Engl 104 - Intro To Film - Midterm Cards

Front 1

frame

Back 1

the slightly different still images projected in rapid succession that make the smooth picture you see

Front 2

storyboard

Back 2

-a series of comic-strip-like sketches of the shots in each scene (including lighting and camerawork)
-designed by a graphic artist and used sometimes before production

Front 3

dubbing (looping)

Back 3

when the actors are recorded in the studio speaking their lines and the dialogue is later put on overlapping the scenes

Front 4

form

Back 4

the overall system of relations that we can perceive among the elements in the whole film

Front 5

referential meaning

Back 5

-concrete, "bare-bones" summary of the plot
-subject matter of the film is often established

Front 6

explicit meaning

Back 6

-tells the meaning the film is trying to get across
-functions with the film's overall form

Front 7

implicit meaning

Back 7

-assumptions that go beyond what is explicitly stated in the film
-interpretations vary for this meaning

Front 8

symptomatic meaning

Back 8

-it is abstract and general
-places the film within a trend of thought that is assumed to be characteristic of the societal context in which it takes place or was produced

Front 9

motivation

Back 9

-the justification for certain elements of films to be there
-how humans analyze the functions of films

Front 10

motif

Back 10

any significant repeated element in a film

Front 11

segmentation

Back 11

a written outline of the film that breaks it into its major and minor parts, with the parts marked by consecutive numbers or letters

Front 12

unity

Back 12

when all the relationships we perceive within a film are clear and economically interwoven

Front 13

narrative form

Back 13

-films that shape particular expectations by summoning up curiosity, suspense, and surprise
-it is a type of story in which the audience comes into viewing it with ceratin expectations of what is to come

Front 14

plot

Back 14

-everything visibly and audibly present in the film before us
-includes all the story events that are presented and extraneous material

Front 15

frequency

Back 15

-repetition of scenes or characters which help the audience to see the same action in several ways
-shown often through flashbacks
-helps the audience to see situations better

Front 16

in media res

Back 16

-bringing the audience into a series of actions that have already started
-evokes curiosity in the viewers

Front 17

exposition

Back 17

the portion of the plot that lays out story events and character traits important in the opening situation

Front 18

climax

Back 18

-scene where the action is presented as having a narrow range of possible outcomes
-attempts to settle the casual issues that have run through the film
-creates tension and suspense in the viewer

Front 19

narration

Back 19

-moment-by-moment process that guides us in building the story out of the plot

Front 20

time

Back 20

the order, duration, and frequency of events in the story

Front 21

documentary

Back 21

presents factual info about the world outside the film
-may take a stand, state an opinion, or advocate a solution to a problem

Front 22

categorical form

Back 22

divides info into categories for organization of the viewers perspective

Front 23

rhetorical form

Back 23

when the filmmaker presents a persuasive argument
-it is common in all media

Front 24

experimental (avant-garde) film

Back 24

films that are hard to classify and are usually made by one lone director
-explores possibilities of film

Front 25

abstract form (of experimental film)

Back 25

(seen in Ballet mechanique)
-film is organized around colors, shapes, sizes, and movements of images

Front 26

associational film

Back 26

(seen in A Movie)
-draw on poetic series of transitions that suggest expressive qualitites and concepts by grouping images that may not have an immediate logical connection

Front 27

mise-en-scene

Back 27

-signifies the director's control over what appears in the film frame
-includes: setting, lighting, costume, and behavior of figures

Front 28

setting

Back 28

-very important part of mise-en-scene
-puts the audience in the film
-can create a brand new world in a film studio

Front 29

prop

Back 29

-short for property
-can become a motif of a film

Front 30

costume

Back 30

-important part of mise-en-scene
-can instill the proper mood in an actor or can help motifs and causal roles in narratives

Front 31

lighting

Back 31

-important part of mise-en-scene
-help create the overall composition of each shot and guide our attention to certain objects and actions
-helps create a sense of space
-sets up a scale of importance

Front 32

frontal lighting

Back 32

-eliminates shadows
-creates a flat-looking image

Front 33

sidelight

Back 33

sculpts a character's features and creates contrast

Front 34

backlighting

Back 34

-comes from behind the subject
-can be positioned at different angles and can create silhouettes

Front 35

underlighting

Back 35

-when light comes from below the subject
-tends to distort features and creates dramatic horror effects

Front 36

top lighting

Back 36

-brings out features of a character's face, like cheekbones

Front 37

key light

Back 37

the primary source providint the dominant illumination and casting the strongest shadows

Front 38

fill light

Back 38

less intense illumination that "fills in" and softens shadows cast by key light

Front 39

high-key lighting

Back 39

an overall lighting design that uses fill and backlight to create low contrast between brighter and darker areas
-shadows appear to be transparent

Front 40

low-key illumination

Back 40

-creates stronger contrasts and sharper, darker shadows
-lighting is hard and fill light is lessened or eliminated
-creates chiaroscuro (extremely dark and light regions)

Front 41

monochromatic color design

Back 41

extreme use of the limited palette principle
-only uses a few, noncontrasting colors

Front 42

aerial perspective

Back 42

the hazing of more distant planes

Front 43

size dininution

Back 43

figures farther away from us are seen to get proportionally smaller

Front 44

cinematography

Back 44

"writing in movement" - depends on photography

Front 45

short-focal-length (wide-angle) lens

Back 45

tend to distort straight lines near the edge of the frame
-creates exaggerated depth

