BACKUP The Key Elements of Film Form: Cinematography COPY Flashcards
Filmmakers use a range of elements in constructing narrative meaning and generating response.
What are the five Key Elements of Film Form?
MSPEC
- Mise en scene
- Sound
- Performance
- Editing
- Cinematography
What are the 2 (in the spec) + 3 (from the book) Principal Elements of Cinematography?
- Camera shots (including point of view shots, focus including depth of field, expressive and canted angle shots, handheld camera in contrast to Steadicam technology)
- Composition (including balanced and unbalanced shots)
- Camera movement
- Lighting
- Colour
List 4 Creative Uses of Cinematography.
- Camera work (including subjective camera, shifts in focus and depth of field, mixed camera styles, filters)
- Monochrome cinematography
- Principles of 3 point lighting (including key, fill and backlighting)
- Chiaroscuro lighting (and other expressive lighting effects)
List 7 ways that Cinematography Conveys Messages and Values.
- How shot selection –> narrative development
- How lighting –> character and atmosphere
- How cinematography –> psychological insight into character
- How cinematography –> generates multiple connotations and suggests a range of interpretations
- Why different spectators –> different interpretations of the same camera shots and lighting
- How cinematography –> used to align spectators and relates to interpretation of narrative
- How cinematography –> contributes ideologies of film
What are the 3 Principal Elements of Mise-en-scene?
- Setting, props, costume and makeup
- Staging movement and off screen space
- How cinematography impacts mise-en-scene (in particular through variation of depth of field, focus and framing (this overlaps with cinematography))
List 3 Creative Uses of Mise-en-scene.
- How it can be used naturalistically and expressively
- How it can generate multiple connotations
- How changes contribute to character and narrative development
List 6 ways that Mise-en-scene Conveys Messages and Values.
- The significance of motifs
- How m-e-s –> generates multiple connotations and suggests a range of interpretations
- Why different spectators –> different interpretations of the same m-e-s
- How m-e-s –> used to align spectators and relates to interpretation of narrative
- How m-e-s –> contributes to ideologies of film
What are the 3 Principal Elements of Editing?
- The shot to shot relationships of continuity editing (including match editing and the 180 degree rule)
- The role of editing in creating meaning, (including the Kuleshov effect )
- Montage editing and stylised forms of editing (including jump cuts)
List 4 Creative Uses of Editing.
- How editing (editing motifs and patterned repetition) –> implies relationships between characters and contributes to narrative development
- How editing –> generates multiple connotations and suggests a range of interpretations
- How visual effects created in post production –> engage the spectator and create a emotional response
- How visual effects created in post production –> tension between the filmmakers’ intention to create a particular emotional response and the actual response.
List 3 ways that Editing Conveys Messages and Values.
- Why different spectators –> different interpretations of the same editing
- How editing –> used to align spectators and relates to interpretation of narrative
- How editing –> contributes to ideologies of film
What are the 4 Principal Elements of Sound?
- Vocal sounds (dialogue and narration), environmental sounds (ambient, sound effects and Foley), music, silence
- diegetic or non-diegetic sound
- Parallel and contrapuntal sound and the distinction between them
- Multitrack sound mixing and layering, asychronous sound, sound design
List 2 Creative Uses of Sound.
- How sound is used expressively
- How sound relates to characters and narrative development including sound motifs
List 4 ways that Sound Conveys Messages and Values.
- Why different spectators –> different interpretations of the same sound
- How sound –> used to align spectators and relates to interpretation of narrative
- How sound –> contributes to ideologies of film
What are the 4 Principal Elements of Performance?
- The use of non verbal communication including physical expression and vocal delivery
- The significance of the interaction between actors
- Performance styles in cinema including method and improvisatory styles
- The significance of casting
List 2 ways in which Performance is a Creative Collaboration.
- The role of directing as a ‘choreography’ of stage movement
- The relationship between performance and cinematography
List 4 ways that Performance Conveys Messages and Values.
- Why different spectators –> different interpretations of the same performance
- How performance –> used to align spectators and relates to interpretation of narrative
- How performance –> contributes to ideologies of film
What are the 4 common things to think about when analysing how the Key Elements of Film Form (cinematography, mise-en-scene, sound, editing, performance) convey Messages and Values?
