FEA 299 Media Aesthetics Class Final Exam

pls pass me, jason gendler

Wes Anderson's Authorship

distinctive visual and narrative styles, and he is regarded by some critics as a modern-day example of the auteur

Wes Anderson - Narrative Qualities

* rustic charm
* character idiosyncrasies, organization skills
* excessive detail

Blend of Detached Amusement and Sincerity (The Grand Budapest Hotel)

* saying goodbye to the old lady (at the hotel and at her casket)
* Zero and Gustave reuniting after he escapes prison
* Kovac (Jeff Goldblum) being murdered by Jopling (Willem Dafoe)

Stylistic Qualities (Grand Budapest Hotel - Wes Anderson)

* mannered, deadpan performances
* colorful mise-en-scene
* references to other films
* careful pop music selections

Precise Mise-en-Scene (Grand Budapest Hotel)

Track changes in the hotel

Planimetric Framing (Grand Budapest Hotel)

Placing the camera perpendicular to the action

* creates many right angles, flat planes
* character conversation
* can make edges of the frame humorous

Lateral Tracking Shots

* reinforce planimetric framing

90/180 Pans/Tilts (Grand Budapest Hotel)

* reveal new portion of the space
* surprises
* humor

Balanced VS Unbalanced Images (Grand Budapest Hotel)

* compositions are usually balanced, symmetrical
* balanced achieved through right/left symmetry
* sometimes, balanced framing depicts disturbing stuff (fingers cuts off)
* unbalanced framing to indicate character feeling
* sometimes, unbalanced framing is just variation

Moments Where Patterns are Broken (Grand Budapest Hotel)

* Sometimes Anderson plays with our expectations
* Variations in style (usually) indicate narrative significance

Framing (Cinematography)

The position from which the camera films images

Aspect Ratio (Cinematography - Framing)

The ratio of frame width to frame height

Academy Ratio (1.37:1) (Cinematography - Framing - Aspect Ratio)

In Grand Budapest Hotel, aspect ratio changes with time period (1932 flashback: 1.37:1 - academy ratio)

1985 Frame Story (1.85:1) (Cinematography - Framing - Aspect Ratio)

Used to tell the story from the reader’s perspective

Anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) (Cinematography - Framing - Aspect Ratio)

Frame edges in anamorphic widescreen

Mobile Frame

The way in which the frame can move during the shot

Mobile Frame - Pan

Camera rotates side to side

Mobile Frame - Whip-pan

A very fast pan

Mobile Frame - Tilt

Camera swivels up-down

Mobile Frame - Tracking Shot

Camera moves along the ground (forward, backward, left, right)

Mobile Frame - Tracking Shot - Steadicam

Steadicam is more common and called either tracking or dolly shot

Mobile Frame - Tracking Shot - Handheld Shot

Camera is supported only by hands, body

Mobile Frame - Crane Shot

Camera moves above ground-level, rising or descending

Retrograde Zoom

Zoom Out + Track In (or vice versa)

Reframing

Slight camera movements to keep figures in a shot

Following Shot

Frame moves to follow a figure

Long Take

An unusually lengthy shot

* average shot length today: 3-6 seconds

Onscreen VS Off-screen Space

Off-screen Space:

* four edges of frame
* area behind the set
* area behind the camera
* contributing to unlikely/impossible action
* creates a whirlwind fighting technique

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Perceptual Subjectivity

Access to what a character sees or hears

* conveys his trauma, claustrophobia
* point-of-view shots/optical perspective
* distorted images/sounds for altered states (alcohol/drugs)
* sound perspective: we hear what the character hears

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Mental Subjectivity

We can hear or see a character’s thoughts

* dream sequences, voiceover narration, flashbacks
* increased access to mental subjectivity once Jean-Do opens his mind (freeing of the film’s style

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Image Distortion

Cinematography indicates optical perspective

We see characters’ external behavior and other events

* first objective view of Jean-Do

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Objective Imagery

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Patterns in Perceptual Subjectivity

Cinematography conveys difficulty of living with his condition

* conveys his lack of body control

**The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Patterns in Mental Subjectivity**

* brief glimpses
* more sustained sequences
* big burst for epiphany

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Flashbacks

The plot shows an event that happened earlier in the story

* longer indulgences in flashbacks
* being nostalgic
* new perspectives on a memory


* allows us to compare him pre- and post-stroke

Editing - Cut

Shot A instantaneously replaces Shot B

Editing - Fade-in/Fade-out

Fade-in: lightening from black to an image

Fade-out: darkening a shot to black

Editing - Dissolve

Shot A gradually replaces/is replaced by Shot B

Editing - Wipe

Shot B gradually replaces Shot A by moving across it

Graphic Relations Between Shots

The purely pictorial similarities/differences between two shots

Graphic Relations Between Shots - Graphic Match

The compositional qualities between two shots are very similar

* shapes
* colors
* overall
* composition

Graphic Relations Between Shots - Graphic Discontinuity

Adjacent shots contain drastic pictorial differences

Rhythmic Relations Between Shots

The length of shots in length to one another

* effects story tempo/pace

Spatial Relations Between Shots

* connected spaces often implied by separate images
* spatial wholes can be inferred from component parts

Spatial Relations Between Shots - Kuleshov Effect

Any series of shots which (in the absence of an establishing shot) prompts viewers to infer a spatial whole from only portions of the space

Spatial Relations Between Shots - Crosscutting

Alternating between two (or more) simultaneous lines of action

* Can create suspense, parallels

Temporal Relations Between Shots

Plot’s manipulation of story time (order, duration, frequency)

Temporal Relations Between Shots - Flashback

The plot shows an event that happened earlier in the story

Temporal Relations Between Shots - Flash-forward

Plot shows a future event, then returns to the present (rare)

Temporal Relations Between Shots - Ellipsis

The plot skips over a part of the story

* wipes or dissolves
* empty images before/after a cut
* cut away briefly to another event

Temporal Relations Between Shots - Montage Sequence

Condensing long periods of story time into brief screen time