Filme-Yf # Film Analysis 2000

YALE FILM STUDIES
Film Analysis Web Site 2.0
WHAT THE FILM ANALYSIS GUIDE COVERS
Welcome to the Yale Film Analysis Web Site. The Film Analysis Guide was developed to meet the needs of faculty and students at Yale who are interested in becoming familiar with the vocabulary of film studies and the techniques of cinema. The user can either read the complete document or search out a particular topic of interest. -- Related links within the Guide are
provided as appropriate, as are links to film clips illustrating the topic or term in question.
HOW THE GUIDE IS ORGANIZED
The Guide is broken into six parts corresponding to the major divisions within cinema technique and film studies. These major divisions are further broken down into sections, subsections and definitions for terms. The final Part (Analysis) offers basic examples of how to analyze two film sequences.
NAVIGATING THE GUIDE
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CONVENTIONS USED IN THIS GUIDE
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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Yale University's Film Study Center houses a large collection of films on a variety of formats. Click on Film Study Center or use the drop down menu on the left frame from anywhere within this site to learn more. Yale University Libraries host a research guide on film studies which will help you to find film related articles and publications. The URL is http://www.library.yale.edu/humanities/film/. Click here, or on the drop down menu to check our weekly list of On-Campus Film Screenings.
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URL: http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysisLast Modified: August 27, 2002Certifying Authority: Film Studies ProgramCopyright 2002 Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520
Part 1: Basic Terms

