Film Art Summaries:
10-12; 21-23; 45;47-82;89-91;103-105; 389-394; 2-9; 13-20 – Katherine Rawlinson
– krawlins@fas
FILM ART SUMMARY
2-12; 13-23; 45;47-82;89-91;103-105; 389-394
Katherine Rawlinson – krawlins@fas
2-12
-
-
-
may appear like watching a movie is seeing moving images but are actually just
watching slightly different still images called FRAMES
so how does our mind help to make movies? With quirks in our visual systems!
o Critical flicker fusion: if the frequency of flashes of light is raised to the
threshold of “critical flicker fusion” it appears to us as a movie
o Apparent motion: if certain cells are tricked into sending the message that
motion is present, the stills appear to be moving
HOW IT all WORKS:
o CAMERA:
 The unexposed film from a reel is driven past a lense and aperture
to a take-up reel
 The lens focuses light onto each frame of film
 There is a brief pause while each frame is held in the aperture
 A shutter admits light (to go through the lens) only when each
frame is unmoving
o PRINTER:
 drives roll of film from a reel past an aperture to a take-up reel
 acts like a combined camera and projector
 Light beamed through aperture prints the image on the unexposed
film
 Contact printers: used for workprints, release prints, and
various special effects
 Optical printers: used for rephotographing camera images,
for special effects like freeze-frames
o PROJECTOR:
 Again, the film goes from the reel past the lens and aperture to a
take-up reel
 Light is beamed through the images and magnified by the lens for
projection onto a screen
Movie (as a ribbon of celluloid) is mounted on a projector
Standard shooting rate is 24 frames/second
Images we see in films are mostly created photographically
FILM: one side is transparent acetate base (shiny side), this supports emulsion,
layers of gelatin containing light-sensitive materials
-
Color film has more layers than black-and-white film
Size of perforations on either side of the fim and area occupied by the soundtrack
have been standardized around the world
Width of film strip is called GAUGE (in mm)
Image quality increases with width of the film
Most film is 35 mm
Often quality decreases when a film shot on one gauge is transferred to be
projected in another
SOUND TRACK ALONG THE SIDE OF THE FILM:
o Can be:
 Magnetic: magnetic recording tape run along the film’s edges
which is “read” by a sound head.. not as common in theaters today
 Optical: encodes sonic information in the form of patches of light
and dark, electrical impulses from a microphone are translated into
pulsations of light
o Sound is recorded in the variable-area of the film strip
o Sound track can be:
 Monophonic
 Stereophonic
-
there is both theatrical and non-theatrical exhibition of movies
are some main distribution companies (Warner Bros. Paramount, Disney)
-
CINEMA is photographic: light reflected from the scene creates an image by
triggering chemical changes on the film emulsion
-
VIDEO: translates light waves into electrical pulses and records those on tape,
disk, or hard drive
o Analog: phosphors in tube pick up light from scene
o Digital: encoded in series of 0s and 1s
 DIGITAL:
 Hihest standard is HIGH DEFINITION (HD)o Video still carries much less information than
motion-picture film
o Ie. It may lose its robust contrast ratio (the relation
between brightest and darkest areas of image)
13-20
Terms
-gross: total box-office receipts for a movie
-house nut: Portion of the gross that the distribution company allows the exhibition
company use for the costs of running a theater, subtracted out before the distributor
claims its percentage of ticket sales.
-rentals: the share of the gross that comes back to the distributor
-profit participants: directors, actors, executives, investors, etc. that get a percentage of
the producer’s profits (determined in their contracts)
Synopsis
-The distributor receives basically all the money from initial ticket sales, typically 90%
the first week, decreasing as time passes. On average the theater itself will get no more
than 50% of the ticket sale profit even for long running movies.
-Exhibitors make a lot of their money from concessions (sometimes 70% of their profits),
which is why they’re so damned expensive.
-Independent/international film makers typically try to sell distribution rights since they
don’t have the funding access of the big distributors. Also, they might exhibit their films
at festivals to build up hype. Eventually these independent producers might be absorbed
if their profitability is good enough, like the case with Good Machine films (bought by
Vivendi Universal and transformed into Focus Features)
-The distributor’s job is to make prints, schedule release dates, and advertise. If the
average Hollywood movie costs 50 million to make, it probably costs another 30 to
advertise.
21-23
-
-
45
sometimes films are deliberately altered for video exhibition
some video copies of some films are released with letterboxing (dark horizontal
bands at the top and bottom of the TV screen approximating the original shape on
theater screens), though many viewers prefer full-frame video
PREPRODUCTION
o Executive Producer: CFO and organizational, obtaining literary property
 Prepares budget spelling out above-the-line costs (literary property,
director, scriptwriter and major actors) and below-the-line costs
(crew, secondary cast, shooting and assembly phases, insurance,
publicity)
 Sum of above and below is called negative cost (total cost of
producing the film’s master negative)- avg. in Hollywood is 50
million
o Line Producer: oversees day-to-day activities of director, cast, and crew
o Associate Producer: picks the line producer, acts as a liaison with
technical personnel
o Screenwriter: prepares the screenplay- are several stages of development:
 Treatment – synopsis of action
 Final version- shooting script
POST-PRODUCTION:
Arranging the shots:
- the director has hired an editor (=supervising editor) who catalogues all of the
takes
- Editor receives processed footage from lab quickly- this footage is known as
“dailies” or “rushes”
- The Assistant Editor synchronizes images
- Editor assemble “rough cut”: shots loosely strung in sequence
- before 1980s used to have to arrange the work print physically, now it is all done
digitally
- electronic editing systems = nonlinear systems, can call up any shot, makes it
much easier
Sound comes into play once shots in somewhat final order:
- music and effects are placed in a process known as “spotting”
- little of the sound usually recorded furing filming winds up in the finished movie
– often replaced by ADR = automated Dialogue replacement (actors record sound
in better environment)
- the on-set recording serves as a Guide Track
- then actors speak lines: DUBBING or LOOPING
- Composer: writes the score
o Rough cut is synchronized with a Temp Dub
o Then musicians record the real score with the aid of a Click Track, which
makes sure they are synchronized with the final cut
- Eventually all of the sounds are put together by the Rerecording Mixer
FILM
- the original camera negative (used for dailies etc.) is too sensitive so is translated
onto Interpositive which furnishes an Internegative
-
making movies in a digital era leaves a lot to be done in post production by
Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI)
THE STUDIOS LARGE-SCALE PRODUCTION:
- big studios use the above division of labour to increase efficiency and to manage
the many people working on a film
- Independent Production may use some version of the previously explained
division of labour
- Low-budget Exploitation products used to be drive-ins and fringe theaters but are
now Video rentals
- SMALL-SCALE production allows directors to have more tight control over
everything
- Question of authorship is only difficult to answer when it comes to LARGESCALE production
FILMS DISTINGUISHED BY DIFFERENT MODES OF PRODUCTION:
- Documentaries (vs. fiction film)
-
Animated Film
47-82
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Form - an internal system of relationships that governs the relations among parts and
engages your interest; a pattern. It creates a satisfied sensation that "everything is
there," because these cues suggest that the film has its own organizing laws or rules
(system).
Film form - the overall system of relations that we can perceive among the elements
in the whole film. Every component functions as part of the overall pattern that is
perceived.
Artistic form - best thought of in relation to perfection, which is an activity in all
phases of life. The artwork and the perceiver depend on one another.
Artwork cues us to perform a specific activity by presenting these cues in organized
systems. Our ability to spot cues, to see them as forming systems, and to create
expectations is guided by our real-life experiences and our knowledge of formal
conventions. Expectations limit possibilities, as well as select them. Expectation
pervades our experience of art.
Narrative form - holds out the expectation that these events are headed toward
dramatic changes and a satisfying outcome.
o i.e. telling a story, the plotline.
Stylistic form – i.e. the way the camera moves, the patterns of color in the frame, the
use of music, etc.
Suspense - involves a delay in fulfilling an established expectation.
Surprise - a result of an expectation that is revealed to be incorrect; cheating
expectations.
o comedy often uses this element
Curiosity - the ability of the spectator to frame hypotheses about prior events  key
in narrative
Unusual or jarring form cause the viewer to adjust expectations to a disorienting
work, and often our uneasiness lessens as we become accustomed to the work's
unusual system -- viewers often become quite absorbed in watching the series take
shape as a cinematic picture puzzle.
Aesthetic form is not a pure activity isolated from other experiences - we take into
account prior experiences.
Conventions and Experience
- Conventions - common traits. Artworks can create new conventions.
o Genres - depend heavily on conventions.
o i.e. a tradition, a dominant style, or a popular form --> it is a convention that
in musical film characters sing and dance
- Norms - bodies of conventions that dictate what is appropriate or expected in a
particular tradition. Artists relate their work to other works by obeying or violating
these norms.
All stylized art depends on the audience's willingness to suspend the laws of ordinary
experience and to accept particular conventions.
Form and Feeling
- Emotion plays a large role in our experience of form.
o Emotions represented in the artwork - interact as parts of the film's total
system. All emotions present in a film are systematically related to one
another through that film's form.
o Emotional response felt by the spectator - cues in the artwork interact with our
prior experience, especially our experience of artistic conventions. Form can
create new emotional responses or lead us to override our everyday emotional
responses. The dynamic aspect of form engages our feelings.
 expectation and suspense spur emotion
o The emotion felt by the spectator will emerge from the totality of formal
relationships perceived in the work -- thus we should try to notice as many
formal relations as possible.
o Emotions onscreen and our responses depend on the context created by form.
Form and Meaning
Meaning is important to our experience of artworks, as the spectator is always testing the
work for larger significance.
1. Referential meaning - depends on the spectator's ability to identify specific
items/themes. A viewer unacquainted with the information would miss some of
the meanings cued by the film. The film refers to things or places already
invested with significance. A film's subject matter is often established through
referential meaning.
2. Explicit meaning - often the point of the film; the openly asserted meaning of the
film. Explicit meanings are defined by context. Explicit meanings play a part
along with other elements to make up the total system. They arise from the whole
film and are set in dynamic formal relation to one another.
3. Implicit meaning - when perceivers ascribe implicit meanings to an artwork, they
are usually said to be interpreting it. The artwork's overall form shapes the
viewer's sense of implicit meanings. The abstract quality of implicit meanings
can lead to very broad concepts often called themes. The search for implicit
meanings should not leave being the particular and concrete features of a film.
Depends closely on the relations between narrative and style. Interpretation helps
in understanding the overall form of the film; it may be seen as a kind of formal
analysis, that seeks to reveal a film's implicit meanings.
4. Symptomatic meaning - abstract and general; treats an explicit meaning as a
manifestation of a wider set of values characteristic of a whole society. It is
possible to understand film's explicit or implicit meanings as bearing traces of a
particular set of social values; the set of values that get revealed can be considered
a social ideology. The meaning, whether referential, explicit, or implicit, is
largely a social phenomenon. We have an ideological frame of reference that is
composed of religious beliefs, political opinions, conceptions of race or sex or
social class, etc.
In short, films have meaning because we attribute meaning to them. The more
abstract and general our attributions of meaning, the more we risk loosening our grasp
on the film's specific formal system.
Evaluation
Making claims about it's goodness or badness. We must differentiate between personal
taste and evaluative judgment. Objective evaluation using specific criteria; a standard
which can be applied in the judgment of many works. By using a criterion, the critic
gains a basis for comparing films for relative quality.
 Some people evaluate films on "realistic" criteria, judging a film good if it
conforms to their view of reality.
 Other people condemn films because they don't find the action plausible. But
artworks often violate laws of reality and operate by their own conventions and
internal rules.
 Viewers can also user moral criteria to evaluate films.
The book suggests films that assess films as artistic wholes - criteria should allow us to
take each film's form into account as much as possible.
 Coherence - unity, traditionally been held to be a positive feature of artworks.
 Intensity of effect - if an artwork is vivid, striking, an emotionally engaging.
 Complexity - a complex film creates a multiplicity of relations among many
separate formal elements, and tends to create interesting formal patterns.
 Originality - if an artist takes a familiar convention and uses it in a way that
makes it fresh again or creates a new set of formal possibilities.
Like interpretation, evaluation is most useful when it drives us back to the film itself as a
formal system, helping us to understand that system better.
PRINCIPLES OF FILM FORM
1. Function – every element will be seen as fulfilling one or more roles within the
whole system. Both narrative and stylistic elements have functions. We can
determine the function by asking what other elements demand that it be present. To
notice the functions of an element, consider its motivation - any one element in a film
will have some justification for being there.
2. Similarity and Repetition – Repetition is basic to our understanding any film.
Formal repetitions are often referred to as a motif; any significant repeated element in
a film. Motifs can assist in creating parallelism.
3. Difference and Variation – Some changes, or variations, are necessary for film
form. Motifs will seldom be repeated exactly - parallelism requires a degree of
difference as well as striking similarity. A repeated motif may change its function.
Any motif may be opposed by any other motif.
4. Development –Development will constitute some patterning of similar and differing
elements. A principle of development is one of progression that we could state as a
rule, governing the form of the whole series. We can think of formal development as
a progression moving from beginning through middle to end. Development can be
showed in many ways: through a journey, a mystery, etc. In order to analyze a film's
pattern of development, it is usually a good idea to make a segmentation; this is
simply a written outline of the film that breaks it into its major and minor parts, with
the parts marked by consecutive numbers or letters. The constant interplay between
similarity and difference, repetition and variation, leads the viewer to an active,
developing awareness of the film's formal system. Formal development is a process.
5. Unity/Disunity - Wten all the relationships we perceive within a film are clear and
economically interwoven, we say that the film has unity. We call a unified film tight.
We can summarize the principles of film form as a set of questions you can ask about any
film:
Q1. What are the functions of some element of a film in the overall form? How is it
motivated?
Q2. Are elements or patterns repeated throughout the film? If so, how and at what
points? Are motifs and parallelisms asking us to compare elements?
Q3. How are elements contrasted and differentiated from one another? How are different
elements opposed to one another?
Q4. What principles of progression or development are at work throughout the form of
the film? How does a comparison of the beginning and ending reveal the overall form of
a film?
Q5. What degree of unity is present in the film's overall form? Is disunity subordinate to
the overall unity, or does disunity dominate?
Narrative form is most common in fictional films, but it can appear in all other basic
types (i.e. documentaries often employ it). Characteristics: characters and some action
that will involve them with one another, a series of incidents that will be connected in
some way, problems or conflicts arising in the course of the action will achieve some
final state - either that they will be resolved, or at least, a new light will be cast on them.
A spectator comes prepared to make sense of narrative film.
What is narrative? Narrative = story. It typically begins with one situation; a
series of changes occurs according to a pattern of cause and effect; finally, a new
situation arises that brings about the end of the narrative. All the components of our
definition - causality, time, space - are important to narratives. The events are a part of
series of causes and effects. A narrative may make use of parallelism (prompting the
spectator to draw parallels among characters, settings, situations, times of day, or any
other elements).
Plot and Story – The set of all the events in a narrative, both the ones explicitly
89-91
Classical Hollywood Cinema
1. Classical: lengthy, stable, and influential history
2. Action will spring primarily from individual characters as causal agents
3. Narrative centers on personal psychological causes: decisions, choices, and traits
of character
4. Desire functions to move the narrative along
5. Counterforce: character whose traits and goals are in opposition
6. Devices which make the plot cause-effect chain: appointment (makes characters
meet) and deadline (makes plot dependent on chain).
7. Unrestricted narration.
8. Strong degree of closure at the end.
103-105
-Most theorists agree that cause-effect relations and chronology are central to
narrative.
-Story duration and plot duration vary most drastically at the level of the
whole film, expample: two years of action (story duration) are shown are told
about in scenes that occur across a week (plot duration) and then that wek is
put into 2 hours (screen duration) ---- On a smaller level, a scene may be
equal in story and plot duration (this is mainly assumed) but can vary some on
screen duration.
- Many theorists have argued that a good way to see film narration is like that
of literature (first person, third person, etc).
- Since the early 1990, some film historians have claimed that the classical
Hollywood narrative approach has faded, they argue it has been replaced with
Postmodern or post-Hollywood cinema -- other theorists argue that the classical
approach still endures, however.
389-394
Terms
-group style: consistent use of stylistic techniques across the work of several filmmakers
(eg: German Expressionist, Soviet Montage, etc)
Section Synopsis
-Directors pick technical possibilities based on both limitations and preferences.
-Spectators are related to style, in that we have expectations about what will happen
based on past experience (eg: if a person on screen is talking, we expect to hear a voice
that fits with that person). Some films deliberately challenge these expectations, like the
editing discontinuities in Eisenstein’s October
-Style often functions perceptually, meaning that the director will use style to get you to
notice specific things.
Steps to Analyzing Style
1.) Determine the organizational structure of the film, its narrative or non-narrative
formal system.
2.) Identify the salient techniques used.
3.) Trace out patterns of techniques within the film as a whole.
4.) Propose functions for the salient techniques and the patterns they form.
24-44; 175-228 – Tina Hwa – thaw@fas
p. 24-44
The Preproduction Phase
 producer—financial and organizational
 screenwriter—prepare the screenplay
o the screenplay goes through several phases:
o treatment—synopsis of the action
o one or more full-length scripts
o shooting script—final version
 above-the-line cost: cost of literary property, scriptwriter, director, and major cast
 below-the-line costs: crew, secondary cast, shooting and assembly phases, insurance,
publicity
 negative cost: sum of above- and below-the-line costs
The Production Phase

