BLOG - G-P & Q-Z

Hey I realize this is coming late. I haven't had internet all week. Anyhow, I see that some people have responded to last week's blog topic and that's fine and actually fits in well with this weeks topic.

Hope you guys have a super awesome-tastic winter break. Thanks for a great semester. See some (most) of you on Tuesday.

Discussion Topic
Choose a discussion topic from the blogs posted over the semester and respond to it. It can be any one as long as it's a topic you haven't responded to previously.

The Conversation Blog A-F

You're not crazy. It's the same topic as last week.

Discussion Topic:

Sound Design obviously plays a large role in "The Conversation". In the opening sequence we see the couple walking through the courtyard, talking, while the "team", tries to record what they say.How is the sound in this scene changed around? What effect does the sound design in this scene have on the audience, and how does the sound designer use sound in this scene to effect the story?

The Conversation - Blog Q-Z

Discussion Topic
Sound Design obviously plays a large role in "The Conversation". In the opening sequence we see the couple walking through the courtyard, talking, while the "team", tries to record what they say.

How is the sound in this scene changed around? What effect does the sound design in this scene have on the audience, and how does the sound designer use sound in this scene to effect the story?

General Notes

Just to reiterate:

No Class on 11/20

Class on 11/27 is only for people who are writing final papers.

HOWEVER: YOUR BLOGS ARE STILL DUE.

CHECK THE BLOG FOR THE DISCUSSION TOPIC DURING YOUR WEEK.

Quiz 3 Notes

EDITING
Cinema Survey FIL1000 - Fall ‘07
Points for Today…
Editing Process
– Early
– Modern - Film
– Modern - Digital

Editing Process: 1900- Early 1990’s
• Film is shot
• Film is processed

Editing Process: 1900- Early 1990’s cont’d….
• WORKPRINT Created
• Workprint Cut
• Original Negative Cut
Editing Process: 1990’s - Present - Film
• Film is shot
• Film is processed
• Film is TELECINED (tele-sin-eed)

Editing Process: 1990’s - Present - Film
• Video is captured on computer
• Editing done on computer
• Original Negative cut to template generated by computer.



Editing Process: 1990’s to Present - Video
• Video is shot
• Video is captured on computer
• Editing done on computer
• Sometimes higher quality video is cut to template generated by computer.


Montage
• MONTAGE comes form the French for “putting together” or “assembly”.

• MONTAGE simply means putting pieces of film together or film editing.

Montage cont’d…
In the early days of filmmaking, the Soviets defined MONTAGE (meaning the way individual shots were placed in sequence) as the essence of the cinema…

Lev Kuleshov
• Lev Kuleshov said that editing a film was like constructing a building.
• Brick-by-brick (shot-by-shot) the building (film) is erected.
Kuleshov Effect
Kuleshov Effect cont’d…


• The viewers were taking the question presented by the shot of the actor (what is he looking at?), seeing the answer presented by the shot of the objects (Food. Woman.) and creating a new meaning.

D.W. Griffith
• One of the first to use “cross-cutting” to show parallel action.
Montage - Hollywood Style

• A series of shots, often played over music, that tell the story and compress the passage of time.


EDITING II
Cinema Survey - FIL 1000 - Fall ‘07

Points For Today…
• Conventions of Editing
– Continuity
– Discontinuity
Continuity Editing
Seamless, real-life style. The audience should not be aware of the editing as an obvious process.

What happens on screen makes as much sense as possible to the audience.



Continuity Editing cont’d…
• lighting remains consistent from shot to shot
• time and space are continuous from shot to shot
• rhythm varies according to the kinds of shots
• screen direction remains consistent

Discontinuity Editing
• Most common in avant-garde and experimental films, but also found in commercial works like Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarentino), in which the plot is laid out in a discontinuous fashion for a particular effect.
• Strives to be showy, NOT seamless
Discontinuity Editing cont’d…
• Edits can sometimes be very abrupt
• Encourages viewers to notice and consider cinematic technique
• DOESN’T convey a plausible, continuous world – rearranges narrative to create new meanings

Parallel Editing
• Scenes coinciding, indicating that things are happening at the same time.
• Pioneered by D.W. Griffith in 1915 in the film “Birth of a Nation”


Production Design
Cinema Survey - FIL1000 - Fall ‘07
Production Design
Overall design Visual look
Composition Continuity


Production Designer
• Art director
• Set designer
• Draftsperson
• Set Decorator
• Construction
coordinator
• Propmaster

Production Designer cont’d…
• The Production Designer works for the director supervising numerous departments that affect the look of the movie.

