CHAPTER 4

Style: Unified, developed, and significant use of particular technical choices. The repeated and salient uses of film techniques characteristic of a single film or group of films.

Mise-en-scene (Putting into the scene)- the directors control over what appears in the film frame. SettingLightingCostume and MakeupStaging

Behavior of figures

Prop (for property) – when an object in the setting has a function within the ongoing action. (ex. The snow globe)

Lighting quality refers to the relative intensity of the illuminationHard lighting creates clearly defined shadows, crisp textures, and sharp edgesSoft lighting creates a diffused illumination

The direction of light in a shot refers to the path of light from its source or sources to the object lit.-Frontal lighting-Side lighting-Backlighting-under lighting-top lighting

-Frontal lighning- can be recognized by its tendency to eliminate shadows.-Backlighting- comes from behind the subject filmed. Can be position at many angles, high above the figure, at various angles off to the side, pointing at the camera, or from below.-underlighting – the light comes from below the subject. (often used to create dramatic horror effects because it distort features.Top lighting- the spotlight shines down from almost directly above the subject.

Key light: is the primary source, providing the dominant illumination and casting the strongest shadows. The key light is the most directional light, and it usually corresponds to the motivating light source on the setting. The key light may be aimed at the subject from any angle.

Fill light: is less intense illumination that “fills in,” softening or elimination shadows cast by the key light.

Three-point lighting: key light, fill light, and backlight. The backlight comes from behind and above the figure, the key light comes diagonally from the front, and a fill light comes from a position near the camera.

High-key lighting refers to an overall 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. (often used to suggest different times of day)

Low key illumination: creates stronger contrast and sharper, darker shadows. Often the lighting is hard, and fill light is lessened or eliminated altogether. The effect is of chiaroscuro, or extremely dark and light regions within the image. (usually applied to somber or mysterious scenes.

Film lighting usually limited by two colors – white of sunlight or the soft yellow of incandescent interior lamps.

A performace can be individualized or it can be stylized.

Typage: a performance technique of soviet montage cinema. The actors appearance and behavior are presented as typical of a social class or group.

Screen space: pg 148-balanced-unbalanced

limited palette- involves few colors in the same range. Distinct colors stand out.

Monochromatic color design: color design that emphasizes a narrow set of shades of a single color. Here the filmmaker emphasizes a single color, varying it only in purity or lightness.

Depth cues are the elements of image that create the impression of a three-dimension space.

Depth cues are provided by lighting, setting, costumes, and staging. Suggests that a space has both volume and several distinct planes.-volumes is suggested by shape, shading and movement.-planes are the layers of space occupied by persons or objects. Pleanes are described according to how close to or far away from the camara they are: foreground, middle ground, background.(pg152)

Overlap: a cue for suggesting represented depth in the film image by place objects partly in front of more distant ones.

-color differences also create overlapping planes- cool or pale colors tend to recede so they are used for backgrounds planes such as setting.-similarly because warn of saturated colors tend to come forward, suck hues are often employed for costumes or other foreground elements.-movements is one of the most important depth cues.

Aerial perspective: the hazing of more distant planes. A cue for suggesting depth in the image by presenting objects in the distance less distantly than those in the foreground. Typically, our visual system assumes that the sharper outlines, clearer textures, and purer colors belong to foreground elements..

- in landscape shots, the blurring and graying of distant planes can be caused by actual atmospheric haze.

Mise-en-scene depth cues: overlap of edges, cast shadows, and size diminution.

Size diminution: figures and objects farther away from us are seen to get proportionally small: the smaller the figure appears, the farther away we believe it to be. A cue for suggesting represented depth in the image by showing that objects that are further away as smaller than foreground objects.

Linear perspective – depth emerges when parallel lines converge at a distant vanishing point. Off center linear perspective and center linear perspective.

Depth cues are monocular, which means that the illusion of depth requires input from only one eye. Stereopsis is a binocular depth cue (rendered by cinematograph rather than mise-en-scene).

Shallow space composition: in such shots, the mise-en-scene suggests comparatively little depth, and the closest and most distant planes seem only slightly separated. Staging the action in relatively few planes of depth; the opposite of deep space.

Deep Space: significant distance seems to separate planes. An arrangement of mise-en-scene elements so that there is a considerable distance between the plane closest to the camera and the one farthest away. Any or all of these planes may be in focus.

