Middy 1

Question 1

What is in the production process?

Answer 1

Preproduction, Screenwriters, producers and studios, financing film production, casting directors and agents, Locations, Production Design, Sets, and Costumes

Question 2

What is involved in Production?

Answer 2

Principal photography
o The majority of footage that is filmed.

Film shoot
o The weeks or months of actual shooting, on set or on location

Director
o The chief creative presence and the primary manager in film production, responsible for and overseeing virtually all the work of making a movie – guiding the actors, determining the position of the camera, and selecting which images appear in the finished film

The cast, cinematographer, and other on-set personnel

Cinematographer
 Selects the cameras, film stock, lighting, and lenses to be used as well as the camera setup or position.
 Oversees a camera operator
* CO physically operates the camera
o Production sound mixer
 The sound engineer on the production set
o Grips
 Install lighting and dollies
o Dailies
 Reviewed footage shot that day
o Selects
 Chosen shots to use in editing

Question 3

What is involved in postproduction

Answer 3

Editing and sound
o Editing
 The process of selecting and joining film footage and shots into a finished film with a distinctive style and rhythm
o Sound editing
 Combining music, dialogue, and effects tracts to interact with the image track.
o Sound mixing
 All of the elements of the soundtrack – music, effects and dialogue – are combined and adjusted to their final levels

Special effects
o Techniques that enhance a films realism or surpass assumptions about realism with spectacle.
o Visual effects
 Imagery combined with live action footage by teams of computer technicians and artists
o Green-screen technology
 Actors perform in front of a plain green background and
o Motion-capture technology
 Transfers the actors’ physical movements to
o Computer-generated imagery

Question 4

What is distribution?

Answer 4

Films are provided to venues including theaters and video stores, broadcast and cable television, internet streaming and video on demand

Question 5

What are distributors?

Answer 5

A distributor is a company or agency that acquires the rights to a movie from the filmmakers or producers (sometimes by contributing to the costs of producing the film) and makes the movie available to audiences by renting, selling, or licensing it to theaters or other exhibition outlets.

Question 6

What are the releasing strategies?

Answer 6

Block booking
 A practice in which movie theatres had to exhibit whatever a studio/distributor packaged with its more popular and desirable movies

Premiere
 This is when a red-carpet event occurs celebrating the opening night of a movie that is attended by the stars and attracts press attention.

Wide release (saturation booking)
 Where a movie opens in hundreds of theatres simultaneously

Limited release
 Only distributed to major cities

Platforming
 When a film releases in gradually widening markets and theatres so that its reputation slowly builds and gains momentum through word of mouth

Exclusive release
 Where a movie premieres in only one or two locations.

Target Audiences
o Movies distributed with an eye toward reaching specific target audiences

Ancillary markets
o A venue other than theatrical release in which a film can make money, such as foreign sales, airlines, DVD, or on demand

Question 7

What is the difference between an A film and B film?

Answer 7

A picture
o A feature film with a large budget and prestigious source material or actors that has been historically promoted as a main attraction receiving top billing

B picture
o A low-budget, non-prestigious movie that usually played on the bottom half of a double bill.

Question 8

What is the difference between a blockbuster and an art film?

Answer 8

• Blockbuster
  o Budget film intended for wide release, whose large investment in stars, special effects, and advertising attracts large audiences and big profits
• Art film
  o A film produced primarily for aesthetic rather than commercial or entertainment purposes, whose intellectual or formal challenges are often attributed to the vision of an auteur

Question 9

How do you generate interest for a film?

Answer 9

o Film promotion
 Audiences are exposed to and encouraged to see a particular film
o Star system
 Most persuasive and potent component of marketing and promotion of movies around the world
 Using big name stars to promote films that create expectations drawing attention to a film
o Tie-ins
 Movies coupled in with soundtracks, toys, and games)
- Advertising
o Another form of promotion
- Trailers
o A short video that previews edited images and scenes from a film in theatres before the main feature film, in television commercials, or online.
- Media convergence
o Process by which formerly distinct media viewing platforms have become interdependent.
- Viral marketing
o Using social media networks to spread a marketing message through word of mouth, social media posts, or other means.