- How [Camera shot / M-e-s / Editing / Sound / Performance] –> contributes to narrative development
- How [Camera shot / M-e-s / Editing / Sound / Performance] –> generates multiple connotations and suggests a range of interpretations
- Why different spectators –> different interpretations of the same [Camera shot / M-e-s / Editing / Sound / Performance]
- How [Camera shot / M-e-s / Editing / Sound / Performance] –> used to align spectators and relates to interpretation of narrative
- How [Camera shot / M-e-s / Editing / Sound / Performance] –> contributes to ideologies of film
Core Study Areas: Film Form
What is aesthetic?
The style adopted by an artist or a film movement
Core Study Areas: Film Form
What is production?
The period of actual shooting
Core Study Areas: Film Form
What are auteurs?
Certain directors will have a strong aesthetic
Core Study Areas: Film Form
What is pre-production?
The period prior to filming, where key decisions are made, including securing funding, selecting actors and creative personnel, choosing locations, building sets, designing costumes and determining the film’s aesthetic and planning the production schedule.
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography
What is a cinematographer?
Responsible for the look of the film; in charge of the camera technique and translates the director’s vision onto the screen advising the director on camera angles, lighting and special effects
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography
What is film stock?
The type of film used to shoot the film on
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography
What is aspect ratio?
The shape of the image; this affects the composition of the shots
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography
What is frames per second?
The frame rate or the speed that individual frames are projected to give the allusion of movement
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography
What is the definition of a ‘shot’ from the perspective of a cinematographer?
The movement the camera starts rolling (action) to the end (cut)
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography
What is the definition of a ‘shot’ from the perspective of an editor?
The continuous scene or sequences between two cuts or edits
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography
What is the definition of a ‘shot’ with regard to process?
The process of shooting e.g “we shot 4 minutes of screen time today’
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography
What is the definition of a ‘shot’ in terms of measurement?
There are different types of shot, which refer to the distance between the camera and the subject
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Types of shot
What are the 8 types of shot?
- Extreme long shot (ELS) or Establishing shot
- Long shot (LS)
- Medium-long shot (MLS)
- Medium shot (MS) or Midshot
- Two-shot
- Medium close-up (MCU)
- Close-up (CU)
- Extreme close-up (ECU)
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Types of shot
Describe Foreground (FG) and Background (BG) shot
-
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Types of shot
What is depth of field?
The distance between the nearest and furthest objects in a scene that are in sharp focus in a shot
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Types of shot
Discuss depth of field in terms of shallow focus and deep focus.
Deep focus has the foreground, middle ground and background all in remaining in sharp focus
Shallow focus is where one thing is in plane focus and the background out of focus
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Camera angles and perspectives
List the 8 types of camera angles and perspectives.
- Aerial shot
- Overhead shot
- Eye-level shot
- Over-the-shoulder shot
- High-angle shot
- Low-angle shot
- Objective
- Subjective
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Camera movements
List the 6 types of camera movements.
- Fixed axis
- Shifting axis
- Zoom
- Crane shot
- Hand-held
- Steadicam
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Lighting
Film spectators are usually attracted to the most brightly illuminated area of the screen. Filmmakers play on this when lighting a shot.
What are the 2 key elements to consider when studying how a scene is lit and what further information you can draw from the lighting?
- Source: (3 point lighting)
- Key light
- Fill light
- Back light
- Direction:
- Front lighting
- Side lighting
- Back lighting
- Under lighting
- Top lighting
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Lighting: Element 1: Source
Cinematographers can either use _______ available light or deliberately placed _________ light.
- Natural
- Artifical
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Lighting: Element 1: Source
What are the 3 types of light in the three-point lighting combination?
- Key light
- Fill light
- Back light
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Lighting: Element 1: Source
What is chiaroscuro lighting?
- It refers to the bold use of dark and light.
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Lighting: Element 1: Source
What 4 things can the extremes of both dark and light lighting support or develop?
- Narrative themes of good versus evil
- characters’ situations e.g a sense of peril (if well lit) and wrong-doing (if in the shade)
- A physical allusion to characters’ psychological state of mind
- Themes of duplicity, claustrophobia and fatalism
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Lighting: Element 2: Direction
What are the 5 different directions that light can be directed from source to object?
- Front lighting
- Side lighting
- Back lighting
- Under lighting
- Top lighting
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Lighting: Other elements
What 2 other aspects of lighting do cinematographers need to consider besides the Source and the Direction of light?
