Film analysis
carmen04
II.docxII. SOME WAYS OF DIRECTING YOUR ATTENTION.
FORMAL ANALYSIS OF THE FILM
Like a written sentence that is composed of words, put together grammatically to mean something, a film sequence has its syntax. To convey meaning, instead of nouns, verbs, adjectives and pronouns, it uses a combination of the following elements, and you need to develop a sensitivity to them all, as they work individually and in conjunction with each other:
(a) Visual material:
Individual shots; each of them framed and composed in a specific manner; edited together with cuts, dissolves, fades.
Images:
1. How are the images composed? Do they have a realism, an abstract quality, a surrealism? How are these effects created and to what end? Are the image-compositions largely symmetrical or asymmetrical? What is the mise-en-scene of the image (i.e. how is the action staged, with elements like lighting, costuming, acting)? How is the image presented—from what point-of-view? When are high-angled shots or low-angled shots used? Is there a preponderance of close-ups or medium-shots or long-shots? Does this have any impact on your viewing of the film, on the points of identification you may find or don't find as a viewer?
2. What are the conjunctions or connections between the images? The images are most likely to produce, in their sequencing, a certain narrative or some form of synthesis. Consider how the images are sequenced to produce this narrative. How are connections and associations between images created? What juxtapositions are created by the edits? What is the temporal connection between the images (does it move forwards in time, backward, in a circular manner)? How is temporality constructed?
Narrative:
What is the story these series of images tell you? What is (are) the theme (themes) of the film? Does every sequence and image of the film contribute to the theme or does it complicate the theme? Does the film have a singular narrator or multiple narrators? Is the film aligned to any one narrator? Or is the film's perspective alienated from all the characters in the film? Is anyone given omniscience? Can you relate it to any genre? Is it funny, does it use black comedy, tragic devices, melodramatic techniques? How and why?
(b) Aural material:
Multiple audio tracks are edited together and with the images. Does the audio always take a secondary and supportive role to the images? If so, why? If not, when does it do so and to what effect? Do the individual shots, the larger narrative, and the audio-track always work with each other to produce a unified meaning? Do they sometimes work against each other? Is there ever any dissonance, and if so to what effect?
CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF FILM
What is the film's location within the industry that produced it? What is its relationship to culture—is it part of the dominant ideology; is it conservative or progressive in any way? Does it represent any contradictions in culture and how does it reconcile those contradictions (or not)? How does it represent gender, sexuality, identity, ethnicity, the nation-state, other nationalities, races, classes?
Basic Film Terminology
WRITING IT DOWN
1. FILM TREATMENT: Description of film in narrative (story) form as if the writer were seeing the film.
2. SHOOTING SCRIPT: Shot-by-shot description of film with action/camera directions down one side, sound directions down the other; written breakdown of movie story into its individual shots, often containing mechanical instructions. Used by director & staff to film.
3. STORYBOARD: A series of sketches that lays out the set-ups of the shots. Pre- visualization technique; shots sketched in advance like a comic strip. Drawing of each shot in the script identifying kind, angle, brief description and length in seconds of the shot.
THREE BASIC TERMS
1. FRAME: Dividing line between the edges of the screen image and the enclosing darkness; single photograph from the filmstrip (using a writing metaphor, the frame is "a word.")
2. SHOT: Basic unit of film structure; an unbroken strip of film made by an uninterrupted running of the camera. (Using a writing metaphor, the shot is "a sentence")
3. SEQUENCE (SCENE): Number of interrelated shots unified with common concern, location, etc.; action takes place in a single space at a single time. The film's smallest dramatic unit. (Using a writing metaphor, the sequence/scene is "a paragraph")
DIFFERENT KINDS OF SHOTS
1. ESTABLISHING SHOT: L.S. (long shot) or E. L. S. (extra long shot) giving the setting and context of the action. OFTEN at the beginning of a film and/or many scenes.
2. LONG SHOT: Audience's view of area within the proscenium arch of the live theater. (what the director wants you (the audience) to see as if you were viewing a stage play)