Production Design Tools
• Color palette
• Graphics
• Previsualization
• Set Design

• Costumes
• Set dressing
• Props
• Locations

Tools cont’d
• This includes talking to the camera department (which is under the direct supervision of the DP) about film stock, lighting and lenses.

SOUND
Cinema Survey - FIL 1000 - Fall ‘07
POINTS FOR TODAY…
• History of Film Sound
• Elements of Sound
– Dialogue
– Sound FX
– Music



Silent Film Era
• Live narration, Pipe Organs, Sound effects
Kinetophone
• Thomas Edison's Kinetophone, pictured here in 1913, attempted to synchronize sound with film.
• The synchronization was achieved by connecting the projector with the phonograph with a pulley system.

History of Film Sound cont’d…
• The first movie with dialogue, or "talkie", was The Jazz Singer.
• Originally conceived as a singing picture with no dialogue, Al Jolson ad-libbed some dialogue on the set and the talkies were born.

History of Film Sound cont’d…
• Later in 1928, Disney's Steamboat Willie premiered.
• It was the first film to completely create a soundtrack in post production including sound effects, music, and dialogue.

History of Film Sound cont’d…
• In 1933, the King Kong was released by RKO and made film sound history. Murray Spivak, who did the sound design for the movie, was the first person to manipulate sound in a creative way.

History of Film Sound cont’d
• Spivak used the sound of a lion's roar slowed down one octave mixed with the sound at unity (original) pitch.

History of Film Sound cont’d…
• In 1977, Star Wars, revolutionized film sound with Ben Burtt’s award winning sound effects.

Elements of Sound
• Dialogue
• Sound effects
• Music
Dialogue
• Externalizes the character’s thoughts and feelings
• Avoid dialogue that repeats what the image already tells us


Music
• Establish historical context

• Define character

• Set emotion of a scene

Sound FX
• Define a scene’s location
• Lend a mood
Ben Burtt
Ben Burtt:
“The basic thing in all films is to create something that sounds believable to everyone, because it's composed of familiar things that you can not quite recognize immediately"

Imperial Walkers & Tie Fighters
• The sound of the Imperial Walkers were created by modifying the sound of a machinist's punch press. Added to this for complexity, were the sounds of bicycle chains being dropped on concrete.
• The screech of a TIE Fighter is a drastically altered elephant bellow.

Punch Drunk Love Blog G-P

Here are a few screen-caps from the film:

Opening Shot:

"The Couple":



Also just cause it's funny, here's the fake "Mattress Man" Commercial that was made for the movie and included on the special features of the DVD:






Discussion Topic:

In class we discussed how color, wardrobe, and other elements of production design can be used to give information about a character or a scene to the audience.

In the above pictures (Keeping in mind that the first picture is the opening shot of the film where we are introduced to Barry for the first time.) what do the colors of their wardrobe say about the characters in relation to (in the first picture) their character traits, and (in the second 2 pictures) each other?

The Cutting Edge - Blog A-F

Fake Trailers

The following 4 clips are fake trailers that really bored people have cut, which have the effect of altering the original plots of the films to resemble something new.










Discussion Topic

Discuss what role editing can have in determining the plot and story of a film. For instance, if you've seen Pulp Fiction, how would that film be different if it was told in a linear fashion? Likewise, how would Run Lola Run be different if it was edited at a slow pace? How would the mood of the film change?

Lecture Notes 10/23/07

EDITING II
Cinema Survey - FIL 1000 - Fall ‘07

Points For Today…
Conventions of Editing
Continuity
Discontinuity
Parallel Editing


Continuity Editing
Seamless, real-life style. The audience should not be aware of the editing as an obvious process.
What happens on screen makes as much sense as possible to the audience.