director, cast, cinematographer, sound unit, special effects, misc. (makeup, costume,
etc)
The Postproduction Phase
 editor, sound editor
p. 175-228
mise-en-scene—“putting into the scene”. director’s control over what appears in the film
frame
Apects of Mise-en-scene
Setting
 includes props, which may become a motif
Costume and Makeup
 any portion of a costume may become a prop
Lighting
 lighting shapes objects by creating highlights and shadows
o attached shadows: light fails to illuminate part of an object because of the
object’s shape or surface features
o cast shadows: an object blocks out the light, [creating a shaped shadow, like
Venetian blinds]
 four major features of film lighting: quality, direction, source, and color
o quality: hard or soft lighting
o direction:
 frontal—tendency to eliminate shadows
 sidelight
 backlight—tends to create silhouettes
 underlighting—tends to distort features (flashlight below face)
 top lighting—
o source: most fictional films use extra light sources, and the lights in the scene
are not the principal sources of illumination
 key light: primary source, providing dominant illumination and casting
the strongest shadows
 fill light: less intense, softens or eliminates shadows cast by the key
light
 backlight
 high-key lighting: low contrast, softness, detail in shadow areas
 low-key lighting: stronger contrasts and sharper, darker shadows.
often the lighting is hard, and fill light is lessened or eliminated.
result: chiaroscuro, or extremely dark and light regions within the
image
o color
Staging: Movement and Acting
Mise-en-scene in Space and Time
Space
aerial perspective—hazing of more distant planes
planes: foreground, middle ground, background
o depth cues: overlap of edges (when one thing overlaps the other, it is closer); size
diminution
shallow-space vs. deep-space composition
Time
rhythm in cinema involves a beat, a pace (tempo), and a pattern of accents
464-474; 229-266; 107-127 – Ivy Lee – ivylee@fas
464-474; 229-266; 107-127 – Ivy Lee – ivylee@fas



