Notes from Film A Critical Introduction 2nd Edition - Maria Pramaggiore and Tom Wallis

Wallis Tom and Pramaggoire Maria, 2008, Film A Critical Introduction, London, Lawrence King Publishing LTD

4. Narrative Form

- understanding throughout, one crucial movement in the beginning could explain certain scenes to come
- "Choices regarding how and when to present information about characters contributute to the overall storytelling frame work of the film"
- Narrative usually focusses on human characters and struggles - perform actions and undergo changes in pursuit of a specific goal
- Obstacles to overcome e.g LOTR Frodo toresist the evil of the ring
- diegesis -implied world of the story - settings, characters, sounds and events
- non - diegetic/ extradiegetic - elements that exsist outside the implied world
- music can form both,  fitting into the theme
- film doesn't depict every moment of character's lives, certain events left out
- Syuzhet ( russian term for transforming a complete chronological story into an abbreviated version of events played to audience) - the ordering of the actions presented on screen
- fabula - story- narrative - syuzhet - plot
- use of flash backs/ fowards interrupt film's present tense or rearrange the chronological order
- syuzhet can manipulate frequency of events - how many times an act can occur, often from the perspective of different characters
- pattern for narrative films are 3 act structure - introducing characters, goals and conflicts leading onto a turning point - a sudden change, eventually leading to closure - tie up of loose ends
- Film scholar Kristen Thompson argues the 4 part structure including a turning point at midway
- Table of explanation Pg 68
- Point of view shots - when audience shares visual perspective of a character/s informing their intentions, motivation and experience of world

7. Editing

- Editing contribututes aesthetic quality of a film
- one basic principal is joining two shots together transcends visual information contained in individual shots
- The Kuleshov effect - one shot that has association with preceding and succeeding shots
- Audience formulate ideas and derive meaning from the comparrison of each shot
- Abrupt camera changes can evoke an emotional response e.g dialogue scenes can convey power combinations of continuty
- visual imagery is also effective
- Tempo in editing 2 factors
1. length of shot
2. Type of shot transition - visual effect used to move from 1 shot to next
- average shot length of 5.15 secs for 1 shot, allows audience to respond to rhythm and 3 secs to adjust to new shot
Transition - dissolve, wipe, iris in, iris out
- a brupt change draws attention to sudden shift in emotional weight of scene
- effects pace of sequence, a fade - a visual pause in sequence of action
- dissolves, fades, irises and wipes rarely occur within a scene and are used to introduce a memory or a fantasy
- Pg 199 Table - three attributes of editing in Notorious (example)
- Tableu shot - Long shot where frame resembles proscenium arch of a stage, audience's perspective distanced from action on screen
- shot/ reverse shot - character speaking followed by another character's response
- eye line match - shot of character looking at something off screen - shows thought process
- cutting to Emphaisis Group Dynamics - cut to specific areas focussing on certain traits or goals character has
- Cutaways - drawn attention of non human elements in mise - en - scene/ appearance of an object