Continuity Editing cont’d…
lighting remains consistent from shot to shot
time and space are continuous from shot to shot
rhythm varies according to the kinds of shots
screen direction remains consistent

Discontinuity Editing
Most common in avant-garde and experimental films, but also found in commercial works like Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarentino), in which the plot is laid out in a discontinuous fashion for a particular effect.
Strives to be showy, NOT seamless

Discontinuity Editing cont’d…
Edits can sometimes be very abrupt
Encourages viewers to notice and consider cinematic technique
DOESN’T convey a plausible, continuous world – rearranges narrative to create new meanings

Parallel Editing
Scenes coinciding, indicating that things are happening at the same time.
Pioneered by D.W. Griffith in 1915 in the film "Birth of a Nation"

Run Lola Run - Blog Q-Z

Here is part of a review of Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt in German):


Tom Tykwer's Lola rennt: A Blueprint of Millennial Berlin
Margit Sinka

During one week in September 1998, Tom Tykwer's Lola rennt, a low budget film costing slightly more than three million German Marks, suddenly transformed a particularly quixotic German dream into reality: A German film, rather than a Hollywood production, garnered the largest number of moviegoers. Only mildly less astonishing, reviews of Lola rennt in the major dailies throughout Germany consisted mainly of generous praise. The relief at not having to comment on yet another specimen of the Cola Light, middle class relationship comedies that had proliferated in recent years was palpable, as was the amazement that a German film could be so incredibly fast-paced and such sheer fun to watch.

"Chaos, Verwirrung, Liebe, Tod," proclaims the movie flyer distributed to Berlin audiences in the fall of 1998. And the film, set in Berlin, indeed contains plenty of each in its short, eighty-one minutes. Yet its main plot, unfolding in a mere twenty minutes and then repeated in two additional twenty-minute segments with only slight, though crucial variations, is surprisingly simple. Receiving a frantic phone call from her boyfriend Manni, located in a phone booth far away from her, Lola promises to come up with 100,000 Marks-the amount Manni needs to deliver to car racketeers for a successfully executed car smuggling deal, the same amount that he had carelessly left on a subway train in a reflex action to escape from policemen controlling passengers for tickets. Lola has exactly twenty minutes not only to locate this large sum but also to deliver it to the far-away Manni-that is, twenty minutes to prevent him from robbing a supermarket or twenty minutes to save his life, for his criminal boss would definitely kill him were he to show up empty-handed. Yes, an impossible task, Tykwer admits, gleefully adding that the film operates on the premise that "you have no chance, therefore use it." [1]

Not surprisingly, using the nonexistent chance, to speak with Tykwer, nets no rewards in the first twenty-minute segment. Lola's impassioned attempt to secure the money from her banker father fails. Rather than preventing Manni from carrying out the supermarket holdup, she ends up helping him with it. For good measure, she is accidentally killed by a policeman. But, resurrected for the film's second twenty-minute segment, Lola receives a second chance to accomplish precisely the same hopeless task she had assumed in the first. Though she now obtains the necessary money from the bank and reaches Manni within the allotted twenty minutes, her efforts are in vain. This time Manni is killed accidentally, but by a speeding ambulance rather than a policeman's bullet. Since either Lola's or Manni's death thwarts viewer longings for successful romance, Tykwer provides yet another round of the same twenty minutes, concluding it with the kind of utterly happy Hollywood ending most German directors would be too embarrassed to even contemplate. Manni succeeds in recouping the lost amount from the derelict who had taken it from the subway car and in delivering it to his boss on time. The 100,000 Marks that the speedy Lola obtains in a casino, likewise legitimately, can now be spent as the couple wishes.

All three versions of the plot are embedded in a chaos theory-tinged philosophical framework accentuating the demands of fate and the vagaries of chance. The outcome of each version is dependent on the seconds lost or gained by Lola's response to the first obstacles on her run, a nasty-looking youth and his growling dog situated at a staircase in the building where she lives. Quite likely because they represent the strictures of time, Tykwer calls them the messengers of fate. [2] In the first version, barely aware of their presence, Lola spurts past them. In the second, the youth trips her, causing her to fall down the stairs; in the third, perhaps aware of the danger in her path, Lola jumps over the dog. Regardless of the nature of Lola's response, each has a ripple effect on all other events in its segment.

