film production: who does what?. preparation (pre-production) producer – oversees logistics...
TRANSCRIPT
Film Production:
Who Does What?
Preparation (Pre-Production)
• Producer – oversees logistics
• Executive Producer – the money
• Line Producer – on-set liaison
• Screenwriter – writes the script
• Treatment – initial script proposal
• Shooting script – writer’s intended screenplay,
often changes during shooting
Shooting (Production)
• Director – oversees all aspects of shooting
• Production Designer – oversees the visual
creation
• Cinematographer (director of photography) –
oversees camera distance, angle, etc., as well
as lighting
• Actors – bring the script to life
The Director’s Team• Casting Director – recommends/selects actors
• Script Supervisor – oversees continuity
• Dialogue Coach – feeds lines to actors
• Second Unit Director – shoots at secondary locations
• Recordists – capture live sound
• Clapper Boy – marks scenes and takes before each run
of the camera
Production Designer’s Team
• Art Director – another term for production designer
• Set Decorator – selects objects/props for set
• Set Dresser – places objects/props on set
• Costume Designer – creates the vision for clothing
• Storyboardists – draw or otherwise draft intended shots
• Special Effects Teams (matte artists, model makers) – create visual effects that don’t exist in the natural world
Cinematographer’s Team
• Camera Operator – actually photographs
• Key Grip – lead stage hand
• Gaffer – lead electrician
• Best Boy – gaffer’s assistant
• Loader – puts film in the camera
ActorsStars
Supporting Players
Minor Players
Extras
Stunt Actors
Assembly (Post-Production)
• Editor – oversees cutting and compiling shots into a coherent whole
• Composer – creates musical score• Dailies – each day’s recorded shots• Rough Cut – the first compiled version of the
film, often much longer than the final cut• Final Cut – the trimmed version to be released• Outtakes – leftovers between Rough & Final• Spotting – identifying places for sound to be
edited in• ADR – automated dialogue replacement
Elements of Meaning
Film Form
And Content
Content/Meaning/Theme
Content = (Subject Matter + Form) + ContextContent is also known as Meaning or Theme
• Subject Matter is what the film is about.
• Form is how the subject matter is presented.
• Context is when, where and how the filmmaker’s creation meets its perceiver.
Levels of Meaning• Referential, a.k.a. Literal
observation of the recognizable
• Explicit, a.k.a. Textual/Connotative directly stated meanings (lines of dialogue)
• Implicit, a.k.a Universalthematic inference drawn from implication
• Symptomatic, a.k.a Culturalbroader social/symbolic meaning
Elements of Film Form
Narrative Elements
Plot
Character
Setting
Point of View
Metaphor
Stylistic Elements
Mise-en-Scene
Cinematography
Editing
Sound
Narrative Elements: Plot
• Exposition (stasis) – Act I
• Complication – Act I
• Rising Action (conflict) – Act II
• Climax – Act II
• Falling Action – Act III
• Denouement (resolution) – Act III
Standard Plot Structure
Plot vs. Story
• Plot is everything seen and heard by the perceiver of the film – everything that is presented, whether it’s a part of the story or not.
• Story is everything that happens in the lives of the characters – everything they experience, whether it is explicitly presented to the perceiver or not.
Diegesis
Plot and Time
• Temporal Duration – passage of time for the
characters
• Screen Duration – passage of time for the
perceiver
• Temporal Order – chronology (Flashbacks,
flashforwards)
• Temporal Frequency – repetition of events
• Beats – major events in the plot
Character• Protagonist – central, dynamic character with
whom the perceiver identifies/sympathizes
• Antagonist – obstacle to the protagonist
• Round – well-developed character whose motivations are clear
• Flat – opposite of round
• Dynamic – character who changes significantly
• Static – opposite of dynamic
• Characteristics (character traits)
• Catalyst (goal vs. investigation)
• Causal relationships – action/reaction
Setting
• Location – authentic, artificial, interior, exterior, etc.
• Screen space – everything we see
• Directed attention – director’s/ cinematographer’s control of what we see/hear
• Imagery – meaningful objects, colors, sounds
Point of View• Restricted Narration – a character’s
POV
• Unrestricted Narration – omniscient POV
• Perceptual Subjectivity – we perceive what the character perceives
• Mental Subjectivity – we perceive what the character is thinking
POV and the Perceiver• Cues – sights & sounds that cause expectations
in the perceiver
• Suspense – delay in fulfilling expectation
• Surprise – incorrect, or cheated, expectation
• Curiosity – cue causes perceiver to wonder
about past events
• Irony – disparity between characters’ &
perceiver’s POV
• Hierarchy of Knowledge – who knows what?
Metaphor
• Symbol – both literal and figurative
• Iconography – symbol whose meaning
transcends an individual film/story
• Motif – repeated symbol or image (often related
to temporal frequency)
• Allusion – reference to another work of art