2. Film “language”
• Film does not literally have a “language” (we are using the word as a
metaphor or comparison).
• There is no basic linguistic unit, such as a word.
• There is no formal grammar.
• Film does, however, make statements, so it works like a language.
• The closest devices it has to a real language are:
– shots (could be compared to words)
– scenes (like sentences)
– sequences (like paragraphs)
• However, these are often difficult to differentiate from one another:
• A lengthy shot can be considered a scene.
• Statements can be made within a shot, using movement, focus, color,
proxemics, camera position, etc.).
3. Two types of film “statements”:
Paradigmatic and syntagmatic
• Paradigmatic: Everything that is seen in the shot
(mise-en-scene) including how it is composed:
– what to shoot
– how to shoot it
Usually associated with realism.
• Syntagmatic (contextual)—usually associated with
expressionism:
– editing/“montage”
4. Paradigmatic statements
• Mise-en-scene: everything in the shot, including how it is composed
• Staging, sets, props, costumes, casting, etc.
• Use of frame
• Closed
• Open
• Proxemics /proximity (distance from camera)
– ECU
– CU
– MS (“two-shot”)
– LS
– ELS
• Proxemics /“blocking”: use of space, placement of actors, etc.
• Composition
– lines (vertical; horizontal; diagonal or oblique)
– lighting source/direction
– camera angle/PoV
• tilt (low/high; up/down): look for horizon
• roll (slant)
• crane (extremely high)
• overhead/”bird’s-eye view “(often with see-through ceiling)
• helicopter (ELS): God’s-eye view
5. More paradigmatic statements
• Choice of film:
– Low or hi-rez (70 mm, 35 mm, 16 mm or Super-8; videotape). Low rez (grainy) suggests
immediacy and actuality.
• Lighting:
– Available (“magic hour”) or artificial.
– bright or dark (noir).
– key, fill, back, etc.
– silhouette (back light only).
• Colors:
– warmth, coolness, danger, passion, etc.
– color intensity (saturation).
• Focus:
– sharp
– soft (sometimes done with filters or screens)
– planar (rack shot/rack focus): can alternate between two planes
– deep focus (dev. by Gregg Toland; see Citizen Kane)
– zoom in or out (what does zoom-in to ECU of face imply?)
• Camera movement:
– track shot, dolly shot, truck shot, crane (or motorized Louma) shot, sky-cam
– hand-held (shaky). Documentary style: suggests immediacy, actuality, action
10. Close-ups
• Camera angles, close-ups, and editing
techniques contribute to viewers’ feelings
toward a character.
• Viewers do not care much either way about
characters seen at a distance.
• They are more likely to empathize or identify
with a character who is often seen in close-
ups.
Meyrovitz, Joshua. “Multiple Media Literacies.” Journal of Communications 48 (1). Winter 1998: 96-108.
19. Montage
(Fr.: “mounting” or “assembling”
• In US called cutting or editing (taking away)
• Logical purpose is to collapse time (fast-forward), skip
mundane details (“cut to the chase”), eliminate dead air, etc.
• Occurs in:
– storytelling, jokes, etc.
– novels (“meanwhile, back at the ranch…”)
– dreams (jump cuts)
20. Two basic concepts of montage:
Diachronic (chronological or linear):
• One idea leads chronologically to the next:
• shot/reaction shot
• dissolve to next scene
• match cut
• One idea leads logically (in terms of how the story is being told) to the next:
• Flashback/flash-forward
• What about Memento?
Synchronic (non-linear):
• Two or more things appear to happen simultaneously:
• Parallel editing (“cross-cutting”): two scenes occurring at the same time (chase
scene)
• Two separate story lines that converge later (or maybe never—used often in serials)
• Scenes/shots may have no logical relationship but are juxtaposed strictly for emotional
effect:
• Sergei Eisenstein (Soviet filmmaker)
• Ox-slaughtering images in Apocalypse Now
• Can be used to connote fast action or excitement
• Often used in TV commercials and music videos to hold viewer interest—
simply because movement in itself is compelling
21. Realist fiction
Borrows from documentary/actuality
– location shoots
– hand-held camera technique
– grainy film
– available lighting
– long takes, minimal editing
– edits are usually linear, chronological
– nonprofessional actors
Ex.: Lumiere brothers, Workers Leaving the Lumiere
Factory (1895).
22. Expressionism
– dream-like, fantastical, mythical
– montage/jump cuts
– non-linear editing
– shot on sets
– staged lighting
– viewers expected to “fill in” their own meanings
Ex.: Georges Melies, Trip to the Moon (1902)
Robt. Wiene, Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
23. Classical Hollywood style
• well-known actors
• heavy on glamour, myth, fantasy
• careful lighting (three-source)
• carefully controlled sound
• careful, often elaborate camera work (Steadicam,
tracks shots, cranes, helicopters, etc.)
• high-resolution film
• smooth, precise (“invisible”) editing
• usually linear, mostly chronological
• does most of the “work” for viewers
24. Classical Hollywood style
• Where does classical Hollywood drama fall in
the realism-expressionism continuum?
– actuality (no editing, Lumiere Bros.)
– verite/direct cinema (stark documentary style, minimal
editing, minimal or no story line—“slice of life”)
– narrative documentary style
– realist fiction
– classical (Hollywood)
– expressionist (Melies, Weine, etc.)
– experimental (Dziga Vertov)
25. Quotes
“Everything about a movie is manipulation.”
–Frederick Wiseman, documentary filmmaker
“I enjoy playing the audience like a piano.”
– Alfred Hitchcock
