Chapter 4: Visual Design

Question 1

The width of the ….(known by trade names such as Cinemascope, Panavision, and Vista vision) varies from 1.85 to 2.55 times its height.

Answer 1

Wide screen

Question 2

The width of the …(often called “Academy ratio”) is approximately 1.33 times its heigh

Answer 2

Standard Screen

Question 3

• A kind of visual tension is created by a slow …(horizontal moving) or dollying camera that heightens suspense by bringing new visual information into view at the outer edges of the screen, increasing our feeling of vulnerability

Answer 3

panning

Question 4

produces an image that is extremely smooth, or slick.

Answer 4

Smooth-grain film stock

Question 5

produces a rough, grainy-textured image with harsh contrasts between blacks and whites and almost no subtle contrasts

Answer 5

Rough-grain film stock

Question 6

• Sometimes a production designer wants to do just the opposite–to create within a limited space the illusion of a large space. Using the technique known as … the designer physically distorts certain aspects of the set and diminishes the size of objects and people in the background to create the illusion of greater foreground-to-background distance

Answer 6

forced perspective,

Question 7

time and place in which the film’s story occurs.

Answer 7

Setting

Question 8

a film that takes place not in the present but in some earlier period of history

Answer 8

period piece

Question 9

lighting puts most of the set in shadow; just a few highlights define the subject. This type of lighting heightens suspense and creates a somber mood; thus, it is used in mystery and horror films

Answer 9

• Low-key

Question 10

in contrast, results in more light areas than shadows, and subjects are seen in middle grays and highlights, with far less contrast. … is suitable for comic and light moods, such as in a musical

Answer 10

• High key lighting

Question 11

1. Strong Key: Blazing away
2. Bright surfaces and heavy shadows
3. THRILLER, SUSPENSFUL

Answer 11

• High Contrast lighting:

Question 12

o 1. Aura or halo effect: Glow

o 2. Romantic and idealized feeling

o 3. Rembrandt lighting

Answer 12

• Back Lighting

Question 13

o 1. Eliminates back lighting: Background swallows up subject

o 2. Peculiar, unnatural feeling

Answer 13

• Limbo Lighting

Question 14

 1 Temporal factors: The time period in which the story takes place

Answer 14

setting as it relates to the story, it is necessary to consider the effect of four factors on the story as a whole:

Question 15

 The four aspects of setting listed above are important to understanding the naturalistic interpretation of the role of setting. This interpretation is based on the belief that our character, destiny, and fate are all determined by forces outside ourselves, that we may be nothing more than products of our heredity and environment, and that freedom of choice is only an illusion. Thus, by considering the environment a significant shaping force or even a dominant controlling one, this interpretation forces us to consider how environment has made characters what they are–in other words, how characters’ nature has been dictated by factors such as their time in history, the particular place on Earth they inhabit, their position in the social and economic structure, and the customs, moral attitudes, and codes of behavior imposed on them by society. These environmental factors may be so pervasive that they serve as something much more important than a backdrop for the film’s plot.

 In some cases the environment may function as an antagonist in the plot. Protagonists may struggle against environmental forces pressing upon them, seeking to express some freedom of choice or escape from a trap. Thus, the serious consideration of the cruel, indifferent, or at least powerful forces of the environment is often a key to understanding a character and his or her dilemma. Director Sean Penn’s Into the Wild, an adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s nonfiction book, introduces a young protagonist who is quite literally trapped in a demanding natural landscape that he has naively chosen to inhabit.

Answer 15

o Setting as Determiner of Character

Question 16

 The environment in which a person lives may provide the viewer with clues to understanding his or her character. This is especially true for the aspects of their environment over which individuals exercise some control. Houses, for example, may be excellent indicators of character. Their usefulness is illustrated by the following examples of exterior views that might appear in a film’s opening shot.
 Picture a small, neat, white, green-shuttered cottage with red roses around the doorstep and bright and cheerful curtains at the windows. It is surrounded by a newly whitewashed picket fence. Such a setting has been traditionally used in films to suggest the happy honeymoon couple, full of youth, vigor, and optimism for a bright future.
 At the other extreme, consider the image evoked by Edgar Allan Poe’s description of the Usher house in his classic short story “The Fall of the House of Usher”: bleak gray walls, vacant eyelike windows, crumbling stones, rotten woodwork, and a barely perceptible zigzag crack in the masonry from roof to foundation

