Intro To Film Studies

Front 1

diegesis

Back 1

the world of the film’s story.

Front 2

diegetic sound vs. non-diagetic sound

Back 2

diagetic = any sound (voice, music, sound effect) represented as originating from a source within the film’s world.

non-diagetic = sound represented as coming from outside the world of the film, such as the musical score or some voice-over narration.

Front 3

What are match cuts? And what are the three kinds of editing techniques that use match cuts?

Back 3

editing techniques used to maintain the illusion ofcontinuity. These include the following:

1) dialogue match

2) eyeline match

3) match on action

"invisible editing", dominant stye associated with classic hollywood cinema, continuity editing

Front 4

dialogue match cut

Back 4

the timing of a cut so as to follow and punctuate the dialogue.

Front 5

eyeline match cut

Back 5

when a character looks off screen, a cut to the object the character is looking at along the same line of sight.

Front 6

match on action

Back 6

an action begun in one shot is finished in another.

Front 7

mise-en-scène

Back 7

the art of composing a shot. This begins with set design, but comes to include makeup, lighting, choreography, costuming, and finally questions of camera angle, focus, and distance (i.e. all the variables which determine what is visible in the frame).

Front 8

montage

Back 8

the art of creating meaning in the editing room through the juxtaposition of shots, so as to create relationships or suggest associations.The power of montage is not only conceptual, but also emotional and rhythmic, as in accelerated montage, where the time between cuts gets shorter and shorter to increase intensity.

Front 9

rear projection

Back 9

a technique in which a scene is projected onto a translucent screen behind the actors so that it appears that they are in a specific location. It was very commonly used for driving scenes in Hollywood movies.

Front 10

deep focus

Back 10

a technique for rendering subjects near the camera and far away with equal clarity, permitting the composition of the image in depth. Associated especially with the films of Orson Welles and William Wyler.

Front 11

pan

Back 11

pivoting a stationary camera side-to-side.

Front 12

rack focus

Back 12

a technique that forcibly directs the vision of the spectator from one subject to another by shifting the focus plane.

Front 13

tilt

Back 13

pivoting a stationary camera up or down.

Front 14

zoom (how does the zoom represent a characters mental rather than physical perception)

Back 14

a technique that mimics tracking in or out by changing the focal length of the lens on a stationary camera. Because the human eye cannot zoom, such shots have an unnatural quality that can feel magical or uncanny. For this reason zooms will often represent a character’s mental event rather than physical perception.

Front 15

What are the 5 levels of set design as outlined by Affron and Affron?

Back 15

1) Denotation (Default)

2) Punctuation

3) Embellishment

4) Artifice

5) Narrative

Front 16

Explain the denotation level of set design, according to Affron and Affron.

Back 16

-"good set"

-transparent set that does not call attention to itself

-gold standard of movie sets

Front 17

Explain the punctuation level of set design, according to Affron and Affron.

Back 17

-set beings to claim attention

-adds emphasis to the meaning of the film

-"curve of the staircase is the shape of desire"

Front 18

Explain the embellishment level of set design, according to Affron and Affron.

Back 18

-specific necessity

-unmistakable, non-arbitrary marriage of action and setting

Front 19

Explain the artifice level of set design, according to Affron and Affron.

Back 19

-gives a patently unreal set

-often used thematically to question reality

Front 20

Explain the narrative level of set design, according to Affron and Affron.

Back 20

-the set becomes the story

-stories are set in a single location and revolve around the set

Front 21

Explain the strategies employed to convey sex to combat Hollywood's rules of censorship (Innuendo, Ellipsis, Horizontality, Smoking)

Back 21

Innuendo

-metaphors

-film noir was famous for being very obvious,but had deniability

Ellipsis

-when there is a gap in the narrative-narrative time equals zero

-viewer fills in the blank

Horizontality

-characters would be physically horizontal, they would recline

-suggests the act of sex in the reclining

Smoking

-smoking after the ellipsis would read as post-coital

Front 22

When did Hollywood rules of self-censorship occur? What two things did they try to control?

Back 22

-1930-1968 (strictly followed during 1934-1950)

Endings - people wanted movies to end "right" in that some justice was done and "right living" prevailed

Sex - even couples were shown in separate twin beds

Front 23

Describe the triangular plot engine of secrets.

Back 23

two characters share a secret and a third character is shut out from that secret. this creates suspense (which comes from the uneven distribution of knowledge) and instability

Front 24

Describe the triangular plot engine of rivalries

Back 24

-rivalries at the level of desire

-creates interesting stories

Front 25

Describe the triangular compositions of knowledge in terms of the "blind fool" and the "puppet master"

Back 25

Blind Fool - ex. Dietrichson signs his death warrant while Walter and Phyllis share a glance

Puppet Master - one in control while the other two are kept in the dark (puppet master on top of the triangle)

ex. phyllis is on a higher plain of knowledge than walter, she is playing him.

