Film Language

Aims
To illustrate and apply basic critical methodology of film analysis:

Signs: denotation, connotation, motivation

Cinematography (the shot): camera distance, angle, movement; their motivations and connotations Mise-en-scne analysis: lighting, objects, colour etc - everything in the frame Editing: types of edit; their motivations and connotations; continuity editing Sound

Explicit and implicit meaning

Signs: Denotation and Connotation

Sign:
Denotation:

any unit of meaning (graphic, aural, verbal)

the (literal) description of a sign

Connotation: the meaning associated with a sign

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Signs: Motivation
Motivation: the reason a film element is included: 1. 2. 3. 4. Realism Narrative Intertextuality (including hommage) Artistic

NB A sign can connote and/or be motivated.

Key Elements of Film Language

or the Poetics of Cinema Mise en Scene and Cinematography Editing Sound How they combine to create meaning
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Cinematography (The Shot)

Camera Distance
Extreme Long Shot (ELS)

Shows location Often used as an initial establishing shot in a sequence Also called a master shot as whole scene is usually shot in LS before breaking down into MS and CU
Example: Shot of Ethan near start of The Searchers
1956) (John Ford,

Searchers opening

The Shot: Camera Distance

ELS/Establishing shot shows the location, setting or landscape of a scene; presents the actions setting, with some characters. A mood or sense of drama may be presented with this shot
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The Shot: Camera Distance

Long Shot (aka Full Shot) frames the entire body of one or more characters
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The Shot: Camera Distance

Medium Long Shot: (also called plan amricain or American shot) shows 1 to 3 characters from the thigh up. This shows characters and their roles without emphasising their emotions.

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The Shot: Camera Distance

MLS shows location/ relationships

- often used as an initial establishing shot in a sequence

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The Shot: Camera Distance

Medium Shot (MS)

Waist up Focus on character(s)

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The Shot: Camera Distance

This MS shot allows other characters to be in view and so allows character interaction. This often makes for more sociable shots.

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The Shot: Camera Distance

Medium shots put more emphasis on characters and their emotions.

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The Shot: Camera Distance

Medium Close Up (MCU)

Chest up Focus on character(s)

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The Shot: Camera Distance

CLOSE UP: Generally any close up shot of an object gives the object meaning. If the close up is of the whole or part of the face then it shows emotion and reinforces spectator involvement

Before advent of widescreen in mid 1950s, only one character usually in a close up - character on their own and can seem isolated in this type of shot - but wider fram allows CU two-shot

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The Shot: Camera Distance

Close Up (CU)
Can be of people

Can be of objects
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The Shot: Camera Distance

Extreme Close Up (ECU)
Part of face Often used at climax of drama

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The Shot: Camera Distance

An extreme close up is more magnified than close up, and will focus on one part (hand, eye, mouth, etc.) Insert: a detail shot magnifying a thing (letter, business card, etc.)

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The Shot: Camera Distance

Sergio Leone Shot (ECU)
Isolates eyes

Often used at climax of drama, eg in Leones films in the lead-up to a shootout

Clip 1
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The Shot: Camera Angle

Straight-on Angle
Connotes equilibrium (normality) and makes spectator feel comfortable

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The Shot: Camera Angle

Canted Angle (aka Dutch Angle)
Connotes disequilibrium (physical or mental) and produces sense of unease in spectator The world is out of joint
Clip 2
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The Shot: Camera Angle

High Angle Shot
Connotation lack of power Motivation: can be point-ofview (POV) shot

In The Color of Paradise/Rang-e Khoda,1999) a blind son Mohammad and his elderly grandmother are ruled over by a dominant father and are often shot from a high angle, emphasizing their dependence and smallness. 23

The Shot: Camera Angle

In this high angle shot, the angle - combined with mise en scene (prop) - the wheelchair - can make the character seem small and vulnerable.

