An Introduction into Film Aesthetics The following notes

An Introduction into Film Aesthetics The following notes quote at length from Bordwell, David and Kristin Thompson. Film Art: An Introduction. Seventh edition. New York: Mc. Graw. Hill, 2003.

Scene: Scene a segment in a narrative film that takes place in ONE TIME AND SPACE or that uses CROSSCUTTING to show two or more SIMULTANEOUS actions. Shot: Shot (in the finished film) one uninterrupted image with a SINGLE static or mobile FRAMING. Shot sequence: sequence a moderately large segment of the film involving ONE COMPLETE STRETCH of action. It can be the equivalent of a scene, but it does not have to.

STORY VS. PLOT Story: Story all the events that we see and hear, plus all those that we assume to have happened, arranged in their CAUSAL relations, CHRONOLOGICAL order, DURATION, FREQUENCY, AND SPATIAL locations. Plot: Plot the ACTUAL PRESENTATION of the events in the film.

MISE-EN-SCENE It includes all of the elements placed in front of the camera: • the setting and props; • lighting • costumes and makeup • figure behavior A careful analysis of the mise-en-scene will often reveal the major themes of the film (see the following clips):

SETTING By comparing the setting in the following clips one can have a better grasp at the class and ethnic difference between the two men in Haneke’s Caché (2005): The Frenchman’s kitchen:

The Algerian’s “kitchen”:

LIGHTING Three-point lighting: a common arrangement which uses three directions of light on a scene: • Key light: light the brightest illumination coming into the scene. • Fill light: light illumination from a source less bright than the key light, used often to soften deep shadows in a scene. • Backlighting: Backlighting illumination cast onto the figures in the scene from the side opposite the camera, usually creating a thin outline of highlighting on those figures. This balanced lighting creates mild shading (the shadows are almost transparent as in the following clip):

Lighting can be classified according to its intensity: • High-key lighting: lighting illumination that creates LITTLE CONTRAST light and dark areas of the shot. between the

• Low-key lighting: illumination that creates STRONG CONTRAST between the light and dark areas of the shot, with deep shadows and little fill light (see the shot below):

CINEMATOGRAPHY Cinematography refers to the MANNER in which objects are filmed. It involves three factors: • the photographic aspects of the shot (which refer to the quality of the film stock, its exposure to lighting, the use of filters or lenses, etc); • the framing of the shot; • the duration of the shot.

FRAMING The ratio of frame WIDTH to frame HEIGHT is called the aspect ratio. The standard ration is 1. 33: 1 (in most prints, this works out to 1. 37: 1. This ratio was established in the 1930 s). • ANGLE: this refers to the angle at which the camera is positioned and which can be:

• straight-on angle:

• high angle (1):

• high angle (2):

• low angle:

DISTANCE This refers to the distance between the camera and the mise-en-scene. • extreme long shot:

• long shot:

• medium long shot: shot

• medium shot:

• medium close-up:

• close-up:

• extreme close-up:

• point-of-view shot (POV shot): a shot taken with the camera placed approximately where the character’s eyes would be, showing what the character would see (an optically subjective shot). Caché: 0: 38: 00

MOBILE FRAMING This term refers to the changing of the framing of the object (the camera angle, level, height, or distance changes during the shot). • The pan (short for panorama) rotates the camera on a vertical axis (from left to right/right to left). The camera as a whole DOES NOT move. (Caché 15: 27)

• The tilt rotates the camera on a horizontal axis. The camera as a whole DOES NOT MOVE. The impression is of space unrolling from top to bottom or bottom to top (Caché 08: 20)

In the tracking (dolly) shot, the camera travels in any direction ALONG THE GROUND. It often follows a character as he/she moves within the frame (Caché 05: 45).

