Home Midterm Review Paper Second Midterm Review BACK TO TOP Last Updated: 01/31/10	Comparative Literature 270 Film Analysis Winter 2010 Exams and Paper
	Click here to download review sheet as Word file Note on the Structure of the Exam The midterm will consist of two parts: 1) identification (fill-in and multiple-choice questions; 30-40% of total point value); and 2) analysis (short essays; 60-70%). The answers to questions in Part One will be drawn from the list of terms and concepts below. A typical fill-in question will consist of the definition of a term from the textbook with the term itself left blank or a brief clip from a film and a related question asking you to identify the kind of shot, transition, lighting, etc., displayed in that clip. The essays in Part Two will focus on films on our syllabus (rather than clips show in lecture, though you are, of course, free to supplement your answers by referring to other relevant films). The questions may ask you to identify and analyze a clip shown during the exam or to write about thematic or theoretical issues raised in one or more films screened in our MW sessions. The information on this review sheet will help you to identify important technical and stylistic features of these films, but the essays should go beyond a discussion of formal features and explore the meaning of that sequence and the film as a whole. Film Production, Distribution, and Exhibition Mechanics of the movies     Cinematic illusion: critical flicker fusion, apparent motion     Cinematic apparatus: projector, camera, printer     Film itself: gauge, film vs. video Production     Stages: preparation, shooting, assembly     Storyboard     Roles in production stage         Production design unit: production designer, art director         Director’s crew: director, script supervisor         Cast         Photography unit: Director of Photography (DP or                         cinematographer), camera operator         Sound unit         Visual-effects unit         Producer’s crew     Master shot     Coverage Postproduction      Editor     Dailies (rushes)     Rough cut vs. final cut (fine cut)     Automated dialogue replacement (ADR)     Dubbing (looping)     Computer-generated Imagery (CGI) Modes of Production     Large-scale/studio     Independent     Exploitation     Small-scale Distribution     Sources of profit (including merchandising, cross-promotion,         ancillary markets, international distribution)     Platforming vs. wide release     Trailer Exhibition     Theatrical/Nontheatrical Narrative Systems Story vs. plot Story, plot, and screen duration Diegesis (i.e., difference between diegetic and non-diegetic     elements) Restricted vs. unrestricted narration     Point-of-view shot MacGuffin The Shot: Cinematography Film stock     contrast Tinting and toning Hand coloring (e.g., the flag in Battleship Potemkin) Exposure     Filters Day for night Speed of motion     Silent: 16-20 frames per second     Sound: 24 fps     Slow-motion     Ramping     Time-lapse cinematography     Stretch printing Lenses     Short focal length (wide-angle)     Middle focal length (normal)     Long focal length (telephoto) Depth of field     Deep focus     Racking (pulling) focus Special effects     Process (or composite) shot     Rear projection     Front projection     Matte work Framing     Aspect Ratio     Masking Screen space     Onscreen vs. offscreen Camera position     Angle: high, low, straight on     Level vs. canted framing     Height Distance: Extreme long shot, long shot, medium long shot, medium     shot, medium close-up, close-up, extreme close-up Mobile frame     Pan     Tilt     Tracking (dolly) shot     Crane shot     Steadicam and hand-held     Reframing, following shot Duration of the image     Long take     Sequence shot Editing Cut Fade-out, fade-in Wipe Graphic match Flashback / flash-forward Continuity editing     180-degree rule and axis of action     Establishing / reestablishing shot     Shot / reverse shot     Eyeline match / match on action     Cheat cut     Crosscutting     Intensified continuity Discontinuity     Jump cut     Nondiegetic insert     Soviet montage         Kuleshov effect         Eisenstein’s principles of montage The Shot: Mise-en-scène (literally, putting into the scene; staging events for the camera; elements of cinema drawn from theater) Setting (location shooting, set design, props) Lighting     Types of shadows (cast and attached)     Features of lighting         Quality: hard and soft         Direction: frontal, sidelight, backlighting (edge or rim             lighting), underlighting, top lighting         Source: natural, studio     Three-point lighting     Key light (high-key lighting, low-key lighting)     Fill light     Backlight     Color Costume (and makeup) Figure movement and behavior Elements of figure performance Visual: appearance, gestures, facial expressions         Sound: voice, effects     Typecasting     Typage Scene space     Vision attuned to changes in movement, color, balance, size.     