Summary book \"Film Art: an Introduction\" by Bordwell & Thompson PDF

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Film Art: An Introduction (Bordwell&Thompson)Chapter 2: The Significance of Film FormTHE CONCEPT OF FORM IN FILMForm as Pattern Form is of central importance in film because it gives us a structured experience. The artist has created a pattern, a form. Artwork involves us by engaging our...

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Film Art: An Introduction (Bordwell&Thompson) Chapter 2: The Significance of Film Form THE CONCEPT OF FORM IN FILM Form as Pattern Form is of central importance in film because it gives us a structured experience. The artist has created a pattern, a form. Artwork involves us by engaging our senses, feelings and minds in a process. The viewer is expected to follow a story: a pattern of narrative elements. The viewer can notice the way the camera moves and other devices/techniques: stylistic elements. Form versus Content Form is not the opposite of content, rather it is combined. Subject matter and abstract ideas all enter into the total form of the artwork. What we might call the content is governed by the film’s formal context. Formal expectations Suspense: a delay in fulfilling an established expectation. Surprise: a result of an expectation that is revealed to be incorrect. Curiosity: a trigger that makes you wonder about earlier events. Conventions and Experience Prior experience: knowledge you already possess that creates your experience. Conventions: common elements to several different artworks such as a tradition, a dominant style or a popular form.  Filmmakers assume that we are familiar with conventions and are willing to go along with the game (example: we will not question why characters in musicals sing).  Filmmakers rely on existing conventions, but they also try to create new ones. Form and Feeling Emotions represented in the artwork and emotional response felt by the spectator are not always the same.  Nothing can guarantee that the filmmaker will achieve a specific emotional response. The emotions presented onscreen and aroused in us depend on the context created by form (example: Film Art page 57). Form and Meaning As viewers we are constantly testing the artwork for larger significance, for what it says or suggest: the meaning. Four types of meanings are distinguished: 1. Referential meaning The film refers to things or places already invested with significance in the real world. Almost a plot summary: the meaning depends on the viewer’s ability to identify specific items. This depends on their knowledge, their range of information. 2. Explicit meaning What is the point of this film? The meaning is openly asserted. 3. Implicit meaning Interpretations: the meaning isn’t stated directly.

Filmmakers either avoid or steer viewers toward implicit meanings (also sometimes called subtexts). 4. Symptomatic meaning A social ideology: a set of social values that get revealed explicitly or implicitly. Evaluation: Good, Bad or Indifferent? There’s a difference between personal taste and evaluative judgment. Personal preference need not be the basis for judging a film’s quality. A critic will use criteria. There are several types of criteria: - Realistic criteria Is it realistic? - Moral criteria -

Judged outside the context; what does the film do with my morals? Coherence

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Unity? (see: Unity and Disunity) Complexity

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How complex? Originality

Does it give me a fresh experience?  The analyst must weigh one criterion against another. PRINCIPLES OF FILM FORM Function Of any element in a film we can ask: what are its functions? Function: what is this element doing here?  An element in a film that does something to the viewer (‘s experience). Motivation: why is this element here?  What justifies anything being in the movie or taking the shape it does? Similarity and Repetition Motif: any significant repeated element that contributes to the overall form. Parallels: similarities between elements in a film. Parallels cue us to compare two or more distinct elements by highlighting some similarity. Difference and Variation Variations: changes in film form. Filmmakers are unlikely to rely only on repetitions. Parallelism requires a degree of difference as well as striking similarity (example: Film Art page 67).  We ought to look for similarities and differences. This way we can point out motifs and contrast the changes they undergo, recognize parallelisms as repetition, and still spot crucial variations. Development Formal development: a progression moving from beginning through middle to end. This is a process. Segmentation: a written outline of the film that breaks it into its major and minor parts, with the parts marked by consecutive numbers or letters. This is more or less a list of scenes in a film (example: Film Art page 68). Unity and Disunity Unity: when all the relationships we perceive within a film are clear and economically interwoven, a film has unity. A unified film is often called tight. Unity is a matter of degree. Disunity: the opposite. Momentary disunities can fulfill particular purposes or suggest thematic meanings, as in Pulp Fiction (example: Film Art page 70).

