Introduction to Arts

Film and Film Studies

“Is Film an Art?”• “IS FILM AN ART?” - a frequently asked

question.• Why - Film started as a mechanical recording of

reality. Technological rather than aesthetic and artistic.

• Films became a form of mass entertainment. Sensational, vulgar, commercial, lack of quality, plebeian …

• Changes in attitudes over the time• A conception of art which is free from class and

cultural bind

“Is Film an Art?”

• Art does not have to be aesthetic (beautiful).• Transformation of attitudes towards arts• Bernini’s Trevi Fountain sculpture and Marcel

Duchamp’s Fountain

“Is Film an Art?”

• Technology can be a medium of art• Claude’ landscape painting with temples• Vladimir Tatlin’s Monument to the Third Inter

national

“Is Film an Art?”

• Technology can be a medium of art• Photography• James Abbott’s Mrs McNeil Whistler and Rob

ert Mapple Thorpe’s Portrait

“Is Film an Art?”

• Art does not have to be precious and aristocratic.• Materials of art• Gold mosaics (St. Theodora in Ravenna) and

Robert Rauschenberg’s Monogram

“Is Film an Art?”

• Art does not have to be precious and aristocratic.• Motifs and contents• Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I and Andy Warhol’s

images of Marilyn Monroe

“Is Film an Art?”

• Art can use a popular medium; art can be pop

• John Everett Millet’s Ophelia and Roy Lightenstein’s pop art

Film as Total Art• Every artistic element and every artistic media

found in film and filmmaking• Literature - story-telling (novel) = written media• Fine art - painting, sculpture, photography, design

= visual media• Architecture - architecture, design, decoration =

mixed media• Music - vocal, instrumental, opera, musical =

sound media/mixed media• Theatre - performance = mixed media

Film and Literature

• Elements of literature in film- Film is based on a script. Some scripts are based on literary work.

• J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the film, Harry Potter

Film and Drawing

• Elements of fine art in film- Production design: sets, costume, composition, visual effects

• Story boards in Alfred Hitchcock’s Birds

Film and Painting

• In Luchino Visconti’s La Terra trema each frame is constructed like a piece of painting.

• Symmetrical composition; illusion of depth, composed of foreground, middle ground and background, and linear perspective.

Film and Painting

Film and Painting

Film and Painting

• In La Terra trema, a young man is holding his younger brother like Madonna is carrying her young Jesus.

• Painterly composition

Film and Design

• Eiko Ishioka, designer, art director• Designs costumes and sets for various films• Best known for her costume design for Paul Schr

ader’s Mishima, Bram Storker’s Dracula, The Cell and Beijing Olympic’s Opening Ceremony

Film and Design

• Sarsem Singh’s The Fall (2006) with costumes designed by Eiko Ishioka

Film and Design

• Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula (1992)

Film and Design

• Emi Wada created costumes for many films including Kurosawa Akira’s Ran, Peter Greenaway’s Prospero’s Books, Zhang Yimou’s Hero

• Costume design inspired by traditional kimono

Film and Design

• Peter Greenaway’s Prospero’s Books (1991) with costumes designed by Emi Wada

Film and Architecture

• Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner (1982)• Bradbury Building in Los Angeles (1893) u

sed for a location site• Classic building as site for the future

Film and Architecture

• G.W. Griffith’s spectacle film, Intolerance designed by Griffith with the help of Walter L. Hall.

• Huge sets were recreated modeling after historical buildings and edifices.

• City of Babylon

Film and Architecture

Film and Architecture

• In Kurosawa Akira’s Rashomon, the first and last scenes take place under the impressive, half-ruined gate, which is reconstructed modeling after various existing gates such as Hozomon, Kaminarimon and Ninomon of the Edo Castle.

Film and Architecture

• Hozomon of Sensoji Temple, Asakusa, Tokyo

Film and Architecture

• Otemon of the Edo Castle

Film and Music

• Music and sound effects became an essential element since the introduction of sound in 1928

• Ingmar Bergman’s Magic Flute is a film version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s fantastic opera.

