Filme-yf # Film Analysis 2000

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YALE FILM STUDIES

Film Analysis Web Site 2.0


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WHAT THE FILM ANALYSIS GUIDE COVERS

Welcome to the Yale Film Analysis Web Site.

The Film Analysis Guide was developed to meet the needs of faculty and students at Yale who are interestedin becoming familiar with the vocabulary of film studies and the techniques of cinema. The user can eitherread the complete document or search out a particular topic of interest. -- Related links within the Guide are


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provided as appropriate, as are links to film clips illustrating the topic or term in question.

HOW THE GUIDE IS ORGANIZED

The Guide is broken into six parts corresponding to the major divisions within cinema technique and filmstudies. These major divisions are further broken down into sections, subsections and definitions for terms.The final Part (Analysis) offers basic examples of how to analyze two film sequences.

NAVIGATING THE GUIDE

If you see a drop down menu in the left frame, but no table of contents, click on the button below. (This

problem occasionally arises with some older browsers that are unable to understand the particular JavaScriptinstructions used to create the table of contents.)

There are multiple ways to navigate the Film Analysis Guide, depending on the type of browser being used

and the visitor's needs. For those who wish to read the Guide straight through without skipping around, thecomplete site can be navigated using the forward and backward arrows visible at the top and bottom of eachpage.


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Most users are likely to prefer to browse the site using the navigational tools offered in the left frame. Thecontent for each of the major divisions (e.g., cinematography) is clustered in a single web page. In addition,particular topics within the major divisions can be accessed by expanding the table of contents and clickingon the relevant link or by using the alphabetized index and search function. If you are unfamiliar withnavigating this sort of site, more detailed instructions can be found in the menu item labeled About thisGuide.

You can view the complete list of film clips used in the Guide by choosing the Film Clips option on the dropdown menu to the left.

CONVENTIONS USED IN THIS GUIDE

When the film icon appears next to an image, that means that a film clip can be viewed that illustrates therelevant topic or term. Click on the icon to start the clip. In order to view the clips, you must have theWindows Media Player and browser plug-in installed on your computer. If you do not, they can bedownloaded for free at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/default.asp.

Cross-links within the Guide are offered to direct the user to related concepts or to provide a more detaileddiscussion of a particular topic.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES


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Yale University's Film Study Center houses a large collection of films on a variety of formats. Click on FilmStudy Center or use the drop down menu on the left frame from anywhere within this site to learn more.

Yale University Libraries host a research guide on film studies which will help you to find film relatedarticles and publications. The URL is http://www.library.yale.edu/humanities/film/.

Click here, or on the drop down menu to check our weekly list ofOn-Campus Film Screenings.

FEEDBACK

Send comments, corrections and suggestions about this site to Mariano Prunes.

CREDITS

Mariano Prunes, Michael Raine, Mary Litch


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Click here if the Table of Contents frame is not visible at the left side of your screen.

URL: http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysisLast Modified: August 27, 2002 Certifying Authority: Film StudiesProgram Copyright 2002 Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520

Part 1: Basic Terms

AUTEUR

French for "author". Used by critics writing for Cahiers du cinema and other journals to indicate the figure,


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usually the director, who stamped a film with his/her own "personality". Opposed to "metteurs en scene"who merely transcribed a work achieved in another medium into film. The concept allowed critics toevaluate highly works of American genre cinema that were otherwise dismissed in favor of the developingEuropean art cinema.

Director Abbas Kiarostami appearing as himself in the last scene ofTaste of Cherry (Ta'm e Guilass, Iran,1997)


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DIEGESIS

The diegesis includes objects, events, spaces and the characters that inhabit them, including things, actions,and attitudes not explicitly presented in the film but inferred by the audience. That audience constructs adiegetic world from the material presented in a narrative film. Some films make it impossible to construct acoherent diegetic world, for exampleLast Year at Marienbad(L'anne dernire Marienbad, Alan Resnais,1961) or even contain no diegesis at all but deal only with the formal properties of film, for instanceMothlight(Stan Brakhage, 1963). The "diegetic world" of the documentary is usually taken to be simply theworld, but some drama documentaries test that assumption such as Land Without Bread(Las Hurdes, LuisBuuel, 1932).

Different media have different forms of diegesis.Henry V(Lawrence Olivier, England, 1944) starts with along crane shot across a detailed model landscape of 16th century London. Over the course of its narrative,the film shifts its diegetic register from the presentational form of the Elizabethan theater to therepresentational form of mainstream narrative cinema.


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EDITING

The joining together of clips of film into a single filmstrip. The cut is a simple edit but there are many otherpossible ways to transition from one shot to another. See the section on editing.


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Picture: Yelizaveta Svilova at the editing table ofMan with the MovieCamera (Chelovek s kinoapparatom,Dziga Vertov USSR, 1929)

FLASHBACK FLASHFORWARD

A jump backwards or forwards in diegetic time. With the use of flashback / flashforward the order of events


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FOCUS

Focus refers to the degree to which light rays coming from any particular part of an object pass through thelens and reconverge at the same point on a frame of the film negative, creating sharp outlines and distincttextures that match the original object. This optical property of the cinema creates variations in depth of field-- through shallow focus, deep focus, and techniques such as racking focus. Dziga Vertov's films celebratedthe power of cinema to create a "communist decoding of reality", most overtly in Man with the MovieCamera (Chelovek s kinoapparatom, USSR, 1929).


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GENRES

Types of film recognized by audiences and/or producers, sometimes retrospectively. These types are

distinguished by narrative or stylistic conventions, or merely by their discursive organization in influentialcriticism. Genres are made necessary by high volume industrial production, for example in the mainstreamcinema of the U.S.A and Japan.


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Thriller/Detective film: The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)

Horror film:Bride of Frankestein (John Whale, 1935)

Western: The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)


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Musical: Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen, 1952)

MISE-EN-SCENE

All the things that are "put in the scene": the setting, the decor, the lighting, the costumes, the performanceetc. Narrative films often manipulate the elements of mise-en-scene, such as decor, costume, and acting tointensify or undermine the ostensible significance of a particular scene.


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STORY / PLOT

Perhaps more correctly labelled fabula and syuzhet, story refers to all the audience infers about the eventsthat occur in the diegesis on the basis of what they are shown by the plot -- the events that are directlypresented in the film. The order, duration, and setting of those events, as well as the relation between them,all constitute elements of the plot. Story is always more extensive than plot even in the most straightforward

drama but certain genres, such as the film noir and the thriller, manipulate the relationship of story and plotfor dramatic purposes. A film such asMemento (Christopher Nolan, 2000) forces its audience to continuallyreconstruct the story told in a temporally convoluted plot.

SCENE / SEQUENCE


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A scene is a segment of a narrative film that usually takes place in a single time and place, often with thesame characters. Sometimes a single scene may contain two lines of action, occurring in different spaces oreven different times, that are related by means ofcrosscutting. Scene and sequence can usually be used

interchangeably, though the latter term can also refer to a longer segment of film that does not obey thespatial and temporal unities of a single scene. For example, a montage sequence that shows in a few shots aprocess that occurs over a period of time.

SHOT

A single stream of images, uninterrupted by editing. The shot can use a static or a mobile framing, astandard or a non-standard frame rate, but it must be continuous. The shot is one of the basic units of cinemayet has always been subject to manipulation, for example stop-motion cinematography or superimposition.In contemporary cinema, with the use of computer graphics and sequences built-up from a series of stillframes (eg. The Matrix), the boundaries of the shot are increasingly being challenged.


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Part 2: Mise-en-sceneThe representation of space affects the reading of a film. Depth, proximity, size and proportions of the


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places and objects in a film can be manipulated through camera placement and lenses, lighting, decor,effectively determining mood or relationships between elements in the diegetic world.

Section 1 - Decor

An important elememt of "putting in the scene" is dcor, the objects contained in and the setting of a scene.

