Elements Of Film Analysis



Film Analysis

This handout contains information on cinematic techniques, cinematography, film theory, as well as a list of additional resources, both online and in our libraries.

Cinematic techniques-general concepts

From:

Cinematic techniques are methods employed by film makers to communicate meaning, entertain, and to produce a particular emotional or psychological response in an audience. Cinematographic techniques such as the choice of shot, and camera movement, can greatly influence the structure and meaning of a film.

Distance of shot

The use of different shots can influence the meaning which an audience will interpret:

• Close-up: May be used to show tension;

• Extreme close-up: Focuses on a single facial feature, such as lips;

• Medium shot

• Long shot

• Establishing shot: Mainly used at a new location to give the audience a sense of locality.

Camera angles

These are used extensively to communicate meaning and emotion about characters:

• Low angle shot: Looking up at a character or object, often to instill fear or awe in the audience;

• Straight angle shot

• High angle shot: Looking down on a character, often to show vulnerability or weakness;

• Canted or Oblique: The camera is tilted to show the scene at an angle. This is used extensively in the horror and science fiction genre. The audience will often not consciously realize the change.

Mise en scene

"Mise en scene" refers to what is colloquially known as "the Set", but is applied more generally to refer to everything that is presented before the camera. With various techniques, film makers can use the Mise En Scene to produce intended effects.

Movement and expression

Movement can be used extensively by film makers to make meaning. It is how a scene is put together to produce an image. A famous example of this, which uses "dance" extensively to communicate meaning and emotion, is the film, West Side Story.

Cinematography-specific teminology

Provided in this list of film techniques is a categorized (and then alphabetized) list of techniques used in film (motion pictures).

Camera view, angle, movement, shot

• Aerial shot

• American shot

• Bird's eye shot

• Close up

• Crane shot

• Dolly zoom

• Dutch angle

• Establishing shot

• "Evangelion" shot

• Follow shot

• Forced perspective

• Freeze frame shot

• Full shot

• Head-on shot

• High-angle shot

• Long shot

• Long take

• Low-angle shot

• Master shot

• Matte

• Medium shot

• Pan shot

• Point of view shot

• Reaction shot

• Sequence shot

• Shot

• Shot reverse shot

• Talking head

• Tracking shot

• Trunk shot

• Two Shot

• Video frame

• Whip pan

Lighting technique and aesthetics

• Background lighting

• Cameo lighting

• Fill light

• Flood lighting

• High-key lighting

• Key lighting

• Lens flare

• Low-key lighting

• Mood lighting

• Pool hall lighting

• Rembrandt lighting

• Stage lighting

• Soft light

Editing and transitional devices

• Cross cutting

• Cutaway

• Cut in

• Dissolve

• Establishing shot

• Flashback

• Montage

• Point of view shot

• Split screen

• Talking head

• Wipe

• Clock wipe

• Heart wipe

• Matrix wipe

• Star wipe

Special effects (FX)

• 3-D film for movie history

• 3-D computer graphics

• Bluescreen/Chroma key

• Bullet time

• Computer-generated imagery (CGI)

• Special effects

• Stop trick

• Stop motion

Lighting

In cinematography, the use of light can influence the meaning of a shot. For example, film makers often portray villains that are heavily shadowed or veiled, using silhouette.

Techniques involving light include backlight (silhouette), and under-lighting (light across a character form). Other aspects of Mise en Scene include:

• Costume

• Use of motif, and associated meaning;

• Use of color, and its emotional response; and

• Props

Sound

Sound is used extensively in filmmaking to enhance presentation, and is distinguished into diegetic ("actual sound"), and non-diegetic sound.

Diegetic sound: It is any sound where the source is visible on the screen, or is implied to be present by the action of the film:

• Voices of characters;

• Sounds made by objects in the story; and

• Music, represented as coming from instruments in the story space.

• Music coming from reproduction devices such as record players, radios, tape players etc.

Non-diegetic sound: Also called "commentary sound", it is sound which is represented as coming from a source outside the story space, ie. its source is neither visible on the screen, nor has been implied to be present in the action:

• Narrator's commentary;

• Voice of God;

• Sound effect which is added for dramatic effect;

• Mood music; and

• Film Score

Non-diegetic sound plays a big role in creating atmosphere and mood within a film.

Sound effects

In motion picture and television production, a sound effect is a sound recorded and presented to make a specific storytelling or creative point, without the use of dialogue or music. The term often refers to a process, applied to a recording, without necessarily referring to the recording itself. In professional motion picture and television production, the segregations between recordings of dialogue, music, and sound effects can be quite distinct, and it is important to understand that in such contexts, dialogue and music recordings are never referred to as sound effects, though the processes applied to them, such as reverberation or flanging, often are.

Techniques in interactive movies

New techniques currently being developed in interactive movies, introduce an extra dimension into the experience of viewing movies, by allowing the viewer to change the course of the movie.

In traditional linear movies, the author can carefully construct the plot, roles, and characters to achieve a specific effect on the audience. Interactivity, however, introduces non-linearity into the movie, such that the author no longer has complete control over the story, but must now share control with the viewer. There is an inevitable trade-off between the desire of the viewer for freedom to experience the movie in different ways, and the desire of the author to employ specialized techniques to control the presentation of the story. Computer technology is required to create the illusion of freedom for the viewer, while providing familiar, as well as, new cinematic techniques to the author.

Film Theory

Film theory debates the essence of the cinema and provides conceptual frameworks for understanding film's relationship to reality, the other arts, individual viewers, and society at large. Like traditional literature, critical theories also apply to films. Here are some theories specifically built around film, and discussions of traditional ones as they relate to film. All information here is from: . Please feel free to investigate on your own.

Apparatus theory

Apparatus theory, derived in part from Marxist film theory, semiotics, and psychoanalysis, was a dominant theory within cinema studies during the 1970s. It maintains that cinema is by nature ideological because its mechanics of representation are ideological. Its mechanics of representation include the camera and editing. The central position of the spectator within the perspective of the composition is also ideological.

Apparatus theory also argues that cinema maintains the dominant ideology of the culture within the viewer. Ideology is not imposed on cinema, but is part of its nature.

Auteur theory

In film criticism, the 1950s-era auteur theory holds that a director's films reflects that director's personal creative vision, as if he or she were the primary "auteur" (the French word for 'author'). In some cases, film producers are considered to have a similar "auteur" role for films that they have produced.

Auteur theory has had a major impact on film criticism ever since it was advocated by film director and film critic François Truffaut in 1954. "Auteurism" is the method of analyzing films based on this theory or, alternately, the characteristics of a director's work that makes her or him an auteur. Both the auteur theory and the auteurism method of film analysis are frequently associated with the French New Wave and the film critics who wrote for the influential French film review periodical Cahiers du cinéma.

Feminist film theory

(Also extended to gender theory which looks at either or both genders and their function, or portrayal in film.)

Feminist film theory is theoretical work within film criticism which is derived from feminist politics and feminist theory. Feminists have taken many different approaches to the analysis of cinema. These include discussions of the function of women characters in particular film narratives or in particular genres, such as film noir, where a woman character can often be seen to embody a subversive sexuality that is dangerous to men and is ultimately punished with death.

In considering the way that films are put together, many feminist film critics have pointed to the "male gaze" that predominates in classical Hollywood filmmaking. Laura Mulvey's essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" gave one of the most widely influential versions of this argument. This argument holds that through the use of various film techniques, such as the point of view shot, a typical film's viewer becomes aligned with the point of view of its male protagonist. Notably, women function as objects of this gaze far more often than as proxies for the spectator.

Formalist Film theory

Formalism, at its most general, considers the synthesis (or lack of synthesis) of the multiple elements of film production, and the effects, emotional and intellectual, of that synthesis and of the individual elements. For example, let's take the single element of editing. A formalist might study how standard Hollywood "continuity editing" creates a more comforting effect and non-continuity or jump-cut editing might become more disconcerting or volatile.

Or one might consider the synthesis of several elements, such as editing, shot composition, and music. The shoot-out that ends Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Western "Dollars" trilogy is a valid example of how these elements work together to produce an effect: The shot selection goes from very wide to very close and tense; the length of shots decreases as the sequence progresses towards its end; the music builds. All of these elements, in combination rather than individually, create tension.

Formalism is unique in that it embraces both ideological and auteurist branches of criticism. In both these cases, the common denominator for Formalist criticism is style.

Psychoanalytical film theory

The concepts of psychoanalysis have been applied to films in various ways. However, the 1970s and 1980s saw the development of theory that took concepts developed by the French psychoanalyst and writer Jacques Lacan and applied them to the experience of watching a film.

The film viewer is seen as the subject of a "gaze" that is largely "constructed" by the film itself, where what is on screen becomes the object of that subject's desire.

The viewing subject may be offered particular identifications (usually with a leading male character) from which to watch. The theory stresses the subject's longing for a completeness which the film may appear to offer through identification with an image; in fact, according to Lacanian theory, identification with the image is never anything but an illusion and the subject is always split simply by virtue of coming into existence.

Screen theory

Screen theory is a Marxist film theory associated with the British journal Screen in the 1970s. The theoreticians of this approach -- Colin MacCabe, Stephen Heath or Laura Mulvey -- describe the "cinematic apparatus" as a version of Althusser's Ideological State Apparatus (ISA). According to screen theory, it is the spectacle that creates the spectator and not the other way round. The fact that the subject is created and subjected at the same time by the narrative on screen is masked by the apparent realism of the communicated content.