- Intensity
- Quality
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Lighting: Element 3
In addition to the Source, Direction, Intensity of and Quality of lighting, what element of light is also important to Cinematography (but primarily a consideration of mise-en-scene?
- Colour
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Lighting: Element 3: Colour
What is post-production and what type of work is done during that phase of filmmaking?
- It’s the work that is required to complete the film, after shooting, including the edit, sound mix, music composition, colour grading and CGI special effects
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Lighting: Element 3: Colour
What is grading and when is it done?
- Colour grading is the process of improving the appearance of an image and it can visually emphasise the mood of the scene
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Lighting: Element 3: Colour: Black and White
What are some important considerations when filming in black and white?
- It is not the hue of the colour that makes an impact but the brightness
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Composition
What is composition? What creates the composition of a shot?
- Composition is the arrangement of all the visual elements of mise-en-scene in the frame. The choice of camera angle and lighting, combined with the placement of people and objects within the setting, creates the composition of a shot
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Composition
What are 4 key features of composition?
- the rule of thirds
- Balance and symmetry
- Lines
Form
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Composition: Rule of Thirds
Discuss the rule of thirds.
- The rule of thirds is a central premise of composition. If you divide the frame into thirds your main character or object should fall at the intersection of two of these lines. This will draw your eye to the main object but leave space for further information to be communicated
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Composition: Balance and Symmetry
Describe and discuss the 2 types of balance and symmetry composition.
- Formal or symmetrical balanced composition is used to depict a quiet, restful, static scene. Having the images displayed evenly within the frame will convey a sense of calm and order
- Informal or asymmetrical unbalanced composition is used to challenge or attract attention. You can make a character appear more dominant by positioning them higher or lower in a frame
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Composition: Lines
What are compositional lines and what purpose do they serve?
- Compositional lines are the contours of objects, people, props, buildings, trees, vehicles, furniture and so on, and are expressed in straight, curved, vertical, horizontal or diagonal lines
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Composition: Lines
What are the 5 key types of composition lines?
- Vertical lines
- Horizontal lines
- Diagonal lines
- Organic lines
- Implied lines
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Composition: Form
What are the 2 types of forms? Give a definition of each.
- Physical forms such as people or objects.
- Filmmakers can also create the illusion of form in the viewer’s eye by grouping people or objects together to create abstract forms.
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Cinematography: Composition: Form: Abstract Forms
Give an example of an Abstract Form and what it symbolises.
- A triangle pointing upwards suggests strength, stability and solidarity like a mountain. this allows the eye to go from point to point in an upwards movement with ease, reinforcing positive attributes
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene
What is mise-en-scene in Film? What is it in theatre?
- It refers to everything on the screen in front of the camera
In theatre, it refers to all the elements placed on a stage that contribute to the setting or mood the creative team were working towards
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene: Colour
List 7 colours, plus black and white and the psychololgical associations with each.
- Red: anger, violence, danger, love, excitement
- Pink: femininity, sweetness, innocence, playfulness
- Orange: warmth, happiness, friendly, exoticness
- Yellow: sickness, madness, idyllic, insecurity
- Green: nature, renewal, hope, darkness, envy, ominous
- Blue: cold, calm, melancholy, cerebral
- Purple: fantasy, mystical, ethereal, ominous
- Black: fear, grief, sophistication
- White: sincerity, purity
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene: Colour
Model for success. One of the best ways to do well on an exam question is to see an excellent answer and then try to incorporate items of excellence into your own answer.
Describe how colour is used in “We need to talk about Kevin” and what it represents.
- In the screenshot, it shows Eva whose son has carried out a mass school shooting, sitting in a cafe. In it are two primary colours; red and green. Eva is sitting in the green-lit window which alludes to darkness, giving the shot an ominous feel. The window and Eva is framed on all sides by large blocks of red, suggesting that she is surrounded by anger, violence and danger, with no escape
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene: Colour
Model for success. One of the best ways to do well on an exam question is to see an excellent answer and then try to incorporate items of excellence into your own answer.
Describe how colour is used in “House of Flying Daggers” and what it represents.
- Colour plays a significant part in the aesthetic style with a single colour dominating the mise-en-scene in different sequences. Here the characters and backgrounds are almost all the same shade of green, with the green alluding to nature, renewal and hope
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene: Setting and Props
Who is responsible for setting and props in a film?
- Production designer
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene: Setting and Props: Setting
What are the two main parts of setting?