Most German film critics did not valorize as a fresh idea the concept that the decisions we make in life, no matter how minute, have snowball effects on the rest of our lives (and on the lives of those crossing our path). The film's success [3] rested less on perceptions of its conceptual depth than on its immensely successful blend of image, motion, and sound as the flame-haired, brightly attired, somewhat punky-looking Lola, her attractive stomach tattoo often tantalizingly visible, rushes across Berlin landscapes, either dodging or bumping into obstacles in her all-or-nothing attempt to rescue Manni and their love. The incredibly kinetic energy she exudes on all of her three runs proves a match for the pulsating techno rhythms accompanying her, music marked by far more variety than the techno amalgams heard during Berlin's entire Love Parade. Responding to Tykwer's accomplished, playful use of a broad array of filming techniques with the same unrestrained admiration accorded to his Lola and the film's soundtrack, German cinema critics emphasized that Tykwer had not only created something new but had expanded the possibilities of the filmic medium itself. [4]

As in Germany, many U.S. reviews [5] express astonishment that a German film can be so enjoyable. Generally German cinema is "so wretchedly slow, so humorless, so audience-unfriendly," writes one commentator. [6] Perhaps precisely because German films are associated with adjectives such as "dour, dark and depressing," remarks an Australian critic, the marketing of Run Lola Run, as it is titled in English, has "skirted around the fact that it is a German film." [7] Despite its subtitles, others advise against stressing the German origin of the film: With its American style and pace, nothing is foreign about it; its appeal as universal as that of Titanic, it can be incorporated into any nationality. [8] Based on the statement he supplied for advertising purposes to the U.S. distributor Sony, Tykwer seems to concur: It could "just as easily be set in Peking, Helsinki or New York, the only thing that would change is the scenery, not the emotional dimension." [9]

When elaborating on Lola rennt's appeal for Americans, Tykwer stresses its universal theme (a tiny moment has immense repercussions), its romance aspects, and the emotional identification its main protagonists Manni and Lola generate. [10] For most Americans, however, Lola rennt's universal nature is attributable mainly to its innovative, even dazzling recycling of familiar elements of international youth culture (music, video games, interactive links). [11] The emotional identification with the main protagonists, on the other hand, is far less pronounced than in Germany. Manni, played by Moritz Bleibtreu, rarely elicits sympathies (Americans are unaware of his stature as youth idol in Germany), [12] and Lola is frequently faulted for her excessive devotion to such a loser. Thus the rationale for her relentless run to save Manni is called into question. The bedazzling filming techniques, concludes Janet Maslin of the New York Times, essentially camouflage the "pointless nature of the exercise." [13] Could it be that Lola rennt is not quite as universal as had been supposed and that it is more embedded in German culture than is readily apparent? [14] In the following comments, I will argue first for this position and then for the view that Lola rennt resonates, in particular, with some of the most prevalent Berlin discourses at the turn of the millennium. This Berlin connection, even if perceived only on a subconscious level, provides the film with a cultural relevance on its home territory that it can not possibly have for international audiences.



Discussion Topic:
An obvious theme in the "Run Lola Run" is the concept of time and of changing time. Talk about how the editing of the film specifically adds to this theme, (besides the obvious answer that she goes back in time). Think about what techniques the director and editor use to manipulate time in the "Run Lola Run" and how these techniques are used to effect or add to the idea of time in the film.

Fargo G-P

Discussion Topic

Talk about the use of color in the film, specifically the colors white and red. What do the washed out horizons that are seen throughout the film serve to do for the tone and feeling of the those scenes, and what happens with the color red when its juxtaposed up against the white snow?

Psycho - Blog A-F

Hitchcock - 1960




Gus Van Sant - 1998

Discussion Topic

In 1998 director Gus Van Sant (Elephant) released a remake of Psycho, using essentially the same shots as were used in the 1960 Hitchcock original. However, when we watch the two versions of the above scenes side by side, we see that Van Sant did make some changes to the scene.

Discuss which version of the scene you think is more effective. Talk about the use of color vs black and white, the number of shots used, the length of the shots in each version, and the added thematic elements (weird cutaways) in the 1998 version of the film.

Blog Notes and Quiz Note

Blog Notes

Ok, so because Ive been getting some questions, and seeing some evidence that some people aren't quite on board, here is how the blog works:

- Please please, when you post, use your FULL NAME. I'm not looking up peoples last names. If you've been posting with just your first name then come up and see me during the break or after class.

- YOUR Blog is due on the day that the syllabus and the sidebar on the blog says that it is due, not the week after. I've started labeling the posts with who should respond, just in case it gets confusing, because sometimes we're watching a movie over two classes.

