Each viewer perceives a slightly different film from the person next to them, this experience is contrasted with the homogenous experience of Hollywood film.
[Clustered eye tracks reveal a focused audience in North by Northwest whereas the audience visually roams the image in Mr. Hulot’s Holiday.]
Research shows that Human perception can often miss key people or objects even thought they are in plain sight.
(NOTES MADE FROM WATCHING VISUAL DISTURBANCES )
1. The Invisible Sight
Small things like, putting the main characters in the centre of a shot, having cuts that match on action, making eye contact run through different shots and camera panning on certain characters.
Small things like above help a new viewer understand who's the main characters and most of the plot.
"Things on the screen appeared real, unsponsored and inevitable while the thousands of choices that created the film disappeared" - Robert Ray, A Certain Tendency of Hollywood Cinema
These small things direct our attention to only certain things, an audience can accidently ignore or be blind a lot of important aspects of a scene,
There was a famous phycological experiment where they filmed a clip of two groups bouncing a ball, one in black shirts one in white. They told people to count how many times the black team bounced their ball, because of this they didn't realise and were blind to the fact that a gorilla walked into the middle of the screen.
2. HIERACHY OF PERCEPTION
See, Blind and Misperceive
See - Some people see what's happening
Blind - People may be blind to something and have no clue that something is happening
Misperceives - Someone who may have not seen something as it happens but notices later and misperceives it
A french term meaning what is put into a scene or frame.
Visual information in front of the camera.
communicates essential information to the audience.
5 Elements of Mis-en-Scene
Setting and Props
Setting and location are not just 'backgrounds' in films.
Sets are either built from scratch or a great deal of time is spent to find a setting which already exists.
Settings can manipulate an audience by building certain expectations then taking a different turn.
Costume, Hair and Makeup
Costumes, hair and makeup act as an instant indicator to us of a characters personality status and job.
It tells us immediately whether the film is set in the present and what society/culture it will centre around.
Certain costumes signify certain individuals e.g black cloak of a vampire, spideys spider-man suit.
Facial Expressions and Body Language
Facial expression provide a clear indicator of how someone is feeling.
If someone is smiling broadly, we assume they are happy but we may get a different feeling if this is accompanied by scary music.
Body Language may also indicate how a character feels towards another character or may reflect the state of their relationship.
Positioning of character and objets within a frame
Positioning within a frame can draw our attention an important character/object. A filmmaker can use positioning to indicate relationships between people.
Staging positions can include:
Full-front: position with most intimacy, character looks in our direction
Quarter Turn: favoured position of most film makers. offers a high degree of intimacy but with less emotion then full front.
Profile: more remote than the quarter turn, the character in profile seems unaware of being observed
Three-quarter turn: anonymous then the profile, used to convey a characters unfriendly or antisocial feelings, for in effect, the character is partially turning his or her back on us, rejecting our interest.
Back to Camera: Very anonymous, often used to suggest a characters alienation from the world.
Lighting and Colour
Colours carry certain connotations which may add meaning to a scene e.g red = danger/ passion.
Can give a scene a particular look. feel or mood.
Can be used for dramatic effect.
Lighting and colours can be used to achieve a variety of effects: - To highlight important characters or objects within the frame. - To make characters look mysterious by shading sections of the face and body. - To reflect a characters mental state/hidden emotions e.g bright = happy, dark = disturbed.
Types of Lighting
Low Key Lighting
Created by using only the key and backlights.
produces sharp contrasts of light and dark areas.
Deep, distinct, shadows/silhouettes are formed.
High Key Lighting
More filler lights are used. Lighting is natural and realistic to our eyes.
Produces brightly lit set or a sunny day.
High Contrast Lighting
Features harsh shafts of light and dramatic streaks of blackness.
We might think of film as a visual experience but we cannot underestimate the importance of film sound. A meaningful soundtrack is often as complicated as the image on the scene.
Soundtrack is comprised of three essential ingredients: The human voice, sound effects and music.
These three 'ingredients' must be mixed and balanced to produce impact.
Diegetic Sound
The most common form of sound.
It is any sound that should be visible on the screen and exist in the reality of the film world
Dialogue, tyres screeching in a chase, the sound of rain etc.
Non-Diegetic Sound
Sound that is added in post-production to enhance the viewers experience of the film
Sounds that the character cannot hear in the film world.
