Representation of characters - Mills/Pitt

In your analysis, one of the key things to consider is how characters are represented, and WHAT characters come to represent.

Casting of actors and actresses is, of course, key to this. Consider what image and ideas an actor like Brad Pitt has with the target audience for the film, for example:


Brad Pitt now

Brad Pitt in 1990s

Advertisement in 1990 that made Pitt famous

 What conclusions can we make about the image he brings? 

Compare this form of "new masculinity" with the older, more traditional symbol of male masculinity from before the 1990s - the "Marlboro Man":

Look at this picture

And read this article.(The part on MM - the Marloboro Man)

And this article.

How does the modern masculinity of Brad Pitt differ from traditional masculinity of the Marlboro Man? Write a paragraph in your blog, including images to help. (labels: Seven, Film Noir, Brad Pitt, Character)

Now watch the selected clips of Seven. How does the film play with Pitt's image of new masculinity?

Seven - Working towards A Textual Analysis

Review:

• Discuss with a partner the key things you have learnt so far about Seven in terms of film language (eg. use of camera, lighting, sound, editing, set design), genre and representation of characters.
• Create a brief list and be prepared to feedback.

Today
Before you begin planning your paired oral presentations on an extract from Seven, we need to consider more important elements of the whole film in greater detail. You will respond to a series of questions today which will help you to do that, posting all answers on your blog.

1) Genre
"The film is a mix of taut thriller, engaging mystery, and gruesome horror show, and it’s so howlingly bleak that the evil deviance at the center never gets any easier to stomach. At its blackened heart, it’s a cop drama, a thriller about a pair of mismatched detectives developing a mutual respect as they pursue a ruthless serial killer, but it’s so far beyond the boilerplate dramas you expect from the genre that it ceases to be just another cat-and-mouse game and becomes instead a haunting walk through a cruel world feeding on its on waste." taken from Pajiba


Reading the above, and using your own knowledge of genre, what genre(s) does Seven belong to? You will need to provide evidence for your choices. You can use filmsite.org to help.

2) Sociocultural and Historical Factors
Find out all you can about the term "Fin de Siecle". What does it mean? How can this term help us to understand the film Seven, and the choice of content? (You may want to look at the following:
http://www.oldandsold.com/articles30/french-painting-18.shtml to help).

More about Noir

Today

• Identifying Noir elements in Seven, and their effects
• Deciding on your oral textual analysis

Remember to keep making notes on conventions of noir as you watch Seven. Use the worksheerts to help you. Remember to keep track of the plot using the Murder Chart.

(Find these worksheets by accessing the following folders in the download section of your Figaro account: 

college\IB Film Studies\Film Noir)
So far, the feedback from the class, your ability to identify and explain the effects of different elements in Seven, has been really very good. This means I expect great things from your oral presentations on Seven!

Seven - Oral analysis:

what you can expect if you do not prepare
you Oral presentations thoroughly

• It will count towards 50% of your exam grade for the third trimester.

(The other 50% will be based on your final documentary and the documentation you provide (script and production journals).

• You will work in pairs, and be assessed together. So you need to ensure you both work together effectively, dividing up the work equally.
• You need to agree on an extract of no more than five minutes from Seven. You need to check with me and I will reserve that extract for you if it is acceptable.
• No two pairs can work on the same extract.
• Your oral presentation should last between seven and ten minutes, and you should not play your extract within this time.
• You can use screen shots or stills from your extract to better illustrate your ideas, although this is not necessary.
• You may bring in notes for reference and guidance, but you may NOT read from a prepared document.
• You need to all bring in pen drive with at least two GB of space to have a copy of the film you can study at home.
• You will have some class time to study, plan and practice, but you will be expected to work at home on this as well, as if you were preparing for an end of year exam in the exam hall.
• The oral presentation will be delivered in class during IB Film lessons, dates to be confirmed next week.
• The pairs are:
  Honorio and Ramiro
  Viveka and Carlos
  Giuliana and Tomas
  Santos and Manuel - chase scene: Mills vs Doe; reserved
  Sabrina and Ernesto

Any questions?

Neo Noir - Continuing the noir sensibility

What is neo noir?