- I will post 2 discussion topics for films that take us two weeks to watch. One for the first week and one for the 2nd. Just because we haven't finished a film doesn't mean there's no assignment.

- Please make sure you are posting for the correct discussion topic. I have been letting this slide, especially because it has taken me until Thursdays sometimes to get topics up. From now on, if you post on the wrong topic, you will not be getting credit for that post. If a discussion topic is not up yet, then check back.

- Please respond to the discussion topics as they are posted. Do not give give me plot synopsis of the film. I've seen it.

- NO LATE POSTS: Your blog post is due BEFORE the next class, not after on the same day and not (for God's Sake) during. Your posts have a time and date stamp on them. I will not be giving credit for late posts.

- If you are not in class on a day that we screen a particular film you are responsible for posting about, it is YOUR responsibility to either rent the film, if this is possible, or watch it in the library at The Rosen Campus. On weeks where we do not finish a film, like this week with Psycho and with 2001, the films will not be on reserve until we have finished watching the entire thing.

Ok, I don't think these requirements should be that tough on you guys.

Quiz Note
Remember if you don't like the score you've received on a quiz, you have the option of doing a final paper at the end of the semester (an assignment TBD, that will be handed out in mid-late November) to replace the grade.


If there are any questions about any of this, please feel free to email me.

Thanks - Ryan

Psycho - Blog Q-Z

THE SHOWER SCENE



Here is something I found on the "inter-web" with some facts and info about the scene, proving once again that some people have too much time on their hands. (And that I am grateful for them as usual.)

Shower Scene Info


Speaking of people with too much time on their hands, here's another incidental piece of info that I found. This person should be found and arrested:

Alfred Hitchcock (and his cinematographer) may truly have put one over on the censors. If you watch the sequence of the hand clutching around the shower curtain, you will see the curtain on the left side of the frame, the hand comes in center frame and diverts you from what can just been seen out of focus in the background right of the frame. If you increase the contrast on your monitor (particularly effective by tilting the monitor of a portable DVD player) the background visual information clearly resolves itself into a pair of naked breasts. Janet Leigh claims that she was not nude during the filming of this scene and was actually wearing a moleskin suit for the shot where she falls forward over the side of the tub. This is not disputed, but there was a nude model used for overhead and insert shots; this would be the case for the breast shot in question. Leigh insisted to her death that no nude woman, herself or a stand-in, was used in the actual filming, but modern video technology, including frame-by-frame advance, reveals one, in profile so as to expose no "private parts" and with the top of the frame at shoulder level so as to prevent identification.

Discussion Topic:
According to different sources, the "shower scene" in Psycho is composed of somewhere between 70 and 85 different shots(I've never counted personally), which took weeks to shoot. What would be the difference in tone and feeling, had the sequence been shot using half as many, or how about simply one long shot, as Alfonso Cuaron chose to do for his action scenes?

2001: A Space Odyssey Blog G-P

So now that we've seen the whole film, I'd like to get your impressions of it. It's ok not to "get" the meaning of the film. I don't really get it either per say, and that really wasn't my purpose in showing it to you. Kubrick purposely left whatever meaning that could be derived from the images on screen open to the viewer, which is more common in our experience of viewing art (paintings, sculpture etc...), then it is of viewing "movies", in the way that people are used to.

Discussion Topic

2001 Animation
This is a link to an animation that was done trying to explain the meaning of the film. This is one interpretation. Many people would say that the monoliths were put there by God instead of aliens for instance, as this piece suggests. Anyhow, watch the animation and give me your views on the opinion it suggests, and then tell me what you thought of the film in general, whether you liked it or disliked it, and why.

Lecture Notes

So these are straight from the power points that I put together for class. Hopefully this will help you when studying for the quiz on Tuesday. Don't forget: Raspberry Scantrons



STORY
CINEMA SURVEY FALL ‘07
LECTURE #1
Points for Today
• Drama
• Protagonist
• Antagonist
• Conflict
• Plot Vs. Story

Drama
• A Greek word meaning “action”
• Drawn from the Greek word dran, meaning “to do”.
Drama relies on 2 important rules…
• There must be a PROTAGONIST who will take action to achieve something.
• This character will meet with CONFLICT.

• In today’s usage the protagonist is the central figure of a story, and is often referred to as a story's main character.

