Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Today, we continued to watch Gran Torino. A number of you were not here. You are expected to watch this on your own and to be able to discuss/summarize it as if you were in class.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Today, we discussed essay questions, focusing on including the author by name as part of the answer (a journal activity). I then handed out quotes from Gran Torino, explaining that students should know about nine quotes from the three sources they are most likely to use in writing their final (they will only use one but need three so that they can choose the best one to answer the question). I also handed out a questions booklet for this unit. Today, we began to watch Gran Torino holistically. We watched just over a half hour of it.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
Today, you did a bit of research to understand the film better before we start watching it. We also discussed the rule of threes which applies to images. I also gave you three reviews of the film to read; again, the goal is to help you undestand the context before we start actually viewing it.
Friday, November 25, 2011
Friday, November 25, 2011
Today, we finished the notes on film studies. I have pasted them below. In addition to these, I handed out a sheet defining film genres and one providing examples of common symbols. If you were not here, these are in your portfolios. If you were here, I expect you to have read them for Monday.
Sound
Sound is often overlooked (really, no pun intended) in the study of film, though it is probably equally as important as the visual image is in its ability to create an effect on a viewer. A violin can make us feel sad
-during the deathbed speech, a gunshot can make us jump out of our seats, and a voice-over narration can help us follow the story, though we rarely comment on the "really awesome sound in that movie." There
are many ways to classify sound in film-dialogue, music, sound effects-and there are various ways to analyze the sound in a film-pitch, timbre, direction, whether it's on-screen or off-screen-but the categories
that are most important in their application to literature are these:
· diegetic,
· nondiegetic
· internal diegetic
Diegetic Sound
This is a confusing-sounding term for an easy concept. Any sound that could logically be heard by a character within the movie environment is called diegetic sound, pronounced "di-uh-je-tik." if a character speaks or coughs, or a cat growls, this is diegetic sound. Typical diegetic sounds include such things as background noise, traffic, dialogue between characters, and thelike. The important distinction to make is that the audience and the characters hear roughly the same thing. Or, at least, the characters could have heard the sounds the audience heard.
Nondiegetic Sound
Imagine that you are a character in the movie jaws. You're just swimming in the middle of the night in shark-infested waters, minding your own business when you hear "duh-duhn ... duh-duhn." Now, of course you would get out of the water quickly because you know a big fish is on its way. But why don't those stupid characters in the film do the same? Actually, they're probably not that stupid; it's because the sound is "nondiegetic"-that is, sound that cannot be heard logically by characters within the film. Any sound that is intended only for the audience and is not a part of the environment of the film is called nondiegetic.
Oftentimes this means music (but remember, music can also be within the film if the characters are listening to it), but it can also take the form of voice-over narration (Dukes of Hazzard). When the voice-over is saying something, you don't usually hear a character in the film respond to or correct the narrator,
because, again, this is nondiegetic, though there are some exceptions to these classifications of sound (Stranger than Fiction?).
Internal Diegetic Sound
What if a character is talking to himself? Or what if a character is remembering sounds she heard before? If only the one character can hear these things, the sound can be called internal diegetic (Dexter), since presumably
it is logical that the character hearing them can hear them, whereas other characters do not (and perhaps could not logically) hear them. This distinction could be called a mix of the two other sound types, but it is an important definition to have when thinking about narration and point of view in literature.
What's the point in making these three distinctions between types of sound? Sometimes the director-like a writer-wants to give information or clues directly to his or her audience without giving that same information to the characters, and it is important to be able to know when and how the director is doing this. Oftentimes, through the varying use of diegetic and nondiegetic sound, the director can create suspense, irony, or foreshadowing. Directors also play with these distinctions for other reasons. Mel Brooks, in his Western parody Blazing Saddles, shows a group of cowboys riding up a hill to the sounds of a swelling orchestral piece, but when they get to the top, they (and the audience) see that there is, in fact, an orchestra playing right there in the middle of nowhere.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOO0FQcacZ0
Editing
So far, the cinematic techniques that we have been discussing have boiled down to what the director decides to put into his or her frame or onto the soundtrack. The angle, the lighting, the focus, and the sound are parts of that shot, but how do shots get put together? That's editing.
In its simplest terms, editing refers to the methods by which a director chooses to move from one shot to another. The most common type of edit is called a "cut," which is what we saw earlier when we were
defining a shot: Quite literally, one piece of film is cut and then affixed to another piece, and the result is that tiny, split second of black (like a blink) before the next shot appears. This is far and away the most common and the quickest method of editing two or more shots together, but it is hardly the only type available to a director or editor. Others include the fade, the dissolve, the crosscut, the flashback, and the eye-line match.
The Fade
This type of edit occurs when the image on-screen slowly fades away and the screen itself is entirely black (or some other color) for a noticeable period of time, and then a new image slowly fades in from that black screen. Directors like to use the fade to denote the end of a scene, as an author might do by ending the chapter, perhaps, but it can also be used within the same scene to show that some measure of time has passed.
We probably remember this technique most from the old movies when the man and woman would go into the bedroom, the image would fade out, and then it would fade in on the two of them smoking cigarettes.
The Dissolve
As with the fade, the image slowly begins to fade out, but instead of fading all the way to black, it is replaced by another image that is slowly fading in. The dissolve is a slow transition, too, and because two images are on-screen at the same time, its effect cannot be underestimated.
The dissolve is often used as a way to make a connection between two objects or characters that the viewer might not have made without its use. Think, for example, of the next-to-last-shot in Psycho. We see Norman's face slowly dissolving into the skeleton face of his mother: the two are one again. Or think about the use of the dissolve in
The Titanic. The director shows the audience several shots of the ship as it currently appears on the ocean floor, and then dissolves into shots of the ocean liner in the past in all its shining glory. The effect is for the audience to see and feel the narrator bringing this tale and the boat back to life for us.