CHAPTER 5

Cinematographic qualities – what is filmed and how it is filmed-how involves three areas of choice. 1. The photographic aspect of the shot. 2. The framing of the shot. 3. The duration of the shot.

Cinematography: (writing on movement) depends to a large extent on photography (writing in light). A general term for all the manipulation of the filmstrip by the camera in the shooting phase by the laboratory in the developing phase.

Film Stocks: the strip of material upon which a series of still photographs is registered; it consists of a clear base coated on one side with a light-sensitive emulsion. Types of film stocks are differentiated by chemical qualities of the emulsion. The image will have more or less contrast depending partly on the stock used.-high contrast image displays bright white highlights, stark black areas, and a narrow range of grays in between.- a low contrast image possesses a wide range of grays with no true white or black areas.

A fast film stock, one that is sensitive to light, will produce low contrast lookA slower, less light sensitive one will be high in contrast.

Different color film stocks yield varying color contrasts. Ex. Technicolor film stock yields sharply distinct and heavily saturated hues.The tonalities of color stock may also be altered by laboratory processes.

Adding color to footage originally shot in black and white.Tinting is accomplished by dipping the already developed film into a bath of dye.(darker areas remain black and grey, while lighter areas pick up the color)Toning is accomplished by dipping the film into a bath dye before the developing of the positive print. (as a result darker areas are colored)

Exposure: the adjustment of the camera mechanism in order to control how much light strikes each frame of film passing though the aperture. -The range of tonalities is most crucially affected by exposure of the image during filming. The filmmaker usually controls exposure by regulating how much light passes through the camera lens, though images shot with correct exposure can also be overexposed or underexposed in developing and printing.

Exposure can be affected by filters.

Filters: a piece of glass or gelatin placed in front of the camera or printer lens to alter the quality or quantity of light striking the film in aperture.-slices of glass or gelatin put in front of the lens of the camera or printer to produce certain frequencies of light reaching the film. Filters thus alter the range of tonalities in quite radical ways.

Days for night was a routine used to make night scenes during the day using blue filters in sunlight.

Rate: in shooting, the number of frames exposed per second; in projection, the number of frames thrown on the screen per second. If the two are the same, the speed of the action will appear normal, whereas a disparity will create slow or fast motion. The standard rate in sound cinema is 24 frames per second for both shooting and projecting.

Fast motion effect- screen action will look speeded up. If a film is exposed at fewer frames per second than the projection. (Effect seen in comedies)(can also be used for supernatural(vampires) and for showing hectic rhythms of urban life)

The more frames per shot, the slower the screen action will appear.

Slow motion effect: lots of frames per second. (used to suggest actions take place in a dram of fantasy of to convey enormous power like in martial arts films)(also used for emphasis, becoming a way of dwelling on a moment of spectacle or high drama.

Ramping: shifting speed of movement very smoothly and rapidly. Used to create the effect of variable shooting speeds.

Time-lapse cinematography permits us to see the sun set in seconds or a flower bloom in a minute. For this a very low shooting speed is required- perhaps one frame per minute, hour, of even day.

High speed cinematography: which may seek to record a bullet shattering glass, the camera may expose hundreds of even thousands of frames per second. (requires specially designed cameras)

Lens: a shaped piece of transparent material (usually glass) with either or both sides curved to gather and focus light rays. Most camera and projector lenses place a series of lenses within a metal tube to form a compound lens.-It gathers light from the scene and transmits that light onto the flat surface of the film to form an image that represents size, depth, and other dimension of the scene.

Focal length: the distance from the center of the lens to the point at which the light rays meet in sharp focus. The foal length determines the perspective relation of the space represented on the flat screen. The chief variable for control of perspective in the image.-in technical terms, the focal length is the distance from the center of the lens to the point where light rays converge to a point of focus on the film.-it alters the perceived magnification, depth, and scale of things in the image.

Norman lens(middle focal length): a lens that shows objects without severely exaggerating or reducing the depth of the scenes planes. In 35mm filming, a normal lens is 35 to 50mm.

Telephoto lens(long focal length): a lens of long focal length that affects a scenes perspective by enlarging distant planes and making them seem close to the foreground panes. In 35 mm filming, a lens of 75mm length of more. Today the are typically 100mm or greater.-A figure moving toward the camera takes more time to cover what seems to be a small distance.-flattens all planes.-running in place

Wide-angle lens (short focal length): a lens of short focal length that affects a scenes perspective by distorting straight line near the edges of he frame and by exaggerating the distance between foreground and background planes. In 35mm filming, a wide-angle lens is 35 mm of less.-Exaggerated depth. Distances between the foreground and background seem greater, because of this; the wide angle lens also makes figures moving to or from the camera seem to cover ground more rapidly.