Dcor can be used to amplify character emotion or the dominant mood of a film. In these shots from 2001: ASpace Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1969) the futuristic furniture and reduced color scheme stress the sterilityand impersonality of the space station environment. Later, the digital nature of the HAL computer isrepresented by the repeating patterns and strong geometrical design of the set.


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In Senso (Luchino Visconti, Italy, 1954) dcor emphazises the social difference between a wealthy marriedwoman in her richly furnished apartment and her soldier lover in the barren military barracks. Ultimately,she finds the contrast so appalling that she ruins her reputation and financial standing in order to satisfy her

lover's desire for a luxurious lifestyle.

REAR PROJECTION

Usually used to combine foreground action, often actors in conversation, with a background often shotearlier, on location. Rear projection provides an economical way to set films in exotic or dangerous locationswithout having to transport expensive stars or endure demanding conditions. In some films, the relationship


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between scenes shot on location and scenes shot using rear projection becomes a signifying pattern. In otherfilms, it's just cheap...

Rear projection is featured extensively in Douglas Sirk's lush melodrama Written On The Wind(1956).Specifically, almost every car ride is shot in this way, a common feature in Classical Hollywood films, dueto the physical restrains of shooting in the studio. In addition, by speeding up the rate of the projectedimages in the background, or quickly changing its angle, rear projection allows for an impression of speedthat involves no real danger.

Even if one of the protagonists ofWritten On The Windis a fast-driving alcoholic millionaire (and thereforethere are multiple instances of careless driving), rear projection is preferred to stunts both for economic andaesthetic reasons. For example, physical spectacle is not as important in a melodrama as it would be in anaction film..


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Section 2 - Lighting

The intensity, direction, and quality of lighting have a profound effect on the way an image is perceived.Light affects the way colors are rendered, both in terms of hue and depth, and can focus attention onparticular elements of the composition. Much like movement in the cinema, the history of lightingtechnology is intrisically linked to the history of film style. Most mainstream films rely on the three-pointlighting style, and its genre variations. Other films, for example documentaries and realist cinema, rely on

natural light to create a sense of authenticity.

THREE-POINT LIGHTING

The standard lighting scheme for classical narrative cinema. In order to model an actor's face (or anotherobject) with a sense of depth, light from three directions is used, as in the diagram below. A backlight picks


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out the subject from its background, a bright key light highlights the object and a fill light from the oppositeside ensures that the key light casts only faint shadows.

Illustration courtesy ofhttp://www.tcf.ua.edu/TVCrit/

These shots from Written On The Wind(Douglas Sirk, 1956) demostrate the classical use of three-pointlighting. Laurel Bacall and Rock Hudson are rendered glamorous by the balanced lighting. Compare this tothe manipulation of lighting for expressive purposes on the high-key lighting and low-key lighting pages.


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HIGH-KEY LIGHTING


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A lighting scheme in which the fill light is raised to almost the same level as the key light. This producesimages that are usually very bright and that feature few shadows on the principal subjects. This bright imageis characteristic of entertainment genres such as musicals and comedies such as Peking Opera Blues (Do Ma

Daan, Tsui Hark, Honk Kong, 1986)


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LOW-KEY LIGHTING

A lighting scheme that employs very little fill light, creating strong contrasts between the brightest anddarkest parts of an image and often creating strong shadows that obscure parts of the principal subjects. Thislighting scheme is often associated with "hard-boiled" or suspense genres such asfilm noir. Here are someexamples from Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958.)


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Section 3 - Space

The representation of space affects the reading of a film. Depth, proximity, size and proportions of theplaces and objects in a film can be manipulated through camera placement and lenses, lighting, decor,effectively determining mood or relationships between elements in the diegetic world.


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DEEP SPACE

A film utilizes deep space when significant elements of an image are positioned both near to and distantfrom the camera. For deep space these objects do not have to be in focus, a defining characteristic of deepfocus. Staging in deep space is the opposite of staging in shallow space.

Deep space is used throughout many Iranian films such as The Color of Paradise (Rang-e Khoda,1999).Director Majid Majidi likes to integrate the characters into their natural surroundings, to map out the actualdistances involved between one location and another in order to emphasize just exactly how hard it is for aparticular character (especially children) to move from one place to another.


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In this composition, Mohammad's father looks in apprehension at the school where his blind son isvisiting.In the far background, Mohammad is playing with his sister and other "normal" children, but hisfather does not believe Mohammad should try to mingle with them since he could never be their equal, dueto his disability. On the other hand, Mohammad enjoys the company of his new friends in the countrysidemuch more than the School for the Blind in Tehran, where he spends most of the year. The distance betweenthe two points of view, as well as the impossibility of communication between Mohammad and his father(the son is too respectful of his father, the father finds his son's situation too painful), is reflected in the deepuse of mise-en-scene.


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FRONTALITY

Frontality refers to the staging of elements, often human figures, so that they face the camera square-on.This arrangement is an alternative to oblique staging. Frontal staging is usually avoided by the invisible styleofcontinuity editing, since it supposedly breaks the spectator's illusion of peeking into a separate world, byhaving characters look directly into the camera as if they were aware of the viewers' presence. Some filmsmay go even further and have the characters speak to the camera, in what is called a direct address.Accordingly, frontality is often used in films that are more willing to play with, or openly defy, the distancebetween the screen and the spectator. In this shot from The Stendhal Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal,

Italy, 1996) Dario Argento exploits the iconicity of frontal staging in multiple ways.


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"real" and matted elements in the background (the roof and the belfry) with the added silhouette in theforeground.

Matte shooting is one of the most common techniques used in studio filmmaking, either for economicalreasons (it's cheaper to shot a picture of the Eiffel tower than to travel to Paris) or because it would beimpossible or too dangerous to try to shot in the real space. Sometimes, as when animation and real figuresinteract, that space may not even exist. In recent years, however, special effects and computer generatedimages have taken over the function of matte shots.


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OFFSCREEN SPACE

Space that exists in the diegesis but that is not visible in the frame. Offscreen space becomes significant

when the viewer's attention is called to an event or presence in the diegesis that is not visible in the frame.Offscreen space is commonly exploited for suspense in horror and thriller films, such as The StendhalSyndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Dario Argento, Italy, 1996)

As discussed in the offscreen sound entry, this scene fromLife on Earth (La Vie sur Terre, AbderrahmaneSissako, Mauritania, 1998) explores the difficulties of establishing communication in a postcolonial spacethat still depends on the former colonial master for its technology and even its calendar.


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Shallow space can be staged, or it can also be achieved optically, with the use of a telephoto lens.This isparticularly useful for creating claustrophic images, since it makes the characters look like they are beingcrushed against the background.

Section 4 - Costume


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Contrary to popular belief (and Goethe), colors do not necessarily carry exclusive meanings. Compare theuse of red in Ingmar Bergman's Cries and Whispers (Viskingar Och Rop, 1972),

and Zhang Yimou'sJu Dou (1990), for example.


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While Zhang exploits red as a cliched signifier of unrestrained passion, Bergman associates the color withstagnation and contaminated blood.

CONTRAST

The ratio of dark to light in an image. If the difference between the light and dark areas is large, the image is


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said to be "high contrast". If the difference is small, it is referred to as "low contrast" Most films use lowcontrast to achieve a more naturalistic lighting. High contrast is usually associated with the low key lightingof dark scenes in genres such as the horror film and the film noir. A common cliche is to use contrast

between light and dark to distinguish between good and evil. The use of contrast in a scene may draw onracist or sexist connotations.

For instance, this shot from Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (1958) employs high contrast to further emphasizeracial differences between a blonde American woman and a menacing Mexican man.