The Crosscut
Picture this: The scene is a quiet, suburban town, where children are playing in the front yards. The director cuts from this scene immediately to a shot of a missile screaming across the sky. Then another cut back to the town, and once more back to the missile. The audience knows exactly what is happening: that missile is coming to this town. This effect is accomplished by crosscutting, also called parallel editing, which allows the director to show that events occurring in different spaces are happening simultaneously. There is no logical reason for the audience to assume that the missile is going to destroy the town, but the grammar of the film language and its formalization through eighty years of use encourage this conclusion. Obviously, this type of editing can help to create suspense, as when the camera cuts back and forth between the oncoming train and the car stalled on the tracks.
But crosscutting is not used only to create suspense. This type of editing can also create linkages between characters, themes, or plots. Think about the ending of The Godfather. Director Francis Ford Coppola crosscuts from Michael Corleone, attending the baptism of his godchild, to the various brutal murders of his opponents, and back to Michael as he swears to renounce evil. This crosscutting isn't so much about creating suspense as it is to show exactly what kind of man Corleone is and what he is capable of. A film like Sleepless in Seattle couldn't exist without crosscutting, because the audience would not be able to see the growing connection between the two characters who have never seen each other. Of course, there are some who argue that this movie shouldn't exist even with the crosscutting.
The Flashback and the Flash-Forward
Like a flashback in literature, this method of connecting shots is designed to give the viewer important information about what has happened in the past. And as with the crosscut, audiences have grown accustomed to the conventions of the flashback and tend to recognize immediately the signals that one is coming up: The characters begin narrating a story ("It all started when ..."), perhaps they look up or
out through a window, maybe some nondiegetic music lightly fades in, and the shot dissolves into another scene, usually with a voice-over of the character still narrating the story. Flashbacks in film tend to happen less regularly than in literature because of the conventions that have to be used, as opposed to a novel that can simply say, "Then he thought back to a time when he was ...." It is always interesting in both mediums to examine why a flashback is given at that time: What information does it give to the audience, and who else does not yet have this information? But something that filmmakers can use more regularly than most fiction writers is the flash-forward, which can take the audience ahead of the story's present time.
The Eye-Line Match
Perhaps one of the most important ways in which shots can be assembled is to connect a series of usually three or more shots to form what's called the eye-line match or point-of-view (POV) shot. The series often begins with a shot of a person looking at something; the camera then cuts to whatever it was that the person was looking at, from that person's perspective, and the series normally ends with a return to the person to show his or her reaction.
This type of editing is very important because it can reveal what the character is thinking. Imagine a scene where we see a man standing on a subway platform. First we see him looking around, then the director cuts away to shots of purses dangling from women's arms and wallets sticking out of men's pockets. When the director cuts back to the first man, now smiling, we know, without one word of dialogue, that the man is a thief. In the film Philadelphia, a client with AIDS comes into a lawyer's office and, through a series of eyeline matches where we see that the lawyer is watching everything the client touches, we learn that the lawyer is paranoid about the disease and will not take the case. Again, we can learn the thoughts of a character without his having said anything. The eye-line match is also a way for a director to create empathy for-or at least a connection to-selected characters, because we ultimately feel what the characters feel when we look through their eyes. Obviously, this is manipulation on the part of the director, but that is his or her job: to make us feel for the characters.
Mise-en Scene
One of the more difficult film concepts is the idea of mise-en-scene (pronounced
"meez-ahn-sen"). The term actually comes from the theater as a way to describe what appears onstage, and when applied to film it refers to some of the elements that a film has in common with the stage: sets, costumes, lighting, and acting. So when we talk about the mise-en-scene of a particular shot or an entire film, we might want to look at what significant props surround the characters, or whether the bad guy wears a black hat, or how the light plays off a character's features. A director includes such important elements in every frame, and for particular purposes, and the concept of mise-en scene asks us to consider these elements.
Sound
Sound is often overlooked (really, no pun intended) in the study of film, though it is probably equally as important as the visual image is in its ability to create an effect on a viewer. A violin can make us feel sad
-during the deathbed speech, a gunshot can make us jump out of our seats, and a voice-over narration can help us follow the story, though we rarely comment on the "really awesome sound in that movie." There
are many ways to classify sound in film-dialogue, music, sound effects-and there are various ways to analyze the sound in a film-pitch, timbre, direction, whether it's on-screen or off-screen-but the categories
that are most important in their application to literature are these:
· diegetic,
· nondiegetic
· internal diegetic
Diegetic Sound
This is a confusing-sounding term for an easy concept. Any sound that could logically be heard by a character within the movie environment is called diegetic sound, pronounced "di-uh-je-tik." if a character speaks or coughs, or a cat growls, this is diegetic sound. Typical diegetic sounds include such things as background noise, traffic, dialogue between characters, and thelike. The important distinction to make is that the audience and the characters hear roughly the same thing. Or, at least, the characters could have heard the sounds the audience heard.
Nondiegetic Sound
Imagine that you are a character in the movie jaws. You're just swimming in the middle of the night in shark-infested waters, minding your own business when you hear "duh-duhn ... duh-duhn." Now, of course you would get out of the water quickly because you know a big fish is on its way. But why don't those stupid characters in the film do the same? Actually, they're probably not that stupid; it's because the sound is "nondiegetic"-that is, sound that cannot be heard logically by characters within the film. Any sound that is intended only for the audience and is not a part of the environment of the film is called nondiegetic.
Oftentimes this means music (but remember, music can also be within the film if the characters are listening to it), but it can also take the form of voice-over narration (Dukes of Hazzard). When the voice-over is saying something, you don't usually hear a character in the film respond to or correct the narrator,
because, again, this is nondiegetic, though there are some exceptions to these classifications of sound (Stranger than Fiction?).
Internal Diegetic Sound
What if a character is talking to himself? Or what if a character is remembering sounds she heard before? If only the one character can hear these things, the sound can be called internal diegetic (Dexter), since presumably
it is logical that the character hearing them can hear them, whereas other characters do not (and perhaps could not logically) hear them. This distinction could be called a mix of the two other sound types, but it is an important definition to have when thinking about narration and point of view in literature.
