1. Introduction to Arts
Film and Film Studies

2. “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

3. “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

4. “Is Film an Art?” Technology can be a medium of art
Claude’ landscape painting with temples
Vladimir Tatlin’s Monument to the Third International

5. “Is Film an Art?” Technology can be a medium of art Photography
James Abbott’s Mrs McNeil Whistler and Robert Mapple Thorpe’s Portrait

6. “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

7. “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

8. “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

9. 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

10. 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

12. Film and Drawing Elements of fine art in film
- Production design: sets, costume, composition, visual effects
Story boards in Alfred Hitchcock’s Birds

13. 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.

14. Film and Painting

15. Film and Painting

16. Film and Painting
In La Terra trema, a young man is holding his younger brother like Madonna is carrying her young Jesus.
Painterly composition

17. Film and Design Eiko Ishioka, designer, art director
Designs costumes and sets for various films
Best known for her costume design for Paul Schrader’s Mishima, Bram Storker’s Dracula, The Cell and Beijing Olympic’s Opening Ceremony

18. Film and Design
Sarsem Singh’s The Fall (2006) with costumes designed by Eiko Ishioka

19. Film and Design
Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula (1992)

20. 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

21. Film and Design
Peter Greenaway’s Prospero’s Books (1991) with costumes designed by Emi Wada

22. Film and Architecture Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner (1982)
Bradbury Building in Los Angeles (1893) used for a location site
Classic building as site for the future

23. 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

24. Film and Architecture

25. 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.

26. Film and Architecture
Hozomon of Sensoji Temple, Asakusa, Tokyo

27. Film and Architecture
Otemon of the Edo Castle

28. 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.

29. Film and Music Musical is one of the most important film genres
Stanley Donen, Singin’ in the Rain

30. 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

31. What is cinema? How is cinema different from other forms of arts?
Lighting set up in location shooting

32. What is cinema? How is cinema different from other forms of arts?
Recording equipments: sound recorder and microphones

33. What is cinema? How is cinema different from other forms of arts?
A camera on a dolly

34. What is cinema? How is cinema different from other forms of arts?
 industrial - production, distribution and exhibition, advertisement
Production companies, studios, distributors, and exhibitors, advertise agents - investment

35. What is cinema? How is cinema different from other forms of arts?
Film is collaborative art
 producer, director, scriptwriter, cinematographer, production designer, set designer, costume designer, editor, music composer, recording engineer, actor

36. 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.

37. 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

38. What is cinema?
John Everett Milais’ Ophelia

39. 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.

40. 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.

41. 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)

42. 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.

43. What is cinema? What is cinema good at
Cinema can tell stories through not one medium - words, images, sounds, but all these media.

44. 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.

45. 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 companies
2. Artistic products - works of independent producers and directors, works made with public support
3. Both

46. 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

47. 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

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

49. 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.