9/20 – The Film Archive and the Film Study Print
Sara Slavin – sslavin@fas
• More than half of the films produced before 1949 are lost
- It is television that motivated studios to preserve their films
• For this reason we must try to view films historically
- We must imagine what it must have been like to see the original print
- The differences between 35mm and 16mm or video are large
• Film archives and the film study print
- Only four film studies programs in the country have a film archive
- They restore films and as well as protect them
• Differences between film and video
- Cinematography (mechanical, chemical reproduction, analog,
equivalent to 2300-3000 horizontal lines and 12 million pixels per
frame)
- Video (electronic, magnetic media, analog and digital, NTSC = 525
lines, 350,000 pixels)
- a video transfer is less sharp, has less contrast, and produces less of a
sense of depth; the reproduction of color is different; the scale of the
image is different; power of motion is attenuated because film is 24
frames per second while Pal video is 25 and NTSC is 30; the shape of
the frame is different, which is called “panning and scanning”
(Citizen Kane frame demonstrating differences in coloration, lines and
distortion)
• Film and video
- Slide 11 contains detailed chart comparing film to analogue and digital
video
• How silent film audiences saw and heard the films
- There were high standards of photographic beauty, tinting and toning
of the film, no standard shape or frame or speed of projection until
1930; each performance was unique
- Slide 13 shows the motion picture palace, big film theater located in
New York (1913)
• The fragility of film and the work of the FIAF (International Federation of
Film Archives)
- Before 1915 85% of films were lost; Between 1920-29 of the 6,600 75%
lost, from 1930-39 of 5,500 25% lost, and 1940-49 of 5,000 10% lost.
- There were many paths to destruction for films, from over-exploitation
to assumed obsolescence (after “primitive period,” transition to sound,
for safety reasons, to recover silver or nitrate)
- Also, projectors were “film grinders,” censorship and reediting of films,
from Technicolor to Eastman color
• Archival compromises for preservation
- Aesthetics of the dupe (protects original but each subsequent copy is
deteriorated in focus, contrast, and color)
- Reediting for “aesthetic” purposes
- Problems of non-standardized aspect ratios and film speeds
• Metropolis is an example of a “lost” film that has undergone many stages
This introductory lecture was mainly to discuss the way in which we ought to
see films, especially older films. Due to the fact that many old films have
been partly or entirely lost, it’s not possible for current viewers to simply
evaluate the work based upon what remains. Additionally, context changes
over time and our interpretation of the film alters. Therefore, Rodowick said
that we ought to look at films historically.
Some questions he asks us to consider:
 What might have it been like to watch this film in its first release, with
the audience for which is was originally intended?
 What changes mght have occurred in existing versions of the print?
 How might the video version(s) differ from the photographic print one?
Difference between film and video copies of the film include:
 An altered aspect ratio, as videos are formatted to fit television
screens.
 The need to pan and scan on the video print because of the altered
dimensions
 Film has more pixels (12 million), higher contrast ratio (1000:1),
sharper images, and more depth.
 Film has whole frame movement. Video has movement from half fields.
(There is a section in this week’s Film Art reading about the difference
in how film
 and video are projected)
 Film is normally at 24 fps. Video is normally at 30 fps.
Silent Films
 For many films of the era, the term is technically a misnomer.
 Many “silent films” had full scores and, at times, live orchestras
performing. Each viewing was a unique experience.
 In Europe, they were shown in “motion picture palaces”.
Film Archive
 Before 1915, 85% of all films are currently lost.
 1920-29: 75% lost / 1930-39: 25% lost / 1940-49: 10% lost
 Even then, lost works are not necessarily complete works or in their
original form.
Why were so many films lost?
 Every time a film is run through a projector it gets damaged to some
extent. Continuous viewings deteriorate the quality of the print.
 Some films were also censored and/or reedited.
 Metropolis is one such work. There are multiple versions. To this day,
scenes from the original still remain missing and will probably never
be uncovered.
NOTE: Given that this was one of the first lectures, a bit on the technical
side, and that admission to the course hadn’t yet been finalized, Rodowick
didn’t’ deviate much from the lecture slides.
9/25, 9/27 – Architectures of Narrative
Sara Slavin – sslavin@fas
I. Common Properties of Narratives
Most narratives are defined by unity, closer, and “imaginariness.”
Unity refers to a self-contained whole with a beginning, middle and end.
Closure refers to a completed sequence of events. Imaginariness refers to the
coherence of the fictional world within the film. The Usual Suspects shares
these common properties of narrative, while a film like Scorpio Rising
departs from them and arguably has no narrative.
II. Diegesis
The diegesis is the fictional world implied by the film. It is a function of both
plot (what happens the film) and story (how the spectator views what has
occurred in the film).
Extradiegetic elements are used to comment on the film’s narrative, such as
when Eisenstein inserts a shot of a cow being slaughtered to depict the
slaughter of Russians.
III. Narratives are Motivated
Every element contributes to forming an organized film system. Every
element of a film functions in a meaningful way.
IV. Motifs
Motifs are repetitive elements used throughout a film and are often used to
suggest similarities among different narrative elements.
There are motifs in almost all of the films in this course: e.g. No Trespassing
in Kane, machinery in Metropolis, music (Fight the Power) in Do the Right
Thing, the mechanical toys in La Regle du Jeu, revolutionary symbols in
Battleship Potemkin, red kettle in Higanbana, etc.
V. What are some of the conventions of narrative film?
Classical Hollywood cinema is an aesthetic norm. Most films today still fall
within this set of conventions:
1. Human centered. There is usually a central protagonist that drives the
story forward.
