final Flashcards
Who was Joseph Campbell?
A cultural anthropologist, a college professor at Sarah Lawrence College, and researcher on comparative mythology. Studied different cultures and how myths are common among all cultures.
Where is the first evidence of story telling?
cave paintings, first sign of humans documenting and archiving information.
Define Archetype.
An original model or type after which similar things are patterned. Well-known story patterns, universal experiences, or personality types. Myths, fairy tales, genres, and cultural heroes are generally archetypal. Depict shared cultural experiences.
Define Formalism.
style of filmmaking in which aesthetic forms take precedence over the subject matter as content. Time and space are often distorted. Emphasis on essential, symbolic characteristics of objects and people, not their superficial appearance. Often lyrical, self-consciously heightening style to call attention to it as a value for its own sake.
Who were the three philosophers of antiquity that contributed to Western culture?
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle.
Define Realism.
Style of filmmaking that attempts to duplicate the look of objective reality as it’s commonly perceived, with emphasis on authentic locations and details, long shots, lengthy takes, and a minimum of distorting techniques. Maintain illusion that film world is an unmanipulated mirror of real life, emphasis on content over form, simplicity, spontaneity, and directness.
Explain what Joseph Campbell means by The Hero’s Journey.
A series of specific external trials that results in the psychological transformation of a character/hero. Character experiences an initial personal crisis that starts the journey with goal of solving this crisis, leading to a change in the Hero’s consciousness. Departure, fufillment, and return. External trails change internal perspective. Can be related to all humans and used as a way to guide viewers and teach morality and self-awareness.
Name the six mediums of Mass Communications.
Film, Television, Radio, Digital Technology, Print, Religion
Which side of the brain is used for processing visual data?
The right side
How many hours of TV does the average American watch per year?
1,666 hours
What country hosted the first paid public screening?
France
What are the two schools of thought in early filmmaking?
ethnographic (Lumiere- documentary) and narrative (Melies)
Define Culture.
Everything in a society.
Which film did D.W. Griffith direct that fueled racism?
Birth of a Nation
What editing technique is employed in The Great Train Robbery?
Elliptical and Parallel editing
Define Metaphor.
A figurative technique that compares two otherwise unlike things to convey an abstract symbolic message. Makes more sense figuratively rather than literally and helps audiences understand more complex ideas and themes.
Define Neo-realism.
A style of film, form of realism created by the Italians that uses standard techniques of realism such as real set location, non-professional actors, natural lighting, and an absence of extraordinary events and characters. Emphasizes documentary aspects of film art. Focuses on social injustices highlighting humanistic and democratic ideals to challenge the current repressive nature of their government.
Define Surrealism.
Style of film, type of avant-garde film produced by the French that focuses on Marxist and Freudian ideas reflecting subconscious elements, irrationalism and symbolic association of ideas. Idea is to replicate subconscious state of mind with intense provocative imagery.
Who was the famous female lead in The New York Hat?
Mary Pickford
A Narrative Film is what kind of film?
A film that tells a story. Fiction film that tells a story using standard narrative techniques such as linear cause and effect scene sequencing with clear thematic links and a clear protagonist who faces a conflict and finds resolution by the end.
Explain the “Phi Phenomena”.
A psychological process that plays on the persistence of vision by using rapid alternating succession of color frames and dark frames to give the illusion of motion.
Who shot Man With a Movie Camera?
Dizia Vertov
Is Charlie Chaplin a Formalist or Realist?
Formalist
What are the Seven Story Components of a screenplay?
Status Quo, Crisis Situation, Plot Point 1, Body, Plot Point 2, Climax, Resolution.
Define Classicism.
An intermediate style of film that avoids the extreme qualities of formalism and realism with a slightly stylized presentation that has some plausibility in reality. Films are story-oriented with images relevant to story and characters rather than beauty or authenticity.
On which end of the “Classification Chart” does documentary reside?
Realism
Who said “form should always be the embodiment of content”?
Laszlo Kovacs
Which country and who was known for their/his advances in editing?
Russia, Dizia Vertov
What film company did Chaplin form with Mary Pickford?
United Artists
Explain Genre Film.
A film that is categorized or subcategorized by familiar themes that the audience expects as predictable based on components such as plot, theme, form, and content.
Who perfected the Screwball Comedy?
Preston Sturges
Define Mise-en-Scene.
French for placing on stage. Arrangement of all visual elements and movements within a given space. Encompasses how action, objects, and figures are staged and photographed.
What genera evolved from the Gangster Film?
Film Noir
What modern TV staple did the Screw Ball comedy portend?
modern sitcom
Name five of the fifteen elements of Mise-en-Scene.
Dominant, Shot and Camera Proxemics, Form, Framing, and Composition
Which director is Preston Sturges mocking in his films?
Frank Capra
Name three attributes of the Screwball Comedy.
Domestication of the outcast oddball man and woman, courtship rights between these two, and socioeconomic class differences.
Screwball Comedy is an antidote for what other genera?
Film noir
Explain the difference between open and closed forms in film?
Open-depict reality in stylistically unobtrusive manner with informal compositions and haphazard designs, frame suggests a continuous space using temporary masking to cut off action. (spontaneity, randomness of real life) Closed- high degree of stylization, self-conscious designs, carefully balanced compositions with a frame that suggests a self-sufficient universe where all necessary info is enclosed. (artificial reality, emphasize aesthetic pleasure)
What is meant by rupturing the narrative?
When the director brings attention to aspects of the film making process and pulls the viewer out of the watching experience.
What genera followed the Hardboiled Detective genera?
Film noir/ American Expressionism
Name five ways of distorting movement.
Animation, Fast-Motion, Slow-Motion, Reverse Motion, Freeze Frame
What is a swish pan?
Variation of the pan shot and used for transitions. When the camera moves horizontally or whirls at such a rapid rate that the subject matter blurs on screen.
What film ushered in American Expressionism?
Double Indemnity
Define the term Film Noir.
The urban American genre that sprang to popularity after WWII and emphasizes existential and Freudian psychology depicting a fatalistic, despairing universe. Stylistically places importance on graphic visuals and mise-en-scene with low-key and high contrast lighting, complex compositions, and a strong atmosphere of dread and paranoia.
Film Noir is the merge of what two generas?
gangster films and hard-boiled detective films
Explain Juxtaposition.
When two or more images are placed side by side that separately have individual unique meanings, but when placed together convey a new third meaning or message.
Name the seven basic moving camera shots.
Pan, Tilts, Dolly Shots, Handheld Shots, Cran Shots, Zoom Shots, and Ariel Shots.
What is meant by “femme fatal”?
the villainous female who leads the action or crime in a dominant role. She is very manipulative, especially sexually and men are both attracted to and repelled by her and her manipulations.
In what country did Expressionism originate?
Germany
Define Neo-Realism.
Italian film movement popularized in 1945 after WWII that stresses realistic techniques utilizing documentary-like qualities such as loose episodic plots, natural lighting, real set locations, nonprofessional actors, un-extraordinary events and characters and focuses on democratic and humanistic ideals depicting the poverty and social problems of the individual.
Thematic editing is also known as what?
Thematic Montage