Chapter 3: Narrative Form PRINCIPLES OF NARRATIVE FORM What Is Narrative? A narrative film is a film that tells a story. Narrative: a chain of events linked by cause and effect and occurring in time and space. Telling the Story [Creative Decisions: Film Art page 74] Storytelling decisions about viewpoint involve what we’ll be calling narration. Filmmakers have to consider how the options affect the viewer. Plot and Story Story: the chain of events in chronological order – the story that is told. The story is the sum total of all the events in the narrative.  Viewers build the story from the plot. Plot: all elements in a film – a story can have different plots with use of flashbacks etcetera. The plot consists of the action visibly and audibly present in the film before us.  Filmmakers build the plot from the story. Diegesis: the total world of the story action. Diegetic elements: everything that happens inside the diegesis, such as traffic, streetlights, a radio playing and people we assume to be off screen. Nondiegetic elements: everything that happens outside the diegesis, such as credits and soundtracks. Cause and Effect By triggering and reacting to events, characters play causal roles within the film’s narrative form. We’re quick to assign traits (eigenschappen) to the characters onscreen, and usually the movie helps us out. The character is generally given traits that will play causal roles in overall story action. The spectator mostly actively seeks to connect events by means of cause and effect. We look for causal motivation. Time Even if events are shown in chronological order, most plots don’t show every detail from beginning to end. We assume that the characters spend uneventful time sleeping, eating, traveling, and so forth, so the periods containing such irrelevant action can be skipped over.  Chronological order, temporal duration and frequency are factors that the film’s plot has to deal with. Temporal order - How are events sequenced? - Flashbacks, flash-forwards – chronological sequence. Temporal duration - Time span: short, relatively cohesive or unfolded across many years? - The sum of all slices story duration yields and overall plot duration. - The length of a film is the screen duration. Story duration: the time span over which the story evolves. Plot duration: the sum of all slices story duration as shown in the film. Screen duration: the length of the film itself. - Screen duration can be used to expand or compress story time.

Temporal frequency - Multiple narrators, each of whom describes the same event: we see it take place several times. This is an increased frequency, as in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (example: Film Art page 81). Space Normally, the locale of the story action is also that of the plot, but sometimes the plot leads us to imagine story spaces that are never shown. Openings, Closings and Patterns of Development A narrative usually presents a series of changes from an initial situation to a final situation, and by considering how that pattern works, we can better understand the film. Openings Setup: first quarter or so of the film. Opening in medias res: beginning a film in the middle of a series of actions that has already started. Backstory: actions that took place before the plot started. Exposition: the portion of the plot that lays out the backstory and the initial situation. Development Sections A common pattern traces a change in knowledge (a character learns more in the course of the action). Another common pattern is the goal-oriented plot: a character takes steps to achieve an object or condition – plots based on searches belong here. Another variation of this: the investigation. Deadline: when a plot creates a specific duration for the action (for instance, a time bomb). Patterns of development encourage the spectator to form long-term expectations that can be delayed, cheated or gratified. Climaxes and Closings The plot will typically resolve its causal issues by bringing the development to a high point, or climax. NARRATION: THE FLOW OF STORY INFORMATION Range of Story Information: Restricted or Unrestricted? Unrestricted narration: we know, hear and see more than any of the characters can.  This is also called omniscient narration (all-knowing). Restricted narration: we don’t know, hear and see anything than the character can. Depth of Story Information: Objective or Subjective? Objective narration: when the plot confides us wholly to information about what characters say and do. Perceptual subjectivity: point-of-view. Mental subjectivity: going into the character’s mind. The Narrator Narration: the process by which the plot present story information to the spectator. Narrator: some specific agent who purports us telling the story. [Creative Decisions: Film Art page 96] THE CLASSICAL HOLLYWOOD CINEMA - Characters’ desires set up a goal - There is a blocking element that creates conflict - Process of change - Motivation strives to be as clear and complete as possible - Discontinuities need explaining

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Specific devices such as deadlines and appointments depend on cause-effect chain Fairly unrestricted narration Objective story reality with occasional perceptual or mental subjectivity Strong degree of closure at the end.