2. Driven by desire.
3. Built on opposition and conflict. Protagonist and antagonist.
4. Linear—actions and events are linked in a cause-effect chain.
5. Clear and complete motivation of action and events. When elements
are presented in the film, there are intended to be meaningful on
several levels. This ties into a strong sense of closure.
6. Objective or omniscient narration. The camera shows us more than
characters can now. Many films use a mix of objective and subjective
narration.
7. Strong sense of closure.
VI. How have Singer and Welles played with the Hollywood
conventions?
1. In both Usual Suspects and Citizen Kane it is unclear who the protagonist
is. The reporter Thompson is a marginal figure and Kane doesn’t drive the
action forward in the film. In the Usual Suspects, there are multiple
protagonists until late in the film (no clear lead actor).
2. In Citizen Kane, there is the desire to figure out what rosebud means. In
Usual Suspects, we don’t immediately know what the desire is. Later it is,
“Who is Kaiser Sose?”
3. In Usual Suspects, the primary conflict is between Kevin Spacey and the
detectives, a conflict over truthfulness.
4. Both films use flashbacks. In Usual Suspects, the segments are repeated to
you in a linear format. Elements of linearity and nonlinearity. Kane is very
nonlinear.
5. On the whole, both films are clear and completely motivated. Not many
loose ends. In Citizen Kane, there are still open ends. Even though we know
Rosebud was his sled, it doesn’t take away from our interest in Kane.
6. Kane is based on flashbacks so each flashback uses subjective narration,
while we begin and end with objective narration (the news clip and the sled).
VII. Plot and Story
Plot – Plot refers to the ordering of actions and events as they actually
appear in the film in their closed and irreversible sequence. The plot is
organized by various patterns of development. Plot is scenes as they are
presented to you in the film.
Story – Story refers to the spectator’s mental reconstruction of those action
and events into a chronological and meaningful pattern. The spectator infers
story information and chronology from the cues offered by plot presentation.
VIII. Patterns of Development
In most Hollywood films, most plots are structured in three acts (Hitchcock
likes five acts). The film is further divided into six plot sections of narrative
development. The typical Hollywood plot follows a canonic form.
The six basic plot sections:
1. Exposition
2. Conflicts defined and developed
3. Potential successes and failures
4. Apparent disaster
5. Rapid turn of events
6. Climax and conclusion
There seem to be blocks of story presented in Usual Suspects and then a cut
to the hospital (dividing the film into four acts). Each time Singer comes back
to the hospital, you learn more about Kaiser Sose.
Usual Suspects plot sections:
1. Initial mystery on docks of San Pedro.
2. Conflicts unfolded in flashbacks.
3. Great success of the taxi service but then failures.
4. When they discover that Fenster is dead, there is a sense of apparent
disaster.
5. The sequence where you see the story fall apart.
6. Climax is dropping the coffee cup and the story concludes.
The canonic form follows a basic pattern (seven phases of action):
1. Initial state of affairs
2. Violence or rupture
3. Restoration
4. Undisturbed state
5. Disturbance
6. Struggle
7. Elimination of Disturbance
One also finds two interrelated plot lines. Each plot line encompasses a goal,
an obstacle, and a climax. The two plot lines coincide at the climax. Resolving
one plot line in turn triggers the resolution of the other. In action movies, the
hero saves the day and gets the girl.
IX. Why segment a narrative?
Segmentation helps us understand the basic principles of plot structure and
organization.
Lecture slides have criteria for defining a segment. The most obvious
criterion is a unity of time, place, and action. Important to think about formal
elements that define a scene (opening scene in Kane is slow, moving ever
closer, and eventually moving into Kane’s room).
10/2, 10/4 – Mise-en-scene, or the Sculpting of Reality
Beth Kolbe – ekolbe@fas
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Mise-en-scéne, a French theater term, literally means “put into the
scene.” It is also known as profilmic space and it refers to sets, props,
lighting, and blocking of actors as they are constructed and organized
to be filmed.
When analyzing realism in a film, Rodowick stresses that you don’t
look for plausibility, but verisimilitude or the following of a film’s
internal rules.
Art Director = Production Designer, works to design the storyboard,
assures continuity and efficiency. In charge of the sets, costumes,
make-up, and special effects … all aspects of mise-en-scéne. Other
notables mentioned; gaffer – lighting design, key grip – physically sets
up lights.
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Lighting. Extremely expressive and complex. 2 types: existing light or
natural and motivated or artificial (“practicals” are fake prop lights”)
o Lighting variables
 Source: 4-point lighting system: key light, fill light, back
or rimlight (can create a ‘halo’ effect on the top of the head
– popular in the 1930s), and background light
 Quality: hard light (think flashlight on face) or soft light
(creates sympathy or helplessness). Low key (chiaroscuro
effect, produces stark contrast and a somber/dramatic
look) or high key (little contrast with overall
illumination).
