Summary Film Art: An Introduction (12th edition)
Table of Contents
Summary Film Art: An Introduction (12th edition).......................................................................................... 1
Chapter 1: Film as Art: Creativity, Technology, and Business..........................................................................2
Chapter 2: The Significance of Film Form..................................................................................................... 10
Chapter 3: Narrative Form........................................................................................................................... 12
Chapter 4: The Shot: Mise-en-Scène............................................................................................................ 15
Chapter 5: The Shot: Cinematography......................................................................................................... 17
Chapter 6: The Relation of Shot to Shot: Editing.......................................................................................... 21
Chapter 7: Sound in the Cinema.................................................................................................................. 24
1
,Chapter 1: Film as Art: Creativity, Technology, and Business
Unusual features of film:
- It depends on complex technology = without machines, movies wouldn’t move
- It requires collaboration among many participants = they follow well-proven work routines
- Firmly tied to their social and economic context = distributed and exhibited for audiences, money
matters at every step
Films:
- Communicate information and ideas, and they show us places and ways of life we might not
otherwise know
- Offer us ways of seeing and feeling that we find deeply gratifying = they take us through
experiences;
o Often driven by stories centering on characters we come to care about
o Might also develop an idea or explore visual qualities or sound textures
- Experiences don’t happen by accident = films are designed to create experiences
- Filmmakers ask themselves = If I do this, as opposed to that, how will viewers react?
Basic areas of choice and control in the art of film:
- Form = the overall patterning of a film, the ways its parts work together to create specific effects
- Style = the film’s use of cinematic techniques;
o Mise-en-scène = the arrangement of people, places, and objects to be filmed
o Cinematography = the use of cameras and other machines to record images and sounds
o Editing = the piecing together of individual shots
o Sound = the voices, sound effects, and music that blend on a film’s audio track
Split of art and entertainment:
- Art = serious and worthy
- Entertainment = superficial
- Cinema is an art = it offers filmmakers ways to design experiences for viewers
Split of art and business:
- Related to entertainment = it is sold to a mass audience
- Films are paid by:
o Consumers who want to see it
o Patronage = investor or organization
o Public money = countries who want to see a specific movie
Where do movies come from?
- Imagination and hard work of the filmmakers who create them
- A complex set of machines that capture and transform images and sounds
- Companies or individuals who pay for the filmmakers and the technology
La La Land:
- Old-fashioned movie in a modern time (2016)
- Mise-en-scène:
o Saturated color:
Bold color design:
Classical movies shot in Technicolor and had vivid color schemes
Technicolor is no longer used = filmmaking team worked together to
get an overall combination of colors
Stylized sets:
Colors less saturated when the future of the main characters is in
question
Set helps with telling the story through the use of color
- Cinematography:
o Important decisions:
Widescreen ratio = imitation of the older musicals
2
, 35 mm film instead of common digital formats = enhancing the bright, saturated
colors of the sets, costumes, and lighting
Moving the camera as freely as possible
o The camera dances:
Camera mobility in sets in La La Land:
Steadicam:
o Harness and support that allows the camera operator to walk
or run with the characters
o Used for musical numbers and other scenes where characters
were moving around
o Camera mobility upward = Steadicam operator able to film
from above
Oculus mount:
o Can rapidly pivot the camera in any direction
o Camera put in a circular frame which is attached to a crane arm
o Lengthy scenes to consist of a single shot
- Editing:
o Coverage approach:
Shooting every single scene several times from different angles
Great deal of footage and many editing options
Whip pans = rapid, blurry movements of the camera that give the impression of
a continuous shot
Long takes = shot with a single camera
Shot/reverse-shot = filming both of the characters during their romantic dinner
- Sound:
o Music before lyrics
o Advantages of playback = recording the music in advance
Audio engineers are able to get a clean sound mix with strong vocal projection
Allows the performers to concentrate on the number’s blocking and dance
choreography
o Beds of sound:
Emphasizing rhythm, harmony, and texture over melody
Don’t show the dramatic development that clear
Filmmaking relies on technology and financing:
- Filmmakers need fairly complicated machines
- Involves business = the expensive technology has to be paid for by companies
Impression that we see continuous movements instead of separate frames:
- Persistence of vision:
o What people believed at first
o The tendency of an image to linger briefly on our retina
o Not possible = we would see the superimposed stills instead of smooth action
- Critical flicker fusion:
o A film is shot with 24 frames per second
o Projector shutter beams when a frame leaves the shot and when it is in place = actually
shown twice, so 48 frames per second
- Apparent motion
o When a visual display is changed rapidly, our eye can be fooled in seeing movement
Photochemical media:
- Most older movies were shot on photographic film
- A ribbon of still images = each one slightly different than the one before
- The projector that is being used is basically an inverted camera
- Negative filmstrip = its colors and light values are the opposite of those in the original scene
o A positive print must be made to be projected = done on the printer
- The film:
o Shiny side = transparent plastic base
3
Table of Contents
Summary Film Art: An Introduction (12th edition).......................................................................................... 1
Chapter 1: Film as Art: Creativity, Technology, and Business..........................................................................2
Chapter 2: The Significance of Film Form..................................................................................................... 10
Chapter 3: Narrative Form........................................................................................................................... 12
Chapter 4: The Shot: Mise-en-Scène............................................................................................................ 15
Chapter 5: The Shot: Cinematography......................................................................................................... 17
Chapter 6: The Relation of Shot to Shot: Editing.......................................................................................... 21
Chapter 7: Sound in the Cinema.................................................................................................................. 24
1
,Chapter 1: Film as Art: Creativity, Technology, and Business
Unusual features of film:
- It depends on complex technology = without machines, movies wouldn’t move
- It requires collaboration among many participants = they follow well-proven work routines
- Firmly tied to their social and economic context = distributed and exhibited for audiences, money
matters at every step
Films:
- Communicate information and ideas, and they show us places and ways of life we might not
otherwise know
- Offer us ways of seeing and feeling that we find deeply gratifying = they take us through
experiences;
o Often driven by stories centering on characters we come to care about
o Might also develop an idea or explore visual qualities or sound textures
- Experiences don’t happen by accident = films are designed to create experiences
- Filmmakers ask themselves = If I do this, as opposed to that, how will viewers react?