Gattaca, Andrew Noble, 1997)

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The Shot: Camera Angle

LOW ANGLE SHOT
A shot taken from below an character, as if he/she is looking down on us. This may make us feel small and vulnerable and the character seem powerful and authoritative
Gladiator, Ridley Scott,
2000
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The Shot: Camera Angle

LOW ANGLE SHOT
This shot from The

Magnificent Seven

bestows authority on the Yul Bryner character. Although the Steve McQueen character is also shot from a low angle, he has less authority because of his position vis a vis the Yul Bryner character see Mise en Scene (later)

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The Shot: Camera Angle

Low Angle

Often connotes power but motivation can simply be POV shot

In The Color of Paradise/Rang-e Khoda,1999) a dominant father is frequently shot From a low angle 27

The Shot: Camera Angle

In this clip from Citizen Kane, there is not much difference in height (seated) between Kane and his about-to-be mistress and future wife, Susan Alexander.

However, as the shots cuts between the two, we have a high angle on Susan and a low angle on Kane, perhaps connoting that he will be dominant in the relationship
Clip 3
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The Shot: Camera Angle

Need to avoid a mechanical interpretation of camera angle - context needs to be taken into account - high angle hardly connotes lack of power but visual indication as to whats about to happen to traitor eg North by North West (Alfred Hitchcock, USA, 1959 )
Clip 4

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The Shot: Camera Movement

Pan: (panorama)

Camera swivels left or right on axis. Used for:

Showing scene Following movement Show POV as head turns Guiding attention

eg Traffic (Stephen Sodeberg)

Clip 5
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The Shot: Camera Movement

Whip Pan

ie very rapid pan.

Used for: Rapid head-turn POV Style
Eg Fists of Fury/Tang Shan Da Xiong, Wei Lo, Honk Kong, 1971).

Clip 6

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The Shot: Camera Movement

Tilt
Camera swivels up or down. Used for: Showing scene on different levels Following movement Show POV as head moves up/down Establishing shot e.g. ext: tilt up high building CUT int: room in building
eg In Leon (Luc Besson, 1994 ) tilt up used to reveal character of Matilda. Audience asked to notice contradictions in her clothing, starting with boots, her comic-book leotards, past her teenage jewellery and her cigarette to gentle, vulnerable face hidden behind ornate railing. Tilt-up allows audience to take in each item separately and notice contradictions central to her character. Clip 7
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The Shot: Camera Movement

Track (dolly) (tracking shot) - camera on wheels, usually on a little cart called a dolly (so sometimes known as a dolly shot; or the verb to dolly is used. - can track in/out, left/right, slow/fast.

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The Shot: Camera Movement

Tracking in

Lateral track(ing shot)

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The Shot: Camera Movement

Tracking Shot

Lateral track(ing shot) Examples: Central do Brasil/Central Station Les 400 coups/ The 400 Blows

Clip 8
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The Shot: Camera Movement

Reverse Tracking Shot
In this example from Les Parapluies de

Cherbourg/The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

(Jacques Demy, 1964, France) note the effect of the reverse tracking shot in combination with the moving train

Clip 9
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The Shot: Camera Movement

Overhead Tracking Shot
In this example from 1984 (Michael Radford, 1984), the overhead tracking shot of Winston Smith in his workplace has connotations of surveillance, spying, oppression.

Clip 10

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The Shot: Camera Movement

Crane shot
Crane: camera on crane so can move in/out, up/down space Great potential from dramatic and aesthetically pleasing shots Camera on crane so can move in/out, up/down space Very flexible - can produce dramatic/aesthetic effects Examples from The Player (Robert Altman), Once Upon a Time in the West, Young and Innocent (where it combines with a zoom)
Clip 11
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The Shot: Camera Movement

Handheld:
Portable camera so get jiggling image. Used for: Realist documentary look Convey dynamism of action Eg Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier, 2000)
Clip 12
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The Shot: Camera Movement

Steadicam
Portable camera with weights which is worn by camera operator. Used to: Steady image Film scene without multiple takes Film on terrain where tracks difficult (or where the director wants to show the floor)
Eg The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)
Clip 13
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The Shot: Camera Movement

