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Introduction to Arts. Film and Film Studies. “Is Film an Art?”. “IS FILM AN ART?” - a frequently asked question. Why - Film started as a mechanical recording of reality. Technological rather than aesthetic and artistic.
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Introduction to Arts Film and Film Studies
“Is Film an Art?” • “IS FILM AN ART?” - a frequently asked question. • Why - Film started as a mechanical recording of reality. Technological rather than aesthetic and artistic. • Films became a form of mass entertainment. Sensational, vulgar, commercial, lack of quality, plebeian … • Changes in attitudes over the time • A conception of art which is free from class and cultural bind
“Is Film an Art?” • Art does not have to be aesthetic (beautiful). • Transformation of attitudes towards arts • Bernini’s Trevi Fountain sculpture and Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain
“Is Film an Art?” • Technology can be a medium of art • Claude’ landscape painting with temples • Vladimir Tatlin’s Monument to the Third International
“Is Film an Art?” • Technology can be a medium of art • Photography • James Abbott’s Mrs McNeil Whistler and Robert Mapple Thorpe’s Portrait
“Is Film an Art?” • Art does not have to be precious and aristocratic. • Materials of art • Gold mosaics (St. Theodora in Ravenna) and Robert Rauschenberg’s Monogram
“Is Film an Art?” • Art does not have to be precious and aristocratic. • Motifs and contents • Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I and Andy Warhol’s images of Marilyn Monroe
“Is Film an Art?” • Art can use a popular medium; art can be pop • John Everett Millet’s Ophelia and Roy Lightenstein’s pop art
Film as Total Art • Every artistic element and every artistic media found in film and filmmaking • Literature - story-telling (novel) = written media • Fine art - painting, sculpture, photography, design = visual media • Architecture - architecture, design, decoration = mixed media • Music - vocal, instrumental, opera, musical = sound media/mixed media • Theatre - performance = mixed media
Film and Literature • Elements of literature in film - Film is based on a script. Some scripts are based on literary work. • J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the film, Harry Potter
Film and Drawing • Elements of fine art in film - Production design: sets, costume, composition, visual effects • Story boards in Alfred Hitchcock’s Birds
Film and Painting • In Luchino Visconti’s La Terra trema each frame is constructed like a piece of painting. • Symmetrical composition; illusion of depth, composed of foreground, middle ground and background, and linear perspective.
Film and Painting • In La Terra trema, a young man is holding his younger brother like Madonna is carrying her young Jesus. • Painterly composition
Film and Design • Eiko Ishioka, designer, art director • Designs costumes and sets for various films • Best known for her costume design for Paul Schrader’s Mishima, Bram Storker’sDracula, The Cell and Beijing Olympic’s Opening Ceremony
Film and Design • Sarsem Singh’s The Fall (2006) with costumes designed by Eiko Ishioka
Film and Design • Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula (1992)
Film and Design • Emi Wada created costumes for many films including Kurosawa Akira’s Ran, Peter Greenaway’s Prospero’s Books, Zhang Yimou’s Hero • Costume design inspired by traditional kimono
Film and Design • Peter Greenaway’s Prospero’s Books (1991) with costumes designed by Emi Wada
Film and Architecture • Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner (1982) • Bradbury Building in Los Angeles (1893) used for a location site • Classic building as site for the future
Film and Architecture • G.W. Griffith’s spectacle film, Intolerance designed by Griffith with the help of Walter L. Hall. • Huge sets were recreated modeling after historical buildings and edifices. • City of Babylon
Film and Architecture • In Kurosawa Akira’s Rashomon, the first and last scenes take place under the impressive, half-ruined gate, which is reconstructed modeling after various existing gates such as Hozomon, Kaminarimon and Ninomon of the Edo Castle.
Film and Architecture • Hozomon of Sensoji Temple, Asakusa, Tokyo
Film and Architecture • Otemon of the Edo Castle
Film and Music • Music and sound effects became an essential element since the introduction of sound in 1928 • Ingmar Bergman’s Magic Flute is a film version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s fantastic opera.
Film and Music • Musical is one of the most important film genres • Stanley Donen, Singin’ in the Rain
What is cinema?How is cinema different from other forms of arts? • Film is a mechanical and industrial product. • mechanical technologies - camera, light, film stock, sound recorder, film processing, editing, sound mixing, CG, projector
What is cinema? How is cinema different from other forms of arts? • Lighting set up in location shooting
What is cinema?How is cinema different from other forms of arts? • Recording equipments: sound recorder and microphones
What is cinema? How is cinema different from other forms of arts? • A camera on a dolly
What is cinema? How is cinema different from other forms of arts? • industrial - production, distribution and exhibition, advertisement Production companies, studios, distributors, and exhibitors, advertise agents - investment
What is cinema?How is cinema different from other forms of arts? • Film is collaborative art • producer, director, scriptwriter, cinematographer, production designer, set designer, costume designer, editor, music composer, recording engineer, actor
What is cinema? • How is film different from other forms of art? • LITERATURE AND FILM • The crucially important element of both is narrative, but film has visual images and sound. • FINE ART AND FILM • Both are visual but film can tell much more complicated stories without relying on the knowledge of the spectator.
What is cinema? • A painting can tell a story but not complicated one. It depends on a separate text which tells the story. • Leonardo Davinci, The Last Supper which relies on The Old Testament
What is cinema? • John Everett Milais’ Ophelia
What is cinema? • Music and film have sounds but the latter combines visuals and sounds (music and words). • Drama/opera/musical are similar to film, but the latter can tell more complicated stories more realistically using illusions. • Film does not have to rely on words, which are the essence of the theatre. • Film can tell stories through images and sounds.
What is cinema? • Fritz Lang’s M • The film is about crimes committed by a serial child-killer. Stories are partly told through images and sounds. We do not see the killer but hears the tune he whistle and his casual conversation with a girl.
What is cinema? • In the first 10 minutes of the film, a story is told only through sounds and images. • Sounds and images tell a lot about the main character of the film and its setting. • Suspense created by sounds and images • Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samurai (1967)
What is cinema? • Louis Malle’s Ascenseur pour l’echafaud • Thriller about a married woman and her lover who almost succeed in getting rid of her husband in a supposedly perfect crime, but he commits a vital mistake. • A story is told through images and sound.
What is cinema? • What is cinema good at • Cinema can tell stories through not one medium - words, images, sounds, but all these media.
What is cinema? • What disadvantages does cinema has? • Those media must be skillfully combined. Special talents excelling in more than one areas and controlling every aspect and stage of filmmaking are required . The importance of film director.
What is cinema? • Cinema as investment and commodity. • Cost - Return • Entertainment, commercial values required. • Is cinema a commercial product or art? • Three kinds: 1. Commercial products - Hollywood and large commercial production companies 2. Artistic products - works of independent producers and directors, works made with public support 3. Both
What is film studies? • What film studies does. • Analysis of artistic elements involved - narrative, visual, plastic, and sound element (literary, visual art, sculptural, architectural, and musical element) • Analysis of industrial and commercial aspects. • Explore what a film shows - its theme, motif, and background • Explore how that is shown - narrative, visual, sound and other technique
What is film studies? • Analysis of technique: • Narrative technique - how to tell a story • Sound technique • - sound editing and mixing • Visual technique - camera (choice of lens, filter and camera, positioning, movement, angle), lighting, colour arrangement - design (set, prop, costume) - performance - editing
Essay Title • Watch a film and analyze the ways in which a story is told through images and sound.
Film’s Art and Architectural Element • Elements of architecture in film - Production design: sets, visual effects • Building in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis modeled after Brueghel’s painting of Tower of Babel.