What's the point in making these three distinctions between types of sound? Sometimes the director-like a writer-wants to give information or clues directly to his or her audience without giving that same information to the characters, and it is important to be able to know when and how the director is doing this. Oftentimes, through the varying use of diegetic and nondiegetic sound, the director can create suspense, irony, or foreshadowing. Directors also play with these distinctions for other reasons. Mel Brooks, in his Western parody Blazing Saddles, shows a group of cowboys riding up a hill to the sounds of a swelling orchestral piece, but when they get to the top, they (and the audience) see that there is, in fact, an orchestra playing right there in the middle of nowhere.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOO0FQcacZ0
Editing
So far, the cinematic techniques that we have been discussing have boiled down to what the director decides to put into his or her frame or onto the soundtrack. The angle, the lighting, the focus, and the sound are parts of that shot, but how do shots get put together? That's editing.
In its simplest terms, editing refers to the methods by which a director chooses to move from one shot to another. The most common type of edit is called a "cut," which is what we saw earlier when we were
defining a shot: Quite literally, one piece of film is cut and then affixed to another piece, and the result is that tiny, split second of black (like a blink) before the next shot appears. This is far and away the most common and the quickest method of editing two or more shots together, but it is hardly the only type available to a director or editor. Others include the fade, the dissolve, the crosscut, the flashback, and the eye-line match.
The Fade
This type of edit occurs when the image on-screen slowly fades away and the screen itself is entirely black (or some other color) for a noticeable period of time, and then a new image slowly fades in from that black screen. Directors like to use the fade to denote the end of a scene, as an author might do by ending the chapter, perhaps, but it can also be used within the same scene to show that some measure of time has passed.
We probably remember this technique most from the old movies when the man and woman would go into the bedroom, the image would fade out, and then it would fade in on the two of them smoking cigarettes.
The Dissolve
As with the fade, the image slowly begins to fade out, but instead of fading all the way to black, it is replaced by another image that is slowly fading in. The dissolve is a slow transition, too, and because two images are on-screen at the same time, its effect cannot be underestimated.
The dissolve is often used as a way to make a connection between two objects or characters that the viewer might not have made without its use. Think, for example, of the next-to-last-shot in Psycho. We see Norman's face slowly dissolving into the skeleton face of his mother: the two are one again. Or think about the use of the dissolve in
The Titanic. The director shows the audience several shots of the ship as it currently appears on the ocean floor, and then dissolves into shots of the ocean liner in the past in all its shining glory. The effect is for the audience to see and feel the narrator bringing this tale and the boat back to life for us.
The Crosscut
Picture this: The scene is a quiet, suburban town, where children are playing in the front yards. The director cuts from this scene immediately to a shot of a missile screaming across the sky. Then another cut back to the town, and once more back to the missile. The audience knows exactly what is happening: that missile is coming to this town. This effect is accomplished by crosscutting, also called parallel editing, which allows the director to show that events occurring in different spaces are happening simultaneously. There is no logical reason for the audience to assume that the missile is going to destroy the town, but the grammar of the film language and its formalization through eighty years of use encourage this conclusion. Obviously, this type of editing can help to create suspense, as when the camera cuts back and forth between the oncoming train and the car stalled on the tracks.
But crosscutting is not used only to create suspense. This type of editing can also create linkages between characters, themes, or plots. Think about the ending of The Godfather. Director Francis Ford Coppola crosscuts from Michael Corleone, attending the baptism of his godchild, to the various brutal murders of his opponents, and back to Michael as he swears to renounce evil. This crosscutting isn't so much about creating suspense as it is to show exactly what kind of man Corleone is and what he is capable of. A film like Sleepless in Seattle couldn't exist without crosscutting, because the audience would not be able to see the growing connection between the two characters who have never seen each other. Of course, there are some who argue that this movie shouldn't exist even with the crosscutting.
The Flashback and the Flash-Forward
Like a flashback in literature, this method of connecting shots is designed to give the viewer important information about what has happened in the past. And as with the crosscut, audiences have grown accustomed to the conventions of the flashback and tend to recognize immediately the signals that one is coming up: The characters begin narrating a story ("It all started when ..."), perhaps they look up or
out through a window, maybe some nondiegetic music lightly fades in, and the shot dissolves into another scene, usually with a voice-over of the character still narrating the story. Flashbacks in film tend to happen less regularly than in literature because of the conventions that have to be used, as opposed to a novel that can simply say, "Then he thought back to a time when he was ...." It is always interesting in both mediums to examine why a flashback is given at that time: What information does it give to the audience, and who else does not yet have this information? But something that filmmakers can use more regularly than most fiction writers is the flash-forward, which can take the audience ahead of the story's present time.
The Eye-Line Match
Perhaps one of the most important ways in which shots can be assembled is to connect a series of usually three or more shots to form what's called the eye-line match or point-of-view (POV) shot. The series often begins with a shot of a person looking at something; the camera then cuts to whatever it was that the person was looking at, from that person's perspective, and the series normally ends with a return to the person to show his or her reaction.
This type of editing is very important because it can reveal what the character is thinking. Imagine a scene where we see a man standing on a subway platform. First we see him looking around, then the director cuts away to shots of purses dangling from women's arms and wallets sticking out of men's pockets. When the director cuts back to the first man, now smiling, we know, without one word of dialogue, that the man is a thief. In the film Philadelphia, a client with AIDS comes into a lawyer's office and, through a series of eyeline matches where we see that the lawyer is watching everything the client touches, we learn that the lawyer is paranoid about the disease and will not take the case. Again, we can learn the thoughts of a character without his having said anything. The eye-line match is also a way for a director to create empathy for-or at least a connection to-selected characters, because we ultimately feel what the characters feel when we look through their eyes. Obviously, this is manipulation on the part of the director, but that is his or her job: to make us feel for the characters.