- Location
- Time
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene: Setting and Props: Setting
Where are the 5 main places that a film set is created?
- Exterior
- Interior
- A real place
- Specially built set on a soundstage
- On location
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene: Setting and Props: Setting
Describe the 4 times that form setting.
- Dawn
- Daylight
- Dusk
- The dead of night
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene: Setting and Props: Props
What are setting props?
- All the items used in both interior and exterior locations
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene: Setting and Props: Props
List 4 things in an external scene in a historical drama that a production designer would have to consider when designing props.
- Vehicles
- Street lighting
- Shop facades
- Background extras
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene: Setting and Props: Props
List 3 things in an internal scene in a historical drama that a production designer would have to consider when designing props.
- Pictures on the wall
- Books on the shelf
- Items on a table
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene: Setting and Props: Props
True or False: The absence of props that would be expected to be in a setting (e.g. a football pitch without anyone playing football) are indicators to character and story.
- True
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene: Setting and Props: Props
What two decisions about props can carry additional narrative emotional or symbolic weight?
- Where props are placed and how they are used
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene: Setting and Props: Props
What is a costume prop? Give 4 examples.
- Props that characters make use of
- Spectacles
- A holstered gun
- An umbrella
- A wristwatch
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene: Colour
Complete the following cloze: There is considerable crossover between _____________ and mise-en-scene , particularly with regards to ________. The position of the ______, part of the mise-en-scene, is also an essential element of a cinematographer’s framing.
- Cinematography
- Lighting
- Actors
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene: Setting and props
Model for success. One of the best ways to do well on an exam question is to see an excellent answer and then try to incorporate items of excellence into your own answer.
Describe how setting, props and costume are used in “Life is Beautiful” to develop the narrative, provoke emotional response, offer understanding to the characters or serve a symbolic function.
- The setting is clearly a barrack in a concentration camp, with the men wearing the grey and black striped uniform synonymous with the German WW2 concentration camps. The uniforms have a yellow star on them, so we know that these men are Jewish because the Nazis forced all Jews to wear the Star of David.
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene: Setting and props
Model for success. One of the best ways to do well on an exam question is to see an excellent answer and then try to incorporate items of excellence into your own answer.
Describe how setting, props and costume are used in “We Need to Talk about Kevin” to develop the narrative, provoke emotional response, offer understanding to the characters or serve a symbolic function.
- The setting is a domestic living space, filled with furniture and soft furnishings of golden browns and reds, which alludes to gold, warmth and comfort. The stripped wooden floor and throw rugs indicate an arty-affluence that is reinforced by the vinyl collection. The only primary colours in the room are the children’s toys, suggesting that Kevin has invaded this warm golden space with his solid colourful toys.
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene: Costume, Make-up and Hair
For what 5 purposes does the costumer designer work with other creative departments/production designer?
- Are put of the wider aesthetic vision
- Develop the character
- Support or contrast other characters’ costumes
- Are suitable for the actor’s performance (physical/restrained)
- Are appropriate to the setting (both time and location)
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene: Costume, Make-up and Hair
Give an example of an item of clothing that suggests a particular genre.
- Stetson hats in a western
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene: Costume, Make-up and Hair
What are the 3 main uses of make-up?
- Day to day, which is used for naturalistic performances, or used to enhance an actor’s features.
- Character or transformation make-up would employ specialist make-up alongside facial prosthetics to change a person’s appearance.
- Special effects (FX) make-up also uses prosthetics made of latex, foam or silicone, but these may be entire bodysuits and complete head/facial masks.
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene: Costume, Make-up and Hair
Model for success. One of the best ways to do well on an exam question is to see an excellent answer and then try to incorporate items of excellence into your own answer.
In “Shaun of the Dead” what are the different functions of the costumes worn by Foree Electric employees?
- It’s an over-the-shoulder shot, with Shaun in the foreground. He and his junior colleagues are all wearing the same costume: black trousers, white shirt and red tire. But the styling for each reflects six different characters. Some shirts are ironed, other wrinkled. Some have the shirt neatly tucked into their trousers while others have them bagged out or half-tucked.
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene: Staging, Movement and use of off-screen space
Staging: What 3 things can be affected by the way that characters and objects are positioned in a frame?
- Add further meaning to their relationship to one another
- Indicate their importance to the narrative
- Draw attention to a particular character/object
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene: Staging, Movement and use of off-screen space
In Mise-en-scene, what kind of movement is analysed? Camera or actors?