AUTEUR
French for "author". Used by critics writing for Cahiers du cinema and other journals to indicate the figure,
usually the director, who stamped a film with his/her own "personality". Opposed to "metteurs en scene" who merely transcribed a work achieved in another medium into film. The concept allowed critics to evaluate highly works of American genre cinema that were otherwise dismissed in favor of the developing European art cinema.
Director Abbas Kiarostami appearing as himself in the last scene of Taste of Cherry (Ta'm e Guilass, Iran, 1997)
DIEGESIS
The diegesis includes objects, events, spaces and the characters that inhabit them, including things, actions, and attitudes not explicitly presented in the film but inferred by the audience. That audience constructs a diegetic world from the material presented in a narrative film. Some films make it impossible to construct a coherent diegetic world, for example Last Year at Marienbad (L'anne dernire Marienbad, Alan Resnais, 1961) or even contain no diegesis at all but deal only with the formal properties of film, for instance Mothlight (Stan Brakhage, 1963). The "diegetic world" of the documentary is usually taken to be simply the world, but some drama documentaries test that assumption such as Land Without Bread (Las Hurdes, Luis Buuel, 1932). Different media have different forms of diegesis. Henry V (Lawrence Olivier, England, 1944) starts with a long crane shot across a detailed model landscape of 16th century London. Over the course of its narrative, the film shifts its diegetic register from the presentational form of the Elizabethan theater to the representational form of mainstream narrative cinema.
EDITING
The joining together of clips of film into a single filmstrip. The cut is a simple edit but there are many other possible ways to transition from one shot to another. See the section on editing.
Picture: Yelizaveta Svilova at the editing table of Man with the Movie Camera (Chelovek s kinoapparatom, Dziga Vertov USSR, 1929)
FLASHBACK FLASHFORWARD
A jump backwards or forwards in diegetic time. With the use of flashback / flashforward the order of events
in the plot no longer matches the order of events in the story. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) is a famous film composed almost entirely of flashbacks and flashforwards. The film timeline spans over 60 years, as it traces the life of Charles Foster Kane from his childhood to his deathbed -- and on into the repercussions of his actions on the people around him. Some characters appear at several time periods in the film, usually being interviewed in the present and appearing in the past as they tell the reporter of their memories of Kane. Joseph Cotten, who plays Kane's best friend, is shown here as an old man in a rest home (with the help of some heavy make-up) and as a young man working with Kane in his newspaper.
FOCUS
Focus refers to the degree to which light rays coming from any particular part of an object pass through the lens and reconverge at the same point on a frame of the film negative, creating sharp outlines and distinct textures that match the original object. This optical property of the cinema creates variations in depth of field -- through shallow focus, deep focus, and techniques such as racking focus. Dziga Vertov's films celebrated the power of cinema to create a "communist decoding of reality", most overtly in Man with the Movie Camera (Chelovek s kinoapparatom, USSR, 1929).
GENRES
Types of film recognized by audiences and/or producers, sometimes retrospectively. These types are distinguished by narrative or stylistic conventions, or merely by their discursive organization in influential criticism. Genres are made necessary by high volume industrial production, for example in the mainstream cinema of the U.S.A and Japan.
Thriller/Detective film: The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)
Horror film: Bride of Frankestein (John Whale, 1935) Western: The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
Musical: Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen, 1952)
MISE-EN-SCENE
All the things that are "put in the scene": the setting, the decor, the lighting, the costumes, the performance etc. Narrative films often manipulate the elements of mise-en-scene, such as decor, costume, and acting to intensify or undermine the ostensible significance of a particular scene.
STORY / PLOT
Perhaps more correctly labelled fabula and syuzhet, story refers to all the audience infers about the events that occur in the diegesis on the basis of what they are shown by the plot -- the events that are directly presented in the film. The order, duration, and setting of those events, as well as the relation between them, all constitute elements of the plot. Story is always more extensive than plot even in the most straightforward drama but certain genres, such as the film noir and the thriller, manipulate the relationship of story and plot for dramatic purposes. A film such as Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000) forces its audience to continually reconstruct the story told in a temporally convoluted plot.
SCENE / SEQUENCE
A scene is a segment of a narrative film that usually takes place in a single time and place, often with the same characters. Sometimes a single scene may contain two lines of action, occurring in different spaces or even different times, that are related by means of crosscutting. Scene and sequence can usually be used interchangeably, though the latter term can also refer to a longer segment of film that does not obey the spatial and temporal unities of a single scene. For example, a montage sequence that shows in a few shots a process that occurs over a period of time.
SHOT
A single stream of images, uninterrupted by editing. The shot can use a static or a mobile framing, a standard or a non-standard frame rate, but it must be continuous. The shot is one of the basic units of cinema yet has always been subject to manipulation, for example stop-motion cinematography or superimposition. In contemporary cinema, with the use of computer graphics and sequences built-up from a series of still frames (eg. The Matrix), the boundaries of the shot are increasingly being challenged.
Part 2: Mise-en-scene
The representation of space affects the reading of a film. Depth, proximity, size and proportions of the
places and objects in a film can be manipulated through camera placement and lenses, lighting, decor, effectively determining mood or relationships between elements in the diegetic world.
Section 1 - Decor
An important elememt of "putting in the scene" is dcor, the objects contained in and the setting of a scene. Dcor can be used to amplify character emotion or the dominant mood of a film. In these shots from 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1969) the futuristic furniture and reduced color scheme stress the sterility and impersonality of the space station environment. Later, the digital nature of the HAL computer is represented by the repeating patterns and strong geometrical design of the set.
In Senso (Luchino Visconti, Italy, 1954) dcor emphazises the social difference between a wealthy married woman in her richly furnished apartment and her soldier lover in the barren military barracks. Ultimately, she finds the contrast so appalling that she ruins her reputation and financial standing in order to satisfy her lover's desire for a luxurious lifestyle.
REAR PROJECTION
Usually used to combine foreground action, often actors in conversation, with a background often shot earlier, on location. Rear projection provides an economical way to set films in exotic or dangerous locations without having to transport expensive stars or endure demanding conditions. In some films, the relationship
between scenes shot on location and scenes shot using rear projection becomes a signifying pattern. In other films, it's just cheap... Rear projection is featured extensively in Douglas Sirk's lush melodrama Written On The Wind (1956). Specifically, almost every car ride is shot in this way, a common feature in Classical Hollywood films, due to the physical restrains of shooting in the studio. In addition, by speeding up the rate of the projected images in the background, or quickly changing its angle, rear projection allows for an impression of speed that involves no real danger.
Even if one of the protagonists of Written On The Wind is a fast-driving alcoholic millionaire (and therefore there are multiple instances of careless driving), rear projection is preferred to stunts both for economic and aesthetic reasons. For example, physical spectacle is not as important in a melodrama as it would be in an action film..
Section 2 - Lighting
The intensity, direction, and quality of lighting have a profound effect on the way an image is perceived. Light affects the way colors are rendered, both in terms of hue and depth, and can focus attention on particular elements of the composition. Much like movement in the cinema, the history of lighting technology is intrisically linked to the history of film style. Most mainstream films rely on the three-point lighting style, and its genre variations. Other films, for example documentaries and realist cinema, rely on natural light to create a sense of authenticity.
THREE-POINT LIGHTING
The standard lighting scheme for classical narrative cinema. In order to model an actor's face (or another object) with a sense of depth, light from three directions is used, as in the diagram below. A backlight picks
out the subject from its background, a bright key light highlights the object and a fill light from the opposite side ensures that the key light casts only faint shadows.
Illustration courtesy of http://www.tcf.ua.edu/TVCrit/
These shots from Written On The Wind (Douglas Sirk, 1956) demostrate the classical use of three-point lighting. Laurel Bacall and Rock Hudson are rendered glamorous by the balanced lighting. Compare this to the manipulation of lighting for expressive purposes on the high-key lighting and low-key lighting pages.
HIGH-KEY LIGHTING
A lighting scheme in which the fill light is raised to almost the same level as the key light. This produces images that are usually very bright and that feature few shadows on the principal subjects. This bright image is characteristic of entertainment genres such as musicals and comedies such as Peking Opera Blues (Do Ma Daan, Tsui Hark, Honk Kong, 1986)
LOW-KEY LIGHTING
A lighting scheme that employs very little fill light, creating strong contrasts between the brightest and darkest parts of an image and often creating strong shadows that obscure parts of the principal subjects. This lighting scheme is often associated with "hard-boiled" or suspense genres such as film noir. Here are some examples from Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958.)
Section 3 - Space
The representation of space affects the reading of a film. Depth, proximity, size and proportions of the places and objects in a film can be manipulated through camera placement and lenses, lighting, decor, effectively determining mood or relationships between elements in the diegetic world.
DEEP SPACE
A film utilizes deep space when significant elements of an image are positioned both near to and distant from the camera. For deep space these objects do not have to be in focus, a defining characteristic of deep focus. Staging in deep space is the opposite of staging in shallow space. Deep space is used throughout many Iranian films such as The Color of Paradise (Rang-e Khoda,1999). Director Majid Majidi likes to integrate the characters into their natural surroundings, to map out the actual distances involved between one location and another in order to emphasize just exactly how hard it is for a particular character (especially children) to move from one place to another.
In this composition, Mohammad's father looks in apprehension at the school where his blind son is visiting.In the far background, Mohammad is playing with his sister and other "normal" children, but his father does not believe Mohammad should try to mingle with them since he could never be their equal, due to his disability. On the other hand, Mohammad enjoys the company of his new friends in the countryside much more than the School for the Blind in Tehran, where he spends most of the year. The distance between the two points of view, as well as the impossibility of communication between Mohammad and his father (the son is too respectful of his father, the father finds his son's situation too painful), is reflected in the deep use of mise-en-scene.
FRONTALITY
Frontality refers to the staging of elements, often human figures, so that they face the camera square-on. This arrangement is an alternative to oblique staging. Frontal staging is usually avoided by the invisible style of continuity editing, since it supposedly breaks the spectator's illusion of peeking into a separate world, by having characters look directly into the camera as if they were aware of the viewers' presence. Some films may go even further and have the characters speak to the camera, in what is called a direct address. Accordingly, frontality is often used in films that are more willing to play with, or openly defy, the distance between the screen and the spectator. In this shot from The Stendhal Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Italy, 1996) Dario Argento exploits the iconicity of frontal staging in multiple ways.
First, he situates his characters on a parallel plane with the famous profile portraits of The Duke of Urbino and his wife by Piero Della Francesca. Then, he flattens the characters by making the space between them and the paintings shallow with the use of a zoom lens, while keeping all planes in focus. As a reflexive auteur, Argento thus uses frontality to equate his characters with the paintings: both are fictional creations, the product of an artist's work. As a final self-referential pun, Argento has his Japanese tourist taking a picture of us!
MATTE SHOT
A process shot in which two photographic images (usually background and foreground) are combined into a single image using an optical printer. Matte shots can be used to add elements to a realistic scene or to create fantasy spaces. In these four examples from Vertigo (1958), director Alfred Hitchcock uses all possible combinations. In the first image, the white belfry is a model added on the foreground of a shot of the roof; in the second image, the sky in the background is clearly a painting, with the purpose of making us believe the scene takes place on a bell tower's top floor, rather than on the studio's ground.
The other two shots belong to the fantasy sequence of Scottie's dream. In the first one his face is superimposed over a campy "unconscious" image; the last one reverses the process, having a mixture of
"real" and matted elements in the background (the roof and the belfry) with the added silhouette in the foreground.
Matte shooting is one of the most common techniques used in studio filmmaking, either for economical reasons (it's cheaper to shot a picture of the Eiffel tower than to travel to Paris) or because it would be impossible or too dangerous to try to shot in the real space. Sometimes, as when animation and real figures interact, that space may not even exist. In recent years, however, special effects and computer generated images have taken over the function of matte shots.
OFFSCREEN SPACE
Space that exists in the diegesis but that is not visible in the frame. Offscreen space becomes significant when the viewer's attention is called to an event or presence in the diegesis that is not visible in the frame. Offscreen space is commonly exploited for suspense in horror and thriller films, such as The Stendhal Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Dario Argento, Italy, 1996)
As discussed in the offscreen sound entry, this scene from Life on Earth (La Vie sur Terre, Abderrahmane Sissako, Mauritania, 1998) explores the difficulties of establishing communication in a postcolonial space that still depends on the former colonial master for its technology and even its calendar.
SHALLOW SPACE
The opposite of deep space, in shallow space the image is staged with very little depth. The figures in the image occupy the same or closely positioned planes. While the resulting image loses realistic appeal, its flatness enhances its pictorial qualities. Striking graphic patters can be achieved through shallow space. In these frames from My Neighbor Totoro (Tonari No Totoro, Japan, 1988) Miyazaki fills the entire background with a lamp-eyed, grinning catbus. Shallow space creates ambiguity: is the cat brimming with joy at the sisters' encounter, or is he about to eat them?
Shallow space can be staged, or it can also be achieved optically, with the use of a telephoto lens.This is particularly useful for creating claustrophic images, since it makes the characters look like they are being crushed against the background.
Section 4 - Costume
Costume simply refers to the clothes that characters wear. Costume in narrative cinema is used to signify character, or advertise particular fashions, or to make clear distinctions between characters.
In this example from Life on Earth (La Vie sur Terre, 1998) filmmaker and actor Abderrahmane Sissako uses "similar" costumes (long loose clothes, big hats) to further stress the cultural and psychological implications of a nomadic existence, split between the cold affluence of France and the colorful poverty of Mauritania.
Section 5 - Acting
There is enormous historical and cultural variation in performance styles in the cinema. Early melodramatic styles, clearly indebted to the 19th century theater, gave way in Western cinema to a relatively naturalistic style. There are many alternatives to the dominant style: the kabuki-influenced performances of kyu-geki Japanese period films, the use of non-professional actors in Italian neorealism, the typage of silent Soviet Cinema, the improvisatory practices of directors like John Cassavettes or Eric Rohmer, the slapstick comedy of Laurel and Hardy, or the deadpan of Buster Keaton and Jacques Tat, not to mention the exuberant histrionics of Bollywood films.
TYPAGE
Typage refers to the selection of actors on the basis that their facial or bodily features readily convey the truth of the character the actor plays. Usually associated with the Soviet Montage school, these filmmakers thought that the life-experience of a non-actor guaranteed the authenticity of their performance when they attempted a dramatic role similar to their real social role. Typage is related to the use of stereotype in commuicating the essential qualities of a character. Although current casting practices can no longer be
described as typage, the use of performers with experience in the role they played is common to most films, whether they rely on the star system, or on non-professional actors. In Pudovkin's Storm Over Asia (Potomok Chingis-Khana, USSR, 1928), professional and non-professional actors are used alike. The cast was selected not on terms of their skills or reputation, but on their physical ressemblance to the following types:
the hero of the Mongol people... and the explotative English capitalist
the partisan's leader, noble and stoic in his deathbed...and the pompous and greedy general
the partisan woman, strong mother and fighter... and the decrepit general's wife with royal ambitions
Part 3: Cinematography
Section 1 - Quality
This section explores some of the elements at play in the construction of a shot. As the critics at Cahiers du cinma maintained, the "how" is as important as the "what" in the cinema. The look of an image, its balance of dark and light, the depth of the space in focus, the relation of background and foreground, etc. all affect the reception of the image. For instance, the optical qualities of grainy black and white in Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, Maarakat madinat al Jazaer, Algeria, 1965) seem to guarantee its authenticity. On the other hand, the shimmering Technicolor of a musical such as Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen, 1952)
suggests an out-of-this-world glamor and excitement.
COLOR
Early films were shot in black and white but the cinema soon included color images. These images were initially painted or stencilled onto the film but by the 1930s filmmakers were able to include color sequences in their films. Apart from the added realism or glamor that a color image could provide, color is also used to
create aesthetic patterns and to establish character or emotion in narrative cinema. In Federico Fellini's extravagant Juliet of the Spirits (Giulietta degli Spiriti, 1965) colors separate the bourgeois reality and the fantasy daydreamings of the title character, who partyhops between black and white and reds and purples.
Juliet of the Spirits was the first Fellini film in color, and he intended to make full use of it. In order to further enhance the contrast with his previous work, he cast his favorite actress and wife Giulietta Massina, the protagonist of Fellini's earlier successes such as Nights of Cabiria (Le Notti di Cabiria, 1957) in which she plays a destitute hooker in a grim suburban environment. Now Fellini has the same actress play a rich housewife in luscious technicolor, obviously signaling a clear turning point from his early Neorealisminspired films.
Contrary to popular belief (and Goethe), colors do not necessarily carry exclusive meanings. Compare the use of red in Ingmar Bergman's Cries and Whispers (Viskingar Och Rop, 1972),
and Zhang Yimou's Ju Dou (1990), for example.
While Zhang exploits red as a cliched signifier of unrestrained passion, Bergman associates the color with stagnation and contaminated blood.
CONTRAST
The ratio of dark to light in an image. If the difference between the light and dark areas is large, the image is
said to be "high contrast". If the difference is small, it is referred to as "low contrast" Most films use low contrast to achieve a more naturalistic lighting. High contrast is usually associated with the low key lighting of dark scenes in genres such as the horror film and the film noir. A common cliche is to use contrast between light and dark to distinguish between good and evil. The use of contrast in a scene may draw on racist or sexist connotations.
For instance, this shot from Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (1958) employs high contrast to further emphasize racial differences between a blonde American woman and a menacing Mexican man.
DEEP FOCUS
Like deep space, deep focus involves staging an event on film such that significant elements occupy widely separated planes in the image. Unlike deep space, deep focus requires that elements at very different depths of the image both be in focus. In these two shots from Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958) Besieged (L'Assedio, Bernardo Bertolucci,1998) all of the different planes of the image are given equal importance through deep focus, not only to the characters (like the man peeking at the window in the first image), but also to the spaces (Shanduray's basement room in the second).
While deep focus may be used occasionally, some auteurs use it consistently for they believe it achieves a truer representation of space. Directors like Jean Renoir, Orson Welles, Hou Hsao-Hsien, or Abbas Kiarostami all use deep focus as an essential part of their signature style.
SHALLOW FOCUS
A restricted depth of field, which keeps only one plane in sharp focus; the opposite of deep focus. Used to direct the viewer's attention to one element of a scene. Shallow focus is very common in close-up, as in these two shots from Central Station (Central do Brasil, Walter Selles, Brazil, 1998).
Shallow focus suggests psychological introspection, since a character appears as oblivious to the world around her/him. It is therefore commonly employed in genres such as the melodrama, where the actions and thoughts of an individual prevail over everything else.
DEPTH OF FIELD
The distance through which elements in an image are in sharp focus. Bright light and a narrow lens aperture tend to produce a larger depth of field, as does using a wide-angle rather than a long lens. A shallow depth of field is often used as a technique to focus audience attention on the most significant aspect of a scene without having to use an analytic cut-in.
Depth of field is directly connected, but not to be confused, with focus. Focus is the quality (the "sharpness" of an object as it is registered in the image) and depth of field refers to the extent to which the space represented is in focus. For a given lens aperture and level of lighting, the longer the focal distance (the distance between the lens and the object that is in focus) the greater the focal depth. For a given focal distance, the greater the level of lighting or the narrower the aperture, the greater the focal depth. For that reason, close-up shooting and shooting in low light conditions often results in images with very shallow depth of field. An image with shallow depth of field, as this frame from Peking Opera Blues (Do Ma Daan, Tsui Hark , 1986), has some elements in focus, but others are not.
EXPOSURE
A camera lens has an aperture that controls how much light passes through the lens and onto the film. If the aperture is widened, more light comes through and the resultant image will become more exposed. If an image is so pale that the detail begins to disappear, it can be described as "overexposed". Conversely, a narrow aperture that allows through less light will produce a darker image than normal, known as
"underexposed". Exposure can be manipulated to guide an audience's response to a scene.
In his film Traffic (2000), Steven Soderbergh decided to shot all of the sequences in the Northern Mexico desert overexposed. The resulting images give an impression of a barren, desolated land being mercilessly burnt by the sun, a no-man's land over which police and customs have no control.
RACKING FOCUS
Racking focus refers to the practice of changing the focus of a lens such that an element in one plane of the image goes out of focus and an element at another plane in the image comes into focus. This technique is an even more overt way of steering audience attention through the scene, as well as of linking two spaces or objects. For instance in this scene from Peking Opera Blues (Do Ma Daan, Tsui Hark, Honk Kong, 1986), a connection is made between an activist in hiding and a police officer who is pursuing him.
Racking focus is usually done quite quickly; in a way, the technique tries to mimick a brief, fleeting glance that can be used to quicken the tempo or increase suspense.
RATE
A typical sound film is shot at a frame rate of 24 frames per second. If the number of frames exposed in each second is increased, the action will seem to move more slowly than normal when it is played back. Conversely, the fewer the number of frames exposed each second, the more rapid the resulting action appears to be. The extreme case of frame rate manipulation is stop-motion, when the camera takes only one frame then the subject is manipulated or allowed to change before taking another frame. In this clip from Vertov's Man with the Movie Camera (Chelovek s kinoapparatom, USSR, 1929) stop motion is used to give the impression than the chairs open up by themselves.
In Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai, Japan, 1954), slow motion is used to contrast the emotional rescue of a child with the death of the man who kidnapped him.
TELEPHOTO SHOT
An image shot with an extremely long lens is called a telephoto shot. The effect of using a long lens is to compress the apparent depth of an image, so that elements that are relatively close or far away from the camera seem to lie at approximately the same distance. In this first shot from Payback (Brian Helgeland, 1999), we can clearly see there is a considerable distance beteen the fallen body and the red car.
Yet, when a telephoto lens is used for a close-up of Mel Gibson, his face looks like it is pressed against the car! Here a telephoto lens create a shallow space, which combines with extreme canted framing to suggest the physical and psychological disarray of a man who has been betrayed, shot, and left for dead.
ZOOM SHOT
The zoom shot uses a lens with several elements that allows the filmmaker to change the focal length of the lens (see telephoto shot) while the shot is in progress. We seem to move toward or away from the subject, while the quality of the image changes from that of a shorter to a longer lens, or vice versa. The change in apparent distance from the subject is similar to the crane or tracking shots, but changes in depth of field and apparent size is quite different. Zooms are commonly used at the beginning of a scene, or even a film, to introduce an object or character by focusing on it. In the initial sequence of The Stendhal Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Dario Argento, Italy, 1996), the camera zooms from a medium long shot of people cueing up at a museum's entrance to a medium close-up of the female protagonist.
Few cinematic techniques are used in isolation. Notice how the woman "helps" the zoom to achieve its purpose of singling her out by moving around.
In another clip from the same film, a zooms is used to offer a more detailed view of an object. Furthermore, as we move closer and closer to the painting (Caravaggio's Head of Medusa, 1590-1600) , both our attention and tension are increased.
Section 2 - Framing
In one sense, cinema is an art of selection. The edges of the image create a "frame" that includes or excludes aspects of what occurs in front of the camera -- the "profilmic event". The expressive qualities of framing include the angle of the camera to the object, the aspect ratio of the projected image, the relationship between camera and object, and the association of camera with character. In Cruel Story of Youth (Seishun zankoku monogatari, Oshima Nagisa, 1960) the radical decentering of the character in relation to the frame marks their failed struggle to find a place in their world.
ANGLE OF FRAMING
Many films are shot with a camera that appears to be at approximately the same height as its subject. However, it is possible to film from a position that is significantly lower or higher than the dominant element of the shot. In that case, the image is described as low angle or high angle respectively. Angle of framing can be used to indicate the relation between a character and the camera's point of view. Or can simply be used to create striking visual compositions. Camera angle is often used to suggest either vulnerability or power. In The Color of Paradise (Rang-e Khoda,1999) the father, who rules absolute over his family, is often portrayed from a low angle, therefore aggrandizing his figure.
On the other hand, his blind son Mohammad and his elderly grandmother are often shot from a high angle, emphasizing their dependence and smallness. These interpretations are not exclusive, however. The relation between camera and subject can be rendered ironic, or it may suggest more the subject of perception than to the state of the object. The father in this film is so busy smiling at his fiancee that he falls off his horse, while Mohammed and her granny seen from above may also indicate that God is watching over them, and keeping them under protection.
ASPECT RATIO
The ratio of the horizontal to the vertical sides of an image. Until the 1950s almost all film was shot in a 4:3 or 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Some filmmakers used multiple projectors to create a wider aspect ratio whereas others claimed that the screen should be square, not rectangular. Widescreen formats became more popular in the 1950s and now films are made in a variety of aspect ratios -- some of the most common being 1.66:1, 1.76:1, 1.85:1, and 2.35:1 (cinemascope). Widescreen films are often trimmed for television or video release, effectively altering the original compositions. Some DVD's have the option of showing the film in its original format and in a reduced ratio that fits the TV screen. Compare the same frame from Bertolucci's Besieged (L'Assedio, 1998). Objects appear much more cramped with the reduced aspect ratio, giving an impression of physical (and psychological) space different from the theatrical release.
LEVEL OF FRAMING
Not only the angle from which a camera films but the height can also be a significant element in a film. A low-level camera is placed close to the ground whereas a high-level camera would be placed above the typical perspective shown in the cinema. Camera level is used to signify sympathy for characters who occupy particular levels in the image, or just to create pleasurable compositions. Camera level is obviously used to a greater advantage when the difference in height bewteen objects or characters is greater. In The Color of Paradise (Rang-e Khoda, Iran, 1999) Majid Majidi uses different camera height to emphasize the difference between Mohammad and his father.
In the first image, the camera concentrates on Mohammad as he recognizes his father's hand, after patiently
waiting for him for hours. The father is almost absent from the scene; only the part of him that Mohammad touches is visible, therefore increasing our empathy with the blind boy. On the second image, camera level is adjusted to the father's size, making Mohammed a puny, defenceless figure in a world that overcomes him. The first shot is on Mohammad's School for the Blind, while the second is on a shop in Tehran. Through different camera levels, the director makes clear where Mohammad's fits and where he does not.
CANTED FRAMING
Canted Framing is a view in which the frame is not level; either the right or left side is lower than the other, causing objects in the scene to appear slanted out of an upright positon.Canted framings are used to create an impression of chaos and instability. They are therefore associated with the frantic rhythms of action films, music videos and animation.
Many Hong Kong films of the 80s and 90s blend elements of the genres mentioned above, for instance Tsui Hark's Peking Opera Blues (Do Ma Daan, 1986). These films employ unconventional framings to achieve their signature dizzing, freewheeling style. Canted framings are also common when shooting with a Steadycam.
FOLLOWING SHOT
A shot with framing that shifts to keep a moving figure onscreen. A following shot combines a camera movement, like panning, tracking, tilting or craning, with the specific function of directing our attention to a character or object as he/she/it moves inside the frame. In this shot from Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999) the camera pans slightly to accompany a couple into the ballroom floor.
REFRAMING
Short panning or tilting movements to adjust for the figures' movements, keeping them onscreen or centered.
An important technique of continuity editing, thanks to its unobstrusive nature. The characters' actions take precedence over the camera movements, as in this dancing scene from Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
POINT-OF-VIEW SHOT
A shot taken with the camera placed approximately where the character's eyes would be, showing what the character would see; usually cut in before or after a shot of the character looking. Horror films and thrillers often use POV shots to suggest a menacing and unseen presence in the scene. Films that use many point-of-
view shots tend toward dynamic and non-naturalistic style. In this clip from Peking Opera Blues (Do Ma Daan, Tsui Hark, Hong Kong, 1986) the female impersonator's fear of the soldier who attempts to procure him for his general is rendered comic by the cut to POV and wide angle.
POV is one of the means by which audiences are encouraged to identify with characters. However, it is actually a relatively rare technique: identificatory mechanisms rely more on sympathetic character and the flow of narrative information than on simple optical affiliation.
WIDE ANGLE LENS
A lens of short focal length that affects a scene's perspective by distorting straight lines near the edges of the frame and by exaggerating the distance between foreground and background planes. In doing so it allows for more space to enter the frame (hence the name "wide"), which makes it more convenient for shooting in a closed location, for instance a real room, rather than a three-wall studio room. In addition, a wider lens allows for a bigger depth of field. In 35mm filming, a wide angle lens is 30mm or less. See also telephoto lens.
Since a wide angle lens distorts the edges of an image, as in this frame from Yi Yi (Edward Yang, Taiwan, 2000), extreme wide lenses are avoided in naturalistic styles, or they are used in unrestrained or open spaces, with no converging lines around the edges of the frame.
Section 3 - Scale
If the same object were filmed at different shot scales it would often signify quite differently. Shot scale can foster intimacy with a character, or conversely, it can swallow the character in its environment.Orson Welles exploited divergent shot scales in Citizen Kane (1941) to demonstrate the changing power relationship between Charles Foster Kane and his lawyer. As a boy, his figure is lost in the snow at the back of the shot as the lawyer arranges for his adoption. As a young man he rebels against Bernstein's oversight, rising in the frame as he asserts himself.
EXTREME LONG SHOT
A framing in which the scale of the object shown is very small; a building, landscape, or crowd of people will fill the screen. Usually the first or last shots of a sequence, that can also function as establishing shots.. The following examples of framing from Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999) and A Summer Tale (Conte d't, Eric Rohmer, 1996) well illustrate the range of uses for this particular shot scale.
These two extreme long shots are also establishing shots. However, their primary function is different. Whereas Rohmer give us a standard establishing shot that introduces the locale where the main characters are about to meet, Kubrick uses the ballroom shot mainly as a brief transition between two more important scenes. While the two shots above have similar sizes, some extreme long shots can be significantly larger, particularly if shot from the air with the help of cranes or helicopters. This kind of extreme long shot is also called bird's eye view shot, since it gives an aerial perspective of the scene.
LONG SHOT
A framing in which the scale of the object shown is small; a standing human figure would appear nearly the height of the screen. It makes for a relatively stable shot that can accomodate movement without reframing. It is therefore commonly used in genres where a full body action is to be seen in its entirety, for instance Hollywood Musicals or 1970s Martial Arts films.
Another advantage of the long shot is that it allows to show a character and her/his surroundings in a single frame, as in these two images from Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999) and A Summer Tale (Conte d't, Eric Rohmer, 1996).
MEDIUM LONG SHOT
Framing such than an object four or five feet high would fill most of the screen vertically. Also called plain amricain, given its recurrence in the Western genre, where it was important to keep a cowboy's weapon in the image. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)
A Summer Tale (Conte d't) France Eric Rohmer, 1996
MEDIUM CLOSE-UP
A framing in which the scale of the object shown is fairly large; a human figure seen from the chest up would fill most of the screen. Another common shot scale. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)
A Summer Tale (Conte d't, Eric Rohmer, 1996)
CLOSE-UP
A framing in which the scale of the object shown is relatively large. In a close-up a person's head, or some other similarly sized object, would fill the frame. Framing scales are not universal, but rather established in relationship with other frames from the same film. These two shots from Eyes Wide Shut and A Summer Tale can be described as close-ups, even if one starts at the neck and the second at the upper chest..
Framing scales are usually drawn in relationship to the human figure but this can be misleading since a frame need not include people. Accordingly, this shot from The Color of Paradise (Rang-e Khoda, Majid
Majidi, Iran,1999) is also a close-up.
EXTREME CLOSE-UP
A framing in which the scale of the object shown is very large; most commonly, a small object or a part of the body usually shot with a zoom lens. Again, faces are the most recurrent images in extreme close-ups, as these images from The Color of Paradise (Rang-e Khoda,Majid Majidi, 1999),
The Stendhal Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Dario Argento, 1996),
and My Neighbor Totoro (Tonari No Totoro, Miyazaki Hayao, 1988) demonstrate. With regard to the latter,
it should be noted that while all of these film terms equally applies to animation, the technical procedure to achieve a particular effect can be very different. For instance this last frame is a drawing of Totoro's teeth, not a zoom on his face, as it would have been the case in a live-action film.
Section 4 - Movement