It's a term (meaning, literally, "recent black") used to describe a body of films that carry on the stylistic and thematic traditions of the American noir films of the 1940s and 1950s. It's not really a genre (in the way, say, comedy or horror is), more a movement with certain conventions. Elements of noir can be found often in crime films, horror, science fiction, even romance.

We can split neo noir into two fairly distinct categories:

1) Modern films set in  the 1930s to 1950s which continue the noir sensibility by using and subverting plot, character and theme, as well as using stylistic conventions of camera, lighting, etc.

(In Chinatown (Polanski, 1974) darkness gives way to light in the 1930s LA desert setting. Notive how Jack Nicholson, the hard-boiled hero, is made to look vulnerable, even ridiculouswith his wounded nose.)



2) Modern films set in the modern/timeless world, which use and subvert themes, character types and conventions from the original noir films.

(Note the use of dutch angle in The Dark Knight (Nolan, 2008), a super hero film with a distinctly noir feel. Note also the bare, urban, industrial looking set).



In which category does Seven fit?

 Ideology of Neo-noir films
Neo-noir films address questions about guilt, redemption, the essence of human nature, and problems of knowledge, memory and identity. In the neo-noir universe, the lines between right and wrong and good and evil are blurred, and the detective and the criminal frequently mirror each other's most damaging personality traits. The neo-noir detective — more antihero than hero — is frequently a morally compromised and spiritually shaken individual whose pursuit of a criminal hides the search for lost or unattainable aspects of the self.  Neo-noir conveys ambiguity, disillusionment, and disorientation more effectively than even the most iconic films of the classic noir era. Able to self-consciously draw upon noir conventions and simultaneously subvert them, neo-noir directors push beyond the earlier genre's limitation.

Conventions of noir used/updated in Neo-noir (you highlighted manyof these last lesson when watching the opening of Seven):

• wide angles and deep focus (note in this shot from Act Of Violence (Zimmerman, 1948) how both the foreground of the man and pole, and the background of the station building are sharply outlined. What effect does this have?

• chiaroscuro: low-key lighting producing dramatic contrasts with light and dark and heavy shadows (note in the shot from Bladerunner (Scott, 1982), a science fiction noir thriller how both the hero and heroine are partly obscured by the shadows from the blinds. An excellent visual technique to show how trapped or enclosed the characters are.

• cold bluish colours reflecting alienation and technology  (notice in the shot from Seven how cold and clinical the feel is)
• dutch angles, low angles to show a distorted, chaotic world lacking moral clarity
• decaying, rundown urban city settings which seem like mazes or labyrinths
• downbeat atmosphere, reflected in the weather, or time of day
• closed framing
• complex storylines or narrative structures (eg. using flashbacks)
• voice-over narrations
• plots involving crime or investigations of crime (often murder)
• human nature at its most passionate, corrupt and destructive - crime motivated by greed, jealousy, etc
• flawed, alienated heroes and heroines
• archetypal characters—hardboiled detectives, femme fatales, corrupt policemen, jealous husbands
• ambivalent or bleak endings
• people striving against random, uncaring fate
• a sense of doom, a hopelessness in tone
• steadfast virtue ultimately rewarded and vice, in the absence of shame and redemption, severely punished in orginal noir (often subverted in neo-noir).

Task today:
As we continue our screening of Seven, add to your notes evidence from the film which shows any of the conventions mentioned above. (You will publish a full document, including appropriate screen shots when we have completed our viewing next week).

Film Noir - Monday 26th September, 2011

Following on from our study of Pulp Fiction, we will be moving both SIDEWAYS and BACKWARDS into the world of film noir, which Ramiro is something of an expert on given his presentation back in Trimester One on cinema in the 1940s.

We will be studying a modern noir film - Seven (David Fincher, 1995), in its entirety, from which at the end of the trimester

1) you will all choose your own five minute sequence and provide an ORAL textual analysis lasting seven to ten minutes
2) you will write, design and film a typical film noir scene, using the conventions we have studied in class both in terms of style and mood (lighting, angles, sound, etc), and content (character, dialogue, plot)

Before we begin our study of Seven, you need to brush up on the history of film noir...

A still shot from The Killers (Siodmak, 1946)

What is film noir?
It's a french label for a largely American film phenomenon arising in 1940s. Postwar France got to watch a lot of american films, and noticed similarities between the tone and content of these films and their own roman noir (dark edgy literature). noir means "black". And these films being made were pretty dark, in more ways than one...




Why did America start to make these films?
As we have discovered in previous classes, film movements come into being depending on attitudes/influences in culture, and depending on the economic and social situation of the countries making them.

• There was a growing sense of unease in USA in the 1940s - World War II (1939-1945) had shown americans the horror of violence, the evil of man, and the corruption of power. USA had gone through an economic depression in the 1930s that had ravaged the country. But, USA emerged from the war a stronger, more powerful country. The economy was now booming. However, the rise of materialism and a consumer society worried many - were American citizens too obsessed with wealth and material goods ? Were citizens conforming to readily to this consumer society? Was USA losing its sense of right and wrong in the quest for more wealth? Was the strong sense of national unity stimulated by the common goal of victory in WWII becoming lost in peacetime as individual gain became more important? Was it right that the country should be able to benefit economically from the war? Was it right that USA's new found power was built on their military might and nuclear weaponry?

• In 1930s a literary tradition of crime novels, the "hard-boiled" or "pulp" fiction (where have we seen that term before???) was very popular. Novels that depicted a different kind of detective hero to the traditional detective - the detectives in pulp fiction were anti-heroes, morally ambiguous characters who find themselves apart from the society they live in, on the edge of the law, often committing crimes as well as solving them. The books were violent, the dialogue gritty and real, action was on the streets, America was portrayed as an industrial, urban wasteland full of morally corrupt people, slaves to their desires and passions. The noir films of the 1940s have similar characters, plots and settings.

still shot from The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
(Weine, 1919)

• Viveka can tell us all about German Expressionism in the 1920s. This film movement, with its distorted and exaggerated camera work and set designs influenced the style of film noir. This can be traced to many European immigrants settling in USA, including people in the film industry, during the prewar years, who would go on to take jobs in Hollywood as film technicians and directors.

So, we're looking at films that through content and style reflect a mood of uneasiness, alienation and loneliness.

A still shot from Reservoir Dogs (Tarantino, 1992),
a neo noir thriller

What now?

Watch the opening of Seven. Its a descendent of the movement of film noir, often called neo (as in "new") noir - modern films that have updated the original movement.

Today's question - what elements of the film seem to belong to film noir? 

Discuss in pairs. Note down your responses ready to feedback.

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS - PULP FICTION (Tarantino, 1994)

What's On?

We will plan a written textual analysis of an extract from Pulp Fiction.

You will need to do some RESEARCH to help you produce a 1000 word analysis, which you will hand in on Wednesday 28th September, after the EXEAT.


Task 1
Watch the extract again. As you watch, create a blog of notes where you can jot down your thoughts on any or all of the following:

• narrative
• genre
• presentation of characters
• camera angles, shots and movement
• editing and sequencing
• lighting, shade and colour
• sound
• location and set design
• genre conventions
• target audience of the film

Discuss as a class your initial ideas, and be prepared to add to your notes.

Task 2 -

• In order to understand more about the crime genre in film, read the following information.
• On your blog of notes, jot down  the conventions (or rules) of the crime film that Pulp Fiction follows, and jot down the conventions it subverts (or breaks).
• Discuss as a class.

eg. one convention of the typical crime film is that the living quarters of the criminal will be seedy, dirty, poor. However, in Pulp Fiction, Lance's house seems rather mundane and normal, a regular middle-class house on a regular street.

Final task:

• Watch the extract again. This time, take more focused notes using the handout provided in class.
• Discuss ideas as a class.
• H/W - write a 1000 word textual analysis to be handed in on Wednesday 28th September.

Pulp Fiction - Narrative Structure

Today

We will explore the rather unusual narrative structure of Pulp Fiction, and see what effects Tarantino creates by subverting the linear chrononlogical order we expect in a film.

How?

Go the Tarantino folder, found in IB Film folder in the college folder.
Access the "Pulp Fiction narrative structure document". Read the instructions.
Open the "timeline template" document. Use this to create a linear chronological timeline of pulp fiction.
Send me the completed timeline by mail.

Feedback
After playing around with the narrative structure, discuss the choices Tarantino made. What effects were created by playing with the natural order of time in his film? Think especially about the opening and ending of the film.

Scripting dialogue - Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, 1994)

What's On?

Establishing HOW and WHY Tarantino shapes the dialogue in the opening of Pulp Fiction.

Scripting and performing a table-reading of your own Tarantinoesque dialogue

Task 1

a) Watch the opening scene of Pulp Fiction.

b) Discuss as a class elements of the film that are striking or interesting (camera, sound, features of dialogue, set/costume, mis-en-scene, editing, etc)


(John Travolta as Vincent Vega and Samuel L Jackson as Jules Winnfield)

c) Watch opening scene again, following with the transcript of dialogue.

d) In pairs, make notes on the following aspects:
i) Who are these people and how does the film let us know?
ii) What is surprising/unexpected about their conversation? Why?
iii) What is NOT surprising or EXPECTED about their conversation? Why?
iv) What parts of their conversation - if any - seem important to move the PLOT forwards?
v) What parts of their conversation do not seem to move the plot forwards? What effects are achieved by including them?

e) Feedback in pairs with another pair, then present findings to class.

Task 2- new pairs

Can you do a Tarantino? Provide an opening scene's dialogue, and try and give it a Tarantino flavour.

Set up:
Two characters (who we will learn are gansters, but not immediately) walking towards a subway. One is carrying an old suitcase. (It doesn't contain guns!) They are initially discussing/gently diagreeing on a topic of your choice: (I include some ideas below)
a) their favourite super hero
b) where to get the best milkshake
c) why Kanye West -  - is better than Radiohead. (or any other musical artists)
d) why one prefers make up, the other not

The key is how to try and make your writing sound natural, fluent, amusing, while at the same time revealing more about the characters (background, personality)  in subtle ways. Not easy. Let's experiment...

Quentin Tarantino - Scripting, Narrative and Dialogue

What's On?

• A new unit studying the director Quentin Tarantino to learn more about scripting, narrative and the use of dialogue in film.
• We will focus mainly on his film Pulp Fiction (1994), but will draw on examples from his other work.
• A written textual analysis on a five-minute section from Pulp Fiction - to be submitted 18th August 2011.

Today's objectives

• develop research skills - searching for information, scanning text for information, collating info, summarising info
• know background information about Quentin Tarantino

"You got guns on us. You decide to shoot, we're dead. Up top, they got grenades. They drop them down here, you're dead. That's a Mexican Standoff, and that was not the deal. No trust, no deal."

— Lt. Aldo Raine, Inglourious Basterds

Key words:

• genre - a type of film which follows certain conventions (eg. horror, comedy, western)
• trope - a storytelling device or convention easily recognisable by the audience (eg. For example, that guy in every horror movie who tells his friends "I'll be right back" is most assuredly not going to be back - this is known as TEMPTING FATE )

Task:
Answer the following research questions on your film blog.
Use the post title: Quentin Tarantino, label it: Tarantino, textual analysis, film history

Questions (in YOUR OWN WORDS PLEASE! CUT AND PASTING will lead to mark of zero, and you will have to redo at home)

1)      Name two distinctive features of Tarantino’s films.

2)      How was Tarantino’s education in film different to the normal method of film-school?

3)      Despite the success of Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino’s first film in 1992, it was criticized by many. Why?

4)      What genre do Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction belong to?

5)      Identify three recurring CAMERA ANGLES/SHOTS used by Tarantino. Include a screen shot example of each, with a brief caption about the possible effects created by each (eg. to give a sense of power to audience/character, to disorient the viewer, etc)

6)      Explain USING YOUR OWN WORDS what Tarantino’s Mirror shot is, and possible effects of using it. Include a screen shot.

7)      A recurring trope in Tarantino’s films is the Mexican standoff.

a) Briefly explain what it is.

b) Explain where the term comes from.

c) Examples of two non-Tarantino films that use it (with screen shots of possible).

d) Provide screen shots from two Tarantino films that use it.

8)      A “MacGuffin” is used in Tarantino’s film Pulp Fiction.

a)      What is a MacGuffin? Explain in fifty words.

b)     What is the MacGuffin in Pulp Fiction?

c)      Provide examples fo MacGuffins from two non-Tarantino films, with screen shots if possible.

