Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride Assignment
BowenF
PowerPoint-MotionPictures221.pptxFilm/Motion Pictures
Historical Perspective of Film:
In 1872 Edward Muybridge created the first movie ever made by placing 12 cameras on a racetrack and rigging the cameras to capture shots in a quick sequence as a horse crossed in front of the lenses – movies show apparent movement to move through a sequence of individual images (series) using a projector
Film/Motion Pictures
“The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder”. (Alfred Hitchcock – 1899-1980)
• 1895 – 2012 → 650 812 motion pictures made
• 2007 – American Film Institute polled 1500 film artists, critics and historians to determine the greatest movies of all time
• Citizen Kane (1941) → consistently rated the “best film” ever – Orson Welles – director and star (Analysis of Citizen Kane )
Film/Motion Pictures
Citizen Kane (1941) → consistently rated the “best film” ever – Orson Welles – director and star (Analysis of Citizen Kane )
• Orson Welles → combined most recent technical innovations for producing visual messages and images on film – innovated new techniques of filming – 1. Experimented with new camera angles to shoot scenes (‘Worms Eye View”; Bird’s Eye View)
• Created a sense of 3D in films – movies had only been one dimensional before Orson Welles directing of Citizen Kane – movies were always filmed at eye level for the audience
Film/Motion Pictures
Citizen Kane:
• praised by critics BUT → a financial disaster – movie audiences used to “lightweight action” and comedic films
• Citizen Kane → dark, moody – a psychological drama with an unhappy ending
• film critic Andre Bazin – “ the motion picture was “decidedly above the mental age of the average American spectator.”
• nominated for several academy awards – received “Best Screenplay”
Film/Motion Pictures
Top 6 Movies : 1. Citizen Kane 2. Godfather (1972)
3. Casablanca (1942) 4. Raging Bull (1980)
5. Gone With The Wind 6. Singing In The Rain
Film/Motion Pictures
• movies of the day contained → snappy dialogue, light hearted scenes and unusual situations – directors were not really concerned about the visual message
• Welles → combined most recent technical innovations for producing visual messages – Welles and Gregg Toland perfected a technique called ‘deep focus’
• higher quality lights, faster film and wide angle lenses → created a ‘depth of field’ that carried from 20 inches to several hundred feet
• action could take place simultaneously in the foreground and background
• ‘deep focus’ – technique gave viewers much more freedom in deciding which part of the screen they wanted to watch
Film/Motion Pictures
Composition in Film – Click on left video link – What Makes a Masterpiece?
• Orson Welles used camera techniques such as ‘deep focus’ and ‘depth of field’
• the ‘components of depth’ also became more evident in movies thanks to Welles innovations in cinematic composition
• action could now take place simultaneously (at the same time) in both the foreground and background (see the first visual image on the left of this slide)
Watch the video by following the right side link above – (pale purple coloured links)
‘Learn the 7 secrets/techniques of ‘Cinematic Composition’ used by Orson Welles in his movies - click on the link below the right visual image of Welles directing
Film/Motion Pictures
• Welles requested sets with ceilings so that extreme up-angle camera perspectives could be used in the movie
• up until this movie – most shots of a scene were at ‘eye level’
• Welles developed/presented a more realistic visual image and message with the addition of ceilings, overhead lighting and microphones for sound
• change in positioning of lights → now lighting was high in contrast – good for black and white pictures – lighting had been usually set up from behind – this tended to separate the actors from their surroundings on film
• narrative and technological magic combine to produce ‘heightened intimations’ of the real, and ecstatic merging of magic and reality is what imprints the movie on our ‘emotional memory’ David Denby – movie critic - New York Magazine - Click on link above to see ‘Depth Through Light and Shadow”
Film/Motion Pictures
Mise-en-sc`ene: Know this term for our Final Exam in Week 13
• scene or stage setting Click on link above to learn about Mise-en-scene and its importance in film composiion
• when applied to the cinema ‘mise-en-sc`ene’ refers to everything that appears before the camera and its arrangement - composition, sets, props, actors, costumes, scenes, and lighting
• it all goes together to create a believability of a film in the eyes of its viewers
• the various elements of design help to generate a sense of time and space, as well as a setting of mood, and sometimes suggesting a character’s state of mind