Question 10

What is periodization in film?

Answer 10

One common way of organizing film history is through periodization, which divides film into historical segments.

Question 11

What is the periodization of cinema?

Answer 11

• Silent cinema: 1895 – 1929
• Classic Cinema 1929 - 1945
• Postwar cinema 1945 – 1975
• Cinematic Globalization (1975 – 2000)
• Cinema in the Digital Era 2000 – present

Question 12

Explain mine-en-scène

Answer 12

• The arrangement of space and the objects in the frame of the camera
• Describes the material limits of a film’s physical world

Question 13

What are the elements of mise-en-scène and what do they contribute?

Answer 13

o Settings and sets, props, actors, costumes, and lighting
o All these elements work together to contribute to scenic and atmospheric realism and are coordinated through design and composition

Question 14

What is the set and setting?

Answer 14

o Setting
 A fictional or real place where the action and events of the film occur
o Set
 A constructed setting, often on a studio soundstage, but both the setting and the set combine can combine natural and constructed elements

Question 15

What is realism and scenic realism?

Answer 15

o Realism
 An artwork’s quality of conveying a truthful picture of a society, person, or some other dimension of everyday life

Scenic realism
 The physical, cultural, and historical accuracy of the backgrounds, objects, and other figures in a film
 Realism describes the extent to which a movie creates a truthful picture of society, person or some other dimension of everyday life.
 The most prominent vehicle for realism is mise-en-scene, with scenic realism associated with the physical, cultural, and historical accuracy of backgrounds, objects, and other figures in a film.
 Creates atmospheres and connotations
 For example:
* The setting of a ship on the open seas might suggest danger and adventure

Question 16

Why are props important?

Answer 16

• Props gain special significance when they are used to express characters’ thoughts and feelings, their powers and abilities in the world, or the primary themes of the film
• Appears in 2 principle forms:
  o Instrumental props are objects displayed and used according to their common function
  o Metaphorical props are those same objects reinvented or employed for an unexpected, even magical purpose, or invested with metaphorical meaning.
• May also acquire significance in 2 other prominent ways
  o Cultural props
   Type of car or piece of furniture carry meanings carry meanings associated with their place in a particular society
  o Contextualized props
   Acquire meaning through their changing place in a narrative

Question 17

Explain the importance of costumes and make-up

Answer 17

o Costumes and make-up function in films in 4 ways:
 When costumes and make up support scenic realism, they reproduce, as accurately as possible, the clothing and facial features of people living in a specific time and place
 Make-up and costumes function as character highlights, they draw out or point to important parts of a character’s personality
 Costumes and make-up act as narrative markers, their change or lack of change becomes a crucial way to understand and follow a character and the development of the story
 Costumes and make-up that appear natural or realistic in films carry important cultural connotations as well

Question 18

What is the importance of lighting?

Answer 18

o Allows an audience to observe a film’s action and understand the setting in which the action takes place but also draws attention to the props, costumes, and actors in the mise-en-scène

Question 19

What are the lighting strategies?

Answer 19

Three-point lighting
* Uses three sources; key lighting, (illuminates the object), backlighting (pick out the object from the background), fill lighting (minimizes shadows)

Key light
* The main source of non-natural lighting in a scene

Fill lighting
* A technique that uses secondary fill lights to balance the key lighting by removing shadows or to emphasize other spaces and objects in the scene
* Take away hard lighting

Highlighting
* Describes the use of different lighting sources to emphasize certain characters or objects

Backlighting
* Is a highlighting technique that illuminates the person or object from behind, tending to silhouette the subject

Frontal lighting, sidelighting, underlighting, and top lighting
* Used to illuminate the subject from different directions in order to draw out features or create specific atmospheres around the subject

Hardlighting
* High contrast lighting style that creates hard edges, distinctive shadows, and a harsh effect, especially when filming people

Softlighting
* Is diffused, low contrast lighting that reduces or eliminates hard edges and shadows and can be more flattering when filming people

Chiraroscuro lighting
* High contrast lighting

Question 20

What is blocking in mise-en-scène?

