Film Studies Flashcards
Mis en scene - proximity
Closeness or distance
Proxemic range
Insight on characters relationships
Extreme long shot
Establishes setting
Subject very small
Long shot
Head to toe
Still some distance
Medium long shot
Character from head to knees
Focus on surrounding and setting
Nothing to do with character personality
Medium shot
Wait to head
Clear expressions and movement of character
Medium close up
Head to shoulders or chest
Very visible facial expressions
Identifies characters emotions and reactions
Close-up
Character’s head, sometimes shoulders
What the character is feeling or saying at the time
Can be an object
Great attention paid to
Extreme close up
Dramatic purposes and effects
Focus on an aspect of a character
Creates suspense, drama, tension
Point of view shot
Shares the character’s POV
helps the audience to identify or empathise with the character
Over the shoulder POV
same as POV
Eye level angle
Brings the viewer on the same level as characters
Normal, part of the scene
High angle
Reduces the subject to insignificance
Inferior, vulnerable, weak
Birds eye view
Subject is tiny
Map like effect
Low angle
Powerful, superior, menacing
Subject appears larger than life
Worms eye
Exaggerates low angle effects
Dutch angle
Tiltes
Scene appears unbalanced
Screen direction - definition
Direction of our eyes moving in a frame
Left to right = comfortable bc reading
Opposite = uncomfortable
Top to bottom = comfortable bc gravity
Opposite = uncomfortable
Horizontal lines
Waves crashing on beach for example
Tranquility, peace
Vertical lines
Top to bottom reminds us of enormous things makes viewer seem tiny or vulnerable
Relations of power or authority, success or failure
Diagonal lines
Suggests movement
Symmetry or balance
Conveys balance, may reflect an ordered universe
Size, colour, shapes of object repeated etc
Or conveys discord or segregation
Asymmetry
Puts viewer off balance
Conveys struggle or that evil is afoot
Diagonals
Movement or activity
Up-diagonal: triumphant caterpillar
Down-diagonal: the exhausted cyclist
Depth of field
Character in distance appears smaller
Character in foreground is more important
Moving from foreground to background communicates the emotional problems a character is experiencing
Rack focus
To change plane for focus from one object to another
Focus
Shallow - foreground, dominating scene , BG blurred
Deep - No blur, idea of relationship
Sharp - draw attention, focal point
Soft - slightly blurred, romatic, dreamlike atmosphere
Foregrounding and backgrounding
Closer objects seem larger and more dominant
Closed frame
Character positioned within border
Ie window frame or door
Or objects restricting character
Sense of entrapment and claustrophobia
Only what is in the frame is reality, nothing exists outside the border
Open frame
No objects impending frame of character
Open space
Sense of freedom and liberation
Position
Objects placed in the top half of the frame will have more weight
Rule of thirds
The eye naturally places itself to a point of two thirds of the frame
Informal and asymmetrical balance
3 main lighting techniques
Key
Fill
Back
High key lighting
Brightly lit, even light, fee shadows
Suggests happiness, brightness, cheerfulness
Low key lighting
Dimly lit, atmospheric pools of light
Sadness, menace, mystery, gloom
Notan lighting
Neutral key
Message of objectivity
Fill light
Reduce shadow
Rim light
Slight glow
Separates subject from background
Soft lighting
Mysteries and thrillers
Overexposed lighting
Dreamlike effect or nightmare
Back lighting
Idealises subject
Creates sense of awe or wonder
Side lighting
Gives solidarity depth and shape
Top lighting
Spiritual effect, heavenly
Bottom lighting
Evil or uncanny
Harsh
Makes subject look sinister
Half lit shot
Makes character morally ambivalent
Chiaroscuro lighting
Selects areas to be lit or dimmed or blacked out
Rembrandt
Cameo
Silhouette
Rembrandt
Certain areas well lit in frame contrasted to dark
Both effects can be in one subject
Cameo lighting
Foreground lit
Background dark
Spotlight on someone
Silhouette lighting
Emotionally loaded, mysterious
Foreground is dark
Background is lit
Shape
Ie disorientation: man viewed upside down