Classical Hollywood movies
o Primarily individual characters as causal agents.
o Function of narrative: desire. Cause and effect imply change.
o Chain of actions result primarily from psychological causes.
o Certain devices make plot time depend on story’s cause-effect chain.
 Appointment: motivate characters encountering
 Deadline: plot duration dependent on time
 Often there is objective story reality. Fairly unrestricted narration.
 Strong degree of closure.
 Continuity editing
German Expression
o A lot of anti-war, strikes, antiwar petitions. So, UFA worked on
controlling German and postwar international market. (1920s).
o Few independent companies tried Expressionist style. Extreme
stylization. Depends heavily on mise-en-scene. Heavy make-up, move in
jerky, slow movements. Characters form visual elements that merge with
the setting.
o Viewpoint is distorted, from that of the characters (like madmen).
Cinematography
o Control exposure by regulating amount of light passing by
o Filters: prevent light from getting in or only certain frequencies
o Flashing: lowers contrast because the film has been exposed
o Speed of motion: ramping- changing rate smoothly.
 Time lapse- low shoot speed speeded up. (one frame per minutes).
 High speed- thousands per second (capturing a bullet)
 Stretch printing: slowing down the action
 Instant replays
o Perspective
 Focal length: main variable
 Wide Angle: less than 35mm. Distortion of shape may be
evident. Exaggerates depth.