Mise-en Scene
One of the more difficult film concepts is the idea of mise-en-scene (pronounced
"meez-ahn-sen"). The term actually comes from the theater as a way to describe what appears onstage, and when applied to film it refers to some of the elements that a film has in common with the stage: sets, costumes, lighting, and acting. So when we talk about the mise-en-scene of a particular shot or an entire film, we might want to look at what significant props surround the characters, or whether the bad guy wears a black hat, or how the light plays off a character's features. A director includes such important elements in every frame, and for particular purposes, and the concept of mise-en scene asks us to consider these elements.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Today, we continued with our film study notes. I have pasted them below for you if you were absent.
Focus
Now obviously, when we think of focus, we really just want to say to the director, "Yes, please put it into focus for us, thanks." But there are ways for a director to play with the focus in order to communicate something to the audience.
Soft Focus
When we look at family pictures from the Grand Canyon, there is always at least one that is ruined by being out of focus. But to filmmakers, there are varying degrees of focus. Without giving the audience a headache, a director can film his or her subject just ever-so-slightly out of focus, which creates a texture called soft focus. Classic Hollywood actresses used to insist on this type of focus for their close-ups (they would have hated high definition). Today, it is common to see soft focus in romantic films to help create a lighter mood, but it can also be used to blur an image slightly in order to communicate uncertainty.
Rack Focus
Imagine a scene from a film where the character is in focus in the background of the shot. He is nervous and pacing. Suddenly the phone rings. The character goes out of focus and the phone in the foreground is now in focus. We know this call is important. The director of this silly scene used rack focus to force viewers to direct their attention where he or she wanted them to look. A director can use this technique to bring either the background or the foreground suddenly into focus. If not overused, rack focus is a very effective way of combining the languid pace of a continuous take with the power of a close-up that directs the audience's attention.
Deep Focus
This allows for all objects in the foreground as well as in the background to remain in focus.
Some critics argue that deep focus gives a greater sense of reality, since in real life we can choose what to look at. Even if it is not more realistic than normal focus, a director using the deep focus concept can literally fill his or her frame with information and create interesting compositions.
Angles
Another consideration that the director must take into account is where the camera will be placed in relation to the subject. He or she may choose to use a low, high, eye-level, or Dutch angle.
Low Angle
Imagine shooting a scene upward, say, from the point of view of a child looking up at an adult. When the camera looks up at us, the camera is below the subject and we have what's called a low-angle shot. How do you look when viewed through that camera below you? You appear to be huge, powerful, dominating, and in control. Characters shot with a low angle are often the more powerful ones in the film. Size and strength can be exaggerated and commented on by
the use of the low angle.
High Angle
Now, imagine looking down at a child. This time the camera is above the subject in what is called a high-angle shot. The child you are looking down on would now appear small, weak, powerless - trapped? Characters presented with a high-angle shot in film are the ones who appear a little weaker and less in control.
Eye Level
This is what it is… the camera sees the subject at eye level. Obviously this is a shot, like the medium shot above, that carries no immediate, readily apparent significance on its own, and it can best be considered another sort of "neutral shot." Characters are on an even balance with this type of angle. That said, however, if a director uses an eye-level shot of a character after setting him or her up with a series of high-angle shots, the director may be commenting on the growing
strength or confidence of this character.
Dutch Angle
To create a real Dutch or "canted" angle, the camera itself tilts slightly, but the effect is the same. The image appears sideways, to one extent or another, within the frame. This type of angle is often used in horror or gangster films to show an evil character or a dangerous situation. A Dutch angle can create tension or peculiarity in an otherwise static or normal situation, thus implying
danger or moral uncertainty
Camera Movement
Many of the earliest films were short documents of daily life: people going into a factory, a blacksmith's shop, and, to the reported shrieks of the audience-unused to the perspective-a train pulling into a station.
These images were captured by an immobile camera fixed upon a tripod, but camera operators quickly designed ways for the camera to move, or appear to move, in order to keep getting those audience shrieks.
Pan
When the camera pivots along the horizontal axis, the movement is called a pan, which is often used in film to introduce the setting. This left to right pan. A pan is often used from the point of view of characters as they take in their surroundings or situations. Think how often you have seen characters in a horror film, for example, look around in the old, decaying mansion in which they have found themselves, and the camera pans around to reveal the source of their fear.
Tilt
A tilt is the opposite of the pan. Instead of left to right, the movement is up and down, thus, in effect, tilting-along the vertical axis. Technically, as with the pan, the camera did not move, only
the camera's head moved.
The tilt is an extremely effective way to communicate distance, size, and strength. Another great use of a tilt is to show power. In Citizen Kane, the young Charles Kane has been given a sled by his guardian, whose voice we hear off-screen, but only the lower half of his body is visible. The camera catches the boy looking up and then tilts up for quite awhile until it finally reveals the face looking down upon the child. The tilt also has quite a history of being part of the objective male gaze toward female sexuality. Think how often you have seen a film in which the camera, following a man's gaze, focuses on the leg or foot of a woman and then slowly tilts up to reveal the rest of the woman.
Zoom
Again, as with the pan and tilt, there was no real movement in a zoom. The focal length of the lens changes, thus making the object appear to move closer or further away. The zoom is a way
to direct the audience's attention to a detail that the director does not want us to miss. We move into the scene without leaving our seats.
Tracking or Dolly Shots
Imagine if two or three of you picked up another student in a chair…You then walked around the classroom as someone else filmed you. Now, for the first time, we have true movement of the camera itself.
Any time that the camera is moving like this, the shot is called a tracking or dolly shot. This is by far the most uniquely cinematic of all these movements since it can enter and actually move us through the imaginative space of the film in the way that the pan and tilt cannot because they are stationary movements, more reminiscent of watching a staged play. We can now go with the action, become part of it, or even go behind it, instead of merely watching as it passes us by. The camera may be on a track, a truck, or a helicopter, or it may even be held in the operator's hands-all of which can be referred to as a dolly shot or as tracking.
