Film Analysis
Studying Film
It is suggested that films at the 30-1 level should:
· Be immediately engaging for, and relevant to, the students
· Offer complex, intricate plots that demand students’ attention to detail
· Afford the opportunity for students to monitor the transformative or additive change of several characters; any one of these characters is multifaceted enough that he or she could be examined in a student’s formal writing
· Provide ample opportunity to discuss the film-maker’s style through analysis of directorial choices
Purpose
The reason we study film in class is to give you the opportunity to become fluent in your interpretations and discussions of film as a literary text.
Basics
Director vs Screenwriter
The director of a film controls the artistic and dramatic aspects of a film, making choices regarding, lighting, tone, set design etc.. Directors coordinate aspects such as actors’ movements, determine camera angles and often are involved in the editing of the film.
A screenwriter is the person who writes the story or script for the film. They are the ones that determine aspects of the story such as thematic, character and often symbolic choices relevant to the story.
Example: The screenwriter for V for Vendetta created the idea for V leaving Scarlet Carsons on his victims, but the director chose how the flowers would be placed on the bodies and which colors would be used in the scene to best emphasize the redness of the roses.
Film as Story vs Film as Technique
There are two different ways to interpret a film.
Film as Story looks at narrative aspects (such as theme, symbolism, character arc etc.) of a film in much the same way as you would look at these aspects in, say, a novel or a short story. Film as Story focuses on what is being told through the film. When interpreting Film as Story, you usually would be focusing on choices made by the screenwriter.
Film as Technique looks at technical aspects (such as camera angles, lighting, camera movement etc.) of a film in a way that recognizes that the way in which film tells a story is as important as what that story says; that is to say that Film as Technique focuses on how a story is being told. When interpreting Film as Technique, you usually would be focusing on choices made by the director.
Any effective analysis of a film will look at both of these aspects and how they work together.
Camera Movement in Film/Video
much information from Media Images & Issues, Donna Carpenter, 1989
“First and foremost, a film is visual rather than verbal. Thus, the
feelings and ideas communicated by words must be changed to feelings
and ideas communicated by visual symbols.”
-Dr. F. Marcus, How Does a Movie Mean?
A skilled movie director composes each shot using basic photographic techniques...a film is more than simply a series of still pictures, however; THE MOVIE MUST MOVE.
In any film, there are two categories of movement:
1) movement created by actors or objects in the film
2) movement created by the camera as it films a scene and as the film moves from scene to scene.
BASIC CAMERA MOVEMENTS:
Moving Frame or Reframing: The makeup of the frame changes as the camera alters its position in relation to the object being filmed. A romantic close-up of two lovers whispering may suddenly change its meaning if the camera pulls back to reveal a long shot full of spectators; what was at first romantic becomes comedic.
Panning: The word pan is a contraction of the panoramic and is used to describe the movement of the camera from side to side (horizontal movement) on a vertical axis to follow the action in a scene; if your head were a camera, the movement would be akin to you shaking your head “no.” Pan shots are often used to establish the setting for the audience.
A subjective pan is used when he movie camera “becomes” the eyes of one of the characters.
A swish pan is when the camera moves very rapidly along the horizontal plane so that the image becomes blurred.
Tilting: The camera swivels upward or downward on a stationary support; if your head were a camera, the movement would be akin to you nodding up and down. It may be a way that the director makes a statement about high and low objects, for instance how a mountain climber feels overwhelmed by the peak in front of her.
Dollying or Tracking: The camera is mounted on a cart or some other vehicle so that it can move alongside the subject, and keep pace with it, forward, backward, or around the subject; the camera can also dolly or track in towards the subject or away from the subject.
Unlike panning or tiliting, the camera itself physically moves rather than merely pivoting on an axis. In car chases the camera is sometimes mounted in a car that travels alongside the car that is the subject of the action; in a party scene, the camera may indicate the roving intimacy of the gathering by following a character through the crowd.
