Modules

Why Film Theory Counts? Have you read a critical review of your favorite movie and wondered why the critic didn't like you're your favorite movie?  When you read a critical review of your favorite movie what is the critic looking at?  They are examining how it was constructed, the development of the narrative arc, how the technical aspects such as lighting, camera movements, the match on action, and what theories utilized to tell other essential messages. What does it mean? Why should you know some of the crucial film theories, and who is the theorist? In this module, we are discussing the importance of knowing four theorist and their theories. Dziga Vertov's The Keno Eye Lev Kuleshov's Kuleshov Effect, Sergei Eisenstein and Vsevolod Pudovkin's Montage Andrew Sarris Auteur Theory Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze Scopophilia, Objectification Theory Jill Soloway's Female Gaze\

Walter Murch's Rule of Six  Walter Murch's Rule of Six is a post-production theory that leads the filmmaker or videographer to decision-making points of what to keep and what to leave on the cutting room floor. The rule of six is a technique on how to weigh the importance of the shot, scene, or sequence and the importance of the shot to the narrative arc. An ideal cut is one that satisfies all the following six criteria at once: it is true to the emotion of the moment it advances the story is occurs at a moment that is rhythmically interesting and "right" it acknowledges what you might call "eye-trace"--- the concern with the location within the frame it respects "planarity" --- the grammar of three dimensions transposed by photography to tw0 (the questions of stage-line,

The Narrative Impulse The plot is a good place to begin understanding the kind of structural logic that motivated editing choices. --- Novelist E. M. Forester's.  He began by describing a series of events that were not a plot.  The King died and then the Queen died. Forster observed if we say The King died and then the Queen died of grief.  We have described a plot because there is a causal connection. Figure 6.0 E.M. Forester's causal connection In the course of any story, this cause and effect relationship is the underlying scheme that involves the reader.  It does this by asking the reader to become involved in making the logical connections between events. Forester's example is simplified to make a point and doesn't show us how an author might reveal the relationship

Shot Size As covered in the Introductory Course, the universal units of composition are the long shot, the medium shot, and the close-up. These shots are a development of the continuity system as they overlap portions of a single space and only make sense concerning one another. They are used together to create a consistent spatial/temporal order. Though they can be used to describe spaces as large as the solar system or as small as the head of a pin, we always know approximately how large an area is being framed when the term is used. That’s because the shots are scaled to the subject and related to one another proportionately. Figure 5.0 One World Trade Center Long Shot Figure 5.1 One World Trade Center Medium Shot Figure 5.2 One World Trade

The Function of Lighting Everything we do with cameras and lenses is about capturing light. Light is needed to register an image on a video camera’s sensor or on film, but the lighting in a movie plays a much more complex role than just that. A scene may be lit by nature (the sun), with available light (using whatever natural or man-made light is already at the location), or with lighting fixtures that the filmmaker controls. The way a scene is lit influences both how we understand the scene—what we can see in it—and how we experience the scene emotionally. Lighting directs the viewer’s attention, since the eye is naturally drawn to bright areas of the frame. Lighting gives the audience cues about the time of day and season in which a scene takes place. The angle from which

SOME IMAGE MANIPULATIONS AND ARTIFACTS Green Screen and Chroma Keys There are digital graphic images, and scenes in movies and TV shows, that involve placing a person or object over a graphic background or a scene shot elsewhere. A common example is a weather forecaster who appears on TV in front of a weather map. This is done by shooting the forecaster in front of a special green background, called a green screen. A chroma key is used to target areas in the frame that have that particular green and “key them out”—make them transparent— which leaves the person on a transparent background. The forecaster, minus the background, is then layered (composited) over a digital weather map. The green color is a special hue not otherwise found in nature, so you don’t accidentally key out, say, a green

The Video Image This chapter provides more technical information about digital video recording in production and postproduction. For the basics of video formats, cameras, and editing, see Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 14. FORMING THE VIDEO IMAGE THE DIGITAL VIDEO CAMERA’S RESPONSE TO LIGHT You’ll find simplified instructions for setting the exposure of a video camera on p. 107. Let’s look more closely at how the camera responds to light so you’ll have a better understanding of exposure and how to achieve the look you want from your images. The camera’s sensor converts an image made of light into an electrical signal (see p. 5). Generally speaking, the more light that strikes the sensor, the higher the level of the signal. To look more closely at the relationship between light and the

Sound Recording Systems Sound Editing Tools Page 629 from The FilmMaker's Handbook This module is about sound and the audio recording equipment used for both video and film. Many of the principles that apply to one type of system are relevant to others. See Chapter 11 for discussion of the sound recordist’s role and recording techniques. SOUND What we hear as sound is a series of pressure waves produced by vibration. A violin, for example, works by vibrating air rapidly back and forth. When you pluck a string, it makes the body of the violin vibrate—when it moves one way, it compresses the air (pushes it) in that direction; when it moves the other way, that pressure is temporarily reduced. Sound waves travel through the air and cause your eardrum to oscillate (move back and forth)

Syntax In this module, we look at the syntax and how it is read within the frame. We will loosely compare the syntax of film to the syntax of spoken and written language.  As the spoken and written language has grammar, the film does not.  There are, however, some vaguely defined rules of usage in cinematic language, and the syntax of film ---- its systematic arrangement----orders these rules and indicates a relationship among them.  As with the written and spoken language, it is important to remember that the syntax of the film is a result of its usage, not a determinant of it. The usage of the images creates the meaning of language. Through that, the syntax is developed. In the written and spoken language systems, syntax deals only with how the words are put together in a