Film Midterm

Front 1

referential meaning

Back 1

concrete, close to a plain plot summary; refers to things or places already invested with significance.

Front 2

explicit meaning

Back 2

the point of the film

Front 3

implicit meaning

Back 3

one's interpretation of the film; usually reference a theme; depend on the relationship bt narrative and style

Front 4

symptomatic meaning

Back 4

an abstract and general meaning; the set of values that get revealed ie social idealogy

Front 5

motivation

Back 5

the justification for some element being present

Front 6

motif

Back 6

any significant repeated element in a film
i.e. object, color, place, person, sound or character trait

Speed- "pop quiz hot shot"

Front 7

parallelism

Back 7

the process whereby the film cues the spectator to compare two or more distinct elements by highlighting some similarity

Wizard of Oz- lion tin man and scarecrow= zeke hickory and hunk

Front 8

unity

Back 8

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

disunity- Wizard of Oz- witch says she attacked dorothy w insects but we never see them

Front 9

narrative

Back 9

a chain of events linked by cause and effect and occurring in time and space

Front 10

diegetic

Back 10

items that exist within the film's world

Front 11

nondiegetic

Back 11

items that are brought in from outside the film's world and are therefore part of the STORY not the plot

The Band Wagon- movie premiere- three black and white images interrupt zoom on the poster

Front 12

objective narration

Back 12

information restricted to only what characters say and do ie external behavior

North by Northwest- Roger looks into Van Damn's window, we see roger looking over ledge

Front 13

point-of-view shot

Back 13

shots taken from the character's optical standpoint

The Conversation- Hackman looking at birthday card

Front 14

sound perspective

Back 14

the sense of a sound's position in space, yielded by volume, timbre and pitch

Speed- pay phone ringing

Front 15

perceptual subjectivity

Back 15

visual or auditory point of view offering a degree of subjectivity
i.e. POV shots or sound perspective from that of one character

North by Northwest POV shot of Roger's view of window

Front 16

mental subjectivity

Back 16

plot that goes into a character's mind
ie internal monologue

Memento

Front 17

mise-en-scene

Back 17

what appaears in the frame i.e. setting, lighting, costume and behavior of the figures

Front 18

frontal lighting

Back 18

eliminates shadows

La Chinoise- girl in front of poster with no shadows

Front 19

sidelight

Back 19

sculpts character's features

Touch of Evil- man in front of file cabinents

Front 20

backlighting

Back 20

comes from behind; can come from many angles; creates silouettes or, used with frontal lighting, creates contour

Passion- woman in front of window and lamp

Front 21

underlighting

Back 21

comes from below; distorts features; also could be a realistic lightsourse like a fireplace or a flashlight

6th sense- boy w flashlight

Front 22

top lighting

Back 22

comes from above; usually in order to outline the upper areas of the figure or to separate it more clearly from the background

Shanghai Express- Dietrich lit from above to exaggerate cheakbones

Front 23

key light

Back 23

primary light source, providing the dominant illumination and casting the strongest shadows; usually corresponds to the motivating light source in the setting

The Bodygaurd- man w gun

Front 24

fill light

Back 24

less intense than the key light; softens or eliminates shadows cast by the key light

Front 25

3-point lighting

Back 25

a backlight behind and above the actor, a key light directly in front of him/her and a flll light at an angle near the camera; particularly suited for high-key lighting

Jezebel

Front 26

high-key lighting

Back 26

lighting design that uses fill light and backlight to create low contrast between brighter and darker areas; usually the light quality is soft, making shadow areas fairly transparent

Amelie

Front 27

low-key illumination

Back 27

creates stronger contrasts and sharper, darker shadows; fill light is lessened or eliminated

Kanal

Front 28

aerial perspective

Back 28

the hazing of distant places to create depth

Front 29

size diminution

Back 29

figures meant to be further from the camera appear smaller

Front 30

shallow space composition

Back 30

the mise-en-scene suggests little depth; the closest and most distant planes seem only slightly separated

La Chinoise- girl against wall with posters- frontal lighting eliminates shadows

Front 31

deep space composition

Back 31

significant distance separates planes

Front 32

focal length

Back 32

distance from the center of the lens to the point where light rays converge to a point of focus on the film; alters the perceived depth, magnification, and scale of things within the image

Front 33

wide angle lens

Back 33

aka short-focal-length lens
less than 35 mm focal length
distorts straight lines near the edge of the frame, bulging them outward

DRT- radio raheem in pizzzeria

Front 34

medium lens

Back 34

aka middle focal length lens
50 mm focal length
avoids noticeable perspective distortion

His Girl Friday

Front 35

telephoto lens

Back 35

aka long focal length lens
100 mm or greater
flatten space along the camera axis; cues for depth and volume are reduced; places seem squashed together; magnifies action at a distance

The Conversation- intro when you have Hackman, the couple, and the sax player all look very close

