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Chapter 9

Film and Television

The Art of Being Human THE HUMANITIES AS A TECHNIQUE FOR LIVING

Eleventh Edition

Learning Objectives

9.1 Identify and define key conventions of filmmaking.

9.2 Discuss the importance of some early milestones of film history.

9.3 Identify the characteristics of the major film genres.

9.4 Explain the continuing popularity of two film classics, Citizen Kane and Casablanca.

9.5 Define the term auteur as it relates to filmmaking and discuss briefly the careers of several prominent auteurs.

9.6 Explain why the 2000s are known as the “new golden age” of television.

9.7 Explore the importance of critical thinking in evaluating films and television.

Slide 2 is list of textbook LO numbers and statements

Thomas Edison & Lumière brothers

Thomas Edison – Kinetoscope; W.K.L Dickson 1891

(http://www.history.ca/history-topics/latest/april-14-1894-edisons-kinetoscope/)

Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas Lumière

Louis Jean Lumière

Patented and improved cinematograph – can be viewed by multiple viewers

Private screenings of projected motion pictures 1895 – audience of 200 people

Conventions of Film 9.1 Identify and define key conventions of filmmaking. (1 of 5)

Conventions - elements of filmmaking often unnoticed by audiences.

Sound

Color

Time

The Camera

Challenging Conventions

Conventions of Film 9.1 Identify and define key conventions of filmmaking. (2 of 5)

Sound

Silent film era/talkies

Charlie Chaplin - Modern Times - Roller Skating Scene

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPcEFHA3X0c)

Rudolph Valentino, sex symbol of 1920s- THE SHEIK

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDaRentuB7g)

Buster Keaton – The Cameraman

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=set8aZUDvIs)

Diegetic – sounds that arise from within the work we see on the screen

Non-diegetic – sounds that come from outside the world we see on the screen. Ex. Soundtrack, narrative.

Music and scores

Firsts: Jazz Singer 1927 – American musical feature length film

Conventions of Film 9.1 Identify and define key conventions of filmmaking. (3 of 5)

The Camera

Point of view – the vantage from which the camera is filming, a scene so the audience knows whether it is supposed to be inside the character’s consciousness or sharing the directors objectivity.

Understanding Point of View in Film and Video

(https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/understanding-pov-in-film-and-video/)

Close-ups – when the camera moves in to enlarge the image of one character on the screen.

Tracking shots – the camera on rollers or rails moving in for a close up or moving outward to display a wider area.

Film Techniques

(https://prezi.com/vdqvhgwmnr61/film-techniques/)

The Shining – Tracking Shot

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pIfyTXphgE)

Mise-en-scène – the overall visual look of a scene, including placement of actors and props within a space, lighting, costumes an background.

Conventions of Film 9.1 Identify and define key conventions of filmmaking. (5 of 5)

Color

Black-and-white vs. color

Interplay of light and shadow

Firsts: Georges Méliès’ films were first shot in B&W and each frame was painted by hand.

Technicolor – Becky Sharp (1935)

Modern B&W films:

The Artist: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB9Oq0hn5KY)

The Girl on the Bridge: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpIrr4G4sTM)

Time

Slowing down

Freeze-frames

Speeding up

Narrative

Early Milestones in Film 9.2 Discuss the importance of some early milestones of film history. (1 of 2)

The Pioneers: Griffith and Eisenstein

D.W. Griffith—Birth of a Nation

Cuts

Lingering take

Racist content

Sergei Eisenstein

The massacre on the stairs from Battleship Potemkin. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS5kzTbNKjs)

Use of elongated filming technical

Use of film for political purposes

Montage – pioneer

Montage - the process or technique of selecting, editing, and piecing together separate sections of film to form a continuous whole.

Continuity

The technique of combining more-or-less related shots, or different components cut from a single shot, into a sequence so as to direct the viewer's attention to a pre-existing consistency of story across both time and physical location.

Arranging the shots in a film to create an impression that the time is uninterrupted and space is continuous.

Film School: Establishing Film Continuity

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALguEHV9VvA)

The Odessa steps scene from Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin (1925). What story does the camera alone tell in this scene where there is little movement and no dialogue?

Figure 9.3

Credit: Mbi/Stockbroker/Alamy

Orson Welles as Charles Kane in his 1941 film Citizen Kane. For many, Citizen Kane’s story and use of camera mark a cinematic point that has never been surpassed. What makes a film noteworthy or great?

Figure 9.1

Credit: AF Archive/Alamy

Francine Almash (FA) - The art log includes this note: **WARNING** This Photograph is for editorial use only and is the copyright of FILM COMPANY RKO and/or the Photographer assigned by the Film or Production Company & can only be reproduced by publications in conjunction with the promotion of the above Film. A Mandatory Credit To FILM COMPANY RKO is required. The Photographer should also be credited when known. No commercial use can be granted without written authority from the Film Company.

Major Film Genres and movements 9.3 Identify the characteristics of the major film genres. (1 of 9)

By the 1920s, film had already developed a number of different genres including comedies, westerns, and gangster films.