Front 46

middle-focal-length (normal) lens

Back 46

seeks to avoid noticeable perspective distortion

Front 47

long-focal-length (telephoto) lens

Back 47

-flatten the space along the camera axis
-planes seem squashed together like when you look through binoculars

Front 48

depth of field

Back 48

the range of distances before the lens within which objects can be photographed in sharp focus

Front 49

superimposition

Back 49

when one image is laid over another

Front 50

rear projection

Back 50

foreground and background tend to look starkly separate because there is an absense of shadows from foreground to background

Front 51

front projection

Back 51

projects the setting ont a two-way mirror angled to throw an image onto a high-reflectance screen
-blends foreground and background smoothly

Front 52

matte work

Back 52

-a portion of the setting photographed on a strip of film with part of the frame empty
-can create an imaginary setting for the film

Front 53

framing

Back 53

gives the audience a certain vantage point of the images

Front 54

masking (hard matte)

Back 54

-creates a widescreen image
-sometimes shows lights or sound equipment in the full-frame image

Front 55

canted positioning

Back 55

when the horizon and poles are at diagonal angles

Front 56

extreme long shot

Back 56

view when the figure is barely visible

Front 57

long shot

Back 57

figure can be seen, but background is more prominent

Front 58

medium shot

Back 58

body is seen from the waist up

Front 59

close up

Back 59

shot shows only the head, hands, feet, or a small object

Front 60

extreme close up

Back 60

singles out a portion of a face and isolates and magnifies a detail

Front 61

one point that is important

Back 61

-there is no universal meaning of camera angle or distance
-framing also has not absolute or general meanings

Front 62

mobile framing

Back 62

when the framing of an object changes within an image
-produces change of camera angle, level, height, or distance During the shot

Front 63

pan

Back 63

-rotates the camera on a vertical axis

Front 64

tilt

Back 64

rotates the camera on a horizontal axis

Front 65

tracking (dolly) shot

Back 65

the camera changes position while traveling in any direction along the ground

Front 66

dissolve

Back 66

briefly superimposes the end of shot A and the beginning of shot B

Front 67

wipe

Back 67

shot B replaces shot A by means of a boundary line moving across the screen

Front 68

elliptical editing

Back 68

presents an action in such a way that it consumes less time on the screen than it does in the story

Front 69

axis of action

Back 69

-the center line, 180 degree line where the scene's action takes place

Front 70

jump cut

Back 70

when 2 shots of the same subject are cut together but are not sufficiently different in camera distance and angle, which creates a jump on the screen
-violates continuity of the film

Front 71

nondiegetic insert

Back 71

when the filmmaker cuts from the scene to a metaphorical or symbolic shot that is not part of the space and time of the narrative

Front 72

sound - t/f Question

Back 72

-engages a distinct sense mode
-actively shapes how we perceive and interpret the image
-guides us through the images, pointing to things to watch
-gives new value to silence and can create an unbearable tension

Front 73

loudness

Back 73

related to perceived distance

Front 74

pitch

Back 74

frequency of sound vibrations
-perceives highness or lowness of sound

Front 75

timbre

Back 75

the color, or tone quality of a sound

Front 76

dialogue overlap

Back 76

-smooths down the vidual changes of shot
-when a filmmaker continues a line across a cut

Front 77

rhythm

Back 77

-the beat or pulse of a sound
-speech also has rhythm and people can be identified by their voices because of it

Front 78

fidelity (in regards to sound)

Back 78

-refers to the extent to which the sound is faithful to the source as we conceive it
-the awareness of infidelity is often used as humor

Front 79

diegetic sound

Back 79

sound that has a source in the story world

Front 80

nondiegetic sound

Back 80

sound coming from a source outside the story world

Front 81

internal diegetic sound

Back 81

that which comes from inside the mind of a character

Front 82

sound perspective

Back 82

the sense of spatial distance and location analogous to the cues for visual depth and volume

Front 83

synchronous sound

Back 83

when we hear the sound at the same time as we see the source produce the sound
-opposite of asynchronous sound

Front 84

simultaneous sound

Back 84

when the sound takes place at the same time as the image in terms of the story events
-opposite of nonsimultaneous sound (or flashback)

Front 85

sound bridge

Back 85

-create smooth transitions by setting up expectations that are quickly confirmed
-also make expectations more uncertain

Front 86

Director of North By Northwest

Back 86

Alfred Hitchcock

Front 87

Director of Blonde Venus

Back 87

Josef von Sternberg

Front 88

Director of Touch of Evil

Back 88

Orson Welles

Front 89

Director of The Harder They Come

Back 89

Perry Henzell

Front 90

Director of Harlan County USA

Back 90

Barbara Kopple

Front 91

Director of Ballet Mechanique

Back 91

Fernand Leger and Dudley Murphy

Front 92

Director of A Movie

Back 92

Bruce Conner

Front 93

Director of Meshes of the Afternoon

Back 93

Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid

Front 94

Director of Illusions

Back 94

Julie Dash

Front 95

Director of History and Memory

Back 95

Rea Tajiri

Front 96

Director of Citizen Kane

Back 96

Orson Welles

Front 97

Director of Rape

Back 97

JoAnn Elam

Front 98

Director of Entre Nous

Back 98

Diane Kurys

Front 99

Director of Meet Me In St. Louis

Back 99

Vincente Minnelli

Front 100

Director of Apocalypse Now

Back 100

Francis Ford Coppola

Front 101

Director of Blad Runner

Back 101

Ridley Scott

Front 102

Director of Short Cuts

Back 102

Robert Altman

Front 103

Director of Tampopo

Back 103

Juzo Itami

Front 104

genres

Back 104

different types of films