Steadicam Use of Steadicam in Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990) In five-minute shot, audience follows gangster Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) in the back door, through the kitchen and up to the bar, stopping to meet patrons all the way Shows how gangsters dont have to wait in queues like everyone else
Clip 14
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The Shot: Camera Movement

Use of zoom lens to create illusion of camera moving in/out. Can zoom in/out (forward zoom/reverse zoom)
Examples:

Zoom

The Stendhal Syndrome (Dario Argento, 1996) The Godfather Part 2 (Francis Ford Coppola,
1974)
Clip 15
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The Shot: Camera Movement

Rack or Pull Focus
Change focus during scene to new point of interest In this clip from 1984, note the way that Julia (Joanna Hamilton) is in focus and then there is a rack focus and she comes out of focus while OBrian (Richard Burton) comes into focus. This has narrative significance as it shows that a member of the inner party is noticing her, perhaps suspicion that her zeal is attacking the image of arch-traitor Goldstein in hiding some deviant thoughts.
Clip 16
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The Shot: Camera Movement

Vertigo effect
aka dolly zoom or transtrav trombone shot Unsettling in-camera special effect that appears to undermine normal visual perception in film Effect achieved by using setting of zoom lens to adjust field of view while camera dollies (or tracks) towards or away from subject in such a way as to keep subject same size in frame throughout. From Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)

Scotty - former policeman: fear of heights ends his career

The effect gives an insight into his state of mind as he is going up spiral staircase near climax of film Clip 17
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The Shot: Camera Movement

This effect used expressively in a variety of films to show characters state of mind: Jaws (Spielberg, USA, 1973) - shows Chief Brodies dread when he realises the killer shark has returned Goodfellas (Scorsese, USA, 1980) - here used very slowly to indicate that the world is closing in on Henry Hall as former comrades plotting to kill him The Quick and the Dead (Sam Raimi, USA, 19) - here used to show unnatural state of affairs in which a son Leonardo di Capprio) fights a gun duel with his father (Gene Hackman). Note way in which young woman seems literally to recoil in fear. Combined with a canted/Dutch frame: the world really is out of joint Clip 18

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The Shot Freeze Frame

Achieved by repeating the same frame again and again so thatit gives the screen the appearance of a still photograph Can have the effect of leaving us uncertain about the final consequences of the action (ie prevents narrative closure

Most famous use of this technique: Les 400 coups/The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959) but much imitated in later films At the end of the film, its protagonist turns to camera direct address - as the frame freezes - ambiguous: happiness? hope? uncertainty? disillusionment?
Clip 19
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Mise en scne
(pronounced meez on sen with second syllable nasalised) Term from French theatre - literally, what has been put on the stage. In film refers to everything we see on the screen: Main elements of mise en scene are: setting, objects (props), people, make up, costumes, figure arrangement and movement (aka blocking), colour, lighting, gesture, acting styles etc Analysis of mise-en-scne can reveal how themes are symbolised 47

Mise en scne

Lighting
Three point system of lighting Key light: main source of light Backlight: adds highlights and differentiates actor from background Fill light: softens shadows from key light

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Mise en scne

Lighting

Classical use of three-point lighting - all three elements are in balance. Connotes normality. Here, the actors are made to look glamorous by the balanced lighting.
Written On The Wind (Douglas Sirk, 1956)
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Mise en scne

High Key Lighting

- lighting scheme in which fill light is raised to almost the same level as key light - produces images that are usually very bright, few shadows on principal subjects. This bright image is characteristic of entertainment genres such as musicals (eg classic MGM style)

Peking Opera Blues /Do Ma Daan, Tsui Hark (Honk Kong, 1986)

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Mise en scne

Low Key Lighting

Key light dimmed (may be moved kick light), very little fill light, creating strong contrasts between the brightest and darkest parts of an image and often creating strong shadows that obscure parts of the principal subjects. Shadows - connote unease, sense of evil - feature of horror and film noir (style or genre of filmmaking prominent in 1940s)

Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1957)

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Mise en scne

Props and Objects

Costumes are important props. In film, any portion of a costume may become a prop. When Hildy Johnson switches from her role of aspiring housewife to that of reporter, her stylish hat with its lowdipping brim is replaced by a masculine hat with its brim pushed up, reporter-style
His Girl Friday (Howard Hawkes, 1940)

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Mise en scne

Props and Objects

This staircase is a signifier. Notice how structure is so similar to shape of DNA (our genetic blue print).
Gattaca, Andrew Noble, 1997)

(Note: the DVD cover even placed a model image of DNA next to the staircase.
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Mise en scne

Props and Objects

This sequence from North by North-West (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959) seems at first simply to be economical transition from previous scene but metaphorical information in dissolve: CIA imposes itself on UN; Capitol is reflection of CIA - ie intelligence agency imposes over seat of government
Clip 20

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Mise en scne

Props and Objects

What might these signifiers represent?

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Mise en scne

Props and Objects

.. and this?

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Mise en scne

Colour
Like light colour has a symbolic and subconscious affect on us. We passively accept colour more than lines (light and dark), but it too has a profound affect on us as viewers. Colour is strongly linked to emotions (though the specifics are very cultural) Cool colours (blue, green, violet) suggest calm, tranquility, aloofness, and tend to recede in images (go to the back) Warm colours (red, yellow, orange) suggest aggression, violence, stimulation, and come forward in images (stand out)

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Mise en scne

Colour
In Three Colours: Blue (1993), Krzysztof Kieslowski used a number of different connotations of the colour blue. It is one of the colours of the French tricolour, it perhaps represents freedom, but it also stands for sadness: the blues. Julie (Juliette Binoche) loses her husband and daughter in a car crash in the opening sequence. She decides to block herself off by attempting to free herself from all the associations of her past life

Throughout the film Kieslowski uses blue motifs as in the brief montage which follows
Clip 21
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Mise en scne

Colour
Connotations of colours culturally determined - dont necessarily carry exclusive meanings. Compare the use of red Zhang Yimou's Ju Dou (1990), for example with Ingmar Bergman's Cries and Whispers (Viskingar Och Rop, 1972), Zhang exploits red as signifier of unrestrained passion fairly typical connotation However, Ingmar Bergman associates the color with stagnation and contaminated blood.
Clips 22, 23
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Mise en scne

Colour

In Traffic (2000), Steven Soderbergh decided to shoot all the sequences in the Northern Mexico desert overexposed. Resulting images give impression of barren, desolated land being mercilessly burnt by sun, no-man's land over which police and customs have no control. 60

Mise en scne

Proxemic Patterns and Gestures

The relationships between the organisms in a space are called Proxemic Patterns. The proxemic pattern is determined by distance and may be Intimate (touching m away), Personal ( m 1m) , Social (1m 4m), or Public (greater than 4m distance). These patterns can be manipulated using camera shots and angles For example this big close up brings us into intimate proximity with the character.
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Mise en scne

Proxemic Patterns and Gestures

Sometimes two people in close proximity form a heart shape.

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Mise en scne

Proxemic Patterns and Gestures

Expansive outward movements generally associated with explosive emotions such as joy or terror. Look at example of The French Connection, William Friedkin, 1971) Scene occurs at climax of chase sequence in which protagonist Popye Doyle (Gene Hackman) finally triumphs over vicious killer by shooting him - just as he seems on verge of eluding him once again Kinetic outburst symbolises not only bullet exploding in victims body, but joyous climax for protagonist after humiliating and dangerous pursuit

Kinetic ecstasy of death also releases dramatic tension built up in audience during chase sequence: in effect we are seduced into sharing protagonists joy in the kill
Clip 24
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Mise en scne

Proxemic Patterns and Gestures

From Understanding Movies, Louis Giannetti

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Mise en scne

Gesture

Capturing of gesture or look just as or more important than objects or colour, as in this shot of a confrontation in (Tony Kaye, 1998)

