Communications

Communications
1)    Name three examples of how Hitchcock’s shower sequence in the film “Psycho” is similar to Eisenstein’s Odessa Steps Sequence in “Battleship Potemkin”.  Explain and cite examples.
2)    What three things did you like most about Buster Keaton’s film “The General”?  Explain.
3)    You watched the film “Iran Job”.  Why do you feel it is a good example of a film that better understands the Middle East and its people?
4)    Name one film we have viewed in class and tell me about its camera work.  How did the camera work relate to what you have read in your text and/or that which we discussed in class?
5)    Hitchcock is known as a master director.  How do you feel he is a master at story telling?  Explain.
6)    The Iranian film, “Heaven’s Children” is a delightful film.  Give me three examples of how the filmmaker used film techniques to convey the film’s message.  Explain each.

information shared in chapters, class lecture, and films we have watched or discussed in class.

Auteur Directors
Coppola
Godard
Renoir
Keaton
Chaplin
Hitchcock
Altman
Truffaut
Lucas
Spielberg
Fellini
Antonioni
Bergman
Ford
Hawks
Capra
Wilder
Kubrick
Polanski
Kurosawa
Tarantino
Fleischer
Disney
Resnais
Russell
Lester
Gillium
Welles
Griffith
Eisenstein

Griffith
Mary Pickford, Dorothy Gish and Lionel Barrymore
Biograph Studios
the single most important individual in the development of film as an art
the father of film grammar
universal film language
flashbacks, parallel events and emotions in purely cinematic terms
domestic props to create angles and shape and deepen the frame
used artificial lighting to suggest firelight in and what came to be called “Rembrandt lighting” as a narrative and characterization device
split screens and soft focus were sparingly used for additional impact
transformed the art of screen acting, down to rehearsals
Aware that the camera could magnify even the slightest gesture or expression
He invariably cast to suit particular physical types
assembled a company that comprised some of the leading names of the silent era
Birth of a Nation – Griffith’s portrayal of the Reconstruction era in which Southern whites were rescued by the Ku Klux Klan from vengeful carpetbaggers and unruly blacks
condemnation led by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
The Birth of a Nation made pioneering use of advanced camera and narrative techniques
feature length film
many scenes filmed from many different and multiple angles to vary the shot for impact
technique of the camera “iris” effect
the use of parallel action and editing
use of total-screen close-ups to reveal intimate expressions
use of flashbacks
seamless editing (masking one cut to the next matching frame)
the use of vignettes seen in “balloons” or “iris-shots” in one portion of a darkened screen
Intolerance (1916)
devised a revolutionary new narrative structure while further perfecting his use of dramatic close-ups, camera movement, and parallel editing to create what is perhaps the cinema’s foremost masterpiece and most ambitious film done before the 1920s.
Griffith decided to expand his narrative to encompass four stories from different periods of history, illustrating the persistence of intolerance and inhumanity
Instead of telling them sequentially, Griffith intercut his Modern story, Judean Story portraying Crucifixion of Christ; French Story and the Babylonian Story.
Intolerance enjoyed a sustained success in countries like Russia and Japan.
The film ran for ten years in the USSR and became the single most important influence on the Soviet filmmakers of the 1920s
Carrie (1976), Brian De Palma
Parallel Editing – The Godfather

Eistenstein and Montage
Montage–juxtaposing images by editing–is unique to film
During the 1920s, pioneering Russian film directors demonstrated the technical, aesthetic, and ideological potentials of montage
Soviet Russian film director, scholar, and theorist, Sergei Eisenstein, cites the revolution as catalyst for making him an artist
he pioneered the idea of unleashing a “collision” of shots in order to play with the audience’s emotions and create metaphors through the juxtaposition of similar images.
The way he communicated visually was extra key since most of his films—including Strike (1924), The Battleship Potemkin (1925), and October (1927)—were silent.
The way he communicated visually was extra key since most of his films—including Strike (1924), The Battleship Potemkin (1925), and October (1927)—were silent.
Eisenstein’s greatest demonstration of the power of montage comes in the  “Odessa Steps” se-        quence of his 1925 film Battleship Potemkin several times longer than it would take in             real time:
the Odessa steps scene – The rapid progression and alternation of images gives a sensational event even greater visceral impact
famous sequence involving a runaway baby carriage shows Eisenstein using montage to arouse both emotion and ideological consciousness among the film’s viewers
At the conclusion of the Odessa Steps sequence, two sequences of images illustrate the notion of the ‘tertium quid’ as well as the ideological potential of montage.  – the rapid montage of the three cherubs makes the small angel seem to be throwing a punch, and three shots of stone lions, shown rapidly in succession, indicate awakening militancy.  Both montages represent a call to the people to rise up against oppression.

What to look for when watching films?
About Lenses
WIDE ANGLE
    Broad view
    Smaller image
    Good for close shooting
    Deep depth of field
    Increase object speed towards camera
    Minimizes camera shake
    Wide Shot (WS)
    Wide Angle and Deep Frame

TELEPHOTO
    Narrow view
    Larger image
    Good for close shooting
    Shallow depth of field
    Decrease object speed to camera
    Maximizes camera shake
    “long” shot (LS)

Examples:
Telephoto – Empire of the Sun
Telephoto – Close Encounters
Depth of Field – Catch-22
Depth of Field – Citizen Kane
Subjective Camera – The Graduate

Other Terms
    Shot.  A single run of the camera or resulting piece of film.
    Scene. A dramatic unit composed of a single or several shots—usually a continuous time period, in same setting, and involves same characters.
    Sequence. A dramatic unit composed of several scenes, all linked by emotional and narrative momentum.

Types of Shots
    Establishing shot. Opening shot or sequence, frequently an exterior ‘General View’ as an Extreme Long Shot (XLS, ELS). Used to set the scene.
Establishing Shot, “Woodstock”
    Extreme Long Shot (XLS, ELS): shot taken from a sufficient distance; even further away that a LS
    Long Shot (LS): shot taken from a sufficient distance to show a landscape, a building, or a large crowd
    Wide Shot (WS)
    Medium Shot (MS): shot between a long shot and a close-up that shows people from the waist up Example:  Close-up – Lord of the Rings
    Close-up  Example:  Close-up – Lord of the Rings

    Extreme Close-up (ECU, XCU): shot of a small object or part of a face that fills the
    Cut-Aways
    Inserts
    Reverse Angle Shot. a camera angle composed of a shot photographed from the opposite side of a subject to provide a different perspective; in dialogue, a shot of the second participant is commonly composed as an over-the-shoulder shot; sometimes known as an 180 degree angle shot or change in perspective; the alternating pattern between two characters’ points of view is known as shot/reverse shot motion (or reverse action).
    Over the Shoulder Shot.
Over the Shoulder Shot – The Graduate
Over the Shoulder Shot – North by Northwest

Camera Movement
    Pan: camera moves horizontally on a fixed base.
    (Examples: the call to roundup in Red River (1948); in John Ford’s Stagecoach (1939) a panning shot reveals the presence of Indians just as the stagecoach seems to be heading to safety.
    Tilt: camera points up or down from a fixed base
    Tracking (Dolly) Shot: camera moves through space on a wheeled truck (or dolly), but stays in the same plane