Protagonist cont’d…
• In movies, the story is usually told from the protagonist's point of view, even when not in first-person narrative.



Antagonist
• That character, group, or force which provides the chief obstruction to the protagonist.

• Note that the antagonist is not necessarily human; often, the forces of nature or psychological elements provide this element of opposition.


Conflict
• Man vs. Himself
• Man vs. Man
• Man vs. Society
• Man vs. Nature
• Man vs. God

Conflict cont’d…
• Conflict casts doubt on the character's ultimate success and increases our interest. Conflict creates stress and trouble we want to see resolved.


• In movies, the final battle between the protagonist and the antagonist usually resolves the CONFLICT that has been brewing for the past 80 or so minutes.

Conflict cont’d…
• On the most superficial level, every story is about the quest to attain a goal and whether a character will achieve it or not.

• Anyone who has ever directed a scene will tell you the first thing the director and actors must find in the material are what each actor wants (in the scene and overall) and the source of the conflict
Children of Men
• What does Theo want?
• Who is the antagonist?
• What is the conflict?


Plot and Story cont’d
• STORY and PLOT overlap because each includes events seen onscreen, but they are not the same.
• STORY exists as a precondition for PLOT. Filmmakers have to understand a STORY very well in order to pick and choose which elements will be included within the PLOT and how those elements will be ordered and presented.


Plot and Story cont’d…
• The STORIES are basically the same.
• But how the story is told (THE PLOTS) are very different.


• (e.g. Fairy Godmother vs. Hector Elizondo)



TIME & SPACE
CINEMA SURVEY FALL ‘07
LECTURE #2
Points for Today…
1. Difference between stage and film
2. Film can manipulate time and space
3. Difference between photography and motion pictures
4. Persistence of Vision


Film Has Its Roots In…
Oral Storytelling
Theater
Painting
Photography
Film Vs. Theater
• Moviemaking draws on many ancient art forms, but in particular the live theater paved the way for movies.

• To study movies, we’ll need to understand the similarities and differences between plays and cinema.


PROSCENIUM ARCH
Film Vs. Theater cont’d…
• Relationship between The PROSCENIUM ARCH and the movie FRAME.
Film Vs. Theater cont’d…
• Live performance takes place in a three-dimensional space, divided into a performance area and a spectator area.

Theater Experience
• What happens on the stage is designed by the stage director, placing actors and scenery and props where they will have the most effect within the frame of the proscenium arch.

Cinematic Experience
• You still sit in a fixed seat but the screen images move constantly, based on what a director want you to see – either close-ups, wide shots, flashbacks, etc.

• Each shot is carefully planned and executed and put in a certain order (edited) to achieve the desired impact that the director intends.


• Movies can move seamlessly from one space to another (an interior room to an exterior landscape to outer space)

• Film can change spatial relationships (when a camera turns from the subject, changing the relationship between viewer and subject).


Time
• Manipulation of Time
– “Montage Sequences”
• Rocky
• The Right Stuff

Film Techniques For Manipulating Time
• Slow motion
• Sped up action
• Reverse motion


• Flashback
• Freeze frame
• Replay




PHOTOGRAPHY
• With the invention of the camera, we could now show “reality” - it was no longer strictly the artists’ interpretation
Movies
• “Moving Pictures”
• Even more “real” in terms of what we see with our eyes.
How Motion Pictures Work
In a motion picture camera, the camera is actually taking a whole bunch of still photographs one right after the other.


Persistence of Vision
• In between these pictures is – nothing.
• We spend time in the theater watching darkness on the screen but we don’t realize it because of something called persistence of vision…

…the process by which the human brain retains an image for a fraction of a second longer than the eye records it.



Persistence of Vision
• A movie projector shows 24 fps (frames per second) and tricks use into believing that separate images are one continuous moving image. We perceive apparent motion rather than jerky movements.




The Director/Visual Storytelling Elements
Points for Today…
• The Role of the Director
• Mise-en-scene
• Design Principles
– Balance
– Rhythm
THE ROLE OF THE DIRECTOR
Film Director
• The Director is the driving creative force in a film's production, and acts as the crucial link between the production, technical and creative teams
• Responsible for bringing together visual elements to make a cohesive finished piece.
• Works with Heads of all departments to put vision onto the screen.