3. MEDIUM SHOT: Relatively close shot, revealing figure/person from knees or waist up.
4. CLOSE SHOT: Head shot; detailed view of person or object
5. LOW ANGLE: Filmed from below (camera low and shooting up)
6. HIGH ANGLE: Filmed from above (camera high shooting down)
7. ONE-SHOT (Two, three): One figure in the shot, etc. usually at a medium distance
8. UNDEREXPOSURE: Insufficient light enters camera aperture (opening); dark images
9. OVEREXPOSURE: Too much light enters camera aperture; bleached out images
10. FAST or UNDERCRANKED: Film speed run slower than normal 24 fps (frames per second) to make action run faster
11. SLOW or OVERCRANKED: Film speed run faster than normal 24 fps to make action run slower
12. RACK FOCUS: Blurring, forcing viewer's eye to travel to in-focus areas of the frame. It is used to get YOUR attention on what the director wants you to see by blurring "unimportant images" and keeping the important image in focus
CAMERA MOVEMENT
1. ANGLE: Camera's angle of view relative to subject. High angle shot from above; Low angle shot from below; Tilt (Oblique) angle shot by fixed, tiled camera creating a diagonal. (These various angles can symbolize/represent various emotional or psychological responses)
2. PAN: Fixed camera revolves horizontally from left to right or vice versa
3. DOLLY (tracking/trucking): Moving/mounted camera follows action; may be on tracks for smoother movement
4. BOOM (Crane): Mounted camera/cinematographer moves any direction through space
5. ZOOM: Fixed camera; entire scene magnified equally often plunging viewer in or out of scene rapidly as focal length of lens is changed. Zoom in, Zoom out (telephoto lens)
DIFFERENT EDITING TECHNIQUES (Organizing the film within a scene and from scene to scene)
Editing (cutting)—the process of assembling the shots into their final order and of cutting them to their final length.
a) Continuous time.
b) Parallel time (cross-cut).
c) Accelerated time (jump-cut).
d) Decelerated time.
e) Previous time.
f) Conceptual time (relational editing).
Montage—the process of "creative" editing. Also a series of shots dissolving one into the other to suggest a passage of time, journey, etc., "Quick cutting." In French, it simply means "cutting."
1. CUT: Simple break where two shots are joined together. Jump-cut: abrupt transition between shots, sometimes deliberate, disorienting in terms of continuity of space and time. CROSSCUTTING: Cutting back and forth between two or more separate scenes suggesting simultaneity and eventual convergence of the actions (heightens tension and adds suspense)
2. FADE: Gradual darkening of the image until it becomes black (fade-out) or gradual brightening of a darkened image until it becomes visible; gains proper brightness (fade-in)
3. DISSOLVE: Simultaneously fading out on one shot while fading in on the next so the first shot gradually disappears as second appears; during the dissolve, two shots will be briefly superimposed.
4. IRIS: Rare in contemporary cinema, but used as a major transition in silent film; a masking device (adjusted diaphragm or iris) placed over the camera lens will gradually open (iris-in) or close (iris-out) to widen or narrow the field of view. This is surrounded by blackness.
5. WIPE, FLIP WIPE: Somewhat dated transition in which second shot appears to push/pull the first shot off the screen.
6. MATCHES: Transitions within a scene to provide continuity of action: Graphic matches - major compositional features in one shot continues in the next shot Matches on action - carry over of physical movement from one shot to next to conceal cuts Eye-Line Matches - important in continuity, character exposition and psychology. Involves two shots: character in first shot looks offscreen at another character or object and next shot shows objectively what is seen in shot one
7. FREEZE FRAME: Single frame is reprinted a number of times on the filmstrip; when projected, it gives the illusion of a still photograph
SOUND
1. DIEGETIC SOUND: Image and sound correspond; recorded simultaneously, or seem so in the finished print. Sound appears to derive from an obvious source in the visuals.
NON-DIEGETIC SOUND: Sound applied in the post-production phase and that does not derive from an obvious source in the visuals (EXAMPLE: a song or motif that create a certain mood in a film).
2. M.O.S.: Without Sound; images but no sound (often builds suspense).
3. DIALOGUE: the spoken lines (speech between characters in the film)
4. VOICE OVER NARRATION: nonsynchronous, spoken commentary, often used to convey a character's thoughts or memories.
a) Monologue — either exterior or interior speech by one person;
b) Commentary — descriptive talk accompanying film.
5. SOUND EFFECTS: Aural (relating to the sense of hearing) atmosphere, sounds added to provide realism (Natural Sound/Wild Sound) —noises connected with the action being pictured (or sometimes action off screen).
Dubbing—process of re-recording the sound track of a film either to add the voice of an actor to his own image or to substitute another voice; to change voice quality or language.
6. MUSIC: Musical score written by film's composer functions as commentary on action; directs audience's attention to specific characters or details, info about action, establishes mood
a) Realistic—music which is part of action—a band in a night club scene.
b) Functional—(background)—music added to produce an emotional effect or to provide continuity.
LIGHTING Tool for "reading" contents of a scene
1. THREE-POINT LIGHTS: Standard lighting setup referring to the dominant sources of illumination:
a. KEY LIGHT - Chief, directional light sources -- above, front, side, rear b. FILL LIGHT - Weaker light sources fill in the shadows cast by the key light c. BACK LIGHT - Minor lights used to light the space between the back of the set and the characters to separate them from the background, delineates important features, creates illusion of depth MISCELLANEOUS
1. CREDITS: Who produced, directed, acted, and performed jobs of film's crew, contributors
2. RUSHES/DAILIES: Selected footage of previous day's shooting, usually evaluated by director and cinematographer before start of next day's shooting.
3. OUTTAKES: Shots, pieces of film not used in final cut; leftover footage
4. ROUGH CUT: Crudely edited footage before editor tightens up slackness between shots; a kind of rough draft.