- Actors are analysed
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene: Staging, Movement and use of off-screen space
What are the 6 offscreen spaces?
- To the left
- To the right
- Above
- Below
- Behind the set
- In front of the camera
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene: Staging, Movement and use of off-screen space
Describe 4 subtle ways in which off-screen spaces can be used.
- Walking into frame from the right
- Across the frame and out of the left
- Looking upwards
- One character to point to the action happening off-screen
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene: Staging, Movement and use of off-screen space
Describe 2 overt ways in which off-screen spaces can be used. What is the intended effect of these on the audience?
- When a character breaks the fourth wall by addressing the audience or looking directly into the camera making the audience complicit in the action
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Mise-en-scene: Staging, Movement and use of off-screen space
Model for success. One of the best ways to do well on an exam question is to see an excellent answer and then try to incorporate items of excellence into your own answer.
In “Shaun of the Dead” what does the staging tell us about the relationship between characters? ( 1. Liz and Shaun in a cafe 2. Shaun and Ed on the sofa)
- In the foreground, Liz and Shaun are sitting opposite each other, across a fairly wide table. They are placed in the lower half of the screen. Ed is in the background standing, so we see more of his body and is standing between them as though his mere presence is pushing them further apart.
- Ed and Shaun are sitting very close together on the sofa, with their arms overlapping. This proximity to one another mirrors their friendship, which seems far closer than that of Shaun of Liz.
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing
What is editing?
- The process of arranging all the images in their current order so that the narrative makes sense, the dialogue flows and you can see what you need to see when you need to see it
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Continuity editing
What is continuity editing and what is it designed to do?
- (invisible editing) it’s designed to make the transitions between shots as seamless as possible so it doesn’t draw attention to the film’s construction, instead allowing the audience to become immersed in the narrative
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Continuity editing
Describe 7 features of continuity editing
- An establishing shot is usually the point of entry into a scene which typically begins with a long shot
- Shot-reverse-shot is used between two people in a conversation filmed through over the shoulder shots
- An eye-line match is used in conversations where two characters have been shot up close and the shot is edited to match the height of the other character
- The 180-degree rule is used to ensure that we understand where characters are in relation to each other, and the camera should not cross over the ‘invisible line
- The 30-degree rule is a general principle that two consecutive shots should have at least a 30-degree variance between them
- Cross-cutting is the parallel editing of two or more events in an alternating pattern.
- Match on action- This is when the editing will make something look continuous while the shots change
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Shot transitions
What are shot transitions and what 5 effects can they have?
- How you move from one shot to the next
1. Can manipulate time and space
2. Serve the film’s aesthetic style
3. Create mood
4. develop narrative and character
5. generate further meaning
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Shot transitions
What are the 3 most frequently used transitions in filmmaking?
- Cut- A straight edit from one image to another with nothing in between
- Dissolve- One image overlaps another from ‘image A’ to ‘image B’
- Fade- The picture emerges out of, or disappears into black or white
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Shot transitions
What type of effect does a Cut shot transition enable?
- It allows you to travel great distances in time and setting in an instant
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Shot transitions
What type of effect does a Fade enable?
- To show that it’s the end of a major scene or act and it’s the fil equivalent to the end of a chapter in a book
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Shot transitions
What type of effect does a Dissolve enable?
- It creates a feeling of time passing or makes a connection between two characters or a character and an object or setting
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Shot transitions: Other shot transitions
Which 5 shot transitions can provide a more experimental approach.
- Wipe
- Jump-cut
- Match cut
- Freeze-frame
- Match dissolve
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Shot transitions: Other shot transitions
What is a Wipe shot transition and what type of effect does it enable?
- A line travels across the screen from left to right replacing it with the second image
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Shot transitions: Other shot transitions
What is a Match-cut shot transition and what type of effect does it enable?
- This is when we cut from one image to something that looks similar which transports us instantly to another scene
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Shot transitions: Other shot transitions
What is a Match-dissolve shot transition and what type of effect does it enable?
- Uses the same juxtaposition of images, but dissolves between the two
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Shot transitions: Other shot transitions
What is a Jump-cut shot transition and what type of effect does it enable?
- This is the result of breaking the 30-degree rule which gives the scene an edgy, uneasy feeling as though we haven’t seen anything
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Shot transitions: Other shot transitions
What is a Freeze-frame shot transition and what type of effect does it enable?