American History X

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Editing
How the shots are arranged in sequence Involves choice of length of each shot and of the kind of transition between each shot Primitive film: no editing - just filming from fixed position till the reel ran out eg The Workers Leaving the Factory The Little Rascal (or The Hoser Hosed) and The Arrival of a train at La Ciotat (Auguste and Louis Lumiere, 1895, 1896)
Clip 25
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Editing
Montage is the French term for editing; but also generally used to mean a succession of shots that clash to create new meaning (aka Soviet Montage) Emphasises dynamic, often discontinuous, relationships between shots and the juxtaposition of images to create ideas not present in either shot by itself.

eg

October (1925) and Battleship Potemkin

(Sergei Eisenstein, 1927)
Clip26
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Editing: Types of Edit

Why did Eisenstein edit these shots of the lion statues in this way? 2 most obvious answers: To suggest that a stone lion would be shocked by the massacre on the Odessa steps The lion could represent the workers and peasants rising up against their oppressors

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Editing: Types of Edit

American Montage

Succession of shots to indicate compressed time (frequently linked by dissolves)

Example:

The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola,

1972)
Clip 27
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Editing: Types of Edit

Cut:
Shot A followed by shot B.
Used for: Sequence in real time Parallel editing: cutting between related actions
Most common transition - there will be hundreds of cuts in an average film (ASL =average shot length)
1930s - 1950s: ASL = between 8 and 11 seconds 1960s ASL = between 6 and 8 seconds 1970s ASL = between 5 and 8 seconds 1970s ASL = between 5 and seconds From mid-1990s, many films as low as 3-4 seconds

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Editing: Types of Edit

Cut:
Tension built by way scene is cut - cf this sequence from The Birds (Hitchcock, 1963)

Average shot length short but rate of cutting faster at highest point of tension

Clip 28
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Editing: Types of Edit

Parallel edits/cross cutting: a way of showing two actions taking place simultaneously; originally used for excitement; later more sophisticated effects, eg Godfather: cross-cuts between baptism of Michaels nephew (connotations of innocence) and the preparation and execution of the murder of rival gang leaders - ordered by Michael - irony
Clip 29
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Editing: Types of Edit

Fade
Fade In: shot lightens from black. Used to:
Signify start of scene/new day

Fade Out: shot darkens to black. Used to:

Signify end of scene/day

Fade Out/Fade In:

Signifies time has passed eg The Searchers (shadow of chief on girl)

Clip 30

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Editing: Types of Edit

Fade
Fades not always to black - sometimes to colour eg red dominant colour in Bergmans Cries and Whispers and Bergman fades to red rather than black

Clip 31

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Editing: Types of Edit

Shot A overlaps with shot B. Used for: Jump in time/space (e.g. flashback, dream) eg North by North-West (Alfred Hitchcock,
1959)

Dissolve:

Clip 32
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Editing: Types of Edit

Wipe:
Shoot A peels off to reveal shot B. Horizontal/vertical /digital wipe. Used to: Move to new setting Style (eg in modern films to give a sense of nostalgia for old films) eg The Seven Samurai (Kurosawa

Clip 33
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Editing: Types of Edit

Iris
A round moving mask that can close down to end a scene (iris-out) Or can open to begin a scene (iris in) or reveal more space round a detail.
A common device in early cinema. When used post 1930, usually has connotations of nostalgia (eg Tirez sur le pianiste/Shoot the Piano Player - Francois Truffaut, 1960) or a self-conscious referencing in films about film. In this scene from Neighbours (Buster Keaton, 1920) the iris is used for the comic effect as that the female protagonist is getting ready for her wedding Clip 34

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Editing
Types of Edit
Bazz Luhrman combines wipes, irises (sort of they are square!) and freeze-frames in his postmodernist version Romeo and Juliet. Postmodernist style mixes different elements eclectically - filmic technique often draws attention to itself, unlike in continuity (invisible) editing - see below
Clip 35
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Editing: Continuity Editing

