Class Notes

1. January the 29th: History of Film

• Dates of cinema
• The Lumiere Brothers
• Horses legs
• Moving image (Kodak)
• Edison Model (1900)
• Meliese
• Edwin Porter (The Great Train Robbery)
• 1930-1948 were the years known for the Golden Era of Hollywood
• New Terminology: marquee – was a banner where the titles of the movies were listed. Feature films: were made by bigger studios and were longer. Below the feature titles were the B Movies: which were film noirs  and eventually became popular.

• 1946 the year the TV was invented.
• 1948 The government started to take control over the big studios creating this anti trust act (divorcement).
• Vertical Integration: Occurs when a company controls all element from top to down.
• Horizontal Integration
• Product Placement: Products pay a lot of money to have their brand in the movie, which can easily affect the dialogue. i.e Skyfall is just a big advertisement (Bonds’ watch is an example of the dialogue).

Other resources to study from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_film

2. February the 5th: History of Hollywood

• Watched: 100 Films and a Funeral (2007) Michael McNamara
• 1903 Great Train Robbery by Edwin Porter
• 1927 Movies with sound
• 1930-1947 Also known as the Golden Era
• Used to be 5 major film companies.
• 52 movies/year or 1 movie/week. Each movie theatre had 2 movies, the Feature and the B movie (which was not made by major film production)

QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT

• Characterize film industry in 1940.
• Difference between now and then.
• Vertical integration: which is to own the top to bottom. Vertical integration is when the film industry controls everything. Just like a closed house. Back in the day, producers were more in charge with their films than they are now.
• Auteur
• Divorcement Act
• Impact of the TV
• Rise of the suburbs, which were too far from movie theatres
• Horizontal integration: Product Placement, Ads, Video games, Kids game made before/after the movie (even the toys from McDonalds). Product tie ins are more important. One must consider who is writing, merchandizing, advertising, product placement… The money comes from a whole bunch of different sources, but with certain restrictions and limits to the creativity and freedom of the movie.

100 Films and a Funeral (2007) Michael McNamara

• Movie is about the company Polygram
• The company was originally based on records.
• It used to be that one company controlled everything: the label system.
• The philosophy for money was different than the actual film industry. They financed several movies that would not usually have been produced for Hollywood. They believed that artists should get a shot with their film, and that one was bound to be succesful. They had “too much freedom”.
• Blare Witch project
• Django and change…?
• In the film industry, you spend more money in advertising the movie then the production. The money goes to the advertising, not the creation of it. The reason is that the business of creation is more risky than the business of distribution.
• In Hollywood, superhero movies/epics are popular because of all the product placement. They can make toys, video games…
• When making the film, the producer has to think about the built-in audience.

QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT

• What is the difference between today’s actors and the ones before? (Acting has also become a industry.)
• Polygram is horizontal, yes and no.
• Yes: Philips, GE.
• No: polygram pictures. Take a chance on a movie. Letting people create without restriction.

Other resources to study from: http://www.hollywoodsign.org/the-history-of-the-sign/the-time-before-the-sign/

http://www.filmsite.org/filmh.html

3. February the 12th: Film Terminology

• Watched: Bottle Rocket (1996) Wes Anderson/Swingers (1996) Doug Liman
• Mise-en Scene
: The term usually used to denote that part of the cinematic process that takes place on the set, as opposed to editing, which takes place afterwards. Literally, the “putting-in-the-scene”:
• the direction of actors
• placement of cameras
• choice of lenses etc
• Diegesis: All those elements of a film that are seen or understood to be part of the immediate narrative world of the characters
  • Diegetical
  • Non-diegetical: which may include the sound track, editing or camera effects, most voice-overs, titles, etc.

• Suspension of disbelief

4. February the 19th: Mise-en-scene

• Watched: Sean Ellis Tokyo is Shaking (short)/Ying Xiong Hero (2002)
• Mise-en-scene: literally putting on stage or, for lack of a better word, the “stuff” in front of the camera. It is a more theatrical term than film. If the movie is animated, then mise-en-scene does not apply.
• Points to observe when thinking about muse-en-scene:
• Decor (properties)
• Lighting (Director of photography)
• Camera position angles (Director of photography)
• Blocking (actors?)
• Costumes
• *Sound
• Motion Pictures:

