1 / 102

Film Language

Film Language. Aims. To illustrate and apply basic critical methodology of film analysis: Signs: denotation, connotation, motivation Cinematography (the shot): camera distance, angle, movement; their motivations and connotations

Audrey
Download Presentation

Film Language

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Film Language

  2. Aims To illustrate and apply basic critical methodology of film analysis: • Signs: denotation, connotation, motivation • Cinematography (the shot): camera distance, angle, movement; their motivations and connotations • Mise-en-scène analysis: lighting, objects, colour etc - everything in the frame • Editing: types of edit; their motivations and connotations; continuity editing • Sound Explicit and implicit meaning

  3. Sign: any unit of meaning (graphic, aural, verbal) Denotation: the (literal) description of a sign Connotation: the meaning associated with a sign Signs: Denotation and Connotation

  4. Motivation: the reason a film element is included: Realism Narrative Intertextuality (including “hommage”) Artistic Signs: Motivation NB A sign can connote and/or be motivated.

  5. Key Elements of Film Language or the Poetics of Cinema Mise en Scene and Cinematography Editing Sound How they combine to create meaning

  6. Cinematography (The Shot) Camera Distance • Extreme Long Shot (ELS) • Shows location • Often used as an initial establishing shot in a sequence • Also called a master shot as whole scene is usually shot in LS before breaking down into MS and CU • Example: Shot of Ethan near start of The Searchers(John Ford, 1956)

  7. Searchers opening

  8. The Shot: Camera Distance ELS/Establishing shot shows the location, setting or landscape of a scene; presents the action’s setting, with some characters. A mood or sense of drama may be presented with this shot

  9. The Shot: Camera Distance Long Shot (aka Full Shot) frames the entire body of one or more characters

  10. The Shot: Camera Distance Medium Long Shot: (also called “plan américain” or American shot) shows 1 to 3 characters from the thigh up. This shows characters and their roles without emphasising their emotions.

  11. The Shot: Camera Distance MLS shows location/ relationships - often used as an initial establishing shot in a sequence

  12. The Shot: Camera Distance Medium Shot (MS) • Waist up • Focus on character(s)

  13. The Shot: Camera Distance This MS shot allows other characters to be in view and so allows character interaction. This often makes for more sociable shots.

  14. The Shot: Camera Distance Medium shots put more emphasis on characters and their emotions.

  15. The Shot: Camera Distance Medium Close Up (MCU) • Chest up • Focus on character(s)

  16. The Shot: Camera Distance CLOSE UP: • Generally any close up shot of an object gives the object meaning. If the close up is of the whole or part of the face then it shows emotion and reinforces spectator involvement • Before advent of widescreen in mid 1950s, only one character usually in a close up - character on their own and can seem isolated in this type of shot - but wider fram allows CU two-shot

  17. The Shot: Camera Distance Close Up (CU) Can be of people Can be of objects

  18. The Shot: Camera Distance Extreme Close Up (ECU) • Part of face • Often used at climax of drama

  19. The Shot: Camera Distance An extreme close up is more magnified than close up, and will focus on one part (hand, eye, mouth, etc.) Insert: a detail shot magnifying a thing (letter, business card, etc.)

  20. The Shot: Camera Distance “Sergio Leone Shot” (ECU) • Isolates eyes • Often used at climax of drama, eg in Leone’s films in the lead-up to a shoot-out Clip 1

  21. The Shot: Camera Angle Straight-on Angle • Connotes equilibrium (normality) and makes spectator feel comfortable

  22. The Shot: Camera Angle Canted Angle (aka Dutch Angle) • Connotes disequilibrium (physical or mental) and produces sense of unease in spectator • “The world is out of joint” Clip 2

  23. The Shot: Camera Angle High Angle Shot Connotation - lack of power Motivation: can be point-of-view (POV) shot In The Color of Paradise/Rang-e Khoda,1999) a blind son Mohammad and his elderly grandmother are ruled over by a dominant father and are often shot from a high angle, emphasizing their dependence and smallness.