 Direction: frontal, side/“kick”, underlighting (flashlight
under chin look), backlighting (creates silhouette)
 Color (can be a depth cue)
Pre-digital era (Metropolis) the set was very architectural. Current
film focuses on post-production and digital components.
o Analyzing scenes from Metropolis based on mise-en-scéne: notice
light and visual design (dark v light clothing, dark underground
v bright towers), graphical topography of the city (differences
between the towers, church, unassuming hut, garden for the
rich, and factory below ground), and the geometry of the crowd
showing order and chaos (marching to and from work, symmetry
of the machines)
10/11 – Framing Space and Writing Movement (1) –
Carolyn McCandlish – mccandl@fas
Defining & controlling the space of the frame
o Aspect ratio: measures shape and dimensions of filmed image;
defines proportions of frame by taking the ratio of the length of one of
its sides to that of its top & bottom
 Academy ratio (35mm), 1:1.33; Cinemascope (35mm
anamorphic) 1:2.35; Panavision (35 mm) 1:1.85; Super
Panavision (70mm) 1:2.23
 Widescreen formats
- Nonanamorphic
- Anamorphic: compared with normal photograph,
anamorphic camera takes in a much wider angle of view
and produces a laterally compressed image on the film
 compensating lens in projection expands the
squeezed image for wide screen presentation
- Widescreen style in the 50s (Charles Barr)
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Predisposition towards panoramas and views in
long shot, stressing interrelatedness of characters
and environments
 Increased use of camera movement and long takes
 Frontal orientation of camera, framing movement
of characters in pro-filmic space.
- Splitscreen (“Run Lola Run”)
o Masking: controlling shape of frame by blocking off or masking part of
the image either at camera or during printing process
 Looking in on outsiders, seeing through another’s eyes, etc.
o Camera placement:
 Camera height
- Low: relative size/placement of characters
- High: overview of scenes, ceilinged sets
 Camera angle
- High and low angles: from a character’s point of view
(dominator, dominated, rebellious, etc)
- Static and dynamic compositions:
 Static: elements appear to be at rest
 Dynamic: off-center/low angle, seems to be falling,
sense of movement
 Camera level
- Canted frames: tilting frame down and to right increases
dynamism of frame in “Do the Right Thing”
10/16 – Framing Space and Writing Movement (2) –
Carolyn McCandlish – mccandl@fas
Defining & controlling the space of the frame
o Camera placement:
 Camera height
 Camera angle
 Camera level
 Camera distance or scale: perception of size of image relative to
that of the frame; function of focal distance and focal length
- Focal distance: the distance between camera and subject
- Focal length: property of the camera lens
 A measurement of the lens’s optics relative to its
powers of magnification
 The longer the lens, the greater its powers of
magnification
o Long or telephoto lenses: 75mm or more
(highest magnification)
o “Normal” lenses: 35-50mm (35mm film)
o Short or wide angle lenses: 35 mm or less
o A zoom, or variable focal length lens
combines all these properties in one lensmimics camera movements, but the camera
does not move, it increases or decreases
magnification of objects in frame
- Scale and cutting height: Extreme long shot (ELS) actors
dwarfed by background; Long shot (LS) actors small
against background, etc.
o Perspective: refers to our perception of depth relative to the scale of
the image
 Depth of field: the range of distance in front of the camera that
is in sharp focus, relative distance between objects; telephoto
lens changes depth by squeezing space laterally
 Shallow focus: Directing our attention to the foreground of the
frame by throwing the background out of focus, or vice versa
- Rack-focus: Shifting focus between foreground and
background within an image
 Deep focus allows us to see clearly throughout the depth of the
frame
- Deep space composition: a strategy of mise-en-scène where
all the planes of the image--foreground, middle ground,
and background--are in sharp focus; staging action in
deep space requires large depth of field
- Deep focus photography: a use of camera lens and lighting
that keeps both close and distant planes in the
photographic image in sharp focus
 Perspective and mise-en-scène- depth cues suggest a space has
volume and distinct planes through:
- Size diminution
- Overlapping edges
- Convergence of parallel lines
- Color differences
- Aerial perspective
 Distortions of perspective
- A “normal” lens (50mm) equivalent to how eyes and brain
perceive depth
- A short or wide-angle lens (35mm or less) distorts space
by curving it, bending space out from the center of the
frame to the edges
 Fisheye lens: curves everything
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A long or telephoto lens (75mm or more) distorts
perspective by flattening space; squeezes image, angles
diminished- telephoto distortion
10/23, 10/25 – Deep Space, Mobile Framing, and the Long Take
Leah McDonald – lmcdonal@fas
10/25 – Deep Space, Mobile Framing, and the Long Take (2) - Leah McDonald
– lmcdonal@fas
Deep Space, Mobile Framing, and the Long Take (10/23 & 10/25)
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Andre Bazin (1918-1958) and his film aesthetic
o Film writer/critic/theorist who founded cine club in German
occupied France during WWII and the influential Cahiers du
cinema
o Aesthetic of realism based on Welles, Renoir, and Italian neorealist
movement
o Fan of the use of deep space, mobile framing, and the long take to
portray reality in a creative way
o Camera has a temporal function of recording uninterrupted time as
well as a spatial function of preserving the relation between
characters and their environments
o Deep focus allows every element of reality to become meaningful
o Moving camera appeals to cinema as an art of time and movement,
increases perceptual info, provides multiple perspectives including
ones freed from the constraints of the body, increases depth and
volume
o Ethics of film spectatorship
 These film techniques require greater mental activity since
they produce a perception similar to our natural intake of
reality
 Editing on the other hand removes ambiguity
Mobile Framing
o Pan, tilt, tracking/traveling, crane, handheld
Zoom vs Camera Movement
o Both types of mobile framing
o Camera does not move during a zoom, frame in enlarged or
reduced, character will stay the same size while perspective will
change
Sabotage
o Example of analytic editing – the opposite of Bazin’s aesthetic
o Camera directs our eye where it needs to be and action is
segmented
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Rules of the Game
o Action staged on multiple planes which movement through the
planes to counter the “lateral” orientation of many films
o Moving camera is an observer and participant
o All six sides of off-screen space are used
o “Cards on the Table” scene
 all sides of the frame are used
 not many close ups or cut aways
 camera stays eye level as if in active relationship with the
scene
 actions occurs in 360 degrees
 narrative weaves together multiple subplots
 multiple planes of depth
 lack of cuts makes action seems less artificial and preserves
parallels
o Party scene
 Panning draws the relationships together
 Transfer and comment on theatricality of the plot
 Use of doors – frames within frames leads to action coming in
from offscreen or being closed off
 Always a sense of action coming in and out
10/30, 11/1 – The Shapes of Time: Film Editing
Laura Stafford – staffor@fas
Editing: deals with when and where to cut in constructing a film. Even for
Bazin, who advocates long takes, editing is still a very important issue.