1. Primary: which is real life motion. Need coverage (different angles taken for a certain shot).
2. Secondary: the camera motion. Pan (camera is moving from left to right), swish pan (faster than 24 frames), tilt (camera is on a tripod and moving up to down), zoom (bringing stuff closer, change focal point of the lens; wide angle, telephoto, aperture) vs. push in, dolly (literally moving back or forward), track or truck, reveal.
3. Tertiary: the las element, editing. Match cut, graphic cut, transitional shots, parallel editing (two events are happening simultaneously and they will come together), vectors…

• Formalism/realism

5. February the 26th: Editing

• Watched: Cutting Edge (2004) Wendy Apple
• “Film is the sum of editing”
• Editing began in 1903 with Edwin Porter (The Great Train Robbery); 1913 D.W Griffith (The Birth of a Nation); 1920 Russia for WWII and propaganda.
• Edwin Porter proved that cutting certain shots can make a movie. Such as inter cutting 2 shots that have nothing to do with each other.
• “Editing creates emotion […] Frames have a big impact.”

• D.W Griffith was first director for psychological editing. His mastery in close up revolutionized film grammar. He also started the invisible cut (mask the cut to make it more fluid)
• “Editor is just as important as the director […] Successful editors are sly politicians […] It’s all about timing.”

• Lennin: saw film as a perfect way to convey illiterate public. He took existing films and cut them into a new one.
• He would experimented with the juxtapositions and what would happened if you cut them in different ways. This invention came from a lack.

• Man with Movie Camera.

• Power of juxtaposition and montage –> Third meaning. which is the basis of film editing.
• Griffith didn’t want to separate life from movie experience. He wanted to show the audience that movies are similar to life. Whereas Eisenstein wanted people to distinguish his movie from life (which explains how his movie is cut)

• History:
• 1930: Editing was made into an industry. There were classic hollywood forms/mode. i.e: D.W Griffith – Assembly line model

1. Establishing Shot (Master shot/Wide shot)
2. Two Shot (Medium shot)
3. Close up

• The general model goes from a wide shot to smaller one. The term used is coverage.
• WWII start of juxtaposition (Third thing or the tertium quid)
• Shot A + Shot B (marrying the shot together)= emotion from the viewer.
• You can control shot a and b but not c.

• The pacing can evoke emotion.
• Sound and image in this powerful infusion gets something deep in us. It can stimulate emotion and beliefs.
• Sound and picture can manipulate audience –> Propaganda
• You can easily depict one side of the reality.
• Editing IS manipulation. Manipulating reality.

• Owen. Editors are ignored.
• Film grammar is like english. It could not played with, they were set.
• Until invisible editing would be broken with French movies. (i.e: breathless)

• Offline editing and online editing.
• Offline Editing: are often women who cut the story together (a.k.a: rough cut).
• Online Editing: mostly men. Once the story is finished, the technical stuff comes into play. They get paid more money.
• Disposition/character attributes for editor: timing, type a personality, patience, figure out how to deal with people (without pissing people)

6. March the 5th: Montage

• Watched: The Limey (1999) Steven Soderbergh/Following (1998) Christopher Nolan

Montage:

• Collage: Glued image and shots creating one piece. “A form of art in which various materials such as photographs and pieces of paper or fabric are arranged and stuck to a backing.”
• Montage: Sequences of videos put together to make one story. “The process or technique of selecting, editing, and piecing together separate sections of film to form a continuous whole/A sequence of film resulting from this.”

1. American Model: Cover a lot of territory in a short amount of time. Use music and shots to compress time and tell a story. i.e: Rocky
2. Soviet Model– Kulshov Effect: Experiment with a shot of a man + bowl of soup/child/coffin and the different emotions associated with each shots put together- Tertiary Quid.

• Shot A- Man + Shot B- soup/child/coffins = Tertium Quid which is the viewer’s association/emotion in regards to the two previous shots that are juxtaposed “A third thing that is indefinite and undefined but is related to two definite or known things.” Comes from the viewer. In the case of the Kulshov effect it is the viewers assumption of the man feeling hunger, sorrow or love.
• Also have a video and audio track that evoke certain reactions/emotions from the viewer. Track A- video + track B- audio = viewer’s anticipation based on the two devices. Vertical montage.
• Non-diagetical sound: the sound that you can hear but can’t see. “Sounds, such as music or a narrator’s voices that come from outside the space of the narrative”
• Diegetical sound: sound that comes from what is happening on the screen. “Any sound, voice or piece of music that comes from within the world of the narrative”

1. Collision Montage: emotion from the viewer is not as predicable. Don’t always know how the audience will respond. It can have a good and bad effect. “Two events collide to enforce a concept feeling or idea. The conflict creates tension.” For more information on montage, check out Mediaelectron
2. Compliment Montage: An expected emotion from the viewer. “These comprise of shots that are juxtaposed to thematically related events to rein enforce a basic theme or idea. Thematic related events are compared to reinforce a general theme.”