• mise-en-sc`ene also includes composition, which consists of the positioning and movement of the actors, as well as objects in ‘the shot’
Motion pictures
Mise-en-scène
“placing on stage”
https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwz4FENS_ok
Click on the link above to see how special effects were used by Orson Welles in Citizen Kane
how elements are arranged within the frame – actors, props, and scenery on a stage or a theatrical production
a good director has total control over how viewers perceive a scene
Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane
Film/Motion Pictures - Colour
• history of motion pictures → ‘innovation’
• sound, colour, widescreen - stereotyping
Colour:
• a technical innovation was the use of colour
• started with the tedious method of hand-tinting individual frames of a motion picture
• first full length movie filmed and projected in clour1914 – The World, the Flesh and the Devil
• public acceptance of colour found in The Wizard of Oz (1939)
• remastering process of The Wizard of Oz – technical perspective – digital scanning – film resolution – scanned at 6 frames per second – done previously by photo chemical means
Click on the left video link: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6D8PAGelN8
Click on the right video link: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKFZ8qxmjF4
Film/Motion Pictures - Perspectives
Personal Perspective:
• motion pictures started out as jerky films – visionaries soon saw that movies could be more than static camera shots put into motion – individual static camera shots – flip book
• film-makers would eventually exploit aesthetics, political, and economic advantages → 3 primary functions developed to explain movies with different names/titles - motion picture, cinema, documentary, film, show, picture, movie etc. – single framed, sequential images → move through a machine so quickly they create the “illusion of movement”
Film/Motion Pictures - Perspectives
Technical Perspectives:
• movies (like cartoons and photography) primarily communicate in a “visual format” – Alfred Hitchcock was one of the most gifted directors in creating ‘the shot’ Click on the link below the movie poster to see how Hitchcock created an example of ‘The Shot” in his movie ‘Psycho’ – notice how long the continuous shot lasts
“The Shot” – a continuous picture in which the camera doesn’t stop (very short – 1/24th of a second of the entire movie)
• Click on the second link, under the right hand image of Hitchcock to view the impact of the film – ‘How Alfred Hitchcock Manipulates An Audience’
Film/Motion Pictures - Perspectives
Ethical Perspective:
3 Main Ethical Concerns:
1. Stereotypical portrayals
2. Emphasis on Violent Themes
3. The Promotion of Smoking
NEW Concern: availability of motion pictures on the internet “Copyright Infringement”
Film/Motion Pictures - Perspectives
Ethical Perspective
Violence: view video links from right visual image through to the left visual image
Common Belief → violence in motion pictures and television is the root of violence and gun violence in society today. A Hotly Attested Debate Today
• no doubt action adventure movies are filled with violent activities
• $$$$ for major studios – violence translates across cultures
Click on the links above to view examples of how violence is shown in today’s movies – visual links under each visual image - Stephen Spielberg states why violence might sometimes be justified as in his movie ‘Saving Private Ryan’
Film/Motion Pictures - Perspectives
Cultural Perspective:
• film/motion pictures (like any other art form) reflect the archetypes that are popular within a particular culture at a particular time
• movies shape what we think of our society and sometimes ourselves – good vs. evil; social order vs. anarchy; group dependence vs. independence
Film/Motion Pictures - Perspectives
Cultural Perspective:
12 Genres/Types of Stories Created on Film:
Comedy Epic
Crime Social Impact
Documentary Social Impact
Horror
Musical
Romance
Science Fiction
Thriller
War
Western
https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTJQYGkf-cc
Motion Pictures /film reflect cultures, values, beliefs, and/or attitudes within a given society
Click on the 2 video links to view 2 of the 12 genres types of films created
Film/Motion Pictures
Movie: Bullitt: Starring actor Steve McQueen
Most famous car chase of all times – No Computer Generated Images Here!!!
Putting It All Together: Click on the first link under the left image. Then click on the link under the second visual image on the right.
Non-Verbal Activity: Identify the items of sound, music, camera usage, (angles, length of individual clips, speed, etc.) positioning of the camera, and the actors facial and body language to bring forth the message(s) in the movie. Take all the information covered in this power point presentation and use it to analysis the Bullitt car chase for the things in brackets)