There are many ways to move a camera: in fluid long takes, rapid and confusing motions, etc. that establish the rhythm and point of view of a scene.A film such as Man with the Movie Camera ( Chelovek s kinoapparatom, Dziga Vertov, USSR, 1929) features a full catalog of the creative possibilities open to the film camera. In one famous sequence, we get to see the cinematographer using a car as a mobile support for a tracking shot. Furthermore, one soon realizes that the whole process is probably being mirrored by a second car, in order to film the first one.
Scenes taken from both cameras are playfully incorporated into the film. Was this image of the car passing by taken by the first or the second car/camera unit?
CRANE SHOT
A shot with a change in framing rendered by having the camera above the ground and moving through the air in any direction. It is accomplished by placing the camera on a crane (basically, a large cantilevered arm) or similar device. Crane shots are often long or extreme long shots: they lend the camera a sense of mobility and often give the viewer a feeling of omniscience over the characters.
Crane shots can also be used to achieve a flowing rhythm, particularly in a long take, as in this clip from The Player (Altman, 1992)
HANDHELD CAMERA, STEADYCAM
The use of the camera operator's body as a camera support, either holding it by hand or using a gyroscopic stabilizer and a harness. Newsreel and wartime camera operators favored smaller cameras such as the Eclair that were quickly adopted by documentarist and avant-garde filmmakers, notably the cinma verit movement of the 1950s and 1960s. They were also used by young filmmakers since they were cheap and lent the images a greater feeling of sponteneity. At the time this challenge to prevailing standards was
perceived as anti-cinematic but eventually it came to be accepted as a style. Whereas hand held cameras give a film an unstable, jerky feel, they also allows for a greater degree of movement and flexibility than bulkier standard cameras --at a fraction of the cost. Filmmakers now are experimenting with digital video in a similar way. Gyroscopically stabilized "steadicams" were invented in the 1970s and made it possible to create smooth "tracking" shots without cumbersome equipment. More recently, they are extensively used in music videos and in the films of the Dogme movement, such as Lars Von Trier's Dancer in the Dark (Denmark, 2000)
Ironically, while today's steadicams allow for a fairly stable image, Lars Von Trier and his accolites prefer to exacerbate the jerkiness and unstability traditionally associated with these cameras as a marker of visceral autorial intervention. In fact, combining steadicam shooting with aggressive reframings and jump cuts , or even by shooting on low definition formats, Dogme and other radical filmmaking movements attempt to create a new cinematic look as further away as possible from mainstream Hollywood.
PAN
A camera movement with the camera body turning to the right or left. On the screen, it produces a mobile framing which scans the space horizontally. A pan directly and immediately connects two places or characters, thus making us aware of their proximity. The speed at which a pan occurs can be expoited for different dramatic purposes. For instance, in a Mizoguchi or a Hou film, two characters may be having a conversation in a room, and after several minutes, the camera might pan and reveal a third person was also present, thus changing the whole implication of the scene. In a film like Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000), on the other hand, pans are usually very quick, suggesting that characters have no time to waste, and that decisions must be taken fast, therefore contributing to the sense of imminent danger and moral urgency that the films tries to communicate.
In the clip above, the defense lawyer has just finished a long, clever speech, yet the judge has no second thoughts on his verdict, nor any pity for the (presumably guilty) accused and their rich legal cohorts. Lastly, a pan does not necessarily mean that the camera moves along an horizontal line. This clip from The Stendhal Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Dario Argento,1996), illustrates what we could call a 360 pan.
TILT
A camera movement with the camera body swiveling upward or downward on a stationary support. It produces a mobile framing that scans the space vertically. Its function is similar to that of pans and tracking shots, albeit on a vertical axis. In this clip from Besieged (L'Assedio, Italy, 1998) Bernardo Bertolucci uses a tilt to establish the social (and even racial) distance between an African housemaid and her wealthy English employer.
A tilt usually also implies a change in the angle of framing; in this clip the camera starts with a high angle view of the woman and ends up on a low angle view of the man --which obviously reinforces the social inequality of their relationship. Lastly, a tilt is also a means of gradually uncovering offscreen space. This can be exploited for suspense, since a sense of anticipation grows in the viewer as the camera movement forces her/his attention in a precise direction, yet never knowing when it will stop, nor what will be found there.
TRACKING SHOT
A mobile framing that travels through space forward, backward, or laterally. See also crane shot, pan, and tilt. A tracking shot usually follows a character or object as it moves along the screen. Contrary to the pan, which mimicks a turning head, a tracking shot physically accompanies the entire range of movement. It therefore creates a closer affinity with the character or object moving, since the spectator is not just watching him/her moving, but moving with him/her. A standard tracking shot, as it was devised in the Classical Studio filmmaking, consisted in placing the camera on a wheeled support called a dolly, and moving it along rails or tracks to ensure the smoothness of movement associated with the continuity editing style. As cameras became lighter and steadier, tracking shots became more flexible and creative: bycicles, wheelchairs, roller skates, and many ingenious wheeled artifacts augmented the range of movement of tracking shots. In this clip from Central Station (Central do Brasil, Walter Salles, Brazil, 1998), one ininterrupted movement is rendered with two different tracking shots, linked by a match on action.
The first is a classic tracking shot, with the camera on rails sideways to the character that is moving, following the child as the trains departs. The second uses the train as a dolly, as it moves away from the running child. Indeed, tracking shots are one of the most suggestive and creative camera movements, one that can be accomplished in a number of clever ways. Not surprisingly, some auteurs like Max Ophuls or
Orson Welles made virtuosistic tracking shots a staple of their films, often in conjuntion with long takes.
WHIP PAN
An extremely fast movement of the camera from side to side, which briefly causes the image to blur into a set of indistinct horizontal streaks. Often an imperceptible cut will join two whip pans to create a trick transition between scenes. As opposed to dissolves, action or graphic matches, and fades --the most common transitions of the continuity style-- whip pans always stand out, given their abrupt, brisk nature. Commonly used in flashy action genres such as kung-fu movies from the 70s, like Fists of Fury (Tang Shan Da Xiong, Wei Lo, Honk Kong, 1971).
Part 4: Editing
Section 1 - Devices a) TRANSITIONS
The shot is defined by editing but editing also works to join shots together. There are many ways of effecting that transition, some more evident than others. In the analytical tradition, editing serves to establish space and lead the viewer to the most salient aspects of a scene. In the classical continuity style, editing techniques avoid drawing attention to themselves. In a constructivist tradition such as Soviet Montage cinema, there is no such false modesty. Vertov's Man with the Movie Camera (Chelovek s kinoapparatom, USSR, 1929) celebrates the power of the cinema to create a new reality out of disparate fragments.
CHEAT CUT
Cheat cut. In the continuity editing system, a cut which purports to show continuous time and space from shot to shot but which actually mismatches the position of figures or objects in the scene. In this sequence from Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minelli, 1944) the editing sacrifices actual physical space for dramatic space. As we can see in the first shot, there is a wall behind the telephone.
However, that wall magically disappears in the third shot in order to show both the telephone and the family seated around the dining table (an important element in the film) from an angle that would had been impossible in an actual room. Cheat cuts were also often used to disguise the relatively short stature of leading men in relation to their statuesque female co-stars.
CROSSCUTTING, aka PARALLEL EDITING
Editing that alternates shots of two or more lines of action occurring in different places, usually simultaneously. The two actions are therefore linked, associating the characters from both lines of action. In this extended clip from Edward Yang's Yi Yi (Taiwan, 2000), father and daughter go out on dates at presumably the same time, and go through the same motions, even if the father is in Japan and the daughter in Taipei.
To further stress the similarities, the father is actually reliving his first date with his first girlfriend (whom he has just met again after 20 years), while his daughter is actually on her first date! Yang uses parallel editing across space and time to suggest that history repeats itself, generation after generation.
CUT-IN, CUT AWAY
An instantaneous shift from a distant framing to a closer view of some portion fo the same space, and vice versa. In Lars Von Trier's Dancer in the Dark ( Denmark, 2000) Selma and Bill have a dramatic conversation in Bill's car that is framed by a cut-in and a cut-away.
The two cuts neatly bracket Bill's anguished confession as a separate moment, private and isolated, that only Selma knows about. This editing-constructed secrecy will ultimately have drastic consequences for Selma.
DISSOLVE
A transition between two shots during which the first image gradually disappears while the second image gradually appears; for a moment the two images blend in superimposition. Dissolves can be used as a fairly straighforward editing device to link any two scenes, or in more creative ways, for instance to suggest hallucinatory states. In this series of shots from The Stendhal Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Dario Argento, 1996), a young woman becomes so absorbed by Brueghel's The Fall of Icarus that she actually dives into the painting's sea! (at least in her imagination, in "real life" she faints).
IRIS
A round, moving mask that can close down to end a scene (iris-out) or emphasize a detail, or it can open to begin a scene (iris-in) or to reveal more space around a detail. For instance, in this scene from Neighbors (Buster Keaton, 1920), the iris is used with the comic effect of gradually revealing that the female protagonist is 1) ready for her wedding and 2) ready for her not-too-luxurious wedding.
Iris is a common device of early films (at at time when some techniques like zooming were not feasible), so much so that when it is used after 1930 it is often perceived as charminlgly anachronistic or nostalgic, as in Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player (1960).
JUMP CUT
An elliptical cut that appears to be an interruption of a single shot. Either the figures seem to change
instantly against a constant background, or the background changes instantly while the figures remain constant. See also elliptical editing, steadicam.. Jump cuts are anathema to Classical Hollywood continuity editing, but feature prominently in avant-garde and radical filmmaking.When the French Nouvelle Vague films of the 1960s made jump cuts an essential part of their playful, modern outlook, many directors from around the globe started to use jump cuts --either creatively or in a last ditch attempt to become "hip". More recently, jump cuts are more commonly associated with music videos, video or alternative filmmaking, like Lars Von Trier's Dogma films. Here is an example from Dancer in the Dark (Denmark, 2000).
Jump cuts are used expressively, to suggest the ruminations or ambivalences of a character, or of his/her everyday life, but they are also a clear signifier of rupture with mainstream film storytelling. Rather than presenting a film as a perfectly self-contained story that seamlessly unfold in front of us, jump cuts are like utterances that evidentiates both the artificiality and the difficulties of telling such a story.
ESTABLISHING SHOT/REESTABLISHING SHOT
A shot, usually involving a distant framing, that shows the spatial relations among the important figures, objects, and setting in a scene. Usually, the first few shots in a scene are establishing shots, as they introduces us to a location and the space relationships inside it. In the initial sequence from Peking Opera Blues (Do Ma Daan, Honk Kong,1986), director Tsui Hark uses three shots to establish the locale. In the first one, three musicians are shown against a fireplace in what looks like a luxurious room. Our suspicions are confirmed by the second establishing shot, which shows us the other half of the ample room (shot/ reverse shot) and reveals a party going on.
After this introduction, the camera moves forward with several close-ups of both the musicians and the spectators. At the end of the sequence, Hark shows us the entire room in a larger shot. This final establishing shot is called a reestablishing shot, for it shows us once again the spatial relationships introduced with the establishing shots.
SHOT/REVERSE SHOT
Two or more shots edited together that alternate characters, typically in a conversation situation. In continuity editing, characters in one framing usually look left, in the other framing, right. Over-the-shoulder framings are common in shot/reverse-shot editing. Shot / reverse shots are one of the most firmly established conventions in cinema, and they are usually linked through the equally persuasive eyeline matches. These conventions have become so strong that they can be exploited to make improbable meanings convincing, as
in this sequence from The Stendhal Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Italy,1996). Director Dario Argento has his protagonist Anna looking at Botticelli's The Birth of Venus (c1485)...
...but with the use of successive shot/ reverse shots, eyeline matches and matching framings, it soons begins to look as if Venus herself is looking at Anna!
SUPERIMPOSITION
The exposure of more than one image on the same film strip. Unlike a dissolve, a superimposition does not signify a transition from one scene to another. The technique was often used to allow the same performer to appear simultaneously as two characters on the screen (for example Son of the Sheik), to express subjective or intoxicated vision (The Last Laugh), or simply to introduce a narrative element from another part of the diegetic world into the scene. In this clip from Neighbors (Buster Keaton, 1920), the resentful father of the bride looks at the wedding ring and immediately associates in his mind with a five and dime store. The subjective shot gives us a clear indication of his opinion of his soon to be son-in-law.
WIPE
A transition betwen shots in which a line passes across the screen, eliminating the first shot as it goes and replacing it with the next one. A very dynamic and noticeable transition, it is usually employed in action or adventure films. It often suggest a brief temporal ellypsis and a direct connection between the two images. In this example from Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (Sichinin No Samurai, Japan, 1954), the old man's words are immediately corroborated by the wandering, destitute samurai coming into town.
As other transitions devices, like the whip pan, wipes became fashionable at an specific historical time (the 1950s and 1960s), so much so as to became stylistic markers of the film of the period.
b) MATCHES
Editing matches refer to those techniques that join as well as divide two shots by making some form of connection between them. That connection can be inferred from the situation portrayed in the scene (for example, eyeline match) or can be of a purely optical nature (graphic match).
EYELINE MATCH
A cut obeying the axis of action principle, in which the first shot shows a person off in one direction and the second shows a nearby space containing what he or she sees. If the person looks left, the following shot
should imply that the looker is offscreen right. The following shots from Dario Argento's The Stendhal Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Italy, 1996), depict Anna looking at a painting, Brueghel's The Fall of Icarus. The scene takes place inside Firenze's most famous museum, the Uffizi Gallery. First we see her looking... then we see what she looks at.
As her interest grows, the eyeline match (that is the connection between looker and looked) is stressed with matching close-ups of Anna's face and Icarus's falling into the ocean in the painting.Again, this implies that Anna is looking directly at Icarus's body.
Ironically, even if Argento managed to film inside the real Uffizi gallery, the painting he wanted to use, The Fall of Icarus, is not part of the museum's collection! The painting that we see is probably a reproduction, shot in the studio, and edited together with Anna's shots in the Uffizi to make us believe that they are both in the same room. As this example demonstrates, eyeline matches can be a very persuasive tool to construct space in a film, real or imagined.
GRAPHIC MATCH
Two successive shots joined so as to create a strong similarity of compositional elements (e.g., color, shape).
Used in trasparent continuity styles to smooth the transition between two shots, as in this clip from Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios, Almodvar, 1988).
Graphic matches can also be used to make metaphorical associations, as in Soviet Montage style. Furthermore, some directors like Ozu Yasujiro use graphic matches as an integral part of their film style.
MATCH ON ACTION
A cut which splices two different views of the same action together at the same moment in the movement, making it seem to continue uninterrupted. Quite logically, these characteristics make it one of the most common transitions in the continuity style. Here is an example from Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000)
A match on action adds variety and dinamism to a scene, since it conveys two movements: the one that actually takes place on screen, and an implied one by the viewer, since her/his position is shifted.
c) DURATION
Only since the introduction of editing to the cinema at the turn of the 20th century has not-editing become an option. The decision to extend a shot can be as significant as the decision to cut it. Editing can affect the experience of time in the cinema by creating a gap between screen time and diegetic time (Montage and overlapping editing) or by establishing a fast or slow rhythm for the scene.
LONG TAKE, aka PLAN-SEQUENCE
A shot that continues for an unusually lengthy time before the transition to the next shot. The average lenght per shot differs greatly for different times and places, but most contemporary films tend to have faster editing rates. In general lines, any shot above one minute can be considered a long take. Here is an excerpt from the initial shot of Robert Altman's The Player (1992) which not only runs for more than eight minutes, but it is in itself an hommage to another famous long take, the first shot of Welles's Touch of Evil (1958).
Unless shot at a fixed angle, with a fixed camera and no movement, long takes are extremely hard to shoot. They have to be choreographed and rehearsed to the last detail, since any error would make it necessary to start all over again from scratch. Sophisticated long takes such as this one from The Player, which includes all kinds of camera movements and zooms, are often seen as auteuristic marks of virtuosity. Aside from the challenge of shooting in real time, long takes decisively influence a film's rhythm. Depending on how much movement is included, a long take can make a film tense, stagnant and spell-binding, or daring, flowing and carefree.Indeed, directors like Altman, Welles, Renoir, Angelopoulos, Tarkovski or Mizoguchi have made long takes (usually in combination with deep focus and deep space) an essential part of their film styles.
OVERLAPPING EDITING
Cuts that repeat part or all of an action, thus expanding its viewing time and plot duration. Most commonly associated with experimental filmmmaking, due to its temporally disconcerting and purely graphic nature, it is also featured in films in which action and movement take precedence over plot and dialogue: sports documentaries, musicals, martial arts, etc. Overlapping editing is a common characteristic of the frenzied Hong Kong action films of the 80s and 90s. When director John Woo moved to Hollywood, he tried to incorporate some of that style into mainstream action films, such as Mission: Impossible 2 (2000).
RHYTHM
The perceived rate and regularity of sounds, series of shots, and movements within the shots. Rhythmic
factors include beat (or pulse), accent (or stress), and tempo (or pace). Rhythm is one of the essential features of a film, for it decisively contributes to its mood and overall impression on the spectator. It is also one of the most complex to analyze, since it is achieved through the combination of mise-en-scene, cinematography, sound and editing. Indeed, rhythm can be understood as the final balance all of the elements of a film. Let us compare how rhythm can radically alter the treatment of a similar scene. These two clips from Deconstructing Harry (Woody Allen, 1997) and Cries and Whispers (Viskingar Och Rop, Ingmar Bergman, Sweden1972) feature a couple at a table, and both clips feature a moment of fracture between the two characters. Still, they could not be more dissimilar. Allen employs fast cuts (even jump cuts), pans, quick dialogue and gesturing, as he concentrates exclusively on the two characters, shot from a variety of angles but always in medium close-up and close-up.
Even if both characters overtly disagree with each other, there is an overall feeling of warmth and inmediacy between them, suggested by their proximity (established in short pans and close-ups) and in the tone of their speech. The quick camera movements and different camera placements suggest the uneasiness of both characters, as they budge on their seats.
Cries and Whispers, on the other hand, present us with a scene of horrifying stillness. Bergman accentuates the separation between man and woman by shooting them frontally and almost eliminating dialogue. In this context, even the smallest sounds of forks and knives sound ominous; a glass shattering resonates like a shot.
Furthermore, the mise-en-scene becomes as equally, if not more, important than the characters, reducing everything to dour red, black and whites. The feeling of claustrophobia is enhanced by the use of shallow space, having the characters become one with the austere backgrounds. Pace is deliberately slow, and it only quickes when the glass breaks and both characters lift up their heads, only to immediately return to normal. Bergman accelerates the rhythm for a second, punctuating the moment of the glass breaking so that a trivial incident is magnified into a clear signal of disaster. Lastly, rhythm is, almost by definition, intrisically related to music and sound. Some of the most striking examples of the use of music as a film's driving force occur in the (endlessly imitated) spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, which were written in close collaboration with composer Ennio Morricone. In fact, sometimes
the music would be composed first and then a scene that fitted that rhythm would be shot, thus reversing the customary order.
The prelude to the final shotdown of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo, Italy, 1966) runs for several minutes (of which we only see the last minute here), as three men face each other in a triangle, waiting to see who will take the first step. One of the film's theme songs is played in its entirety, from a slow, elegiac beginning to a frenzy crescendo that is abruptly cut off by the first gunshot. The slow mounting crescendo is paralleled by an increase in the editing rate, and an intensified framing (the sequence actually begins on a long shot similar to the previous one).
Section 2 - Styles
The patterned use of transitions, matches and duration can be identified as a cinematic style. Editing styles are usually associated with historical moments, technological developments, or national schools.
CONTINUITY EDITING
A system of cutting to maintain continuous and clear narrative action. Continuity editing relies upon matching screen direction, position, and temporal relations from shot to shot. The film supports the viewer's assumption that space and time are contiguous between successive shots. Also, the diegesis is more readily understood when directions on the screen match directions in the world of the film. The "180 rule," shown in the diagram below, dictates that the camera should stay in one of the areas on either side of the axis of action (an imaginary line drawn between the two major dramatic elements A and B in a scene, usually two characters).
By following this rule the filmmaker ensures that each character occupies a consistent area of the frame, helping the audience to understand the layout of the scene. This sense of a consistent space is reinforced by the use of techniques such as the eyeline match or match on action. In this sequence from Neighbors (Buster Keaton, 1920), continuity is maintained by the spatial and temporal contiguity of the shots and the preservation of direction between world and screen. More importantly, the shots are matched on Keaton's actions as he shuttles across the courtyard from stairwell to stairwell.
In the Hollywood continuity editing system the angle of the camera axis to the axis of action usually changes by more than 30 between two shots, for example in a conversation scene rendered as a series of shot/reverse shots. The 180 line is not usually crossed unless the transition is smoothed by a POV shot or a reestablishing shot.
MONTAGE
1. A synonym for editing. 2. An approach to editing developed by the Soviet filmmakers of the 1920s such as Pudovkin, Vertov and Eisenstein; it emphasizes dynamic, often discontinuous, relationships between shots and the juxtaposition of images to create ideas not present in either shot by itself. Sergei Eisenstein, in particular, developed a complex theory of montage that included montage within the shot, between sound and image, multiple levels of overtones, as well as in the conflict between two shots. This sequence from October (Oktyabr, USSR, 1927) is an example of Eisenstein's intellectual montage. The increasingly primitive icons from various world religions are linked by patterns of duration, screen direction and shot scale to produce the concept of religion as a degenerate practice used to legitimate corrupt states.
Soviet Montage proved to be influential around the world for commercial as well as avant-garde filmmakers. We can see echoes of Pudovkin in The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, USA, 1939), Mother India (Mehboob Khan, India, 1957), and The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, USA, 1973). In a famous sequence from the latter film, shots of Michael attending his son's baptism are intercut with the brutal killings of his rivals.
Rather than stressing the temporal simultaneity of the events (it is highly unlikely that all of the New York Mafia heads can be caught off guard at exactly the same time!), the montage suggests Michael's dual nature and committement to both his "families", as well as his ability to gain acceptance into both on their own terms -- through religion and violence.
ELLIPTICAL EDITING
Shot transitions that omit parts of an event, causing an ellipses in plot and story duration. In this clip from Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000), a drug party is rendered through elliptical editing (achieved with a
plentiful use of dissolves and jump cuts) in order to both shorten the time and suggest the character's rambling mental states.
Elliptical editing need not be confined to a same place and time. A seven-minute song sequence from Hum Aapke Hain Koun (Sooraj Bartjatya, India 1994) dances us through several months in the life of a family, from a cricket match to a ritual welcoming a new wife.
from scenes of the newlyweds' daily life... to the announcement of Pooja's pregnacy,
from a gift shower for the upcoming baby... to multiple scenes of celebrations, as Pooja's approaches her ninth month.
Part 5: Sound
Section I - Sound Editing
Sound in the cinema does not necessarily match the image, nor does it have to be continuous. The sound bridge is used to ease the transition between shots in the continuity style. Sound can also be used to reintroduce events from earlier in the diegesis. Especially since the introduction of magnetic tape recording after WWII, the possibilities of sound manipulation and layering have increased tremendously. Directors such as Robert Altman are famous for their complex use of the soundtrack, layering multiple voices and sound effects in a sort of "sonic deep focus." In this clip from Nashville (1975), we simultaneously hear a conversation between an English reporter and her guide, a gospel choir singing, and the sound engineers' chatter.
SOUND BRIDGE
Sound bridges can lead in or out of a scene. They can occur at the beginning of one scene when the sound from the previous scene carries over briefly before the sound from the new scene begins. Alternatively, they can occur at the end of a scene, when the sound from the next scene is heard before the image appears on the screen. Sound bridges are one of the most common transitions in the continuity editing style, one that stresses the connection between both scenes since their mood (suggested by the music) is still the same. But sound bridges can also be used quite creatively, as in this clip from Yi Yi (Taiwan, 2000). Director Edward Yang uses a sound bridge both to play with our expectations. The clip begins with a high angle shot of a couple arguing under a highway. A piano starts playing and the scene cuts into a house interior, where a pregnant woman is looking at some cd's...
...finally, the camera pans to reveal a young girl (previously offscreen) playing the piano. It is only then that we realize the music is diegetic, and that the young girl was looking at the window at her best friend and her boyfriend. The romantic melody she plays as she realizes they are breaking up in turn introduces a now possible future relationship for her -- which eventually happens, as she starts dating her best friend's exboyfriend later in the film.
SONIC FLASHBACK
Sound from one diegetic time is heard over images from a later time. In this example from Kurosawa's No Regrets for Our Youth (Waga seishun ni kui nashi, Japan, 1946), the heroine Yukie hears the voices of her dead father and executed husband, voicing the aspirations that sustain her continuing struggle.
Sonic flashback often carries this kind of moral or emotional overtone, making a character's motivation explicit.
Section 2 - Source
Most basically, this category refers to the place of a sound in relation to the frame and to the world of the film. A sound can be onscreen or offscreen, diegetic or nondiegetic (including voice over), it can be recorded separately from the image or at the moment of filming. Sound source depends on numerous technical, economic, and aesthetic considerations, each of which can affect the final significance of a film.
DIEGETIC/NON-DIEGETIC SOUND
Any voice, musical passage, or sound effect presented as originating froma source within the film's world is diegetic. If it originates outside the film (as most background music) then it is non-diegetic.
A further distinction can be made between external and internal diegetic sound. In the first clip from Almodvar's Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios, 1988) we hear Ivn speaking into the microphone as he works on the Spanish dubbing of Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954). Since he is speaking out loud and any other character could hear him, this is an example of external diegetic sound. This clip has no non-diegetic sounds other than the brief keyboard chord that introduces the scene.
Sound and diegesis gets more complicated in the next clip, from Dario Argento's The Stendhal Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Italy, 1996). As Anna looks at Paolo Uccello's famous painting of the Battle of San Romano (c1435), we begin to hear the sounds of the battle: horses whimpering, weapons clashing, etc. These sounds exist only in Anna's troubled mind, which is highly sensitive to works of art. These are internal diegetic sounds (inside of a character's mind) that no one else in the gallery can hear.
On the other hand, the Ennio Morricone eerie score that sets up the scene and mixes with the battle sounds, is a common example of non-diegetic sound, sounds that only the spectators can hear. (Obviously, no boombox blasting tourist is allowed into the Uffizi's gallery!)
DIRECT SOUND
When using direct sound, the music, noise, and speech of the profilmic event at the moment of filming is recorded in the film. This is the opposite of postsynchronization in which the sound is dubbed on top of an existing, silent image. Studio systems use multiple microphones to record directly and with the utmost
clarity. On the other hand, some national cinemas, notably Italy, India and Japan, have avoided direct sound at some stage in their histories and dubbed the dialogues to the film after the shooting. But direct sound can also mean something other than the clearly defined synchronized sound of Hollywood films -- the Cinma verit, third world filmmaking and other documentarist, improvisatory and realist styles that also record sound directly but with an elementary microphone set-up, as in Abbas Kiarostami's Taste of Cherry (Ta'm e Guilass, Iran, 1997).
The result maintains the immediacy of direct sound at the expense of clarity. Furthermore, incidental sounds (street noise, etc) are not mixed down, but left "as it is". Impression and mood are favored over precision: not every word can be made out. The final sonic picture is blurred and harder to understand, but arguably closer to what we perceive in real life.
NONSIMULTANEOUS SOUND
Diegetic sound that comes from a source in time either earlier or later than the images it accompanies. In this clip from Almodvar's Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios, Spain, 1988) Pepa adds the female voice to the dubbing of Johnny Guitar, the male voice having previously been recorded by Pepa's ex-lover Ivan. (You can see Ivan's dubbing here)
While Pepa's voice is diagetic and simultaneous, Ivan's voice is also diegetic, and yet it is nonsimultaneous, since it comes from a previous moment in the film. Almodvar uses nonsimultaneous sound to establish a conversation that should have taken place but never did (Ivan is not returning Pepa's calls and she is becoming desperate) when, with a perverse melodramatic twist, he has the jilted lovers repeating the words of another couple of cinematic jilted lovers. As in this example, nonsimultaneous sound is often used to
suggest recurrent obsessions and other hallucinatory states.
OFFSCREEN SOUND
Simultaneous sound from a source assumed to be in the space of the scene but outside what is visible onscreen. In Life on Earth (La Vie sur Terre, Abderrahmane Sissako, 1998) a telephone operator tries to help a woman getting a call trough. While he tries to establish a connection, the camera examines the office and the other people present in the scene. Yet, even if the operator and the woman are now offscreen, their centrality to the scene is alway tangible through sounds (dialing, talking, etc).
Of course, a film may use offscreen sound to play with our assumptions. In this clip from Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios, Pedro Almodvar, 1988), we hear a woman and a man's voices in conversation, in what it looks like a film production studio. Even if we do not see the speakers, we instantly believe they must be around. Gradually, the camera shows us that we are in a dubbing studio, and only the woman is present, the man's voice being previously recorded. Moreover, theirs is not a real conversation but lines from a movie dialogue.
POSTSYNCHRONIZATION DUBBING
The process of adding sound to images after they have been shot and assembled. This can include dubbing
of voices, as well as inserting diegetic music or sound effects. It is the opposite of direct sound. It is not, however, the opposite of synchronous sound, since sound and image are also matched here, even if at a later stage in the editing process. Compare the French dubbed, or post-synchronized, version of Mission: Impossible 2 (John Woo, 2000), with the sychronized original.
You can hear the original English version here.
SOUND PERSPECTIVE
The sense of a sound's position in space, yielded by volume, timbre, pitch, and, in stereophonic reproduction systems, binaural information. Used to create a more realistic sense of space, with events happening (that is, coming from) closer or further away. Listen closely to this clip from The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942) as the woman goes through her door and comes back.
As soon as she closes the door her voice sounds muffled and distant (she is walking away), then grows clearer (she is coming back), then at full volume again, as she comes out. We can also hear hushing remarks that gives us a sense of the absent presence of a whole web of family members in the house. The stronger the voice, the closer his/ her room. Sound perspective, combined with offscreen space, also gives us clues as to who (and most importantly, where) is present in a scene. Welles' use of sound in this scene is unusual since Classical Hollywood Cinema generally sacrifices sound perspective to narrative comprehensibility.
SYNCHRONOUS SOUND
Sound that is matched temporally with the movements occuring in the images, as when dialogue corresponds to lip movements. The norm for Hollywood films is to synchronize sound and image at the moment of shooting; others national cinemas do it later (see direct sound, postsyncronization) Compare the original English version of Mission: Impossible 2 (John Woo, 2000),
with the French dubbed version.
VOICE OVER
When a voice, often that of a character in the film, is heard while we see an image of a space and time in which that character is not actually speaking. The voice over is often used to give a sense of a character's subjectivity or to narrate an event told in flashback. It is overwhelmingly associated with genres such as film
noir, and its obsessesive characters with a dark past. It also features prominently in most films dealing with autobiography, nostalgia, and literary adaptation. In the title sequence from The Ice Storm (1997) Ang Lee uses voice over to situate the plot in time and to introduce the subject matter (i.e., the American family in the 1970s), while also giving an indication of his main character's ideas and general culture.
While a very common and useful device, voice over is an often abused technique. Over dependance on voice over to vent a character's thoughts can be interpreted as a telling signal of a director's lack of creativity --or a training on literature and theater, rather than visual arts. But voice over can also be used in non literal or ironic ways, as when the words a character speaks do not seem to match the actions he/she performs. Some avant garde films, for instance, make purposely disconcerting uses of voice over narration.
Section 3 - Quality
Much like quality of the image, the aural properties of a sound -- its timbre, volume, reverb, sustain, etc. -have a major effect on a film's aesthetic. A film can register the space in which a sound is produced (its sound signature) or it can be otherwise manipulated for dramatic purposes. The recording of Orson Welles' voice at the end of Touch of Evil (1958) adds a menacing reverb to his confession.
The mediation of Abbas Kiarostami's voice through the walkie-talkie and the video quality of the image in the coda of Taste of Cherry (Ta'm e Guilass, Iran, 1997) underscore the reflexivity that is characteristic of his films.
Part 6: Analysis
EXAMPLES OF FILM ANALYSIS Click on the links below to see extremely rudimentary examples of shot breakdown and close analysis of sequences from various films. You should aim to go beyond these examples in the precision and cogency of the analyses in your assignments. Rocco and his Brothers (Rocco e i suoi fratelli, Luchino Visconti, Italy, 1960) Il Grido (Michelangelo Antononi, Italy, 1957)
A Guide to Narratological Film Analysis Manfred Jahn