NARRATIVE FORM IN CITIZEN KANE Analysis of Citizen Kane, using terms as named above.

Chapter 4: The Shot: Mise-en-Scene WHAT IS MISE-EN-SCENE? Mise-en-scene means ‘putting into the scene’. It is used to signify the director’s control over what appears in the film frame (setting, lighting, costume and makeup, staging and performance). THE POWER OF MISE-EN-SCENE Mise-en-scene can be used to achieve realism or to create an imaginary world. COMPONENTS OF MISE-EN-SCENE Setting A full—size setting need not always be built. The filmmaker may use props (properties), which may, over the course of a narrative, become a motif. Costume and Makeup Costumes can play causal roles or become motifs. They can also be used merely for their graphic qualities. Costumes may reinforce narrative and thematic patterns. Makeup accentuates expressive qualities of the actor’s face. It can also be used to create a historical personage or something like that, as in horror movies and science fiction. Digital technology can be used as well. Lighting Highlights and Shadows Shading: allowing objects to have portions of darkness. Lighting joins with setting in controlling our sense of a scene’s space. Four major aspects of lighting: quality, direction, source and color. Quality Quality refers to the relative intension of the illumination. Hard lighting: creates clearly defined shadows, crisp textures and sharp edges. Soft lighting: creates diffused illumination. Direction Direction refers to the path of light from its sources or sources to the object lit. This involves frontal lighting, sidelighting, backlighting, underlighting and top lighting. Frontal lighting: eliminates shadows. Sidelighting: sculpts the character’s features (also called crosslight). Backlighting: comes from behind the subject and tends to create silhouettes, contours (also called edge lighting or rim lighting). Underlighting: comes from below the subject and tends to distort features. Top lighting: comes from almost directly above the subject and creates a glamorous image. Source Source refers to where the light comes from. Two primary sources: key light and fill light. Key light: the primary source, brightest illumination, strongest shadows. Fill light: a less intense illumination that ‘fills in’, softening or eliminating shadows. Most common arrangement on light setting: key light, fill light and back light (example: Film Art page 128, figure 4.69). Three-point lighting: light comes from 3 different angles. High-key lighting: overall lighting design that uses fill light and backlight to create relatively low contrast between brighter and darker areas.

Low-key lighting: creates stronger contrasts and sharper, darker shadows. Effect: chiaroscuro, with extremely dark and light regions within the image. Color Color refers to the color of the light. Most commonly, the light is as purely white as possible. Staging: Movement and Performance An actor’s performance consists of visual elements and sound. A performance should be examined according to its function in the film’s overall formal design. Two dimensions of performance: individualized and stylized. Typecasting/typage: representative performance. CGI: computer-generated imagery. Actors must be able to adjust to each type of camera distance. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER: MISE-EN-SCENE IN SPACE AND TIME [Creative Decisions: Film Art page 141] Space Screen Space Bilateral symmetry: balancing the left and right halves of the film frame. Our eyes are biased towards registering differences and changes. We’re sensitive to small differences. This is strongly aroused when the image includes movement. Monochromatic color design: emphasizing a single color, varying it only in purity or lightness. Scene Space We see the shapes on the screen as presenting a three-dimensional area, like the spaces we live in. Depth cues: the elements of an image that create the impression of a three-dimensional area. Volume: when an object is solid and occupies a three-dimensional area. Planes: layers of space occupied by persons or objects. These are described as foreground, middle ground or background. Overlap: someone seems closer to us because their body masks things farther away. Aerial perspective: the hazing of more distant planes. Size diminution: figures and objects farther away from us are seen to get proportionally smaller. Linear perspective: when parallel lines converge at a distant vanishing point. Central perspective: straight on. Off-center linear perspective: when the vanishing point is not the geometrical center of the frame. Monocular: when the illusion of depth requires input from only one eye. Stereopsis: a binocular depth cue, resulting from the fact that our two eyes see the world from slightly different angles. Shallow-space composition: when the mise-en-scene suggests little depth. Deep-space composition: when the mise-en-scene suggest much depth. Depth cues can be used to create optical illusions. [Creative Decisions: Film Art page 149] Time Our time-bound process of scanning involves not only looking to and fro across the screen but also, in a sense, looking into its depths; a deep-space composition will often use background events to create expectations about what is about to happen in the foreground. Frontality: putting the object or person that needs attention in the foreground. NARRATIVE FUNCTIONS OF MISE-EN-SCENE IN OUR HOSPITALITY Analysis of Our Hospitality, using terms as named above.