- This is where a single frame is held on screen for a period of time, it can leave the film open for interpretation or hold an important image or character’s response in the viewer’s mind
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Time and Space
Complete the cloze:
_______ is used in the organisation of ____ and _____, both within individual ________ and __________ the film, in order to create _________ ________.
- Editing
- Time
- Space
- Sequences
- Throughout
- Narrative
- Coherence
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Time and Space
What are the 3 ways that time and space can be used?
- Linear form
- Near chronological order
- Discontinuity of narrative
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Time and Space
What is linear form with regards to time?
- where the story starts and progresses forwards until its resolution
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Time and Space
What is near chronological order with regards to time?
- When the film starts in the present day and then goes back in time to the beginning of the story and continues forwards in one long flashback until the two points meet where it can either end or continue on.
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Time and Space
What is discontinuity of narrative with regards to time? What are the 4 ways that it can be achieved?
- It presents the story in a non-linear manner, which can be achieved in a number of ways
1. Reversed
2. Flashbacks
3. Flashforwards
4. Dreams and fantasies
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Time and Space: Discontinuity of Narrative
Define ‘reverse’ in terms of Discontinuity of Narrative.
- When it starts at the end narrative and works backwards to the beginning
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Time and Space: Discontinuity of Narrative
Define ‘flashbacks’ in terms of Discontinuity of Narrative.
- It inserts a scene from the narrative past in an otherwise linear narrative or as the overarching structure
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Time and Space: Discontinuity of Narrative
Define ‘flashforwards’ in terms of Discontinuity of Narrative.
- Move the action from the present to the future
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Time and Space: Discontinuity of Narrative
Define ‘dreams and fantasies’ in terms of Discontinuity of Narrative.
- Inserted in the narrative to offer insights into a character’s emotional status or to shed light on the past
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Time and Space: Discontinuity of Narrative
Describe how near chronological order editing of time is done in ‘City of God’.
- Using Rocket as the central point of the flashback indicates that the narrative is being told from his perspective.
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Speed of Editing
In terms of editing, what will set the tone of what is happening on screen?
- The length of each shot, scene and sequence
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Speed of Editing
In terms of the speed of editing, How long can a shot last?
- It may last for a few seconds, minutes or the entire film
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Speed of Editing
In terms of the speed of editing, what is a scene?
- It may consist of one-shot or a series of shots depicting a continuous event
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Speed of Editing
In terms of the speed of editing, what is a sequence?
- A series of scenes of shots complete in itself. Action should match in sequence, where it continues across several consecutive shots with straight cuts so that it depicts the event in a continuous manner
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Speed of Editing
In terms of the speed of editing, how could a sense of urgency be created?
- By increasing the frequency of the editing, seeing the action from various shots/angles
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Speed of Editing
In terms of the speed of editing, how could a relaxed mood be created?
- Scenes can last longer with fewer shot changes
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Speed of Editing
At what part of the film is the editing most likely to be slower?
- Scenes at the beginning of a film, where we are getting to know the characters and the story is unfolding
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Speed of Editing: shot length
How many shots are there in classic Hollywood films? In the average film of today? In an action film? Why has there been an increase in the number of shots in modern films?
- 150 edits
- 1,300 edits
- Twice as many 3,000
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Speed of Editing: shot length
What is a non-linear editing system? (NLE)
- Is the software, computer-based editing systems we use nowadays for editing video or audio as opposed to the old systems of either cutting film and/ audiotape and sticking the pieces together manually in the required order
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Speed of Editing
Would films edited on film generally have more or fewer edits? Longer or shorter shots. Why?
- Fewer longer shots as shot length creates the pace of the film.
Core Study Areas: Film Form: Editing: Speed of Editing
Model for success. One of the best ways to do well on an exam question is to see an excellent answer and then try to incorporate items of excellence into your own answer.
Compare the speed of editing in ‘We need to talk about Kevin’, ‘City of God’ and ‘Shaun of the Dead’.
- We see Shaun get up from the sofa and walk towards the door. It then cuts to a series of six quick-cuts (crash zooms) as he gets ready for work. This 4 inch is followed by a 10 inch shot of him adjusting his tie and talking to Pete. This is followed by another sequence of six quick-cuts of breakfast preparation. These extreme quick-cuts are used for comic effect and form part of Edgar Wright’s aesthetic.