Two main styles: Continuty (or “analytic”) editing: perfected in the Hollywood
studio system, and involves invisible transitions, the subordination of a shot
to a segment, and the implication of a passive spectator. Discontinuity: used
usually for modernist or experimental films; often involves the use of
montage, foregrounds shot transitions, and stresses the formal integrity of
each shot; this style of editing calls for an active, engaged spectator.
The continuity system
- Follows a single story line through a sentence
- Shots are broken down to highlight shots of narrative importance.
- Transitions are designed graphically and rhythmically so that the
spectator doesn’t see them.
- Thus, the continuity system “does the work for you”; it directs your
attention to where it is needed to be. Thus, the spectator becomes
passive.
Ballet Mecanique:
- An example of discontinuity editing
- “Painterly” film focusing on relationships between shots.
- Contains graphic, pictorial, collision-based transitions that
challenge the spectator.
These two styles are not diametrically opposed: Films increasingly blend
elements of continuity and discontinuity.
Four areas of choice and control:
- Rhythmic relations:
o Metrical montage. This refers to montages formed from shot
lengths, where shot lengths occur in metrical ratios to create
certain “feel” or rhythm.
- Graphic relations:
o Formed from elements of line, shape, depth, angle, tonal
contrast (different shapes), and speed and direction of
movement.
o This is illustrated by a clip from Ballet Mecanique, wherein
rapid-fire machine-gun-style editing gives unusual
juxtapositions of scenes and spatial relationships. This draws
a distinct contrast between camera angles, scale, and line
between shots.
- Spatial relations:
o “The Kuleshov effect”: a cinematic montage effect
demonstrated by Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov. The effect
shows how meaning in a shot can be effected by its
relationship to the other shots around it. In the experiment,
he demonstrated how the same actor’s expression changes its
meaning depending on the shots immediately after it. When
two shots are jutxtaposed naturally, we look for meaning in
these shots. This notion is anathema to Bazin, who believes
that the spectator should be given the chance to interpret the
meaning of a shot.
o Creative geography: Refers to the idea that one can use
images without any real relation to assemble a new physical
reality, creating a fictional reality and specific semantic
relations between shots.
- Temporal relations:
o Jumpcuts: editing to show lapses in time or to cut between
movements
o Overlapping edits: tend to distend time, increasing the time
it takes for a single action to play out on screen.
o Flashbacks and flashforwards: Jumps in narrative time.
Sergei Eisenstein:
- Early Soviet theorist, whose films and theories were closely tied to
Soviet ideology. He believed that his theory of art should be
subsumed by the social command of Soviet ideology.
- He was one of the first filmmakers to utilize montage to create new
perspectives on images, and he believed that what happened
between shots – the juxtaposition of two images – mattered more
than the shots themselves.
- Rather than guide the spectator through shots in a storyline, he
wanted the spectator to build an understanding greater than
reality, or to synthesize an abstract idea in the mind of a spectator.
- “Montage cell”: In Eisenstein’s theories, montage cells were formed
from the collision of related scenes, when the collisions themselves
were meant to carry meaning. Editing involved producing these
collisions between shots. Graphics across shots would be
“montaged” to create a new effect and to bring to mind a new
abstract idea.
- Thus, Eisenstein hoped to create the abstract through the
juxtaposition of the concrete, through the contrast and collision of
images. In so doing he hoped to make 2 shots more than their
content, through a dynamism or dynamization of the frame.
Theory of Spectatorship:
- Direct forcefully the emotions and thought processes of the
spectator as a series of “shocks”
o Pavlov’s reflexology: stimulus and response
o Marxist dialectic: Out of conflicts comes a higher unity, a
synthetic idea in the mind of the spectator.
- Montage as a bridge between:
o Laws of aesthetic form
o Laws of mind
- Dialectics:
o “From conflict or collision to a higher unity”
o “The dialectic as a leap from quantity (aesthetic form) to
quality (transformation of consciousness in the spectator)”.
Vertical Montage – the following list shows Eisenstein’s gradation from
lowest to highest forms of montage:
- Metric montage
o Physiological: photograms resolving into motion
o Shot length and pacing
- Rhythmic montage
o Artificially produced movement (logical and alogical)
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o Conflict between frames and syncopation of movement in
frame
Tonal montage
o Organization of “dominant” image or shape
Associational or overtonal montage
o Emotional dynamization through chains of psychological
associations
Intellectual montage
o Conceptual; involves logical deduction
The metaphor of the stone lions dramatizes this sense of montage: the lion is
first shown resting, then shown waking up, then shown sitting up and
roaring. The juxtaposition of these shots of the stone lion dramatizes the
rising of the people and of the Soviet revolution. Similarly, the morning mist
sequence from Battleship Potemkin is meant to convey a sense of sadness.