• There are 2 types of reveals:

1. Story reveals
2. Camera reveals: Shot pans to reveal more about the situation.

• Sound Bridge: make it easier to transition form scene to scene. Connecting the shots together.”At the beginning of one scene, the sound from the previous scene carries over briefly before the sound from the new scene begins”
• Hollywood: Master, double, singe or establish, medium, close up
• Ellipsis: A scene that seems longer than it actual is because of the editing. “A time lapse in a story that shortens a plot’s duration. In editing, a cut can serve as an ellipsis.” When the same conversation is happening in different locations just to prolong the scene. I.e.: Out of Sight, The Limey…

Effective Editing effects:

• Time
• Speed
• Rhythm
• Mood
• In Following, they make the character’s appearance change so that the audience will have an easier time to follow the chronology of the story.
• The different between a situation and a story is such. A situation is a cat on a mat. A story is a cat on dog mat; where there is a conflict that needs to be resolved.
• Misdirect: Reconstructing the story after the “ah-ha” moment. It’s all about the little clues. Little clues as story points. They seem minute during the first viewing but have a back story.
• Diegesis: the reality you create in the movie. As long as it is consistence, then it works. The rules within the universe have to be consistence “the sphere or world in which these narrated events and other elements occur”.

7. March the 19th: Realism vs. Formalism

• Watched: The Bicycle Thieves (1948) Vittorio De Sica/Beijing Bicycle (2001) Xiaoshuai Wang
• Realism: Creating a depiction of life as it is rather than distorting it.
• Lumiere brothers “Exiting the Factory” is a film of people leaving a warehouse. This was the beginning of realism in film
• George Meliese (came after Lumiere) and saw the potential of film with editing with gave the idea of formalism
•  Formalism: “is a theory of film study that is focused on the formal, or technical, elements of a film: i.e., the lighting, scoring, sound and set design, use of color, shot composition, and editing. It is a major theory of film study today.” (wikipedia)
• Mussolini’s totalitarian regime. He could control everything that people were saying with the use of media. He saw cinema as an ideal medium for the people.

The Bicycle Thieves (1948) Vittorio De Sica

• A realist film depicting modern day life as an lower class Italian.
• Political film: representing the real Italian life as oppose to the life represented by the dictatorship.
• One of the theme is the struggle to survive. Even the good people have bad things occur to them.
• More and more now, Hollywood represents a life that is unreal. i.e: Effects…
• During the time that this movie was produced, realism wasn’t so much about aesthetics. As a matter of fact, the movie has aesthetics because of the realist aspect. It told in a linear form.
• Deep focus shot: with French new wave- no close up… the camera is still. It uses a large depth of field. “Depth of field is the front-to-back range of focus in an image — that is, how much of it appears sharp and clear. […] The foreground, middle-ground and background are all in focus.”
• Mumble core aesthetics: What the term unofficially references is a belief in character driven storytelling with an extremely basic aesthetic. The films often rely on handheld camera-work but never veer into nausea inducing shaky cam style. […] Mumblecore seems to be focused on the analysis of communication” (film.com)
• Andre Basin
• Dogma95: A movement in 95 where a group of people set up rules for filming. These rules were a reaction to special effects. Their goal was to try to be more realist and in tone with real life. Avant-guarde, experimental… Check out filmbug for the rules.

Beijing Bicycle (2001) Xiaoshuai Wang

• Also had a political message similar to the Bicycle thief. The wide divid between the rich and the poor, communism…
• The shots were also long tracking shot like the previous movie. This is a depiction of everyday life in China. It is filmed so well that is seems like a documentary.
• Stylized shots: formalized style not realist because it’s more complex/artistic.

8. April the 2nd: Film Remakes

• Watched: Let the Right One In (2008) Thomas Anderson/Let me in (2010), Matt Reeves

Essay

1. Circumstances of the films production (the making of…)
2. Editing Techniques
3. Mise-en-scene

Let the Right One In (2008) Thomas Anderson

• Anomie stories: not being able to connect with the culture.
• Most of the shots are wide shots and some close ups.
• The audience has to work to figure out the information. The way the dialogue and the shots are taken lets the viewer make connections.