Front 36

zoom lens

Back 36

designed to permit the continuous varying of focal length; the lens can increase or decrease focal length while filming; magnifies or demagnifies objects filmed

The Conversation- opening scene

Front 37

depth of field

Back 37

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

The Conversation- surveillance scene in the beginning of the couple- narrow depth of field- theyre the only ones in focus

Front 38

racking focus

Back 38

changing from elements in the background in focus and the foreground blurred and visa versa

Last Tango in Paris

Front 39

deep focus

Back 39

faster film, shorter focal length lenses and more intense lighting to yield a greater depth of field

The Untouchables- two men talking in church, background is blurry

Front 40

high angle

Back 40

viewers look down on the material in the frame

Do the Right Thing- radio raheem and sal fight- we look down on sal

Front 41

low angle

Back 41

viewers look up at the material inthe frame

Do the Right Thing- sal/radio raheem right- we look up at radio raheem

Front 42

canted frame

Back 42

framing is tipped to one side or the other, camera is not parallel to the horizon

Do the Right Thing- mother sister in the window

Front 43

extreme long shot

Back 43

background dominates; used for landscapes, bird's eye views etc.

Do the RIght thing- looking above at street morning after mob

Front 44

medium long shot

Back 44

human figure is framed from about the knees up; balances figure and background

Do the RIght Thing- da mayor outside mother sister's window

Front 45

medium shot

Back 45

frames human body from waist up

DRT- Mookie, Pino and VIto in pizza shop

Front 46

medium close up

Back 46

frames body from chest up

DRT- cop talking to man who drives through and gets hosed down

Front 47

close up

Back 47

frames just the head, just the feet, or some small object

DRT- celtics jersey guy

Front 48

extreme close up

Back 48

frames a portion of the face or isolates and magnifies an object

DRT- senor love daddy's mouth on mic

Front 49

pan

Back 49

rotates the camera ona vertical axis but the camera on a whole does not move. ie. the camera looks left to right

DRT- pan of mob in front of sal's

Front 50

tilt

Back 50

rotates the camera on a horizontal axis but the camera on a whole does not move ie the camera looks up and down

The Bride Wore Black- church

Front 51

tracking/dolly shot

Back 51

the camera as a whole changes positions; figures remain in the same basic relationship to the frame

Greed- camera follows guy

Front 52

crane shot

Back 52

the camera moves above ground level ie from a high angle shot to a straight on shot

DRT- as we move away from senor love daddy's studio we crane around to the street and further away

Front 53

reframing

Back 53

replacing of a camera based on the movement of characters; subtle adjustments

His Girl Friday

Front 54

following shot

Back 54

camera follows a figures movements; more drastic than just a reframing

The Conversation- turning on tape recorders, follows his hand

Front 55

long take

Back 55

a longer shot in which the camera only moves, no cuts

Touch of Evil- bomb scene

Front 56

sequence shot

Back 56

a scene that takes place in only one shot

DRT- mookie and sal in pizzeria fighting about paycheck. all swish pan

Front 57

fade out

Back 57

gradually darkens the end of a shot to black

Front 58

fade in

Back 58

lightens a shot from black

Front 59

dissolve

Back 59

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

maltese falcon- intro

Front 60

wipe

Back 60

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

seven samurai

Front 61

shot

Back 61

uninterrupted segment of screen time, space or graphic configurations

Front 62

cut

Back 62

instantaneous change from one shot to another

The Birds- in diner

Front 63

graphic match

Back 63

linking of shots by graphic similarities

True Stories- texas horizon vs ocean and sky

Front 64

Kuleshov effect

Back 64

any series of shots that in the absence of an establishing shot prompts the spectator to infer a spacial whole on the basis of seeing only portions of the space

The Birds- Melanie in diner looking at gas station

Front 65

elliptical editing

Back 65

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

Front 66

cutaway

Back 66

a shot of another event elsewhere that will not last as long as the elided action

Front 67

overlapping editing

Back 67

the action from the end of one shot is partly repeated at the beginning of the next; the action is stretched out past its story duration

Speed- bus jumping

Front 68

crosscutting

Back 68

cutting from a shot in one locale to a shot in another; means of presenting narrative actions that are occuring in several locales at roughly the same time

Jerry Macguire- phone call stealing player

Front 69

jump cut

Back 69

two shots of the same subject are cut together but are not sufficiently different in camera distance and angle, such that there will be a noticeable jump on the screen. i.e. camera position is varied less than 30˚

Breathless- woman in car

Front 70

nondiegetic insert

Back 70

interupting one shot with a shot of something that has no part of the space and time of the narrative

Band Wagon

Front 71

dialogue overlap

Back 71

in shot reverse shots of conversation- continuing of a lne of dialogue across a cut

Maltese Falcon- Spade listening to Brigid

Front 72

fidelity of sound

Back 72

the extent to which the sound is faithful to the source as we conceive it

Mr. Hulot's Holiday- lack of fidelity of sound- dining room door opening=twanged cello string

Front 73

diegetic sound

Back 73

sound that has a source in the story world

Speed- rumble of explosion

Front 74

nondiegetic sound

Back 74

coming from a source outside the story world ie a score

North by Northwest- score at tense moments

Front 75

external diegetic sound

Back 75

sound which spectators take to have a physical source in the scene

Speed- rumble of explosion

Front 76

internal diegetic sound

Back 76

sound that comes from inside the mind of a character; subjective

Memento- "I don't feel drunk."