Depth cues: lanes in image, overlap of edges, aerial perspective         or hazing of distant planes, size diminution     Perspective: linear, off-center linear perspective, central         perspective     Shallow space     Deep space Film History Lumière Brothers and Georges Méliès German expressionism Classical Hollywood cinema Film noir and neo-noir Paper Guidelines and Topics Basic Requirements: This assignment asks you to analyze a sequence of your choosing from The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow, 2009). A sequence analysis assignment has two parts: a shot breakdown (usually 2-3 pages) and an essay (4-5 pages). The first part consists of a numbered, shot-by-shot breakdown of the sequence, and it should list important technical details (type of shot, mobile framing, lighting, transitions, etc.) and any relevant additional information related to dialogue, sound, and figure movement. This section will be concerned primarily with the formal elements of the sequence. The second part—the essay—must be more than a list of formal features, and it should extend beyond the limits of the particular sequence analyzed. The essay should demonstrate how these various elements of film technique and style construct meaning in the sequence and how they contribute to the meaning of the film as a whole. In other words, the essay should treat the sequence as a segment of the film with its own internal structure (a beginning, an ending, patterns of editing and mise-en-scène), but it should also consider how that particular sequence is related to the overall formal, textual, and cultural system of the film. Style and Format: The paper should begin with an informative and provocative title. It should state the thesis or argument early on, and each paragraph should contribute to that argument in clearly identifiable ways. Avoid pure description and plot summary whenever possible, and, when necessary, use only evocative, “thick” description. Be specific, and support all general statements with particular examples. This is not a research paper, so you are not encouraged to consult any materials on the films aside from the basic production information contained on a site like IMDB. If you do use outside sources, you should cite them in a proper format. From “Reading a Film Sequence” By Anton Kaes and Eric Rentschler Preliminary Notes The inventory of the following worksheet for the most draws attention to formal concerns, to matters grounded in the work of the text. Every text, though, is a function of at least two contexts: the context in which it was made, the context in which it functions. Every text speaks in a number of different ways, i. e., it recycles the givens of tradition, engaging various forms of discourse, putting them together in a way to produce an aesthetic entity. These texts are something like a stringing together of quotations, of reworking conventions, of adding together a number of impulses from the world in which one lives, appropriating various elements in a way that leads to something different, and in that sense, new. The work that goes into ferreting out the different voices in a text involves, among other things, an awareness of historical situations, the assumptions and background of an artist and his/her team, the motivation (s) behind a certain production. Beyond that, to talk about a filmic text means that we engage in a dialogue that brings us into the scene as a participant in an exchange: we make certain assumptions, both methodological and theoretical ones. Even the statement “I didn’t like this film” carries with it a sizable amount of implicit assumptions. Any thorough analysis of a film involves studying the following:     •     the socio-historical background to the film, economic and political factors that conditioned its making and explain its existence;     •     the traditions out of which a given film arises:          the sorts of cultural quotations it partakes of, the conventions it makes use of, the degree to which it participates in certain specifically national patterns of expression;     •     the institutional positioning of a given film:          its status in the public sphere in which it is received;     •     the director/author’s larger body of work, of which the film is part of a larger whole;     •     the “work” of the text itself, never forgetting, though, that films issue from a larger extra-filmic whole;     •     the question of a film’s reception in time and how this has pre-shaped our own expectations as well as the film’s place in history;     •     the relation of a text to certain intertexts; these can be directly suggested by a film or they can be creative associations suggested by the spectator. I. Narrative 1. What is the function of this sequence within the larger narrative action: exposition, climax, foreshadowing, transition, etc? Does the sequence encapsulate the major oppositions at work in the film? What are the underlying issues in the sequence (often glossed over and obscured in the overt action and in the dialogue, but possibly alluded to in the visuals)? What is the selected sequence “really” about? What aspect of the story does it establish, revise, develop? How do the visuals express it? 2. How is the story told? (linear, with flashbacks, flash-forwards, episodically?) What “happens” on the level of the plot? How do plot and story differ, if at all? 3. Can the sequence be divided into individual segments (indicated, for instance, by shifts of location, jumps in time, intertitles, etc.)? Assuming the film’s story consists of many “wisps of narratives,” all intricately interwoven with each other, how many simultaneous narratives (substories) does the sequence contain? 4. How do the various channels of information used in film--image, speech, sound, music, writing--interact to produce meaning? Does one of the channels dominate in this sequence? 5. Is there a recognizable source of the narration? Voice-over or off-screen commentary? What is the narrator’s perspective? 6. Does the film acknowledge the spectator or do events transpire as if no one were present? Do characters look into the camera or pretend it is not there? Does the film reflect on the fact that the audience assumes the role of voyeurs to the screen exhibition? 