Why Study Film Knowing how to analyze films

Why Study Film?

Knowing how to analyze films and build thoughtful interpretations = More enjoyment

Our Goal § Identify the major elements of film art § Recognize the way those elements work together to produce meaning § Develop the skills necessary to interpret what we’re being told (sold? )

What is a movie? • A series of still photos shown quickly to simulation motion • Frame rate • Hurt Locker Phantom footage • A type of communication • A form of popular entertainment • A narrative that tells a story • This “telling” is affected by cultural differences and the era in which it was produced.

Communication & Culture

Communication • SUCCESSFUL transmission of a message from a source to a receiver • Must be sharing of meaning • Response, or feedback • Two types • Interpersonal • Mass

Interpersonal vs. Mass Comm So what’s the difference? • Number of audience members? • Feedback? Is it immediate feedback? • Known audience vs unknown? • Use of a technical or mechanical device? • Gatekeepers?

Communication Model • Who • Says what • To whom • Though what channel • With what effect

Communication Model

What is Culture? ü Learned behavior of a social group. ü Historically transmitted pattern of meaning. ü Uses symbols to communicate knowledge. ü How we make sense of our lives. Communication is required for culture to exist.

Functions and Effects of Culture • Provides useful guidelines for behavior. • In pluralistic society both dominant and bounded cultures exist. • Cultural values can be contested. • It’s fluid, ever changing. • Culture can unite or divide.

Viewer Expectations ü Expected patterns ü Viewers harbor essential expectations concerning a film’s form and organization ü Viewers must be alerted to these expected patterns in order to fully appreciate the significance of deviations ü But where do these expectations come from? ü Prior experience (we recognize conventions) 12

Manipulating expectations (sound) § The Shining § Forrest Gump

Conventions ü The conventions of a genre are the elements that commonly occur in such films. ü Sometimes they’re called “codes. ” ü They may include things like characters, situations, settings, props, themes and events. ü The conventions of the science-fiction genre is that the story often includes robots, aliens, time-travel or genetic manipulation. ü Trope – tends to be literary, figurative language (metaphor, simile, personification, irony, hyperbole, pun). 14

History of Film

Precursors of Film § Persistence of Vision § 100 A. D. – Ptolemy discovered that the human eye retains an image on the retina for 1/24 of a second. § Phi Phenomenon & critical flicker fusion § If light is pulsed at a certain speed (24 fps), the illusion is continuous light. So, when pictures are flashed in quick succession, we perceive them as moving. § Pinhole cameras/camera obscura § China, 390 BC & Persia, 945 AD

The Beginnings § Film language (think language + culture!) § People had to become film literate. It was like being in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language. § Had to understand cinematic alterations of time and space; how images and sound combine to create meaning; camera angles.

The Beginnings (con’d) • Late 1800 s • Industrial revolution • Immigration • Film language (think language + culture!) • People had to become film literate. It was like being in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language. • Had to understand cinematic alterations of time and space; how images and sound combine to create meaning; camera angles.

Precursors of Film 1800’s Europe § Phonotrope § Zoetrope

The Early Years - Pioneers

The Early Years - Pioneers § Eadweard Muybridge § Developed photography to reveal motion. § Wager by Ca. governor Stanford to show all 4 legs of a horse were in the air at one time. § “Bullet-time” – Matrix slo-mo technique which used the basic principals of Muybridge’s “The Horse in Motion. ”

The Early Years - Pioneers § Eadweard Muybridge

The Early Years - Pioneers § Thomas Edison § After meeting Muybridge, he set out to invent a projector. As always with Edision, his assistant, Dickson, did. § Dickson also invented a better way to film – celluloid.

The Early Years - Pioneers § Thomas Edison § Black Maria (N. J. ) – motion picture studio (really just a box that could be rotated to have enough light.

The Early Years - Pioneers § Thomas Edison § These completed films were shown in a kinetoscope. i. Pod 0. 0

The Early Years - Pioneers § Lumiere Brothers § They were considered the first to exhibit moving pictures – 1895 § They thought it was “an invention without any future” § Films such as Workers Leaving the Station, Arrival of a Train at the Station

The Early Years - Pioneers § George Melies – the “cinemagician” § First to use the “stop trick, ” multiple exposures, time lapse photography and dissolves. § Still using proscenium staging. § Trip to the Moon § And this