Intellectual montage: the utopia of Eisenstein’s montage theories. Creates
abstract non-diegetic elements. The example from class shows the
progression from highly ornate religious imagery through to the most utterly
simplistic piece of imagery available, showing that all religion comes from the
same, essentially simplistic and primitive root.
Dynamic structure and “ecstatic” composition: combination of different
images to show dynamism and sense of emotions rising.
11/6 – “An Excessively Obvious Cinema”: Continuity Editing (1)
Rachel Stern – rstern@fas
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Begun by talking about the development of narrative cinema. Showed
an early film, tom, tom the pipers son. In so called narrative cinema in
the beginning there wasn’t much of a sense of how to make film
narrate.
o No sense of thinking about hwat the dramatic is, what action is,
breaking down action into closer shots and linking shots with
some kind of logic.
o There’s all this confusing action in oen scene without any way of
directing the spectators attention.
The continuity system was almost completely in place by 1917
including the “rules” of contiuity and strategies, directorial strategies
for organizing a space narratively. That’s a fairly rapid evolution.
It had two objectives: The goal is to define and link shots within
segments so as the maximize the dramatic impact of each shot and to
direct the audiences attention to significant parts of the actions.
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There are a number of industrial premises behind the development of
the continuity style.
o Audience should perform no labor of attention, audiences
memory of dramatic space must be reinforced through constant
repetition, audience interest should be maintained through
patterned variation of scale and angle. Their attention should
be attracted and maintained.
Following the industrial premises you can talk about six aesthetic
premises.
o The first idea is that the linking of action through changing
shots should be linear and secular. For ex in Casablanca most of
the actions organized are linear and consecutive, following a
logic of cause and effect. There is one flashback that breaks the
linearity but we come back from the flashback to the point at
which we left.
Though generally passage from one shot to another should be
continuous in CE, sometimes you want to feel the cut because you
want to surprise the spectator, because you want to give a balance
between continuity and discontinuity.
The aim of CE is to balance unity and repetition against surprise.
He shows examples and uses them to point out features of continuity
editing:
o When changing setups change the scale, the angle or both. The
camera angle should always shift by at least 30 degrees and by
no more than 180.
o Compositionally film makers recognize that you should keep five
things in mind. That graphic patterns are similar from shot to
shot, that figures should be balanced and symmetrical, that
lighting is constant and consistent, that dramatic action is
centered in the frame and the rhythm of editing follows the scale
of the shot. The longer the shot the longer it should be held on
screen. If you have a shot at a large scale you hold it for a sec so
that people can see what’s going on.
11/8 – “An Excessively Obvious Cinema”: Continuity Editing (2)
Rachel Stern – rstern@fas
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Don’t forget the 180 degree line, an important part of CE
o Though you learn that shooting within a 180 degree space is an
invariable, rule of continuity directors are always trying to find
other creative options
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Ford was known for keeping continuity in his head and shot only
exactly what he needed so when the footage went out of his hands
could only be shot in one way.
Also helpful for continuity: Eyeline matching. It refers to the direction
of their eyelines matching one another rather than the specific
graphical place. Eyelines are an anchor in Casablanca
So is matching angles. The liquor bottle in the scene he shows a
million times (the scene surrounding the flashbac) is a graphical
anchor around which the angle changes occur
Match on action cutting is also important. Cutting when a character
moves and then matching the action across to where they move
smoothes over the cut.
Conventional editing is either stablishment, breakdown,
reestablishment or shot reverse shot
Despite all of the advancements of and evoutiosn in film, CE is still a
primary way of thinking about dramatic space.
Ways in which CE is used to create a seamless Diagesis:
o Linkage of actions should be linear and consecutive, passage
from one shot to the next should be perceived as continuous.
Unrestricted narration and omniscience of camera. (evident in
the fly-on-the-wall camera shots in Casablanca). Also ives us
great perceptual freedom.
