Introduction to Arts
1st Lecture
Film and Film Studies
What Is Film?

A sequence of images photographed by a
camera and projected on a screen, providing the
optical illusion of continuous movement.

Take 23 (still) photographs per second and run
23 (still) photographs per second in front of
projector light.
What Is Film?
Film tells stories
 Moving images telling stories

FILM AS TOTAL ART

Every artistic element is involved in film.
What Is Film?

How film compares to other forms of arts.
Literature - novel, poem (written media)
Fine art - painting, sculpture, architecture,
photography (visual media)
Music - vocal, instrumental (sound media)
Others - drama, opera, musical, ballet,
dance (mixed media)
What Is Film?
Elements of written media in film

Elements of literature
- Film is based on a script. Some scripts are
based on literary works.
What Is Film?

Elements of fine art
- Production design - sets, costume, visual
effects, special effects
What Is Film?

Elements of sound media
- Use of recorded music
 Elements of mixed media
- Theatre, opera, musical, ballet, dance
What Is Film?
D.W. Griffith’s
spectacle,
Intolerance, was
designed by Griffith
himself with help
from Walter L. Hall
 One of the grandest
artistic (re)creations
in cinema history

What Is Film?
Artistic recreation of
four historic pasts:
Babylonian
 Biblical
 French revolution
 American Civil War

What Is Film

Film is a mechanical and industrial product.
→ Mechanical technologies - camera,
lights, film stock, sound-recorder (mixer),
laboratory processing, editing machine,
CG, projector, film theatre
→ Industrial - production, distribution,
exhibition, marketing, advertising
What Is Film?

Film is a collaborative work
→ producer, director, scriptwriter,
photographer, designer, editor, costume
designer, music composer, etc.
How is film different from other
forms of art
LITERATURE AND FILM
 The crucially important element of both is
narrative, but film is also visual.
FINE ARTS AND FILM
 Both are visual but film can tell much more
complicated stories
How is film different from other forms of art
The painting can tell stories but not
complicated ones.
How is film different from other
forms of art
MUSIC AND FILM
 Both have sounds but film has more visual
elements.
DRAMA/OPERA/MUSICAL AND FILM
 Film is capable of telling more complicated
stories more realistically.
 Film does not have to rely on words in
telling stories and expressing emotions.
How is film different from other
forms of art

Louis Malle’s Ascenseur
pour l’echafaud (1958)

Thriller about a married
woman and her lover,
who almost succeed in
getting rid of her husband
in a ‘perfect’ murder but
…
How is film different from other
forms of art

Shohei Imamura’s
Ballad of Narayama

When both men and
women reach a
certain old age, they
must go into
mountains to die in a
poor village in the
remote part of Japan.
What Sorts of Films
BASIC TYPES
 Documentary and fiction films
- Documentaries - recording or
recreation of real events
Fictions - based on imaginary stories
GENRES
 Western, musical, action, horror, comedy,
romance, melodrama, disaster, gangster,
art
What Sorts of Films
WESTERN
 A genre of films which are
set in Western, or MidWestern United States
during the period
between around 1860
and 1890, when ‘Indian
Wars’ ended.
What Sorts of Films
MUSICAL
 A genre of films in
which songs sung
by characters are
interwoven into the
narrative.
What Sorts of Films
ACTION FILM
 A genre of films in
which actions such
as fighting, stunts,
and car chases
take precedents
over narrative and
characterization.
What Sorts of Films
HORROR

A genre of films
which elicit fright,
terror, disgust, and
anxiety from the
viewer.
What Sorts of Films
ROMANCE
 A genre of films
whose main plot
revolves around
the romantic
involvement of
main characters.
What Sorts of Films
MELODRAMA
 A genre of films
which appeal to the
heightened
emotions of the
audience.
What Sorts of Films
GANGSTER
(CRIME)
FILM
 A genre of films
which deal with
crime, criminal
justice and the
darker side of
human nature.
What Sorts of Films
Nationalities - national film

Nationalities and genres
Heimatfilm (the tale of small-town life in
Germany)
‘Devotionals’ (on the lives of saints and religious
figures in India)
Cabaretera (melodrama centering on prostitutes
in Mexico)
Chanbara (sward-play film in Japan)
What Is Film Studies
Description and Analysis
Description - Repeat in words what we see
in a film
1 Content of the film (what you see)
2 Form of the film (the way in which what
you see is constructed)
 Analysis - Examining the film’s designs
and effects

What Is Film Studies
For better descriptions and analyses
-
-
We need broad knowledge of the inner
working of film
Various technical, stylistic and narrative
options available to a film-maker
Choices he/she makes
What Is Film Studies
For description and analysis
you need to know:
Story-telling (narrative) technique
 Formal technique - selection of lens,
camera movement, camera angle, lighting
method, editing, sound recording and
mixing, etc.

What Is Film Studies
Lighting Methods
 Three-point lighting

Light from three directions is
used. A backlight picks out the
subject from its background, a
bright key light highlights the
object and a fill light from the
opposite side ensures that the
key light casts only faint
shadows.
What Is Film Studies
Normal lighting and High-key lighting

High-key lighting - the fill light is raised to almost the
same level as the key light. This produces images that
are usually very bright and that feature few shadows
on the principal subjects.
What Is Film Studies
Normal lighting and law-key lighting
 Law-key lighting employs very little fill light, creating
strong contrasts between the brightest and darkest
parts of an image and often creating strong shadows
that obscure parts of the principal subjects.
What Is Film Studies
Focus
Shallow focus keeps only
one plane in sharp focus.
 Shallow focus suggests
psychological
introspection, since a
character appears as
oblivious to the world
around her/him.

What Is Film Studies
Acting technique and style
 Design - art design, set design, costume
design

Especially for analysis
we also need to know other information
What Is Film Studies
Characteristics of film-makers
 Biographies, personal visions or concerns
of directors, screenwriters, actors, etc.
 Industrial restrictions
- financial
- production purpose
- audience’s needs
