Lecture 05: Formalist Media Theory
Prof. Marc Davis
UC Berkeley SIMS
Monday and Wednesday 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Fall 2003 http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/academics/courses/is246/f04/
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 1

• Review of Last Time
– Narrative Form and Narration
• Formalist Media Theory
– Mise-en-scene
– Cinematography
• Discussion Questions
• Action Items for Next Time
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 2

• Review of Last Time
– Narrative Form and Narration
• Formalist Media Theory
– Mise-en-scene
– Cinematography
• Discussion Questions
• Action Items for Next Time
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 3

• Form
– “The overall system of relations that we can perceive among the elements in the whole film”
• In perceiving form, the spectator draws on
– Cues within the work
– Prior experiences
• Derived from everyday life
• From other artworks
– Conventions and norms
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 4

• Narrative
– A chain of events in cause-effect relationship occurring in time and space
• Story and Plot
– Story
• Set of all events in a narrative, both the ones explicitly represented and those the viewer infers
– Plot
• Everything visibly and audibly present in the film
• All the story events that are directly depicted
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 5

Presumed and inferred events
Explicitly presented events
Added nondiegetic material
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• Brushing Teeth
– Protagonist stands in front of bathroom mirror
– Protagonist opens medicine cabinet to remove toothbrush and toothpaste tube
– Protagonist squeezes out toothpaste on toothbrush
– Protagonist brushes teeth
– Protagonist drinks water from glass
– Protagonist spits out water and toothpaste residue
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 7

• Temporal order
– Flashback
– Flashforward
• Temporal duration
– Story duration
– Plot duration
– Screen duration
• Temporal frequency
– Repetition of events
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 8

• Story Duration
– Example: Brushing teeth in story world (5 minutes)
• Plot Duration
– Example: Brushing teeth in plot world (1 minute: 6 steps of ~10 seconds each)
• Screen Duration
– Example: Brushing teeth (12 seconds: 3 shots of ~4 seconds each)
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 9

• Plot’s way of distributing story information in order to achieve specific effects
• Moment-by-moment process that guides us in building the story out of the plot
• Involves range (unrestricted/restricted) and depth (perceptual and mental subjectivity) of knowledge of story information
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 10

• Review of Last Time
– Narrative Form and Narration
• Formalist Media Theory
– Mise-en-scene
– Cinematography
• Discussion Questions
• Action Items for Next Time
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 11

• Literally “putting into the scene”
• Theatrical origins
– Setting (location and props)
– Costume and makeup
– Lighting
– Staging (behavior and movement of actors)
• In film theory
– What “appears in the film frame”
– What “the director stages for the camera”
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 12

• Mise-en-scene contributes to our construction of the screen space
– How we construct 3D mental space from 2D projected images
– What we pay attention to
• We are attuned to various changes in mise-enscene
– Movement
– Color differences
– Balance of distinct components
– Variations in size
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 13

• Depth cues suggest that the screen space has
– Volume
– Planes
• Depth cues that create foreground/background relations
– Overlapping planes
– Movement
– Cast shadows
– Aerial perspective (hazing/blurring of more distant planes)
– Size diminution
– Linear perspective
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 14

• Review of Last Time
– Narrative Form and Narration
• Formalist Media Theory
– Mise-en-scene
– Cinematography
• Discussion Questions
• Action Items for Next Time
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 15

• The “shot”
– 1 –> n frames of images captured sequentially (or designed to appear so)
• Photographic properties of shots
– Film stock
– Exposure
– Lens
– Focus
– Filters
– Framing of the mise-en-scene
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 16

• Cinematographic properties of shots
– Frame rate
• Apparent speed can be affected by difference in capture frame rate and playback frame rate
– Slow-motion (assuming a constant playback rate capture more frames per second than the playback rate)
– Fast-motion (assuming a constant playback rate capture fewer frames per second than the playback rate)
– Movement of camera and and/or camera support
• Lens
• Tripod
• Truck
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 17

• Size and shape of the frame
– Aspect ratio
– Masks
• Framing defines onscreen and offscreen space
– Offscreen space
• Space beyond each of the four edges of the frame
• Space behind the set
• Space behind or near the camera
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 18

• Framing controls the vantage point onto the mise-en-scene
• Angle
• Level
• Height
• Distance
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 19

• Angle
– Straight on
– High angle
– Low angle
• Level
– Canting (rare)
• Height
– Often relative to human figure
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 20

• Extreme long shot
– Human figure is barely visible
• Long Shot
– Figures are more prominent than in the extreme long shot, but the background still dominates
• Medium Long Shot
– Human figure is framed from the knees up (very common shot)
•
Medium Shot
– Human figure is framed from the waist up (expression and gesture are more visible)
• Medium Close-Up
– Frames human figure from the top of the chest up
• Close Up
– Head, hands, or feet, or a small object
• Extreme Close-Up
– Singles out a portion of the face (eyes or lips)
• NOTE: In judging camera distance, the relative proportion of the material framed is the basic determinant
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 21

• Camera movements
– Lens movement
• Zoom
– Camera movement on static support
• Pan
• Tilt
– Camera movement on moving support
• Tracking/dolly/truck
• Crane
• Aerial (helicopter, airplane)
• Camera supports
– Tripod
– Steadicam
– Handheld
– Mounts on other objects and vehicles
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 22

• Reframing in relation to figure movement
– Subtle adjustments of pan and tilt
– Following shots
• Pan
• Tracking shot
• Crane shot
• Reframing independent of figure movement
– Guide attention of viewer on captured subject
– Reveal information
– Establish next location
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 23

• Often increases information about the space of the image
• Objects become more vivid and sharp than in stationary framings
• Often reveals new objects or figures
• Provides new perspectives on objects and figures adding to our information about them and their 3-dimensionality
• Camera movement appears to be a substitute for our movement
– Unlike zooming or scaling, in genuine camera movement we see different sides of objects and backgrounds
– When the camera moves, we sense our own movement through space
– Whereas when the lens zooms, a part of the space seems magnified or demagnified
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 24

• Review of Last Time
– Narrative Form and Narration
• Formalist Media Theory
– Mise-en-scene
– Cinematography
• Discussion Questions
• Action Items for Next Time
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 25

• Nick Reid on Bordwell
– The rotoscope was a revolutionary technique in the world of animation and film because it allowed artists and animators to create realities that did not exist and reinterpret the real world by drawing over film (examples of the rotoscope include waking life,
Roger Rabbit, and Out of the Inkwell). I was once told that every person reads 10 words on a page differently, and there are no direct cables linking the thoughts of one person to another, then how are abstract uses of film understandable? Do animations that create symbols and abstractions operate in the same manner as language? Since animations are the epitome of Mise-en-Scene and cinematography, are these complex variations of reality understandable?
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 26

• Nick Reid on Bordwell
– Over the summer, I went to see Before Sunset with my friend
Samantha. The movie is composed of long takes and slow wondering characters and dialogue. After one exceptionally long take where both of the main characters walk through a park and sit on a bench, which is when the editor starts to openly cut a dialogue scene.
This is when Samantha leaned over to me and asked, “Is that the first time they cut?” After reading about Mise-en-Scene I started to question how much information is needed before our knowledge of a film start to ruin the gestalt that a film can create? Some examples of things that are fake that I wish I didn’t know are the dog in
“Something About Marry”, and the first racing scene in “The Fast and
The Furious”. Yet more to the point of effects that an audience never questions would be establishing effects (i.e. background paintings, composted CG effects like rain and fog) that create tone and narrative inside a film. In the last discussion we talked about the two differing ways to read film, so now with questioning Mise-en-Scene, should discrete effects be recognized as effects, or just left to be a reality for the viewer? Since we are building systems to analyze film, how do we encode this information? How much of it do we tell? How does breaking the gestalt of film create a second narrative?
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 27

• Jeff Heer on Bordwell
– Discussing mise-en-scene across both space and time, Bordwell writes about the power of changes and contrast to attract attention and convey (signal?) meaning. For me, this brought up an immediate association with de
Saussure's belief that "language is only difference without positive terms". Do we believe the same is true of film? Why, why not, or to what degree?
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 28

• Jeff Heer on Bordwell
– Bordwell talks about the capability of framing alone (in my interpretation, independently of mise-en-scene) to signal meaning and propel narrative. To what degree is this capability learned or innate? Can one learn such relations arbitrarily through conflation with other signals (such as from the mise-en-scene)? How much are interpretations of framing based in real-world experience? And how much of this is person-specific?
For example, I am tall so a slightly downward facing shot might strike me as completely neutral.
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 29

• Brooke Maury on Bordwell
– After considerable effort, it seems that one could build annotation that describes the basic components of mise-en-scene (setting, costume, lighting and staging), yet is it possible to describe the whole ‘system’ of the mise-en-scene in metadata? It seems that much of the mise-en-scene deals with human perception. Can the elements of mise-en-scene be described sufficiently to understand how viewers are ‘supposed’ to experience the film?
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 30

• Brooke Maury on Bordwell
– Is there a truly objective measure of function in film generally, and mise-en-scene and framing in particular? One can observe that a certain technique or prop or character serves a certain function in a film, but can the function of a framing technique or other film element be derived from the ‘hard facts’ of a film? Or will this always require subjective interpretation?
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 31

• Review of Last Time
– Narrative Form and Narration
• Formalist Media Theory
– Mise-en-scene
– Cinematography
• Discussion Questions
• Action Items for Next Time
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 32

• Monday 09/20
– Textbook
• Bordwell, D. and Thompson, K. Film Art: An
Introduction. McGraw Hill, New York, 2001; pp.
294-346. (Megan, Shane)
IS246 - FALL 2004 2004.09.15 - SLIDE 33