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Film forms & allegories-studios, early cinema,narration
The document discusses several topics related to cinema including whether cinema can be considered an art form, the Hollywood studio system, early pioneers and techniques in film, influential film movements, and concepts in film theory such as narration, form, and meaning. It provides background information on cinema's development from the late 19th century through the 1920s and discusses influential film theorists including Muybridge, Kuleshov, Eisenstein, Kracauer, Benjamin, and Saussure/Peirce.
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Film forms & allegories-studios, early cinema,narration
- 1. Is Cinema Art? Howis cinema different from other forms of art? Can collaborative groups—instead of individuals-- produce art? Can a corporate studio produce art? Whats’ the problem with artists having a profit motive?
- 2. Studio Allegory, CorporateIdentity • “The Hollywood studio is a business that does its business right there on the screen as the projector rolls…” • 1886 lawsuit Corporations=humans • Corporate art is a tool for corporate strategy —not same as branding; biz is on screen • MGM vs. Warners; ‘good’ stars vs. gangsters • Do corporations have souls? Do they express good will? Are stars a “monopoly on itself”?
- 3. Classical Hollywood Cinema 1908-1927 • Motion Picture Patents Co. (MPPC), Edison monopoly • Independents in CA by 20s--Famous Players Lasky (Paramount), MGM, Fox, Warner Bros, Universal • Development of continuity system
- 4. Film Production-- Making the Movie The Process Preproduction Research, Scriptwriting, Storyboards, Shooting Scripts, Funding, Locations, Auditions Production Capturing images & sounds; working with actors--lighting, sets, costumes, movement, music, sound effects Post-production Editing, motion graphics, color correction, sound mix, score, Foley, etc Distribution and Marketing Film festivals, Markets, Theatrical, Online, DIY, Transmedia
- 5. Film Style Ways thata film uses filmmaking techniques: • Mise-en-scene • Cinematography • Editing (Montage) • Sound • Narration
- 6. Film Movements • Filmsthat are produced within a particular period and/or nation and that share significant traits of style and form. E.g. German Expressionism, Soviet Montage, Italian Neo-realism, etc… • Filmmakers who operate within a common production structure and who share certain assumptions about filmmaking.
- 7. Film Criticism Film criticismis connected to the cultural criticism that developed in the 20th century and relates to the study of photography, art, media, linguistics and criticism. Names we’ll cover: De Saussure, Peirce, Eisenstein, Kracauer, Benjamin, Bazin, Mulvey, Jenkins, etc..
- 8. Eadweard Muybridge 1878 •Stanford, governor of CA, wanted to see if all four hooves of horse came off the ground at same time. EM set up series of cameras with trip wires across the track.
- 9. Women in Motion • Muybridge studied the body (particularly the woman’s body) in motion… Was it science? Was it art? Something else?
- 10. Kuleshov Effect plate ofsoup (hunger); coffin (grief); woman (desire)
- 11. Kuleshov Effect Hitchock LovesBikinis….
- 12. Early Cinema Names 1893-1903 • Etienne-Jules Marey--camera, projector parts • George Eastman--celluloid • Thomas Edison/Dickson--kinetoscope, Black Maria • Lumiere brothers--Project onto screen • George Melies--magician, first special effects
- 13. D.W. Griffith, Birthof a Nation • Crosscutting (last minute rescues) • Close-ups • Directing emotions, more subtly • Appealing to politics
- 14. Continuity system •Eyeline Matches •Shot/Reverseshot •Axis-of-action (180 degree rule) •Match on action •Establishing shots Ex: Record a conversation at table
- 15. German Expressionism 1919-1926 Emphasis on mise-en- scene--distorted shapes, heavy makeup, exaggerated movements. “The film image must become graphic art.” Hermann Warm, designer of “Caligari” “Film must be drawings brought to life.”
- 16. Kracauer--symbolic power • “The revolutionary meaning of the story reveals itself unmistakably at the end, with the disclosure of the psychiatrist as Caligari: reason overpowers unreasonable power, insane authority is symbolically abolished.” Siegfried Kracauer, 1947
- 17. Soviet Montage 1924-1930 Vertov, Kuleshov, Pudovkin, Eisenstein “Of all the arts, for us the cinema is the most important.” Lenin 1922 Emphasis on editing and action Eisenstein’s intellectual montage-- juxtaposing images to create a concept--often a revolutionary “collision” between a “collective hero”-- the proletariat--and the enemy--the bourgeoisie
- 18. French Impressionism &Surrealism 1918-1930 Emphasis on internal psychology, dreams, flashbacks, emotion. Point of view shots, distorted images, new lenses, cameras on roller skates--mobile frames. Surrealist Salvador Dali, Luis Bunuel--anti-narrative, anti-rational. (“Un Chien Andalou,” 1928)
- 19. Walter Benjamin Work ofArt in Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936) • “The authenticity of a thing is the essence of all that is transmissible from its beginning…”—its aura • “Aura” provides a magical foundation for cult-like participation, for ritual.. • “L’art pour l’art movement preserved and developed the sense of autonomy and distance native to ancient religious works (224)” Larson
- 20. Walter Benjamin Workof Art in Age of Mechanical Reproduction • “All efforts to render politics aesthetic culminate in one thing: war..” • Man’s “self-alienation has reached such a degree that it can experience its own destruction as an aesthetic pleasure of the first order. This is the situation of politics which Fascism is rendering aesthetic…Through gas warfare the aura is abolished in a new way.”
- 21. Walter Benjamin Workof Art in Age of Mechanical Reproduction •Film and photography keep audiences at a critical distance from the art object, which (helps) destroy the ritualistic aura. •“Dadaism attempted to create by pictorial--and literary--means the effects which the public seeks in the film.” See Duchamp •“Film’s swift juxtapositions and movements strike the viewer violently, disrupting contemplation and easy consumption of the image (238)--Larson
- 22. Film Form The sumof all the parts of the film, shaped by patterns: • Repetition and Variation • Story Lines • Character Traits
- 23. Classical narrative structure--Aristotelian •"A chain of events linked by cause and effect and occurring in time and space.” • Protagonist/Antagonist--conflicting goals and motivations • CHC--Cause/effect structure with closure?
- 24. Film Narration • “Theprocess by which the plot presents story information to the spectator.” Forms of narration and terms to know: Restricted; Unrestricted degrees of knowledge; Objectivity/Subjectivity; Omniscient/3rd Person Point of view shot; hierarchy of knowledge; character or noncharacter narrators.
- 25. Bordwell-- Forms ofCinematic Meaning Story and Plot • Referential--constructed world of film • Explicit--abstract, thematic meaning, stated • Implicit--thematic meaning, not stated overtly • Symptomatic--meaning unknown to filmmaker Other terms to know: • Diegesis; Non/extra-diegesis (Look them up…)
- 26. Transmedia “Transmedia storytelling representsa process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience.” Henry Jenkins » Hope is Missing -- a social media driven ARG
- 27. Ferdinand de Saussure(1907) Linguistics and Meaning Sign=Signifier + Signified Relationship is learned or arbitrary • Signifier--Form that the sign takes • Signified--Concept it represents Ex: Stop sign Signifier=? Signified=?
- 28. C.S. Peirce (1894)-- Semiotics--How signs denote objects • Iconic--Signifier has resemblance to object it represents. E.g. photograph, portrait, sound effects on radio • Indexical--Factual connection to object, indicator. E.g. Smoke indicates fire, shadow indicates presence, film=?. • Symbolic--Abstract relation to signified. E.g. Stop sign, language, burkas