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SHALLOW FOCUS

A restricted depth of field, which keeps only one plane in sharp focus; the opposite ofdeep focus. Used todirect the viewer's attention to one element of a scene. Shallow focus is very common in close-up, as inthese two shots from Central Station (Central do Brasil, Walter Selles, Brazil, 1998).

Shallow focus suggests psychological introspection, since a character appears as oblivious to the worldaround her/him. It is therefore commonly employed in genres such as the melodrama, where the actions andthoughts of an individual prevail over everything else.


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Depth of field is directly connected, but not to be confused, with focus. Focus is the quality (the "sharpness"of an object as it is registered in the image) and depth of field refers to the extent to which the spacerepresented is in focus. For a given lens aperture and level of lighting, the longer the focal distance (the

distance between the lens and the object that is in focus) the greater the focal depth. For a given focaldistance, the greater the level of lighting or the narrower the aperture, the greater the focal depth. For thatreason, close-up shooting and shooting in low light conditions often results in images with very shallowdepth of field. An image with shallow depth of field, as this frame from Peking Opera Blues (Do Ma Daan,Tsui Hark , 1986), has some elements in focus, but others are not.

EXPOSURE

A camera lens has an aperture that controls how much light passes through the lens and onto the film. If theaperture is widened, more light comes through and the resultant image will become more exposed. If animage is so pale that the detail begins to disappear, it can be described as "overexposed". Conversely, anarrow aperture that allows through less light will produce a darker image than normal, known as


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"underexposed". Exposure can be manipulated to guide an audience's response to a scene.

In his film Traffic (2000), Steven Soderbergh decided to shot all of the sequences in the Northern Mexicodesert overexposed. The resulting images give an impression of a barren, desolated land being mercilesslyburnt by the sun, a no-man's land over which police and customs have no control.

RACKING FOCUS


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Racking focus refers to the practice of changing the focus of a lens such that an element in one plane of theimage goes out of focus and an element at another plane in the image comes into focus. This technique is aneven more overt way of steering audience attention through the scene, as well as of linking two spaces or

objects. For instance in this scene from Peking Opera Blues (Do Ma Daan, Tsui Hark, Honk Kong, 1986), aconnection is made between an activist in hiding and a police officer who is pursuing him.

Racking focus is usually done quite quickly; in a way, the technique tries to mimick a brief, fleeting glancethat can be used to quicken the tempo or increase suspense.

RATE


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A typical sound film is shot at a frame rate of 24 frames per second. If the number of frames exposed in eachsecond is increased, the action will seem to move more slowly than normal when it is played back.Conversely, the fewer the number of frames exposed each second, the more rapid the resulting action

appears to be. The extreme case of frame rate manipulation is stop-motion, when the camera takes only oneframe then the subject is manipulated or allowed to change before taking another frame.

In this clip from Vertov'sMan with the Movie Camera (Chelovek s kinoapparatom, USSR, 1929) stopmotion is used to give the impression than the chairs open up by themselves.

In Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai, Japan, 1954), slow motion is used to contrast theemotional rescue of a child with the death of the man who kidnapped him.


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TELEPHOTO SHOT

An image shot with an extremely long lens is called a telephoto shot. The effect of using a long lens is to

compress the apparent depth of an image, so that elements that are relatively close or far away from thecamera seem to lie at approximately the same distance. In this first shot from Payback(Brian Helgeland,1999), we can clearly see there is a considerable distance beteen the fallen body and the red car.


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Yet, when a telephoto lens is used for a close-up of Mel Gibson, his face looks like it is pressed against thecar! Here a telephoto lens create a shallow space, which combines with extreme canted framing to suggestthe physical and psychological disarray of a man who has been betrayed, shot, and left for dead.


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ZOOM SHOT

The zoom shot uses a lens with several elements that allows the filmmaker to change the focal length of thelens (see telephoto shot) while the shot is in progress. We seem to move toward or away from the subject,while the quality of the image changes from that of a shorter to a longer lens, or vice versa. The change inapparent distance from the subject is similar to the crane or tracking shots, but changes in depth of field andapparent size is quite different. Zooms are commonly used at the beginning of a scene, or even a film, tointroduce an object or character by focusing on it. In the initial sequence ofThe Stendhal Syndrome (La

Sindrome di Stendhal, Dario Argento, Italy, 1996), the camera zooms from a medium long shot of peoplecueing up at a museum's entrance to a medium close-up of the female protagonist.


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Few cinematic techniques are used in isolation. Notice how the woman "helps" the zoom to achieve itspurpose of singling her out by moving around.


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In another clip from the same film, a zooms is used to offer a more detailed view of an object. Furthermore,as we move closer and closer to the painting (Caravaggio'sHead of Medusa, 1590-1600) , both our attentionand tension are increased.


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Section 2 - Framing

In one sense, cinema is an art of selection. The edges of the image create a "frame" that includes or excludesaspects of what occurs in front of the camera -- the "profilmic event". The expressive qualities of framinginclude the angle of the camera to the object, the aspect ratio of the projected image, the relationshipbetween camera and object, and the association of camera with character. In Cruel Story of Youth (Seishun

zankoku monogatari, Oshima Nagisa, 1960) the radical decentering of the character in relation to the framemarks their failed struggle to find a place in their world.


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ANGLE OF FRAMING

Many films are shot with a camera that appears to be at approximately the same height as its subject.However, it is possible to film from a position that is significantly lower or higher than the dominantelement of the shot. In that case, the image is described as low angle or high angle respectively. Angle offraming can be used to indicate the relation between a character and the camera's point of view. Or can

simply be used to create striking visual compositions.Camera angle is often used to suggest either vulnerability or power. In The Color of Paradise (Rang-eKhoda,1999) the father, who rules absolute over his family, is often portrayed from a low angle, thereforeaggrandizing his figure.


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On the other hand, his blind son Mohammad and his elderly grandmother are often shot from a high angle,emphasizing their dependence and smallness. These interpretations are not exclusive, however. The relationbetween camera and subject can be rendered ironic, or it may suggest more the subject of perception than to

the state of the object. The father in this film is so busy smiling at his fiancee that he falls off his horse,while Mohammed and her granny seen from above may also indicate that God is watching over them, andkeeping them under protection.

ASPECT RATIO


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LEVEL OF FRAMING

Not only the angle from which a camera films but the height can also be a significant element in a film. Alow-level camera is placed close to the ground whereas a high-level camera would be placed above thetypical perspective shown in the cinema. Camera level is used to signify sympathy for characters whooccupy particular levels in the image, or just to create pleasurable compositions. Camera level is obviouslyused to a greater advantage when the difference in height bewteen objects or characters is greater. In TheColor of Paradise (Rang-e Khoda, Iran, 1999) Majid Majidi uses different camera height to emphasize the

difference between Mohammad and his father.

In the first image, the camera concentrates on Mohammad as he recognizes his father's hand, after patiently


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waiting for him for hours. The father is almost absent from the scene; only the part of him that Mohammadtouches is visible, therefore increasing our empathy with the blind boy. On the second image, camera level isadjusted to the father's size, making Mohammed a puny, defenceless figure in a world that overcomes him.

The first shot is on Mohammad's School for the Blind, while the second is on a shop in Tehran. Throughdifferent camera levels, the director makes clear where Mohammad's fits and where he does not.

CANTED FRAMING

Canted Framing is a view in which the frame is not level; either the right or left side is lower than the other,causing objects in the scene to appear slanted out of an upright positon.Canted framings are used to create animpression of chaos and instability. They are therefore associated with the frantic rhythms of action films,music videos and animation.


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Many Hong Kong films of the 80s and 90s blend elements of the genres mentioned above, for instance Tsui

Hark's Peking Opera Blues (Do Ma Daan, 1986). These films employ unconventional framings to achievetheir signature dizzing, freewheeling style. Canted framings are also common when shooting with aSteadycam.

FOLLOWING SHOT


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A shot with framing that shifts to keep a moving figure onscreen. A following shot combines a cameramovement, like panning, tracking, tilting or craning, with the specific function of directing our attention to acharacter or object as he/she/it moves inside the frame. In this shot from Eyes Wide Shut(Stanley Kubrick,

1999) the camera pans slightly to accompany a couple into the ballroom floor.

REFRAMING

Short panning or tilting movements to adjust for the figures' movements, keeping them onscreen or centered.


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view shots tend toward dynamic and non-naturalistic style. In this clip from Peking Opera Blues (Do MaDaan, Tsui Hark, Hong Kong, 1986) the female impersonator's fear of the soldier who attempts to procurehim for his general is rendered comic by the cut to POV and wide angle.

POV is one of the means by which audiences are encouraged to identify with characters. However, it isactually a relatively rare technique: identificatory mechanisms rely more on sympathetic character and theflow of narrative information than on simple optical affiliation.

WIDE ANGLE LENS


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A lens of short focal length that affects a scene's perspective by distorting straight lines near the edges of theframe and by exaggerating the distance between foreground and background planes. In doing so it allows formore space to enter the frame (hence the name "wide"), which makes it more convenient for shooting in a

closed location, for instance a real room, rather than a three-wall studio room. In addition, a wider lensallows for a bigger depth of field. In 35mm filming, a wide angle lens is 30mm or less. See also telephotolens.

Since a wide angle lens distorts the edges of an image, as in this frame from Yi Yi (Edward Yang, Taiwan,2000), extreme wide lenses are avoided in naturalistic styles, or they are used in unrestrained or open spaces,

with no converging lines around the edges of the frame.


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Section 3 - Scale

If the same object were filmed at different shot scales it would often signify quite differently. Shot scale canfoster intimacy with a character, or conversely, it can swallow the character in its environment.Orson Wellesexploited divergent shot scales in Citizen Kane (1941) to demonstrate the changing power relationshipbetween Charles Foster Kane and his lawyer. As a boy, his figure is lost in the snow at the back of the shotas the lawyer arranges for his adoption. As a young man he rebels against Bernstein's oversight, rising in theframe as he asserts himself.


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EXTREME LONG SHOT

A framing in which the scale of the object shown is very small; a building, landscape, or crowd of peoplewill fill the screen. Usually the first or last shots of a sequence, that can also function as establishing shots..The following examples of framing fromEyes Wide Shut(Stanley Kubrick, 1999) and A Summer Tale(Conte d't, Eric Rohmer, 1996) well illustrate the range of uses for this particular shot scale.


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These two extreme long shots are also establishing shots. However, their primary function is different.Whereas Rohmer give us a standard establishing shot that introduces the locale where the main charactersare about to meet, Kubrick uses the ballroom shot mainly as a brief transition between two more important

scenes. While the two shots above have similar sizes, some extreme long shots can be significantly larger,particularly if shot from the air with the help ofcranes or helicopters. This kind of extreme long shot is alsocalled bird's eye view shot, since it gives an aerial perspective of the scene.

LONG SHOT

A framing in which the scale of the object shown is small; a standing human figure would appear nearly theheight of the screen. It makes for a relatively stable shot that can accomodate movement without reframing.It is therefore commonly used in genres where a full body action is to be seen in its entirety, for instanceHollywood Musicals or 1970s Martial Arts films.


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Framing such than an object four or five feet high would fill most of the screen vertically. Also called plainamricain, given its recurrence in the Western genre, where it was important to keep a cowboy's weapon inthe image.

Eyes Wide Shut(Stanley Kubrick, 1999)

A Summer Tale (Conte d't) France Eric Rohmer, 1996


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MEDIUM CLOSE-UP

A framing in which the scale of the object shown is fairly large; a human figure seen from the chest upwould fill most of the screen. Another common shot scale.

Eyes Wide Shut(Stanley Kubrick, 1999)

A Summer Tale (Conte d't, Eric Rohmer, 1996)


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it should be noted that while all of these film terms equally applies to animation, the technical procedure toachieve a particular effect can be very different. For instance this last frame is a drawing of Totoro's teeth,not a zoom on his face, as it would have been the case in a live-action film.

Section 4 - Movement


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There are many ways to move a camera: in fluid long takes, rapid and confusing motions, etc. that establishthe rhythm and point of view of a scene.A film such asMan with the Movie Camera ( Chelovek skinoapparatom, Dziga Vertov, USSR, 1929) features a full catalog of the creative possibilities open to the

film camera. In one famous sequence, we get to see the cinematographer using a car as a mobile support fora tracking shot. Furthermore, one soon realizes that the whole process is probably being mirrored by asecond car, in order to film the first one.

Scenes taken from both cameras are playfully incorporated into the film. Was this image of the car passing

by taken by the first or the second car/camera unit?


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Crane shots can also be used to achieve a flowing rhythm, particularly in a long take, as in this clip from ThePlayer (Altman, 1992)

HANDHELD CAMERA, STEADYCAM

The use of the camera operator's body as a camera support, either holding it by hand or using a gyroscopicstabilizer and a harness. Newsreel and wartime camera operators favored smaller cameras such as the Eclair

that were quickly adopted by documentarist and avant-garde filmmakers, notably the cinma veritmovement of the 1950s and 1960s. They were also used by young filmmakers since they were cheap andlent the images a greater feeling of sponteneity. At the time this challenge to prevailing standards was


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perceived as anti-cinematic but eventually it came to be accepted as a style. Whereas hand held cameras givea film an unstable, jerky feel, they also allows for a greater degree of movement and flexibility than bulkierstandard cameras --at a fraction of the cost. Filmmakers now are experimenting with digital video in asimilar way. Gyroscopically stabilized "steadicams" were invented in the 1970s and made it possible tocreate smooth "tracking" shots without cumbersome equipment. More recently, they are extensively used inmusic videos and in the films of theDogme movement, such as Lars Von Trier'sDancer in the Dark(Denmark, 2000)

Ironically, while today's steadicams allow for a fairly stable image, Lars Von Trier and his accolites prefer toexacerbate the jerkiness and unstability traditionally associated with these cameras as a marker of visceralautorial intervention. In fact, combining steadicam shooting with aggressive reframings andjump cuts , oreven by shooting on low definition formats,Dogme and other radical filmmaking movements attempt tocreate a new cinematic look as further away as possible from mainstream Hollywood.


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PAN

A camera movement with the camera body turning to the right or left. On the screen, it produces a mobileframing which scans the space horizontally. A pan directly and immediately connects two places orcharacters, thus making us aware of their proximity. The speed at which a pan occurs can be expoited fordifferent dramatic purposes. For instance, in a Mizoguchi or a Hou film, two characters may be having aconversation in a room, and after several minutes, the camera might pan and reveal a third person was alsopresent, thus changing the whole implication of the scene. In a film like Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000),on the other hand, pans are usually very quick, suggesting that characters have no time to waste, and thatdecisions must be taken fast, therefore contributing to the sense of imminent danger and moral urgency that

the films tries to communicate.


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In the clip above, the defense lawyer has just finished a long, clever speech, yet the judge has no secondthoughts on his verdict, nor any pity for the (presumably guilty) accused and their rich legal cohorts. Lastly,a pan does not necessarily mean that the camera moves along an horizontal line. This clip from The StendhalSyndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Dario Argento,1996), illustrates what we could call a 360 pan.


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TILT

A camera movement with the camera body swiveling upward or downward on a stationary support. Itproduces a mobile framing that scans the space vertically. Its function is similar to that ofpans and trackingshots, albeit on a vertical axis. In this clip fromBesieged(L'Assedio, Italy, 1998) Bernardo Bertolucci uses atilt to establish the social (and even racial) distance between an African housemaid and her wealthy English

employer.