Socialist realism

For other meanings of the term realism, see realism (disambiguation).

Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style of realistic art which has as its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism. Although related, it should not be confused with social realism, a type of art that realistically depicts subjects of social concern.

Structuralist film theory

The structuralist film theory emphasizes how films convey meaning through the use of codes and conventions not dissimilar to the way languages are used to construct meaning in communication.

An example of this is understanding how the simple combination of shots can create an additional idea: the blank expression on a man's face, a piece of cake, and then back to the man's face. While nothing in this sequence literally expresses hunger—or desire—the juxtaposition of the images convey that meaning to the audience.

Unraveling this additional meaning can become quite complex. Lighting, angle, shot duration, juxtaposition, cultural context, and a wide array of other elements can actively reinforce or undermine a sequence's meaning.

Resources

Online resources (you may have best luck when searching the web or databases, if you search for “motion pictures.”)

Analyzing and Writing about Film

• Google has a good links page to film theory and criticism

• Google’s links to Online Journals:

• Yale’s film analysis guide:

• Watching and writing about film:

• A Checklist for analyzing movies:

• Dartmouth’s page on writing about film:

Movie information and scripts

• The Internet Movie Database, lists movies, actors, directors, etc. Good place to find background and technical information on films:

• SimplyScripts - links to hundreds of free, downloadable scripts:

• Drew’s Script-O-Rama:

• Movie Scripts Archive:

• The Movie Turf (Scripts):

Sample criticism/writings

• Good sample with visuals so that you can see how a film analysis is developed

• A good sample critical article about Land of the Dead from the Film Journal

Resources in our library

• The Filmmaker's Handbook : A Comprehensive Guide For The Digital Age / Steven Ascher and Edward Pincus ; Transmountain; TR850 .P54 2007

• Film Classics. Transmountain; REF PN1994 .F43835 2006

• Cinemachismo : Masculinities And Sexuality In Mexican Film /Sergio De La Mora. Northwest, Transmountain ; PN1993.5.M4 M67 2006  

• Science, Literature, And Film In The Hispanic World / edited by Jerry Hoeg and Kevin S. Larsen.; Transmountain ; PQ6046.S39 S39 2006  

• Allegories Of Cinema : American Film In The Sixties / David E. James. Transmountain ; PN1993.5.U6J27 1989

• American Dissident : The Political Art Of Michael Moore / Francois Primeau. Transmountain ; PN1998.3.M665P74 2007

• Forgive Us Our Spins : Michael Moore And The Future Of The Left / Jesse Larner. Transmountain ; PN1998.3.M665 L37 2006

• Hollywood, The Pentagon And Washington / Jean-Michael Valantin. Mission del Paso; PN1995.9.P6 V35 2005

• Make-Believe Media : The Politics Of Entertainment / Michael Parenti.

• Valle Verde; Call number: PN1995.9.P6P37 1992

• Speeding To The Millennium Film & Culture, 1993-1995 / [Electronic Resource] Joseph Natoli. c1998 Electronic Book

• Endless Night [Electronic Resource] : Cinema And Psychoanalysis, Parallel Histories / edited by Jane Electronic Book c1999

• Ideology And The Image : Social Representation In The Cinema And Other Media / Bill Nichols. PN1995.N48 1981 BOOK c1981

• Movies As Social Criticism : Aspects Of Their Social Psychology / by I. C. Jarvie. Valle Verde; PN1995.9.S6J297 BOOK 1978

• The Power Of Movies : How Screen And Mind Interact / Colin McGinn. Mission del Paso; PN1995 .M3785 2005

• Film As Social Practice / Graeme Turner. BOOK 1999 Valle Verde; PN1995.9.S6 T87 1999

• Life the movie : how entertainment conquered reality / Neal Gabler. Mission del Paso; PN1995.9.S6 G32 2000 BOOK 2000

• Movies And Mass Culture / edited and with an introduction by John Belton. Rio Grande; PN1995.9.S6M68 1996

• Gender, Ethnicity And Sexuality In Contemporary American Film / [Electronic Resource] / Jude Davies And Carol R. Smith. 1997 Electronic Book

• Generation Multiplex : The Image Of Youth In Contemporary American Cinema / by Timothy Shary ; Foreword By David Considine. BOOK 2002 Valle Verde; PN1995.9.Y6 S53 2002

• Kings Of The Bs : Working Within The Hollywood System : An Anthology Of Film History And Criticism / edited By Todd McCarthy And Charles Flynn. BOOK 1975 Valle Verde; PN1993.5.U6K48

• Masters Of The American Cinema / Louis Giannetti. BOOK c1981 Valle Verde; PN1993.5.U6G49 1981

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