• In the crane shot, the camera MOVES above ground level (it rises or descends, often thanks to a mechanical arm that lifts and lowers it). Caché 1: 19: 03

• The use of a hand-held camera (common especially in the 1950 s with the growth of the cinéma-vérité documentary) lends an air of authenticity to the shot. It is often (but not always) used to suggest a subjective point of view (Caché 1: 15: 30).

DURATION • The LONG TAKE is a shot that continues for an unusually lengthy time before the transition to the next shot. It is NOT interrupted by any type of punctuation (cut, dissolve, fade, etc. ) It should not be confused with the long shot. A take is one run of the camera that records a single shot. Caché 05: 25 • When an entire scene is rendered in only one shot, the long take is known as plan-séquence

EDITING Editing is the coordination of one shot with the next. There are various means of joining two shots: • A fade-out gradually darkens the end of a shot to black. • A fade-in lightens a shot from black. • A dissolve briefly superimposes the end of shot A and the beginning of shot B. • In a wipe, shot B replaces shot A by means of a boundary line moving across the screen. • The cut is the most common means of joining two shots.

There are four types of relations between two shots: • Graphic relations, which exploit the pictorial qualities of the two shots (there can be graphic matches or conflicts between two shots). • Rhythmic relations, which refers to the way in which the director adjusts the length of the shots in relation to one another. • Spatial relations, which help construct the space of the film. The Kuleshov effect: effect any series of shots which, in the absence of an establishing shot, prompts the spectator to infer a spatial whole from seeing only parts of the space. • Temporal relations, which refer to the order, duration, and frequency of events. These include flashbacks, flashforwards, ellipsis, overlapping editing (the same event is repeated in the two consecutive shots)

CONTINUITY EDITING In the continuity style, the space of a scene is constructed around what is called the axis of action/the center line/the 180º line The camera can be put at any point as long as it stays ON THE SAME SIDE OF THE LINE. This ensures • that the relative positions in the frame remain consistent; • consistent eyelines; • consistent screen direction.

One good example of continuity editing is the shot/reverse-shot pattern in which one end point of the 180º line is shown and then the other. In the following clip, the shot/reverse-shot pattern also exemplifies the eyeline match Caché 50: 00

• A jump over the 180º line usually adds dynamism to the shot and renders it more dramatic (21 Grams 07: 56). These are two shots connected by a cut.

Other types of cutting: • Crosscutting: editing that alternates shots of two or more lines of action occurring in different places, usually at the same time. • A jump cut is an elliptical cut that appears as an interruption of a single shot. Either the figures seem to change instantly against the constant background or the background changes instantly while the figures remain the same.

SOUND The full interpretation of a film should also take into consideration the interplay between image and sound For example, in the following shot, the intensity of an off-screen sound is exaggerated to indicate the on-screen child’s fear and helplessness. Caché 38: 43.

Sound can be: • NONDIEGETIC—when its source lies outside the story world (for example, the score that may accompany a certain scene). • DIEGETIC—when its source is part of the story world (as in the previous clip). • The diegetic sounds can be either onscreen or offscreen (as in the previous clip). • They can also be internal (when they come from inside the mind of a character and are subjective) or external diegetic sounds (when they are given a physical source in the scene and are objective. E. g. The rooster’s flapping is an offscreen, external diegetic sound.

Sound can also be: • simultaneous with the image (in most cases). • nonsimultaneous with the image (for example, in flashbacks, when we may see a character onscreen in the present, but hear another character’s voice from an earlier scene). • A sound bridge is the prolongation of the sound from one scene over the image from the next scene.

ANALYZING FILM STYLE • Determine the organizational structure of the film, its narrative or nonnarrative formal system (story vs. plot, manipulation of causality, time, space; the pattern of development, etc. ) • Identify the salient techniques used (color, lighting, framing, editing, sound). • Trace out patterns of techniques within the whole film (what is repeated, developed, paralleled, quoted, etc). • Propose functions for the salient techniques and the patterns they form (style shapes meaning, emotional response, and even viewers’ perceptions).

Now you’re ready to watch films