FILM TV 122B STUDY GUIDE FOR MIDTERM 1

The Art of Film
The first Important film directors and their films.
Le Prince - “Roundhay Garden Scene” and “Leeds Bridge” (1888). This film is an incomplete “Actuality” showing Le Prince’s family in the back yard of their home. It is not a narrative and the event lasts only briefly.
The types of shots and camera angles. (Lecture and Giannetti)
Camera Angles
• Shot Size
• Camera Orientation
Shot Size Designations
• Long shot
• Medium shot
• Close-up
Realism, Classicism, and Formalism. (Lecture and Giannetti)
Realism
Realism is a style that emphasizes documentary truth with minimal image manipulation. The illusion of an objective photographic world is maintained. Subject matter - the objective world, real people stories based on real experience. Technique - little or no photographic or editorial manipulation, naturalistic performances. Examples – The Edison and Lumière films. Linklatter’s, Before Midnight. Mike Leigh’s, Another Year.
Formalism
Formalism is a style that emphasizes abstract truths through image manipulation. With formalism, the filmmaker creates a subjective world expressing spiritual, intellectual and/or psychological truths. Subject matter - a fantasy world, professional actors, stories based not dependent on the real world. Technique - Greatly stylized through editing, performance, production design and photographic manipulation (visual effects.) Examples - Georges Méliès film, A Trip to the Moon. James Cameron’s, Avatar
Classicism
Classicism is a style that merges realism and formalism. It grew to become the dominant style of the Hollywood Studio System. The goal of classicism was and is to use whatever is useful to tell a good story. Subject matter – Real and fantastic worlds depending on what the narrative requires. Technique – Generally realistic but with elements of fantasy. Usually seen in films that are essentially realistic but might have a surreal dream sequence. Examples - Porter’s, Great Train Robbery and David Fincher’s, The Social Network
Montage and Mise en scene.
A style of filmmaking that places importance on the way the shots are cut together in order to create meaning. In other words, meaning is created through editing. Montage is usually more suited to Formalism.
There are many definitions for Mise-en-scène. The word is French for “putting on the scene”. However, it is most often used to describe a filmmaking style where meaning is created by utilizing the elements within the shot or scene itself rather than by editing together separate shots. Hence, mise-en-scène directors usually emphasize long takes, careful blocking of actors, performance, costumes, production design and elaborate camera movements. Usually more suited to Realism but not exclusively
Invisibility and Self-reflexivity.
The goal here is to hide from the audience the techniques that go into the filmmaking process. Therefore, the illusion that the film is happening just before our eyes is maintained.
When a filmmaker wants to emphasize the artificiality of the filmmaking process, to create a distance between the film and the audience, or even to remind the audience that they are watching a fictional world, a construction, and not reality, self-reflexivity is at work.
The three arts of film art.
Art as pleasure and entertainment (beauty and play). • Art as individual expression (the “Romantic ideal” of heart and mind intersecting). • Art as knowledge and understanding (telling truths about the human condition)
Goals of the Artist.
• To take elements from the quotidian world and rearrange them in a form that creates New meaning: an important human response to the Entropy of the universe. • To create unity among disparate elements. • To create an expressive work greater than the sum of its parts. • And yet, as another purpose...to constantly question the assumptions of the first three. In this way, art is revolutionary, a way of questioning all of the received wisdom and cultural assumptions that we use to understand and operate in our world
The Studio System
The beginnings of the Studio System.
Paramount began a steady climb in 1940, finally edging past MGM two years later;
Big five: 1.Warner Bros. Pictures , 2.MGm
3.RKO 4.Paramount 5. 20century fox

The Three Systems of the Studio System.
A System of Business
A System of Genres
A System of Stars
Types of film genres.
Drama/ Historical Epics/ Westerns /Crime films/ Musicals /Comedies /Adventures /War /Horror /Science Fiction

Stages of Genre.

The Production Code, what was it?
Censorship – The Production Code. The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA) first introduced The Production Code in 1922. The Production Code was created for the purpose of regulating the “moral” content of Studio Films. By accepting the responsibility for self-regulation, the code was a preemptive strategy designed to discourage the government from imposing legal restrictions on film content. Compliance among the studios progressively weakened throughout the 1920’s. Alarmed by the complaints of local censorship boards, the code was formally adopted and institutionalized in 1930. This meant that newspapers would not advertise films without the code seal and the theaters would not risk showing such films
The Golden Age of the Studio System, why was it a Golden Age?
Classical Hollywood cinema or the classical Hollywood narrative,[1] From the '30s to the late '50s t, This period is often referred to as the "golden age of Hollywood".
The Hollywood studio system created by these five major film studios. During the years of film production, studios would invest a great deal of money to recruit, groom, and then sign to contracts those starts who possessed the greatest talent potential. This method of self development came to be known as the “star system”

• 1927 - 1948 until the Paramount Decision and the growth of TV ended it. A time of great artistic, technological, and corporate growth. • A unique era when cultural, societal, economic and technological currents coalesced. • Profitability – During the Studio Era, the major Studios produced 60% of all films made and collected approximately 95% of all film rental revenues.
The collapse of the Studio System, what caused it?
• The Paramount Decision of 1948. • Television – the growth of the new entertainment medium. • Family Life and free time – the return of WWII veterans, marriage, family, and suburban life. The Baby Boom, and the development of the Middle-class. The economic boom of the 1950’s. • Growing independence of Stars – The Lew Wasserman – James Stewart strategy. (See below) • Studio overhead increasing as ticket sales began their inexorable decline during the 1950’s and 1960’s.
The Legacy of the Studio System.
• Industrial Model of Production continues.
• The importance of Stars and Genres continues.
• The majors (now large corporate entities) are still all powerful in production and distribution. • Global influence on other national cinemas.
Screenplay
What is a story?
At the most simple level, a story only requires the narration of a series of events and actions in their chronological order.
Elements of Narrative Fiction
Primary Elements of Narrative
Plot
Character
Theme
Secondary Elements of Narrative
Point of view
Setting
Style
Cinematic elements are derived from?