Zoom lens: a lens with a focal length that can be changed during a shot. A shift toward the telephoto range enlarges the image and flattens is planes together; giving an impression of magnifying the scene space, while a shift towards the wide-angle range does the opposite. -is optically designed to permit the continuous varying of focal length.

Depth of field: the measurements of the closest and farthest planes in front of the camera lens between which everything will be in sharp focus. A depth of field 5 to 16 feet, for example, would mean everything close than 5 feed and farther than 16 feet would be out of focus.-the range of distances before the lens within which objects can be photographed in sharp focus.

Focus: the degree to which light rays coming from the same part of an object through different parts of the lens reconverge at the same point on the film frame, creating sharp outlines and distinct textures.

A short focal length (wide angle) lens has a relatively grater depth of field than does a long-focal length(telephoto) lens.

Selective focus- choosing to focus on only one plane and letting the other planes blur.

Deep Focus: A use of the camera lens and lighting that keeps objects in both the close and distant planes in sharp focus. Practice of using faster film, shorter focal length lenses, and more intense lighting to yield a greater depth of field.-Occurred do to the influence of citizen cane.- became a major stylistic option in the 1940s and 1950s.

Racking focus: Or pulling focus. Shifting the area of sharp focus from one plane to another during a shot. -A shot may begin with an object in the foreground sharply visible and the rear plane fuzzy, then rack focus so that the background elements come into crisp focus and the foreground becomes blurred. Pg179 5.43 5.44

Special Effects: a general term for various photographic manipulations that create ficticious spatial relations in the shot, suck a superimposition, matte shots, and rear projection.

Superimposition- the exposure of more than one image on the same film strip or in the same shot-separately photographed planes of action may be combined on the same trip of film to create the illusion that the two planes are adjacent. By double exposure either in the camera of in laboratory printing, one image is laid over another.

Process shot: any shot involving rephotography to combine two or more images into one or to create a special effect; also called composite shots.-projections process shots-matte process shots

projection process shots: the filmmaker projects footage of a setting onto a screen, then films actors performing in front of the screen

Rear Projection: a technique for combining a foreground action with a background action filmed earlier. The foreground is filmed in a studio against a screen; the background imagery is projected from behind the scene.

Front projection: a composite process whereby footage meant to appear as the background of a shot is projected from the front onto a screen; figures in the foreground are filmed in front of the screen as well.

Matte shots: a type of process shot in which different areas of the image (usually actors and setting) are photographed separately and combined in laboratory work.

FRAMING

Framing: the use of the edges of the film frame to select and to compose what will be visible onscreen.-can affect the image by means of (1) the size and shape of the frame. (2) the way the frame defines onscreen and off screen space. (3) the way framing imposes the distance, angle, and height of a vantage point onto the image. (4) the way framing can move in relation to the mise-en-scene.

Aspect ratio: ratio of frame width to frame height. The relationship of a frames width to its height.

Academy ratio: the standardized shape of the film frame established by the academy of motion picture arts and sciences. Today it is (1.85:1)…1.37:1. Established by the Hollywood academy of motion picture arts and sciences. Allowed room for a soundtrack on the filmstrip.

The most common format in North America today is 1.85:1. The 1.66:1 is more commonly used in Europe, also 1.75:1 but less common.

Ways of creating widescreen

Masking: in exhibition, stretches of black fabric that frame the theater scene. Masking can be adjusted according to the aspect ratio of the film to be projected.

Anamorphic process: a special lens squeezes the image horizontally, either during filming or in printing.Anamorphic lens: a lens for making widescreen films using regular academy ratio frame size. The camera lens takes in a wide field of view and squeezes it onto the frame, and a similar projector lens un squeezes the image onto the wide theater screen.

Masks: an opaque screen placed in the camera or printer that blocks part of the frame off and changes the shape of the photographed image, leaving part of the frame a solid color. As seen on the screen, mast masks are black, although they can be white or colored.

Iris: a round, moving mask that can close down to end a scene (iris-out) or emphasize detail, or that can open to begin a scene (iris in) or to reveal more space around a detail. -a moving circular mask that opens to reveal or closes to conceal a scene.