Welcome to our brief Film Unit.
When we discuss the choice of a particularly shot, filmmakers have several options. We can shoot a scene from an
extreme long shot, a long shot, a full shot, a medium shot, a close-up, an extreme close up, using a
birds-eye angle, a high or low angle, an eye-level-match angle (the default), or decide to use a
truck, track, crane, pan, or
trolley device to help frame and move the focus of the camera on the subject of the film. But with all these options, we also need to include the following terms to our vocabulary:
classical cutting: editing for dramatic intensity and emotional emphasis rather than for purely physical reasons.
Shifting from long to close or close to long shots shifts the viewers POV within a scene. This can be done to emphasize, include, exclude, consolidate, connect, contrast, or parallel the action of the plot, to introduce an important motif or detail for story-telling purposes (just like describing an important object in fiction), etc.
Master Shot (also known as a sequence shot): a scene of continuous film, usually at long-range, that is used as the through-line of a film or scene.
Reaction Shot: a cut from dialogue to the reaction of the person listening to the dialogue.
Two-shot: a shot that includes just enough space for two-characters to show that they are in the same space.
Three-shot: as a two-shot, but with enough room for three. How cozy!
First cut: a sequence of shots in editing that represents the director's preference for how the scene should be "shot."
Final cut: a studio or producer's preferred cutting of the film. (As opposed to the directors: first cut)
Cover shot: a shot used to reestablish a sequence, (time or space), or establishing shot used to reorient the viewer.
Eye-line Match: A character looks a certain direction, then we cut to what they are supposed to be looking at.
Matching action: similar to the eye-line match, but this involves any movement that is suggested as being continuous, even though it's not shot that way. Example: a tight shot of a person opening a door, the next shot is of that person arriving in another room. It is assumed that the door leads to the room seen, but this is rarely the case in filming.
Mise en Scene: more on this one later, it is literally "what is included in a shot."
180 degree rule: used to stabilize the space of the playing area so the viewer isn't confused or disoriented. Essentially keeping the camera on the same side of the 180 degree line of a scene.
Reverse angle shot: most commonly used in dialogue scenes, the camera moves between two speakers, first showing one, then the other.
Parallel action: just as in literature, the juxtaposition of shots that show complimentary shots. These shots are often from a different location.
Cross-cutting: moving between two or more locations or scenes in a film (often in rapid succession, but not always) to tell parallel stories.
Thematic montage: stress the association of ideas, rather than the continuity of plot, time, or space.
Motifs: objects, places, people, visual pictures, that are repeated to create significance or meaning.
Some advice:
- the longer the shot, the slower the film pacing.
- the shorter the shot, the faster the film pacing.
- Longer shots usually include more visual information.
- Shorter shots usually include less visual information.
- Cut your scenes at the "content curve": the moment when the viewer has had just enough time to take in the visual information in a scene.
- Cutting your scene BEFORE the content curve, creates anxiety, frustration, and/or disorients the viewer.
- Cutting the scene AFTER the content curve, frustrates and bores an audience.
- Watch these instructional videos:
Working in groups of 3, please do the following:
- Use the classroom cameras.
- Go shoot different shots (see the handout you were given in class for this project) that illustrate the 3-5 shots you were given. Take no more than 5 minutes to do this.
- When you return, please upload your film files to Windows Movie Maker and create TITLES for each film example you took.
- Make sure the names of your group members are listed on the title card/slide!
- Render your film, save it as an MP4, then submit it to Google Classroom. We will screen your group's film during period 8.
If you finish your film (and we are waiting for the other groups to finish, please read about Citizen Kane below).
Period 8:
After viewing our film projects, we will discuss Citizen Kane.
We will eventually view Orson Welles' ("War of the Worlds") masterpiece Citizen Kane. Today, let's learn about the film.
Citizen Kane (intro)
Topping the best films of all time is the important and influential 1941 film by Orson Welles:
Citizen Kane (1941). As we view
Citizen Kane, there are a series of important elements that can enrich our understanding of this film.
Orson Welles as Auteur:
Welles directed, wrote (partial), and starred in this film (even though it was thought he wasn't old enough to portray Kane). While Welles had direct control over the film and its look, there were other people who contributed artistically. Some of the invention and creativity of film making includes:
Camera Work:
- The Deep Focus shot! (the deep focus shot includes action in the foreground, mid-ground, and background of a shot).
- Low angle shots revealing ceilings!
- Moving shots used as wipes!
- Overlapping dialogue! (not original to Welles, but a trend in Screwball Comedies)
- Long uninterrupted shots!
- Expressionist lighting and photography!
Narrative/Special techniques:
- Multiple perspective!
- Flashbacks!
- Aging!
Motifs and themes:
- The American Dream: For all of Kane's "success", he is not happy. He dies lonely, with only his "possessions" around him. Is all our striving to succeed in America an illusion?
- Perspective: The differing perspectives on Kane's life, especially in the absence of Kane's own point of view, force us to question what was truly important in Kane's life (and by extension what constitutes a life well lived in general.) Judging by Kane's last muttered word: Rosebud, the most important pieces of Kane's life were not the things that made him newsworthy, such as his newspaper successes and political ambitions, nor his friendships and associations. As Thompson interviews different people about Kane, we are given different perspectives on the man (some are unreliable). Odd, though, that we do not see Kane from Kane's POV.
Motifs:
- Isolation (loneliness...it's lonely at the top...)
- Materialism/Capitalism
- Old Age (the end of the line...)
Symbols:
- The Snowglobe
- Sleds
- Statues
Allusions:
Director: Orson Welles
Writers: Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles (screenplay)
Cinematography by Gregg Toland
Orson Welles ... Charles Foster Kane
Joseph Cotten ... Jedediah Leland
Dorothy Comingore ... Susan Alexander Kane
Agnes Moorehead ... Mary Kane
Ruth Warrick ... Emily Monroe Norton Kane
Ray Collins ... James W. Gettys
Erskine Sanford ... Herbert Carter
Everett Sloane ... Mr. Bernstein
William Alland ... Jerry Thompson
Paul Stewart ... Raymond
George Coulouris ... Walter Parks Thatcher
Fortunio Bonanova ... Signor Matiste
Gus Schilling ... The Headwaiter
Philip Van Zandt ... Mr. Rawlston
Georgia Backus ... Bertha Anderson
Harry Shannon ... Kane's Father
Produced by Orson Welles and George Schaefer .... executive producer
Original Music by Bernard Herrmann
Film Editing by Robert Wise
Casting by Rufus Le Maire & Robert Palmer
Art Direction by Van Nest Polglase
Set Decoration by Darrell Silvera
Costume Design by Edward Stevenson
Makeup by Maurice Seiderman
Let's read a little bit of the script together to get you started. Then, we'll screen the scene.
HOMEWORK: None. You may read the rest of Citizen Kane to get the idea of how we write a film script.
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