Slapstick Comedy: Sennett, Chaplin, and Keaton

Farce: The Marx Brothers

Film Noir

The Western

Italian Neorealism movement

Romantic Comedy

The Musical

Science Fiction

Super Hero and “Comic Book Movies”

The Social Issue Film

Animated Film

Documentaries

Major Film Genres 9.3 Identify the characteristics of the major film genres. (2 of 9)

Slapstick Comedy: Sennett, Chaplin, and Keaton

Chaplin

First international film star

Modern times: The toll of mechanized production versus human labor

Keaton

Daring stunts

Double-exposure

Major Film Genres 9.3 Identify the characteristics of the major film genres. (4 of 9)

Film Noir

Film noir suggests both a technique of film and the dark content of the narrative.

Features the protagonist as a disillusioned cynic that is relatively more ethical than the corrupt world in which he operates.

Dark films with dark themes

Jaded, cynical heroes

Marginally moral

John Huston’s The Maltese Falcon (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kk3Xvw7jn0)

The Western

Better defined good and evil characters

Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon (min 5) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZil728hUy0)

Major defining genre of American film industry

Peak 1930s-1960s

Western frontier

Italian Neorealism & Italian Cinema

Golden age of Italian film making

Take place in poor or working class setting post World War II Italy

Shot on location, many non-professional actors

Prominent directors: Fredrico Fellini, Vittorio De Sica

Bicycle Thief

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Bhrki6BOn4)

Malena

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk5mVCU7C9s)

Divorce Italian style

Scene 1 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AhHKbS1frE)

Scene 2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1_SU4yPwkc)

The Film Auteur 9.5 Define the term auteur as it relates to filmmaking and discuss briefly the careers of several prominent auteurs. (1 of 3)

Auteur – French term for author, used by film historians in reference to certain directors who develop a reputation as serious artists whose imprint is found in almost every film they make because of recognizable camera styles, rhythms, themes, and symbols.

An auteur has artistic control over many of the elements of filmmaking, especially writing and directing.

Federico Fellini

The French auteurs: Godard, Truffaut, Resnais

Alfred Hitchcock

Akira Kurosawa

Stanley Kubrick

New wave – directors focused on style above all else, experimented with the possibilities of the camera. Focused on refining new techniques in editing an controlling the pace in which the audience experiences the story.

The Film Auteur 9.5 Define the term auteur as it relates to filmmaking and discuss briefly the careers of several prominent auteurs. (2 of 3)

Federico Fellini

Realism and poetic camera technique

La Strada

The French Auteurs: Godard, Truffaut, Resnais

These mid-century filmmakers valued style and technique over realism

The Film Auteur 9.5 Define the term auteur as it relates to filmmaking and discuss briefly the careers of several prominent auteurs. (3 of 3)

Alfred Hitchcock

Discovered the “dark” in the daily

Was known for carefully plotting every shot of his films

Akira Kurosawa

Shows single scenes from multiple perspectives

Influential use of long-shot and intense color

Stanley Kubrick

Steadicam, reverse tracking, wide-angle shots

Concerned with self-deception and hypocrisy

A scene from Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, 1954. Kurosawa was highly influential on U.S. cinema. This film was made into The Magnificent Seven, and his technique influenced many U.S. directors.

Figure 9.13

Credit: World History Archive/Alamy

Francine Almash (FA) - Figures go from 9.11 to 9.13. Figure 9.12 is missing.

Auteur directors

Federico Fellini

La Dolce Vita

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnh6NWlOF1U)

The French auteurs: Godard, Truffaut, Resnais

The 400 Blows (Triffaut)

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i89oN8v7RdY)

Alfred Hitchcock

The Birds

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge2i7y3AAoE)

Akira Kurosawa

Seven Samurai (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZSRxp-dJ-Q) (2:40)

- Lina Wertmuller – first woman to be nominated for Academy Award for directing

The Seduction of Mimi (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJAUC9ZL3nY)

Animated Film

1937 – Disney released a full length feature: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Pixar – began as a software company, developing programs and special effects for animation, decided to make their own movies. Toy Story (1995)

A Word on Critical Viewing 9.7 Explore the importance of critical thinking in evaluating films and television.

Seven Considerations for Critical Viewing

Use of a style unique to cinema – does what you’re watching use the available techniques artfully?

Characters with complex inner lives – are characters authentic?

Relevance to the times – does what you are watching move you?

Integrity – does what you see assume your intelligence as a viewer?

No violations of probability

Realistic depiction of gender

Francine Almash (FA) - There are not Discussion Points for section 9.7.

The Small Screen Television 9.6 Explain why the 2000s are known as the “new golden age” of television.

1940s-1950s televisions started appearing in homes

1950s, it could be a place of high culture.

1960s it was influenced by major film genres.

1970s television sitcoms went from trivial to addressing important issues of the day.

The New Golden Age: Contemporary Television Drama

Freedom of premium cable channels and Internet streaming services The new golden age of television of the twenty-first century is indicative of how drama has moved from the large to the small screen.

These television dramas contain fully realized characters.

Examples are The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Orange is the New Black, and The Wire.

The shows all take advantage of the relative freedom in content and programming that comes with premium cable and Internet streaming services.

Key Words

Auteur

Cinematography

Close-up

Conventions

Cut

Diegetic Sound

Dissolve

Documentary

Elongated moment

Film noir

Freeze-frame

Genre

Lingering take

Non-diegetic Sound

Pan

Persona

Point of view

Showrunner

Sit Com

Slapstick

Tracking shot

Francine Almash (FA) - The art log shows Figures 9.14 and 9.15 which do not appear here.