Zoom (in or out): Through the use of a special lens (named, not surprisingly, a zoom lens), the camera can appear to move towards or away from a subject quite quickly. The sense of movement is usually more rapid with a zoom than with a dolly in or out. Note that the camera does not move, merely the lens.
Crane Shot: Moving shot taken by the camera on a specially constructed crane which permits the camera to move in and out, up and down, as well as backward and forward; they are generally used for high angle aerial shots.
Adapted from Mr. B. Smilanich’s website www.filmlit.ca
Editing
Editing is the job of assembling all the shots and the scenes of film together to tell a cohesive story. During the editing process, some shots may be removed and others pieced together.
Transitioning Between Scenes
The most commonly used techniques when a change of scene is required are the following:
Cut: An instantaneous change from one shot to another.
Dissolve: A visual effect created by the gradual disappearance of one shot while another shot gradually appears and comes into clear focus; for a brief time the images blend in superimposition (exposure of more than one image on the same film strip), which may be used to symbolic effect. Dissolves are used to suggest a change of setting or a longer lapse of time than in a cut, so it is often used to begin or end flashbacks.
Wipe: A transition between shots in which a line passes across the screen, eliminating the first shot as it goes and replacing it with the next one; the images do not blend, as in a dissolve.
Fade Out/In: Ending a scene by underexposing to black or overexposing to white;
beginning a scene in the same manner, moving from black or white to clear focus. The fade out/in is usually used to indicate the passage of time or a change of location in narrative.
Freeze Frame: As a way of ending a scene, the film appears to stop and the image is “frozen” or held for a few seconds. Used for dramatic effect, usually to suggest a lack of closure.
Adapted from Mr. B. Smilanich’s website www.filmlit.ca
Examining Mise-en-scene
Mise-en-scene...was originally a French theatrical term, meaning
“placing on stage.” The phrase refers to the arrangement of all the
visual elements of a theatrical production within a given playing area--
the stage...mise-en-scene in the movies resembles the art of painting in
that an image of formal patterns and shapes is presented on a flat
surface and enclosed within a frame. But because of its theatrical
heritage, cinematic mise-en-scene is also a fluid choreographing of
visual elements that correspond to a dramatic idea, or complex of ideas --from Understanding Movies, Louis Giannetti
Mise-en-scene therefore encompasses both what the audience
can see, and the way that we are invited to see it.
--from Mise-en-scene, John Gibbs
While by no means a comprehensive list, the audience must consider the following while looking at mise-en-scene:
Lighting:
Directors and cinematographers often use the archetypal implications of light and dark to manipulate the mood and feeling of their film; the orchestration of light is key in defining tone, setting and character.
The lighting of a subject from above (top lighting) creates a romantic halo effect, suggesting purity or romance. Lighting a subject from below (underlighting) makes the figure sinister and frightening, even if it maintains a neutral expression. If a figure is illuminated from behind (backlighting, also known as edge lighting or rim lighting), it tends to create silhouettes. When a subject is only half-lit, the other half still in darkness (sidelighting), the director and cinematographer may be suggesting a certain ambiguity, or perhaps a psychological self-division. An obstruction in front of a light source, leaving the figure in shadowy darkness, disrupts the viewer’s sense of safety, inciting fear and apprehension.
The most common arrangement in lighting is known as three-point lighting, where three directions of light are on a scene: from behind the subjects (backlighting), from one bright source (key light), and from a dimmer source opposite the key light (fill light).
Composition:
Composition is the way the audience’s eye is manipulated to look around the screen.
The key notion is that of the dominant, that area of the film image that compels the viewer’s most immediate attention, usually because of a prominent visual contrast, for instance the contrast between light and dark, or a dominant colour.
Often the dominant is determined by intrinsic interest; through the context of the story, the audience knows that there is an investment in watching a particular figure or object. As well, movement in the film almost always creates a dominant, provided that other elements are stationary.
