English 12B

1. English 12B Film Notes

2. How many films do you watch a week? A month?

3. Why Study Film? • Significant component of our culture • Illuminates many contemporary issues • Our information age is dominated by visual images • Intelligent living in our society calls for perception, analysis, and judgment of visual data

4. Film as Literature • 1/3 of all films ever made are based on novels • Adding other literary forms increases the figure to 65% or more

5. Film as Literature • Films are a form of narrative just like novels, plays, short stories, etc. • Uses setting, characterization, plot, symbolism, and tone (as does writing). It is just developed differently.

6. How do filmmaking techniques add to meaning? • Lighting helps to define character, plot, and setting.

7. Lighting Techniques • High-Key Lighting – scene is flooded with bright light, giving it a cheerful tone • Low-Key Lighting – low light with shadows, creates melancholy or ominous mood

8. Lighting Techniques • Bottom Lighting – makes the face look sinister by casting shadows on the face • Front Lighting – softens the face • Back Lighting – strong light from behind separates the subject from the background

9. Lighting Techniques • Eye light – placed near the camera to add sparkle to the eyes • Side light – adds solidity and depth, accentuates features that give a face its character

10. Camera Shots and Angles • Close-up – might show an actor’s head or hand • Medium shot – might show the actors body from the knees up • Long shot – might show the entire actor running through a field

11. Camera Shots and Angles • Low angle shot – taken from below the subject • High angle shot – taken from above the subject

12. Camera Movement • Pan – camera pivots horizontally either left or right • Tilt – camera pivots up or down

13. Camera Movement • Tracking Shot (Dolly Shot) – camera moves along with the subject on a set of tracks • Boom Shot (Crane Shot) – camera moves vertically through space

14. Color • Specific colors used to develop characters, create specific moods, • Can sometimes be considered symbolic

15. Sound • Music and sound effects contribute to plot, character, mood, and symbolism • Diagetic – Characters and audience can hear it • Non-Diagetic – outside the story; only audience can hear it

16. Special Effects • Made up of visual effects and mechanical effects

17. Special Effects • Stop-motion photography – shooting interrupted while the scene is rearranged • Animation – drawing or clay object changed every time camera stops

18. Special Effects • Pixillation – live actors make one motion at a time, camera stops after each movement; takes 14,400 frames to shoot ten minutes of film • Miniatures (Model Shots) – small scale models filmed to look full size

19. Special Effects • Glass Shot – scenery painted on transparent glass; action photographed through the glass • Rear Projection – actors are stationary while a movie of the landscape plays behind them

20. Special Effects • Computer generated imagery combined with green screen technology • Rain and snow machines

21. How Films are Made • Every film goes through four stages

22. Development • Idea starts from book, event, film, or imagination • A brief synopsis or outline is sketched out • Expanded into a treatment (short story)

23. Development • Scenario, or screenplay, fleshes out the action and dialogue • Shot by shot blueprint of the film is produced called the shooting script • Few ideas make it past this first stage

24. Preproduction • Film is approved and planned • Actors are cast • Locations are scouted • Research is conducted

25. Preproduction • Sets, props, and costumes are designed • Shooting schedule is finalized • Production budget is finalized

26. Production • Director supervises the set and is responsible for turning screenplay into film • Numerous technical support crew

27. Production • Cinematographer (director of camera work) among most important • Production mixer responsible for all sound

28. Postproduction • Editor takes over with the assistance of the director • All shots cut, spliced, and arranged to form continuous scenes

29. Postproduction • Sounds are synchronized with images • Visual effects and musical tracks are created

30. Brief History of Film • August and Louis Lumiere credited with inventing the motion picture in 1895 • A Trip to the Moon (1902) first feature film

31. Brief History of Film • The Jazz Singer (1927) starring Al Jolson was the first film with sound (talkies) • By 1931 the last silent feature length film was released

32. 1930s • Industry at its peak • By 1938 65% of population attended movies weekly • In 1938 500 films produced in Hollywood • Compare to 1968 (10% attended movies weekly and 175 movies produced • Musical and screwball comedies – took people’s minds off depression

33. 1940s • Films more cynical and serious as a result of WWII

34. 1950s • Science fiction and Westerns emerged as popular forms

35. 1960s • Audience became younger, better educated, more affluent, and smaller • Violence, social protest, and counterculture developed in film

36. 1970s • Disaster film (Airport), gangster films (The Godfather), horror films ( The Exorcist), and space films (Star Wars) dominated • Emergence of high budget blockbuster films • Hollywood popularity began to revive

37. Contemporary Films • More integrated to reflect the times • More minorities in films • More likely to be shot overseas, in several locations, with casts and crews of several nationalities