Chapter 2 "How to Watch a Movie" Flashcards
What is the “illusion of movement” and how does the brain process moving pictures?
Also known as beta movement:
When the brain interprets two stimuli shown in quick succession as the movement of a single object
What is the difference between a “shot” and a “frame”?
Shot- a continuous capture of a span of action
Frame- the visual border of the captured image
Define “Cinematic Language”
a set of rules and conventions by which cinema communicates meaning
Define “Visual Lexicon”
The shared set of meaningful units in our collective cinematic language that we all understand mean something when employed in a motion picture.
aka: a set of things that we understand mean something else
ex) images, angles, transitions and camera moves
How does understanding “cinematic language” and visual lexicon” help us to analyze movies?
Much like understanding the rules of English by means of it’s grammar, we can read more of what message was trying to be translated
What are some different types of shots?
close up, medium/long shots, low/high-angle shot
Discuss the various kinds of transitions used in film.
Fade in/out- drifts out of/into darkness
Dissolves- a fade into another scene
Iris in/out (more outdated)
Cutting on action
wipe, passing transition, whip pan
Match cut- connects similar things in scenes (sound movement, images)
Match dissolve - combination of the match cut and dissolve
Smash cut- cut between 2 highly contrasting themes
Jcut/Lcut- when audio bleeds over from another shot
What is the difference between the implicit and explicit meaning in films. How does this help to convey the theme of a movie?
implicit- underlying meaning
explicit- obvious meaning
the explicit meaning is often the vehicle for which to express the implicit meaning of a film, that is to say, what the film is truly about
what is the difference between co-expressive and non-diegetic use of sound?
co-expressive: noises which occur in scene (the characters can hear)
non-diegetic: noises that occur outside of frame/no source on screen
What are the methods for synchronizing and use of sound in a film?
sound can is used to shape how we perceive an image.
This isn’t just music , it is all the noises we hear, and even sometimes the ones we do not, it is
Sound Design
What is the relationship between sound design and mise-en-scene?
Sound design is the glue that makes mise-en-scene stick
How does “framing” or “composition” help create implicit or explicit meaning in movies?
through things like “motifs” (recurring patters) or movement, either that of the frame or the actors and objects within it