Front 26

Describe the triangular compositions they play off of desire (obstruction, tug of war, chaperones, surrogates)

Back 26

Obstruction S-R-O

-rivalry literally comes between them

Tug of War S <-- O --> R

-S & R trying to get the O in their direction

-often we see literal "tugging"

Chaperones S-C-O

-chap. not a rival, just doesn't want this to happen or that to happen

-seen in obstruction triangles

Surrogate

-important people aren't always present but something representing their presence might be

-ex. very often a telephone, or a tourney, or another object associated with them

-look for moment these objects come into their own

Front 27

Explain the dynamism of triangular compositions

Back 27

Track the movement between triangles. You can change from obstruction to tug of war in the same scene. There is a rivalry, it's dynamic and we want to track it.

Front 28

Why is Mulvey's essay both one of the most influential essays in film history and also one of the most criticized.

Back 28

-she leaves out female spectators, gay spectators and sound

Front 29

Describe the role of psychoanalysis in Mulvey's essay.

Back 29

-film often creates anxiety so it can relieve it (ex. castration anxiety)

-castration vs. humiliation - humiliation is more social than physical, so it may be easier to see mulvey's argument from this perspective - castration as being lowered

Front 30

Describe the sexual differences of film characters as described by Mulvey.

Back 30

Front 31

Describe the 2 strategies of male viewers' pleasure/relief according to Mulvey.

Back 31

fetish - overvalued object

scopophilia - pleasure in looking

Front 32

How does Gilda (Charles Vidor, 1946) represent the 2 strategies of male viewers pleasure/relief?

Back 32

-showgirl device, she is an image of sex

-sadism

-fetishistic scopophilia

-wardrobe is fragmenting

-feminist song but the dancing overwrites it

-slap = transference of humiliation, make her feel shame

Front 33

What is the Kuleshov Effect?

Back 33

-context trumps content

-a neutral face when juxtaposed with a dead baby or a sunset will hold different meaning

-we see what we expect to see rather than whats actually there

Front 34

Describe the relevance of the mis-en-scene in the scene shown of His Girl Friday (Hawks, 1940)

Back 34

-triangle of desire, explicitly constructed obstruction triangle

-triangle of knowledge, bruce is the blind fool while walter and hildy contribute to a frame of reference he is not apart of

-costuming. hildy is wearing a striped outfit that expresses her ambivalence while walter and bruce wear white and black respectively

Front 35

Describe characteristics of the French "New Wave" as they relate to Hiroshima, Mon Amour

Back 35

-means of expanding expressionism

-space and time not treated with much respect

-discontinuous editing

-scene can be taken over by a character (ex. memory)

-ruined city theme and the problem of being lost; exploration of space

Front 36

Describe the asymmetries of production in Hiroshima, Mon Amour

Back 36

-"problem of inequality"

-title: french subject loves japanese object

Front 37

Describe the asymmetries of scale in Hiroshima, Mon Amour

Back 37

-mass destruction (hiroshima) vs. personal devastation (nevers)

-nuclear issue: confounds human scale (too large, too small)

-godzilla killed by a atomic device that causes oxygen molecules to be destroyed (super small kills super big)

Front 38

Describe the asymmetries of narrative in Hiroshima, Mon Amour

Back 38

-he speaks french, she doesn't speak japanese

-architect, aligned with city

-actress, aligned with film

-loves him like the film loves the city

-film is more about her, more time alone with her

Front 39

What is filmic Modernism?

Back 39

-a story about the problems of telling a story

-calls attention to the storytelling

Front 40

What are the difficulties of Modernism in Hiroshima, Mon Amour

Back 40

-viewers are barred from the history of hiroshima

-repeated negation at the beginning of the film

-no indications of space and time

-truth of the story of nevers is urgent and unreliable

-dramatic story of love and shame

-difficulty is central to the film

Front 41

Describe the sociability aspect of modernism in Hiroshima, Mon Amour

Back 41

-a story is a transaction between a teller and an audience, has potential to change both

-it is a motivated telling, subject to desires and ethics

-storytelling - the art of not forgetting

-is it ethical to take on a rival's persona

Front 42

Describe the modernist exploration of space in Hiroshima, Mon Amour

Back 42

-sense of movement in the film; bikes, cars, busses etc

-in nevers she is a figure in the landscape

-interest in aspects of the city

-strong contrast, subtle parallels

-stillness represents death, past; movement represents life, future

-in hiroshima she is always at the front of a vehicle

Front 43

Describe how we become lost in space and time in Hiroshima, Mon Amour

Back 43

-we don't know the characters names (unnamed protagonist) - confusion

-double time frame of hiroshima on august 6 1945 and the future of 1959

-film about anticipation and the past

-branch seared into the concrete as an index of the moment captured on film

-cold war period and cuban crisis lead to pessimistic attitude and fear it will happen again