Let me in (2010), Matt Reeves (American Version)

• Title are in huge red letters
• Right at the beginning: Ambulance chase scene
• More dramatic, the first shot jumps into action
• The music and background music sets the atmosphere and mood
• Non-linear
• More close-ups, which reveals more information that the first one.
• The close-ups also give the effect that it is less realistic.
• More sympathetic towards Oskar. The casting choice is better in the other movie but also the kind of person he is.
• Special effects; less natural/less realistic
• Drama: Unexpected outcome where a conflict needs to be resolved. There is the main conflict with several other sub-conflicts. Builds tension.

9. April the 9th: Cinéma Pur/Semiotics

• Watched: The Return (2003) Andrey Zvyagintsev

Cinéma Pur

• Little Post production, independent, no C.G, real locations, no professional or A list actors… (Finding actors on the street belongs to the neo-realist or French wave).
• Avant-guarde  film movement
• Term coined by Henri Chomette.
• Focuses on filming pure elements such as motion, visual composition and rhythm.
• Key filmmakers are: Rene Clair, Fernand Leger, Hans Richter, Viking Eggeling…
• Films include: Ballet Mecanique, Symphony Diagonale…
• More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_pur
• Semiotic: Study of symbols and signs. “The (1)sign is composed of a (2)signifier — the material form of the sign — and (3)the signified — the concept it represents.” (Fernand de Saussure)
• Allegory: using characters to represent something other and larger than what is on the screen. (Microcosm)

1. Iconic: 1 to 1. “Pertaining to, or consisting of, images, pictures, or representations of any kind” and “a sign which resembles the signified (portrait, photo, diagram, map)” Also used metaphorically as a quality of high representativity.
2. Indexical: pointing to. “a sign which is inherently connected in some way (existentially or causally) to the signified (e.g. smoke signifies fire; and all the little symbols you see on web pages — mailboxes, envelopes, arrows).”
3. Symbolic: arbitrary. 1&2 become symbolic. “a sign which does not resemble the signified but which is purely conventional (the word stop, a red traffic light, or a national flag)”

• Epic: goal is to pass on the knowledge/tradition/legend and engage the audience in a wide scope entire story. They already know the end.  vs. novelic. Telling a new story.
• Quest film: journey, discovery, and boy going through right of passage, coming of age… the German Bildungsromans.

The Return, Andrey Zvyagintsev (2003)

The Return is a movie by Andrey Zvyagintsev (2003) and is considered a work of cinema pur. In film, the study of semiotic is important because it is a technique which allows directors to convey their message through concrete objects. Emotions, connections, relations, tensions… can be translated through signs and symbols, for example Hitchcock’s famous close-ups of doorknobs. The Return is packed with symbolism, metaphors, and is an allegorical story between father and son. There are many different ways to interpret the director’s choices in terms of the mise-en-scene, starting with a religious approach. In class, we had discussed some of the symbols and what they meant.   Here are some more symbols that weren’t brought up, and that may be of note.

Symbolisms:

• Eagles: there were some scenes where eagles were flying. When the two kids and father stopped on an island, there were no other creatures other than the three. While walking around this desolated place, Ivan finds a dead bird on the ground. Birds are a concrete image of hope; the dead bird can foreshadow the ending. It can represent what will happen if they stay on the island for too long. Several meanings can be derived from just this one symbol.
• Fish: The whole concept of fishing is a stereotypical activity that is seen as father and son bonding. The father didn’t care much for fishing, but taught the kids how to become more independent (finding a restaurant, paying the bill, getting the car our of mud…). The fish can also be a symbol of the two children. The two kids are trapped and don’t know what will happen like the fish.
• Worms
• Watch: Time and punishment seem to be important in this movie. The watch evokes some kind of punishment/consequence if what the father requires is not completed in time. The first moment when the watch appeared was when Ivan didn’t want to eat his soup. The father gave him two minutes to eat it. Also, when the kids were going to get some fish, the father said to be back by 3:30. When they didn’t come back, the Dad started hitting Andrei. It’s as though time is more significant to the father than it is to the kids.
• Jump: The jump can be interpreted as the right of passage. The transition between child to adult.
• Island
• Water (rain, body of water)
• Fire, Wind, Water and Earth.
• Numbers: 3 and 12.
• Shoes
• Journey: The journey is what transforms the kids into the mature stage of life. Not only do they learn certain things/skills, but they also witnessed death. This journey ended their innocence and threw them in the reality of life, just like the opening scene, when the kid jumps in the water. That effect parallels the transitional period. Another point about this journey is that they made it halfway with their father, and now that he’s dead, they must do the other half without his help. In order to survive and get out of this island, they have to do what their father told them. Follow his command.