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A tilt usually also implies a change in the angle of framing; in this clip the camera starts with a high angleview of the woman and ends up on a low angle view of the man --which obviously reinforces the socialinequality of their relationship. Lastly, a tilt is also a means of gradually uncovering offscreen space. Thiscan be exploited for suspense, since a sense of anticipation grows in the viewer as the camera movement

forces her/his attention in a precise direction, yet never knowing when it will stop, nor what will be foundthere.

TRACKING SHOT


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Orson Welles made virtuosistic tracking shots a staple of their films, often in conjuntion with long takes.

WHIP PAN

An extremely fast movement of the camera from side to side, which briefly causes the image to blur into aset of indistinct horizontal streaks. Often an imperceptible cut will join two whip pans to create a tricktransition between scenes. As opposed to dissolves, action or graphic matches, and fades --the most common

transitions of the continuity style-- whip pans always stand out, given their abrupt, brisk nature. Commonlyused in flashy action genres such as kung-fu movies from the 70s, like Fists of Fury (Tang Shan Da Xiong,Wei Lo, Honk Kong, 1971).


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Part 4: Editing

Section 1 - Devices

a) TRANSITIONS

The shot is defined by editing but editing also works to join shots together. There are many ways ofeffecting that transition, some more evident than others. In the analytical tradition, editing serves to establishspace and lead the viewer to the most salient aspects of a scene. In the classical continuity style, editingtechniques avoid drawing attention to themselves. In a constructivist tradition such as Soviet Montagecinema, there is no such false modesty. Vertov's Man with the Movie Camera (Chelovek s kinoapparatom,

USSR, 1929) celebrates the power of the cinema to create a new reality out of disparate fragments.


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CHEAT CUT

Cheat cut. In the continuity editing system, a cut which purports to show continuous time and space fromshot to shot but which actually mismatches the position of figures or objects in the scene. In this sequencefromMeet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minelli, 1944) the editing sacrifices actual physical space for dramaticspace. As we can see in the first shot, there is a wall behind the telephone.


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However, that wall magically disappears in the third shot in order to show both the telephone and the familyseated around the dining table (an important element in the film) from an angle that would had beenimpossible in an actual room. Cheat cuts were also often used to disguise the relatively short stature ofleading men in relation to their statuesque female co-stars.

CROSSCUTTING, aka PARALLEL EDITING

Editing that alternates shots of two or more lines of action occurring in different places, usuallysimultaneously. The two actions are therefore linked, associating the characters from both lines of action. Inthis extended clip from Edward Yang's Yi Yi (Taiwan, 2000), father and daughter go out on dates atpresumably the same time, and go through the same motions, even if the father is in Japan and the daughterin Taipei.


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To further stress the similarities, the father is actually reliving his first date with his first girlfriend (whom hehas just met again after 20 years), while his daughter is actually on her first date! Yang uses parallel editingacross space and time to suggest that history repeats itself, generation after generation.

CUT-IN, CUT AWAY

An instantaneous shift from a distant framing to a closer view of some portion fo the same space, and viceversa. In Lars Von Trier'sDancer in the Dark( Denmark, 2000) Selma and Bill have a dramaticconversation in Bill's car that is framed by a cut-in and a cut-away.


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The two cuts neatly bracket Bill's anguished confession as a separate moment, private and isolated, that onlySelma knows about. This editing-constructed secrecy will ultimately have drastic consequences for Selma.


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DISSOLVE

A transition between two shots during which the first image gradually disappears while the second imagegradually appears; for a moment the two images blend in superimposition. Dissolves can be used as a fairly

straighforward editing device to link any two scenes, or in more creative ways, for instance to suggesthallucinatory states. In this series of shots from The Stendhal Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, DarioArgento, 1996), a young woman becomes so absorbed by Brueghel's The Fall of Icarus that she actuallydives into the painting's sea! (at least in her imagination, in "real life" she faints).


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IRIS

A round, moving maskthat can close down to end a scene (iris-out) or emphasize a detail, or it can open tobegin a scene (iris-in) or to reveal more space around a detail. For instance, in this scene from Neighbors

(Buster Keaton, 1920), the iris is used with the comic effect of gradually revealing that the femaleprotagonist is 1) ready for her wedding and 2) ready for her not-too-luxurious wedding.


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Iris is a common device of early films (at at time when some techniques like zooming were not feasible), so

much so that when it is used after 1930 it is often perceived as charminlgly anachronistic or nostalgic, as inTruffaut's Shoot the Piano Player (1960).

JUMP CUT

An elliptical cut that appears to be an interruption of a single shot. Either the figures seem to change


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instantly against a constant background, or the background changes instantly while the figures remainconstant. See also elliptical editing, steadicam.. Jump cuts are anathema to Classical Hollywood continuityediting, but feature prominently in avant-garde and radical filmmaking.When the French Nouvelle Vaguefilms of the 1960s made jump cuts an essential part of their playful, modern outlook, many directors fromaround the globe started to use jump cuts --either creatively or in a last ditch attempt to become "hip". Morerecently, jump cuts are more commonly associated with music videos, video or alternative filmmaking, likeLars Von Trier's Dogma films. Here is an example fromDancer in the Dark(Denmark, 2000).

Jump cuts are used expressively, to suggest the ruminations or ambivalences of a character, or of his/hereveryday life, but they are also a clear signifier of rupture with mainstream film storytelling. Rather than

presenting a film as a perfectly self-contained story that seamlessly unfold in front of us, jump cuts are likeutterances that evidentiates both the artificiality and the difficulties of telling such a story.


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ESTABLISHING SHOT/REESTABLISHING SHOT

A shot, usually involving a distant framing, that shows the spatial relations among the important figures,objects, and setting in a scene. Usually, the first few shots in a scene are establishing shots, as theyintroduces us to a location and the space relationships inside it.

In the initial sequence from Peking Opera Blues (Do Ma Daan, Honk Kong,1986), director Tsui Hark uses

three shots to establish the locale. In the first one, three musicians are shown against a fireplace in whatlooks like a luxurious room. Our suspicions are confirmed by the second establishing shot, which shows usthe other half of the ample room (shot/ reverse shot) and reveals a party going on.


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After this introduction, the camera moves forward with several close-ups of both the musicians and thespectators. At the end of the sequence, Hark shows us the entire room in a larger shot. This final establishingshot is called a reestablishing shot, for it shows us once again the spatial relationships introduced with the

establishing shots.


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SHOT/REVERSE SHOT

Two or more shots edited together that alternate characters, typically in a conversation situation. Incontinuity editing, characters in one framing usually look left, in the other framing, right. Over-the-shoulder

framings are common in shot/reverse-shot editing. Shot / reverse shots are one of the most firmly establishedconventions in cinema, and they are usually linked through the equally persuasive eyeline matches. Theseconventions have become so strong that they can be exploited to make improbable meanings convincing, as


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in this sequence from The Stendhal Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Italy,1996). Director DarioArgento has his protagonist Anna looking at Botticelli's The Birth of Venus (c1485)...

...but with the use of successive shot/ reverse shots, eyeline matches and matching framings, it soons beginsto look as if Venus herself is looking at Anna!


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SUPERIMPOSITION

The exposure of more than one image on the same film strip. Unlike a dissolve, a superimposition does notsignify a transition from one scene to another. The technique was often used to allow the same performer toappear simultaneously as two characters on the screen (for example Son of the Sheik), to express subjectiveor intoxicated vision (The Last Laugh), or simply to introduce a narrative element from another part of thediegetic world into the scene. In this clip fromNeighbors (Buster Keaton, 1920), the resentful father of the

bride looks at the wedding ring and immediately associates in his mind with a five and dime store. Thesubjective shot gives us a clear indication of his opinion of his soon to be son-in-law.


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WIPEA transition betwen shots in which a line passes across the screen, eliminating the first shot as it goes andreplacing it with the next one. A very dynamic and noticeable transition, it is usually employed in action oradventure films. It often suggest a brief temporal ellypsis and a direct connection between the two images.In this example from Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (Sichinin No Samurai, Japan, 1954), the old man's wordsare immediately corroborated by the wandering, destitute samurai coming into town.