NORMAL, Middle-focal length lens: 35-50mm. Avoid
perspective distortion. Parallel lines form distant vanishing
points.
 Telephoto/long-focal length: flatten the space along the
camera axis. Cues for depth and volume decrease. Things
look close together. Affects subject movement. Figure
moving toward camera takes more time to cover what
seems like small distance.
 Zoom lens: permits continuous varying of focal length.
 Depth of field: Lens affect depth of field. Range of distances
before the lens within which objects can be photographed in sharp
focus. Background is hazy vs in sharp focus. With Citizen Kane,
Jp;;uwppd ised faster film, short-focal-length lens, and more
intense lighting to yield greater depth of field. Deep focus. Not
deep space (which is lots of planes).
 Racking focus: aka pulling focus. Switch between fuzzy
and sharp focus in the foreground and background.
 Special effects:
 Glass shots: painted set of glass
 Models and CGI.
 Superimposition: photographed planes of action that’s
combined.
 Process: aka composite shots. Combining strips of film for
one shot. Techniques divided into projection process work
and matte process work.
o Projection process work: actors perform in front of
a projection screen.
 Rear projection: no good depth
 Front projection: 2-way mirror. Sharp
focus. Blends foreground and background
well.
o Matte wrok: Setting photographed on the strip of
film, and footage is combined. Traveling matte to
move painted portions of the frame.
o Framing
 Aspect ratio
 Masking-example is iris (moving circular mask)
 Anamorphic process: creates widescreen image
 Onscreen vs offscreen space: 6 zones. Space beyond the 4 edges
of the frame/ space behind the set/ space behind the camera.
 Can use abrupt movements into the frame.
 Angle of framing
 high-angle positions us looking down at the material within
the frame
 low-angle: looking up at the material
 Level








 Sense of gravity.
 Canted
Height: not angling! Position of camera low of high!
Distance:
 Extreme long shot: figure is barely visible
 Long shot: background still dominates
 Medium long shot: knees up
 Medium shot: waist up
 Medium close-up: chest up
 Close-up: facial expression
 Extreme close-up: portion of the face
Framing can isolate narratively important details.
Cueing us to take a shot as subjective. Perceptual subjectivity.
Prompt us to take it as a character’s vision…optically subjective
shot or POV.
Framing can have own intrinsic interest. Unusual frames draw
attention.
Framing can cause comic effect. Visual puns.Sharpens out
perception of purely visual qualities.
Mobile Framing: Within the image, the framing of the object
changes. During the shot, camera height/angle/level etc changes.
We move along with the frame.
 Mobile frame=camera movement.
 Pan- rotates the camera on a vertical axis
 Tilt- rotates the camera on a horizontal axis.
 Tracking/dolly: camera as a whole changes position. Give
volume
 Crane shot: Moves above the ground.
o Increased information.
o Substitute for our movement.
o Can be powerful cue for POV.
o Steadicam
o Motion-control- computer programs
o Hand-held camera
 Functions
o onscreen and offscreen space. How we perceive
space.
o Reframing: Adjusting to moving objects.
Following shot.
o Duration of camera movement-time. Quick
movements can illicit surprise.
o Patterns in mobile framing.
Long Take: unusually lengthy shots. Entire scene is one shot is
plan-sequences/sequence shot. Mixing long takes and shorts create
parallels. Allied to the mobile frame to keep capturing everything
without cutting. Long takes can present in a single chunk of time,
a complex pattern of events moving toward a goal, and this ability
shows that shot duration can be as important to the image as
photographic qualities and framing.

Film Genres
o Exploit ambivalent social values and attitudes. Broad social trends.
o Western: Historic mission, racist stereotypes. Narrative and thematic
innovations as well.
o Horror Film: Attack on normal life. Violates laws of nature.
Iconography, like settings. Social concerns about the breakup of
American familities.
o Musical: straight musical- sing and dance in everyday life. Bright lights,
cheerful setting. Often romantic themes.
266-293; 146-174; 294-310; 407-409 – Chris Keleinhen – kleinhen@fas
Film Art 266-293; 146-174, 294-310, 407-409
Deep Space, Mobile Framing, Long Take: 266-293
Mobile Framing: The effect on the screen of the moving camera, a zoom lens, or certain
special effects; the framing shifts in relation to the scene being photographed





Pan: movement rotates the camera on a vertical axis; left and right
Tilt: rotates the camera on a horizontal axis; up and down
Tracking (Dolly) Shot: Camera as a whole moves in relation to the object
Crane shot: camera moves above ground level; rises or descends thanks to a
mechanical arm
Hand-Held camera: functions to create a subjective point of view; authenticates
mocumentaries; intensifies sense of abrupt movement
Zoom alters aspects or positions of the objects filmed, mobile framing does NOT.
The mobile frame and SPACE
 Following shot: a shot within framing that shifts to keep a moving object
onscreen
 The mobile frame can profoundly affect how we perceive the space within the
frame and off-screen
 In Vertigo, a tricky combo of track-out and zoom-in plastically distorts the shot’s
perspective and portrays the protagonists dizziness
o Has become a cliché of modern Hollywood filmmaking
The mobile frame and TIME
 If the camera pans quickly from an event, we may be prompted to wonder what
has happened