Basic areas of choice and control in the art of film:
- Form = the overall patterning of a film, the ways its parts work together to create specific effects
- Style = the film’s use of cinematic techniques;
o Mise-en-scène = the arrangement of people, places, and objects to be filmed
o Cinematography = the use of cameras and other machines to record images and sounds
o Editing = the piecing together of individual shots
o Sound = the voices, sound effects, and music that blend on a film’s audio track
Split of art and entertainment:
- Art = serious and worthy
- Entertainment = superficial
- Cinema is an art = it offers filmmakers ways to design experiences for viewers
Split of art and business:
- Related to entertainment = it is sold to a mass audience
- Films are paid by:
o Consumers who want to see it
o Patronage = investor or organization
o Public money = countries who want to see a specific movie
Where do movies come from?
- Imagination and hard work of the filmmakers who create them
- A complex set of machines that capture and transform images and sounds
- Companies or individuals who pay for the filmmakers and the technology
La La Land:
- Old-fashioned movie in a modern time (2016)
- Mise-en-scène:
o Saturated color:
Bold color design:
Classical movies shot in Technicolor and had vivid color schemes
Technicolor is no longer used = filmmaking team worked together to
get an overall combination of colors
Stylized sets:
Colors less saturated when the future of the main characters is in
question
Set helps with telling the story through the use of color
- Cinematography:
o Important decisions:
Widescreen ratio = imitation of the older musicals
2
, 35 mm film instead of common digital formats = enhancing the bright, saturated
colors of the sets, costumes, and lighting
Moving the camera as freely as possible
o The camera dances:
Camera mobility in sets in La La Land:
Steadicam:
o Harness and support that allows the camera operator to walk
or run with the characters
o Used for musical numbers and other scenes where characters
were moving around
o Camera mobility upward = Steadicam operator able to film
from above
Oculus mount:
o Can rapidly pivot the camera in any direction
o Camera put in a circular frame which is attached to a crane arm
o Lengthy scenes to consist of a single shot
- Editing:
o Coverage approach:
Shooting every single scene several times from different angles
Great deal of footage and many editing options
Whip pans = rapid, blurry movements of the camera that give the impression of
a continuous shot
Long takes = shot with a single camera
Shot/reverse-shot = filming both of the characters during their romantic dinner
- Sound:
o Music before lyrics
o Advantages of playback = recording the music in advance
Audio engineers are able to get a clean sound mix with strong vocal projection
Allows the performers to concentrate on the number’s blocking and dance
choreography
o Beds of sound:
Emphasizing rhythm, harmony, and texture over melody
Don’t show the dramatic development that clear
Filmmaking relies on technology and financing:
- Filmmakers need fairly complicated machines
- Involves business = the expensive technology has to be paid for by companies
Impression that we see continuous movements instead of separate frames:
- Persistence of vision:
o What people believed at first
o The tendency of an image to linger briefly on our retina
o Not possible = we would see the superimposed stills instead of smooth action
- Critical flicker fusion:
o A film is shot with 24 frames per second
o Projector shutter beams when a frame leaves the shot and when it is in place = actually
shown twice, so 48 frames per second
- Apparent motion
o When a visual display is changed rapidly, our eye can be fooled in seeing movement
Photochemical media:
- Most older movies were shot on photographic film
- A ribbon of still images = each one slightly different than the one before
- The projector that is being used is basically an inverted camera
- Negative filmstrip = its colors and light values are the opposite of those in the original scene
o A positive print must be made to be projected = done on the printer
- The film:
o Shiny side = transparent plastic base
3
