets that suggest dingy realism, and with lighting that emphasizes deep shadows and accents the mood of fatalism” (Ephraim Katz, The Film Encyclopedia, 3rd ed. [New York: HarperPerennial, 1998], p. 456). Neo-film noir refers to any film made after the mid-1960s that attempts to replicate many of these characteristics.

final cut

A film in its finished form. A guarantee of the final cut assures the filmmaker or producer that the film will not be tampered with after he or she approves it.

first-person

An eyewitness gives a firsthand account of what happened aswell as his or her response to it.

fish-eye lens

A special type of extreme wide-angle lens that bends both horizontal and vertical planes and distorts depth relationships.

fixed-frame movement

The camera remains in a fixed position, pointing at a single spot, as one might look at something with a frozen stare. The director creates variety in the shot by moving the subject within the frame.

flash cuts

Fragmented bursts of images used to compress action.

flashback

A filmed sequence that goes back in time to provide expository material—either when it is most dramatically appropriate and powerful or when it most effectively illuminates the theme.

flash-forward

A filmed sequence that moves forward in time—the visual scene jumps from the present into the future.

flat characters

Two-dimensional, predictable characters who lack the complexity and unique qualities associated with psychological depth.

flip frame

A transitional device in which the entire frame seems to flip over to reveal a new scene—an effect very similar to turning a page.

foils

Contrasting characters whose behavior, attitudes, opinions, lifestyle, physical appearance, and so on are opposites and thus serve clearly to define their personalities.

Foley artist

A film sound technician who is responsible for adding visible sounds (such as walking, fighting, or falling) to enhance a soundtrack after the primary production has been completed.

forced perspective

A production design technique that physically distorts certain aspects of the set and diminishes the size of objects and people in the background to create the illusion of greater foreground-to-background distance.

form cut

A transition accomplished by framing objects or images of similar contour in two successive shots, so that the first image flows smoothly into the second.

freeze frame

An effect, achieved in the laboratory after the film is shot, whereby a frame is reprinted so many times on the film strip that when the film is shown, the motion seems to stop as though frozen.

generalized score

A musical score that attempts to capture the overall emotional atmosphere of a sequence and the film as a whole, usually by using rhythmic and emotive variations on only a few recurring motifs or themes.

genre film

A motion picture (such as a western, a gangster film, a musical, or a film noir) that plays on the expectation of the audience regarding familiar plot structures, characters, setting, and so on. More broadly, the terms genre and subgenre are used to refer to various film types.

glancing rhythms

The built-in sense of excitement or boredom created by fast or slow editing. Slow editing simulates the glancing rhythms of a tranquil observer; quick cutting simulates the glancing rhythms of a highly excited observer.

glass shot

A cinematic technique that involves photographing live action through a scene painted on glass. In such celebrated films as Gone With the Wind and Ben-Hur, glass shots have been used to integrate characters and stories into landscapes that would have been either impossible or too costly to construct in three-dimensional form. Increasingly, CGI techniques are being used to enhance or replace glass shots in contemporary filmmaking.

high-angle shot

A shot made with the camera above eye level, thereby dwarfing the subject and diminishing its importance.

high-key lighting

Lighting that results in more light areas than shadows; subjects are seen in middle grays and highlights, with little contrast.

hue

A synonym for color

impersonators

Actors who have the talent to leave their real identity and personality behind and assume the personality and characteristics of a character with whom they may have little in common.

in medias res

A Latin phrase meaning “in the middle of things” that refers to a method of beginning a story with an exciting incident that, chronologically, occurs after the complication has developed.

inside/out editing

A dynamic editing pattern in which the editor takes us suddenly from a line of action that we understand to a close-up of a detail in a new setting. Because this detail is not shown in the context of a setting, wedon’t know where we are or what is happening. Then, in a series of related shots, the editor backs us off from the close-up to reveal the detail in relationship to its surroundings.

internal conflict

A psychological conflict within the central character. The primary struggle is between different aspects of a single personality.

interpreters

Actors who play characters that closely resemble themselves in personality and physical appearance and who interpret these parts dramatically without wholly losing their own identity. Also called commentators.

invisible sound

Sound emanating from a source not on the screen.

irony

A literary, dramatic, and cinematic technique involving the juxtaposition or linking of opposites.

jump cut

The elimination of a strip of insignificant or unnecessary action from a continuous shot. The term also refers to a disconcerting joining of two shots that do not match in action and continuity.

leitmotif

The repetition of a single phrase or idea by a character until it becomes almost a trademark for that character. In music, the repetition of a single musical theme to announce the reappearance of a certain character.

letterboxing

The use of black bands at the top and bottom of the frame when wide-screen films are shown on a standard-ratio video surface.

literary point of view

There are five viewpoints employed in literature: dramatic or objective, first person, omniscient narrator/third person, stream of consciousness or interior monologue, and third-person selective or limited.

dramatic or objective viewpoint

A viewpoint wherein we are not conscious of a narrator, for the author does not comment on the action but simply describes the scene, telling us what happens and what the characters say, so we get a feeling of being there, observing the scene as we would in a play.

first person viewpoint

An eyewitness gives a firsthand account of what happened as well as his or her response to it.

omniscient narrator, third person viewpoint

An all-seeing, all-knowing narrator, capable of reading the thoughts of all the characters and capable of being in several places at once if need be, tells the story.

stream of consciousness or interior monologue viewpoint

A third-person narrative that seems to incorporate the first-person form, although the participant in the action is not consciously telling the story. It is a unique inner view, as though a microphone and movie camera in the character’s mind were recording every thought, image, and impression that passes through, without the conscious acts of organization, selectivity, or narration.

third-person selective or limited viewpoint

The narrator is omniscient except for the fact that his or her powers of mind reading are limited to or at least focused on a single character, who becomes the central figure through whom we view the action.

live screen

A frame packed with dramatically or aesthetically interesting visual information, usually with some form of motion incorporated into the composition.

local color

Color seen in isolation from other colors in a totally white environment illuminated by a perfectly white light.

long shot

A shot, taken from some distance, that usually shows the subject aswell as its surroundings.

look of outward regard

An objective shot that shows a character looking off-screen and thereby cues us to wonder what the character is looking at.

low-angle shot

A shot made with the camera below eye level, thereby exaggerating the size and importance of the subject.