Classic Hollywood style is a set of techniques which are designed to make the technical construction of the film invisible i.e. to make the inherent discontinuity of film appear continuous

In Classic Hollywood the plot is more important than the style i.e. its prime motive is storytelling

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Editing: Continuity Editing

The main techniques are: Establishing shot: shows the setting and 180 line (the camera will stay on one side of this line) Shot/reverse shot: cutting back and forth between characters (sometimes using over-the-shoulder shots) Eyeline match: shot A: someone looking; shot B what is looked at with direction of look maintained Match on action: where a cut occurs at a point when the actor is moving - makes cut invisible
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Editing: Continuity Editing

Establishing Shot
shows the setting and 180 line (the camera will stay on one side of this line)

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Editing: Continuity Editing

Bordwell and Thomson

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Editing: Continuity Editing

Bordwell and Thomson

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Editing: Continuity Editing

Shot/reverse shot Cutting back and forth between characters in conversation, each shot being followed by one from a more or less equivalent position from the other side; (sometimes using over-the-shoulder shots) example:

Hush (Joss Whedon, 2000)

On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1947)

Clip 36, 37

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Editing: Continuity Editing

Eyeline match
Based on premise that audience will want to see what the character on-screen is seeing. Begins with character looking at something off-screen, then a cut to the object or person that they are looking at. If the person looks left, the following shot should imply that the looker is off-screen right.

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Editing: Continuity Editing

Eyeline match
Following shots from The Stendhal Syndrome /La Sindrome di Stendhal (Dario Argento, Italy, 1996), depict Anna looking a painting Brueghel's The Fall of Icarus. Scene takes place inside Florences's most famous museum, the Uffizi Gallery. As her interest grows, the eyeline match is stressed with matching close-ups of Anna's face and Icarus's falling into the ocean in the painting.
Clip 38
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Editing: Continuity Editing

Match on action
Match on action: action carried on across two shots Helps to mask the cut - viewer paying attention to action rather than edit Connecting sounds: same sound carried across cut
Examples from Orphans of the Storm (DW Griffiths, 1921) Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964) Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000)
Clip 39
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Editing: Continuity Editing

Graphic March (Match Cut)
When 2 successive shots joined so as to create strong similarity of shape (and/or colour) Used to smooth the transition between shots eg clip from Women on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown (Pedro Almodovar, 1988) [traffic light-sun] But also capable of startling transitions such as one from Dawn of Man sequence of 2001: a Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) where a bone used as a weapon is thrown into air in prehuman times and cut to a graphic match to a spaceship floating in space in imaginary future
Clip 40
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Editing: Continuity Editing

Sudden shift from longshot to close-up can be very effective technique In this clip from The Searchers (John Ford, 1956), we go from: a long shot of Ethan preparing a raid: we see the landscape, including the Comanche camp where Debbie being held To a close-up to Ethans face, conveying his anxiety
Clip 41
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Editing: Continuity Editing

Rules of continuity editing long established and very powerful. Even used by interviewers on TV news using single camera to interview. Then camera position reversed - interviewee may no longer be present - and questions repeated and edited in. Interviewer even fakes a reaction in longer takes by nodding, hence the noddies Standard way of editing scene: LS as an establishing shot, followed by closer shots until close-up (including shot/reverse shot in conversation); then re-establishing shot to remind audience where they are. Whole scene shot in long shot - mastershot - then closer shots edited in)

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Editing: Continuity Editing

Mastershot and closer shots
In initial sequence from Peking Opera Blues/Do Ma Daan (Honk Kong,1986), director Tsui Hark uses long shots to establish the locale before moving in. 1 Three musicians shown against a fireplace in what looks like a luxurious room. 2 Our suspicions confirmed by the second establishing shot, which shows us other half of the ample room (shot/reverse-shot) and reveals a party going on. 3 After this introduction, the camera moves forward with several closeups of both musicians and spectators. 4 At the end of the sequence, Hark shows us the entire room in a larger shot. This final establishing shot is called a reestablishing shot, for it shows us once again spatial relationships introduced with establishing shots.

