Fluent Essays

Using the Film Literacy reading, choose one element of film design and compose a 1and half page long analysis explaining the use of that element in Modern Times. Describe how the films design elements create meaning, particularly reflecting on the filmmakers depiction of the city. What messages is Chaplin communicating about the location? What gives you that impression? How does the context shape the meaning of those messages?Reference the other readings for Week 1 to support your claims. Link for movie https://christiebooks.co.uk/anarchist_films/modern... film_literacy_reading.pdf vertov_provisionalinstructions.pdf Unformatted Attachment Preview Film Literacy Reading To appreciate film with more understanding, there are a number of techniques that you can develop which will train your eyes and your mind to recognize meaning. We could have an entire semester just devoted to reading film more eloquently, so this reading will only start you on a journey to becoming a better film reader. This reading will also require you to follow links to outside readings and videos in order to give more concrete examples of the ideas Im articulating. NARRATION Narration (also known as narrative devices) is any pattern or technique used to shape the story that is being told in a particular way. Narrative devices are not unique to film, they exist in any storytelling art form (novels, short stories, plays, video games). But in film they usually take slightly different shape. Sometimes narrative devices will also be cinematic devices (as well talk about next) but sometimes they are more recognizable as narrative patterns and not cinematic patterns. Here are a few examples of narrative devices that are often used in movies. Some of these make use of cinematic devices: ● the flashback ● episodic structure ● repetition (of actions, locations, props, characters) ● non-linear storytelling ● the presence of a narrator ● two simultaneous realities going on at once. ● the use of little dialogue ● the use of much dialogue CINEMATIC DEVICES & VISUAL TROPES Cinematic devices are techniques that are unique to the cinema (as opposed to books or newspapers). Many cinematic devices have been co-opted by television and video-games, but there are some that are much more commonly found in movies than in these other sequential-visual mediums. I will give more details and specific cinematic devices in a moment, but Id like to describe visual tropes (and make a connection to them) first. A visual trope is an oft-repeated visual that gains at least some of meaning from its familiarity. A trope (more generally) is a common figure of speech or way of speaking which is so familiar that audiences immediately understand with more depth and clarity what the speaker is saying. A visual trope is the same. Though we often cant label visual tropes when we see them, once we begin to look for them we see many more. Visual tropes can be established WITHIN a particular movie -- but most often have been defined and refined in cinema before they are used in any particular film. Many cinematic devices are also visual tropes. Particular visual tropes often arise from years of practiced cinematic art form. Over the next few days, I will be focusing particularly on these three elements of Filmic Literacy in analyzing films. I am convinced that if you can become adept at recognizing narrative patterns, visual tropes and cinematic devices, you will be well on your way to being a film-literate student. Cinematic devices (sometimes I also refer to them as formal devices other times filmic devices) are ways of representing reality that are unique to the movies. The next several series of paragraphs highlight a number of cinematic devices, but they include how close or far you place the camera from the subject; whether the camera is objective (on a tripod) or subjective (shoulder mounted); the way the camera moves toward or away from a particular subject; the way that the lens of the camera redirects or shifts the audiences focus; the way that non-diegetic sound works with the image; the way that different images are put together through editing; the length of time that a shot continues. There are many more, but hopefully youre starting to get the hang of it. The following are some basic ways of thinking about the distinctions between cinematic devices. SHOT The shot is the most basic unit of film understanding. It is the freeze frame of any film and it can be evaluated for color, camera-angle, open-frame / closed-frame, composition, 180 degree angle, subject/field relationship. I encourage you to start identifying key frames in films and working to understand what makes them work emotionally for the film and the audience. This article by Ebert​ articulates many specific dimensions of shot and frame analysis. SEQUENCE The sequence is a series of shots linked by location, flow of the camera, editing and scenes. A sequence can be defined by the action that takes place in front of the camera (and around the camera -- sometimes off-camera action is very powerful); it can be defined as a montage; it can be defined as the movement that the camera makes in relation to its subjects. The following youtube video discusses several editing techniques that helpfully explain and illustrations of how sequence creates different kinds of meaning in films. Watch it before continuing. (While there are a few crass innuendos and references, I find the ideas to be worthwhile and helpful for developing a good understanding of how editing influences meaning in a film.