film studies

Elements of a good story

Unified in plot, Credible, Interesting, Conflict,

Unified in plot

A continuous thread of action

Everything in the film has to serve a point to the story

Has to make sense (not always chronological)

Narrative vs character constant (no plot)

Character is more difficult cause people are more difficult

Credible

Externally, internally, artistically

External

Films about the way life really is (people are flawed: bad things happen to good people)

Internal

The way we want things to be (the good guys wins: love conquers all)

Desires on screen, live vicariously through characters

Artistic

A world created on screen that becomes immersive (star wars)

Emotion and theme behind it are human

Worldbuilding

Interesting

Catch and hold the interests of others

Shock value (not always likable: not always the point)

Conflict

Complex (not too complex to explain, what happens should be complicated)

External conflict

Human vs human

Human vs non-human

Internal conflict

Psychological

Good film is

simple and complex

Everything must be condensed within the film itself

Emotional material with restrain

Characterization

Characters help capture our interest in the film

Good characters dont have to be likeable

Characterization through appearance

Visually and instantaneously

We make assumptions based on characters appearance

External action

Social Network - Zuckerbeg's actions shows that he doesn't care

Other characters

Dramatic Foils, Caricature

Dramatic foils

Contrasting characters

Caricature

A distortion of one of the character's

features

Theme and focus:

Concepts and ideas, what is the film really about

5 elements of theme

Ideas, Plot, Emotional effect or mood, Character, Style or texture

Ideas

Action and characters in film have a greater significance beyond the context of the film itself

Helps to clarify an aspect of life/experience of the human condition

Idea is presented subtly and we are challenged to find an interpretation that we feel fits the whole movie

Categories of the ideas

Moral statements, The truth of human nature, Social problems, The struggle for human dignity, Complexity of human relationships, Coming of age

Moral statements

Intended to convince us of the wisdom or practicality of a moral principle

The truth of human nature

Films that move beyond character study where the characters stand for a bigger idea

Social problems

Films that expose social voices and criticize social instructions

The struggle for human dignity

Films that focus on the conflict between two sides of human nature

Complexity of human relationships

Films that focus on the problems, frustrations, and joys of human relationships, love, friendship, etc

Coming of age

Films where a character usually young goes through experiences that force them to mature

Moral or philosophical riddle

Saying something larger

Filmmaker attempts to suggest or mystify instead of communicating clearly

Plot

Genre (french for time/type)

Focus on plot

Ex. Adventure or detective movies

Macguffin

the thing in the film everyone cares about (like the gauntlet in Marvel)

Emotional effect or mood

It's possible to identify a single mood/emotion that prevails throughout the film

The way emotions are treated in the film comes across differently for viewers

Hardest to find sometimes

Character

Some focus through both action and dialogue

Main focus is for us to get to know them

Ex. Ladybird, Taxi Driver

About how they evolve and change throughout the movie

Mise-En-Scene

French term for "having been put into the scene"

Visual aspect within a shot

Refers to sets, costumes, props, position of actors, how the scene is organized, lighting, colors, sound, etc.

Based on the director's vision and the artists of the specific department

Largest specific elements of mise-en-scene

Setting

Props

Costume

Performance and movement

Lighting

Camera and camera movement

Sound

Narrative

Visual design

Color or black and white

Color theory

Aspect ratio

Production design

Immerses you into film with meaning

Refers to the decor of the set, how its dressed:

Props

Set construction

Painting

Furnishing

Setting

Includes everything that we see

Shows time and place

Can indicate character, feelings

Analysis of setting

Temporal factors - the time the film takes place in

Geographic factors - the physical location and its characteristics

Social structures and economic factors

Customs, moral attitudes, and codes of behavior

Has us consider how the environment has helped make characters who they are

Verisimilitude

the appearance of being real or true

Semblance of reality that gives us a sense of real time and a real feeling

To be convincing a setting should be authentic even in minor details

Emotional atmosphere

Setting can be used to create an emotional atmosphere

A lot of the time this is in sci-fi, horror, fantasy films

Suspension of disbelief

Accepting what's going on in the film and accepting it until it's over

Should be able to find meaning in the film if you believe it.