Chapter 5: The Shot: Cinematography THE PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGE Cinematography (‘writing in movement’) depends to a large extent on photography (‘writing in light’). The Range of Tonalities Tonality is a matter of how the light registers on the film. Contrast Contrast refers to the comparative difference between the darkest and lightest areas of the frame. Most professional cinematography strives for a middle range of contrast. Exposure Exposure regulates how much light passes through the camera lens. Underexposed: too dark. Overexposed: too light. Filters: slices of glass or gelatin put in front of the lens of the camera or printer to reduce certain frequencies or light reaching the film (example: Film Art page 163, day for night). Changing Tonality after Filming Tinting: dipping the already developed film into a bath of dye. Darker areas remain the same, while lighter areas pick up the color. Toning: adding dye during the developing of the positive print. Lighter areas remain the same, while darker areas pick up the color. DI file: digital intermediate file – converted frames into digital files. Speed of Motion The speed of motion presented onscreen depends on the relation between the rate at which the film was shot and the rate of projection. Both rates are calculated in frames per second (fps). Fast-motion effect: when a film is exposed at fewer frames per second than the projection rate – the screen action will look speeded up. Slow-motion effect: the more frames per second shot, the slower the screen action will appear. Ramping: changes in the speed of capturing the action (example: Film Art page 168). Time-lapse cinematography: low shooting speeds, perhaps one frame per minute, hour or even day – extreme form of fast motion. High-speed cinematography: many frames per second – extreme form of slow motion. Stretch printing: slowing the action by reprinting frames. Perspective Your own vision shows a perspective view of the scene: a set of special relations organized around a viewing point. Lens: does roughly what your eye does. The Lens: Focal Length Focal Length: the distance from the center of the lens to the point where light rays converge to a point of focus on the film. We can distinguish three general sorts of lenses based on their focal lengths and the way the present perspective: 1. The short-focal-length (wide-angle) lens This lens takes in a relatively wide field of view and exaggerates depth. 2. The middle-focal-length (medium) lens This lens seeks to avoid noticeable perspective distortion. Horizontal and vertical lines are rendered as straight. 3. The long-focal length (telephoto) lens This lens flattens the space along the camera axis. Cues for depth and volume are reduced.

Zoom lens: resizes what’s shown and changes the image’s perspective. The Lens: Depth of Field and Focus Movie scenes or photographs can show some things in focus and let other things get fuzzy. Depth of field: a range of distances within which objects can be photographed in sharp focus, given a certain exposure setting. This is NOT the same as deep space (see: Chapter 4, Space). Selective focus: choosing to focus on only one plane and letting the other planes blur. Deep focus: yielding a greater depth of field. Racking focus: making one plane blurred and another sharp in order to switch our attention between foreground and background (also called pulling focus). Special Effects Superimposition: most unrealistic, images are laid over one another. Composite: separately photographed images blended in a single composition. Rear projection: to project footage of a setting onto a screen, then film actors in front of it (also called process work). Front projection: to use angled mirrors to summon up more realistic-looking backgrounds. Matte: a portion of the setting photographed on a strip of film, usually with part of the frame empty. Matte work: to join a matte with another strip of film containing the actors. Traveling matte: to cut out a moving outline of the actor out of the background. Then the shot of the actor is to be jigsawed into the moving gap in the background footage. FRAMING Framing refers to what is made visible within a frame. Frame Dimensions and Shape Aspect Ratios The aspect ratio refers to the ratio of frame width to frame height. Triptychs: panoramic view (example: Film Art page 182). Academy ratio: 1.37:1 (example: Film Art page 183, figure 5.72). This screen size allowed room for a soundtrack. Masking: filming a regular size screen, but widening it in the production/exhibition process as to create a widescreen image (also called a hard matte). Anamorphic process: creating a widescreen image by using a lens that squeezes the image horizont...