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORK8k8_mHyk Continuity editing is a practice that has grown up first in Hollywood, but now in all of the world. It is a practice that works hard to obscure the technique or craft *from* audiences, while simultaneously making subtle associational links *for* audiences that work either to move the plot forward, or, more often to create emotional connections between characters, ideas, objects and places. You may never notice that your favorite character occupies the same identical screenspace as a Door (a way out of the situation), but you *feel* that connection when continuity editing is used to link the two. The whole idea of a montage is based on this notion of continuity editing. Eisenstein used montage in Battleship Potemkin (and particularly the famous Odessa Steps sequence) to create a kind of emotional outrage in his audience. CAMERA ANGLES & MOVEMENT Various camera angles position the viewer differently in relationship to the subject they are viewing. The formal signs that are established by the cameras distance from the subject, by its movement in relationship to the subject are key in developing the audiences feelings about the subject. Here are some of the classical angles that are the “bread and butter” of filmmakers. These Wide Shots are from ​NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN​ and ​20TH CENTURY WOMEN Wide angle shots (also called wide shots or long shots) are often used for “establishing shots” at the beginning of a sequence, scene or movie. They can also be used to show a contrast or a relationship between the context and the subject (or character). These medium shots from ​20th CENTURY WOMEN​ show characters roughly at conversational distance from the camera, and often in “two shots” which show two characters in conversation. This shot is the most conventional shot used in American narrative films and in television. This closeup and extra closeup are from the Hitchcock film ​MARNIE This video essay profiles five camera movements​ that achieve unique cinematic meaning in a number of films. Please pause in your reading of this google doc and watch this video essay. DIEGESIS / MISE EN SCENE Two final concepts that helpfully orient the film viewer to insight about the film: the Diegesis is the theoretical world that comprises the film. The sum of all the locations where a film is shot comprise the diegesis of the film. If a filmmaker intentionally cuts one part of a room out of the film though -- and reshapes the room by shooting only from certain angles? Then the diegesis ALSO excludes that cut-out part of the room. In other words, the diegesis IS what we see and experience as a film-goer. The diegesis is made out of the mise en scene which is the sum of all the props, sets, paints, costumes and even characters acting styles that work together to create a contiguous, believable world. When we speak of the mise en scene, were talking about the materials used to construct the world of the film. When we speak of the diegesis, we are speaking of the imaginary world of the film; and we are speaking of it in affirming, believing ways. This web site​ does a great job explaining many of these terms, and many other basic terms which will TREMENDOUSLY help grow your film vocabulary. I strongly recommend that you browse it, and look especially at any of the terms described here that you didnt fully understand. TAKING NOTES ON FILMS I think its essential in a class like this one to take notes on the films you watch. Theres no one right way to take notes, but your notes should definitely focus on all the dimensions of film outlined in this reading. I like to divide my paper into two columns with a line and on the left side, I make boxes and draw rough pictures of particular moments that are striking. On the right hand side, I pose questions, or note especially important lines of dialogue, or jot down the time code of where in the movie a particular action happens. Sometimes, the note-taking is so full of insights, that I find I need to stop the movie and take down some notes. Not usually though. Usually Ill just leave my thoughts trailing and go back and finish the notes at the end of the film. (dont feel obliged to study the links below, just read them lightly, they *wont* be on the quiz.) Here​ are some more helpful notes about taking notes on movies. This lexicon of film terms​ may be a helpful resource. Provisional Instructions to Kino-eye Groups in KINO-EYE ISBN978-0-520-05630-5 The Writings of Dziga Vertov EDITED AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY Annette Michelson TRANSLATED BY Kevin