Though there are several types of tracking movements with specific names, they do not really concern us here,
Oftentimes it may be difficult to distinguish if a camera is zooming in on an object or whether it is dollying in. One way to tell is to look at the background to see if it changes in relation to the objects and flattens a bit, which means you have a zoom. The other way is to ignore it and just enjoy the movie.
Lighting
The principal source of light on a movie
set is called the "key light," and other lights balance, soften, and shade
the key light. Two general descriptors of film lighting are "low-key lighting"
and "high-key lighting," terms which are used to characterize the
lighting of an overall scene. Two others-"side/bottom lighting" and
"front lighting"-are used primarily on actors and actresses to editorialize
on some aspect of their characters.
Low-Key Lighting
Turn off all the lights in the classroom, but leave maybe just your overhead
projector and a flashlight on. As students look around, they will see an example
of a scene that could be called "low-key."Its chief characteristics
are its darkness, shadows, and patches of bright key light, provided in this case by the overhead projector and the flashlight. Obviously, lowkey lighting can create moods of suspicion, mystery, and danger. This type of lighting is great for horror films, film noir, and detective movies,
because things can be hidden or concealed in the depth of shadows.
High-Key Lighting (bright)
Switch your classroom lights on again, and open up all the blinds and curtains. As students look around now, they are looking at high-key lighting, unless, like my students, they are in Portland, Oregon, where,
during the winter, there is no such thing as high-key light anywhere.
This type of lighting is distinguished by its brightness, openness, and lack of shadows or contrasts between light and dark. Your romantic comedies, musicals, and costumed dramas are often filmed with highkey
lighting, since, with this type of lighting, characters and situations
are seen without misunderstanding or threat.
Neutral Lighting
Not every scene must be either high- or low-key; a scene could be sort
of average, or lacking in much to distinguish its lighting. When the lighting
is even and balanced throughout the shot, it might best be described as "neutral." Most television programs are shot with this type of evenness in mind. Notice a trend going? A medium shot with an eye-level
angle and neutral lighting might not be saying too much, though we know at least what it might not be saying.
Bottom/Side Lighting
Go ahead and return your classroom to that "low-key" effect again. Now take your flashlight and shine it about two inches underneath your chin, pointing upward. This is the same thing you did when you told ghost
stories around the campfire. How do you look? Well, I don't know how
you looked before, but now the light illuminates only parts of your face,
and the shadows distort it so you look a little scary. Take a volunteer
and shine your flashlight on the side of his or her face, so that only one
eye or the mouth receives any light. This type of lighting-bottom or
side lighting-has the effect of creating characters that may be evil, are
hiding something, are morally ambiguous, or are conflicted in some way.
Front Lighting
Getting another volunteer from your class, shine your flashlight evenly across the subject's face, so that no shadows appear; you have created the effect of front lighting. Look at the volunteer's hair: it probably takes
on a bit of a "halo effect." This type of lighting is often used to show
innocence or openness, and was considered absolutely essential for most
Hollywood actresses. A character who is honest with nothing to hide
will often be shot this way-the hero or heroine in particular.
Some of the most striking examples of these lighting choices come
from black-and-white films (see, for example, the shot from Othello in
Figure 7). The contrast between light and dark is just not as readily apparent
in color film, though each of these lighting decisions, and the
implications behind them, are still in use in today's films. Because the
way in which characters and scenes are lit can give an audience so much
information so quickly-and often without dialogue-lighting is one
of the most important tools that filmmakers have at their disposal with
which to assist the viewer in understanding characters, setting, tone,and theme.
Focus
Now obviously, when we think of focus, we really just want to say to the director, "Yes, please put it into focus for us, thanks." But there are ways for a director to play with the focus in order to communicate something to the audience.
Soft Focus
When we look at family pictures from the Grand Canyon, there is always at least one that is ruined by being out of focus. But to filmmakers, there are varying degrees of focus. Without giving the audience a headache, a director can film his or her subject just ever-so-slightly out of focus, which creates a texture called soft focus. Classic Hollywood actresses used to insist on this type of focus for their close-ups (they would have hated high definition). Today, it is common to see soft focus in romantic films to help create a lighter mood, but it can also be used to blur an image slightly in order to communicate uncertainty.
Rack Focus
Imagine a scene from a film where the character is in focus in the background of the shot. He is nervous and pacing. Suddenly the phone rings. The character goes out of focus and the phone in the foreground is now in focus. We know this call is important. The director of this silly scene used rack focus to force viewers to direct their attention where he or she wanted them to look. A director can use this technique to bring either the background or the foreground suddenly into focus. If not overused, rack focus is a very effective way of combining the languid pace of a continuous take with the power of a close-up that directs the audience's attention.
Deep Focus
This allows for all objects in the foreground as well as in the background to remain in focus.
Some critics argue that deep focus gives a greater sense of reality, since in real life we can choose what to look at. Even if it is not more realistic than normal focus, a director using the deep focus concept can literally fill his or her frame with information and create interesting compositions.
Angles
Another consideration that the director must take into account is where the camera will be placed in relation to the subject. He or she may choose to use a low, high, eye-level, or Dutch angle.
Low Angle
Imagine shooting a scene upward, say, from the point of view of a child looking up at an adult. When the camera looks up at us, the camera is below the subject and we have what's called a low-angle shot. How do you look when viewed through that camera below you? You appear to be huge, powerful, dominating, and in control. Characters shot with a low angle are often the more powerful ones in the film. Size and strength can be exaggerated and commented on by
the use of the low angle.
High Angle
Now, imagine looking down at a child. This time the camera is above the subject in what is called a high-angle shot. The child you are looking down on would now appear small, weak, powerless - trapped? Characters presented with a high-angle shot in film are the ones who appear a little weaker and less in control.
Eye Level
This is what it is… the camera sees the subject at eye level. Obviously this is a shot, like the medium shot above, that carries no immediate, readily apparent significance on its own, and it can best be considered another sort of "neutral shot." Characters are on an even balance with this type of angle. That said, however, if a director uses an eye-level shot of a character after setting him or her up with a series of high-angle shots, the director may be commenting on the growing
strength or confidence of this character.
