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Film Production and Appreciation
Film Form Film Production and Appreciation
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Today’s Agenda Review of Last Time Formalist Media Theory Discussion
Semiotics Formalist Media Theory Film Form Narrative Form Narration Introduction to Editing Discussion Action Items for Next Time
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Today’s Agenda Review of Last Time Formalist Media Theory Discussion
Semiotics Formalist Media Theory Film Form Narrative Form Narration Introduction to Editing Discussion Action Items for Next Time
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Linguistic Sign Sign, Signified, Signifier
The linguistic sign is the unity of the signifier (a sound-image) and the signified (a concept) Concept Sound-Image
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Linguistic Signs and Language
The sign is arbitrary A multiplicity of signs is necessary to form any language The system of signs in language is over-complex Language exhibits a collective inertia toward innovation
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Linguistic Values Values are composed of
A dissimilar thing that can be exchanged for the thing of which the value is to be determined Similar things that can be compared with the thing of which the value is to be determined Signified Signified Signified Signifier Signifier Signifier
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Differences “Everything that has been said up to this point boils down to this: in language there are only differences. Even more important: a difference generally implies positive terms between which the difference is set up; but in language there are only differences without positive terms.” (p. 120). “In reality the idea evokes not a form but a whole latent system that makes possible the oppositions necessary for the formation of the sign. By itself the sign would have no signification.” (p. 130).
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Syntagmatic and Associative Relations
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Today’s Agenda Review of Last Time Formalist Media Theory Discussion
Semiotics Formalist Media Theory Film Form Narrative Form Narration Introduction to Editing Discussion Action Items for Next Time
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Why Study Formalist Film Theory?
To provide a theoretical foundation for understanding the forms and functions of time-based media Unlike “Film Studies” per se, we use that understanding not to interpret films, but to analyze and design multimedia information systems Video capture Video analysis Video retrieval Video assembly Video reuse Video summarization (e.g., meeting recording) User interfaces to audio-visual content and that use audio-visual content
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Today’s Agenda Review of Last Time Formalist Media Theory Discussion
Semiotics Formalist Media Theory Film Form Narrative Form Narration Introduction to Editing Discussion Action Items for Next Time
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A
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AB
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ABA
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ABAC
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ABACA
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Expectations Suspense Surprise Curiosity
Delay in fulfilling an established expectation Surprise Result of an expectation that is revealed to be incorrect Curiosity Construct hypotheses about prior events
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Perceiving Artistic Form
“The overall system of relations that we can perceive among the elements in the whole film” In perceiving form, the spectator draws on Cues within the work Prior experiences Derived from everyday life From other artworks Conventions and norms
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Principles of Film Form
Function What is this element doing there? How does it cue us to respond? Motivation (justification for the presence of an element) Similarity and repetition Motif (any significant repeated element in a film) Parallelism (cues to compare two or more distinct elements by highlighting some similarity) Difference and variation Development Progression moving from beginning to middle to end Unity/Disunity
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Viewer’s Activity “The constant interplay between similarity and difference, repetition and variation, leads the viewer to an active developing awareness of the film’s formal system.” (p. 56)
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Today’s Agenda Review of Last Time Formalist Media Theory Discussion
Semiotics Formalist Media Theory Film Form Narrative Form Narration Introduction to Editing Discussion Action Items for Next Time
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Narrative Form Narrative Story and Plot
A chain of events in cause-effect relationship occurring in time and space Story and Plot Story Set of all events in a narrative, both the ones explicitly represented and those the viewer infers Plot Everything visibly and audibly present in the film All the story events that are directly depicted
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Story and Plot Story Plot Presumed and inferred events
Explicitly presented Added nondiegetic material
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Teeth Brushing Example
Brushing Teeth Protagonist stands in front of bathroom mirror Protagonist opens medicine cabinet to remove toothbrush and toothpaste tube Protagonist squeezes out toothpaste on toothbrush Protagonist brushes teeth Protagonist drinks water from glass Protagonist spits out water and toothpaste residue
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Time Temporal order Temporal duration Temporal frequency Flashback
Flashforward Temporal duration Story duration Plot duration Screen duration Temporal frequency Repetition of events
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Temporal Duration Story Duration Plot Duration Screen Duration
Example: Brushing teeth in story world (5 minutes) Plot Duration Example: Brushing teeth in plot world (1 minute: 6 steps of ~10 seconds each) Screen Duration Example: Brushing teeth (12 seconds: 3 shots of ~4 seconds each)
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Space Story space Plot space Screen space and offscreen space
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Today’s Agenda Review of Last Time Formalist Media Theory Discussion
Semiotics Formalist Media Theory Film Form Narrative Form Narration Introduction to Editing Discussion Action Items for Next Time
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Narration Plot’s way of distributing story information in order to achieve specific effects Moment-by-moment process that guides us in building the story out of the plot Involves range and depth of story information
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Range of Story Information
Spectrum of knowledge of the story world that viewers and characters have Unrestricted (omniscient) narration Restricted narration Creates “hierarchy of knowledge” among viewer and characters “Who knows what when?”
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Depth of Story Information
How “deeply” the plot plunges into a character’s psychological states Continuum between objectivity and subjectivity Subjectivity Perceptual subjectivity (hear and see what character perceives) Point-of-view shot Sound perspective Mental subjectivity (hear and see what character thinks) Internal voices Internal images “How deeply do I know the character’s perceptions, feelings, and thoughts?” Range and depth of knowledge are independent variables
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“Classical Hollywood Cinema”
Action primarily arises from individual characters as causal agents The process of achieving goals desired by one or more characters drives the narrative’s development The protagonists’ goals come into conflict with other characters’ goals (antagonists) to create conflict
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“Classical Hollywood Cinema”
The cause-effect chain drives narrative events Plot time tends to depend on the story’s cause-effect chain “Dead time” is rarely shown Appointments bring characters together at a specific time and usually place Deadlines makes plot duration dependent on the cause-effect chain Narration tends to be “objective” and unrestricted Narrative usually has strong closure at the end (cause-effect chain ends with final effect)
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Today’s Agenda Review of Last Time Formalist Media Theory Discussion
Semiotics Formalist Media Theory Film Form Narrative Form Narration Introduction to Editing Discussion Action Items for Next Time
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Kuleshov and Isenhour Kuelshov: role of montage in cinema
Kuleshov-Pudovkin experiment and the “Kuleshov Effect” Isenhour: context and order in film editing The meaning of a shot will vary with its context By changing the order of shots, the meaning is changed
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Today’s Agenda Review of Last Time Formalist Media Theory Discussion
Semiotics Formalist Media Theory Film Form Narrative Form Narration Introduction to Editing Discussion Action Items for Next Time
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Discussion Questions How can the “story/plot” distinction be leveraged in designing video summarization systems? How can the mode of “Classical Hollywood Cinema” be applied to non-fictional uses of video? What implications does the “Kuleshov Effect” have for designing metadata for multimedia and multimedia databases?
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Today’s Agenda Review of Last Time Formal Media Theory Discussion
Semiotics Formal Media Theory Film Form Narrative Form Narration Introduction to Editing Discussion Action Items for Next Time
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Readings for Next Time Wednesday 02/05 Textbook
David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson: Film Art: An Introduction. Pages: Priority of focus Ch. 8 The Relation of Shot to Shot: Editing Ch. 7 The Shot: Cinematographic Properties Ch. 6 The Shot: Mise-en-scene Ch. 9 Sound in the Cinema
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