If the camera abruptly tracks back to show us something in the foreground that we
had not expected, we are taken by surprise
 If camera slowly moves in on detail, gradually enlarging it but delaying the
fulfillment of our expectations, the camera movement has contributed to suspense
Patterns of mobile framing
 The mobile frame can create its own specific motifs within a film
 The camera can move independently of the characters and hence subordinate the
narrative
 Camera moving independently of figure movement can link characters with one
another (Rules of the Game, Renoir)
The Long Take
 Typically filmed in medium or long shot; often replaces editing
 Citizen Kane oscillates between long takes in the dialogue sequences and rapid
editing in “News on the March” and other sequences
 Puts more emphasis on mise-en-scéne
 Has its own internal pattern and development
Film Editing: 146-174; 294-310; 407-409
Experimental (Avant-Garde Films)
 Challenge orthodox notions of what a movie can show and how it can show it
 Abstract Form: A type of filmic organization in which the parts relate to one
another through repetition and variation of such visual qualities as shape, color,
rhythm, and direction of movement; Ballet mécanique
 Associational Form: A type of formal organization in which the film’s parts are
juxtaposed to suggest similarities, contrasts, concepts, emotions, and expressive
qualities
o Offers no continuing characters, no specific causal connections, and no
temporal order among the scenes
o Comparable to the techniques of metaphor and similie
o Using grouping and repeats motifs to reinforce associational connections
The Animated Film
 Pixilation: A form of single-frame animation in which 3D objects, often people,
are made to move in staccato bursts through the use of stop-action
cinematography
 Animation made by making (shooting) one frame at a time
 During much of the 1900’s, animators used cels to save time with animating
 Full animations have every aspect in the frame moving (full-scale), while limited
animations only have small sections moving
 Clay animation (Frank Zappa), Model or puppet animation (Nightmare Before
Christmas), Computer Imaging (Toy Story), Cut-out animations

Rotoscope: a machine that projects live action motion picture frames one by one
onto a drawing pad so that an animation can trace the figure in each frame. The
aim is to achieve more realistic movement in an animated cartoon.
o used by animators to make their animated characters more lifelike because
they are being traced from a real model
Editing
 Fade-out: a shot gradually disappears as the screen darkens
 Fade-in: a dark screen that gradually lightens as a shot appears
 Dissolve: Transition b/t two shots in which the first image gradually disappears
while the second image gradually appears; for a moment the two images blend in
superimposition
 Wipe: A transition b/t shots in which a line moves across the screen, eliminating
one shot and replacing it with the next one
 Editing offers filmmaker 4 basic areas of choice and control: graphic, rhythmic,
spatial, and temporal relations
o Graphic
 Graphic Match: Two successive shot joined so as to create a
strong similarity of compositional elements (e.g. color, shape)
 Graphic conflict between color qualities stresses separation
between two objects of interest
o Rhythmic
 Controlled when editor adjusts the length of the shots in relation
one another
 Sometimes used to create a stressed, accented movement
 Scenes of decreasing length can accelerate pace
o Spatial
 Kuleshov effect: any series of shots that in the absence of an
establishing shot prompts the spectator to infer a spatial whole on
the basis of seeing only portions of the space
o Temporal
 Flashbacks: alteration of the plots story order in which the plot
moves back to show events that have taken place earlier than ones
already shown
 Flashforward: An alteration of story order in which the plot
presentation moves forward to future events and then returns to the
present
 Elliptical Editing: Shot transitions (done in any sort of way) that
omits part of an event, causing an ellipsis in plot and story duration
 Used if director does not want to show an entire event, ex.
 Overlapping Editing: Cuts that repeat part or all of an action, thus
expanding its viewing time and plot duration
 Reinforces or creates suspense as to what it to come
474-481; 310-333; 413-418; 481-484; 333-346 – Joy Bxi – bxi@fas
474-481; 310-333; 413-418; 481-484; 333-346 – Joy Bxi – bxi@fas
p. 474-481
 French impressionism & Surrealism (1918-1930)
o Impressionism
 An avant-garde style that operated largely w/in mainstream commercial film
industry
 WWI struck blow to Fr film ind: many film studios shifted to wartime uses
 Filled vacant screens by letting Amer films flood into France
 Most signif move in trying to recapture market, Fr firms encouraged younger
Fr directors: Abel Gance, Louis Delluc, Germaine Dulac, Marcel L'Herbier,
Jean Epstein
 Unlike predecessors (who saw filmmaking as a commercial craft),
were more theoretical & ambitious
 Saw film as occasion for artist to express feelings
 Film is an art comparable to any other
 1918-1928 saw younger directors experimenting w/ cinema in ways
alternative to classical Hollywood
 Centrality of emotion: intimate psychological narrative dominated
 Gave narration considerable psychological depth, revealing play off
a char's consciousness (interest on inner action)
 Manipulated plot time & subjectivity to unprecedented
degrees
 Flashbacks to depict memories
 Insistence on registering chars' dreams, fantasies, & mental
states
 Experimented w/ ways of rendering mental states by new uses of
cinematography & editing
 Irises, masks, & superimpositions fxn as traces of chars'
thoughts & feelings
 Impressionist cinematography & editing present chars'
perceptual experience, their optical impressions… intensify
subjectivity
 Lots of POV cutting
 When a char gets drunk/dizzy, rendered thru
distorted or filtered shots, etc
 Experimented w/ pronounced rhythmic editing to suggest
pace of an experience as a char feels it, moment by moment
 Impressionist form created certain demands on film tech
 Ex Gance's Napoléon experimented w/ new lenses, multiple frame
images, widescreen ratio


Most influential Impressionist tech innovation: development of new
means of frame mobility
 Strapped cameras to diff objects to enhance mobility… since
camera supposed to represent a char's eyes
 Impressionist experimentation was attuned to elite tastes & most foreign
audiences didn't take to it
 Soon, w/ arrival of sound film, Fr ind had no money to risk on Impressionist
experiments
 But lasting impact!
 Psychological narrative
 Subjective camera work
 Editing
 Lived on in Alfred Hitchcock, Maya Deren, Hollywood montage, &
certain Amer genres & styles (horror, film noir)
o Surrealism
 Lay largely outside film ind allied w/ Surrealist movement in other arts &
relying on their own means & private patronage
 Andre Breton: "Surrealism is based on belief in superior realty of certain
forms of association, heretofore neglected, in the omnipotence of dreams, in
the undirected play of thought"
 Influenced by Freud, sought to register hidden currents of the
unconscious
 Surrealism as it developed in 1924-1929
 Automatic writing & painting
 Search for bizarre/evocative imagery
 Deliberate avoidance of rationally explicable form/style
 Surrealist cinema is overtly antinarrative, attacking causality itself (ex. Un
chien andalou)
 Events are juxtaposed for their disturbing effect
 Sexual desire & ecstasy, violence, blasphemy, & bizarre humor
 Mise-en-scene often influenced by surrealist painting
 Editing is amalgam of some Impressionist devices (many dissolves &
superimpositions) & some devices of dominant cinema (some continuity,
some discontinuous editing)
 Wanted to capture an "undirected play of thought"
 As a unified movement, Fr Surrealism no longer viable by 1930, tho indivs
continued
 Fortunes of Surrealist cinema shifted w/ changes in art movement as
a whole
Soviet montage
o During Russian Rev (ended 1917) most imports were cut off -> a few production
companies did dwell making domestic films
 Most distinctive Russian films of mid 1910s were slow-paced melodramas
concentrating on bravura performances by actors playing chars caught in
extremely emotional situations
 1918, gov put strict controls of raw film stock… producers hoarded stock,
some fled country, some made gov-commissioned films (propaganda)
 Dziga Vertov worked on documentary footage of the war