As other transitions devices, like the whip pan, wipes became fashionable at an specific historical time (the1950s and 1960s), so much so as to became stylistic markers of the film of the period.


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b) MATCHES

Editing matches refer to those techniques that join as well as divide two shots by making some form ofconnection between them. That connection can be inferred from the situation portrayed in the scene (forexample, eyeline match) or can be of a purely optical nature (graphic match).

EYELINE MATCH

A cut obeying the axis of action principle, in which the first shot shows a person off in one direction and thesecond shows a nearby space containing what he or she sees. If the person looks left, the following shot


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should imply that the looker is offscreen right. The following shots from Dario Argento's The StendhalSyndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Italy, 1996), depict Anna looking at a painting, Brueghel's The Fall ofIcarus. The scene takes place inside Firenze's most famous museum, the Uffizi Gallery.

First we see her looking... then we see what she looks at.

As her interest grows, the eyeline match (that is the connection between looker and looked) is stressed withmatching close-ups of Anna's face and Icarus's falling into the ocean in the painting.Again, this implies thatAnna is looking directly at Icarus's body.


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Ironically, even if Argento managed to film inside the real Uffizi gallery, the painting he wanted to use, TheFall of Icarus, is not part of the museum's collection! The painting that we see is probably a reproduction,shot in the studio, and edited together with Anna's shots in the Uffizi to make us believe that they are both in

the same room. As this example demonstrates, eyeline matches can be a very persuasive tool to constructspace in a film, real or imagined.

GRAPHIC MATCH

Two successive shots joined so as to create a strong similarity of compositional elements (e.g., color, shape).


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Used in trasparent continuity styles to smooth the transition between two shots, as in this clip from WomenOn The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios, Almodvar, 1988).


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Graphic matches can also be used to make metaphorical associations, as in Soviet Montage style.Furthermore, some directors like Ozu Yasujiro use graphic matches as an integral part of their film style.

MATCH ON ACTION

A cut which splices two different views of the same action together at the same moment in the movement,making it seem to continue uninterrupted. Quite logically, these characteristics make it one of the most

common transitions in the continuity style. Here is an example from Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000)


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A match on action adds variety and dinamism to a scene, since it conveys two movements: the one thatactually takes place on screen, and an implied one by the viewer, since her/his position is shifted.


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c) DURATION

Only since the introduction of editing to the cinema at the turn of the 20th century has not-editing become anoption. The decision to extend a shot can be as significant as the decision to cut it. Editing can affect the

experience of time in the cinema by creating a gap between screen time and diegetic time (Montage andoverlapping editing) or by establishing a fast or slow rhythm for the scene.

LONG TAKE, aka PLAN-SEQUENCE

A shot that continues for an unusually lengthy time before the transition to the next shot. The average lenghtper shot differs greatly for different times and places, but most contemporary films tend to have fasterediting rates. In general lines, any shot above one minute can be considered a long take. Here is an excerptfrom the initial shot of Robert Altman's The Player (1992) which not only runs for more than eight minutes,but it is in itself an hommage to another famous long take, the first shot of Welles's Touch of Evil (1958).


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Unless shot at a fixed angle, with a fixed camera and no movement, long takes are extremely hard to shoot.They have to be choreographed and rehearsed to the last detail, since any error would make it necessary tostart all over again from scratch. Sophisticated long takes such as this one from The Player, which includesall kinds of camera movements and zooms, are often seen as auteuristic marks of virtuosity. Aside from the

challenge of shooting in real time, long takes decisively influence a film's rhythm. Depending on how muchmovement is included, a long take can make a film tense, stagnant and spell-binding, or daring, flowing andcarefree.Indeed, directors like Altman, Welles, Renoir, Angelopoulos, Tarkovski or Mizoguchi have madelong takes (usually in combination with deep focus and deep space) an essential part of their film styles.


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OVERLAPPING EDITING

Cuts that repeat part or all of an action, thus expanding its viewing time and plot duration. Most commonlyassociated with experimental filmmmaking, due to its temporally disconcerting and purely graphic nature, it

is also featured in films in which action and movement take precedence over plot and dialogue: sportsdocumentaries, musicals, martial arts, etc. Overlapping editing is a common characteristic of the frenziedHong Kong action films of the 80s and 90s. When director John Woo moved to Hollywood, he tried toincorporate some of that style into mainstream action films, such as Mission: Impossible 2 (2000).

RHYTHM

The perceived rate and regularity of sounds, series of shots, and movements within the shots. Rhythmic


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factors include beat (or pulse), accent (or stress), and tempo (or pace). Rhythm is one of the essentialfeatures of a film, for it decisively contributes to its mood and overall impression on the spectator. It is alsoone of the most complex to analyze, since it is achieved through the combination of mise-en-scene,cinematography, sound and editing. Indeed, rhythm can be understood as the final balance all of the

elements of a film. Let us compare how rhythm can radically alter the treatment of a similar scene. Thesetwo clips fromDeconstructing Harry (Woody Allen, 1997) and Cries and Whispers (Viskingar Och Rop,Ingmar Bergman, Sweden1972) feature a couple at a table, and both clips feature a moment of fracturebetween the two characters. Still, they could not be more dissimilar. Allen employs fast cuts (even jumpcuts), pans, quick dialogue and gesturing, as he concentrates exclusively on the two characters, shot from avariety of angles but always in medium close-up and close-up.

Even if both characters overtly disagree with each other, there is an overall feeling of warmth and inmediacybetween them, suggested by their proximity (established in short pans and close-ups) and in the tone of their

speech. The quick camera movements and different camera placements suggest the uneasiness of bothcharacters, as they budge on their seats.


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Cries and Whispers, on the other hand, present us with a scene of horrifying stillness. Bergman accentuatesthe separation between man and woman by shooting them frontally and almost eliminating dialogue. In thiscontext, even the smallest sounds of forks and knives sound ominous; a glass shattering resonates like ashot.

Furthermore, the mise-en-scene becomes as equally, if not more, important than the characters, reducingeverything to dour red, black and whites. The feeling of claustrophobia is enhanced by the use ofshallowspace, having the characters become one with the austere backgrounds. Pace is deliberately slow, and it onlyquickes when the glass breaks and both characters lift up their heads, only to immediately return to normal.Bergman accelerates the rhythm for a second, punctuating the moment of the glass breaking so that a trivialincident is magnified into a clear signal of disaster.

Lastly, rhythm is, almost by definition, intrisically related to music and sound. Some of the most strikingexamples of the use of music as a film's driving force occur in the (endlessly imitated) spaghetti westerns ofSergio Leone, which were written in close collaboration with composer Ennio Morricone. In fact, sometimes


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the music would be composed first and then a scene that fitted that rhythm would be shot, thus reversing thecustomary order.

The prelude to the final shotdown ofThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo, Italy,1966) runs for several minutes (of which we only see the last minute here), as three men face each other in atriangle, waiting to see who will take the first step. One of the film's theme songs is played in its entirety,

from a slow, elegiac beginning to a frenzy crescendo that is abruptly cut off by the first gunshot. The slowmounting crescendo is paralleled by an increase in the editing rate, and an intensified framing (the sequenceactually begins on a long shot similar to the previous one).

Section 2 - Styles


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The patterned use of transitions, matches and duration can be identified as a cinematic style. Editing stylesare usually associated with historical moments, technological developments, or national schools.

CONTINUITY EDITING

A system of cutting to maintain continuous and clear narrative action. Continuity editing relies uponmatching screen direction, position, and temporal relations from shot to shot. The film supports the viewer'sassumption that space and time are contiguous between successive shots. Also, the diegesis is more readilyunderstood when directions on the screen match directions in the world of the film. The "180 rule," shownin the diagram below, dictates that the camera should stay in one of the areas on either side of the axis ofaction (an imaginary line drawn between the two major dramatic elements A and B in a scene, usually twocharacters).