  24. The Shot: Camera Angle In this high angle shot, the angle - combined with mise en scene (prop) - the wheelchair - can make the character seem small and vulnerable. Gattaca, Andrew Noble, 1997)

  25. The Shot: Camera Angle LOW ANGLE SHOT A shot taken from below an character, as if he/she is looking down on us. This may make us feel small and vulnerable and the character seem powerful and authoritative Gladiator, Ridley Scott, 2000

  26. The Shot: Camera Angle LOW ANGLE SHOT This shot from The Magnificent Seven bestows authority on the Yul Bryner character. Although the Steve McQueen character is also shot from a low angle, he has less authority because of his position vis a vis the Yul Bryner character - see Mise en Scene (later)

  27. The Shot: Camera Angle Low Angle • Often connotes power but motivation can simply be POV shot In The Color of Paradise/Rang-e Khoda,1999) a dominant father is frequently shot From a low angle

  28. The Shot: Camera Angle In this clip from Citizen Kane, there is not much difference in height (seated) between Kane and his about-to-be mistress and future wife, Susan Alexander. However, as the shots cuts between the two, we have a high angle on Susan and a low angle on Kane, perhaps connoting that he will be dominant in the relationship Clip 3

  29. The Shot: Camera Angle Need to avoid a mechanical interpretation of camera angle - context needs to be taken into account - high angle hardly connotes lack of power but visual indication as to what’s about to happen to “traitor” eg North by North West (Alfred Hitchcock, USA, 1959 ) Clip 4

  30. The Shot: Camera Movement Pan: (panorama) Camera swivels left or right on axis. Used for: • Showing scene • Following movement • Show POV as head turns • Guiding attention • eg Traffic (Stephen Sodeberg) Clip 5

  31. The Shot: Camera Movement Whip Pan ie very rapid pan. Used for: • Rapid head-turn POV • Style Eg Fists of Fury/Tang Shan Da Xiong, Wei Lo, Honk Kong, 1971). Clip 6

  32. The Shot: Camera Movement Tilt Camera swivels up or down. Used for: • Showing scene on different levels • Following movement • Show POV as head moves up/down • Establishing shot e.g. ext: tilt up high building CUT int: room in building • eg In Leon (Luc Besson, 1994 ) tilt up used to reveal character of Matilda. Audience asked to notice contradictions in her clothing, starting with boots, her comic-book leotards, past her teenage jewellery and her cigarette to gentle, vulnerable face hidden behind ornate railing. Tilt-up allows audience to take in each item separately and notice contradictions central to her character. Clip 7

  33. The Shot: Camera Movement • Track (dolly) (tracking shot) - camera on wheels, usually on a little cart called a dolly (so sometimes known as a “dolly shot”; or the verb “to dolly” is used. - can track in/out, left/right, slow/fast.

  34. The Shot: Camera Movement Tracking in Lateral track(ing shot)

  35. The Shot: Camera Movement Tracking Shot • Lateral track(ing shot) • Examples: • Central do Brasil/Central Station • Les 400 coups/ The 400 Blows Clip 8

  36. The Shot: Camera Movement Reverse Tracking ShotIn this example from Les Parapluies de Cherbourg/The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964, France) note the effect of the reverse tracking shot in combination with the moving train Clip 9

  37. The Shot: Camera Movement Overhead Tracking Shot In this example from 1984 (Michael Radford, 1984), the overhead tracking shot of Winston Smith in his workplace has connotations of surveillance, spying, oppression. Clip 10

  38. The Shot: Camera Movement Crane shot • Crane: camera on crane so can move in/out, up/down space • Great potential from dramatic and aesthetically pleasing shots • Camera on crane so can move in/out, up/down space • Very flexible - can produce dramatic/aesthetic effects Examples from The Player (Robert Altman), Once Upon a Time in the West, Young and Innocent (where it combines with a zoom) Clip 11

  39. The Shot: Camera Movement Handheld: Portable camera so get jiggling image. Used for: • Realist documentary look • Convey dynamism of action • Eg Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier, 2000) Clip 12