Dutch Angle
To create a real Dutch or "canted" angle, the camera itself tilts slightly, but the effect is the same. The image appears sideways, to one extent or another, within the frame. This type of angle is often used in horror or gangster films to show an evil character or a dangerous situation. A Dutch angle can create tension or peculiarity in an otherwise static or normal situation, thus implying
danger or moral uncertainty
Camera Movement
Many of the earliest films were short documents of daily life: people going into a factory, a blacksmith's shop, and, to the reported shrieks of the audience-unused to the perspective-a train pulling into a station.
These images were captured by an immobile camera fixed upon a tripod, but camera operators quickly designed ways for the camera to move, or appear to move, in order to keep getting those audience shrieks.
Pan
When the camera pivots along the horizontal axis, the movement is called a pan, which is often used in film to introduce the setting. This left to right pan. A pan is often used from the point of view of characters as they take in their surroundings or situations. Think how often you have seen characters in a horror film, for example, look around in the old, decaying mansion in which they have found themselves, and the camera pans around to reveal the source of their fear.
Tilt
A tilt is the opposite of the pan. Instead of left to right, the movement is up and down, thus, in effect, tilting-along the vertical axis. Technically, as with the pan, the camera did not move, only
the camera's head moved.
The tilt is an extremely effective way to communicate distance, size, and strength. Another great use of a tilt is to show power. In Citizen Kane, the young Charles Kane has been given a sled by his guardian, whose voice we hear off-screen, but only the lower half of his body is visible. The camera catches the boy looking up and then tilts up for quite awhile until it finally reveals the face looking down upon the child. The tilt also has quite a history of being part of the objective male gaze toward female sexuality. Think how often you have seen a film in which the camera, following a man's gaze, focuses on the leg or foot of a woman and then slowly tilts up to reveal the rest of the woman.
Zoom
Again, as with the pan and tilt, there was no real movement in a zoom. The focal length of the lens changes, thus making the object appear to move closer or further away. The zoom is a way
to direct the audience's attention to a detail that the director does not want us to miss. We move into the scene without leaving our seats.
Tracking or Dolly Shots
Imagine if two or three of you picked up another student in a chair…You then walked around the classroom as someone else filmed you. Now, for the first time, we have true movement of the camera itself.
Any time that the camera is moving like this, the shot is called a tracking or dolly shot. This is by far the most uniquely cinematic of all these movements since it can enter and actually move us through the imaginative space of the film in the way that the pan and tilt cannot because they are stationary movements, more reminiscent of watching a staged play. We can now go with the action, become part of it, or even go behind it, instead of merely watching as it passes us by. The camera may be on a track, a truck, or a helicopter, or it may even be held in the operator's hands-all of which can be referred to as a dolly shot or as tracking.
Though there are several types of tracking movements with specific names, they do not really concern us here,
Oftentimes it may be difficult to distinguish if a camera is zooming in on an object or whether it is dollying in. One way to tell is to look at the background to see if it changes in relation to the objects and flattens a bit, which means you have a zoom. The other way is to ignore it and just enjoy the movie.
Lighting
The principal source of light on a movie
set is called the "key light," and other lights balance, soften, and shade
the key light. Two general descriptors of film lighting are "low-key lighting"
and "high-key lighting," terms which are used to characterize the
lighting of an overall scene. Two others-"side/bottom lighting" and
"front lighting"-are used primarily on actors and actresses to editorialize
on some aspect of their characters.
Low-Key Lighting
Turn off all the lights in the classroom, but leave maybe just your overhead
projector and a flashlight on. As students look around, they will see an example
of a scene that could be called "low-key."Its chief characteristics
are its darkness, shadows, and patches of bright key light, provided in this case by the overhead projector and the flashlight. Obviously, lowkey lighting can create moods of suspicion, mystery, and danger. This type of lighting is great for horror films, film noir, and detective movies,
because things can be hidden or concealed in the depth of shadows.
High-Key Lighting (bright)
Switch your classroom lights on again, and open up all the blinds and curtains. As students look around now, they are looking at high-key lighting, unless, like my students, they are in Portland, Oregon, where,
during the winter, there is no such thing as high-key light anywhere.
This type of lighting is distinguished by its brightness, openness, and lack of shadows or contrasts between light and dark. Your romantic comedies, musicals, and costumed dramas are often filmed with highkey
lighting, since, with this type of lighting, characters and situations
are seen without misunderstanding or threat.
Neutral Lighting
Not every scene must be either high- or low-key; a scene could be sort
of average, or lacking in much to distinguish its lighting. When the lighting
is even and balanced throughout the shot, it might best be described as "neutral." Most television programs are shot with this type of evenness in mind. Notice a trend going? A medium shot with an eye-level
angle and neutral lighting might not be saying too much, though we know at least what it might not be saying.
Bottom/Side Lighting
Go ahead and return your classroom to that "low-key" effect again. Now take your flashlight and shine it about two inches underneath your chin, pointing upward. This is the same thing you did when you told ghost
stories around the campfire. How do you look? Well, I don't know how
you looked before, but now the light illuminates only parts of your face,
and the shadows distort it so you look a little scary. Take a volunteer
and shine your flashlight on the side of his or her face, so that only one
eye or the mouth receives any light. This type of lighting-bottom or
side lighting-has the effect of creating characters that may be evil, are
hiding something, are morally ambiguous, or are conflicted in some way.
Front Lighting
Getting another volunteer from your class, shine your flashlight evenly across the subject's face, so that no shadows appear; you have created the effect of front lighting. Look at the volunteer's hair: it probably takes
on a bit of a "halo effect." This type of lighting is often used to show
innocence or openness, and was considered absolutely essential for most
Hollywood actresses. A character who is honest with nothing to hide
will often be shot this way-the hero or heroine in particular.