Full reference: Jahn, Manfred. 2003. A Guide to Narratological Film Analysis. Poems, Plays, and Prose: A Guide to the Theory of Literary Genres. English Department, University of Cologne. Version: 1.7. Date: August 2, 2003 This page: http://www.uni-koeln.de/~ame02/pppf.htm Project introductory page: http://www.uni-koeln.de/~ame02/ppp.htm To facilitate global indexing, all paragraphs in this section are prefixed 'F' for 'film'. If you quote from this document, use paragraph references (e.g., F2.1) rather than page numbers. Contents F1. Film as a narrative genre F2. Moving pictures: the visual code F3. Sound: the audio code F4. Composition, Narration and Focalization F4.1. FCD: The Filmic Composition Device F4.2. Narration F4.3 Focalization F5. Case studies F5.1. Fixed focalization: MASH, episode 154 F5.2. Homodiegetic voice-over narration: Wonder Years 24 F5.3. Verisimilitude and Goofs F6. Film websites F7. References
F1. Film as a narrative genre

F1.1. There are three common terms referring to our subject: cinema, motion picture (movie), and film. Because 'film studies' is the generally accepted name of the discipline I will prefer the term 'film' but reserve the other terms for occasional variation. In the following, I will approach film in the framework of the genre taxonomy presented on the project page. In this taxonomy, film, like drama, is listed both as a narrative and a performed genre. Film is mainly realized in the framework of a performance, and like drama, it is related to a textual form (a 'script'). Therefore, just as in drama analysis, film analysis can build on the interesting (but at times problematic) relationship between 'text' and 'performance'. Because film can be fruitfully
compared to drama and other narrative genres, such as the novel, the following account will systematically borrow from the concepts defined within both 'narratology' (the structuralist theory of narrative, presented in this project's narratology doc) and the theory of drama (drama doc). Ideally, the reader should already be familiar with these sections. However, for convenience, all main definitions will be repeated here, and, if necessary, adapted to suit the purposes of film analysis. Approaching film from a narratological angle is not a new idea, in fact the classic studies by Bordwell (1985), Kozloff (1988), Jost (1989), Chatman (1990), Deleyto (1996 [1991]), and Branigan (1992) show that this is a promising project whose synergetic potential is far from exhausted. F1.2. Because there are strong commonalities between film and drama, our basic definition largely duplicates the definition of a play: a film is a multimedial narrative form based on a physical record of sounds and moving pictures. Film is also a performed genre in the sense that it is primarily designed to be shown in a public performance. Whereas a dramatic play is realized as a live performance by actors on a stage, a film is shown in a cinema (a 'film theater'), is not a live event, and can theoretically be repeated infinitely without any change. Like drama, film is a narrative genre because it presents a story (a sequence of action units, N1.2). Often, a film is an adaptation of an epic or a dramatic narrative (examples: Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Anthony Burgess's novel A Clockwork Orange, Milos Forman's film of Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus). Beyond being a form designed to be shown in public performance, film is related to two kinds of paper media: the film script and the storyboard. To capture the relationship between these types of realizations, we will locally extend the tree diagram of genres presented on PPP's project page as follows:
F1.3. We are assuming that a film, like a play, is mainly a performative genre, that is, a genre designed to be performed, a genre that "comes to life" in a performance (cp. D1.5.2). Watching a film, like watching a play, is a collective public experience and a social occasion. (Watching a film or a theater performance on a television set is not quite the "real thing", rather, it has the status of a substitute performance.) Both drama and film are artifacts created in a process of collective and collaborative production, involving writers, producers, directors, actors, cinematographers, editors, and many more. F1.4. The 'written' filmic forms can be defined as follows: film script / screenplay A text containing a film's action narrative and dialogue. A film script is either a "recipe" for making a film (to use Searle's characterization of play scripts) or a written record of a finished film. Alternatively, the film script is also called a 'blueprint', and the professional reader (the film practitioner) a 'blueprint reader'. See Sternberg (1997: 50n60) for seven sources of this term. Using the terms suggested by
Roland Posner (1997), the 'recipe' script is a pre-transcript (preceding the final product or first performance), and the second is a post-transcript, written after (a transcription of) the finished product. A storyboard is a comic-strip version of a filmic sequence. Like the physical film itself, a storyboard consists of a series of frames ('panels', in comic-strip terms) picking out a shot's main situation. Unfortunately, storyboards do not in general survive in printed or otherwise publicly accessible form. (However, a closely related fictional genre is the cinroman.) Like the film script, a storyboard can have either the status of a pre-transcript or a post-transcript (as defined above). In the following, I will freely use post-transcript storyboards (photographed from a TV screen) to substantiate definitions and sample analyses. For a storyboard-film script comparison of the famous cropduster scene of Hitchcock's North by Northwest see Giannetti (1993: 159-183; 353-357); for the rooftop chase scene of Vertigo, Auilner (2000: 39). F1.5. This is not the place to tell anyone how to write a film script. There are many excellent sources both in print and on the net (Epstein 2002 is particularly recommended). A film typescript has a unique standard format which is functional rather than attractive to read. (One of its functional characteristics is that, as a rule of thumb, one page of text is approximately equal to one minute of performance time.) Consider the following excerpt from the screenplay of Rear Window, which introduces the main character's friend:
The excerpt begins with what is technically called a slugline. A slugline usually consists of up to four specifications: 1. setting, usually either INT. ('interior') or EXT. ('exterior', out of doors), 2. name of location (JEFF'S APARTMENT), 3. time of day (lighting conditions), 4. type of shot (CLOSEUP). Dialogue is introduced by a speech prefix; manner of speaking may be characterized by a parenthetical (also called "wryly"). The action text, also scene text (Sternberg 1997: 65), contains the descriptions of characters and objects as well as the narrative report of the nonverbal action (this is the filmic equivalent of stage directions in drama). See D3.3 for a detailed account of the dramatic distinction between 'primary text' and 'secondary text'; see F4.3, below, for a storyboard version of the situation presented in the excerpt. Film scripts are notorious for their technical jargon, and they are often hard to read for the non-professional. Nevertheless, the technical terms that are used in them are very useful for film analysis, and the film script
itself can serve as both a record and a reference. Another point of interest, inviting cognitive and linguistic analysis, is that the action text is characterized by a high incidence of specifically "visual sentences" (Epstein 2002). More recently, the practice of booksellers and publishers (Faber & Faber, Macmillan) to offer a range of classic screenplays, as well as an increased attention to the literary qualities of film scripts has led some commentators to elevate the film script to an autonomous literary genre (Sternberg 1997; Korte and Schneider 2000).
F2. Moving pictures: the visual code