Directors' main duties include

Casting
Script editing
Shot composition
Shot selection
Editing
Mise En Scene
• Pronounced ‘mees on sen’
• From French literally meaning "putting into the scene”
• Everything in front of the camera.
• Involving every dept. on a film shoot…
Mis-En-Scene
• There is nothing in a film frame that is not meant to be there, that is not planned.

• Mise-en-scene is a strategy the filmmaker uses to create a world of space, time and narrative.
Director sets the mis-en-scene
• The director creates and alters the mood and ambience of the film through mis-en-sene

• The director's use of mise-en-scene creates systems that not only guide our perception from moment to moment but also help to create the overall form of the film.
Mise-En-Scene includes
1. Setting
2. Costume and make-up
3. Lighting
4. Actor's expression and movement
5. Screen space
6. Time
Design Principles
Balance
Positive and Negative Space
Symmetrical Balance
Asymmetrical Balance
Radial Balance
Rhythm
• Rhythm - In context of film, can be used to describe reocurring elements in a composed frame.
• Repetition of visual elements such as shapes or colors create a rhythm and pattern in an artwork.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Here is an excerpt from an interview with Stanley Kubrick from 1969, where he talks about his goals in using the formal aesthetic style he ended up with in 2001, and why he feels the ambiguity of the film is an important aspect of the experience.








Dr. Strangelove was a particularly word-oriented film, whereas 2001 seemed to be a total breakaway from what you'd done before.

Yes, I feel it was. Strangelove was a film where much of its impact hinged on the dialogue, the mode of expression, the euphemisms employed. As a result, it's a picture that is largely destroyed in translation or dubbing. 2001, on the other hand, is basically a visual, nonverbal experience. It avoids intellectual verbalization and reaches the viewer's subconscious in a way that is essentially poetic and philosophic. The film thus becomes a subjective experience which hits the viewer at an inner level of consciousness, just as music does, or painting.

Actually, film operates on a level much closer to music and to painting than to the printed word, and, of course, movies present the opportunity to convey complex concepts and abstractions without the traditional reliance on words. I think that 2001, like music, succeeds in short-circuiting the rigid surface cultural blocks that shackle our consciousness to narrowly limited areas of experience and is able to cut directly through to areas of emotional comprehension. In two hours and forty minutes of film there are only forty minutes of dialogue.

I think one of the areas where 2001 succeeds is in stimulating thoughts about man's destiny and role in the universe in the minds of people who in the normal course of their lives would never have considered such matters. Here again, you've got the resemblance to music; an Alabama truck driver, whose views in every other respect would be extremely narrow, is able to listen to a Beatles record on the same level of appreciation and perception as a young Cambridge intellectual, because their emotions and subconscious are far more similar than their intellects. The common bond is their subconscious emotional reaction; and I think that a film which can communicate on this level can have a more profound spectrum of impact than any form of traditional verbal communication.

The problem with movies is that since the talkies the film industry has historically been conservative and word-oriented. The three-act play has been the model. It's time to abandon the conventional view of the movie as an extension of the three-act play. Too many people over thirty are still word-oriented rather than picture-oriented.

For example, at one point in 2001 Dr. Floyd is asked where he's going and he replies, "I'm going to Clavius," which is a lunar crater. Following that statement you have more than fifteen shots of Floyd's spacecraft approaching and landing on the moon, but one critic expressed confusion because she thought Floyd's destination was a planet named Clavius. Young people, on the other hand, who are more visually oriented due to their new television environment, had no such problems. Kids all know we went to the moon. When you ask how they know they say, "Because we saw it."

So you have the problem that some people are only listening and not really paying attention with their eyes. Film is not theater -- and until that basic lesson is learned I'm afraid we're going to be shackled to the past and miss some of the greatest potentialities of the medium.

Did you deliberately try for ambiguity as opposed to a specific meaning for any scene or image?

No, I didn't have to try for ambiguity; it was inevitable. And I think in a film like 2001, where each viewer brings his own emotions and perceptions to bear on the subject matter, a certain degree of ambiguity is valuable, because it allows the audience to "fill in" the visual experience themselves. In any case, once you're dealing on a nonverbal level, ambiguity is unavoidable. But it's the ambiguity of all art, of a fine piece of music or a painting -- you don't need written instructions by the composer or painter accompanying such works to "explain" them. "Explaining" them contributes nothing but a superficial "cultural" value which has no value except for critics and teachers who have to earn a living. Reactions to art are always different because they are always deeply personal.