Some of the most striking examples of these lighting choices come
from black-and-white films (see, for example, the shot from Othello in
Figure 7). The contrast between light and dark is just not as readily apparent
in color film, though each of these lighting decisions, and the
implications behind them, are still in use in today's films. Because the
way in which characters and scenes are lit can give an audience so much
information so quickly-and often without dialogue-lighting is one
of the most important tools that filmmakers have at their disposal with
which to assist the viewer in understanding characters, setting, tone,and theme.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Today, I introduced the film study unit. I have pasted the notes below:
Film Study
Screen plays are written works for specific audiences with specific issues to present. Film is the universal communication tool using images and music to convey ideas. Reviewers of films study the actors, the lighting, the music, the plot lines, the pace and delivery and write reviews about them. There are different genres in film, just as in books. Short films, documentaries, horror, mystery, drama, comedy, etc.
Literature effects cultures and defines characteristics of certain peoples...film does the same thing. While I never encourage just the watching of a film as opposed to reading the original text (sometimes films are original in themselves--the screenplay is the original and worthy of study), film is worthy of study and classes have been created with the title of "Film as Literature".
Before we start, you need to understand some things about film techniques.
The Shot
This is the building block of all filmmaking. Whenever you hear someone say, “Hey, did you see that shot in The Godfather?” he or she is talking about a single, uninterrupted piece of film. In other words, the shot is the image that is seen on-screen until it is replaced by another image through some type of editing technique.
If the camera moves while still filming, but without that momentary break, then you are still watching just the one shot. Play a clip from any film and you’ll see that moment of black when the shot changes. While the black is not actually inserted into the film, it seems to be there for just a split second. We will now watch “Joey Write a Letter.” I want you to count the number of shots which appear in this clip (it is 1:31 in length). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW1lxwsK5_Q
Framing
One of the first decisions that a director has to make is how the object will be positioned within the shot, or how much of the frame of the movie screen the object will occupy. The three main framing types are the long shot, the close-up, and the medium shot. As you will see, the director will choose to use a given type of shot in order to achieve a particular effect. Also, these three types consist of sub-types (EWS (Extreme Wide Shot); VWS (Very Wide Shot); WS (Wide Shot); MS (Mid Shot); MCU (Medium Close Up); CU (Close Up); ECU (Extreme Close Up); CA (Cutaway). Now, we will look at some examples of this. http://www.mediacollege.com/video/camera/tutorial/01-framing.html
Long Shot
In a long shot, the object on the screen appears small or appears to be seen from some distance away. If a person is shown, then generally you will see his or her entire body. This type of shot can establish the scene, but showing, say, the Manhattan skyline, so that the viewer knows where the film will take place. It can also serve to show distance or separation between characters in a way that other shots cannot, or to show that a character is integrated with his or her surroundings. The long shot also gives the viewer a sense of time and place, but objects and characters may seem unclear or indistinct because of the distance and lack of detail. It also allows the viewer to decide where to look since there is so much on the screen to see. The long shot – in many ways – can be seen as the opposite of the next framing choice, the close-up.
Close-up or Close Shot
The object or subject takes up nearly 80 per cent of the screen space and therefore appears to be very large. This shot can be used by a filmmaker to direct the viewer’s attention to a crucial clue in a detective story, to emphasize a facial expression or gesture, or, perhaps, to show the single tear dropping off the character’s cheek as he delivers his deathbed speech. The close-up forces the viewer to look at only what the director intended, as opposed to the long short, which allows for at least some choice on the part of the viewer. Interesting, too, with a close-up is what is missing, or excluded from the scene. We are not allowed to see the entire scene, so we become deprived for a time of the overall context. The close-up is uniquely cinematic – theatergoers, in contact, are not allowed up onstage to see the sly wink or the trembling hands. The close-up has many parallels in literature. It is one of the most powerful tools a filmmaker has: it is intimate and revealing, though somewhat intrusive and authoritative.
Medium Shot
A medium shot is a shot between a long-shot and a close shot (duh). It is probably the most common and most naturalistic of the three types, since it is also the most common in our real lives. Generally we see each other in medium shots because of personal space distances. Unlike the long and close shots. The medium shot does not necessarily communicate much in the way of cinematic effect, and it could best be called a sort of “neutral shot.” Most television shows are framed almost entirely by using medium shots because they are unobtrusive and comfortable; they do not tend to call attention to themselves. However, the medium shot can show more setting and context than a close-up can, though it lacks the close-up’s detail, and it brings the viewer closer to the subject than the long shot does, though it cannot show the distance and relationships between characters, or between characters and settings, in quite the same way.
There are almost unlimited variations on these framing choices. There is an extreme close-up, a three-quarter medium shot, and a "deepfocus shot," where, in a single shot, one object is shown in a close-up while others in the background are shown in a long shot. So, as with all the cinematic techniques, the fun involves decoding the director's intentions and supporting one's judgment with specific details. Classic Hollywood framing normally suggests that a director establish the scene with a long shot, move into a medium shot, and only then use a close-up. This has a natural kind of feel to it: as an audience member you can imagine getting closer and closer to the subject. Interesting things occur, however, when a director intentionally breaks with this convention for whatever ideas that he or she may have.
Film Study
Screen plays are written works for specific audiences with specific issues to present. Film is the universal communication tool using images and music to convey ideas. Reviewers of films study the actors, the lighting, the music, the plot lines, the pace and delivery and write reviews about them. There are different genres in film, just as in books. Short films, documentaries, horror, mystery, drama, comedy, etc.
Literature effects cultures and defines characteristics of certain peoples...film does the same thing. While I never encourage just the watching of a film as opposed to reading the original text (sometimes films are original in themselves--the screenplay is the original and worthy of study), film is worthy of study and classes have been created with the title of "Film as Literature".
Before we start, you need to understand some things about film techniques.
The Shot
This is the building block of all filmmaking. Whenever you hear someone say, “Hey, did you see that shot in The Godfather?” he or she is talking about a single, uninterrupted piece of film. In other words, the shot is the image that is seen on-screen until it is replaced by another image through some type of editing technique.