Answer 20

Blocking
 Is the arrangement and movement of actors in relation to one another within the physical space of a mise-en-scène.
 2 types of blocking
* Social and graphic

Question 21

What are the elements of cinematography?

Answer 21

o Shot
- Point of View

Question 22

What are the 4 attributes of shot?

Answer 22

o Framing
o Depth of field
o Contrast and color
o Movement

Question 23

What is the difference between special effects and visual effects?

Answer 23

Special effects
 Techniques that enhance a films realism or surpass assumptions about realism with spectacle.

Visual effects (VFX)
 Special effects created in postproduction through digital imaging.

Question 24

What are the primary values of an image?

Answer 24

o A film image has two primary values: presentation as a true record of the world, and representation as an interpretation of reality

Question 25

What is editing?

Answer 25

• Conveys multiple perspectives by linking individual shots (each presented from a single perspective) in various relationships.

Question 26

What is Verisimilitude?

Answer 26

o The quality of fictional representation that allows readers or viewers to accept a constructed world – its events, its characters, and their actions – as plausible.

verisimilitude is enhanced by clear, consistent spatial and temporal patterns that along with conventions of dialogue, mise-en-scène, cinematography, and sound – form part of Hollywood’s overall continuity of style

Question 27

What are the basic principles and goals of continuity editing?

Answer 27

• The basic principle of continuity editing
  o Each shot has a continuous relationship to the next shot.
  o Minimizes the perception of breaks between shots
  o 2 goals of this are
   Constructing an imagery space in which the action develops and approximating the experience of real time by following human actions.

Question 28

What are the shots involved in continuity editing?

Answer 28

• Establishing shot
• Re-establishing shot
• Insert
• 180-Degree rule
• 30-Degree Rule
• Shot/reverse shot (shot/countershot)
• Eyeline match
• Match on action
• Graphic match
• Point of view shots
• Reaction shots
• Art cinema editing

Question 29

What is involved in editing and temporality?

Answer 29

o Story time
o Plot time
o Screen time
- Flashbacks and flash-forwards
- Duration
- Pace
- Rhythm
- Scenes and sequences

Question 30

What are the aims of editing?

Answer 30

Two general aims of editing
o Generate emotions and ideas through the construction of patterns of seeing
o Move beyond normal temporal and spatial limitations

Question 31

What is the importance of editing?

Answer 31

• Editing is perhaps the most distinctive feature of film form. Editing leads viewers to experience images viscerally and emotionally, and it remains one of the most effective ways to create meanings from shots.

Question 32

Why is sound used in film?

Answer 32

• For many filmmakers, however, the function of sound is to enhance the effect of the image

Question 33

What is the difference between synchronous and asynchronous sound?

Answer 33

Synchronous sound (onscreen sound)
 Whether recorded during a scene or synchronized with filmed images, has a visible onscreen source, such as when dialogue appears to come directly from the speakers moving lips.

Asynchronous sound (offscreen sound)
 Sound that does not have visible onscreen source.
 Voiceovers for example

Question 34

What is the difference between diegetic and nondiegetic sound?

Answer 34

Diegetic sound
 Has its source in the narrative world film
 Implies an onscreen source
 Also referred to as source music
o Diegesis
 The world of the films story (characters, places, and events)

Nondiegetic
 Does not have an identifiable source in the character’s world
 Don’t follow the rules of verisimilitude
o To distinguish between these terms, ask yourself:
 Can the character’s in the film hear the sound?

Question 35

What is involved in sound production?