Discussion Topic:
Ignoring the fact that Stanley Kubrick apparently has much contempt for people from Alabama, how do you think the aesthetic choices he makes (i.e. use of balance, both symmetrical and asymmetrical, rhythm, and timing) add to the overall tone and atmosphere of the film?

Elephant

An interview with Gus Van Sant (The Director) and Diane Keaton (Executive Producer), that I think gives a good idea of where he's coming from in the film:




Discussion Topic:
Talk about the use of "Time & Space" in Elephant. Many of the shots go on for a long time, and take us through many different rooms of the school. What do you think the intended feeling for the audience is supposed to be when we're following a character for a long period of time in the film? What is the feeling you walk away with after some of these shots? Also, there are certain moments in the film where Gus Van Sant uses slow motion. What effect do these moments have on the viewer?

Persistence of Vision

Awesome 1950's Educational Film that Talks about Persistance of Vision

Lumieres Bros.

QUICK NOTE

Hey, just a reminder that I'm pushing back the first quiz to 9/18.

Election

Ok so not surprisingly there's not a lot of critical analysis of this film out there as far as I can tell. I did however find an interesting interview here with the director, Alexander Payne, from 1999 when the film was released.





I'm not posting it here in full because it doesn't really pertain too much to the discussion topic, but it might give you some insight for crafting your response.


Discussion Topic

Talk about who you believe to be the protagonist and antagonist in the film and tell us why you've come to this conclusion.

In my opinion, the "good guy/bad guy" roles are vague in the relationship between Tracy Flick and Jim McAllister, who are both extremely flawed in character.

Delay

Hey guys. Short delay on the blog post. I'm having computer problems. Should be up soon. Thanks for your patience peeps.

Children of Men

This is an excerpt from an interview done right as
the film was being released.

Here's the full text (http://www.cinematical.com/2006/12/25/interview-children-ofmen-director-alfonso-cuaron/)

Cinematical:
I want to talk about the visual design of the film. I've heard that
other people were pushing to give the fill a more futuristic look and
that you fought against that.

AC: (Alfonso Cuaron)
Well, it was not pushing, really, it was just -- you say, I'm going
to do a film that is set in 2027, and you have an art department that
gets so excited because, finally, they get to execute concept designs
that they've been dreaming to do, for all these futuristic buildings
and cars. And gadgets -- they had a lot of gadgets. But the fact is
that we didn't want to do a science fiction film.

In this movie, I told them, you unfortunately have to leave your
imagination outside. It's kind of like, you know, when you go to a
writer's workshop and you have the creative workshop? This film was
not the creative workshop, it was the essay workshop. It's not about
imagining and being creative, it is about referencing reality. So --
the cinematographer, he said that not a single frame of this film can
go by making a comment about the state of things. So everything became
about reference -- and not reference about what is around, like, oh,
I'm walking around, and this is what I saw on the street, but about
how this has relevance in the context of the state of things, of the
reality that we are living today.

And most of those things we tried to make references coming from the
media, referencing that they had become a part of human consciousness,
and that maybe we don't fully remember, but when you see it you
recognize something that rings true because you have seen it in
reality -- even if you don't really remember it consciously. And so
the exercise was to transcend not only reality, but also to
cross-reference within the film to the spiritual themes of the film.

So I will give you an example: They exit the Russian apartments, and
the next shot you see is this woman wailing, holding the body of her
son in her arms. This was a reference to a real photograph of a woman
holding the body of her son in the Balkans, crying with the corpse of
her son. It's very obvious that when the photographer captured that
photograph, he was referencing La Pieta, the Michelangelo sculpture of
Mary holding the corpse of Jesus. So: We have a reference to something
that really happened, in the Balkans, which is itself a reference to
the Michelangelo sculpture. At the same time, we use the sculpture of
David early on, which is also by Michelangelo, and we have of course
the whole reference to the Nativity. And so everything was referencing
and cross-referencing, as much as we could.


Discussion Topic: Cuaron, in the film, was making obvious political references to current events. How do you think setting the film in the near future and his deliberate use of "toned" down futuristic design (i.e. technology not much more advanced then our own) affected or emphasized the political themes of the film?