Exam 2 Flashcards
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Directed by Steven Spielberg and Music by John Williams.
Science fiction adventure about a group of people who attempt to contact alien intelligence. Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) witnesses an unidentified flying object, and even has a “sunburn” from its bright lights to prove it. Roy refuses to accept an explanation for what he saw and is prepared to give up his life to pursue the truth about UFOs.
Expressionism
A style of filmmaking emphasizing extreme distortion, lyricism, and artistic self-expression at the expense of objectivity.
Medium Shot
A relatively close shot, revealing the human figure from the knees or waist up.
Close-up
A detailed view of a person or object. A close-up of an actor usually includes only his or her head.
Extreme Long Shot
A panoramic view of an exterior location, photographed from a great distance, often as far as a quarter-mile away.
Long Shot
A shot that includes an area within the image that roughly corresponds to the audience’s view of the area within the proscenium arch in the live theater.
Full Shot
A type of long shot that includes the human body in full, with the head near the top of the frame and the feet near the bottom.
Extreme Close-up
A minutely detailed view of an object or person. An extreme close-up of an actor generally includes only his or her eyes or mouth.
Establishing Shot
Usually an extreme long shot or long shot offered at the beginning of a scene, providing the viewer with the context of the subsequent closer shots.
Over-the-shoulder Shot
Usually a medium shot of two people, with the camera placed just behind the shoulder of one character, directed at the face of the opposite character.
Angle
The camera’s angle of view relative to the subject being photographed. A high angle shot is photographed from above, a low angle from below the subject.
Bird’s Eye View
A shot in which the camera photographers a scene from directly overhead.
Setup
The positioning of the camera and lights for a specific shot
Crane (boom) Shot
A shot taken from a special device called a crane, which resembles a huge mechanical arm. The crane carries the camera and the cinematographer and can move in virtually any direction
Cinematographer
The artist or technician responsible for the lighting of a shot and the quality of the photography
High Key
A style of lighting emphasizing bright and even illumination, with few conspicuous shadows. Used mostly in comedies, musicals, and light entertainment films
High Contrast
A style of lighting emphasizing harsh shafts and dramatic streaks of lights and darks. Often used in thrillers and melodramas
Low Key
A style of lighting that emphasizes diffused shadows and atmospheric pools of light. Often used in mysteries and thrillers
Film Noir
A french term-black cinema-referring to a kind of urban American genre that sprang up after WWII, emphasizing a fatalistic, despairing universe where there is no escape from mean city streets, loneliness, and death, stylistically. Noir emphasizes low-key and high-key contrast lighting, complex compositions, and a strong atmosphere of dread and paranoia
Backlighting
When the lights for a shot derive from the rear of the set, thus throwing the foreground figures into semidarkness or silhouette
Dominant
That area of the film image that compels the viewer’s most immediate attention, usually because of a prominent visual contrast
Filters
Pieces of glass or plastic placed in front of the camera lens that distort the quality of light entering the camera and hence the movie image
Rack Focusing
The blurring of focal planes in sequence, forcing the viewer’s eyes to travel with those areas of an image that remain in sharp focus
Fast Stock
Film stock that’s highly sensitive to light and generally produces a grainy image. Often used by documentaries who wish to shoot only with available lighting
Storyboarding
A revisualization technique in which shots are sketched in advance and in sequence, like a comic strip, thus allowing the filmmaker to outline the mise en scène and construct the editing continuity before production begins
Wide-Angle Lens
A lens that permits the camera to photograph a wider area than a normal lens. A side effect is its tendency to exaggerate perspective. Also used for deep-focus photography
“Colorized” Films
A computer technology allowing black and white movies to be colorized
Green Screen
Filming live actors against a blank green screen for subsequent compositing with digital elements
Chiaroscuro
A term from art history that refers to the use of deep shadow in the mise en scène
High Angle
A camera angle usually above the eye level of the performers
Tilt
A shot photographed by a tilted camera. When the image is projected on the screen, the subject itself seems to be tilted on a diagonal
Aspect Ratio
The ratio between the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the screen
Widescreen
A movie image that has an aspect ratio of approximately 5:3, though some widescreen possess horizontal dimensions that extend as wide as 2.5 times the vertical dimension of the screen
Full Screen
A display format that modifies the original movie to fit the aspect ratio of your TV or other displays
Pan-and-Scan
Method of adjusting widescreen film images so that they can be shown within the proportions of a standard definition 4:3 aspect ratio TV screen, often cropping off the sides of the original widescreen image to focus on the composition’s most important aspects
Letterbox
Practicing of transferring film shot in a widescreen aspect ratio to standard-width video formats while preserving the film’s original aspect ratio
Masking
A technique whereby a portion of the movie image is blocked out, thus temporarily altering the dimensions of the screen’s aspect ratio
Iris
A masking device that blacks out portions of the screen, permitting only a part of the image to be seen. Usually, the iris is circular or oval in shape and can be expanded or contracted
Intrinsic Interest
An unobtrusive area of the film image that none the less compels our most immediate attention because of its dramatic or contextual importance
Tight Framing
Usually in close shots. The mise en scene is so carefully balanced and harmonized that the people photographed have little or no freedom of movement
Loose Framing
Usually in longer shots. The mise en scene is so spaciously distributed within the confines of the framed image that the people photographed have considerable freedom of movement
Panning
Short for panorama, this is a revolving horizontal movement of the camera from left to right, vice versa.
Proxemic Patterns
The spatial relationships among characters within the mise en scene, and the apparent distance of the camera from the subject photographed
Deep-focus Shot
A technique of photography that permits all distance planes to remain clearly in focus, from close-up ranges to infinity
Open Form
Use primarily by realist filmmakers, these techniques are likely to be unobtrusive, with an emphasis on informal compositions and apparently haphazard designs. The frame is exploited to suggest a temporary masking, a window that arbitrarily cuts off part of the action
Closed Form
A visual style that inclines toward self-conscious designs and carefully harmonized compositions. The frame is exploited to suggest a self-sufficient universe that encloses all the necessary visual info, usually an aesthetically appealing manner
Aleatory
Techniques of filmmaking that depend on the element of chance. Images are not planned out in advance but must be composed on the spot by the camera operator. Usually used in documentary situations
Anticipatory Setup
The placement of the camera in such a manner as to anticipate the movement of an action before it occurs. Such setups often suggest predestination
Shot-Reverse-Short Cutting
The cutting alternates between opposing over the shoulder camera setups showing each character speaking in turn. Generally used for conversation scenes
Systematic Mise en Scene Analysis
15 Terms: Dominant, Lighting Key, Shot and Camera Proxemics, Angle, Color Values, Lens/Filter/Stock, Subsidiary Contrasts, Density, Composition, Form, Framing, Depth, Character Placement, Staging Positions, Character Proxemics