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By following this rule the filmmaker ensures that each character occupies a consistent area of the frame,helping the audience to understand the layout of the scene. This sense of a consistent space is reinforced bythe use of techniques such as the eyeline match or match on action. In this sequence fromNeighbors (BusterKeaton, 1920), continuity is maintained by the spatial and temporal contiguity of the shots and thepreservation of direction between world and screen. More importantly, the shots are matched on Keaton'sactions as he shuttles across the courtyard from stairwell to stairwell.


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1 A f di i 2 A h di i d l d b h S i fil k f h 1920 h


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1. A synonym for editing. 2. An approach to editing developed by the Soviet filmmakers of the 1920s suchas Pudovkin, Vertov and Eisenstein; it emphasizes dynamic, often discontinuous, relationships betweenshots and the juxtaposition of images to create ideas not present in either shot by itself. Sergei Eisenstein, inparticular, developed a complex theory of montage that included montage within the shot, between sound

and image, multiple levels of overtones, as well as in the conflict between two shots. This sequence from October (Oktyabr, USSR, 1927) is an example of Eisenstein's intellectual montage. The increasinglyprimitive icons from various world religions are linked by patterns of duration, screen direction and shotscale to produce the concept of religion as a degenerate practice used to legitimate corrupt states.

Soviet Montage proved to be influential around the world for commercial as well as avant-garde filmmakers.We can see echoes of Pudovkin in The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, USA, 1939),Mother India (MehboobKhan, India, 1957), and The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, USA, 1973). In a famous sequence from thelatter film, shots of Michael attending his son's baptism are intercut with the brutal killings of his rivals.

R h h i h l i l i f h (i i hi hl lik l h ll f h N Y k


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Rather than stressing the temporal simultaneity of the events (it is highly unlikely that all of the New YorkMafia heads can be caught off guard at exactly the same time!), the montage suggests Michael's dual natureand committement to both his "families", as well as his ability to gain acceptance into both on their ownterms -- through religion and violence.

ELLIPTICAL EDITING

Shot transitions that omit parts of an event, causing an ellipses in plot and story duration. In this clip fromTraffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000), a drug party is rendered through elliptical editing (achieved with a

l tif l f di l d j t ) i d t b th h t th ti d t th h t '


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plentiful use ofdissolves andjump cuts) in order to both shorten the time and suggest the character'srambling mental states.

Elliptical editing need not be confined to a same place and time. A seven-minute song sequence from HumAapke Hain Koun (Sooraj Bartjatya, India 1994) dances us through several months in the life of a family,

from a cricket match to a ritual welcoming a new wife.

f f th l d ' d il lif t th t f P j '


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from scenes of the newlyweds' daily life... to the announcement of Pooja's pregnacy,

from a gift shower for the upcoming baby... to multiple scenes of celebrations, as Pooja's approaches herninth month.


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Part 5: Sound

Section I - Sound Editing


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Sound bridges can lead in or out of a scene They can occur at the beginning of one scene when the sound


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Sound bridges can lead in or out of a scene. They can occur at the beginning of one scene when the soundfrom the previous scene carries over briefly before the sound from the new scene begins. Alternatively, theycan occur at the end of a scene, when the sound from the next scene is heard before the image appears on thescreen. Sound bridges are one of the most common transitions in the continuity editing style, one that

stresses the connection between both scenes since their mood (suggested by the music) is still the same. Butsound bridges can also be used quite creatively, as in this clip from Yi Yi (Taiwan, 2000). Director EdwardYang uses a sound bridge both to play with our expectations. The clip begins with a high angle shot of acouple arguing under a highway. A piano starts playing and the scene cuts into a house interior, where apregnant woman is looking at some cd's...

...finally, the camera pans to reveal a young girl (previously offscreen) playing the piano. It is only then thatwe realize the music is diegetic, and that the young girl was looking at the window at her best friend and herboyfriend. The romantic melody she plays as she realizes they are breaking up in turn introduces a now

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Section 2 - Source

Most basically, this category refers to the place of a sound in relation to the frame and to the world of thefilm. A sound can be onscreen or offscreen, diegetic or nondiegetic (including voice over), it can berecorded separately from the image or at the moment of filming. Sound source depends on numeroustechnical, economic, and aesthetic considerations, each of which can affect the final significance of a film.

DIEGETIC/NON-DIEGETIC SOUND

Any voice, musical passage, or sound effect presented as originating froma source within the film's world is

diegetic. If it originates outside the film (as most background music) then it is non-diegetic.

A further distinction can be made between external and internal diegetic sound In the first clip from


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A further distinction can be made between external and internal diegetic sound. In the first clip fromAlmodvar's Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios,1988) we hear Ivn speaking into the microphone as he works on the Spanish dubbing ofJohnny Guitar(Nicholas Ray, 1954). Since he is speaking out loud and any other character could hear him, this is an

example ofexternal diegetic sound. This clip has no non-diegetic sounds other than the brief keyboard chordthat introduces the scene.

Sound and diegesis gets more complicated in the next clip, from Dario Argento's The Stendhal Syndrome(La Sindrome di Stendhal, Italy, 1996). As Anna looks at Paolo Uccello's famous painting of the Battle ofSan Romano (c1435), we begin to hear the sounds of the battle: horses whimpering, weapons clashing, etc.These sounds exist only in Anna's troubled mind, which is highly sensitive to works of art. These areinternal diegetic sounds (inside of a character's mind) that no one else in the gallery can hear.


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On the other hand, the Ennio Morricone eerie score that sets up the scene and mixes with the battle sounds,is a common example ofnon-diegetic sound, sounds that only the spectators can hear. (Obviously, no boom-box blasting tourist is allowed into the Uffizi's gallery!)

DIRECT SOUND

When using direct sound, the music, noise, and speech of the profilmic event at the moment of filming is

recorded in the film. This is the opposite ofpostsynchronizationin which the sound is dubbed on top of anexisting, silent image. Studio systems use multiple microphones to record directly and with the utmost

clarity On the other hand some national cinemas notably Italy India and Japan have avoided direct sound


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clarity. On the other hand, some national cinemas, notably Italy, India and Japan, have avoided direct soundat some stage in their histories and dubbed the dialogues to the film after the shooting. But direct sound canalso mean something other than the clearly defined synchronized sound of Hollywood films -- the Cinmaverit, third world filmmaking and other documentarist, improvisatory and realist styles that also record

sound directly but with an elementary microphone set-up, as in Abbas Kiarostami's Taste of Cherry (Ta'm eGuilass, Iran, 1997).

The result maintains the immediacy of direct sound at the expense of clarity. Furthermore, incidental sounds(street noise, etc) are not mixed down, but left "as it is". Impression and mood are favored over precision:not every word can be made out. The final sonic picture is blurred and harder to understand, but arguablycloser to what we perceive in real life.


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NONSIMULTANEOUS SOUND

Diegetic sound that comes from a source in time either earlier or later than the images it accompanies. In thisclip from Almodvar's Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque deNervios, Spain, 1988) Pepa adds the female voice to the dubbing ofJohnny Guitar, the male voice havingpreviously been recorded by Pepa's ex-lover Ivan. (You can see Ivan's dubbing here)

While Pepa's voice is diagetic and simultaneous, Ivan's voice is also diegetic, and yet it is nonsimultaneous,since it comes from a previous moment in the film. Almodvar uses nonsimultaneous sound to establish aconversation that should have taken place but never did (Ivan is not returning Pepa's calls and she is

becoming desperate) when, with a perverse melodramatic twist, he has the jilted lovers repeating the wordsof another couple of cinematic jilted lovers. As in this example, nonsimultaneous sound is often used to

suggest recurrent obsessions and other hallucinatory states.