 Lev Kuleshov played w/ editing; taught @ first film school ever
Under Lenin's New Economic Policy (permitted primate management of
businesses for several years) film stock/equipment reappeared
Lenin saw film as powerful tool for education -> encouraged documentaries,
news reels
Soviet Montage: Kuleshov (a few humorous montage films), Eisenstein
(Strike, Potemkin), Pudovkin, Vertov, etc
Soviet Montage theoretical writings & filmmaking practice were based on
editing
 A film doesn’t exist in its indiv shots but only in their combo thru
editing into a whole
 Disagreed on exactly what Montage approach to editing would be
 Pudovkin: shots are like bricks, to be joined together to build
a sequence
 Eisenstein: max effect gained iff shots don't fit together
perfectly -> jolt for spectator; favored juxtaposing shots to
create a concept
 Vertov: cinema-eye approach to recording & shaping
documentary reality
Tended to downplay character psychology as a cause
 Social forces provided the major causes
Didn't always have a single protagonist -could have a collective hero
 Often avoided well-known actors too (typage - filmmakers often
chose indiv whose appearance seemed to convey the type of char
he/she was to play)
Decline of Soviet Montage
 Caused by gov political pressures which exerted a strong control
that discouraged Montage style
 Encouraged simple films readily understandable for all
 1934 gov instituted new artistic policy called Socialist Realism
 Dictated that all artworks must depict revolutionary
development while being firmly grounded in realism
p. 310-333
 Continuity editing: Basic purpose is to create a smooth flow from shot to shot
o Graphic qualities are kept roughly continuous from shot to shot
 Figures are balanced & symmetrically deployed in frame, overall lighting
tonality remains constant, action occupies central zone of screen
o Rhythm of the cutting is usually made dependent on the camera distance of the shot
 Long shots are left on screen longer than medium shots, longer than closeups (spectator needs more time to take in shots containing more details)
 In action scenes like fire in Birds, accelerated editing rhythms may be present,
but shorter shots still tend to be closer views
o Spatial continuity: the 180-dgree system
 The space of a scene is constructed along the axis of action (a.k.a. center line,
180-degree line)
 Scene’s action is assumed to take place along a discernible, predictable line,
which determines a half-circle where camera can be placed to represent the
action
o
o
o
Functions of this sys: delineates space clearly… viewer knows where chars are &
where he/she is in relation to one another & to setting
 Ensures that relative positions in the frame remain consistent
 Ex. A always on the left, B always on the right in a convo
 Ensures consistent eyelines
 Ex. A always looks right, B always looks left
 Ensures a consistent screen direction
 Ex. If girl walks from left to right… don’t switch dir -> screen direction of her
movement consistently left to right
Case study of continuity editing in John Huston’s The Maltese Falcon
 Establishment/breakdown/reestablishment pattern
 Scene where Effie, then Brigid enters Sam Spade’s office
 Establishing shot delineates overall space & sets up 180 degree line
 Anchors any earlier shot of part of scene
 After establishing shot, can analyze the space into its components
 Relying on other common tactics w/in 180 degree sys in cutting together
medium shots of 2 chars talking
 Shot/reverse-shot pattern: once the 180 degree line has been
established, first show one end point of the line, then another
 Works to emphasize dramatic flow of the scene: ex. what
one char says & how the other reacts
 Eyeline match: shot A presents someone looking @ something
offscreen; shot B shows us what is being looked at
 In neither shot are both looker & object present
 Not necessary for shot/reverse-shot pattern
 Directional quality of eyeline creates strong spatial continuity
 Then reestablishing shot when new char Brigid enters, reestablishes overall
space that was analyzed into parts earlier
 Match on action (another device for ensuring spatial continuity) – carrying a
movement across the break b/w two shots
 Show a person’s movement beginning in shot 1, then cut to shot 2
which shows continuation of the movement
 Why analytical cutting rather than one long take?
 Controls our attn… we look @ things exactly when director wants us
to
 Cooperates w/ framing & figure behavior to focus on attn on
interpersonal interactions, reactions
Continuity editing: some fine points
 New axes of axn can be established by:
 Entrance/exit of chars
 Change in char interactions
 Camera movement (ex. Camera circles around to other side of line
while shooting)
 If director arranges several chars in circular pattern, the axis of axn prolly
runs b/w chars of greatest importance @ the moment
 Axis of axn + eyelines have so much power the filmmaker may be able to
eliminate an establishing shot

o
o
o
Cheat cut – sometimes director may not have perfect continuity from shot to
shot cuz he has composed each shot for specific reasons -> shots don’t match
perfectly
 Since 180 degree system emphasizes narrative causality, director has
some freedom to “cheat” mise-en-scene from shot to shot: mismatch
slightly the positions of chars or objects
 Ex. In one medium shot of man & woman, top of woman’s head is
even /w man’s chin
 Ni second close-up shot angled down, she seems to have
“grown”…
 Point-of-view cutting: a type of eyeline-match editing where we cut from
person looking to what he sees
 No establishing shot of looker & lookee necessary
 30-degree rule – continuity editing advising that every camera position be
varied by at least 30 degrees from the previous one… avoids jump cut feeling
More refinements: crossing the axis of axn
 A scene occurring in a doorway, on a staircase, or in other symmetrical
settings may occasionally break the line
 Cut away to a char who’s off-screen then move that char up to main action
(mebbe follow w/ camera movement) -> establish new axis of action
 take one shot on line itself & use it as transition
 not common in dialogues but can be seen in chases & outdoor action
 head-on shot – action presented as moving directly toward the camera
 tail-on shot – action moving directly away from it
 continuity-based films can occasionally violate screen dir. w/o confusing
viewer (usually when scene’s action is very well defined)
crosscutting gives an unrestricted knowledge of causal/temporal/spatial info by
alternating shots from one line of axn in one place w/ shots of other events in other
places
 creates some spatial continuity, but binds axn together by creating a sense of
cause & effect & temporal simultaneity
 gives us a range of knowledge greater than that of any one character
 can build up suspense, as we form expectations that are only gradually
clarified & fulfilled
 can create parallels (suggests analogies)
Temporal continuity: order, frequency, duration
 Order: chronological sequence
 Frequency: one-for-one frequency (present only once what happens once in
story)
 Duration: story duration is seldom expanded (screen time is seldom made
greater than story time)
 Duration usually in complete continuity or is elided
 Cues for temporal continuity
 Narrative progression has no gaps (absence of ellipses in story
action)
 Diegetic sound overlaps cuts
 Match on action b/w shots
 Presenting temporal ellipses