If the camera moves while still filming, but without that momentary break, then you are still watching just the one shot. Play a clip from any film and you’ll see that moment of black when the shot changes. While the black is not actually inserted into the film, it seems to be there for just a split second. We will now watch “Joey Write a Letter.” I want you to count the number of shots which appear in this clip (it is 1:31 in length). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW1lxwsK5_Q
Framing
One of the first decisions that a director has to make is how the object will be positioned within the shot, or how much of the frame of the movie screen the object will occupy. The three main framing types are the long shot, the close-up, and the medium shot. As you will see, the director will choose to use a given type of shot in order to achieve a particular effect. Also, these three types consist of sub-types (EWS (Extreme Wide Shot); VWS (Very Wide Shot); WS (Wide Shot); MS (Mid Shot); MCU (Medium Close Up); CU (Close Up); ECU (Extreme Close Up); CA (Cutaway). Now, we will look at some examples of this. http://www.mediacollege.com/video/camera/tutorial/01-framing.html
Long Shot
In a long shot, the object on the screen appears small or appears to be seen from some distance away. If a person is shown, then generally you will see his or her entire body. This type of shot can establish the scene, but showing, say, the Manhattan skyline, so that the viewer knows where the film will take place. It can also serve to show distance or separation between characters in a way that other shots cannot, or to show that a character is integrated with his or her surroundings. The long shot also gives the viewer a sense of time and place, but objects and characters may seem unclear or indistinct because of the distance and lack of detail. It also allows the viewer to decide where to look since there is so much on the screen to see. The long shot – in many ways – can be seen as the opposite of the next framing choice, the close-up.
Close-up or Close Shot
The object or subject takes up nearly 80 per cent of the screen space and therefore appears to be very large. This shot can be used by a filmmaker to direct the viewer’s attention to a crucial clue in a detective story, to emphasize a facial expression or gesture, or, perhaps, to show the single tear dropping off the character’s cheek as he delivers his deathbed speech. The close-up forces the viewer to look at only what the director intended, as opposed to the long short, which allows for at least some choice on the part of the viewer. Interesting, too, with a close-up is what is missing, or excluded from the scene. We are not allowed to see the entire scene, so we become deprived for a time of the overall context. The close-up is uniquely cinematic – theatergoers, in contact, are not allowed up onstage to see the sly wink or the trembling hands. The close-up has many parallels in literature. It is one of the most powerful tools a filmmaker has: it is intimate and revealing, though somewhat intrusive and authoritative.
Medium Shot
A medium shot is a shot between a long-shot and a close shot (duh). It is probably the most common and most naturalistic of the three types, since it is also the most common in our real lives. Generally we see each other in medium shots because of personal space distances. Unlike the long and close shots. The medium shot does not necessarily communicate much in the way of cinematic effect, and it could best be called a sort of “neutral shot.” Most television shows are framed almost entirely by using medium shots because they are unobtrusive and comfortable; they do not tend to call attention to themselves. However, the medium shot can show more setting and context than a close-up can, though it lacks the close-up’s detail, and it brings the viewer closer to the subject than the long shot does, though it cannot show the distance and relationships between characters, or between characters and settings, in quite the same way.
There are almost unlimited variations on these framing choices. There is an extreme close-up, a three-quarter medium shot, and a "deepfocus shot," where, in a single shot, one object is shown in a close-up while others in the background are shown in a long shot. So, as with all the cinematic techniques, the fun involves decoding the director's intentions and supporting one's judgment with specific details. Classic Hollywood framing normally suggests that a director establish the scene with a long shot, move into a medium shot, and only then use a close-up. This has a natural kind of feel to it: as an audience member you can imagine getting closer and closer to the subject. Interesting things occur, however, when a director intentionally breaks with this convention for whatever ideas that he or she may have.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Today, you wrote your Hamlet comprehension exam and your Shakespeare comprehension exam. Tomorrow, we will start the film study.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
Today, you wrote you in-class essay using Hamlet as your source. Tomorrow, you will write your unit exam which will consist of questions specifically related to the play Hamlet, and comprehension questions tied to Shakespearean readings.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Today, we finished reading Hamlet. I then gave you four previous critical/analytical questions to create attention getters for and to outline in an effort to help you prepare and study for your in-class essay on Monday. Keep in mind as well that your visual is due on Tuesday.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Today, we read up to Act V, scene II of Hamlet. We are at the part where Laertes has been stabbed by Hamlet and is confessing that he poisoned the sword he was using. We will finish the play tomorrow.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Today, we ended out reading of Hamlet on Act 4, scene 7 (page 269). At this point (at the top of the page) Claudius and Laertes are discussing how to get revenge for Polonius' murder.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
Today, we read up to Act 4 Scene 4 (page 223) of Hamlet. It is important that, if you were not here, you read these pages at home. You need to understand what has transpired in order to make sense of the ending.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Today, we read up to Act III, Scene 2, of Hamlet. We ended up about halfway down page 161. At this point, the player queen has just professed to her husband that, if he died, she would not remarry.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Today, I instructed you to create a visual for Hamlet which you will use for future study purpose. At a minimum, It must contain plot, sub plot, parallels, themes, conflicts, personality traits, and relationships. We then read Hamlet up to the beginning of Act III (page 131).
Monday, November 7, 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Today, we did an overview of Hamlet and I explained some of the parallels and relationships which exist and need to be understood to understand Act 1 of the play. We then read Act One, scene one.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Today we marked the introductory quesitons for the drama unit. We also reviewed and marked the excerpt analysis and questions.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Today, you handed in your answers from the readings yesterday. We discussed iambic pentameter, the use of contractions in Shakespearean plays, and the ways in which many lines are flipped to fit the rhyme scheme. I then gave you a reading (Henry IV, Part 2, scene IV, i, ii) to read actively (I handed out instructions) and then the questions. These are both due tomorrow. The focus is on paraphrasing.
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