FTVM 150 Midterm Study Guide PDF

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Midterm study guide for FTVM 150...

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FTVM 150 Midterm FTVM 150 Midterm Study Guide 180 Degree Rule: A cinematography guideline that states that two characters in a scene should maintain the same left/right relationship to one another. It is to make the conversation look more natural and authentic. The cameras are set up to show that the people are facing each other and having an actual conversation. Keeps screen direction consistent. (180 degree can be broken, ex. The Shining) ● Shot/Reverse Shot (a.k.a Reverse Angle Shot): When the camera passes over the invisible axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line and the shot becomes what is called a reverse angle. Inconsistent screen direction. Cross-cutting/Parallel Editing: Cutting between two or more developing concepts or lines of action. Purpose of presenting simultaneously occurring events. The camera will cut away from one action to another action, which can suggest the simultaneity of these two actions Eye-line match: Indicating what a character in a scene is observing. Looking off screen and the next scene will show they’re looking at. Typically, 2-3 shot sequence. (Ex. Raising Arizona) ● Point of View Shot: (Specific type of eye- line match) Shot of space a person is looking at, filmed from the spot occupied by the person. (Ex. Dance, Girl, Dance) Over the Shoulder Shot: An over the shoulder shot is a shot of someone or something taken from the perspective or camera angle from the shoulder of another person. The back of the shoulder and head of this person is used to frame the image of whatever the camera is pointing toward. Eye Level Shot: When the level of your camera is placed at the same height as the eyes of the characters in your frame. Continuity: The development and structuring of film segments so that the meaning is clear to the viewer. The matching of individual scenic elements so that details and actions, filmed at different times will edit together without breaks (smooth and continuous shots.) This process is referred to as “continuity editing.”

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FTVM 150 Midterm ● Invisible Editing: Film editing that follows precise continuity procedures. It does not call attention to itself and you do not notice when one shot turns to the next. Analytical Editing: Introduces and breaks down space in a particular sequence of shots to show different orders of scale. Shots move “closer” to highlight and reveal figures and details to the audience. A cut-in during a scene to highlight a closer view of some part of the same space. Fragments space without the sense of breaking it apart. Iris: (Shot transition) A lab transitional effect. An image moves into a circle until it disappears. Iris in and iris out. Most common in old Hollywood films. Dissolve: (Shot transition) A gradual transitional scene in which it fades into another. (Scene melts into another.) Wipe: (Shot transition) One shot replaces another by travelling from one side of the frame to another or with a special shape. Match Cut: In film, a match cut is a cut from one shot to another where the two shots are matched by the action or subject and subject matter. Jump Cut: In which two sequential shots of the same subject are taken from camera positions that vary only slightly if at all. Cut: An abrupt, but usually trivial film transition from one sequence to another High-key lighting: The illumination of the scene has a bright general quality. Low-key lighting: Less illumination and heavier shadows. (More atmospheric quality) Acousm5tre: The presence of a voice which has not been visualized, the face of which has not been revealed or which is disembodied. (Audio heard from something off screen that isn’t revealed to the viewers, unknown source, mysterious, god-like powers.) (Ex. The Wizard of Oz) Aspect ratio: Academy (old) was filmed in a rectangle (1.33:1), Standard (new) ratio is filmed in a square (1.85:1)

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FTVM 150 Midterm Bird’s eye shot: Filmed from very high above - aerial shot from a plane - uncommon. High-angle Shot: Less extreme version of bird's eye shot - camera looking down from a window. Canted angle: Camera angle is just slightly tilted. Causality: Sequence of events presume a causal motivation. One scene prompts another. Classical Hollywood Style: ● An economic, industrial institution that controlled the majority of filmmaking in the US ● Studio system: Maximize profit, control regional, national, and int'l markets ● Governed by the principle of mass efficiency, "Assembly line" production and division of labor. ● Studios were vertically integrated, controlling production, distribution, and exhibition of films (monopoly) ● A style of filmmaking, formal features of films from this period ● Characterized by specific conventions that were common to most of its films most of the time, like invisible editing. ● Created "rules" and norms we come to expect: strong key lighting ● Governed by standardization: following those rules and conventions and difference variations of those conventions. Standardization, but with a difference. Classic Hollywood Stylistic Traits: 1. Narrative 2. Character- Centered 3. Emotional Appeal 4. Engaging or Interesting 5. Intelligibility and Clarity; if murky, it is for a reason (ambiguity creates displeasure) 6. Impression of reality; Verisimilitude 7. Invisible Style 8. Unity, mutually reinforcing systems (Ex. Love scene with violin playing)

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FTVM 150 Midterm 9. Frequent use of dominant “myths” (stereotypes) Verisimilitude: Has realistic aspects that maintains the plot/narrative. The rules of reality are contingent/related to the story you are telling. Creates the impression of reality. Close up: About the size of a human head - little to no background. Closure: Resolution at the end of film that gives viewers 'closure' Crane shot: One very long take, continuous sweep - expensive. Depth of field: The front-to-back range of the camera's focus - how blurry or clear the foreground, midground, and background are. Deep Focus: The foreground, midground, and background are all in clear focus. Diegesis: The story world of the film. Details about the world itself and the experiences of its characters are revealed explicitly through narrative. The story is told or recounted, as opposed to shown or enacted. Extreme Close-up: Shot of a detail smaller than the size of the human head. Blow up a small object to the size of a wall. Extreme Long Shot: Shot Taken from a great distance in which the human figure is relatively insignificant; almost always outdoors The Gaze: Male point of view that does not get that look back, but continues to observe the woman voyeuristically from a safe space. The female is an on-screen object. (Ex. Dance, Girl, Dance) Long Shot: Taken from a distance that corresponds roughly to that of figures on stage. ● Master Shot/ Establishing Shot: Gives a general context for a scene, showing the relationships between the characters, objects and other items on set. Typically presented in long shot, but much closer to highlight actions or figures.