F2.1. The units. The smallest unit on a film's visual plane is a frame or cell showing a single picture. If one projects a sequence of twenty-four frames per second on a screen the human eye is deceived into seeing a moving image. A shot is a sequence of frames filmed in a continuous (uninterrupted) take of a camera. A take stops when the camera stops rolling or goes offline. A sequence of shots makes up a scene. Some authors go beyond this and speak of acts (a sequence of scenes containing a major segment of the plot). Finally, a sequence of acts make up a film. (If you want, look up D7.5 in the drama section for a model of classical five-act tragedy.) a scene is a sequence of action segments which take place, continuously, at the same time and in the same place. "What's a new scene? A good rule of thumb is that when you jump from place to place, or from time to time, it's a new scene" (Epstein 2002). Another fine operational definition is this one by Dana (2000): "An event that takes place entirely in one location or time. If we go outside from inside, it's a new scene. If we cut to five minutes later, it's a new scene. If both, it's a new scene. Scenes can range from one shot to infinity and are distinguished by slug lines". F2.2. The conventional system of shot types is based on two distinguishing features: 1) the camera's distance
from the object, 2) the size of the object. The system works fine as long as the camera's focal length is normal (i.e., neither wide-angle nor telephoto) and the reference object is a person. The type of shot is much harder to determine when the object is not of standard human size or when the camera uses an unusual focal length. There is hardly any optical difference between the 'mountain range' of the surface of a small object as seen through an electronic microscope, i.e., an extreme close shot, and a true mountain range, i.e., an extreme long shot. Nevertheless, the following terms are good enough for professional use and make up a main part of the vocabulary of the filmic visual code. The four central categories are close-up, medium shot, full shot, and long shot (frames 2, 3, 5 and 6, respectively). Some common intermediate types are listed as well, as are the common technical abbreviations.
(Most of the graphics shown here were taken from CorelDraw libraries.) detail/extreme close-up (DS, XCU) A small object or part of an object shown large (a speaking mouth, a telephone receiver; frame 1). Often a detail shot shows a plot-relevant object -- a ring, a telephone number on an envelope, the countdown display of a bomb detonator, etc. close-up, close shot (CU, CS) Full view of, typically, a human face (frame 2). Sometimes the term semicloseup is used to refer to a slightly wider shot showing the upper third of a person's body. medium shot (MS) A view of the upper half of a person's body, showing his or her bodily stance (frame 3). American shot (AS) A three-quarter view of a person, showing her or him from the knees up (frame 4). full shot (FS) A full view of a person, e.g., a waitress balancing dishes (frame 5). long shot (LS) A view from a distance, of a large object or a collection of objects (e.g., buildings, a bridge; frame 6). Often used to establish a setting (establishing shot). People, when present, are reduced to indistinct small shapes. The term semi-long shot is sometimes used to indicate a slightly closer view (e.g., the facade of a house). extreme long shot (XLS) A view from a considerable distance (e.g., the skyline of a city; frame 7). If people can be made out at all, they are mere dots in the landscape.
F2.3. In the absence of further specification, the camera is assumed to be shooting from a stationary position. If the camera changes its position while filming we get the following types of 'dynamic shots': pan The camera surveys a scene by turning around its vertical or horizontal axis. tracking shot/pulling shot The camera follows (tracks) or precedes (pulls) an object which is in motion itself. push in, pull back The camera moves in on or away from a stationary object.
zoom The camera moves in on or away from an object (zooming in, zooming out) by smoothly extending or shortening its focal length. Normally, this is recognizable as apparent motion only because the object retains its original perspectival aspect (and the camera actually remains stationary). Most film professionals prefer push ins or pull backs to zoom shots for representing closing-in or distancing motion. Zoom shots are frequently used to direct attention to a particular stationary detail, however. For instance, the frame shot at right shows the camera in the process of zooming in on the necklace of mad Carlotta Valdes in Vertigo. dolly shot A shot taken from a camera mounted on a wheeled platform (a dolly). Normally used for moving through a location -- e.g., a dolly shot of a wedding party. "The camera dollies past a queue of
guests waiting to be let in". crane shot Camera moves up or down on a crane structure. F2.4. A cut marks the shift from one shot to another. It is identified by the type of transition which is produced. The two major kinds of cuts are 'direct' and 'transitional'. The direct cuts are as follows: cut, direct cut, straight cut An immediate shift to the next shot; a shift from one shot to the next without any transition whatsoever. jump cut Leaving a gap (i.e., leaving out frames) in an otherwise continuous shot. The gap will make the picture "jump". Jump cuts are indicative of either careless editing, or they may be used for intentional effect (an instance of the stylistic figure of 'baring the device'). Using jump cuts is an easy way of cutting a long sequence short. Jump cuts can be avoided or cured by inserting a 'bridging shot' (momentarily showing some other object or activity) which covers the lack of continuity caused by the gap. Transitional cuts, in contrast, are based on an optical effect and usually signal a change of scene (F2.1), i.e., a temporal and/or spatial re-orientation: dissolve A gradual transition created by fading out the current shot and at the same time fading in the new shot (creating a brief moment of superimposition). fade out (to color) ... fade in The end of a shot is marked by fading out to an empty screen (usually black); there is a brief pause; then a fade in introduces the next shot. (Roughly comparable, perhaps, to the white space of a chapter ending in a book.)
swish pan A brief, fast pan (so fast that only speed lines can be seen); suggestive of a sudden (possibly, reactive) move from object A in the current shot to object B in the next. wipe A smoothly continuous left-right (or up-down etc.) replacement of the current shot by the next. Somewhat reminiscent of turning a page. F2.5. Camera angles are a result of the camera's tilt (if any): upwards, downwards, or sideways (all to varying degrees). On the screen, the camera's tilt translates into the following principal angles: straight-on angle The camera is positioned at about the same height as the object, shooting straight and level (this is the default angle). high angle The object is seen from above (camera looking down). A limit case of the high angle shot is the aerial shot (a bird's-eye view taken from a helicopter or an airplane). low angle The object is seen from a low-level position (camera looking up) oblique angle The camera is tilted sideways showing a tilted view of an object. The oblique angle can be combined with any of the other tilt angles. F2.6. A fuller account of the elements of the filmic visual code would also include lighting, color values, lenses (standard, telephoto, wide-angle), filters, film stock and graininess, etc. A good account of this is given in Giannetti (1993: 74-76).
F3. Sound: the audio code
F3.1. A film's auditory sources of information are stored on a sound track (magnetic tape or digital medium). Unlike the visual track, the sound track is not a necessary element -- there are 'silent movies' but there are no films without pictures. However, although the visual channel contains a film's essential source of information, this must not be taken to mean that sound -- especially in the form of music and speech -- is in any way less important than the visual signs. See Kozloff (1988: 8-12) for a survey of controversial positions on picture vs. sound. F3.2. Following Chatman (1990: 134), we will make a distinction between three main kinds of sounds (here treated as mainly self-explanatory terms): noise, speech, and music. Most technical terms correlate sound either to the current scene (F2.1) or, slightly more narrowly, to what is shown on screen. The following terms relate sound to what is present in the current scene: diegetic sound (Beaver 1994: indigenous sound) Noise, speech or music coming from an identifiable source in the current scene ('diegetic' refers to 'diegesis', i.e., the narrative world). For instance, we hear a weather report and we see that it comes from a car radio which somebody has just turned on. nondiegetic sound (Beaver 1994: supplied sound) Noise, speech or music which does not come from a source located in the current scene. For instance, we see waves breaking on a desolate sea-shore and we hear a full-orchestra playing Vaughan-Williams's Sea Symphony. Nondiegetic sound usually creates mood and atmosphere; it can also have a 'commentative function' (Chatman 1990: 134). For another example, see F5.2.3. bleed-over, overlapping sound Sound anticipated from the next scene or sound lagging behind the previous scene. Both types are sound-oriented transitions.
The following concepts relate sound to the current shot. Often, the meaning of the audio information is based on non-realistic but inconspicuous conventions, cp. Goffman (1986: 145). voice over There are two major meanings: (1) Representation of a non-visible narrator's voice (voice-over narrator); (2) representation of a character's interior monologue (the character may be visible but her/his lips do not move). off screen Diegetic sound coming from a source located in the scene but not currently shown on screen. filter Slightly distorted sound indicating, for instance, the speech of the remote party of a telephone conversation. ambient sound A diegetic background sound such as the clatter of typewriters in an office or the hubbub of voices in a cafe. Often the volume of ambient sound is turned up slightly when there is no other sound or a lull in the conversation.
F4. Composition, Narration and Focalization

F4.1. FCD: The Filmic Composition Device F4.1.1. In order to tell a story, a film is a composition structuring a large amount of heterogeneous information flowing from different channels. Film analysis usually begins by identifying the different channels and sources of information in order to assess their individual contribution to, and function in, the filmic composition as a whole. Often, an important part of this exercise is to assess the relevance, validity, and reliability of the data. Seeing a film, we evidently cope with a flood of information; giving a theoretical
account of how we do that is far more difficult. However, the baseline expectation that the film is going to be a functional and effective composition is already a crucial first step towards understanding and interpretation. Indeed, we will assume that a film involves its viewers in a "co-operative" undertaking similar to what is happening in an ordinary conversation involving speakers and hearers (Grice 1975). On this analogy, the viewer approaches the filmic data on the assumption of encountering a well-formed composition guided by maxims of giving efficient, sufficient, and relevant information. As a matter of fact, as film viewers we will actively exploit expectations in these matters, especially when we are facing difficult, incomprehensible, or illogical data (just like Grice's hearers do in a conversational setting, in order to derive interpretive 'implicatures'). F4.1.2. In order to exploit the Cooperative Principle for filmic communication, we need a theoretical agent whom we can assume to abide by the rules and maxims of co-operative storytelling or story-showing. This is clearly a counterpart of the speaker in conversational discourse, or, more aptly, the narrator in novels and short stories. However, a film narrates not by speaking but by arranging and composing information from various sources, sometimes to the extent of including written narrative texts and actual narrative voices. For this reason, I will call a film's primary narrative instance a 'filmic composer' or, more neutrally, a 'filmic composition device': filmic composition device (FCD) The theoretical agency behind a film's organization and arrangement, assumed to be guided by maxims of giving efficient, sufficient, and relevant information. The FCD selects what it needs from various sources of information and arranges, edits, and composes this information for telling a filmic narrative. A film shows us what the FCD has arranged for us to see. Various alternative terms have been suggested on "Who Really Narrates" the filmic narrative: the camera (of course), a "grand image-maker" (Metz 1974), a filmic narrator, an implied filmic author, a shower-narrator
(Chatman 1990), an implied director, etc. See Kozloff (1988: 44) for a survey of these terms (Kozloff herself settles on the term 'image-maker'). F4.1.3. A film's FCD, as defined above, is a theoretical device that need not be associated with any concrete person or character, particularly neither the director nor a filmic narrator. Of course, it is quite natural to assume that the film's director has exactly the responsibility and authority that we have projected on the FCD. People tend to say that it is Hitchcock who tells the story of Rear Window; that he is the central authority behind all of Rear Window's elements; that Rear Window is his film; that he alone composed and shaped it exactly as he wanted. He can be credited with all its good points, just as he can be blamed for all of its flaws. But is this factually true? And true for all films and all directors? For the purposes of film analysis, the FCD = director equation does not really work out straightforwardly. After all, we began by defining film as a collaborative product (F1.3.), and on this basis it is evident that many parts of a film's overall information are contributed by sources other than the director. There is the author of the original narrative, the scriptwriter who created the dialogue, the cinematographer who selected the appropriate camera angles, the sound director who devised the sound effects, the composer who wrote the musical score, and the editor who put everything together on the editing table (and many more). Using the names of the real people who produced the film and identifying their individual contribution is often a hopelssly difficult task.
F4.1.4. Rather than refer to the multitude of professionals who actually produced the film, we are better off if we refer to theoretical entities such as the filmic composition device (FCD), the narrator, and the characters. The hierarchy that determines the relative authority of these agencies is illustrated in the graphic on the right. The model shows three levels, but the dotted line around the narrator's box indicates that this is an optional level that may be missing from some (or indeed many) films. The boxes basically symbolize thresholds of control and knowledge. Any higher-level agent dominates and frames any lower-level agent. A lower-level agent is never aware of the existence of a higher-level agent. The characters do not know that they are characters in somebody's story, and they cannot complain if their acts, views, and motives are misrepresented (cp. N2.3.5 for the identical scenario in narrative prose texts). If a film has a voice-over narrator, that agent is also not aware that s/he is just a subordinate source of information among many (and possibly of questionable reliability), used by the FCD for purposes of its own. Because the FCD is the highest authority in the hierarchy, all filmic information ultimately flows from its mediation, choice, organization, and arrangement. In order to tell the film's story, the FCD can freely adopt, quote, and represent data from sources at its disposal -- it can quote a narratorial voice, for instance, or use a
'POV shot' (F4.3.8.) to present a scene as seen from the point of view of a character, and so on. F4.2. Narration F4.2.1. First, remember that not all films make use of narrators. If and when they are present, filmic narrators come in two kinds depending on whether they are visible on-screen or not. Both are speaking parts but only the on-screen narrator is a speaking as well as an acting part. off-screen narrator, also voice-over narrator An unseen narrator's voice uttering narrative statements (i.e., narration, description, comment, see N5.5.4 for more detailed definitions). on-screen narrator A narrator who is bodily present on screen, talking to the (or an) audience, shown in the act of producing his or her narrative discourse. Obviously, a narrator can be temporarily off-screen or permanently off-screen. Or, looked at differently, a narrator can be temporarily on-screen or permanently on-screen (however, the latter is not a likely configuration). (For a borderline case consider a split-screen scenario, however.) Not covered by the two definitions above are narrators of written texts, especially inserts, intertitles, introductory written background histories, or closing outlooks (prolepses) on the future fates of the characters, etc. However, these elements are clearly also part of the filmic code. F4.2.2. In the TV series Wonder Years, the narrator is generally only an off-screen voice-over presence. Episode 21 ("Square Dance", first shown 2 May 1989) is an exception, however, because it opens with the following sequence:
Frames 1 and 2 show the narrator's hands leafing through the pages the Kennedy Junior High School Yearbook of 1969, and that is all we are ever going to see of him (in the whole series, as far as I know). Frame 3 zooms in on the picture of one particular girl, and frame 4 executes the flashback to the story's NOW (20 years ago) -- the moment when Kevin (Fred Savage), aged twelve, learns, much to his dismay, that he has been partnered with quaint (three-pigtails) Margaret Farquhar for square-dance lessons. (See F5.2.1. for a more detailed case study of another Wonder Years episode.) F4.2.3. As in a novel or a short story, narrators are situated in a discourse-HERE and a discourse-NOW, which generally postdate story-HERE and story-NOW (see N6.3 and N5.1.4; on retrospective narration N5.1.4.). The first-person Wonder Years narrator narrates this particular episode in 1989, but the story itself is set in 1969. Narratologically speaking, the 'narrative distance' between discourse-NOW and story-NOW is exactly 20 years. Logically, the narrator's text is not spoken by the actor who plays young Kevin, but by a mature actor (Daniel Stern, born 1957). Depending on whether narrators tell a story in which they were involved themselves, or a story about others, they are either 'homodiegetic' or 'heterodiegetic': In a homodiegetic narrative, the story is told by a (homodiegetic) narrator who is present as a character in the story.
In a heterodiegetic narrative, the story is told by a (heterodiegetic) narrator who is not present as a character in the story. See N1.10. ff. in the narratology script for a discussion of the implications of these types when situated in specific 'narrative situations'. F4.3. Focalization F4.3.1. A great deal of a film's data can be described as the product of an efficient and relevant (hence cooperative) selection strategy called 'focalization': focalization The ways and means of presenting information from somebody's point of view. Focalization can be determined by answering the question Whose point of view orients the current segment (track, channel) of filmic information? Or: Whose perception serves as the current source of information? Perception is here used as quite a general term which includes actual as well as imaginary perception (such as visions, dreams, memories) and other states of consciousness. See N3.2 for a detailed account of focalization in prose narrative; on focalization in film, Jost (1989), Deleyto (1996 [1991]), Sternberg (1997: ch. 9.2). The model sketched above (F4.1.) suggests that we can, in general, attribute focalization to one of the following agents: (1) the FCD, (2) the narrator, (3) a character. (There may also be imported external sources, such as clips, which come encoded with their mode of focalization.) When attributing focalization, it is prudent to test all options; often, a specific attribution needs careful interpretation and argument. Questions that need to be raised frequently are: Why is this the character's view and not the narrator's or the FCD's? Could the narrator really have access to the kind of information that we get here? What does the character know and not know at this particular point? F4.3.2. Focalization theory is of special importance in narratology because it sharpens the more general but
fuzzy term 'point of view'. Film analysis, in particular, can benefit from focalization theory because the camera (including the sound recorder associated with it) are quasi-perceptual devices, determining a point of view as well as a point of audition. As a matter of fact, the human eye has a lens just like a camera has. It even projects a picture onto an organic 'screen' called the retina. But: the picture on the retina has not an independent medium: the picture that we see is the result of our cognitive processing of the contents of the retinal array. F4.3.3. The basic concept in focalization theory is focus, and this term refers to two intricately related things: 1) the position from which something is seen -- in narratological terms, this is the spatiotemporal position of the focalizer; and 2) the object seen 'in focus' -- this is the focalized object or 'center of attention'. Consequently, in film analysis, we will often ask two questions: 1) Who sees?, i.e. Who is (in the position of) the focalizer? And 2) What is the object (thing or human being) that the focalizer focuses on? F4.3.4. There are special filmic techniques of drawing attention both to focalizers and to focalized objects. Focalized objects, in particular, are often marked by close-ups, zoom-ins, movement, centrality of position, sharpness of focus, shifting focus, increased contrast, spotlighting, etc. (see Giannetti 1993: 50-52 on ways of marking what he calls dominant contrast). F4.3.5. Turning to an actual example, consider the following storyboard sequence condensing an early scene from Hitchcock's Rear Window. The scene introduces Jeff's friend Lisa and establishes a problematical relationship.
Lisa (Grace Kelly) is first shown in closeup, kissing Jeff (James Stewart) awake (frame 1; cp. also the script excerpt quoted in F1.5). As she moves around in Jeff's apartment, we gradually see more of her, until finally she is presented in a full shot (frame 2). Frames 3 to 5 are typical shots covering the ensuing conversation. F4.3.6. Which focalization strategy is employed here? Neither Jeff nor Lisa nor a narrator (Rear Window doesn't have one) is in a position to see the couple kissing exactly as it is shown in frame 1. Hence frame 1 can only reflect a 'hypothetical observer' viewing position assumed by the FCD. In a sense, what is shown is an ironical inversion of the sleeping beauty motif: the princess kisses the prince awake, rather than the other way round. Indeed, the film's FCD is often ironic in subtle ways such as these, and from the point of view of plot analysis it is quite literally true that Jeff has to wake up to a full appreciation of Lisa. Frame 2 presents Lisa from Jeff's POV (now Jeff is the focalizer, and the film presents his perception). Assuming Jeff's position, the camera shows us what Jeff sees (the focalized) -- Lisa, to all intents and purposes a beautiful woman in a fashionable dress. Frame 3 shows both protagonists in a medium shot, and in the background we can vaguely recognize the rear window of the film's title. The conversation itself is shown by the camera moving closely behind Jeff (frame 4), partly showing him, partly showing what he sees, and then using a 'reverse angle shot' shooting over Lisa's shoulder (frame 5). In frames 4 and 5, the camera gets close to, but does not quite move into, or assume, or fully adopt, the perceptual positions of the
characters. (See Deleyto 1996 [1991]: 227-8 for additional discussion of this scene.) F4.3.7. Here is a challenging question: Frame 2 is evidently a POV shot, but do we really see what Jeff sees? Or could it be that even though the FCD lets us see what Jeff sees, what we and the FCD see even in using Jeff's eyes is not the same as what Jeff sees? The film script, for instance, tells us that frame 2 shows us a picture of a woman who "is now full figure, beautifully groomed, and flawless", so that's what we are we supposed to see, and I take it that is what we see. In the film, however, we know that Jeff has strong objections to Lisa in general, and to her high-style evening wear in particular. "If only she was ordinary" (20), he is heard to complain earlier, expressing his conviction that she will never make a suitable partner. How is one to interpret these conflicting pieces of information? F4.3.8. Let us review the filmic techniques of getting close to a character's POV, of 'adopting' or 'assuming' a character's POV: gaze shot A picture of a character looking ('gazing') at something not currently shown. A gaze shot is usually followed by a POV shot (or sometimes it is preceded by a POV shot, see 'eye-line shot' and the Chatman quote below). point of view shot, POV shot The camera assumes the position of a character and shows the object of his or her gaze. See F5.1 for a case study of a film which uses POV shots exclusively. eye-line shot / match cut A sequence of two shots: a gaze shot followed by a POV shot. Shot 1 shows the face of a character gazing at something; shot 2 is a POV shot showing us what s/he is gazing at. over-the-shoulder shot The camera gets close to, but not fully into, the viewing position of a character
(frames 4 and 5, in storyboard above) reaction shot A shot showing a character reacting (with wonder, amusement, annoyance, horror, etc.) to what s/he has just seen. F4.3.9. In the context of these subjectifying filmic devices, consider Chatman's (1978: 159) note on Hemingway's "The Killers", a text which is famous for its style of camera-like external views: The simplest film situation presents a bare visual record of what happened "out there," as in "The Killers". [...] If he wishes to underline a character's point of view, however, the [film] director has two options. The actor can be so placed in the frame as to heighten our association with him. For example, his back or side profile may appear on an extreme margin of the screen. As he looks into the background we look with him. The other (or "montage") convention uses a simple match-cut: if in the first shot the character looks off-screen, to right or left or front or back, and there follows a cut to another setup within his eyeshot, we assume that he has in fact seen that thing, from that perceptual point of view. And we have seen it with him. (Or vice versa: we may see the thing first and secondly cut to the character looking at it.) (159) Contrasting the 'neutral' style of "outside views" normally attributed to "The Killers" (see N3.3.11), Chatman points out that there are filmic techniques which underline "a character's point of view" and heighten "our association with him". Consider, however: "George looked up at the clock. It was a quarter past six" ("The Killers", The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway, New York: Scribner's, 1987, p. 218.). To all intents and purposes, this seems to be the exact epic equivalent of an eyeline shot. F4.3.10. Many definitions in the preceding para involve the word 'gaze' -- a concept which has acquired interesting ideological and psychological ramifications in film studies (Mulvey 1999 [1975]; Kaplan 2000
[1983]). As Giannetti (1993: 403) puts it, A number of feminist film critics have written about "the male gaze" [...]. The term refers to the voyeuristic aspects of cinema -- sneaking furtive glances at the forbidden, the erotic. But since most film-makers are males, so too is the point of view of the camera: Everyone looks at the action through male eyes. The gaze fixes women in postures that cater to male needs and fantasies rather than allowing women to express their own desires and the full range of their humanity. When the director is a woman, the gaze is often eroticized from a female point of view [...]. Frame 2, above, is a typical example of a male gaze. As a matter of fact, Jeff is explicitly accused of voyeurism by friends and acquaintances. Question 1: Are there any mitigating circumstances to the male gaze presented in frame 2? Question 2 (difficult): does a POV shot like frame 2 exonerate the FCD of the male gaze? The spectator? F4.3.11. Exercise: Analyze types of shot and composition of information in the following sequence (also from Rear Window):
Given the definitions listed above, it should be fairly straightforward to categorize frames 1 to 3. To help you along, compare the relevant section of the script: INT. JEFF'S APARTMENT - (NIGHT) - CLOSEUP Without taking his eyes from the scene, Jeff
picks up his glass and drinks. As he drinks, his eyes move slightly over. EXT.
NEIGHBORHOOD - (NIGHT) - SEMI-LONG SHOT THE CAMERA HAS PANNED slightly to the woman's living room window. A small, candle-lit table is set up, with dinner for two. The spinster sweeps into the room, smiling. She goes to the door, opens it, and in pantomime admits an imaginary caller. She pretends to kiss him lightly, take his hat, and place the hat on a chair. Then she shows him to a seat at the table, disappears into an unseen kitchen and returns with a bottle and two glasses. She sits down, pours two drinks. She lifts her drink in a toast to the imaginary man opposite her. INT. JEFF'S APARTMENT - (NIGHT) - CLOSEUP Jeff gives a faint, sympathetic smile, and subconsciously raises his glass in response. (32-33)
F4.3.12. Specifically, consider frame 4, above, in conjunction with the following passage from the script: DAWN - CLOSEUP A big head of Jeff. He is still in his wheelchair, sound asleep. The
CAMERA PANS off his face, out through the window. The rain has stopped, and the general light of dawn is coming up. The CAMERA COMES TO REST on the salesman's apartment and corridor, which is still dimly lit by the electric lights. We see the salesman emerge into the corridor, pause a moment to allow a woman to proceed him. Her back is to the CAMERA and we do not see her face. They move away, down the corridor. The CAMERA PANS BACK into Jeff's sleeping face. (51)
If you are familiar with the film's plot you can probably explain the significance of this moment. Discuss, using the terms introduced in this section. How would a narrator in a novel present what is going on here? If Jeff were awake, how would he react? What happens to the spectators' awareness of the events? (The latter question is the really difficult one.)
F5. Case studies

F5.1. Fixed focalization: MASH 154 ("Point of View") The CBS TV series MASH ran through eleven seasons, from 1972 to 1983. In 251 episodes, it portrayed life
in a "Mobile Army Surgical Hospital" during the Korean War (1950-53). F5.1.1. In episode 154, fittingly entitled "Point of View", the camera consistently assumes the point of view of a single character, repeating Robert Montgomery's famous experiment (The Lady in the Lake, 1946) in rather more convincing fashion. According to the Internet MASH guide, "in this unique episode, the camera becomes the eyes of a young wounded soldier. It records his sensory responses to being wounded, flown by helicopter to the 4077th , examined, operated on, and treated in post-operation."
As the storyboard sequence shows, all the shots in the episode are strictly POV shots (F4.3.8.). The perceiving subject or 'focalizer' is always the same character, Private Rich, of whose body we see nothing but an occasional boot, as he is wheeled in on a stretcher (frame 1), or a hand holding a clipboard (frame 9, below). Rich has a throat injury, and temporarily, the clipboard is his only means of communication. There are neither gaze shots nor reaction shots, and the mirror trick that might show us his face is not used (N3.3.10). In other words, the actor who plays him does not have to dress up. (As a matter of fact, that boot might well be an empty one.) F5.1.2. In a novel, consistent focalization of this type is known as 'fixed focalization' (N3.2.4), and the most likely narrative situation to epxloit it is 'figural narration' (N1.18, N3.3.7). In the MASH episode, fixed focalization is supported and strengthened by a number of subjectifying features. For instance, sceneopening and scene-closing shots coincide with particular states of the focalizer's consciousness -- usually, a fade-in signals waking up, and a fade-out signals falling asleep or loss of consciousness. Pans and oblique
angles reflect the movement of the focalizer's head and eyes (in frame 2 he watches the chief nurse at work, in frame 4 he is spoken to by a fellow patient). Other movements of the head (e.g., nodding/shaking yes or no) is also replicated by camera movement. (This is largely a failure, however: shake your head "no" and watch what happens to your area in focus; then consider what happens if this is imitated by a camera.) All diegetic sound is strictly aligned with the spatiotemporal position of the focalizer's head. The episode ends on a shot which shows some members of the camp seen through the frosted windscreen of a departing ambulance (frame 5) (cp. Gombrich 1980: 249 [on creating the effect of perspective by showing partially obstructed views]). F5.1.3. Rich, the focalizer, knows very little about the characters of this MASH unit. This is rather significant because evidently many viewers of the series know them very well. Indeed, as in many episodes in which the camp is seen from a visitor's point of view, this one is largely a study in character. Consider the following shots:
On the whole, the MASH regulars -- Pierce (frame 6), Father Mulcahy (7), Pierce and Winchester (8), Colonel Potter, the camp commander (9), Pierce, Potter, and "Radar" O'Reilly (10) -- try to appear their best -- they introduce themselves, they explain how the camp is run, they crack the usual dead-pan jokes, and so on. In frame 6, Pierce (Alan Alda) introduces himself as follows (qtd. Kalter 2000: 144): PIERCE. Hi there, I'm Captain Pierce. I want to peek under your bandage. Army
regulations. Okay, what I'm going to do is take that shrapnel out of your neck and
put a tube in so you can breathe easier. When the swelling goes down, your voice should come back. I know you're thinking, 'This guy looks as if he couldn't fix a bicycle tire.' Well, I can't, but I'm gonna get you through this.
In Q5.2 I am using this speech for explaining the concept of 'implicit autocharacterization' (N7.1). The unusually high incidence of straight-on shots -- characters looking directly into the camera when talking to the focalizer -- is clearly well suited to the type of close-up characterization aimed at in this episode. In other respects, consistent fixed focalization in film is cumbersome and has some very obvious drawbacks (Peters 1989; see also Branigan 1992: ch. 5 for the topic of subjectivity in film in general, and a case study of The Lady in the Lake in particular). F5.1.4. One does not have to be a confirmed MASH fanatic to appreciate the excellent quality of many of the episodes. In addition to no. 154, I particularly recommend nos. 92 and 191. In 92, "The Novocaine Mutiny" (1976), "Frank has Hawkeye up on charges of mutiny for various infractions when Potter was away on leave and Frank was the C.O." Frank Burns's account of the "mutiny" is presented as a Mitty-ish wish-fulfillment recollection, amounting to a splendid demonstration of unreliable narration. Episode 191, "Dreams" (1980), is one of the absolute highlights of the series -- "The 4077th can't escape the Korean War, even in its dreams. Exhausted after two days without sleep, members of the 4077th steal away for cat naps and experience dreams that reveal their fears, yearnings and frustrations". The haunting dream scenes are excellent material for a case study of what Kawin (1984: 41) calls 'mindscreen' technique. F5.2. Homodiegetic voice-over narration: The Wonder Years, episode 24 The ABC series Wonder Years ran through seven seasons 1988-1993. In 115 25-minute episodes it portrayed the formative years of Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) aged twelve to eighteen. On a more general scale, the series presents a miniature historical picture of life in America in the late nineteen-sixties and early seventies. As Katy Pearce puts it in one of the fine Wonder Years pages available on the net:
What makes The Wonder Years so appealing is that many Americans can identify with what was happening in Kevin's life. Not only could those who lived through the 60's and 70's relate to the historical events, but almost anyone who was a teenager can relate to Kevin's personal adventures. Kevin is the universal American teenager. Most of us get our first kiss, our driver's license, and experience all these other pivotal stages on our trip through puberty and adolescence into adulthood. These times really are wonder years, the time when we learn how the world and it's people work. (http://www-personal.umich.edu/~kpearce/wy.html ) F5.2.1. In F4.2.2. above, I already referred to a Wonder Years episode in order to illustrate 'homodiegetic narration' and establish concepts like discourse-NOW, story-NOW and narrative distance. The narrative voice (spoken by Daniel Stern) is a distinctive feature of the series, and in this section, I will make an attempt to work out its special functions and effects. The Wonder Years episodes are not only excellent examples of filmic homodiegetic narratives but everything that was said of typical first-person narrative situations in the narratology script (N3.3.2) is applicable to them as well. In particular, we can recognize what theorists call the I-I structure of first-person narration, i.e., the split of a narrating person into two "versions": (1) the individual who acts as a narrator (mature Kevin Arnold, aged 33, technically, the narrating I), and (2) a character on the level of action (young Kevin, aged 13, the experiencing I). Many effects are, in fact, direct consequence of the perceptible distance (temporal and psychological) between present and past self. Moreover, the episodes usually enact one of the standard story types described in N3.3.4.: the story of initiation -- a story about a young person's introduction into a new sphere of experience. Indeed, Pearce's quote, above, aptly exemplifies what initiation stories are all about. F5.2.2. Episode 24 of Wonder Years is entitled "Summer Song" and was first shown on 3 October 1989.
Here is a brief sequence from the beginning of the episode showing Kevin reading a letter from his girl friend Winnie. Because the storyboard gives a good impression of the visuals, I have made drastic cuts to the detailed post-transcript available at http://home.t-online.de/home/reynders/wy/episod24.htm .
NARRATOR. By the end of that summer of 1969, a lot of things had changed. The Mets were headed for first-place. Woodstock was a household word. And Winnie Cooper's dad had moved to Chicago. KEVIN looks at a letter from Winnie. NARRATOR: Winnie wrote about how bored she was in Maine with her mom... [...] But then... Close shot of the letter. NARRATOR: She'd met somebody. "I've met somebody. His name is Chip and he's a lifeguard at the club my aunt belongs to. He's also in training to be an Olympic diver when the next Olympics come. We've been..." KEVIN sighs. NARRATOR: His name was Chip. And he was the All-State champ of everything. She deserved it - I guess. And even though I'd never met the guy... I was pretty sure I hated him.
In the beginning, the narrator executes one of the most common narratorial functions -- he presents a block exposition mentioning dates and historical events (accompanied by appropriate visual clips). Then he situates Winnie's letter and begins to read it out (parts of it are actually legible, see frame 2). In other words,
the narrator lends his voice to articulate the perceptions and thoughts of young Kevin. A multitude of different forms and channels is used for presenting the various bits of information and also the point-of-view indicators that tie them to different originating sources. For further tools of analysis in these matters see the narratology page's section on forms of speech and thought presentation (N8). For instance, saying "She'd met somebody", the narrator quotes Winnie by using the technique of 'free indirect discourse'. Interestingly, the original ('direct') version of this free indirect quotation is present as well, both in the immediate context and as visual data. Incidentally, some narratologists have claimed (Banfield 1982), still claim, actually, that free indirect speech is an "unspeakable form", meaning that it cannot occur in ordinary speech. As Toolan (2001: 135) puts it, "FID sentences are [...] unspeakable [...] since they are impossibly divided between two distinct speakers (narrator and character) and anchorages". What do you say? [Toolan hasn't seen Wonder Years.] F5.2.3. In the foregoing passage, the audio track that broadcasts young Kevin's voice has no other output than a single sigh. Later scenes, however, present a more complex interaction between the voices of the experiencing I and the narrating I.
Not very surprisingly, perhaps, the main story line of episode 24 is about our boy meeting a girl. Strolling along the beach, Kevin picks up a stray straw hat. Somebody addresses him (frame 1), asking him to give it back. A POV shot shows us Teri ("with an RI"), the owner of the voice (Holly Sampson, frame 2). Nondiegetic music ("Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys) emotionally asserts how very taken Kevin is
with her appearance (the song includes a line about "the way the sunlight plays upon her hair"). But can there be any future in this? Consider the following passage from the script:
NARRATOR: Well I guess that was that. Who was I kidding anyway? This girl was definitely out of my league. TERI. How old are you? NARRATOR. How old am I? Well, uh, gee. Lemme see here. KEVIN. Fourteen. NARRATOR. Forgive me! KEVIN. How old are you? TERI. Guess. NARRATOR. Uh-oh. I'd heard about these feminine traps before. There was no right way to answer this one. Then again... TERI. I'm fifteen. KEVIN I was gonna guess fifteen. TERI. Sure you were. She brushes his leg with the back of her hand. NARRATOR. My God, she touched my leg! Was that an accident? TERI. So, you want to sit down? KEVIN. Yeah! NARRATOR. My adolescent mind was spinning out of control. This was amazing! This was...incredible! This was...an older woman! MUSIC -Beach Boys. "I'm thinkin' 'bout good vibrations" "She's givin' me excitations"
Again we see that the narrating I's voice expresses the experiencing I's thoughts. But there is much more to it. Seeing and hearing this scene everybody I know has a grin on his or her face. Explaining comic effects is more difficult than experiencing them, however. But it can be done -- with reference to channels of information, narrative situation, speech presentation techniques, points of view, and focalization. F5.3. Verisimilitude and Goofs Film viewers come with a large number of (mostly unconscious) expectations about how the filmic medium presents a real or fictional story. Above all, one generally assumes that the film creates a verisimilar or at least likely world, a world that runs on laws of nature and logic and is, by and large, compatible with what might count as a fact or a possible experience in our own world. The less this principle is disturbed the greater is the film's 'reality effect' (Barthes 1982). These assumptions are very helpful because we can actively exploit them when we are facing difficult,
incomprehensible, or illogical data. The most common strategy in this case is to 'naturalize' the information so that it becomes interpretable according to common patterns of experience after all (Culler 1975). If necessary, we will also locally suspend or modify normal assumptions and expectations for the purpose of dipping into the stranger worlds of dreams, visions, cartoons, fairy-tales, science fiction, alternate histories, and so on. However, these, too, ultimately work on laws of consistency and logic. Having said that ... F5.3.1. Occasionally, especially if looked at closely, a filmic element may simply not seem natural, plausible, or possible, even allowing for special circumstances. In fact, if ultimately this comes across as a fault for which a professional must bear the blame then we have found a 'goof': A goof is a production fault which disturbs, inhibits, or undermines the reality effect. Specifically, it blocks the viewers' instinct to protect the assumption that the film shows a verisimilar world (their 'willing suspension of disbelief'). Note that what may look like a goof to someone who has no understanding of the rules and practices of the medium is not a goof when it occurs: (1) in the context of a standard filmic convention (for instance, in 'interior monologue voice over' [F3.2] a character is visible and we hear her/his voice, but her/his lips do not move -- but that is a convention, not a goof); (2) embedded in a representational medium which is part of the fictional world itself (e.g., a fault in a "quoted" home movie clip); (3) as a 'rhetorical' figure serving an ulterior purpose (e.g., an alienation effect [D6.3] intentionally revealing the representation to be an artifact). F5.3.2. Many goofs will simply be ignored by an ordinary audience. Consider one of the most obvious goofs, the 'heavy-suitcase goof' (not a technical term). How often can one see characters lugging around "heavy" suitcases which are evidently empty and thus not heavy at all. Of course, watching a film, nobody really cares. As viewers we focus on the verisimilar world that we expect to see rather than the distractive or non-conforming detail that might undermine the reality effect. While this holds true for ordinary viewers,
whose primary interest lies in immersing themselves in the fictional world, it is less valid for professional and enthusiast viewers, who have special obligations, interests, and viewing habits. (I recently saw an advert for a DVD player whose main selling point was that it allowed easy detection of goofs.) Indeed, for many peripheral audiences, especially on the net, goofs have become collectibles. For two excellent internet sources on goofs see http://moviegoofs.cjb.net and http://www.movie-mistakes.com Because goofs tend to go unnoticed by general viewers, they throw considerable light on the interpretive impact of media expectations. As will be demonstrated below (F5.3.5), the cognitive shock that comes with the recognition of a goof can also be exploited for entertainment purposes. Increasingly, goofs are also shown paratextually (at the closing margins of the film or show), usually for comic effect. F5.3.3. Goofs can be categorized according to verisimilarity violation (factual, logic, chronology), area of responsibility (e.g., editing), material causes (mirrors, shadows, etc.), and shooting conditions. In the following, no attempt has been made to create watertight (exclusive) categories, hence a 'chronology goof' can imply a 'logic goof', a 'logic goof' a 'factual goof', and so on. The examples were culled from enthusiasts' web pages, particularly http://www.mash4077.co.uk/goofs.html and http://home.tonline.de/home/reynders/wy/homepage.htm . logic goof A goof which defies the given world's logic. Such goofs occur easily in long-running series like Wonder Years and MASH. Not only were these written by different scriptwriters, apparently nobody took the trouble to draw up (and update) detailed character profiles. Hence, MASH: In one episode Colonel Blake's wife is identfied as Mildred, later she is Lorraine (no, there wasn't a divorce); over time, one character has two different blood types, another two Army serial numbers, and somebody who is an only child in one episode sends greetings to his brother and sister in another.
Wonder Years: "Kevin gets a D on his first math quiz. He also gets a D on his second quiz. If you look closely, you'll see that they are the same test".
factual goof A goof which defies the given world's known facts. MASH: "Henry was given a discharge because he had enough 'points' but the points system wasn't used for doctors in the Korean War". Wonder Years: "Solar eclipses are gradual, but in this episode the eclipse was nearly a sudden event, like turning off a light". chronology goof (also anachronism goof) A goof which upsets the given world's chronology. Do not confuse with anachronies (like flashforwards or flashbacks, N5.2.1), which are rhetorical devices and do not upset a narrative's underlying chronology. Wonder Years: "When Norma is putting her stuff in the car after being fired, her calendar says 1974. The show actually plays in 1971". MASH: "Hawkeye is in the Swamp finishing his letter to President Truman, yet in an earlier scene he had finished it, sealed it, and asked Kellye to send it out". continuity goof A detail which shows that two supposedly continuous shots were not, in fact, continuous. This ever-present peril of the production process typically affects objects that are prone to short-term state changes. Because the camera requires a temporal break between takes in order to move to a different position (and actors may need their makeup freshened up), candles typically burn out, cigarettes get extinguished or relighted, clouds move, flowers wilt, and beverages get drunk up or
replenished. device goof A goof which inadvertently bares a technical device used in the take (typical case: a dangling microphone). However, 'baring the devive' can also be an intentional effect of Brechtian antiillusionism or alienation. See F5.3.4., below, for an example from Hitchcock's Vertigo. Wonder Years: "In the beginning of episode 81 [...] they show a young Kevin in his grandpa's car [...]. At one point the car drives away. In the reflection of the rear window, you can clearly see the camera and two men". fluff goof Distortion or mispronunciation of a line ("He was prone to fluff his lines"). This type of goof is particularly virulent when the text contains bits of foreign language. (An interesting paradox of the fluff goof is that everybody fluffs in real life; hence fluffing should theoretically be a reality effect, not a goof.) Further goof types: out-of-character goof, paralepsis goof, metalepsis goof (character addressed by his real rather than his fictional name etc.). F5.3.4. In the following sequence from Vertigo, Scottie and Judy are shown driving towards San Juan Bautista, the missionary settlement where Judy will meet her fate :((. Both characters know this stretch of road because they have traveled it before, in a different car. But one doesn't even have to know these details in order to identify the goof that surreptitiously undermines the verisimilarity of the sequence.
Without any cause or reason, Scottie is driving on the left in frames 2 and 3. As Auiler (2000: 91) points out, Hitchcock used back projections for most of his car shots. All backgrounds for Vertigo's many driving scenes were shot separately, then added later with the characters sitting in the sound studio's car mock-up. "Though somehow car work is always obvious," Auiler says (2000: 110), "the projection shots in Vertigo are of the highest quality -- and a slight difference in quality can make all the difference in preserving the audience's suspension of disbelief" (2000: 110). Nevertheless, as the example shows, goofs rule okay. Here is an attempt to explain what really happened. When the back projection was filmed (this was in the very early stages of the production), it was shot from the passenger's (not the driver's) seat. You can verify this by printing out this page and looking at it, against the light, from behind. The view presented in frame 2 could be the result of (inadvertently?) projecting the reverse side of the background footage. At any rate, this would shift the car to the wrong side of the road, as we see it now, and the POV would be the driver's (Scottie's). Perhaps the editing team assumed that nobody would notice because the focus of attention is on the characters, one of them doomed, the other relentlessly pursuing his horrible suspicion. If you have a different explanation, let me know.
F5.3.5. For an interesting case of a pseudo-goof, consider a shot which is part of a TV commercial advertising the "Bayern Alpha" culture channel in Germany. In the frame shown on the right, three channels/sources of information are concurrently open. Two of them are visual, one is auditory. The first visual channel shows a suburban apartment block. The second visual channel shows an insert title saying "Concertgebouw, Amsterdam". The auditory channel broadcasts a piece of classical music. If, as is natural, one understands the title as identifying the building, there is a jarring contradiction -- the Concertgebouw is a Philharmonic Hall, not an apartment block. On the face of it, this is the result of a factual goof, a fault apparently perpetrated at the editing table. At the same time, one feels a strong impulse to come to grips, to make sense of, the conflicting data -- just as one tries to make sense of a seemingly nonsensical phrase such as Wordsworth's "The child is father of the man" (P3.8). Indeed, there is one aspect in particular that encourages us to make the best of the goof: it is too obvious. Hence one repair strategy is to impute an intention to it. The jarring effect created by it may be there for a purpose. Could the apartment block actually be called "Concertgebouw" (and if not actually, then ironically)? Well, it is a naturalization of sorts, but not a satisfactory one because it does not get us anywhere. Pursuing a different tack, one notes, however, that the 'wrong' text is actually quite compatible with (or, one might say, isotopically linked to) the classical music coming from the audio channel. On this basis, and with a bit of effort, we can construe the message that ultimately makes pretty good sense of what is after all a carefully composed complex of
information -- that the Bayern Alpha channel brings the music played by the Concertgebouw to your home, whereever your home may be (i.e., even if you live in one of those ugly apartment blocks). Hence the pseudo-goof effectively overcomes one's protective instinct to ignore TV commercials.
F6. Film websites

