Monday 31 January 2011

Notes from The Art of watching Films - Joseph M. Boggs and Dennis W. Petrie

Petric D + Boggs J, 2004, The Art of Watching Films edition 6, New York, Mc Graw Hill companinies

1. The Art of Watching Films

- Pg 2 - "like sculpture film manipulates three dimensional space. But like pantomime, film focusses on moving images and as in dance, the moving images in film have rhythm"
- Film focusses on full spectrum - the objective and sensual
- Pg 3 - "A Film can look to the remote past or probe the distant future; it make a few seconds seem like hours or compress a century into minutes" - period of time exprienced
- the willing to except different genres
- outside influence can effect opinions and raise expectations
- widescreen to standard tv by editing process 'Panning and scanning'

3. Fictional and Dramatic Elements 


- "I don't want to film a 'slice of life' because people can get that at home, in the street, or even infront of a movie theatre... It must be dramatic and human what is drama after all, but life with the dull bits cut out? '' Alfred Hitchcock - Director
- A film that is structured centres around a central theme
- Focusses on plot, emotional effect, character, style, texture, structure or idea
- Unified plot focusses on continuous action - 1 event leads into one another naturally and logically (meant to be)
- creating the illusion of truth
- Truth in film story as an approximation of life, the human need to believe, something not there but acceptable in the situation
- A good interesting story captures interest of an audience with suspense by hinting the outcome - moving the story along. Action - stories are never static so action or change is essiential whether external or physical or within mind/emotion of the character
- keep interest throughout time limit
- viewers need to be manipulated by emotion in structure of story line
- Editing and Special Visual Effects
. a film is contibution made by the editor to complete the film from various component parts and soundtrack
. editor decides which segments to use and how long they will apear for
. combining a series of action shots combined to form a scene
- Selectivity
. selecting the best shots
. sections that are most powerful, effective or significant visual and sound effects discarding irrelevant material
. work on a five sec shot at 1 time to see sound, camera technique (focus + movement), compostion, lighting, performance + angle
- Coherence, Continuity and Rhythm
. putting pieces in a coherent order
. interrelationships of seperate images and sounds are made clear so scene runs more smoothly
- Transitions
. optical effects to form smooth divisions between two sequences in a different time or place
. Wipe - image separated from previous image by means of a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line moves across screen to wipe away previous image
- Editing sequence - Action + Reaction
. building dramatic effect and suspense by cutting back and fourth between characters or action
. Pg 168 - 173 image demonstration
. Flip Frame - entire frame flips over to reveal new scene as if turning a page
. Fade out/ Fade in - last images fade to black and first image is gradually illuminated
. Dissolve - end of the shot gradually merges into the beginning of the next
- Rhythms, Tempo and Time Control
. refers to the cuts that divide the film but still alows it to flow naturally
. the flow of story, action and dialogue acts sensitive to the music already in place in the scene
- Expansion and Compression of Time
. expanding normal sense of time e.g a whole shot of a man walking up stairs and close ups of feet
. flash cuts - quick display of images compresses an hour worth of images in quick bursts so preceeding and last scene overlaps to make quick time length seem fluid
- Creating Juxtaposition
. a montage made with images and sounds without pattern creates a visual poem
. used to create mood, atmosphere, transition in time or place or a physical or emotional impact

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