You can use following website links to help:

Tarantino biography

Tarantino and Crime

Tarantino's trademarks

TV and Film tropes 

Word detective 

Written Textual Analysis - Monday 6th June

What's to do?
Today you must organise the excellent ideas you gave in class last week and write up a textual analysis of the opening to Eden Lake.

Steve's just been told he needs to complete his textual analysis by Friday...

Format?

• You need to produce this in a word document with the title Eden Lake - Textual Analysis
• You need to write in full paragraphs, and should organise your essay by using the note sheet given last week (each heading can be used as a new paragraph)
• You should include an introductory paragraph which outlines the film, what it's about (briefly - one sentence!!!), its genre, who made it, when and where it was made
• You should aim to write 800 words approximately. (Anything significantly less will likely not be detailed enough to show a satisfactory understanding)

How will it be assessed?

• You will receive a mark out of 25
• The handout provided will show the mark scheme. (We will read this together in class)
• The best pieces will show an excellent understanding of how meaning is made through film, will use film terms accurately and in detail, and will show an excellent understanding of how the extract relates to the film as a whole, as well as an excellent awareness of the film’s genre and/or its place in a broader sociocultural context

Deadline:

• You have all of today's class to write it. It must be mailed complete by Friday 10th June to pwise@stgeorge.org.ar

Eden Lake - Textual Analysis; Part 2

Task - Watch the opening five minutes of Eden Lake again. We are going to work individually to compile notes on our key questions raised last class:
a) What does the opening communicate in terms of plot, character and theme
b) How does the filmmaker convey these elements effectively, using sound, camera, editing

You will be given an editing sheet to help you record both your and the class findings.

In order to explore this fully, we need to analyse different things. To analyse means to seperate the whole (the opening) into the various parts that make it. For each question on your sheet, watch the opening five minutes AGAIN.

1) How is the plot or NARRATIVE built up here? (What do we learn about the story of the film, and how?)

2) What do we learn about the characters? HOW do we learn these things about them?

3) What conventions of film are used (editing, sound, camera, lighting, colour, etc) that help make this a horror film?

4)What themes of the film are explored here? HOW do, for instance, set and location help set these themes up?

5) What outside factors have influenced this film in the themes and choice of characters? (Think about socio-cultural factors we have discussed in class)

After 20 minutes, we will discuss your findings so far.

Eden Lake - Textual analysis; Monday 30th May

What's on today?
Two key questions that we will answer:
a) What does the opening of Eden Lake establish in terms of plot, character and theme?
b) How does the film establish these elements?

In order to answer the how, we will need to draw on our technical knowledge of film (use of camera, sound, and EDITING)

Also, we will look at a specific type of editing - the use of the JUMP CUT, which we will see in Eden Lake.

Jump Cut


Task - watch the clip of A Bout de Souffle (Godard, 1960). What is unusual about this clip in terms of how the shots are put together? Discuss and write a post on it.

How is this unusual edit created? Simply, part of a continuous shot of film is taken away, leaving a jump from one part of the shot to the other (temporal jump cut) Or, a new shot can be taken from a slightly different angle to the last shot, adjusting the camera position slightly (spatial jump cut).

So why use jump cuts? Surely they end up looking quite amateurish, and remind the audience that they are watching something artificial, something "made".

Take a look at this scene from Trainspotting (Boyle, 1996), as Renton is going "cold turkey" to get over his heroin addiction. He is also dealing with the death of a friend's baby. Look for the jump cut at around 29 seconds, and another example afterwards.

Now why has the editor used a temporal jump cut here?

• helps show that this isn't real - Renton is imagining it
• helps convey his sense of confusion, disorientation and paranoia

Now watch the clip of Eden Lake. Can you identify the jump  cuts? Are they spatial or temporal? What effects are created by including them? Post your answers on your blog.


Watch the clip again, make notes on what we learn of the story, the main characters, and the key themes or ideas the film will deal with.


Feedback with class.

Eden Lake (James Watkins, 2008)

What's on?
We're going to explore Eden Lake in more detail - its themes and imagery in particular.

What to do?
Look at the picture above. Note down all the connections you find between this and what we have seen so far in Eden Lake. These can be both literal (eg. set in a wood/forest) or more figurative.

Questions to consider as we watch:
Are films cultural artefacts? In other words, products of the societies that make them, influenced by the society that makes them, revealing concerns and attitudes of that society and culture?