o Some commentators find the continuity system and the classical
narrative inherently voyeuristic. The ideal relation between the
spectator and the place of the film is that the spectator is an
invisible onlooker at an ideal vantage point
11/13, 11/15 – Non-Classical Expression and Non-Western
Cinema: Japan -- Ali Greenfield – agreenf@fas
Norms and modes
- Norms: standard of compositional options established by fiat or
practice
o Intrinsic norms: pattern of coherence set by individual films
o Extrinsic norms: canonic style organizing patterns of coherence
relevant to large groups of films
- Narrational mode: a historically distinct set of norms of narrational
construction and comprehension
- Deviations from the norm help us understand current practices
- None of the films we’ve seen (except Casablanca with Classical
Hollywood Cinema) conforms perfectly to an extrinsic norm
Alternative modes of narration (in contrast to Classical Hollywood Cinema)
- Art Cinema / “European Art Film” / international cinema
o Style before story
o Ambiguous narratives with weak causal links
o Nonlinear time schemes
o “Expressive realism”: subjective space, extension of character
psychology
o Characters observe rather than acting as causal agents
o Restricted narration
Historical-materialist narration (i.e. Battleship Potemkin)
- Rhetorical & didactic narration, overt address to the spectator
- Expository titles produce an overt and self-conscious narration
- Plot treated as narrative and argument
- Poetic procedures for rhetorical ends
- Montage: a visible, self-conscious, omnipotent manipulation of
profilmic space
- Omniscient narration characterized by cross-cutting and comparison
- Conception of a character: narrative causality is supraindividual,
character as (class) type, the “mass hero”
Battleship Potemkin as an example of historical-materialist narration
- ideological clarity
- outside narration
- no strong protagonist
- historical force drives film instead of single character’s desire
- expository titles = overt and self-conscious narration
Modes of narration
- Knowledgeability: extent to which narration claims a range & depth of
story info
- Self-consciousness: degree narration acknowledges its address to
spectator
- Communicativeness: extent to which narration
withholds/communicates info
- Ozu tends to push classical narration in a different way: subplots
comment on main action in ironic or commic ways and serve to deepen
& complexify plot
Spatial constructions in Hollywood cinema
- Specific spatial points as locus of action: human-centered space
- Space and objects are correlatives of character traits
- General but not exact continuity of graphic composition
- 180 degree rule
- Organization of scale in segments as inverted pyramid structure
Casablanca clip as example of spatial constructions in Hollywood Cinema
- Inverted pyramid structure: long shot  close ups  reestablishing
shot
Whisky bottle as graphic anchor, indicates Rick’s psychological state
(drunk)
Hollywood and Ozu
- Establishing shot vs. transition shots
- Long shot (master shot) vs. full shot
- Medium two-shot vs. medium shot of each individual
- Reverse angles (OTS shots) vs. full shot
- Alternating medium close-ups vs. alternating medium shots
- Cut-away (or insert) vs. new full shot
- Alternating medium close-ups vs. alternating medium shots
- Re-establishing shots vs. transition shots
Higanbana clip as example of spatial constructions in Non-Classical Cinema
- Notice extreme symmetry, clear depth cues, linearity, cubist space
- Non-pyramidal structure
- Tea kettle as spatial cue
Ozu’s frame composition
- Camera movements are rare
- Low camera height; almost straight-on angles; flat frame
- Spatial structures not motivated by cause/effect chain of narrative
- Emphasis on power of graphic composition to amplify emotion
- Static films despite melodramatic themes (stillness of frame =
restrained emotion)
Ozu’s transitions or “pillow shots”
- Ozu’s film lack punctuation – no fades, dissolves, etc.
- Uses still-lifes or landscapes introduce locations
- Location not strongly motivated by dramatic action or established
retroactively
- Often functions to impede the recognition and start of the following
scene
- Serves as a moment for pause and reflection
Ozu’s use of 360 degree space
- Cuts by multiples of 45 or 90 degrees
- Circular space / rotational cutting: centered by character, object, or
camera
- Compositional patterns providing alternative sense of continuity:
strong spatial anchors, small overlaps at edges of adjacent shots,
eyeline matches
- Matched action cuts across reversed spaces
- Favors composition over editing
Higanbana clip as example of Ozu’s use of 360 degree space
- Consistent graphic line of fruit bowl, liquid in glass, & tea cup
- Levels of liquid in glasses adjusted to create mirroring effect across
shots
- Moves around table cutting on the 180 degree line
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Eyeline match and body position matches
First and last shot are 180 degree mirror images from opposite side of
table
Consequences of film style in Ozu Yasushiro
- Space and objects exist independently of characters and plot – break
identification of characters with space
- Space takes on enhanced graphic power
- Drives wedges into cause/effect chain – link between space and action
is severed
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11/27 – A Conversation with Jean-Michel Frodon
Merrily McGugan – mmcgugan@fas
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Jean-Michel Frodon is the Editor of Cahiers-du-Cinema, a
prestigious French film criticism magazine
Cahiers-du-Cinema is for film critics to write about films in; it’s been
around since the 1950’s
The publication critiques how film uses cinematic techniques to convey
a story; the critics do not discuss whether or not a film is likeable, but
how successful it is in accomplishing this
Frodon also spoke about how digital video is changing the world of
cinema and film
Digital video is not necessarily effacing cinema; digital video is
transforming, but not destroying
11/29 – A Conversation with Nicolas Philibert
Merrily McGugan – mmcgugan@fas
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Nicholas Philibert is a famous French documentary film maker
Since 1968, he has made more than 25 films
One of his most famous films, which we saw in The Art of Film, is “To
Be And To Have”
Philibert spoke mostly about “To Be And To Have” during his visit; in
order to make the movie, he searched for weeks for the perfect
schoolhouse with a mix of children of all ages, often visiting two or
three schools each day
Philibert said he included shots of nature and landscapes in “To Be
And To Have” so that the film would not become oppressively trapped
inside the tiny world of the French schoolhouse
Interesting fact: the teacher of the school, Mr. Lopez, actually sued
Philibert after the film did very well financially, because he said the
attractiveness of the film came from his teaching methods and from his
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role in the film as teacher… and he had not been compensated
financially by Philibert for the use of these onscreen
Philibert said, “There are no bad subjects for films; there are only bad
films”
12/4 – Point of View: Putting the Viewer in the Picture (1)
Yakir Reshef – yreshef@fas
1. Three different kinds of point of view
1. Point of view of camera
2. Point of view of character
3. Point of view of spectator
2. Purpose of point of view: controlling the flow of story information
1. To channel, direct, and control the spectator's knowledge and desire
along the predetermined pathways of the plot
3. Three different meanings of point of view
1. Ideology
1. Point of view formulates sets of moral or evaluative norms,
beliefs, or opinions. These moral norms may be challenged or
placed in conflict, but they usually are reconfirmed as a
condition of narrative closure. (eg. in Battleship Potemkin, the
Bolshevik point of view)
2. Interpretation
1. To lay out, in the unfolding of the plot, different levels or degrees
of knowledge (between camera, characters, and audience) in the
resolution of a mystery and the accomplishment of a desire. (how
and when the movie gives the viewer story information)
3. Identification
1. Point of view establishes for the spectator mental points of entry
into the narrative. It enables the audience to identify with the
characters, to be caught up in their desires and their fortunes,
and to be carried away by the plot. (in Potemkin, identification
with the proletariat)
4. Point of view and film style
1. POV can control the range of story information in many ways...
1. Levels of knowledge
1. Omniscient narration
2. A character who speaks directly to himself/herself (like an
interior voice-over)
3. Spreading knowledge and limiting perspective across several
characters
2. Unrestricted and restricted narration (are we limited to what
specific characters know?)