Clip 42

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Editing: Continuity Editing

But rules are made to be broken, as in this early sequence from Leon (Luc Besson, 1994) where the director dispenses with establishing shot altogether.

Clip 43

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Sound can be: Diegetic: coming from the story space

Sound

Non-diegetic: coming from outside the story space e.g. soundtrack music, voiceover.
Another distinction to be made: external diegetic when other characters can hear the sound; internal diegetic: what character hears inside head eg clip from Women on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown (Almodovar) = external diegetic eg clip from Stendhall Syndrome - internal diegetic what the character can hear inside her head but noone else can
Clip 44
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Most important form of non-diegetic sound is music (also known as source music) - change of music can change whole mood of scene Scene from Citizen Kane where editing combines with non-diegetic music to show Kanes gradual estrangement from first wife, Emily Breakfast montage representing several years, with only a few lines of dialogue. Each section joined by a whip pan as years are compressed into a few minutes as Kane and his wife become more hostile The music also reinforces the sequences development

Sound

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Citizen Kane breakfast montage contd

initial late supper/early breakfast accompanied by lilting waltz a comic variation of the waltz follows initial statement, then tense one; then horns and trumpets restate the Kane theme final portion of scene accompanies stony silence between couple - slow , eerie variation on initial theme Dissolution of of marriage stressed by theme-and variation accompaniment
Clip 45
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Sound

Sound
Stinger chord
A strongly accented chord used to register shock or. surprise. Developed by composers such as Max Steiner (eg John Fords The Searchers (1956) and Bernard Herrmann (eg Alfred Hitchcocks North by North West)
Clip 46

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Sound
Mickey Mousing
Term which arose from the animated films of Walt Disney in the 1930s. Mickey Mouse an the other Disney characters often move in exact synchronization with music, even when they are not dancing.

Can be applied to non-animated film when the music is closely syncronised with the action.
In King Kong (Merian C Cooper, 1933), the music follows the steps of the tribal chief, suggesting power. In Les Parapluies de Cherbourg/The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, the music falls as the character faints
Clip 47
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Sound
Overlapping Sound
A technique where the sound from one scene overlaps into the next - usually by the sound in the second of two adjacent scenes beginning a second or two before the end of the first. Overlapping sound creates an aural association in a thematically linked sequence. Walter Murch, sound designer in Apocalypse Now and the English Patient used it often One of first films used extensively was Citizen Kane.

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Sound
Overlapping Sound In this scene, Kane is in the flat of the woman who becomes his mistress, then his wife, for the first time. Then there is a dissolve to some time later where the characters are in same position but clearly time has moved on (suggesting Kane has set her up in another flat. The same music bridges both scenes

Clip 48
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Sound
Overlapping Sound Kanes applause at the end of the scene also bridges to the next scene, a political street meeting. The speech of Jed, Kanes friend and ally, bridges to the next scene where Kane seems to carry on the same speech at a political rally in a hall

Clip 49
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Sound and Image

Sound can: Parallel the images: say the same thing e.g. expressive music which reflects characters emotions Counterpoint the images: say different things e.g. ironic commentative music

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References
Bordwell, David and Thompson, Kristin (2004) Film Art: an Introduction (7th edition). New York: McGraw-Hill. Giannetti, Louis Understanding Movies Monaco, James (1990) How to Read a Film (5th edition), New OShaughnessy, Michael (1999) Media and Society: an Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Thompson, Kristin (1999) Storytelling in the New Hollywood: Understanding Classical Narrative Technique. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press) Van Sijll, Jennifer (2005) Cinematic Storytelling: the 100 Most Powerful Film Conventions Every Filmmaker Must Know. Studio City CA: Michael Wiese. Vogler, Christopher (1996) The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Storytellers and Screenwriters. London:Boxtree.

Jersey, Prentice Hall

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