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FTVM 150 Midterm Long Take: A scene drawn out for a large amount of time, giving the viewer lots of information. Duration based. Low Angle Shot: A shot filmed from the ground's perspective looking up at a subject or character, often puts the audience "under authority" of who/ what we are looking at. Masking: The blocking out of the frame edges to give emphasis to the rest of the images. It has been a popular method for varying size and shape to keep within the actual parameters. Medium Shot: Knees/ waist up of character can be seen, most common. Metaphor: Creates additional meaning but does not directly correlate to the initial idea or object. Mise-en-sc:ne: Visual elements that are “put into scene” in front of the camera. Works closely with all aspects of camerawork and with cinematographic properties. Everything you can see on screen, and different movies have different emphasis on certain elements. Four elements of Miseen-scène: 1. Lighting 2. Character Movements/Gestures 3. Setting and Location 4. Costumes and Makeup Montage: A series of scenes that show the passage of time/progression of character. Motif: A recurring aspect like specific sound, dialogue, or even a prop that communicates a prominent theme in a film. Ideology: A system filled with real and imagined/unconscious representations by which we live our lives, find our place in the world. Can present as abstract (police sirens) or in institutions (educational, family, political, etc.) An overarching law or idea that is simply known without being talked about.

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FTVM 150 Midterm ● A form of glue or social element, ever present, that keeps individuals in what’s thought to be the “proper” social place.

Myth: Is an important component of ideology that supplies many materials it needs to function. It is part of how we learn to assume how things are supposed to be organized, how different groups should be read or how they are “supposed to” behave. A way of explaining positioning and decoding things in the world around us, including ourselves and others. A way for encoding these things as well. ● A way for a society to assign norms, values, standards through representations and readings. Intersectionality: Various forms of social identity; always multiple, never singular. “Identity markers.” Influences the sense of the world, how people are treated, who has social privilege, who is excluded, access, worth, value, etc. Narrative: A chain of events in a cause and effect relationship occurring in space and time. Four pieces of a narrative: 1. Situation presented/ “exposition” 2. Introduction of conflict, goal, or another change that disrupts that situation and demands and outcome/ resolution 3. Patterns of Development 4. Degree of closure/ resolution Narrator: A speaker or character who tells a story. There can be an inferred narrator; the force or perspective that seems to be presenting it. Refers to the perspective viewers get. Narration: Involves the degree, depth and the amount of story information that the plot reveals. Refers to the extent of information viewers get. Diegetic: Sound within the ‘four walls’ of the film.

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FTVM 150 Midterm Non-Diegetic (a.k.a. Extra Diegetic): Does not pertain to the fourth wall, exists outside of the world of the characters. Underscore. Pan: Camera moves up/down or side to side. Persistence of Vision: When the human eye retains an image for a short time after its source had been removed from the field of vision allowing the eye to create an illusion of continuity when several images were passed in front of it in succession. Plot: Everything visibly and audibly present in the film before us. Puzzle Narrative: These are narratives where the cohesive relations between time, space, events, and causality are complicated or made absent. (Mind game films) Offscreen Space: Cinematic space that exists outside the frame. Slow Motion: When action is filmed at a speed faster than 24 frames a second that action appears unusually slow when projected at normal speed. Sound Mixing: The process, during a film's post-production stage, in which the collection of recorded sounds is combined into one or more channels to form a portion of the film's soundtrack. Soundscape: An audio recording or performance of sounds that create the sensation of experiencing a particular acoustic environment, either exclusively or in conjunction with musical performances. Story: Includes plot and inferred as well as explicitly presented events. Tell the story and is what we explain to our friends. Symbol: An object or image that both represents itself and suggests a meaning apart from its own objective reality. The object carries a meaning throughout the plot. Symmetry: When both sides of a scene's composition mirror each other.

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FTVM 150 Midterm Three Point Lighting: System of "Classical Hollywood" studio and many other films. Involves Key light, fill light, and backlight. Creates strong focus on main object (a star), offsets shadows cast by the strong key light, creates the illusion of depth, sets off the star/main figure from others/the background. Tilt: A stationary camera moves up or down along a vertical axis. Tracking Shot: Where the camera pans along with the subjects on a track inserted into the floor. Camera moves through the scene to develop depth. Two Shot: A two shot is a type of shot in which the frame encompasses two people. The subjects do not have to be next to each other, and there are many common two shots which have one subject in the foreground and the other subject in the background. Value Added by Text: The added value (expressive and informative) that sound provides, whether through dialogue/narration or music, to the image on screen. ● Empathetic: When music “directly expresses its participation in the feeling of a scene.” When the music is aware of working alongside the emotion in a scene. ● Anempathetic: When music “exhibits conspicuous indifference to the situation.” When the music is completely disinterested in the emotion in the scene. Movies Screened Citizen Kane Groundhog Day Persepolis Dance, Girl, Dance Casablanca Moonlight

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FTVM 150 Midterm

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