After the viewer examines the dominant, his/her eye then scans the subsidiary contrasts, acting as counterbalancing devices.
Framing: the amount of open space within the territory of the frame
tightly framed: a close shot--often suggests entrapment or confinement
loosely framed: a long shot—often suggests freedom
internal framing: the suggestion of entrapment by using a neutral object
(such as a doorway or window frame) to symbolically “confine” a figure
Good films, the purest and the best, speak through camera
work -- composition and flow of images -- as much as through
the words spoken by the characters or the “literary” significance
of the plot. Style and content fuse to form something new,
something individual, a whole greater than its parts.
--director Lindsay Anderson
Tip: The important part of a mise-en-scene analysis is not just identifying the components of the shot, but explaining the meaning or significance behind those components and connecting the shot to the themes of the film.
Works Cited
Bordwell, David and Thompson, Kristin. Film Art: An Introduction. Sixth Edition. New York: McGraw Hill, 2001.
Gianetti, Louis. Understanding Movies. Sixth Edition. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc, 1987.
Adapted from Mr. B. Smilanich’s website www.filmlit.ca
Mise en Scene Analysis of Woody Allen’s Manhattan
from http://www.cod.edu/people/faculty/pruter/film/manhattan.htm
Important concepts to note in this sample paper:
· The author groups related elements of the mise-en-scene together, creating a coherent essay rather than just a list of elements in sentence form.
· The author explains the significance of each of the elements.
· The author identifies the connection between the elements of the mise-en-scene to the theme of the film as a whole.
It is early morning. The light of the rising sun suffuses the Brooklyn Bridge with a romantic grandeur. A tiny couple sits chatting on a bench along the riverbank. The lyrical beauty of the shot strikes the viewer. Beyond its aesthetic value, the famous Brooklyn Bridge shot in Manhattan, directed by Woody Allen, encompasses several central themes of the film: the romance of the city, its dominating presence, the inconsequence of its inhabitants and their problems, their anonymity, and the isolation of two people in love.
The shot appears approximately twenty-eight minutes into the film. The viewer has been introduced to Isaac (Woody Allen), a successful New York television writer who quits his job to write a novel. Isaac’s married friend Yale (Michael Murphy) confides in Isaac that he has been cheating on his wife with a woman named Mary (Diane Keaton). When Isaac and his teenage girlfriend Tracy (Mariel Hemmingway) run into Yale and Mary at a museum, Isaac is immediately put off by Mary’s opinionated and intellectual demeanor. He complains about her to Tracy after they leave Mary and Yale, but later when he meets Mary at a party, he strikes up a rapport with her. Knowing each other through Yale, they decide to share a cab after the party and end up spending the night walking together through Manhattan. As morning begins to break, they continue their talk sitting together beneath the Brooklyn Bridge.
The dominant in the shot is the Brooklyn Bridge itself. It immediately attracts the viewer’s attention because of its positioning within the frame and its relative size: it takes up the entire upper half of the frame. Also, although not artificially lit, the bridge is much brighter than the darker figures below. After the bridge, the eye focuses on the main subsidiary contrast, the characters on the bench, searching them out because of the intrinsic interest characters hold. They are also striking because they are almost pure black in a shot dominated by shades of gray. The eye then travels to the left towards the other subsidiaries, a centrally located lamppost, which seems to divide the frame in half, and a large brick wall on the bottom left, which balances the weight of the couple on the right.
Like this balance, the density, the angle, and the lines of the composition of the shot suggest stability. The density of the shot is medium with the viewer having to take in about four major elements: the Bridge, the couple, the lamppost, and the wall. While an odd number of elements suggests tension, an even number diffuses that tension. Furthermore, the neutral, eye-level angle creates a calmness in the scene and does not create a sense of the director’s presence intruding on the shot. Finally, the lines of the shot are primarily horizontal and vertical. The horizontals include the bridge, the wall, and the slats of the bench on which the couple is sitting; the verticals include the lamppost and the bars of a guardrail along the river.