http://www.imdb.com/ The Internet Movie Database, "visited by over 8 million movie lovers each month", and no wonder, this is an Internet service at its best. http://www.google.com . Film script links from Google.com under Arts > Movies > Scripts > Downloadable; check here for a copy. http://www.bfi.org.uk/ The British Film Institute. Very good general jump page, also to London's MOMI (Museum of the Moving Image). http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/film/ Scope, a "fully refereed on-line journal of film studies edited by staff and postgraduate students within the institute of Film Studies at the University of Nottingham". See, in particular, the articles archive, the book reviews, and the booklist (bibliography). www.dailyscript.com/glossary.html Dana's "The Daily Script": Good definitions of technical terms, plus many additional film-related subjects, criticism, and links on home page one level up. (But apparently the site has ceased to exist.)
http://home.snafu.de/ohei/index.html The Online Film Dictionary. Multi-lingual list of film terms (no definitions). http://www.craftyscreenwriting.com Alex Epstein (2001), "Crafty Screenwriting". Excellent and witty introduction, from a professional, to writing, formatting, and selling film scripts. Includes many interesting links, e.g., to storyboards. See terms "rubber ducky" and "wrylies".
F7. References
Auiler, Dan. 2000. Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. Barthes, Roland. 1982. "The Reality Effect". In: Todorov, Tzvetan, ed. French Literary Theory Today. Cambridge: CUP. 11-17 Beaver, Frank. 1994. Dictionary of Film Terms. New York: Twayne. Bordwell, David. 1985. Narration in the Fiction Film. Madison: U. of Wisconsin P. Branigan, Edward. 1992. Narrative Comprehension and Film. London: Routledge. Bruner, Jerome. 1986. Actual Minds, Possible Worlds. Cambridge: Harvard UP. Chatman, Seymour. 1978. Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film. Ithaca: Cornell UP.
---. 1990. Coming to Terms: The Rhetoric of Narrative in Fiction and Film. Ithaca: Cornell UP. ---. 1999. "New Directions in Voice-Narrated Cinema". In: Herman, David, ed., Narratologies. Columbus: Ohio State UP. 315-339. Dana. 2000. "The Daily Script" Glossary Page. www.dailyscript.com/glossary.html . Deleyto, Celestino. 1996 [1991]. "Focalisation in Film Narrative". In: Onega, Susana; Garcia Landa, Jos Angel, eds. Narratology. London: Longman. 217-233. Epstein, Alex. 2002. Crafty Screenwriting. New York: Holt. Internet: http://www.craftyscreenwriting.com . Giannetti, Louis. 1993. Understanding Movies. 6th ed. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall. Goffman, Erving. 1986. Frame Analysis. Boston: Northeastern UP. Gombrich, E.H. 1980. "Standards of Truth: The Arrested Image and the Moving Eye". Critical Inquiry 7: 237-273. Jost, Francois. 1989. L'oeil-camra: Entre film et roman. 2nd ed. Lyon: Presses Universitaires. Kaplan, E. Ann. 2000 [1983]. "Is the Gaze Male?". In Kaplan, E. Ann, ed., Feminism and Film. Oxford. Oxford UP. 119-138.
Kalter, Suzy. 2000. The Complete Book of M*A*S*H. Abradale Press. Kawin, Bruce. 1984. "An Outline of Film Voices". Film Quarterly 38.2: 38-46. Korte, Barbara; Schneider, Ralf. 2000. "The Published Screenplay -- A New Literary Genre?". Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik 25.1: 89105. Kozloff, Sarah. 1988. Invisible Storytellers: Voice-over Narration in American Fiction Film. Berkeley: U of California P. MASH, episode 154, "Point of View". Directed by Charles S. Dubin, written by Ken Levine and David Isaacs. November 20, 1978. McInernay, Jay. Bright Lights, Big City. [1984.] London: Penguin, 1993. Metz, Christian. 1974. Film Language: A Semiotics of the Cinema. New York: Oxford UP. Mulvey, Laura. 1999 [1975]. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema". In Thornham, Sue, ed. Feminist Film Theory: A Reader. New York: New York UP. 58-69. Peters, Jan Marie. 1989. "The Lady in the Lake und das Problem der Ich-Erzhlung in der Filmkunst". In Albersmeier, Franz-Josef; Roloff, Volker, eds. Literaturverfilmungen. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp. 245-258. Posner, Roland. 1997.
"Performance and Transcripts: Towards a Theory of the Media". Plenary lecture. Second IALS Conference, U of Freiburg. Rear Window. 1954. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Perf. James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr. Adapted from "It Had to be Murder", by Cornell Woolrich. Paramount 1954. Film script by John Michael Hayes (Classic Movie Scripts http://www.geocities.com/classicmoviescripts/ ). Reynders, Peter. 2002. Peter's Wonder Years Guide. http://home.t-online.de/home/reynders/wy/homepage.htm Sternberg, Claudia. 1997. Written for the Screen: The American Motion-Picture Screenplay as Text. Tbingen: Stauffenberg. Wonder Years, episode 24, "Summer Song". Written by Mark B. Perry. Directed by Michael Dinner. The Black/Marlens Company. 1989. Transcript available at Reynders (2002).
The Language of film analysis

CAMERA RANGE (=the distance between the camera and object)
extreme long shot
(super totale
shot of, e.g. a large crowd scene or a view of scenery as far as the horizon
Einstellung)
long shot(Totale,
"What is the effect of the ~?" a view of a situation or setting from a distance "the camera pulls away from the close-ups to a long shot of the Boston skyline."
totale Einstellung)
medium long shot (halb totale
shows a group o f people in interaction with each other, e.g. a fight scene, with part of their surroundings in the picture
Einstellung)
full shot
a view of a figure's entire body in order to show action and/or a constellation of characters
(Halbnaheinstellung)
medium shot, mid shot, medium close shot
shows a subject down to his or her waist, e.g. showing head and shoulders of two people in conversation "What is the purpose of the high angle medium close shot?"
("amerikanische Einstellung")
close-up
(Groaufnahme)
a full-screen shot o f a subject's face, showing the finest nuances of expression "The camera suddenly cuts to a close-up." "What does the series of close-ups show?" a shot of a hand, eye, mouth or object in detail
extreme close-up (shot) detail (shot)
(Detailaufnahme) POINT OF VIEW (VIEWPOINTS) (= the position from which the camera is filming)
establishing shot point-of-view shot, POV-shot
often used at the beginning of a scene to indicate the location or setting, it is usually a long shot taken from a neutral position "The scene starts with an ~." shows a scene from the perspective of a character
(subjektive Einstellung)
over-the-shoulder shot
often used in dialogue scenes, a frontal view o f a dialogue partner from the perspective of someone standing behind and slightly to the side of the other partner, so that parts of both can be seen
reaction shot
(Gegeneinstellung)
insert (shot) reverse-angle shot hand-held camera
short shot of a character's response to an action "He decided to hold a ~." a detail shot which quickly gives visual information necessary to understand the meaning of a scene, for example a newspaper page, or a physical detail a shot from the opposite perspective, e.g. after an over-the-shoulder shot "What effect does the ~ have in the party scene?"
CAMERA ANGLES (= Kameraperspektive)

aerial shot or high angle or overhead
long or extreme long shot of the ground from the air "How does the sequence of aerial and tracking shots support the voiceover commentary?"
(Vogelperspektive)
high-angle shot low-angle shot or below shot
shows people or objects from \ above, i.e. higher than eye level shows people or objects from below, i.e. lower than eye level
(Froschperspektive)
eye-level shot or straight-on angle
views a subject from the level of a person's eyes "In the first part the straight-on angle of the camera puts the viewer on the same level as Mrs Robinson." "How do the varoius camera shot angles highlight the power of Mrs Robinson?"
CAMERA MOVEMENT (movement of the camera during a shot)

pan(ning shot)
(horizontaler Schwenk)
tilt (shot)
the camera pans (moves horizontally) from left to right or vice versa across the picture "The camera pans across the picture."
the camera tilts up (moves upwards) or tilts down (moves downwards) around a vertical line
(vertikaler Schwenk)
tracking shot / trucking shot zoom
the camera follows along next to or behind a moving object or person the stationary camera appears to approach a subject by 'zooming in' ; or to move farther away by 'zooming out' "The camera zooms in(zooms out) on Ben's face."
EDITING / MONTAGE (= the arrangement of shots in a structured sequence)
master shot cutaway cross-cutting or parallel action flashback
main shot of a whole scene taken by one camera in one position, which is then intercut with other shots to add interest shot of something not shown by the master shot of a scene, but connected to the main action in some way intermingling the shots of two or more scenes which are taking place at the same time a scene or sequence dealing with the past which is inserted into a film's 'present time'
(Rckblende)
flash-forward
a scene or sequence which looks into the future
(Vorausschau)
match cut split screen
two scenes connected by visual or aural parallelism, e.g. one door closing and then another one opening division of the screen to show two or more pictures at the same time
(Bildteilung) PUNCTUATION (= the way in which shots are linked)

casting
choosing actors to impersonate the characters
(Besetzung)
cut
a switch from one image or shot to another
jump-cut fade-in
(Aufblende)
fade-out
"What effect does the sudden cut from the pool to Ben's room have on the viewer?" (a) switching back and forth between two or more persons who are closely involved with each other, e.g. in a conversation or a chase scene; (b) using cuts to create an effect o f moving rapidly towards a subject from a black screen or ground, the gradual emergence o f an image, which slowly becomes brighter until it reaches full strength the gradual disappearance of an image until the screen or ground is completely black; a device used to end a scene following a fade-out with a fade-in in order to move slowly from one scene to the next
(Abblende)
dissolve, dissolving shot or cross-fade
(Mischbild) Miscellaneous
backlighting background music camera operator caption clip composition
filming a person or event against a background of light, especially the sun, which produces an idealized, sometimes romantic effect the music accompanying scenes "What ~ would you use?" "What effect does the ~ have?" the person behind the camera(s); in major productions, the head of the camera team is usually called the director of photography words that are shown on a cinema or television screen, e.g. to establish the scene of a story short piece of film or video. the arrangement of people or things in a painting, photograph, film scene, etc.
(film) director
(Regisseur)
credits
the person responsible for the artistic production of a film, i.e. the lightning, camera work, action, and the actors' interpretation of their roles "What do you think the director's intention is?" "Why does the director use this shot?" list of people who helped to make a film or programme.
(Vor-/ Abspann)
editor film transcript footage
the person responsible for arranging the camera shots and splicing (cutting / pasting) the shots together transcript of the final film according to the individual shots giving field size, camera angle, camera movement, action, dialogue etc. Piece of film or video. "Where is the ~ being filmed from?" "What sort of TV programme uses footage like this?" effect when all movement is stopped.
(das Material)
freeze-frame
(eingefrorenes Bild)
motion picture producer scene screenplay
a US and Canadian term for film the person responsible for the overall organization, especially the financing and marketing, of a film or TV production a shot or a series of shots that deal(s) with a single action film script with dialogue, location descriptions and some camera angles and movements. Connected piece of film, perhaps a complete scene. "What does the ~ of close-up and extreme cluse-up shots focus on?"
(Drehbuch)
sequence
(Teil des Filmes)

setting shot
the location of a film "If you were the director of the film, what kind of setting would you choose?" Single piece of camera work, e.g. a cutaway. "What sort of shot has to be used for an event like this?" "Watch the film as far as the first shot of Ben in his room." "The director uses ...shots to ..." All sound for a film, including voices and music. Single frame of a film, like a photo. "What could the connection between the title and the stills?"
(Einstellung)
soundtrack still
(Standbild, auch: das Insert)

storyboard
(Aufnahmeplan)
subtitle
series of simple pictures showing the sequence of main shots, often with notes an camera angles and movements. Printed words, usually below the picture, and usually used to translate dialogue in a foreign film. Technique of filming very short bursts from a fixed position at fixed time intervals, so that action appears very rapid when the film is played back at normal speed.
(Untertitel)
time-lapse photography
(Zeitraffer, auch:
Einzelbildschaltung)
(voice)off voice-over
not to be seen but to be heard (especially a narrator, a character voicing thoughts or a news correspondent commenting on pictures that are being shown) commentary heard by the viewer without the speaker being in-shot. Often used in documentaries. "The voice-over comments break the scene into four sections."
(Filmkommentar)
Film analysis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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(December 2010)
This article is an orphan, as no other articles link to it. Please introduce links to this page from related articles; suggestions Film analysis is the process in which a film is analyzed in terms of mise-en-scne, cinematography, sound, and editing. One way of analyzing films is by the shot-by-shot analysis, though that is typically used only for small clips or scenes. Film analysis is closely connected to film theory. Different authors suggest various approaches to film analysis. Jacques Aumont and Michel Marie in their publication
Analysis of Film[1] propose several key points regarding film analysis. (1) There is no universal method of film analysis, (2) film analysis can never be concluded as there will always be something more to explore and (3) it is necessary for one to have knowledge about film history in order perform a film analysis. They recognize various types of approaches: (1) Text-based film analysis (structural approach), (2) topic based analysis (narrative approach), (3) picture and sound approach (iconic analysis), (4) psychoanalytical approach and (5) historical approach. Another methodology is suggested by Thomas and Vivian Sobchack in their publication Introduction to film.[2] They suggest viewer can observe following elements: (1) analysis of film space, (2) analysis of film time and (3) film sound. As they focus mainly on iconic aspects of film they further propose additional elements: the image, tone, composition and movement.
Contents [hide] 1 Iconic analysis 2 Semiotic analysis 3 Psychoanalytical approach 4 Shot by shot analysis 5 References 6 External
links
[edit]
Iconic analysis
Iconic analysis basically deals with image or picture (and sometimes also film sound). In iconic analysis we try to understand how different pictorial elements convey the meaning of film. There are several examples in film history where image was even more than just key element of film (i.e. pre WWII avant-garde films, Italian neorealism, film noir, etc.). However today in most narrative films (Fictional film) we try to hide pictorial elements from audience and mask them behind the story.[3] In such films it is usually difficult (if not event pointless) to analyze image as such. We therefore more often tend to observe various other elements like light, camera movement (see Cinematography), composition etc. and try to understand how these elements influence or cross-reference other elements of film, like story, mood etc. As iconic analysis derives from single image and it is closely related to techniques of film production thus demanding at least brief understanding of these technical elements of film it is mostly useful method of research for film schools and other educational institutions. Film critics tend not use this method as a stand alone approach, but they rather use it as a part of other analysis method. [edit]
Semiotic analysis
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by adding to it. (January 2013)
[edit]
Psychoanalytical approach
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by adding to it. (January 2013)
[edit]
Shot by shot analysis

This is a written description of a given sequence in a film in order of the shots. Attention is given to formal aspects only, such as where the characters are looking (e.g. off-screen left), and eye-line matches. [edit]
References
^ Aumont Jacques; Michele Marie (1988). LAnalyse des films/Analysis of Film. Nathan. ^ Thomas Sobchack; Vivian Sobchack (1997). An Introduction to Film. Longman. ISBN 067339302X. ^ Thomas Sobchack; Vivian Sobchack (1997). An Introduction to Film. Longman. ISBN 067339302X.
[edit]
External links
Glossary Film theory

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YALE FILM STUDIES

Film Analysis Web Site 2.0

WHAT THE FILM ANALYSIS GUIDE COVERS

Mariano Prunes, Michael Raine, Mary Litch

Part 1: Basic Terms

Thriller/Detective film: The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)

Musical: Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen, 1952)

Illustration courtesy of http://www.tcf.ua.edu/TVCrit/

suggests an out-of-this-world glamor and excitement.

and Zhang Yimou's Ju Dou (1990), for example.

"underexposed". Exposure can be manipulated to guide an audience's response to a scene.

WIDE ANGLE LENS

EXTREME LONG SHOT

MEDIUM LONG SHOT

A Summer Tale (Conte d't) France Eric Rohmer, 1996

A Summer Tale (Conte d't, Eric Rohmer, 1996)

Majidi, Iran,1999) is also a close-up.

The Stendhal Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Dario Argento, 1996),

HANDHELD CAMERA, STEADYCAM

CROSSCUTTING, aka PARALLEL EDITING

CUT-IN, CUT AWAY

ESTABLISHING SHOT/REESTABLISHING SHOT

LONG TAKE, aka PLAN-SEQUENCE

suggest recurrent obsessions and other hallucinatory states.

You can hear the original English version here.

with the French dubbed version.

A Guide to Narratological Film Analysis Manfred Jahn

F1. Film as a narrative genre

F2. Moving pictures: the visual code

F3. Sound: the audio code

F4. Composition, Narration and Focalization

F5. Case studies

F6. Film websites

The Language of film analysis

medium long shot (halb totale

medium shot, mid shot, medium close shot

extreme close-up (shot) detail (shot)

CAMERA ANGLES (= Kameraperspektive)

eye-level shot or straight-on angle

CAMERA MOVEMENT (movement of the camera during a shot)

EDITING / MONTAGE (= the arrangement of shots in a structured sequence)

master shot cutaway cross-cutting or parallel action flashback

(Bildteilung) PUNCTUATION (= the way in which shots are linked)

(Teil des Filmes)

(Standbild, auch: das Insert)

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