Answer 16

o Setting as Reflection of Character

Question 17

 One of the most obvious and natural functions of the setting is to create a semblance of reality that gives the viewer a sense of a real time and a real place and a feeling of being there. Filmmakers recognize the great importance that an authentic setting plays in making a film believable. Thus, they may search for months to find a proper setting and then move crew, actors, and equipment thousands of miles to capture an appropriate backdrop for the story they are attempting to film.
 To be convincing, the setting chosen should be authentic in even the most minute detail. In a film set in the past, even the slightest anachronism may be jarring. A filmmaker shooting a story about the Civil War must be careful that the skies do not show jet vapor trails or the landscapes do not include high-tension power lines.
 Some films capture the unique qualities of the time and place in which they are set so effectively that these factors may become the most important elements of the film—more powerful and memorable than the characters or the storyline. McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Fifth Element, Blade Runner, The Last Picture Show, North- fork, Under the Tuscan Sun, Synecdoche, New York, and (perhaps) A Serious Man are good examples of such films

Answer 17

o Setting for Verisimilitude

Question 18

 Impact When doing so is permissible within the limits of a film’s theme and purpose; filmmakers choose a setting with a high degree of visual impact. For example, the plot and structure of westerns such as Shane and True Grit do not demand great scenery, but the filmmakers realized that the beauty of the wide western landscape, with its snowcapped mountains and rainbow-colored rock formations, would be effective as long as it did not violate the overall tone or atmosphere of the films. David Lean is especially successful in choosing settings with a powerful visual impact, as demonstrated in Dr. Zhivago, Ryan’s Daughter, and Lawrence of Arabia. The barren Australian desert provides an otherworldly backdrop for the action of The Road Warrior. Legends of the Fall, filmed in western Canada, and Out of Africa owe much to the images of the landscapes behind their stories, as do both versions of Insomnia

Answer 18

o Setting for Sheer Visual

Question 19

 In certain specialized films, setting is important in creating a pervasive mood or emotional atmosphere. This is especially true in horror films and to some extent in the science fiction or fantasy film (such as the Alien films, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, and James Cameron’s Avatar), in which the unusually charged emotional atmosphere created and maintained by the setting becomes an important factor in achieving a suspension of disbelief by the viewer. Setting may also create a mood of tension and suspense in keeping with the overall tone of the film, in addition to adding credibility to plot and character elements

Answer 19

o Setting to Create Emotional Atmosphere

Question 20

 The setting of a film story may take on strong symbolic overtones when it is used to stand for or represent not just a location but some idea associated with the location, as in Agnieszka Holland’s version of The Secret Garden (1993) and Steven Soderbergh’s Bubble, which was shot entirely in a small Ohio- West Virginia border town. Another example of a symbolic environment is the garden setting for Suddenly, Last Summer. The “fantastic” garden becomes a symbol for the worldview reflected by the other symbols: Men are carnivorous creatures living in what is
 essentially a savage jungle in which they devour one another in a constant struggle of fang and claw, obeying only the law of the survival of the fittest. This worldview is delineated in Tennessee Williams’s own description of his play’s set, which is “like … the prehistoric age of giant fern-forests…. The colors … are violent… [and] massive treeflowers … suggest organs of the body, torn out, still glistening with undried blood; … harsh cries and sibilant hissings [insinuate] beasts, serpents and birds, all of a savage nature…,”n

Answer 20

o Setting as Symbol

Question 21

 A special type of symbolic setting is the type known as a microcosm, meaning “the world in little,” in which the human activity in a small and limited area is representative of human behavior or the human condition in the world as a whole. In such a setting special care is taken to isolate the characters from all external influences so that the “little world” seems self-contained. The limited group of people, which contains representative human types from various walks of life or levels of society, might be isolated on a desert island, in an airplane, on a stagecoach, or in a western town.

Answer 21

o Setting as Microcosm

Question 22

 2 Geographic factors: The physical location and its characteristics, including the type of terrain, climate, population density (its visual and psychological impact), and any other physical factors of the locale that may have an effect on the story’s characters and their actions

 3 Social structures and economic factors



Answer 22

setting as it relates to the story, it is necessary to consider the effect of four factors on the story as a whole:

Question 23

4 Customs, moral attitudes, and codes of behavior: Each factor has an important effect on the problems, conflicts, and character of human beings and must be considered as an integral part of any story’s plot or theme.

Answer 23

setting as it relates to the story, it is necessary to consider the effect of four factors on the story as a whole: