Film Production:

1. Film Production: Who Does What?

2. Preparation (Pre-Production) • Producer – oversees logistics • Executive Producer – the money • Line Producer – on-set liaison • Screenwriter – writes the script • Treatment – initial script proposal • Shooting script – writer’s intended screenplay, often changes during shooting

3. Shooting (Production) • Director – oversees all aspects of shooting • Production Designer – oversees the visual creation • Cinematographer (director of photography) – oversees camera distance, angle, etc., as well as lighting • Actors – bring the script to life

4. The Director’s Team • Casting Director – recommends/selects actors • Script Supervisor – oversees continuity • Dialogue Coach – feeds lines to actors • Second Unit Director – shoots at secondary locations • Recordists – capture live sound • Clapper Boy – marks scenes and takes before each run of the camera

5. Production Designer’s Team • Art Director – another term for production designer • Set Decorator – selects objects/props for set • Set Dresser – places objects/props on set • Costume Designer – creates the vision for clothing • Storyboardists – draw or otherwise draft intended shots • Special Effects Teams (matte artists, model makers) – create visual effects that don’t exist in the natural world

6. Cinematographer’s Team • Camera Operator – actually photographs • Key Grip – lead stage hand • Gaffer – lead electrician • Best Boy – gaffer’s assistant • Loader – puts film in the camera

7. Actors Stars Supporting Players Minor Players Extras Stunt Actors

8. Assembly (Post-Production) • Editor – oversees cutting and compiling shots into a coherent whole • Composer – creates musical score • Dailies – each day’s recorded shots • Rough Cut – the first compiled version of the film, often much longer than the final cut • Final Cut – the trimmed version to be released • Outtakes – leftovers between Rough & Final • Spotting – identifying places for sound to be edited in • ADR – automated dialogue replacement

9. Elements of Meaning Film Form And Content

10. Content/Meaning/Theme Content = (Subject Matter + Form) + Context Content is also known as Meaning or Theme • Subject Matter is what the film is about. • Form is how the subject matter is presented. • Context is when, where and how the filmmaker’s creation meets its perceiver.

11. Levels of Meaning • Referential, a.k.a. Literal observation of the recognizable • Explicit, a.k.a. Textual/Connotative directly stated meanings (lines of dialogue) • Implicit, a.k.a Universal thematic inference drawn from implication • Symptomatic, a.k.a Cultural broader social/symbolic meaning

12. Narrative Elements Plot Character Setting Point of View Metaphor Stylistic Elements Mise-en-Scene Cinematography Editing Sound Elements of Film Form

13. Narrative Elements: Plot • Exposition (stasis) – Act I • Complication – Act I • Rising Action (conflict) – Act II • Climax – Act II • Falling Action – Act III • Denouement (resolution) – Act III

14. Standard Plot Structure

15. Plot vs. Story • Plot is everything seen and heard by the perceiver of the film – everything that is presented, whether it’s a part of the story or not. • Story is everything that happens in the lives of the characters – everything they experience, whether it is explicitly presented to the perceiver or not.

16. Diegesis

17. Plot and Time • Temporal Duration – passage of time for the characters • Screen Duration – passage of time for the perceiver • Temporal Order – chronology (Flashbacks, flashforwards) • Temporal Frequency – repetition of events • Beats – major events in the plot

18. Character • Protagonist – central, dynamic character with whom the perceiver identifies/sympathizes • Antagonist – obstacle to the protagonist • Round – well-developed character whose motivations are clear • Flat – opposite of round • Dynamic – character who changes significantly • Static – opposite of dynamic • Characteristics (character traits) • Catalyst (goal vs. investigation) • Causal relationships – action/reaction

19. Setting • Location – authentic, artificial, interior, exterior, etc. • Screen space – everything we see • Directed attention – director’s/ cinematographer’s control of what we see/hear • Imagery – meaningful objects, colors, sounds

20. Point of View • Restricted Narration – a character’s POV • Unrestricted Narration – omniscient POV • Perceptual Subjectivity – we perceive what the character perceives • Mental Subjectivity – we perceive what the character is thinking

21. POV and the Perceiver • Cues – sights & sounds that cause expectations in the perceiver • Suspense – delay in fulfilling expectation • Surprise – incorrect, or cheated, expectation • Curiosity – cue causes perceiver to wonder about past events • Irony – disparity between characters’ & perceiver’s POV • Hierarchy of Knowledge – who knows what?

22. Metaphor • Symbol – both literal and figurative • Iconography – symbol whose meaning transcends an individual film/story • Motif – repeated symbol or image (often related to temporal frequency) • Allusion – reference to another work of art