2. POV can also control the depth of story information on three
5.
6.
7.
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different levels.
1. Spatial association (just things on the screen)
2. Optical point of view (what someone is literally seeing)
3. Mental subjectivity (what is going on in a character's mind,
including things that aren't literally happening)
Ways to suggest optical point of view
1. Over-the-shoulder shot (not literal point of view, but close)
1. Most classical Hollywood dialogue scenes follow this (eg.
Casablanca)
2. Point of view (POV) shot
1. Screenshot in lecture: girl looking down from a window, followed
by a shot from her POV
3. Point-glance figure
1. This deals with editing – you show someone looking at
something, then cut to a shot of that thing from what might be
that person's POV
4. Subjective shots
1. Example from Hitchcock movie (Spellbound?). A gun shoots the
camera while it is shown from a POV. This suggests a very
subjective experience.
2. Mental subjectivity – things in a character's mind (the machinemonster in Metropolis, and the dream sequence from Cat People)
--- Rodowick did not reach in lecture the below items in the lecture
slides, but I'll reproduce them for completeness --Point of view and spectator psychology
1. How the spectator identifies with the narrative and the image (see
Christian Metz)
1. Identification with the camera (primary cinematic identification)
2. Identification with a character (secondary cinematic
identification)
Continuity editing and the spectator
1. To maximize the visual pleasure of the spectator by minimizing the
degree of mental and perceptual effort required to understand the
film.
1. Presupposes a passive spectator
2. A suppressed awareness of your own interpretive activity.
2. The spectator placed as an invisible onlooker at an ideal vantage
point.
Point of view and spectator psychology
1. Continuity editing and the mobility of point of view
1. The spectator's seamless movement between levels of point of
view
2. The power of anonymous and invisible witnessing
2. Continuity editing, with its constantly changing fields and views,
encourages spectators to move psychologically, freely and easily,
between different levels of point of view
12/6 – Point of View: Putting the Viewer in the Picture (2)
Yakir Reshef – yreshef@fas
10. Ideology and point of view (Ally Field's Lecture)
1. The point of view of the film establishes an implicit set of values
2. These values are conveyed and carried by film form
1. Industry or government regulations can influence the ideology
that comes through.
2. Presentation of conflicting values in the plot (eg. Do the Right
Thing)
3. Aesthetic ideologies and film style.
3. Formal elements can serve ideological purposes by, for example,
implying power dynamics.
1. Montage (many examples in Eisenstein)
2. Long take / deep focus
3. Framing
4. Mise-en-scène
4. Elements of film form and style are not innocent. They may
preserve and perpetuate, in their very form, certain social attitudes
and exclude others.
11. Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (Laura Mulvey, 1975)
1. Mulvey uses psychoanalytic theory as a political weapon:
1. She aims to expose ways unconscious structures are involved in
ways of seeing and how they are manifested in cinema.
2. Pleasures of the cinema according to Mulvey:
1. Scopophilia / voyeurism
2. Narcissism
3. Women = to-be-looked-at-ness (examples from The Birds)
1. POV makes the male gaze active
2. POV makes the female a passive participant
12. What happens when Melanie looks?
1. The birds attack
13. Basically, Ally argues that the formal elements of The Birds
perpetuate the traditional power dynamic between the genders
through enhancing the idea that the male gaze is active while the
female gaze ought to be passive. Whenever Melanie becomes an active
observer in the movie, she is punished.
12/11 – Sound: The Art of Listening to Movies (1)
Gregor Brodsky – gbrodsky@fas
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Silent period (1895-1927)
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o Sound & music have always been a component of film (even
“silent” film)
o Live orchestra, played in live sync with the film
o Film was never really silent
Construction of sound space
o MYTH: Sound is more realistic than the image
 We perceive recorded sounds more like we perceive them
in real life (answer: who knows?)