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suggest recurrent obsessions and other hallucinatory states.

OFFSCREEN SOUND

Simultaneous sound from a source assumed to be in the space of the scene but outside what is visibleonscreen. InLife on Earth (La Vie sur Terre, Abderrahmane Sissako, 1998) a telephone operator tries tohelp a woman getting a call trough. While he tries to establish a connection, the camera examines the office

and the other people present in the scene. Yet, even if the operator and the woman are now offscreen, theircentrality to the scene is alway tangible through sounds (dialing, talking, etc).

Of course, a film may use offscreen sound to play with our assumptions. In this clip from Women On The


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, y p y p pVerge Of A Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios, Pedro Almodvar, 1988), wehear a woman and a man's voices in conversation, in what it looks like a film production studio. Even if wedo not see the speakers, we instantly believe they must be around. Gradually, the camera shows us that we

are in a dubbing studio, and only the woman is present, the man's voice being previously recorded.Moreover, theirs is not a real conversation but lines from a movie dialogue.

POSTSYNCHRONIZATION DUBBING

The process of adding sound to images after they have been shot and assembled. This can include dubbing

of voices, as well as inserting diegetic music or sound effects. It is the opposite ofdirect sound. It is not,


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, g g pp ,however, the opposite ofsynchronous sound, since sound and image are also matched here, even if at a laterstage in the editing process. Compare the French dubbed, or post-synchronized, version ofMission:Impossible 2 (John Woo, 2000), with the sychronized original.

You can hear the original English version here.

SOUND PERSPECTIVE

The sense of a sound's position in space, yielded by volume, timbre, pitch, and, in stereophonic reproductionsystems, binaural information. Used to create a more realistic sense of space, with events happening (that is,coming from) closer or further away. Listen closely to this clip from The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson

Welles, 1942) as the woman goes through her door and comes back.


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As soon as she closes the door her voice sounds muffled and distant (she is walking away), then growsclearer (she is coming back), then at full volume again, as she comes out. We can also hear hushing remarksthat gives us a sense of the absent presence of a whole web of family members in the house. The stronger thevoice, the closer his/ her room. Sound perspective, combined with offscreen space, also gives us clues as towho (and most importantly, where) is present in a scene. Welles' use of sound in this scene is unusual sinceClassical Hollywood Cinema generally sacrifices sound perspective to narrative comprehensibility.

SYNCHRONOUS SOUND


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Sound that is matched temporally with the movements occuring in the images, as when dialoguecorresponds to lip movements. The norm for Hollywood films is to synchronize sound and image at the

moment of shooting; others national cinemas do it later (see direct sound, postsyncronization) Compare theoriginal English version ofMission: Impossible 2 (John Woo, 2000),

with the French dubbed version.

VOICE OVER

When a voice, often that of a character in the film, is heard while we see an image of a space and time inwhich that character is not actually speaking. The voice over is often used to give a sense of a character'ssubjectivity or to narrate an event told in flashback. It is overwhelmingly associated with genres such as film

noir, and its obsessesive characters with a dark past. It also features prominently in most films dealing with


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yautobiography, nostalgia, and literary adaptation. In the title sequence from The Ice Storm (1997) Ang Leeuses voice over to situate the plot in time and to introduce the subject matter (i.e., the American family in the1970s), while also giving an indication of his main character's ideas and general culture.

While a very common and useful device, voice over is an often abused technique. Over dependance on voiceover to vent a character's thoughts can be interpreted as a telling signal of a director's lack of creativity --or atraining on literature and theater, rather than visual arts. But voice over can also be used in non literal orironic ways, as when the words a character speaks do not seem to match the actions he/she performs. Someavant garde films, for instance, make purposely disconcerting uses of voice over narration.

Section 3 - Quality


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Sect o 3 Qua ty

Much like quality of the image, the aural properties of a sound -- its timbre, volume, reverb, sustain, etc. --have a major effect on a film's aesthetic. A film can register the space in which a sound is produced (its

sound signature) or it can be otherwise manipulated for dramatic purposes. The recording of Orson Welles'voice at the end ofTouch of Evil (1958) adds a menacing reverb to his confession.

The mediation of Abbas Kiarostami's voice through the walkie-talkie and the video quality of the image in

the coda ofTaste of Cherry (Ta'm e Guilass, Iran, 1997) underscore the reflexivity that is characteristic ofhis films.


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Part 6: Analysis

EXAMPLES OF FILM ANALYSIS

Click on the links below to see extremely rudimentary examples of shot breakdown and close analysis ofsequences from various films. You should aim to go beyond these examples in the precision and cogency ofthe analyses in your assignments.

Rocco and his Brothers (Rocco e i suoi fratelli, Luchino Visconti, Italy, 1960)

Il Grido (Michelangelo Antononi, Italy, 1957)


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A Guide to Narratological Film Analysis Manfred Jahn


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Full reference: Jahn, Manfred. 2003. A Guide to Narratological Film Analysis.Poems, Plays, and Prose: A

Guide to the Theory of Literary Genres. English Department, University of Cologne. Version: 1.7. Date:

August 2, 2003 This page:http://www.uni-koeln.de/~ame02/pppf.htmProject introductory page:http://www.uni-koeln.de/~ame02/ppp.htm

To facilitate global indexing, all paragraphs in this section are prefixed 'F' for 'film'. If you quote

from this document, use paragraph references (e.g., F2.1) rather than page numbers.

Contents F1. Film as a narrative genreF2. Moving pictures: the visual codeF3. Sound: the audio

codeF4. Composition, Narration and Focalization F4.1. FCD: The Filmic Composition

Device F4.2. Narration F4.3 FocalizationF5. Case studies F5.1. Fixed focalization:MASH,

episode 154 F5.2. Homodiegetic voice-over narration: Wonder Years 24 F5.3. Verisimilitude and

GoofsF6. Film websitesF7. ReferencesF1. Film as a narrative genre

F1.1. There are three common terms referring to our subject: cinema, motion picture (movie), and film.

Because 'film studies' is the generally accepted name of the discipline I will prefer the term 'film' but reserve

the other terms for occasional variation. In the following, I will approach film in the framework of the genretaxonomy presented on theproject page. In this taxonomy, film, like drama, is listed both as a narrative and

a performed genre. Film is mainly realized in the framework of a performance, and like drama, it is related

to a textual form (a 'script'). Therefore, just as in drama analysis, film analysis can build on the interesting(but at times problematic) relationship between 'text' and 'performance'. Because film can be fruitfully

compared to drama and other narrative genres, such as the novel, the following account will systematically

borrow from the concepts defined within both 'narratology' (the structuralist theory of narrative presented in


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borrow from the concepts defined within both narratology (the structuralist theory of narrative, presented in

this project's narratology doc) and the theory of drama (drama doc). Ideally, the reader should already be

familiar with these sections. However, for convenience, all main definitions will be repeated here, and, if

necessary, adapted to suit the purposes of film analysis.Approaching film from a narratological angle is not a new idea, in fact the classic studies by Bordwell

(1985), Kozloff (1988), Jost (1989), Chatman (1990), Deleyto (1996 [1991]), and Branigan (1992) show that

this is a promising project whose synergetic potential is far from exhausted.

F1.2. Because there are strong commonalities between film and drama, our basic definition largely

duplicates the definition of a play:

a film is a multimedial narrative form based on a physical record of sounds and moving pictures. Film isalso a performed genre in the sense that it is primarily designed to be shown in a public performance.

Whereas a dramatic play is realized as a live performance by actors on a stage, a film is shown in acinema (a 'film theater'), is not a live event, and can theoretically be repeated infinitely without any

change. Like drama, film is a narrative genre because it presents a story (a sequence of action units,

Filme-yf # Film Analysis 2000

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