Week 3 Flashcards
1
Q
Appeal of cinema
A
- The power to enchant
- Movies are fun
- Sense of belonging
- Emotional, intellectual and ideological impact
- Identification and empathy
- Sensation, desire, bodily response
- Make the invisible visible
2
Q
Ideology
A
- The ways in which a certain image of one’s place in the world becomes internalized and then functions as a guide to proper conduct in a given social context.
3
Q
Dominant Ideologies
A
- Ideologies told to us repeatedly by important social institutions such as the church, the law, education and the media
- Ex. Consumerism, gender, childhood.
4
Q
Metaphor
A
Ex. Big baby, guardian angel.
5
Q
Allegory
A
Sustained narrative in which the characters and situations stand for more general qualities or states.
6
Q
The Formal Context:
A
Medium-specific qualities, such as technology, editing, sound, genre conventions, actors, narrative, aesthetics (tangible surface of the film)
7
Q
Formal Response and Interpretation
A
- Does the film alter, subvert or transform existing conventions in innovation ways?
- Are conventions used effectively?
8
Q
Social Response and Interpretation
A
- Does the film present an unexpected, new perspective?
- Does it reinforce pre existing points of view?
- Does it challenge social realities?
- Does the film support status quo or does it call for change?
9
Q
Flashdance 1983
A
- Second-wave feminism
- Exotic dancer/welder pursuing ballet (high/low)
10
Q
Conventions
A
- A customary way of doing things, rather than ‘rules’
- Guidelines for selecting certain types of images
- Arranging images into scenes
- Vary over time and context
11
Q
Continuity
A
- Includes all the ways of organizing shots to ease transitions
- Sound and images
- Draws on preview experience
12
Q
Semtiotics: The Sign
A
Meaning is not in the image but in the beholder
13
Q
Referent
A
- What the sign refers to outside the language in which it appears
- Most signifiers possess a referent
- Applies to photography as well
14
Q
Style
A
Particular way a filmmaker makes use of cinematic signifiers
15
Q
Editing
A
- Primary means of building a chain of shots and scenes into one complete film
- Creates relationships across time and space.
16
Q
Continuity Editing
A
- Standard
- Viewers do not notice most of the edits
- Focuses on narrative
17
Q
Discontinuity and Montage Editing
A
- Avant-garde, experimental
- Used often in music videos.
- Often used to condense time or to draw attention to the editing
18
Q
Cinematography
A
Making choices between types of shot, types of lenses and camera movement.
19
Q
Lighting
A
Variation has effect on tone and emotional impact
20
Q
Mise-en-scene Composition
A
Arrangement of what appears in front of the camera
21
Q
Diagetic Sound
A
Appears to originate from the story world
22
Q
Apparent Motion
A
When the eye perceives movement from one frame to the next
23
Q
Presence-in-Absence
A
Phenomenon where the image realistically represents a referent (subject or person) that is no longer physically present, but appears to be
24
Q
Identification
A
Emotional and psychological attachment. Different effect with performing arts.
25
Worldview
- A system of values, attitudes and beliefs which an individual group or society holds to be true or important. - - These are shared by a culture or society about how that society should function.
26
Social Context
- Social and historical problems, conflicts, issues that provide a thematic focus
- Turns attention beyond aesthetics towards characteristics of the time.
27
Filmakers Perspective
Social attitude, political perspective and aesthetic sensibility of the worlds maker will filter the audience’s experience.
28
Semiotics: Signifier
What is materially presented?
29
Semiotics: Signified
What meaning is attached?
30
Extra Diagetic Sound
Belongs to the narration rather than the narrative. Comments on the story world
31
Subjective Sound
Renders sounds as the character hears it
32
Open-frame Composition
Gives the sense that it is part of a much wider field of action
33
Closed-frame Composition
Sense that everything is contained within the shot
34
Off-screen Composition
Includes visual and aural cues outside the frame
35
High-key lighting
Everything is uniformly lit
36
Low-key lighting
Dramatic shadows and vivid contrasts
37
Paris Is Burning, Jenny Livingstone, 1990
| Themes
- Aspiration: in class, sense of belonging, balls
| - Community: Drag house ‘mothers’, safe spaces
38
Paris Is Burning, Jenny Livingstone, 1990
| Formal Elements
- Intimacy: close-up shots, nighttime lighting, candid interviews
- Continuity: snapshots, low production value, DIY feeling
39
Paris Is Burning, Jenny Livingstone, 1990
| Constraints in filmmaking:
- Low budget
- Access: real people, sense of authenticity
- Broader social context:
- Balls had to happen underground, at nighttime
- Gender stereotype performance/expression awards: how these people passed in the world in a safe way without being targeted or attacked.
40
Discussion: movies and TV that don’t age well?
| Comedy
What is topical at the time often changes and can become problematic
41
Discussion: movies and TV that don’t age well?
| Legacy
What came out of this movie didn’t credit or protect the people in it
42
Discussion: movies and TV that don’t age well?
| Fashion
- Transformational tool
- Using materials of everyday life to safely get through the world day to day, but also to be subversive
- Highly political, matter of life or death in contrast to what drag culture is today. Must keep in mind that bravery backs the fashion in this film, not entertainment or beauty.
43
Bohemian Myth Defintion
Transgression, excess sexual outrage, eccentric behavior, nostalgia, outgoingness, poverty (although wealth could contribute to their past)
44
Bohemian Myth Examples
- Cats as an editorial trope to represent quirkiness and age
| - References to women and mental illness very casually (Ex. Vogue Italia, Steven Miesel, 1999)
45
Bohemian Myth Characteristics
Repurposing spaces and clothing constantly: anti capitalist exercise, deconstruction, reappropriation
46
Bohemian Myth Characteristics
Making do with what one has when times are tough (make do and mend)
47
Bohemian Myth Characteristics
Characters in charge of their own representation and gaze at camera
48
Grey Gardens 1975, Albert and David Maysles
| Key Theme
Key Theme: Body and the Senses
| Many reviewers projected the ravaged and decaying characteristics of the house onto the women’s bodies.
49
Grey Gardens 1975, Albert and David Maysles
| Senses
Senses: eating on screen, bickering about sex, covering up for the camera.
50
Grey Gardens 1975, Albert and David Maysles
| Sound
Sound: yelling, arguing, singing, running around.
51
Grey Gardens HBO, 2009, Michael Sucsy
Positions Edie as a legitimate fashion insider
Enforces that Edie wasn’t always a totally wacky dresser
Image-driven, linear narrative
