Introduction to Arts
Film and Film Studies
“Is Film an
Art?”
• “Is film an art?” - a frequently asked question
Reasons
• Film started as a mechanical recording of reality.
Technological rather than aesthetic and artistic.
“Is Film an Art?”
• Films - a form of mass
entertainment. Sensational,
vulgar, commercial, tasteless,
plebeian …
• A new conception of art
which is free from class and
cultural binds
• The scope of art widens
• Changes in attitudes over the
time
• Art is no longer Art with the
capital A.
“Is Film an Art?”
• Transformation of attitudes towards arts
• Art does not have to be aesthetic (beautiful).
• Bernini’s Trevi Fountains sculpture and Marcel
Duchamp’s Fountain
“Is Film an Art?”
• Technology itself can be a medium of art
• Claude’ landscape painting with temples
• Vladimir Tatlin’s Monument to the Third
International
“Is Film an Art?”
• Constructivism (Russia) – an artistic and
architectural philosophy in which industrial and
practical products are considered as works of art.
• Influenced Bauhaus (Germany) and De Stijl
(Holland)
“Is Film an Art?”
• Mechanical representation can be art
• Photography
• James Abbott’s Mrs. McNeil Whistler and Robert
Mapple Thorpe’s Portrait
“Is Film an Art?”
• Art does not have to be precious and aristocratic.
• Materials of art
• Gold mosaics (St. Theodora in Ravenna) and
Robert Rauschenberg’s Monogram
“Is Film an Art?”
• Artistic subject or motif does not have to be noble or
aristocratic.
• Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I (anonymous) and
Andy Warhol’s images of Marilyn Monroe
“Is Film an Art?”
• Art can rely on popular cultural form;
art can be pop
• John Everett Millet’s Ophelia and Roy
Lichtenstein’s pop art (comic strips)
Film as Total Art
• Every artistic medium and every artistic form
found in film
• Literature: verbal – fiction - narrative
• Fine art: visual - painting, sculpture,
photography, design – shape, image, colour
• Architecture: visual - building, decoration –
design, shape, weight
• Music: sound (visual) – song, instrumental,
opera, musical
• Theatre (verbal, visual, sound) – performance
Film and Literature
• Every film tells a story
- Film is based on a script. Some scripts are based
on literary work – fiction and non-fiction.
• J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the film, Harry
Potter
Literature – written
work
Movie script – written
work
Film and Drawing
• Elements of fine art in film
- Production design: sets, costume, composition,
visual effects
• Story boards in Alfred Hitchcock’s Birds
• Frames must be composed like a painting
• In Luchino Visconti’s La terra trema each frame
is constructed like a piece of painting.
• Symmetrical composition; illusion of depth,
composed of foreground, middle ground and
background, and linear perspective.
Film and Painting
Triangular
composition in
painting
Triangular composition in cinema, La Terrra trema
Film and Painting
Linear perspectives in paintings
Perspectival composition in cinema, La Terra trema
Film and
Painting
• In La terra trema, a young man is holding his
younger brother like Madonna is carrying her
young Jesus.
• Painterly composition
Michelangelo’s Pieta and Roberto Rossellini’s
Rome Open City
Film and Painting
• Sets are designed being inspired by or imitating a
painting
- Production design: sets, visual effects
• Building in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis modeled after
Brueghel’s painting of Tower of Babel.
Film and Art Design
• Art designer (production designer) designs sets
by employing visual imagination similar to
painters and architect, and often creates them in
collaboration with artists, engineers, carpenters
and other art assistants
Film and Art
Design (Gare du
Nord) by
Alexandre
Trauner
Film and Art
Design (Les
Visiteurs du
soir) by
Alexandre
Trauner
Film and Art
Design (Les
Enfants du
paradis) by
Alexandre
Trauner
Film and Design
• Eiko Ishioka, designer, art director
• Designs costumes and sets for various films
• Best known for her costume design for Paul
Schrader’s Mishima, Bram Storker’s Dracula, The
Cell and Beijing Olympic’s Opening Ceremony
Film and Design
• Sarsem Singh’s The Fall (2006) with costumes
designed by Eiko Ishioka
Film and Design
• Francis Ford
Coppola’s Dracula
(1992)
Film and
Design
• Sets, costumes, make-ups, wigs and props were
meticulously recreated in the styles of the
Risorgimento (Re-unification) period (19th C) in
Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard (1963)
Film and Architecture
• Set is designed after existing architecture or
originally designed.
• Mayan pyramid and the headquarter building of
Tyrell Corporation in Ridley Scott’s Blader
Runner
Film and
Architecture
• G.W. Griffith’s spectacle, Intolerance designed
by Griffith with the help of Walter L. Hall.
• Huge set of City of Babylon was created
modeling after historical buildings and edifices.
