Week 2: Film Form and Meaning

Question 1

What is form?

Answer 1

The overall set of relationships among a film’s parts.

Question 2

What does form do?

Answer 2

Shapes and guides our expectations. The way parts work together to create an overall effect.

Question 3

What is a cold open?

Answer 3

Jumping directly into the story (ex. chase scenes)

Question 4

What is surprise?

Answer 4

When something unexpected happens.

Question 5

What is suspense?

Answer 5

A delay in fulfilling an established expectation

Question 6

What are Bordwell, Thompson and Smith’s four distinct types of meaning?

Answer 6

Explicit, Implicit, Referential and Symptomatic (Ideological)

Question 7

What is referential meaning?

Answer 7

Referring to things beyond the film itself. Represent aspects of the actual world and also may allude to other movies.

Question 8

What is explicit meaning?

Answer 8

Explicit meanings are stated openly (ex. “there’s no place like home)

Question 9

What is implicit meaning?

Answer 9

Implicit meanings are implied rather than explicitly stated (ex. Dorothy’s maturation in the film)

Question 10

What is symptomatic (ideological meaning)?

Answer 10

Rooted in particular cultures. (ex. what does the representation of Elmira Gulch tell us about the place of aging, single women in the USA at the time?)

Question 11

How does a film’s form guide us in our interpretations?

Answer 11

• Invites us to discover meaning nay creating noticeable patterns
• In analyzing films, we want to think about what these patterns are and how they work

Question 12

What are Bordwell, Thompson and Smith’s five principles of film form?

Answer 12

Function, Similarity and/or Repetition, Difference and Variation, Development, Unity/Disunity

Question 13

What is a motif?

Answer 13

Any significant repeated element in a film. May be an object, a person, a sound, an event, a line or more of dialogue, a colour, a camera position or a movement (ex. Each of Dorothy’s companions are in search of something that will make their lives better)

Question 14

What is an example of difference and variation?

Answer 14

When Dorothy meets “Professor Marvel” in Kansas, she is taken in by him, but she will come to see through the false image of the Wizard of Oz

Question 15

What is an example of a pattern of development?

Answer 15

Dorothy’s discovery of Professor Marvel suggests her growing maturity and wisdom: she will not believe everything she is told anymore

Question 16

What is an example of unity/disunity

Answer 16

The film achieves a strong sense of closure when Dorothy realizes there is no place like home… disunity happens when we realize that the initial problem of the film (Elmira taking Toto away) was never resolved.

Question 17

What do films engage us in?

Answer 17

Active interpretation

Question 18

What is Gestalt?

Answer 18

German word for “form” or “shape”

Question 19

What do expectations do?

Answer 19

limit possibilities as well as select them

Question 20

What is function?

Answer 20

Elements in a film that serve several purposes and do something in the larger whole. Ex: motivation

Question 21

What are conventions?

Answer 21

A commonly occuring element within a certain genre of film