Media Semiotics Reading Visual Texts Part 2 Film

Media Semiotics: “Reading” Visual Texts, Part 2. Film Language Michael Fitzgerald HU-3000 Winter, 2009

Film “language” • Film does not literally have a “language” (we are using the word as a metaphor or comparison). • There is no basic linguistic unit, such as a word. • There is no formal grammar. • Film does, however, make statements, so it works like a language. • The closest devices it has to a real language are: – shots (could be compared to words) – scenes (like sentences) – sequences (like paragraphs) • However, these are often difficult to differentiate from one another: • A lengthy shot can be considered a scene. • Statements can be made within a shot, using movement, focus, color, proxemics, camera position, etc. ).

Two types of film “statements”: Paradigmatic and syntagmatic • Paradigmatic: Everything that is seen in the shot (miseen-scene) including how it is composed: – what to shoot – how to shoot it Usually associated with realism. • Syntagmatic (contextual)—usually associated with expressionism: – editing/“montage”

Paradigmatic statements • • • Mise-en-scene: everything in the shot, including how it is composed Staging, sets, props, costumes, casting, etc. Use of frame • Closed • Open Proxemics /proximity (distance from camera) – ECU – MS (“two-shot”) – LS – ELS Proxemics /“blocking”: use of space, placement of actors, etc. Composition – lines (vertical; horizontal; diagonal or oblique) – lighting source/direction – camera angle/Po. V • tilt (low/high; up/down): look for horizon • roll (slant) • crane (extremely high) • overhead/”bird’s-eye view “(often with see-through ceiling) • helicopter (ELS): God’s-eye view

More paradigmatic statements • • • Choice of film: – Low or hi-rez (70 mm, 35 mm, 16 mm or Super-8; videotape). Low rez (grainy) suggests immediacy and actuality. Lighting: – Available (“magic hour”) or artificial. – bright or dark (noir). – key, fill, back, etc. – silhouette (back light only). Colors: – warmth, coolness, danger, passion, etc. – color intensity (saturation). Focus: – sharp – soft (sometimes done with filters or screens) – planar (rack shot/rack focus): can alternate between two planes – deep focus (dev. by Gregg Toland; see Citizen Kane) – zoom in or out (what does zoom-in to ECU of face imply? ) Camera movement: – track shot, dolly shot, truck shot, crane (or motorized Louma) shot, sky-cam – hand-held (shaky). Documentary style: suggests immediacy, actuality, action

Composition (deep focus)

Synecdoche

Rack focus

Rack focus

Close-ups • Camera angles, close-ups, and editing techniques contribute to viewers’ feelings toward a character. • Viewers do not care much either way about characters seen at a distance. • They are more likely to empathize or identify with a character who is often seen in close-ups. Meyrovitz, Joshua. “Multiple Media Literacies. ” Journal of Communications 48 (1). Winter 1998: 96 -108.

ECU

ELS

ELS as “establishing shot”

Low-angle shot

Aura (halo effect)

Aura (halo effect)

Aura (halo effect)

Syntagmatic statements • Two images juxtaposed suggest a third meaning:

Montage (Fr. : “mounting” or “assembling” • In US called cutting or editing (taking away) • Logical purpose is to collapse time (fast-forward), skip mundane details (“cut to the chase”), eliminate dead air, etc. • Occurs in: – storytelling, jokes, etc. – novels (“meanwhile, back at the ranch…”) – dreams (jump cuts)

Two basic concepts of montage: Diachronic (chronological or linear): • One idea leads chronologically to the next: • shot/reaction shot • dissolve to next scene • match cut • One idea leads logically (in terms of how the story is being told) to the next: • Flashback/flash-forward • What about Memento? Synchronic (non-linear): • Two or more things appear to happen simultaneously: • Parallel editing (“cross-cutting”): two scenes occurring at the same time (chase scene) • Two separate story lines that converge later (or maybe never—used often in serials) • Scenes/shots may have no logical relationship but are juxtaposed strictly for emotional effect: • Sergei Eisenstein (Soviet filmmaker) • Ox-slaughtering images in Apocalypse Now • Can be used to connote fast action or excitement • Often used in TV commercials and music videos to hold viewer interest— simply because movement in itself is compelling

Realist fiction Borrows from documentary/actuality – location shoots – hand-held camera technique – grainy film – available lighting – long takes, minimal editing – edits are usually linear, chronological – nonprofessional actors Ex. : Lumiere brothers, Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory (1895).

Expressionism – dream-like, fantastical, mythical – montage/jump cuts – non-linear editing – shot on sets – staged lighting – viewers expected to “fill in” their own meanings Ex. : Georges Melies, Trip to the Moon (1902) Robt. Wiene, Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

Classical Hollywood style • • • well-known actors heavy on glamour, myth, fantasy careful lighting (three-source) carefully controlled sound careful, often elaborate camera work (Steadicam, tracks shots, cranes, helicopters, etc. ) high-resolution film smooth, precise (“invisible”) editing usually linear, mostly chronological does most of the “work” for viewers

Classical Hollywood style • Where does classical Hollywood drama fall in the realism-expressionism continuum? – actuality (no editing, Lumiere Bros. ) – verite/direct cinema (stark documentary style, minimal editing, minimal or no story line—“slice of life”) – narrative documentary style – realist fiction – classical (Hollywood) – expressionist (Melies, Weine, etc. ) – experimental (Dziga Vertov)

Quotes “Everything about a movie is manipulation. ” –Frederick Wiseman, documentary filmmaker “I enjoy playing the audience like a piano. ” – Alfred Hitchcock