Introduction to Film as Communication

Cinema of Outsiders: From Sirk to the Coen Brothers

Course Requirements and Rules

• jennystark.com

Narrative Films

• In this class we will be watching Narrative Films

• What Does that mean?

• What are some examples of Non-Narrative Films?

Studying Film

• What aspect of Narrative film makes it difficult to study it?

• Why study film?

Andre Bazin

• Cahiers du cinema (ka hee ay doo Cinema)

• Cinema of Reality

• Italian Neo-Realism and Jean Renoir

• Orson Welles

• Reaction to Eisenstein’s Montage Modern Example

• Page 21

Cinema of Reality

• Emphasis on mise en scène

• Long Takes

•Deep Focus

Film Language and Terminology Villarejo (ch 2)

• shot

• edit

• sequence

• dissolve

Mise en scène• theatrical process of staging

• to “put into the scene

Setting

• set and props

• Location vs. Sound Stage

• lighting

• costume

• hair

• make-up

• figure behavior

Lighting

• chiaroscuro (bold contrasts between light and dark)

• Also known as Low Key Lighting

• Used in Film Noir

Costume, Hair and Make-up

• Genre

• Usually goes unnoticed in narrative cinema for the sake of naturalism

Figure Behavior

• only the movement, expressions, or actions of the actors or figures

• Only within a given shot

• A close study of performance relates too closely to the writing and directing to really be an element of the mise en scène.

• Try to notice the placement of Sean Penn in the shot rather than the performance. (Difficult to do)

Cinematography

• To notice any part of the mise en scene one must take the cinematography into account

• Everything onscreen must be recorded by a camera

• some elements are included and some are excluded

Framing (page 38 villarejo)

• ELS

• LS

• MLS

• MS

• MCU

• CU

• ECU

Depth of Field

• Page 39 Citizen Kane 1941

• aperture

• distance from the lens

• focal length of lens

Camera Movements

• panning

• tilting

• dollying

• tracking

• craning

Editing

• cut

• dissolve

• fade-in

• fade-out

• wipe

match cutting

• eyeline match

• graphic match

• match on action

Kuleshov Effect (1920)

• Lev Kuleshov undertook a series experiments using film editing

• shots of actor Ivan Mozzhukhin were juxtaposed with other objects (plate of soup, a girl, a child’s coffin)

• Identical shots of the actor’s response, but audiences saw changes in his performance

Parallel Editing or Cross Cutting

• Commonly used to generate suspense

• “cross-cutting” is the visual equivalent of a “meanwhile”

Invisible Editing

• Eyeline Match

• 180 degree rule

Sound

• Diegetic

• Non-diegetic

Exposition

• is a technique by which background information about the characters, events, or setting is conveyed in a novel, play, movie or other work of fiction. This information can be presented through dialogue, description, flashbacks, or even directly through narrative.As exposition generally does not advance plot and may impede present-time action, it is usually best kept in short and succinct form, though in some genres, such as the mystery, exposition is central to the story structure itself. The alternative to exposition is to convey background information indirectly though action, which, though more dramatic, is more time consuming and less concise.

Questions

•What about the mise en scène stands out in this film and what does it communicate?

•How do the cinematographic elements of the film tie into its theme?

•Give two examples of exposition in the film and how it is communicated:

•Briefly describe any intellectual, political, aesthetic, or cultural response you have to the film.