Film Midterm

Front 1

Name 2 filmmakers of early cinema (pre-1920), as well as the year/ title of one of their films

Back 1

1. George Méliès - The Voyage Across the Impossible, 1904

2. D.W Griffith - Birth of a Nation - 1915

Front 2

Describe the difference between Realist and Formalist films

Back 2

Realist films portray everyday life and a more realistic view of the world. Tend to avoid extreme angles.

Formalist films focus more on the style of the movie and not the subject. High degree of manipulation.

Front 3

Describe the different jobs of Producer, Director, Cinematographer

Back 3

Producer - Controls the financing of the film and often the way it's made. The producer can concern himself with solely with business matters or he can function as an expeditor smoothing over problems during production

Director - Generally controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects, and visualizes the script while guiding the technical crew and actors in the fulfillment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, production design, and the creative aspects of filmmaking.

Cinematographer - the artist or technician responsible for the lighting of the shot and the quality of the photography.

Front 4

Describe the difference between “panning” and “tracking” shots

Back 4

Panning shots - scan a scene horizontally and are taken from a stationary axis point with the camera mounted on a tripod. These shots are time-consuming.

Tracking shots - (Dolly shots) taken from a moving vehicle (a dolly). The vehicle literally moves in, out, or alongside a moving figure or object while the action is being photographed.

Front 5

Name 3 types of camera shots

Back 5

The Extreme Close-Up - may only show a person's eye or mouth. Tends to emphasize the importance of things, often suggesting a symbolic significance.

The Full Shot - just barely includes the human body in full, with head near the top of the frame and the feet near the bottom.

the Long Shot - corresponds approx. to the distance between the audience and the stage in the live theater. Most complex shot in the cinema.

Front 6

Name 5 types of camera angles

Back 6

Bird's Eye View - photographing from directly overhead. Viewer seen as hovering over subject almost Gd-like.

The High Angle - camera placed on crane. give sense of general overview, but not overwhelming.

The Low Angle - Taken from below, these types of shots increase height of actor. makes actor look threatening and heightens the importance of the actor.

Eye Level Shot - Placement of the camera approx. 5-6 ft. off the ground corresponding to the height of an observer on the scene. Allows the viewer to make up their own mind about the characters presented.

The Oblique Angle - Involve a lateral tilt of the camera. When the image is projected, the horizon is skewed. Characters will look as though theyre about to fall over.

Front 7

Describe what it means for a scene to be shot in high contrast

Back 7

There are harsh shafts of lights and dramatic streaks of blackness. Tragedies and Melodramas are usually lit in high contrast.

Front 8

Define backlighting

Back 8

When the lights for a shot derive from the rear of the set, thus throwing the foreground figures into semi-darkness or silhouettes

Front 9

What is “Key Light”

Back 9

The main source of illumination for a shot. Creates the dominant of an image - the area that first attracts our eye because it contains the most compelling contrast usually of light and shadow.

Front 10

Define rack-focusing

Back 10

The blurring of focal panels in sequence, forcing the viewer's eyes to travel with those areas of an image that remain in sharp focus.

Front 11

Define mise-en-scene

Back 11

The arrangement of visual weights and movements within a given space. In the live theater, the space is usually defined by the proscenium arch; in movies it is defined by the frame that encloses the images. Cinematic mise en scene encompasses both the staging of the action and the way that it's photographed.

Front 12

Define continuity editing

Back 12

It tries to preserve the fluidity of an event without literally showing all of it. Condenses the action into a few brief shots, each of which leads by association to the next.There must be no confusing breaks in this type of editing.

Front 13

What are proxemic patterns

Back 13

The spatial relationships among characters within mise en scene and the apparent distance of the camera from the subject photographed.

Front 14

Define classical cutting and name the person first associated with it.

Back 14

A style of editing in which a sequence of shots is determined by a scene's dramatic and emotional emphasis rather than by physical action alone. The sequence of shots represents the breakdown of the event into its psychological as well as logical components.

D.W. Griffith developed classical cutting

Front 15

When was sound film invented and what was the title of the first talkie

Back 15

1927, "The Jazz Singer"

Front 16

What's the difference between a composer and sound designer

Back 16

Sound Designer - someone who works closely with sounds, he can design any sound from scratch using various forms of analogue and digital synthesis.

Composer - someone who's job is to compose music for the given medium.

Front 17

What are the key characteristic differences between stage acting and screen acting

Back 17

Stage acting:

-Actor tends to dominate the proceedings

-Dialogue must be conveyed through vocal expressiveness bc language is the major source of meaning on the stage

Screen acting:

-almost totally dependent on the filmmaker's approach to the story materials (director is the artist)

-Actors and their features can be digitally manipulated

Front 18

Describe method acting and name the person associated with it

Back 18

Has been the dominant style of acting in America since the 1950's. Method actors emphasize psychological intensity, extensive rehearsals to explore a character, emotional believability, rather than technical mastery. "Living" a role internally rather than merely imitating the external behavior of the character.

Derived from the Russian stage director Stanislavsky.

Front 19

Describe what is the classical paradigm in film and what it includes

Back 19

A movie strong in story, star, and production values with a high level of technical achievement, and edited according to conventions of classical cutting.

The visual style - functional and rarely distracts from the characters in action.

Movies in this form are structured narratively, with clearly defined conflict, complications that intensify to a rising climax, and a resolution that emphasizes formal closure.

Front 20

Describe the difference between narrative, documentary, and experimental films

Back 20

Narrative:

-are like novels and plays

-horizontal in development

-linear structures that must progress from situation to situation

Documentary:

-deal with facts - real people, places, and events rather than invented ones.

-Reporting on a world that already exists

-Shape their raw materials through their selection of details

-Structure is simple and unobtrusive

Experimental:

-structure is often a matter of the filmmaker's subjective instincts

-Autobiographical elements are common

-Dont even try to tell a story

-Sometimes obscure and incomprehensible

Front 21

Describe the difference between a metaphor and a symbol

Back 21

Metaphor - an implied comparison between two otherwise unlike elements, meaningful in a figurative rather than literal sense

Symbol - a figurative device in which an object, event, or cinematic technique has significance beyond its literal meaning. Symbolism is always determined by the dramatic context.

Front 22

Describe the difference between a film critic and a film theorist

Back 22

Film Critic: also journalists for the most part, but emphasis more on evaluation than on content description. Nationally known critics can have considerable influence on the commercial success or failure of a given movie.

Film Theorist: usually professional academics, often the authors of books on how movies can be studied on a more philosophical level.

Front 23

Define ideology

Back 23

A body of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual, group, class or culture. Term is associated with politics and party platforms, but can also mean a given set of values that are implicit in any human enterprise including filmmaking.

Front 24

What is a freeze frame?

Back 24

Suspends all movement on the screen. A single image is selected and reprinted for as many frames as is necessary to suggest the halting of motion. Director calls attention to an image by using freeze frame. Can be used for thematic purposes.