Examples of non-diegetic sound include a voice over, a soundtrack and other digital music like subtle enhancements to the diegetic sound.
Dialogue
The characters or narrators speech.
Was not used in 'old' films as they did not have the enhancements of it
A film is very hard to understand without it.
Synchronous Sound/Parallel Sound
The most common form of actors dialogue. This form of sound is when the speech matches the lip movement of the character speaking.
Sometimes actors dialogue has to be dubbed because of the conditions on set, if it is loud or windy for example.
So the actor re-records all the dialogue in the studio which is then dubbed onto the acting from the set footage.
Asynchronous Sound
The opposite of synchronous sound.
When the lips and dialogue don't match, this is either done for comedic effects or to illustrate tat a character is drugged, drink or in a dream (or if the film has been dubbed badly).
Voice Over
A type of non-diegetic sound that gives the audience a true reflection of how a character feels.
Also used to set the scene of the film world or to relay information to the audience.
Sound MOTIF
Sound or music (in the form of a repeated sound track) that is associated with a particular character.
The Motif can then be used for emotional or narrative impact.
Direct Address
When an actor talks directly at the audience. Similar to a monologue in the play, the audience are usually invited to share the characters secrets or his/her view.
Direct address is not common because the audience have to suspend their disbelief and also what is called the fourth wall is broken.
Soundtrack
Music/compositions added to the film in post-production to guide the viewers feeling at a critical time in the film, when there is an emotional beat or a period of action for example.
Sound bridge: when the music from the soundtrack is sustained from one scene to the next (to connect characters, events).
Music Sting
A music punctuation mark to suggest a dramatic climax 0 often used in horror films to highlight a shock to the audience.
Pleonastic Sound
Similar to a music sting but used more often.
These are sounds added in post production in order to increase the impact of a particular moment in a film.
for example the sound of a punch in a boxing film or the sound of a sword being taken out of a scabbard to suggest how sharp the sword is.
Silence
Sound doesn't have to be used in some movies, silence is also a powerful tool for the director and not in the way of using silence in horror films to create tension.
Silence is efficiently used in movies like A Quiet place.
Soundscape
Characteristic sound that is associated with a particular location.
for example a car horns and traffic in an urban location or the tweeting of birds in a forest.
These sounds add to the feeling of immersion felt by the viewer and can also be used to heighten tensions by focusing on specific sounds, again well used in A Quiet Place.
Someone who makes a signature contribution to a film
Someone who has a recognisable creative fingerprint
Someone who is credited as 'author' of a film
Someone who's aesthetics choices are recognisable in a film
What makes an auteur?
An auteur is recognisable by the artistic or aesthetic choices they make
Aesthetic choices cannot be seen through one film but a whole body of work
An auteur work always has a deeper personal or interior aspect to it, such as - themes they explore, types of characters that fascinate them or particular relationships that they return to time and time again
Identifying features of an auteur
Any use of film form can be used by auteur's to create specific aesthetics
Particular use of cinematography
Particular use of sound
Particular setting or location
Specific aspects of mis-en-scene
Characteristics of Orsan Welles (OW) Aesthetic
The use of - deep focus, wide angles, deep staging, real location settings, diegetic sounds, use of locals in scenes, poetic realism, long shots with no edits e.g opening of double indemnity.
OW did not like shooting close ups except for BCUs which were distorted by wide angle lens to give unsettling effect
Use of surreal and distorted reflections to create a feeling of unreality e.g funfair and hall of mirrors scene.
Aesthetic Disputes and Control
The studio (Columbus) took control of 'Lady from Shanghai' and inserted many closeups against OW's wishes
Also inserted sound stings against OWs wish
Forced OW to return from location of film and reshoot the opening scene of LFS in a studio setting. (OW hated the opening scene)
Hall of mirrors and funfair scene was drastically cut as Columbia thought the audience would be put off by distortion
From the 1920s to the 1950s Hollywood was dominated by 8 large studios
The big five (MGM, Warner, Paramount, RKO and Fox) they produced and distributed films and owned their own theatre chains
The little 3 (Universal, Columbia and United Artists) they also distributed and produced but did not own theatre chains
These 8 major studios controlled 95% of films shown in the USA
Commercial feature films were produced on studio lots
Each studio developed a ‘house style’
“Studios had faced back then, They could bring you blindfolded into a movie house and you looked up and you knew’’- Billy Wilder
Studio production peaked in the 1940s as studios efficiently produced mass entertainment films and cinema attendance was high
After WW2 this success steadily went into decline - The US supreme court ruled that major studios should end block booking (selling multiple films in units to theatres, preventing independent films from getting in theatres)
This resulted in the breakdown of vertically integrated studios and the rise of independent
Also theatre attendance dropped due to the rise of TV and other leisure pursuits
According to the Crash Course video,Why do cinema audiences end up with "only reboots and dystopian fantasies"?