Answer 35

Sound recording
* Dialogue and other sound takes place simultaneously with the filming of a scene

Clapperboard
* At the beginning a each take, the hinged clapstick of the clapperboard is snapped to synchronize sound recordings and camera images.

Direct sound
* Sound captured directly from its source

Reflected sound
* Captured as it bounces from the walls and sets to give a sense of space

Production sound mixer
* Combines these different sources during filming, adjusting their relative volume or balance.

Question 36

What happens in postproduction?

Answer 36

Postproduction sound
* Recorded to fill out the soundtrack
* these sound effects are gathered by foley artists

Room tone
* Recorded to approximate the aural properties of a location or extras instructed to speak the nonsense word walla to approximate the sound of a crowd to fill out the soundtrack

Automated dialogue replacement (ADR)
* This is where actors watch the film footage and rerecord their lines to be dubbed into the soundtrack (also known as looping).

Sound editing
* Is when combing music, dialogue, and effects tracts to interact with the image track occurs.
* Creates rhythmic relationships, establishes connections between sound and onscreen sources, and smooths or marks transitions.

Sound bridge
* When a sound is carried over a picture transition or belongs to the coming scene but is played before the image changes.

Spotting
* The director consults with the composer and with the picture and sound editors to determine where the music and effects will be added.

Sound mixing
* The process by which all the elements of the soundtrack are combined and adjusted to their final levels.

Sound reproduction
* This is sound playback during a film’s exhibition. This is where the film’s audience experiences the film’s sound in a movie theatre as signals converted back to sound waves by the sound system during projection.

Question 37

What is involved in voice in film?

Answer 37

Voice in film
o Sound perspective
 Refers to the apparent location and distance of a sound source, remains close

Dialogue
 Overlapping dialogue
* Is mixing character’s speeches to imitate the rhythm of speech
o Voice-off and voiceover
 Voice-off
* A voice that originates from a speaker who can be inferred to be present in the scene but is not currently visible.

Voiceover
* A voice whose source is neither visible in the frame nor implied to be offscreen and typically narrates the film’s images by the simple fact that voiceovers are nondiegetic sounds.
* This is an important structuring device in a film; a text spoken by an offscreen narrator can act as the organizing principle behind virtually all the film’s images.
* Can render characters’ subjective states

Question 38

What is involved in music in film?

Answer 38

o Provides rhythm and deepens emotional responses in films
o Is the only element of cinematic discourse besides credits that is primarily nondiegetic
o It encourages viewers to their barriers down and experience the movie as immediate and enveloping, easing our transition into the fictional world

Musical score
 This is music composed to the accompany the completed film)
 This is valuable in regard to our affective, or emotional, response to a film

Underscoring (background music)
 Background music emphasizes the practices of composition and mixing to support the aim of storytelling

Cue
 This is a piece that is composed for a particular place in a film
 A visual or aural signal that indicates the beginning of an action, line of dialogue, or piece of music.

Narrative cueing
 Is the way that sound tells viewers what is happening in the plot
 Examples of this are:
* Stingers
o Sounds that force the audience to notice the significance of something on screen
* Mickey-mousing
o Overillustrating the action through the score, such as by using plucked strings to accompany a character walking on tip-toe.
o Participates in characterization
 For example, we know when the main character has entered a scene aurally through music.
o Pop music has become more apparent in films to engage audience participation and identification by appealing multiple ethnic groups.
o Music supervisor
 Selects the and secures the rights for songs to be used in films.

Sound effects in film
o Much of the impression of a film’s realism comes from the use of sound effects

Question 39

What is sound continuity?

Answer 39

 Describes the process of furthering the aims of the narrative through scoring, sound recording, mixing, and playback processes that strive for the unification of meaning and experience.

Question 40

What is sound montage?

Answer 40

o Sound montage
 The collision or overlapping of disjunctive sounds in a film.
 Reminds us that sound can be creatively manipulated and reflected upon to achieve certain effects.