This movie is very rich in symbolism, seeing it once isn’t enough to catch all of them. Semiotic understanding may requires viewing a movie more than once.

Themes: desolation, isolation, loss and abandoned, independence…

10. April the 16th: Auteur Theory

• Watched: The Five Obstructions, Lars von Trier (2003).
• The term “auteur” was coined the by French.
• Francois Truffault, Jean Luke Goddard
• Camera stylo
• Cahier du Cinema, and was associated with the French New Wave.
• Auteur Theory are the intended choices that the director makes, which reflect his/her creative visions.
• People thought that film should be analyzed like literature. It should be taken more seriously.
• Andrew Sarris developed the Auteur Theory. Talking about filmmakers as authors.
• Future: controllable
• L’avenir: uncontrollable material, we can’t predict.
• The more obstruction that Lars put, the more opportunities for creativity he had. The films were more interesting when there were more obstructions than when there were none. The movie in Brussels was similar to typical Hollywood movies. The message was less powerful because of the leeway.
• When you have restrictions, you have to find ways to cope with these problems. If you have the skills, then you can apply them.
• (Discussion about auterism to be continued t-ill next class)

11. April the 23^rd – Psychoanalytic Film Theory

• Watched: In the Mood for Love (2000), Kar Wai Wong
• The two founders of psychoanalysis were Freud and Lacan à Reducing the possibilities to what we know. Meaning that when you attain your goal, you immediately transcend it (building expectations, which then fail to meet the build up, and lead to disappointment).

1. Eros: Desire/drive for life
2. Thanatos: Death

In the Mood for Love

• Inverted melodrama
• Watch it from a psychoanalytic reading, which means that, the goal of eros: realm of the imaginary. Pay attention to the shots, and how he decides to shoot the two absentees. What is the eros in the movie? Play of imaginary vs. the real (realm of eros)
• In the beginning, the audience can only see half of most of the shots. The camera is one person, but the other one isn’t caught. Either it’s to show the claustrophobia and the tight space, or it’s to imitate what the absentees are doing to their partners (who are never seen). It’s as if there is one side of the story.
• Rice cooker—object, which situate the audience with the movies culture. But also has more meaning. When Mr. Chow tells Mr. Chan that he will pay him back, Mr. Chan says that his husband already did. The dialogue has several subtle messages, and never implicitly says that there is an affair going on.
• The books on the table show the time that elapsed and the disconnection between Mrs. Chan and her husband.
• The connection between Mrs. Chan’s boss vis-à-vis his wife is very different compared the Mr. and Mrs. Chan. The boss is closer to his wife, receiving calls, getting her presents…
• First restaurant scene, Mrs. Chan and Mr. Chow complement each other’s purse and tie, with a purpose behind. The camera never captures them in the same frame, till the end of the dinner when they are walking in the street.
• Japanese stamp

CLASS DISCUSSION

• Melodrama: defined by the constraint from society. In this movie, it’s the characters that set themselves constraints. The importance of dignity, integrity, not loosing face is highly valued in their culture.
• The movie isn’t “clear” (in terms of plot) for intentional purposes. The director is playing with the kuleshov effect, and letting the audience make judgments.
• Music is another element that is important. It fills in the gaps where the director choses not to reveal too much.
• Mise-en-scene: gives this feeling of constraint, claustrophobia, reflecting the situations that the two characters find themselves in.

12. April the 30th – Genre Studies

• Watched: Reprise, Joachim Trier (2006)

Genre Theory

1930-1948 Golden Era movies were massed produced. Certain directors started to specialize in certain genres. Certain cinemas showed specific genres.

• Western (1903) – Situational genre (Cowboys, Indians, Geographical location, big issue with heroism, pre vs. post westerns is very different.
• Musical – Self-referential
• vs. Melodrama – Use of music and emotionalism to sell the story
• Romance *can’t have an epic romance. Plot/story-driven. Boy meets girl.
• Epic vs. novelic: epic is where everyone knows the story. Like a war story, live vicariously through the characters. Novelic is a new story, which hasn’t been told yet.
• Youth – Demographic/character-driven: coming of age films.

• Reprise, Joachim Trier (2006)

• A lot of elliptical editing (dialogue spoken when lips are not moving. Like in The Limey or Out of Sight)
• Talking in conditional form reflects this dwelling feeling that young adults usually go through.
• Trying to recreate a story (hence, the word “Reprise” has a lot of significance just like the one word-titled novel)
• Bechtel test: find a film where there are two female characters and see if they have a conversation about men at some point.