Film and Music

• Musical is one of the most important film genres

• Stanley Donen, Singin’ in the Rain

What is cinema?How is cinema different from other forms of arts?

• Film is a mechanical and industrial product.

mechanical technologies - camera, light, film stock, sound recorder, film processing, editing, sound mixing, CG, projector

What is cinema? How is cinema different from other forms of arts?

• Lighting set up in location shooting

What is cinema?How is cinema different from

other forms of arts?

• Recording equipments: sound recorder and microphones

What is cinema? How is cinema different from other forms of arts?

• A camera on a dolly

What is cinema? How is cinema different from other forms of arts?

industrial - production, distribution and exhibition, advertisementProduction companies, studios, distributors, and exhibitors, advertise agents - investment

What is cinema?How is cinema different from other forms of arts?

• Film is collaborative art producer, director, scriptwriter, cinematog

rapher, production designer, set designer, costume designer, editor, music composer, recording engineer, actor

What is cinema?

• How is film different from other forms of art?• LITERATURE AND FILM• The crucially important element of both is

narrative, but film has visual images and sound.• FINE ART AND FILM• Both are visual but film can tell much more

complicated stories without relying on the knowledge of the spectator.

What is cinema?

• A painting can tell a story but not complicated one. It depends on a separate text which tells the story.

• Leonardo Davinci, The Last Supper which relies on The Old Testament

What is cinema?

• John Everett Milais’ Ophelia

What is cinema?• Music and film have sounds but the latter

combines visuals and sounds (music and words).

• Drama/opera/musical are similar to film, but the latter can tell more complicated stories more realistically using illusions.

• Film does not have to rely on words, which are the essence of the theatre.

• Film can tell stories through images and sounds.

What is cinema?

• Fritz Lang’s M • The film is about crimes committed by a serial

child-killer. Stories are partly told through images and sounds. We do not see the killer but hears the tune he whistle and his casual conversation with a girl.

What is cinema?• In the first 10 minutes of

the film, a story is told only through sounds and images.

• Sounds and images tell a lot about the main character of the film and its setting.

• Suspense created by sounds and images

• Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samurai (1967)

What is cinema?

• Louis Malle’s Ascenseur pour l’echafaud

• Thriller about a married woman and her lover who almost succeed in getting rid of her husband in a supposedly perfect crime, but he commits a vital mistake.

• A story is told through images and sound.

What is cinema?

• What is cinema good at• Cinema can tell stories through not one medium -

words, images, sounds, but all these media.

What is cinema?

• What disadvantages does cinema has?• Those media must be skillfully combined.

Special talents excelling in more than one areas and controlling every aspect and stage of filmmaking are required . The importance of film director.

What is cinema?• Cinema as investment and commodity.• Cost - Return• Entertainment, commercial values required.• Is cinema a commercial product or art?• Three kinds:

1. Commercial products - Hollywood and large commercial production companies2. Artistic products - works of independent producers and directors, works made with public support3. Both

What is film studies?

• What film studies does.• Analysis of artistic elements involved - narrative,

visual, plastic, and sound element (literary, visual art, sculptural, architectural, and musical element)

• Analysis of industrial and commercial aspects.• Explore what a film shows - its theme, motif, and

background• Explore how that is shown - narrative, visual,

sound and other technique

What is film studies?• Analysis of technique:• Narrative technique - how to tell a story• Sound technique• - sound editing and mixing• Visual technique

- camera (choice of lens, filter and camera, positioning, movement, angle), lighting, colour arrangement- design (set, prop, costume)- performance - editing

Essay Title

• Watch a film and analyze the ways in which a story is told through images and sound.

Film’s Art and Architectural Element

• Elements of architecture in film- Production design: sets, visual effects

• Building in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis modeled after Brueghel’s painting of Tower of Babel.