Optical punctuations, empty frames, & cutaways are frequently used
to cover short temporal ellipses (ex. Char gets ready in morning)
Dissolves, fades, or wipes often used to indicate ellipsis b/w shots
Hollywood rule says dissolve indicates brief time lapse & fade
indicates much longer one
Montage sequence – brief portions of a process, informative titles
(ex. “1865” or “San Francisco”), stereotyped images (ex. Eiffel
Tower), newsreel footage, newspaper headlines, calendar leaves
flipping, etc are swiftly joined by dissolves & music to compress a
lengthy series of axns into a few moments
Ex. To show city waking up in morning, a war, a child growing up,
the rise of a singing star
p. 413-418
 The Classical Narrative Cinema
o His Girl Friday (1940; directed by Howard Hawks)
 Often said to be fastest sound comedy ever made… dominant impression is
speed
 Break film down into 13 scenes, set in dfif locales
 All marked off by dissolves except transitiion b/w 8 & 9, which is a
cut
 Smaller units of action occur w/in these scenes… can further break
down that way
 Part of "atriacal" feel of film comes by its segmenting its scenes by
char entrances & exits (instead of, for example, frequent shifs of
locale)
The
action:
clash of chars' contrasting traits & conflicting goals propel story

forward in cause and effect process
 The romance: Hildy wants to quit reporting & marry Bruce Baldwin,
but her editor & ex-hsband Walter wants her to keep reporting &
remarry him. She eventually does stay w/ Walter.
 Crime & politics: Earl Williams is to be hanged for shooting a
policeman, & the mayor & sheriff (political bosses) are relying on his
execution to ensure their reelection; walter wants governor to
reprieve Williams & unseat mayor's party @ polls. Williams
eventually is reprieved.
 Interplay of 2 lines of action at several points
 Scenes hook into each other: an event @ end of one scene is seen as a
cause leading to an effect (event that begins next scene)
 Demonstrates linearity & closure of classical narrative
 Narrative time: deadlines are set to propel plot
 Mayor & sheriff face deadline: Williams must be hanged b4 election
& b4 governor can reprieve him
 Walter: reprieve Williams b4 hanged
 Bruce & Hildy planning marriage @ 4 that day, but keeps gettning
delayed
 Chronological order is kept, but liberties are taken w/ story duration
 Temporal compression to accellerate time within scenes!



Space also subordinate to narrative cause & effect: camera moves
unobtrustively to reframe chars symmetrically in shot
Mise-en-scene: the telephone is integral to the narrative (esp. Walter's
duplicity)
 Communications network that permits narrative ot be relayed from
point to point
Sound: play w/ telephones (who's talking, are voices overlapping or in turn,
juxtaposition of conversations, etc)
p. 481-484
The classical Hollywood cinema after the coming of sound
o Mid-1920s Warner Bros was investing a lot of money to expand facilities &
holdings (one of them was investment in a sound system using records in synch
w/ film images)
o Success of WB's Don Juan & The Jazz Singer showed interest in sound
o Sound-on-film replaced sound-on-disc as standard system of playback in
theatres
o Fr yrs, sound created setback for Hollywood film style
 Camera had to be put in sound booth so mic wouldn't pick up its motor
noise
 Camera can't move much, bulky mic couldn't move much ->
actors had limited range of movement
 Solns:
 Several cameras in booths record scene from diff angels
simultaneously, then continuity edit
 Mount whole camera on wheels to create camera movements
 Scene shot silent & sound track added later
 Smaller cases enclosing only camera body replaced booths
 Microphones mounted on booms & hanging over actors' heads
could follow moving axn w/o loss of recording quality
o Diegetic sound
 Overlapping dialogue w/ cuts
o Each of large studios developed a distinctive approach
 MGM = the prestige studio… many stars & technicians
 WB: still relatively small, specialized in less expensive genre pictures
 Universal: depended on imaginative filmmaking rather than established
starts/ expensive sets (ex. Frankenstein)
o The musical is a genre that became possible only w/ introduction of sound
 Original intent of WB's sound investment was to circulate vaudeville acts
on film
o 1930s color film stocks became widely used
 Technicolor (used til early 1970s) expensive but added hugely to appeal
of many films
 Needed lots of light on the set - light favoring certain hues ->
brighter lights designed for color filmmaking were introduced
 Some cinematographers began using brighter lights for B&W filming
 These, combined w/ faster film stocks, made it easier to achieve
greater depth of field w/ more light & smaller aperture


