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Week 4: Film Form and Narratives, requires preparation: plan and stage…

- - - - involves planning in advance
        
        careful coordination of each element to elicit a certain effect
        
        unplanned change in elements (eg. improvisation or environmental changes) can also enhance mise-en-scene by adding spontaneity and unpredictability
- - - - Actor's Performance:
        
        appearance
        
        gestures
        
        facial expressions
        
        movement
        
        Voice and effects
      - Actor's performance can be both realistic or highly stylized
        
        Hollywood polished vs Italian Neorealism vs. different acting styles in comedy, horror, documentary, drama
        
        film actors use their faces
        
        control expressions minutely
        
        most expressive parts of the face are mouth, eyebrows and eyes. esp eyes.
        
        actors look directly at each other, seldom blinking or looking away unless distracted
        
        develop their characterizations across the film
        
        actors also use their bodies, how they walk, stand and sits to convey attitude
        
        hands express what is not said--integral body language
    - - Individualized and Stylized
        
        creating a unique character
        
        exaggerated or underplayed
        
        given a complex psychology, a distinctive image, appearance and voice
        
        Typecast: actors played stereotyped roles: actors selected and directed to conform to whwat audiences expected
        
        Emotional stylization - outbursts or masked emotes
        Physical stylization - gestures and movements
        
        Extroversion and Exaggeration
        
        eg. musicals
        
        Highly muted and restrained performances can also seem stylized
        
        eg. yorgos lanthimos
    - - Motion capture - whole body is filmed
        Performance capture - concentrates on the face
      - Adjusting to each type of camera distance
  - - - Highlights are bright areas on a surface.
        
        important texture cues
        
        Shadows are dark areas of an object
        
        casts shadows onto something else
        
        Used together creates CONTRAST which Creates tension and drama
        
        embellishes or dramatizes objects
        
        emphasizes importance of objects
        
        implies a sense of space
    - - Intensity of illumination
        
        Hard Lighting = crisp textures, sharp edges and clearly defined shadows.
        
        Soft Lighting = diffused, gentle, blurs and contours
    - - path of light from its source
    - - Natural Light
        
        often used in documentary,
        
        realistic,
        
        not within director's control
      - Artificial Light sources
        
        Key Light
        
        the primary source of light
        
        providing the brightest illumination
        
        casting the strongest shadows
        
        most directional light, obvious
        
        Three Point Lighting
        
        High-key Lighting
        
        low contrast between shadows and highlights
        
        daylight, brighter scenes in rooms
        
        Low-key Lighting
        
        stronger contrasts, sharper, darker shadows
        
        chiaroscuro and opaque shadows
        
        Fill Light
        
        softer, less intense illumination
        
        fills in the shadows cast by key light
        
        high control, often combined with key lights
    - - Realistic
        
        From a realistic source (eg. yellow from candles)
      - Unrealistic
        
        no diegetic source, simulated light and dramatic colors
    - - Shot Composition
        
        POV shot
        
        Eyeline directs attention
        
        perceptual subjectivity
        
        2-Shot (2 Pax in shot)
        
        Over the Shoulder
        
        Depth of field
        
        Z axis: foreground background
        
        Focus to direct attention
        
        Shot sizes:
        
        wide shot
        
        medium shot
        
        close-up
        
        extreme close-up
        
        You can still achieve these types of composition in STAGING AND MISE-EN-SCENE
  - - - Andre Bazin: "Some film masterpieces use man only as an accessory...in counterpoint too nature which is the true leading character."
        
        Setting can be the forefront of the narrative and enter narrative actiono dynamically.
      - Filmmaker may select an existing locale
        
        Or
      - Filmmaker may construct the setting (purpose-built in a studio)
        
        commercial filmmaking centered on studio facilities where every aspect of mis-en-scene can be manipulated.
        
        AUTHENTICITY can still be emphasized in STUDIOS
        
        may not be committed to historical accuracy
        
        constructed sets constitute a personal image of the city or stylized to harmonize with other aspects of mise-en-scene
    - - Setting can overwhelm the actors
        
        colorful, busy, draws attention away from the actors & characters
      - Setting can be reduced to nothing
        
        shrouded in darkness, obliterated from details
        
        only focused on characters
        
        Or
    - - Serves as arenas (spaces) for the action
    - - An object has a function within the ongoing action
        
        props used as gags in comedies
        
        props can become motifs
        (motif of trash: an important prop is thrown away as the climax of the film)
  - - - Costumes become motifs and enhances characterisation and traces changes in attitudes
        
        time period
        
        socio-economic status
        
        traits and quirks
        
        marriage status
        
        age
        
        gender & orientation
    - - Flow, colour, textures, fabric, qualities
    - - "bleeding" of costume into the setting by matching colors or standing out
    - - most noticeable in horror and science fiction
        
        using prosthetic make-up and artificial plasticine to create artificial skin
    - - quietly accentuate expressive qualities of the actor's face
        
        Make-up covers blemishes, wrinkles and sagging skin that we wouldn't notice in ordinary life.
        
        Sculpting the face with blush and shadow
    - - Eyeliner and mascara emphasize direction of glance, slope of brows, character traits and eye movements
        
        accentuates impression and hints at the psyche of characters
- - - - bilateral symmetry: balances various points of interest evenly around the frame
        
        Center the human body too minimize distractions
        
        Unbalanced shots can create strong effects
        (eg. reduces the ineffective visual counterweight to evoke anxiety)
        
        Rebalancing and Unbalancing: introduce new narrative developments by rebalancing in the next scene, permitting an entrance
    - - our eyes are biased towards registering differences and changes
    - - our eyes are drawn towards movement in an environment of stasis
        
        in many moving objects, we find other cues to focus our attention on
    - - Depth Cues: presenting a three-dimensional area in realistic volumes and layers
        
        Planes: foreground, middle ground, background (how close they are from the camera)
        
        Overlap: the closer object blocks the further object
        
        through overlap, many planes can be defined and distinguished from each others spatial relation and power relation
        Size Diminution: smaller = farther, bigger = closer
        
        Monocular = see through one eye, 2D
        Stereopsis = see through both eyes, 3D
      - Shallow Space Composition = mise-en-scene suggests little depth, closest and most distant planes seem slightly separated
        
        Deep space Composition = significant distance between foreground and background
  - - - Speed and Direction of movement
        
        Busy speeds = fast-time
        Slow speed/slow-motion = real-time
        
        Speed and direction guides our glances or pulls attention to a single element
        
        Eg. movement from background to foreground
      - Synchronization
        
        People and objects moving at different speeds with different visual accents.
      - Scanning of the Shot
        
        Short shots forces us to take in the image quickly and at once
        
        Long shorts forces us to look at details and roam
        
        forms formal expectations based on placement and setting up
        
        looking to and fro across the screen
        
        looking into the depths for story information & relations
        
        Looking into the depths: the preparation for what will happen next is seen in the background of what is happening now.
        
        Force of Frontality
        
        viewer expects more story information from a character's face/front than a character's back.
        
        frontality can change overtime to guide our attention to faces
        
        denying frontality can keep us in suspense about the character's face reveal