Film and Architecture
• Classic,
neoclassic, and
neo-gothic
architecture
inspired
Intolerance
• Il Vittoriano at
Piazza Venezia
in Rome
Film and
Architecture
• In Kurosawa Akira’s Rashomon, the first and last
scenes take place under the impressive, halfruined gate, which is reconstructed modeling
after various existing gates such as Hozomon,
Kaminarimon and Ninomon of the Edo Castle.
Film and Architecture
• Hozomon of Sensoji Temple, Asakusa, Tokyo
Film and Architecture
• Otemon of the Edo Castle
Film and Music
• Music and sound effects became an essential part of
the film since the introduction of sound in 1928
• Joseph Losey’s Don Giovanni is a film version of
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera and designed
by Alexandre Trauner.
Film and Music
• Musical is one of the
most important film
genres
• Consisted of multiple
forms of arts, music,
song and dance
• Stanley Donen,
Singin’ in the Rain
How is cinema different from
other forms of arts?
• Film is a mechanical and
industrial product.
 mechanical technologies camera, light, film stock, sound
recorder, film processing, editing,
sound mixing, CG, projector
How is cinema different
from other forms of arts?
Lighting set up in location shooting
How is cinema
different from
other forms of arts?
Recording
equipment: sound
recorder and
microphones
How is cinema different from other forms of arts?
A camera on a dolly
How is cinema different from other forms of arts?
• François Truffaut’s Day for Night is about
filmmaking Meet Pamela
How is cinema different from other forms of arts?
•  industrial - production, distribution and
exhibition, advertisement
Production companies, studios, distributors, and
exhibitors, advertise agents - investment
How is cinema different from
other forms of arts?
• Film is collaborative art
•  producer, director, scriptwriter,
cinematographer, production designer, set
designer, costume designer, editor, music
composer, recording engineer, actor
What is cinema?
• How is film different from other forms of art?
• LITERATURE AND FILM
• The crucially important element of both is
narrative, but film has visual images and sound.
• FINE ART AND FILM
• Both are visual but film can tell much more
complicated stories without relying on the
knowledge of the spectator.
What is cinema?
• A painting can tell a story but not complicated one.
It depends on a separate text which tells the story.
• Leonardo Davinci, The Last Supper which relies on
The Old Testament
What is cinema?
• John Everett Milais’ Ophelia
What is cinema?
• Music and film share sound but the latter
combines it with visuals and words.
• Drama/opera/musical are similar to film, but
the latter can tell more complicated stories
more realistically.
• Film does not have to rely on words, the
essence of the theatre, which is the major
difference between film and the theatre.
• Film can tell stories through images and
sounds.
What is cinema?
• Pure cinema (Alfred Hitchcock) – stories must be
told with no or few words by using camera, editing,
music and sound, which is impossible in any other
medium of arts.
What is cinema?
• Fritz Lang’s M
• The film is about crimes committed by a serial
child-killer. Stories are partly told through
images and sounds. We do not see the killer but
hears the tune he whistle and his casual
conversation with a girl. M 3.00
What is cinema?
• Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo
• A former cop who suffers from acrophobia cannot
save a woman from committing suicide. Vertigo
prevents him to climb up the stairs fast enough.
What is cinema?
• Nearly 30 minutes
robbery sequence is told
only through sounds and
images without words.
• Sounds and images tell a
lot about actions.
• Suspense created better
without words
• Jean-Pierre Le Cercle
rouge(1970)
What is cinema?
• Louis Malle’s Ascenseur
pour l’echafaud
• Thriller about a married
woman and her lover who
almost succeed in getting rid
of her husband in a
supposedly perfect crime, but
he commits a vital mistake.
• A story is told through
images and sound.
What is cinema?
• What is cinema good at
• Cinema can tell stories through not one medium words, images, sounds, but all these media.
What is cinema?
• What disadvantages does cinema has?
• Those media must be skillfully combined.
Special talents excelling in more than one areas
and controlling every aspect and stage of
filmmaking are required . The importance of film
director.
What is cinema?
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Cinema as investment and commodity.
Cost - Return
Entertainment, commercial values required.
Is cinema a commercial product or art?
Three kinds:
1. Commercial products - Hollywood and large
commercial production companies
2. Artistic products - works of independent
producers and directors, works made with public
support
3. Both
What is film studies?
• What film studies does.
• Analysis of artistic elements involved - narrative,
visual, plastic, and sound element (literary, visual
art, sculptural, architectural, and musical element)
• Analysis of industrial and commercial aspects.
• Explore what a film shows - its theme, motif, and
background
• Explore how that is shown - narrative, visual,
sound and other technique
What is film studies?
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Analysis of technique:
Narrative technique - how to tell a story
Sound technique
- sound editing and mixing
Visual technique
- camera (choice of lens, filter and camera, positioning,
movement, angle), lighting, colour arrangement
- design (set, prop, costume)
- performance
- editing
Essay Title
• Watch a film and analyse its non-verbal
elements. In your analysis you must find in
what ways those non-verbal elements
contribute to the development of stories and
atmosphere.