By late 1930s, trend toward deep-focus style (ex. Citizen Kane)
(1920s & 1930s mostly soft-focus style)
Light necessary for deep focus also lent hard-edge appearance to
objects… gauzy effects largely eliminated
p. 333-346
 Alternatives to continuity editing
 Graphic & rhythmic possibilities
o Films using abstract or associational form often join shots on basis of pure
graphic or rhythmic qualities, independent of time/space represented… rather
than serving narrative fxn
o Ex. Single-frame films (where each shot is only one frame long)
o Ex. Ballet mecanique
o Some narrative filmmakers even subordinate narrative concerns to graphic
patterns occasionally
o Ozu: his cutting is often dictated by a much more precise graphic continuity than
we find in the classical continuity style
o Ex. Cuts from one man drinking sake to another caught in almost exactly the
same position, costume, & gesture
o Ex. Cuts from one man to another, maintaining very similar compositions… even
their beer bottles sit @ same position in frame, rotated to show labels @ same
angle to
 Spatial & temporal discontinuity
o Violate/ignore 180 degree system
o Ex. Ozu uses 360 degree space… work as if the axn were not a line but a pt @
center of a circle & camera can be placed @ any pt on the circumference
 Often doesn’t yield consistent relative positions & screen directions,
eyeline matches out of joint, often matches on action while breaking the
line (huge error in continuity editing)
o Jump cut – when two shots of the same subject are cut together but aren’t
sufficiently different in camera distance & angle -> noticeable jump on the screen
o Ex. Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (similar but not identical angle on woman
driving car, but bkgd of scene outside completely diff)
o Nondiegetic insert – filmmaker cuts from the scene to a metaphorical/symbolic
shot that’s not part of the space & time of the narrative
o Violate temporal discontinuity by messing w/ order, frequency, duration
o Match on action w/ same char & axn but diff bkgds…
 Fxns of discontinuity editing: Eisenstein’s October
o Graphic continuities:
o When Russian & German soldiers fraternize, many shots closely resemble one
another graphically
o A shot of a bursting bomb is graphically matched in this movement w/ men
bustling into a trench
o Graphic discontinuities
o Cut fro a laughing German soldier facing right to a menacing eagle statue (@ gov
headquarters) facing left
o Bold jump cut from flunky who hands gov papers bowing to standing up
o Static shot of rifles thrust into snow cuts to long shot of a bursting shell
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
When soldiers race back to trenches, Eisenstein often opposes their dir of
movement from shot to shot
Cuts contrast shots of cannon slowly descending w/ shots of men crouching in
trenches looking upward
Temporal discontinuities that refuses to present action unambiguously
Spatial discontinuities
No section ever starts w/ an establishing shot
Reestablishing shots are rare
Eisenstein seeks a specific juxtaposition of elements, not obedience to a timeline
Running political commentary
Cut from crouching soldiers to a descending cannon & false eyeline match of
men looking up -> men being crushed by the warmaking apparatus of the gov
Then show factory workers lowering cannon -> link oppressed solders to
oppressed proletariat
As cannon hits ground, crosscuts images of it w/ shots of starving families of the
soldiers & workers… also crushed
485-489; 128-146; 82-89; 347-388; 489-496 – Lily Erlinger – erlinger@fas
Italian Neorealism (1942-1951)
 Represents younger generation’s desire to break free of conventions
in Italian cinema (esp. under Mussolini which were considered artificial
and decadent)
o Goal was revealing contemporary social conditions
o Lack of studios (because of war) forced filmmakers into actual
locales and lack of equipment made photographic elements
resemble raw documentary
French New Wave (1959-1964)
 Auteur- the presumed or actual author of a film, usually identified as
the director. Sometimes used in an evaluative sense to distinguish
good filmmakers (auteurs) from bad ones. Generally have a distinctive
style (trademark) that distinguishes them.
 New Wave films had a casual look, in opposition to studio filmmaking
they returned to location shooting, great deal of camera movement,
played with conventions of medium (often resulting in casual humor
with references to other films)
o Founded in a group of young film critics that itched to make own
films, revitalized French film industry
o Causal connections become loosened and jolts expectations
o New Wave films generally end ambiguously
Documentary
 Defined: a film that purports to present factual information about the
world outside the film
o Records events as they occurs
o Can use visual aids (chars, maps, etc)
o Interviews about the subject
o Can stage some action to show factual reality
 Types:
o Compilation
 Assembling images from archival sources
o Interview/talking heads
 Records testimonies about events or movements
o Direct cinema aka cinema verite
 Records ongoing events as they happen
o Nature
 Focuses on nature…bugs, animals plants, weather etc.
o Portrait
 Focuses on scenes from life of a compelling person
o Synthetic documentary
 Mixture of all/several of these options
 Form:
o Categorical
 Filmic organization in which parts treat distinct subsets of
a topic
 Intended to share with the audience some knowledge
about the world or subject
o Rhetorical
 Filmic organization in which parts create and support an
argument
 Attempts to persuade audience to adopt an opinion and
perhaps to act on it making an explicit argument
 Addresses the viewer openl
 Subject of the film will usually not be an issue of
scientific truth but a matter of opinion
 Appeals to emotions often over factual evidence

Often will attempt to persuade viewer to make a
choice that whill have an effect on his or her every
day life
 Three main types of argument
 Arguments from source: attempts to present film
as reliable source of information with reliable
people backing it up
 Subject-centered arguments: appeals to beliefs
common at time in a given culture (relying on
widespread opinion), using examples to back this
up
 Viewer-centered arguments: appeals to emotions
of viewer (ie patriotism, sentimentality etc)
Narration: Flow of Story Information
 Defined: process by which the plot present story information to the
spectator
 Unrestricted narration
o Viewer sees all characters, we know more, see and hear more,
than any of the charactors can
o Omniscient narration
 Restricted narration
o Viewer sees film about single character, and we don’t see or
hear anything that he cannot see and hear
 Mixed and fluctuating
o Fluctuates between omniscience and restriction
 Hierarchy of knowledge
o Created in plot’s range of story information (does the viewer
know more than, less than, or as much as the characters do)
 Objective- all narration is what information is already external
 Perceptual subjectivity- greater degree of subjectivity
o Sound perspective-audience can hear sounds that characters
hear
o Point-of-view shot- shots taken from character’s optical
standpoint
 Mental subjectivity
o Internal voice or dreams, viewer is plunged into character’s
mind
 Narrator vs character
o Agent who purports to be telling us story
 CAN be a character in the sotry
 Can also be a noncharacter narrator
 Common in documentaries, but fiction can use
commentators as well
 Device used to elicit sense of realism
Perceptual properties of sound:
 Loudness
o Amplitude or breadth of vibrations in air creates volume
o Can be used to convey distance or to shock audience (soft
scene, sudden loud noise)
 Pitch
o Frequency of sound vibrations affects sperceived highness or
lowness of the sound
 Timbre
o Harmonic components of sound give it a color or tone quality
o Is the “texture” of the sound
 Sound is continually manipulated
o Mixing: combinging two or more sound tracks by recording
them onto a single one
o Dialogue overlap: in editing a scene, arranging the cut so that
a bit of dialogue coming from shot A is head under a shot that
shows another character on another element in the scene
o Sound can be used as a motif, or patterns that run throughout
the film
Dimensions of film sound:
 because sound occupies a duration it has a rhythm
o a beat or pulse, tempo or pace, and a pattern of accents
(stronger or weaker beats)
o generally visual and sonic rhythms are matched but variation
possible (ie fast music but long take and shot contrast this)
o can cut against natural speech rhythms to smooth over changes
of shots (ie dialogue overlap)
o change in rhythm can suggest a shif tin expectations (music
especially can set scenes, melancholy or suspenseful)
 Can relate to its perceived source with greater or lesser fidelity
o Faithfulness to the source as we conceive it (bark to dog, rather
than meow to dog)
o Can be used to play sonic jokes
 Conveys a sense of spatial conditions in which it occurs
o diegetic sound- from within the story world
 can be off-screen (creating expectations) or onscreen
(fulfilling them)
 internal diegetic sound- that which comes from inside
the mind of the character (also known as a sound over
because are not from real space of the scene)
 external diegetic sound- that which we as spectators
take to have a physical source in the scene
o nondiegetic sound- from a source outside the story world,
music most common type
 sound effects also possible (football game sounds over
chase scene as a audible metaphor)

o sound perspective- sense of spatial distance and location
analogous to cues for visual depth and volume that we get with
visual perspective
 can narrow our focus to specific important things
Relates to visual events that take place in a specific time giving it a
temporal dimension
o Sound can link scenes together by beginning in one place and
continuing in another time (someone telling a story)
 Synchronous sound-sound that is matched temporally
with the movements occurring in the images, as when
dialogue corresponds to lip movements
 Asynchronous- sound that is NOT matched temporally
with movements in images
 Simultaneous sound-diegetic sound that is represented
as occurring at the same time in the story as the image it
accompanies
 Nonsimultaneous-diegetic sound that comes from a
source in time either earlier or later than the images it
accompanies
 Sound bridge-1. A the beginning of one scene the
sound from the previous scene carries over briefly before
the sound from the new scene begins. 2. At the end of
one scene, the sound from the next scene is heard,
leading into that scene