Media Aesthetics
(lecture)
Introduction to Analysis
What is analysis?
>> Taking something apart and rearranging these parts into a coherent argumentation.
o First film VS first TV image (Jan 26, 1926, John Logie Baird)
Arrival Of A Train At La Ciotat – 1895, Lumiere Brothers
Formal analysis: is only concerned with the movie itself, and not the broader cultural
context.
Evaluates all the relevant elements of cinematic language that make up a shot, sequence, or
scene.
o Explores how cinematic language or film form is used to convey mood, meaning, and
information.
Cultural analysis: looking beyond the film form to explore the relationship between culture
and the movies.
Why analyse?
Cinematic invisibility – the in way in which the whole construction of audio-visual media
might seem natural but is in fact a constructed language.
Cultural invisibility – mass media having a huge impact on society. Norms may come across
as types of truths.
Looking at Movies
Chapter 1
Cinematic language: The systems, methods, or conventions by which the movies
communicate with the viewer.
o Mise-en-scene
, o Cinematography
o Performance
o Editing
o Sound
Shots:
(1) In an edited film, an unbroken span of action captured by an uninterrupted run of
the camera that lasts until it is replaced by another shot by means of a cut or other
transition.
(2) During the preproduction and production process: a specific arrangement of
elements to be captured in a particular composition from a pre-determined camera
position.
Editing: The process by which the editor combines and coordinates individual shots into a
cinematic whole; the basic creative force of cinema
Cut:
(1) The act of an editor selecting an in point and an out point of a shot as part of the
editing process;
(2) A direct change from one shot to another as a result of cutting, that is, the precise
point at which shot A ends and shot B begins;
(3) An edited version of a scene or film, as in a “rough cut.”
Close-up: A shot that often shows a part of the body filling the frame—traditionally a face,
but possibly a hand, eye, or mouth.
Storyboards: A shot-by-shot breakdown that combines sketches or photographs of how each
shot is to look and written descriptions of the other elements that are to go with each shot,
including dialogue, sound, and music.
Blocking: The actual physical relationships among figures and settings. Also, the process
during rehearsal of establishing those relationships.
(lecture)
Introduction to Analysis
What is analysis?
>> Taking something apart and rearranging these parts into a coherent argumentation.
o First film VS first TV image (Jan 26, 1926, John Logie Baird)
Arrival Of A Train At La Ciotat – 1895, Lumiere Brothers
Formal analysis: is only concerned with the movie itself, and not the broader cultural
context.
Evaluates all the relevant elements of cinematic language that make up a shot, sequence, or
scene.
o Explores how cinematic language or film form is used to convey mood, meaning, and
information.
Cultural analysis: looking beyond the film form to explore the relationship between culture
and the movies.
Why analyse?
Cinematic invisibility – the in way in which the whole construction of audio-visual media
might seem natural but is in fact a constructed language.
Cultural invisibility – mass media having a huge impact on society. Norms may come across
as types of truths.
Looking at Movies
Chapter 1
Cinematic language: The systems, methods, or conventions by which the movies
communicate with the viewer.
o Mise-en-scene
, o Cinematography
o Performance
o Editing
o Sound
Shots:
(1) In an edited film, an unbroken span of action captured by an uninterrupted run of
the camera that lasts until it is replaced by another shot by means of a cut or other
transition.
(2) During the preproduction and production process: a specific arrangement of
elements to be captured in a particular composition from a pre-determined camera
position.
Editing: The process by which the editor combines and coordinates individual shots into a
cinematic whole; the basic creative force of cinema
Cut:
(1) The act of an editor selecting an in point and an out point of a shot as part of the
editing process;
(2) A direct change from one shot to another as a result of cutting, that is, the precise
point at which shot A ends and shot B begins;
(3) An edited version of a scene or film, as in a “rough cut.”
Close-up: A shot that often shows a part of the body filling the frame—traditionally a face,
but possibly a hand, eye, or mouth.
Storyboards: A shot-by-shot breakdown that combines sketches or photographs of how each
shot is to look and written descriptions of the other elements that are to go with each shot,
including dialogue, sound, and music.
Blocking: The actual physical relationships among figures and settings. Also, the process
during rehearsal of establishing those relationships.