Stages of sound production
o (conceiving and building sound production)
o Very little of recorded sound is in the movie
 Problems with ambient noise, actor not happy with vocal
performance, though physical was good  allows for
greater control over performances
 Sound added after the fact
 AROUND 200 sound sources/channels: Dialogue, effects,
music
 5-10 dialogue
 25 sets of background
 40 Foley effects
 10 stereo effects (left, right, and rear)
 50 mono effects
o Recording
 Dialogue, sound effects, and music
 Foley artists
 Construct physical sound effectsnot recording a
real sound; e.g. something that will sound like a
kiss on screen
 A fist on the face is a hammer on a watermelon
 ADR or automatic dialogue replacement
 Post-production added dialogue
o Editing
o Mixing
Scene from Ray
o immersive, subjectivity in sound (with close up shot, hear what
Ray hears)
Sound Perspective
o Close vs. distant mic’ing [microphoning]
o reverberation
o multichannel reproduction in film theaters
o Citizen Kane
 being closer and further away from the microphone
 a sense of depth & complexity just through mixing of
different sounds
Orson Wells was a radio producer, so he had a great
conception of production of sound
 then the argument over crossword puzzles, then picnic in
the everglades  final falling out
o In Citizen Kane, different kinds of visual spaces within the
sound cues and how we’re supposed to relate to them
 huge cavernous hall of Xanadu: heavy reverberation,
adjustment of voices,
 voices more closely microphoned, sound is drier
 at everglades
 cutting between two spaces: inside the tent (Kane
and Susan alone; everyone else and jazz band
around camp fire)
 at close up of singersound goes way up, then
fades as we move away
 cut backs from the tent
 as it gets more violent, there’s a woman screaming
in the backgroundsubjective analog to the scene
(hear her, but don’t see her)
 first time you come to Kane and Susan in the
tent don’t hear jazz band, second time you do
 first time it’s more intimate; second timeprivate
scene is surrounded by stuff, about to be made
more public
Stereo reproduction of sound
o In the auditorium, sounds surround us
o George Lucas
o 1990’s, Spielberg, Scorcese, Francis Ford Coppola, multichannel
sound for spectators
Stereo sound in the film theater
 First fully digital sound track was Dick Tracy (1990)
 Batman Returns (1992)
o Lucasfilm THX
 A systems of guarantees of sound quality, not a sound
processor
 In early 80’s, concerned with horrible quality of sound in
movie theaters, designed a series of sound enhancements
for theater owners to adopt; THX developed them to tune
theaters to best specifications; engineers traveled to do
adjusting
 THX trademark is a way of assuring sound quality to
highest standards
o Dolby Stereo
o Recent sound systems
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Dolby Stereo
Dolby Digital Sound
DTS or Digital Theater Systems
Sony Dynamic Digital Sound
 Digital coding between sprockets
 Digital sound on magnetic coding
 DTS
Razon (I didn’t catch his name…?) is a great innovator of sound in
cinema
o Sparse and detailed; uses real sounds, sometimes almost
rhythmically
o Mouchette
 Ways in which he creates a complex environment through
sound effects
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12/13 – Sound: The Art of Listening to Movies (2)
Gregor Brodsky – gbrodsky@fas
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Mouchette is all dubbedsound was all post-production
Dubbing vs. direct sound
o With dubbing, or post-synchronization, sound and dialogue is
created entirely in the studio
 MOS = “mit out sound” (with out sound transition
happened with Germans around (with sounds like mit in
a German accent)
o Direct sound is recorded on set. Filmmaker uses only unaltered
location sound.
o A clip - Goddard
 Monaural film ambient sounds competing with the
voices
 Gets suddenly quieter because it’s a different takes,
different visual and sound takes
 Awareness of the cut
 repeating of a phrasepreserving of the sound
 when music comes in
 aware of space between cuts and separability of different
elements
sound space, point of view, and levels of narration
 this is sound as a space, how can sound contribute to the
narrative
o off-screen sound
 outside of frame; within diegesis
 within diegesis, but don’t see, but direct things that are
happening off scene
scene where Mouchette’s mother dies (all postsynchronized)
 sound anticipates the action
 the constant sound of trucks passing, and almost
always don’t hear them – why?
o There’s a world outside of Mouchette’s world
o Truck sound, truck lights passparallel to
mother passing
o Truck passing as a rhythmic occurrence
 Mother’s voice: very closely microphoned (mic’d)
o sound off
 voice-overs
 e.g. in a documentary
 outside of frame; outside of diegesis
sound and the story space of the film
o extradiegetic sound
 music
 voice-over or sound off
 example: music
 exceptions
 musicalssinging is diegetic, orchestra is
extradiegetic
 Blazing Saddles  Count Basie’s orchestra’s in the
middle of the desert when finish the pan
 extradiegetic elements: clip from detective movie
 voice-over, recounting it from some point in the
future
 music
 voice commenting on what happening on what
happening visually; anticipates/directs camera
movement, plot
 disjunction and questioning of reliability of
narrator because character narrating but not with
the camera; gives impression that story being told
in present about past, or future about present
 letter of three films
 internal speech and sound of the motor
o thinking about sound as signifying levels of point of view
 levels carried by different levels of sound
o external diegetic sound
 dialogue
 sound effects
 music in setting
o internal diegetic sound
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 thoughts or inner speech of characters
 Narrative functions of film music
o Cultural musical codes
 we bring certain cultural associations to different kinds of
music
 Mouchette: rock music (yaya music) versus accordion
music
 cultural knowledge of the music
o Cinematic musical codes
 Compositional form of the music contributes to
understanding the narrative function of music
composed for film
 emotional “barometers”
 music directs us, our identification with character’s
feelings, emotions; cues audience to affect of
characters and narration of the film
 harmonic development
 patterns of narrative conflict; dissonance and
resolution
 mouchette: singing the song, stern music teacher;
singing song about hope; she refuses; then sings off
key  rebellious, especially if can sing perfectly to
Arsene
 rhythm or pacing
 interact with narrative rhythm of imagessame or
against
 formal unity
 unity of a segment with music
 Citizen Kane, breakfast table sceneherman
(composer)variations on a theme, shows the
conflict occurring in the marriage
 musical themes as motifs
 Citizen Kane: 4 note thing in the brass (Kane’s
power); xylophone signifies rosebud
 piece of power transformed through the movie
Rodowick’s favorite clip for this kind of thing