  40. The Shot: Camera Movement Steadicam Portable camera with weights which is ‘worn’ by camera operator. Used to: • Steady image • Film scene without multiple takes • Film on terrain where tracks difficult (or where the director wants to show the floor) • Eg The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980) Clip 13

  41. The Shot: Camera Movement Steadicam • Use of Steadicam in Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990) • In five-minute shot, audience follows gangster Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) in the back door, through the kitchen and up to the bar, stopping to meet patrons all the way • Shows how gangsters don’t have to wait in queues like everyone else Clip 14

  42. The Shot: Camera Movement Zoom Use of zoom lens to create illusion of camera moving in/out. Can zoom in/out (forward zoom/reverse zoom) Examples: The Stendhal Syndrome (Dario Argento, 1996) The Godfather Part 2 (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974) Clip 15

  43. The Shot: Camera Movement Rack or Pull Focus • Change focus during scene to new point of interest • In this clip from 1984, note the way that Julia (Joanna Hamilton) is in focus and then there is a rack focus and she comes out of focus while O’Brian (Richard Burton) comes into focus. • This has narrative significance as it shows that a member of the inner party is noticing her, perhaps suspicion that her zeal is attacking the image of arch-traitor Goldstein in hiding some deviant thoughts. Clip 16

  44. The Shot: Camera Movement Vertigo effect aka “dolly zoom” or “transtrav” “trombone shot” Unsettling in-camera special effect that appears to undermine normal visual perception in film Effect achieved by using setting of zoom lens to adjust field of view while camera dollies (or tracks) towards or away from subject in such a way as to keep subject same size in frame throughout. From Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) Scotty - former policeman: fear of heights ends his career The effect gives an insight into his state of mind as he is going up spiral staircase near climax of film Clip 17

  45. The Shot: Camera Movement • This effect used expressively in a variety of films to show characters’ state of mind: • Jaws (Spielberg, USA, 1973) - shows Chief Brodie’s dread when he realises the killer shark has returned • Goodfellas (Scorsese, USA, 1980) - here used very slowly to indicate that the world is closing in on Henry Hall as former comrades plotting to kill him • The Quick and the Dead (Sam Raimi, USA, 19) - here used to show unnatural state of affairs in which a son Leonardo di Capprio) fights a gun duel with his father (Gene Hackman). Note way in which young woman seems literally to recoil in fear. Combined with a canted/Dutch frame: the world really is out of joint Clip 18

  46. The ShotFreeze Frame Achieved by repeating the same frame again and again so thatit gives the screen the appearance of a still photograph Can have the effect of leaving us uncertain about the final consequences of the action (ie prevents “narrative closure” Most famous use of this technique: Les 400 coups/The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959) but much imitated in later films At the end of the film, its protagonist turns to camera - direct address - as the frame freezes - ambiguous: happiness? hope? uncertainty? disillusionment? Clip 19

  47. Mise en scène (pronounced “meez on sen” with second syllable nasalised) Term from French theatre - literally, what has been put on the stage. In film refers to everything we see on the screen: Main elements of mise en scene are: • setting, objects (props), people, make up, costumes, figure arrangement and movement (aka blocking), colour, lighting, gesture, acting styles etc • Analysis of mise-en-scène can reveal how themes are symbolised

  48. Mise en scène Lighting • Three point system of lighting • Key light: main source of light • Backlight: adds highlights and differentiates actor from background • Fill light: softens shadows from key light

  49. Mise en scène Lighting Classical use of three-point lighting - all three elements are in balance. Connotes normality. Here, the actors are made to look glamorous by the balanced lighting. Written On The Wind(Douglas Sirk, 1956)

  50. Mise en scène High Key Lighting - lighting scheme in which fill light is raised to almost the same level as key light - produces images that are usually very bright, few shadows on principal subjects. This bright image is characteristic of entertainment genres such as musicals (eg classic MGM style) Peking Opera Blues /Do Ma Daan, Tsui Hark (Honk Kong, 1986)

More Related