OBrien Un/e,../Iy 0 California Press Bero/oy • Los Ango/os • London .... . · .......... ·.... v. Consciousness or the Subconscious (From a kinok proclamation) We oppose the collusion of the director-as-magician and a bewitched public. Only consciousness can fight the sway of magic in all its forms. Only consciousness can form a man of firm opinion, firm conviction. We need conscious men, not an unconscious mass submissive to any passing suggestion . give us a new cinema! And in brackets, Friends of the kinoks, eleventh and ninety-third detachments of the Krasnaia Presnia Young Pioneers. The group has about fifteen active members. Among a number of gifts received on the detachments anniversary was one from the kinoks: a real still camera with all the accessories. There was no end to our joy. Right now the fellows are putting out a weekly newspaper of their own, Photo-eye, consisting of their own photographs (every photo- Long live the class consciousness of the healthy with eyes and ears to see and hear with! graph, even those that have not turned out, is included). Through Away with the fragrant veil of kisses, murders, doves, and sleight-of-hand! in addition, illuminate all the main events in their lives each week. this newspaper they can gauge their progress in photography, and, The detachment corresponds with the countryside and with pio- Long live the class vision! neers in other cities of the Soviet Union-Rybinsk, Voronezh, Long live kino-eye I Barnaul , etc.-and they feel its their duty to tell everyone about their group and about Photo-eye. In order to review our work a diary is kept by each in turn. Certain III interesting moments in the life of the group are described in it. The Basis of Kino-Eye The establishment of a visual (kino-eye) and auditory (radio-ear) class bond between the proletariats of all nations and lands on a Provisional Instructions to Kino-Eye Groups platform of the communist decoding of world relations . The decoding of life as it is. ,. Introduction Influence of facts upon workers consciousness. Our eye sees very poorly and very little-and so men conceived of the microscope in order to see invisible phenomena; and they Influence of facts, not acting, dance, or verse. discovered the telescope in order to see and explore distant, un- Relegation of so-called art-to the periphery of consciousness. known worlds. The movie camera was invented in order to Placing of societys economic structure at the center of attention. penetrate deeper into the visible world, to explore and record visual Instead of surrogates for life (theatrical presentations, film-drama, phenomena, so that we do not forget what happens and what the etc.) carefully selected, recorded, and organized facts (major or minor) from the lives of the workers themselves as well as from those of their class enemies. future must take into account. But the camera experienced a misfortune. It was invented at a time when there was no single country in which capital was not in power. The bourgeoisies hellish idea consisted of using the new toy to entertain the masses , or rather to divert the workers attention From a Talk by a Group Leader Through this visit we learned how films are made. From production to screening, the fellows followed the making of an artistic drama. They saw for themselves a studio, actors, and directors. They saw the construction of films by kinoks; and as a result, for the seventh anniversary of the October Revolution, the group put up a huge poster on their car: Down with actors and artistic dramas- from their basic aim: the struggle against their masters. Under the Young Pioneers. The Young Pioneers were established by the fifth Komsomol Congress in 1922 for children between the ages of ten and fourteen. The organization stressed collective action rather than individual incentive and competition. In Vertovs Klnoglaz of 1924, members are active in campaigns for price control, the elimination of alcoholism, and in other aspects of public education-ed. KINO · EYE 69 form . We know many enemies of the contemporary theater who are at the same time passionate admirers of c inema in its present form . Few people see cl early as yet that nontheatrical cinema (with the exception of newsreel and some scientific films) does not exist. Every theatrical presentation , every motion picture is constructed in exactly the same way: a playwright or scriptwriter, then a director or film director, then actors, rehearsals, sets , and the presentation to the public . The essential thing in theater is acting, and so every motion picture constructed upon a scenario and acting is a theatrical presentatlCJn, and that is why there are no differences between the productions by directors of different nuances . All of this , both in whole and in part, applies to theater regardless of its trend and direction, regardless of its relationship to theater as such . All of this lies outside the genuine purpose of the movie camera-the exploration of the phenomena of life. Kinopravda has clearly shown that it is possible to work outside theater and in step with the revolution. Kino-eye IS continuing the work, begun by kinopravda, of creating Red Soviet cinema. 