Looking at Movies
Overview
Cinematic Language
• The visual vocabulary of film • Composed of myriad integrated techniques and
concepts • Connects the viewer to the story while deliberately
concealing the means by which it does so
Active Viewing of Movies
• Recognize the many tools and principles that filmmakers employ to tell stories, convey information and meaning, and influence emotions and ideas.
• Understand movies as narrative, as artistic expression, and as a reflection of the cultures that produce and consume them.
Sweeney Todd - the play
Sweeney Todd - the Movie
Film Analysis
• Analysis – the act of taking something complicated apart to figure out what it is made of and how it all fits together.
• Step 1 – Identify the tools and techniques within a scene, sequence, or movie
• Step 2 – Investigate the function and potential effect of that combination
Film Meaning
• No matter how many different layers of meaning are in a movie, each layer is either implicit or explicit.
• Implicit – lies below the surface of a movie’s story and presentation, more interpretive than explicit meaning
• Explicit – available on the surface of the movie, obvious
Film Construction
• Shots – unbroken span of action captured by an uninterrupted run of a motion-picture camera
• Editing – the joining together of discrete shots• With each transition from one shot to another, a
movie is able to move the viewer through time and space
How Movies Work
• Persistence of vision – the process by which the human brain retains an image for a fraction of a second longer than the eye records it (Apparent motion)
• Phi phenomenon – the illusion of movement created by events that succeed each other rapidly
• Critical flicker fusion – occurs when a single light flickers on and off with such speed that the individual pulses of light fuse together to give the illusion of continuous light
Film Form
• Movies are highly organized, and deliberately assembled and sculpted by filmmakers.
• The synthesis of elemental systems – mise-en-scène, sound, narrative, editing, and others – constitutes a movie’s overall form.
• Form – means by which the subject is expressed• Content – the subject of an artwork• They are interrelated, interdependent, and
interactive
Movie Types
• Narrative• Experimental • Documentary• Animation
Narrative
• Narrative – a cinematic structure in which the filmmakers arrange story events in a cause-and-effect sequence
• Narrative film – a movie devoted to conveying fictional or fictionalized stories
Narrative
• Tell a story• Directed towards fiction• Based on screenplays• Primary purpose is entertainment with commercial
intent
Realism vs Abstraction
• Realism – a tendency to view or represent things as they really are
• Abstraction – an interest in or concern for the non-realistic, speculative, or fantastic
• Movies can be both realistic and abstract
Employees Leaving the Factory - 1895
A Trip to the Moon - 1902