Do films exist outside of the society and culture from which they come? Do they deal with timeless, universal ideas that could apply any time, anywhere?

Open Framing - Friday 15th April, 2011

What's on today?

Post your paragraph on Closed Framing drafted yesterday, including a relevant screen shot from Elephant.

Open Framing

Key questions:

• What visual and stylistic features make an Open frame?

• Why are some films open frame, and what effects are created?

Your task is simple - watch the clips from Junebug ( Morrison, 2005) TWICE .

Discuss and make notes on the following:

What differences in framing and mise-en-scene from Elephant?

What can you see in the framing to make the world of the film seem "real"?

How are the characters made to seem more important than the design and composition of the film? This isn't easy - but think carefully about camera, lghting, sets, costumes, shots, angles, colours - basically anything in the Mise-en-Scene.

Conclusions:

Open framing -

·designed to depict a world where characters move freely within an open, recognizable environment

·feel of reality - a "window" on the world with changes of frame to show constantly changing reality

camera, movement and other visual aspects are secondary to the characters P-O-V of characters. More conventional editing.

Closed Framing - Thursday 14th April

Feedback from your Mise-en-Scene work
Three excellent compositions of shots, all with a very different mood and feeling, carefully thought out and well-shot. Good work all round.

To improve: use of technical film angle when explaining shots - long shots, mid shots, close ups, eye-level shot, high-angle shot, etc.

Today
It's all about framing, and how/why filmmakers create open or clsed frames in their work.

What is framing?

The frame in a film is the border between what the director wants us to see and everything else· 

Unlike a picture, the frame in a film can move and change the point of view. It is DYNAMIC.

To get a feel for framing:

·Put your hands together and make a rectangle.

·Close one eye and look through it

·Move it towards you, away from you, move it around the room.

·Notice how your view is changed depending on the movement

The world we see becomes different - same in the movies.

Now watch the clips from Elephant, which we have discussed in class.

a)      what aspects of the mise-en-scene within the frame make the world seem not "normal" or artificial, distorted?

b)      What techniques are used by the director to give a feeling of the characters being trapped, controlled, imprisoned in some way?

In what way do the following screen shots, from Halo and Super Mario Galaxy, remind you of framing in Elephant?

What we have learnt today:

Closed framing:

• visual/sonic elements are exaggerated or heavily stylized.

• ·We are more aware we are watching something MADE than real

• framing suggests characters are trapped, imprisoned or controlled by outside forces in some way (fate; social; economic, governmental), robbed of ability to act/move freely

Write a paragraph on closed framing and upload to your blog, using images and examples from Elephant to help your explanation.

CREATING THE MOOD: MISE-EN-SCENE - Thur, 7th April

What's on the menu today?

We have looked at both still and moving images to begin analysing the MISE-EN-SCENE, and how the different elements work together in both DESIGN and COMPOSTION to create meaning in film.

It's now your turn to see if you can translate what you have learnt into your own still shot. (Anyone with the equipment feeling particularly adventurous can create a moving image shot with sound instead)

Your task is to design and shoot a mise-en-scene which helps communicate the mood and feel of life in the St George's College.

Task 1 - in pairs
Brainstorm emotions/feelings/ideas you identify with St George's. Try to go beyond simplistic ideas such as "happy" and sad". (eg. enclosed; open; oppressive; liberating; etc.) As many as possible in two minutes. I'm happy for you to write words in spanish at this stage - we can translate them when you feedback to the class.

Task 2 - in groups
From the class list gathered, you can select the ideas and mood you feel most conveys the "essence" of St George's College. Now, you need to plan a shot which can convey this essence. You will need to visualise it and sketch it using the paper provided. You can shoot outside or in class, corridors, but, obviously, no classrooms where other classes are working! Perhaps you will need to walk around first to decide on a suitable location? Fine - but you only have ten minutes to report back to me with your finished sketch.

Consider:

• characters (posture, clothes, appearance, spatial relationship to camera and other objects)
• objects (be realistic here - you can only use things that are available now in class)
• colour
• lighting and shadow (no light kits yet so you will have to use natural or ambient lighting)
• camera position and angle
• (and, if you are shooting a moving image - camera movement and sound)

Task 3 - in groups:
Once your group has had its sketch approved, you can go off and set up/shoot the shot. You will have twenty minutes to complete this. Then meet back in E2 to discuss the success of the shots, difficulties encountered, etc.