2. The Work of Kino-Eye On the basis of reports by film-observers a plan for the orientation and offensive o f the movie camera in lifes ever-changing Mikhail Kaufman environment is being worked out by the Council of Kino-Eye . The work of the movie camera is reminis cent of the work of the agents of the GPU who do not know what lies ahead, but have a definite electric narcotic of the movie theaters, the more or less starving assignment : to separate out and bring to light a particular issue, a proletariat, the jobless, unclenched its iron fist and unwittingly sub- particular affair. mitted to the corrupting influence of the masters cinema . The theater is expensive and seats are few. And so the masters force 1. The kinok-observer closely watches the environment the camera to disseminate theatrical productions that show us how and the people around him and tries to connect sepa- the bourgeoisie love, how they suffer, how they care for their rate, isolated phenomena according to generalized or workers , and how these higher beings, the aristocracy, differ from distinctive characteristics. The kinok-observer is lower ones (workers, peasants, etc .). In prerevolutionary Russia the masters cinema played a precisely similar role . After the October Revolution the cinema was faced with assigned a theme by the leader. 2. The group leader or film [reconnaissance] scout distributes themes to the observers and, in the beginning , the difficult task of adapting itself to the new life. Actors who had helps each observer to summarize his observations . played tsarist civil servants began to play workers; those who had When the leader has collected all the summaries, he in played ladies of the court are now grimacing in Soviet style. Few of turn classifies them and rearranges the individual data us yet realize, however, that all this grimacing remains, in many respects, within the framework of bourgeois technique and theatrical achieved until a sufficiently clear construction of the theme is 70 DZIGA VERTOV : ARTI C LES , ADDRESSES K INO · E Y E Themes for initial observation can be split into roughly into the production of future kino-eye series . They will three categories : be the author-creators of al l subsequent film-objects. a. Observation of a place (for example, a village reading room , a cooperative) b. Observation of a person or objec t in motion (examples: your father, a Young Pioneer, a postman , a streetcar , etc .) c . Observation of a theme irrespective of particular per- 71 This departure from authorship by one person or a group of persons to mass authorship will , in our view, accelerate the destruction of bourgeois, artistic cinema and its attributes the poser-actor, fairy-tale script, those costly toys-sets, and the director-high priest . sons or places (examples: water, bread , footwear, fathers and children, city and country, tears, laughter, etc .) 3. Very Simple Slogans The group leader must teach them to use a camera 1. Film-drama is the opium of the people . (later, a movie camera) in order to photograph the more 2. Down with the immortal kings and queens of the striking moments of observation for a bulletin-board screen I Long live the ordinary mortal, filmed in life at his newspaper. daily tasksl A bulletin-board newspaper is issued monthly or every 3. Down with the bourgeois fairy-tale script I Long live life two weeks and uses photographs to illustrate the life of as it isl a factory, plant, or village; it participates in campaigns, 4. Film-drama and religion are deadly weapons in the reveals surrounding life as fully as possible , agitates , hands of the capitalists . By showing our revolutionary propagandizes , and organizes . The group leader sub- way of life, we will wrest that weapon from the enemys mits his work for approval by the Goskino cell of the hands. Red kinoks and is under the immediate supervision of 5. The contemporary artistic drama is a vestige of the the Council of Kino-Eye. old world . It is an attempt to pour our revolutionary 3. The Council of Kino-Eye heads the entire organiza- reality into bourgeois molds. tion . It is made up of one representative from each 6. Down with the staging of everyday life l Film us as we group of kinok-observers , one representative of the unorganized kinoks, and, provisionally, three are . 7. The scenario is a fairy tale invented for us by a writer. representatives of the kinok production workers . We live our own lives, and we do not subm it to anyones In its practical, everyday work the Council of Kino-Eye fictions. relies upon a technical staff-the Goskino cell of Red kinoks . 8. Each of us does his task in life and does not prevent anyone else from working . The film workers task is to The Goskino kinoks cell should be regarded as one of film us so as not to interfere with our work . the factories in which the raw material supplied by 9. Long live the kino-eye of the proletarian revolution I kinok-observers is made into film-objects. The G ... Purchase answer to see full attachment