Sound and the modern film

Soundtrack of a film is made up of

Dialogue

Sound effects

music/musical score

Sound and audio terms

Ambient sounds, Dead screen, Dialogue, Visible and invisible sounds, Sound FX, Distortion of sound, Juxtaposition of sounds and images, Placing an unusual emphasis on sound, Sound as a transition element, Silence as a sound

Foley artist

Someone who makes sound effects

Can be made digitally or live

Ambient sounds

Environmental sounds

Ex. in a park hearing the wind and kids screaming and stuff

Dead screen

When it goes quiet

Absence of sound is just as important as sound

Dialogue

In film, dialogue doesn't need to be totally audible like it does in theater

Overlapping dialogue

Similar to the way in which people actually talk

Three dimensional sound

Visible sounds

Called diegetic sounds

Noises that would naturally and realistically show from the images on the screen

Ex. we see a radio and music playing from it

invisible sounds

Called non-diegetic sounds

Sounds coming from off the screen

Ex. when we hear a door closing but don't see it

Sound FX

Tell an inner story

Directors manipulate and distort sound for artistic ends

Putting us inside a character so that we can understand what they're feeling

Close up sounds

Something that is spotlit, something that specifically makes a sounds (fingers tapping, scraping)

Sonic dissonance

intensity of the sound isn't natural

Distortion of sound

Sounds can be distorted in order to suggest subjective states or emotional responses

Juxtaposition of sounds and images

Usually, picture and sound work together to carry a single set of impressions

It is occasionally effective, however, to create ironic contrasts between them

Placing an unusual emphasis on sound

A director who wishes to place some unusual emphasis on sound has several options

Dropping the image all together

Sound as a transition element

Sound can be used to show the relationship between shots, scenes, or sequences, or it can make a change in image from one shot or sequence to another seem more fluid or natural

A fluid transition between sequences is achieved through slight overlapping of sound from one shot to the next

Usually represents a passage of time, change or setting, or both

A similar effect is created by the converse - the sound of an upcoming sequence slightly precedes its corresponding image

Silence as a sound

Dead track is when the sound is silent

Dead screen is when the picture goes out

Non-continuity

Shots are mismatched to disrupt the impression of time and space

Edited out of order

Ex. Pulp Fiction, Eternal Sunshine, The Social Network

You notice the edits more

Continuity

Combining more or less related shots or different components cut from a single shot

Looks smooth

Linear

When a film keeps the story in order of beginning, middle, and end

Non-linear

When the film may start with the end and end with the beginning

The audience doesn't really know what order the film is going in

4 reasons to look at editing

Storytelling through editing

Editing for tension

Editing for action

Capturing emotional themes

Action editing v. chaos cinema

There's a difference between cohesive action editing, where you know where you are geographically in the scene and the movement on screen keeps the kinetics going forward and chaos cinema where the editing is what keeps the action going

Action cinema = afraid for character

Chaos cinema = afraid for us

Inside out editing

Learn info from the interior of the character/film to the outside

Start small go bigger

Outside in editing

Learn info from bigger something

Action editing vs. chaos editing pt. 2

Cohesive

Understand where we are geographically in the scene

Where the action is moving

Capturing emotional themes

Much like themes and sound design can be manipulated to make the audience feel something, so too can the images through the way the editing is constructed

Speaking the language of editing

Holding long and cutting short

Two main methods that actors use to make up believe their character

Outside in - when an actor uses their outward appearance to help figure out who they are

Inside out (stanisklaviski method) - begin with feeling and memory, which then affect your behavior

Star system

Action acting

great deal in the way of reactions, body, language