Because Hollywood is driven by trends. The success of one genre or film means others will jump onto the bandwagon and make something similar to also make money.
According to the Crash Course video, what is Classical Hollywood Cinema?
Classical Hollywood Cinema is a era between the 1930s and the 1950s when the studios perfected a style of film. The stories were generic and the movies were filmed on constructed sets
What is high key lighting and who uses it?
A flat generic form of lighting that ensured the entire image was clearly visible, it was used by classical Hollywood film
What happened in the European Film Industry after WW2?
Who was Roberto Rosellini and what did he do?
Roberto was a working director before the war and started shooting again right after it ended. They wanted a more raw and authentic style. They had barely any film making tools (because of the war studios were wrecked) but used this to their advantage, they used this to reflect a harsh reality they saw around them.
Which film movement was he associated with?
Italian Neo-realism
What happened in the late 1950s in France?
A group of opinionated young film lovers started writing for a movie magazine (Cahiers du Cinema). They hated the studio system and the films coming out of them What did critics of the Studio System accuse them of?
They accused them of making unimaginative literary adaptations that mimicked the classical Hollywood style. And that the studio system in US and France were spoon feeding their audiences rather than respecting their intelligence.
Who was Jean-Luc Godard?
He was part of the opinionated film lovers who wrote for the magazines. who wrote a scathing attack on 21 major French directors
Did Jean-luc Godard admire any Hollywood directors? Elaborate.
Yes, he liked John Ford, Howard Hawks and Orson Welles.
What is the French New Wave? Describe and name 3 directors and films.
It was when the critiques began creating their own films and they became recognized as major international film stars.
Jean-Luc Godard shot Breathless
Jacques Rivette made Paris Belongs to Us
Claude Chabrol made his second film Les Cousins
and Francois Truffaut directed The 400 Blows
What happened in the US in 1948 and what effect did it have on their film industry?
There was an anti trust lawsuit (United states vs Paramount Pictures) which forced the major studios to give up their theatre chains. This made the film industry be full of all types of films not just the type the biggest studios wanted to show in their theatres.
What happened in the US in the 1970s? Describe.
What do studio executives like?
Money
Why was Bonnie and Clyde a watershed moment in US film history?
Because it was about a pair of charismatic depression era bank robbers on a crime spree. It was a American film that was like a French New Era film. It included unapologetic sexuality, casual humour and brutal violence.
Which other films were made in this period?
Denis Hopper and Peter Fondas, Easy rider. The graduate (1987) and Midnight Cowboy (1969)
What is New Hollywood Cinema? When was it? Name 3 directors and films.
It is when old studio executives began to retire and new ones joined, they were shaped by the same social forces as the younger film makers e.g. the rise of counterculture and Watergate era politics. Small film makers were able to be financed by major Hollywood Studios
It lasted from 1967-1980s
Directors like Martin Scorses, Francis Ford Coppola and Brian de Palma were major directors were were able to make films that satisfied the hungry audience.
What were Summer Blockbusters? When did they arise? Give 2 examples of directors and films.
Directors like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas created the first summer blockbusters were Jaws, Star Wars and Raider of the Lost Ark.
What happened to Hollywood Studios at this time?
The studios were being purchased by multinational, large corporations which changed the way the studios worked. There was now stockholders to satisfy marketing departments to consult and risk assessment to consider. It was all very corporate.
What happened to US Cinema in the 1990s? Describe with examples The arrival of a new set of independent film makers and mini studios Directors like Spike Lee, Steven Soderbegh, Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino made films for independent companies like Miramax and New Line Cinema. Although they didn't have the resources of the major film studios, the success of films like Do the Right thing and Pulp Fiction showed there was a hunger for risky, original American films that continue today