Front 77

sound over

Back 77

internal diegetic sounds and nondiegetic sounds

Front 78

synchronous sound

Back 78

the matching of sound with image in projection i.e. sound and image were filmed at the same time

Front 79

simultaneous sound

Back 79

sound takes place at the time as the image in terms of story events

The Godfather- nonsimultaneous sound- flashforward of meeting with the Solozzo bros

Front 80

sound bridge

Back 80

sound from the pervious scene may linger briefly while the image is already presenting the next scene

Silence of the Lambs- "your self storage facility"

Front 81

dialogue hook

Back 81

ending a scene with a line that prepares for the next scene

The Prestige- "have you eaten Mr. Angier?"

Front 82

story

Back 82

the set of all the events in a narrative, both the ones explicitly presented and those the viewer infers

Citizen Kane- the time elapsed between youth and middle age

Front 83

plot

Back 83

everything visibly and audibly present in the film before us INCLUDING non diegetic material

Front 84

diegesis

Back 84

total world of the story action

Front 85

range of narration

Back 85

the degree of information viewers have on the story
unrestricted narration: we know and see more than any given character
restricted narration: we don't see or hear anything our character's don't see

The Birth of a Nation- unrestricted

Front 86

depth of narration

Back 86

the degree to which the plot plunges into a character's psychological states i.e. subjectivity vs objectivity.

Memento- "I don't feel drunk"

Front 87

story vs. plot vs. screen duration

Back 87

story- the whole span of time the plot covers
plot- the span of time of the action we see on screen
screen- however long the film is

Citizen Kane

Front 88

prop

Back 88

an object in the setting that has a function within the ongoing action

Front 89

film form

Back 89

the sum of all the parts of the film, unified and given shape by patterns such as repetition and variation, story lines and character traits

Front 90

four phases of production

Back 90

Scriptwriting/funding, Preparation, Shooting, Assembly

Front 91

four modes of production

Back 91

1. large-scale production: made at organized studios; intricate record keeping; detailed production stages; large budgets
2. exploitation, independent production and DIY: exploitation- low budget, tailored to a particular market, production process is similar to that of big studio films w same roles
independent production- made for the theatrical market but without major distribution financing; directors have most control
small scale production-experimental and documentary filmmaking; very few people involved who share all production roles
DIY- amateur filmmaking made for the internet etc.

Front 92

Steadicam

Back 92

prototype if body-worn camera stabilizer allows camerman to just walk with camera and then adjust the jerkiness later

Front 93

rear projection

Back 93

Hollywood technique in which the actors are placed against a translucent screen and projecting a film of the setting from behind the screen; the whole ensemble is then filmed from the front

Boom Town

Front 94

front projection

Back 94

setting is projected onto a two way mirror angled to throw the image onto a high-reflectant screen; camera films the actors against the screen through the mirror

2001 Space Odessey- dawn of man

Front 95

aspect ratio

Back 95

ratio of frame width to frame height

Front 96

matte work

Back 96

a portion of the setting photographed on a strip of film w part of the frame empty. in the lab, the matte is joined with film of the actors

Lord of the Rings- scenery

Front 97

composite shots

Back 97

complex techniques for combining strips of film to create a single shot; projection process work and matte process work

Lord of the Rings- matte work- scenery

Front 98

film stock

Back 98

different types of film used that can affect contrast amongst other things

Front 99

rhythmic editing

Back 99

adjusting the length of the shots in relation to one another to create a rhythm

The Birds- first gull attack- shots get shorter is create tension

Front 100

axis of action

Back 100

center line connecting the scenes action which determines the half circle in which the camera can be placed to present the action

Maltese Falcon- enter Brigid- Spade to secretary

Front 101

shot/reverse shot

Back 101

shot of the opposite end of the axis of action usually showing a three-quarters view of the subject

Front 102

eyeline match

Back 102

shot A presents someone looking at something offscreeen, shot B shows us what is being looked at; in neither shot are both looker and object present

Front 103

match on action

Back 103

editing device that carries a movement across the break between two shots

Front 104

soviet montage

Back 104

discontinuity in graphic qualities, violations of the 180 degree rule, and the creation of impossible spatial matches

October

Front 105

sneaking in/sneaking out

Back 105

the musical score becomes more prominent in moments when there is no dialogue and then unnoticeably fades out when characters start to speak

Front 106

micky mousing

Back 106

syncing the rhythm of the music with the actions of the subjects