Dramatic Structure and Freytag’s Triangle

The Four Conflicts o Person in conflict with a Higher power or force o Person in conflict with Another person or society o Person in conflict with Nature o Person in conflict with Self
What are the two kinds of narrative plots?
Plots fall into two categories, Progressive or Episodic
Cinematography
What is the cinematographer’s job? (Lecture and Giannetti) o To visualize a director’s ideas through cinematography. o Manage the Camera, Lighting, and Grip departments. o Responsible for all the cinematography of a production.
What is an aspect ratio? (Lecture and Giannetti) (Lecture and Giannetti)
The aspect ratio is the proportion between the width and the height of a picture. It is often expressed in the W:H format, where W is the width and H the height. For example, a 16:9 aspect ratio means that for a width of 16 units, the height must be 9 units.
What are the effects of different focal lengths of lenses?
Wide-angle lenses pull space in from the sides and push objects away from the camera. Distance expands. Long lenses compress distances and bring objects closer to camera.
Tight (Closed) versus Loose(Open) framing (Lecture and Giannetti)
Tight Framing: The mise en scene is so carefully balanced and harmonized that the people photographed have little or no freedom of movement. Often characters are placed at the edges of the frame, giving the illusion that they are "trapped" by it.
Loose Framing: The mise en scene in so spaciously distributed within the confines of the framed image that the people photographed have considerable freedom of movement.
What is Hollywood three-point lighting? key light- main source of light, creating dominant contrast 45/45 degree position

fill light- less intense, placed opposite key light-next to camera. they illuminate areas that would otherwise be observed by a shadow

backlights- used to separate the foreground elements(actors and other objects) from the background(setting, emphasizing a sense of depth)
Elements of Composition and Design (Giannetti) line, shape, form , color, texture, composition, unity, coherence, balance, positive vs negative space, rhythm, proportion
Composition - the arrangement of visual elements within the frame.
Framing - The Frame-Reframe dynamic.
What are the three points of view? objective- camera angles are from the audience point of view, not from pov of character within the film

subjective- camera angles are situated from a personal viewpoint, camera represents the "eyes of a character within the film" - may use the "shaky" effect

indirect/subjective- appears to be objective shots of a scene taken from the approximate position of an actor's viewpoint, over the shoulder (point of view shot)
Lighting styles and mood. low key- a dark and moody lighting style that places emphasis on the shadows in the scene, tends to be high in contrast in terms of scene luminance range

high key- lighting bright in mood and low in contrast, highly contrasting colors can be present in an art direction

graduated tonality- lighting with a luminance range wide enough to include many distinct gradations between black and white
Relationship between Form and Content (Giannetti)
The form of a shot(the way the subject is photographed) is its true content, not necessarily what the subject is perceived to be in reality.
The emotional and narrative effects of Black and White (Giannetti) black and white photography in a color film is used for symbolic purposes

original black and white have predetermined meaning (according to director), when it is changed to color, the meaning could be changed
Direction
What is the production process? shooting the scene:

block- rough in lighting, block actor movement, block camera movement, evaluate action

light- light stand-ins for principle actors, rehearse camera movements

rehearse- team actors rehearse, assistant camera/dolly grips set marks electricians/grips make final tweaks

shoot- roll sound, roll camera, slate, action begins, cut by director, final appraisal • Block 1. Rough in the lighting. 2. Block actor movement. 3. Block camera movement. 4. Evaluate the action. How much movement? Any equipment needs and/or set changes that need to be addressed? What kind of coverage (what kind of shorts will be needed for editing)? Plan for placement of the sound boom and microphone.
• Light 1. Light the stand-ins for the principal actors. 2. Rehearse camera and dolly moves it terms of lighting and grip requirements. Camera, lighting sound and grip departments must know what to expect.
• Rehearse 1. First team actors do their final rehearsals. 2. Assistant Camera and Dolly Grip set marks. 3. Electricians and grips “tweak” (make small adjustments). • Shoot (the take) 1. Roll Sound. 2. Roll Camera. 3. Slate. 4. Action begins. 5. Cut by director. 6. Final appraisal, “was it a good take?”
What is the Auteur theory a theory of film popularized by the critics of the french journal Cahiers du Cinema in the 1950s, The theory emphasizes the director as the major creator of film art, stamping the material with his/her own personal vision, style, and thematic obsessions

director's status is the same as an author's(primary driving force)

How does a director’s world-view affect his or her style, and what is a world-view?
World views help directors find expression in everything from styles of acting, to cinematography, editing, music, and production design

can use their own endeavors /experiences to gain wisdom on world views- not trying to impose a message on audience, but rather show audience from personal experience
Who was Andre Bazin?
A 1930s film critic that came up with the Auteur theory. He believed in the evolution of cinema and was the editor of Cahiers du Cinema(sharp opposition of formalists through aesthetics of film).

Believed in mise en scene as vital parts of film, editing interferes with what is actually there in the picture
André Bazin was a renowned and influential French film critic and film theorist.
(See Auteur Theory)
How might different directors deal with the materiality of film?
Must design a style to suit the material- directors must find a style that best fits the story and genre- de-emphasizes personal styles

must design a material to suit personal style- directors make films with stylistic consistency regardless of subject or genre (create personal worlds- at extreme end, you can identify a director's world through one image)
World views help directors find expression in everything from styles of acting, to cinematography, editing, music, and production design

can use their own endeavors /experiences to gain wisdom on world views- not trying to impose a message on audience, but rather show audience from personal experience