HOMEWORK - each group needs to upload their shot to their blogs ready for viewing on Monday, 11th April.

MISE-EN-SCENE (continued) - Monday, 4th April

The object of today's lesson is to extend your growing skills in analysing films as texts, considering, once more, the mise-en-scene and how meaning is created. However, whereas before we have looked exclusively at sill images, we are now going to consider moving images.

So two things we need to consider within the frame of a shot that we have yet to do: 1) that characters and objects may move, changing the relationship between us, the camera, and them; 2) the camera may move, or zoom in/out.

TASK: We will look - again - at the opening of Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954).  Discuss and make notes in your journals on:


a) the mise-en-scene used in the opening credits - what feelings of the "world of the film" are we given through all the various elements?


b) the use of camera movement here. When does the camera start to move, how does it move, what mood or feelings are conveyed through this movement?

After sharing your ideas, you will all write two paragraphs and post them, with a suitable image, or, better yet, a film clip from Rear Window.

MISE-EN-SCENE - Wednesday March 30th

The idea of the next two lessons is to develop a better understanding of how all different elements of a shot, both in design and composition, work together to create meaning. We call these elements the "mise-en-scene", which is a french term meaning "put in the scene".

The first thing to do is discuss the following still shot of The Last Emperor (Bertolucci, 1987), which we have talked of in class. Discuss the various elements within the shot, their relationship - spatial or otherwise - with each other, and the feelings the help create in us, the audience.

Consider:
camera position/angle
characters and objects
set, buildings, landscape
light and shade
colour





After making notes based on your discussions, everyone needs to write a paragraph showing your understanding of the mise-en-scene in this shot. Remember to use all the film terminology you have learnt so far.

Post the paragraph on your blog by Monday, 4th April.

Use of Camera

Review

We have discussed the importance of the camera's distance in relation to its subject in creating meaning in a film. We have looked at and discussed three different camera distances: (although there are variations, or sub-categories for each):
Long shot
Medium shot
Close-up

Task:
Discuss in pairs what different effects are created by using these different positional shots, using the examples you are given.


As well as camera distance, other factors are important to how the camera helps convey meaning:
Camera angle/height
Camera movement

Today's lesson - Camera angle/height


Today we will focus on camera angle/height:

 Eye-level shot

In John Huston's noir thriller The Maltese Falcon (1941), an eye-level shot, made from the observer's eye level, is used during the initial meeting between Miss Wonderley (Mary Astor, left) and Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart, middle). It creates a sense of objectivity or neutrality in their client-detective relationship, deceiving us into believing that the facts of their meeting are "on the level".

A high-angle shot is made with the camera above the action. It typically implies the observer's sense of superiority to the subject being photographed. Here in Terry Gilliam's futuristic Brazil (1984), we see the hero, Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) imprisoned and awaiting torture. The camera angle makes him appear very small in the corner of the cell, thus helping to convey his vulnerability and powerlessness against the forces against him.

A low-angle shot photographs the subject from below, typically placing the observer in a position of helplessness in the presence of a superior force. In Juno (Jason Reitman, 2007), the camera angle emphasizes the newfound freedom and empowerment of the heroine in the penultimate scene, happily transformed back into a "normal" teenager.

Finally, the Dutch-angle shot tilts the camera from its normal horizontal and vertical position so it is no longer straight. This helps suggest that in some ways the world in the camera shot is off balance. For instance, the 1960s TV series of Batman regularly employs Dutch-angle shots, especially in the villains' lairs. This helps suggest the rather insane or warped nature of the characters.




Task:
In your groups revisit your still films shot last week. You need to keep the same narrative in 12 shots but include at least:
one extreme close-up
one establishing shot
one low-angle shot
one high-angle shot
one Dutch-angle shot
one eye-level two shot

Homework:
Go to www.blogger.com to create your very own film blog. Design it any way you like. Add your own gadgets, lists, etc. Then upload your finished still film to the blog, including captions explaining the type of shots taken, and any effects you wished to create.

The deadline is Monday, 14th March, 2011.