HW 10/22

Yates film article

• Basic terms:
• Auteur: french for author, used by critics to indicate the director stamped with his/her own personality
• Diegesis: includes objects, events, space and characters that inhabit them, including actions, and attitudes not explicitly presented in narrative
• editing: joining together of clips of film into a single filmstrip, cut is simple edit but many possible ways to transition from one shot to another
• flashback flashforward: jump backwars and forwards in deigetic time, with use of flashback/ flashforward the order of events in plot no longer matches the order of events in story
• focus: refers to degree to which light rays coming from any particular part of an object pass through the lens and recoverge at the same point on a frame of the film negative, creating sharp outlines and distinct textures that match the original object
• genres: types of film recognized by audiences and/or producers sometimes retrospectively, these types are distinguished by narrative or stylistic conventions, or merely by their discursive organization in influential criticism
• mise-en-scene: things put in the scene: setting, decor, lighting, costumes, performance
• story/plot: refers to audience infers about events that occur in the diegesis on the basis of what they are shown by the plot
• scene/sequence: segment of a narrative film that usually takes place in a single time and place, often the same characters, something contain two lines of action, occurring in diff spaces or even diff times
• shot: single stream of images, uninterrupted by editing
• Mise-en-scene:
• representation of space affects the reading of a film, depth, proximity, size and proportions of the places and objects in a film cna be manipulated through camera placement and lenses, lighting, decor, effectively determining mood/ relationships between elements in diegetic world
• decor: objects contained in and the setting of a scene, used to amplify character emotion or dominant mood of a film
• rear projection: used to combine foreground action, often actors in conversation, with a background often shot earlier on location,
• lighting: intensity, direction, quality of lighting have a profound effect on the way an image is perceived, affects the way colors are rendered in hue and depth and can focus attention of particular elements of the composition
• three point lighting: classical narrative cinema, in order to model an actor’s face or another object with depth, light from 3 directions is used
• high key vs low key lighting: high/fill light raised to almost same level as key light, produces images that are very bright and few shadows// low/ very little fill light, strong contrastcs between brightest and darkest parts of an image and often creating strong shadows that obscure parts of the principal subjects- for suspense or “hard boiled” films
• deep space: elements positioned near to and distant from camera
• frontality: staging of elements, often human figures, so that they face the camera square on
• matte shot: process with two photos combined into a single image using an optical printer, adds realistic scene or creates fantasy space
• offscreen space: space that exists in the diegesis but that is not visible in the frame
• shallow space: image staged with little depth, occupy the same or closely positioned planes, loses realistic appeal, flatness enhances its pictorial qualities
• typage: selection of actors on the basis that their facial or bodily features readily convey the truth of the character the actor plays
• editing:
• transitions
• cheat cut- shows continuous time and space from shot to shot but mismatches position of figures/ object in scene
• cross cutting aka parallel editing: editing that alternates shots of 2 or more lines of action occurring in diff places, usually at the same time
• cut in cut away: instantaneous shift form distant framing to closer view
• dissolve: transition between two shots during which the first image gradually disappears while the second image gradually appears
• iris: round, moving mask that can close down to end a scene, emphasize detail or it can open to begin a scene or to reveal more space around a detail
• establishing short/ reestablishing shot: involving a distant framing shows the spatial relations among important figures/objects and setting in a scene
• eyeline match: cut obeying the axis of action principle
• graphic match: two successive shots joined so as to create a strong similarity of compositional elements (colors, shape, etc.)
• montage: emphasizes dynamic, often discontinuous relationships between shots and the juxtaposition of images to create ideas not present in either shot by itself