7. Does the film reflect on its “constructedness” by breaking the illusion of a self-sufficient “story apparently told by nobody?” Are there intertitles, film-within-film sequences, obtrusive and self-conscious (“unrealistic”) camera movements calling attention to the fact that the film is a construct? 8. How does the narrative position the spectator vis-a-vis the onscreen events and characters? Are we made to respond in certain ways to certain events (say, through music that “tells” us how to respond or distances us from the action)? How are women portrayed? Are they primarily shown as passive objects of the male gaze? Does the camera transfigure them (through soft-focus, framing, etc.)? 9. Does the narrative (as encapsulated in the sequence) express (indirectly) current political views? Does the film sequence conform to, affirm, or question dominant ideologies? Does the filmmaker (unconsciously) subvert the expression of minority or non-conformist views by recourse to old visual cliches? II. Staging The filmmaker stages an event to be filmed. What is put in front of the camera? How does the staging comment on the story? How does it visualize the main conflicts of the story? 1. Setting: On location or in the studio? “Realistic” or stylized? Historical or contemporary? Props that take on a symbolic function? Are things like mirrors, crosses, windows, books accentuated? Why? How do sets and props comment on the narrative? 2. Space: Cluttered or empty? Does it express a certain atmosphere? Is the design symmetrical or asymmetrical? Balanced or unbalanced? Stylized or natural? Open form: frame is de-emphasized, has a documentary “snapshot” quality; closed form: frame is carefully composed, self-contained, and theatrical; the frame acts as a boundary and a limit. Is space used as an indirect comment on a character’s inner state of mind? 3. Lighting: What is illuminated, what is in the shadow? Lighting quality: hard lighting (bold shadows) or soft (diffused illumination)? Direction: frontal lighting (flat image), sidelighting (for dramatic effect), backlighting (only the silhouette is visible), underlighting (from a fireplace, for example)? “Realistic” or high contrast/symbolic lighting? High key/low key? Special lighting effects? (e. g. shadows, spotlight). Natural lighting or studio? (Hollywood has three light sources: key light, fill light, and backlight.) How does the lighting enhance the expressive potential of the film? 4. Acting and Choreography: What do appearance, gestures, facial expressions, voice signify? Professional actors or non-actors? Why? Movement of characters: toward or away from the camera, from left to right or vice versa? Do characters interact with each other through their gaze? Who looks at whom? Grouping of characters before the camera; view ofcharacters (clear or obscured [behind objects], isolated or integrated, center or off-center, background or foreground?) How do acting and choreography attract and guide the viewer’s attention (and manipulate his/her sympathies)? How do they create suspense, ambiguity, wrong clues, complexity, and certainties? 5. Costume and Make-Up: “Realistic” or stylized/abstract? Social and cultural coding: what do the costumes signify (status, wealth, attitude, foreignness, etc.)? III. Cinematography The filmmaker controls not only what is filmed but how it is filmed: how the staged, “pro-filmic” event is photographed and framed, how long the image lasts on the screen. 1. Photography: Film Stock: What type of photographic film is used? (Fast film stock to achieve grainy, contrasty look) Tinting? Over/underexposed? Black and white or color? Symbolic use of colors? Subjective use/colors linked to certain characters? Colors as leitmotif? Speed of Motion: “Normal” speed (24 frames per second for sound film; 16 for silent); slow motion; accelerated motion; freeze frame; time-lapse (low shooting speed: a frame a minute; see the sun set in seconds)? Lens: Wide-angle; normal; telephoto lens (depth reduced)? Zoom lens? Focus: Depth of field; shallow focus; deep focus (everything is in sharp focus)? Rack focus (lens refocuses)? Soft focus? Special Effects: Glass shot; superimposition; projection process? How do such photographic manipulations of the shot function within the overall content of the film? 2. Camera/Framing: Angle/Level: High angle, low angle, straight-on angle; eye-level shot; oblique angle; canted frame? Distance: Extreme long shot, long shot, medium shot, (extreme) close-up? Movement (Mobile Framing): Pan: horizontal “pan-orama” shot? Tilt: up or down? Tracking (ordolly) shot: camera travels forward, backward, in various directions? Crane? Aerial shot? How do camera movements function? What information do they provide about the space of the image? Does the camera always follow the action? Does it continually offer new perspectives on the characters and the objects? Subjective camera movement? How does it relate to on-screen/offscreen space? Type of shot: Establishing shot? Point-of-view shot? Reaction shot? Shot-counter shot? IV. Editing Transition Techniques: Gradual changes: dissolve (superimpose briefly one shot over the following; fade-in or -out (lighten or darken the image); cuts (instantaneous changes from one shot to another); abrupt shifts and disjunctions. Does editing comment on the relationships between characters and spaces? Purpose of Editing: Continuity editing, thematic or dialectical montage, “invisible” cutting, shock cutting, cross-cutting (alternates shots of two or more lines of actions going on indifferent places). Rhythm and Pace: flowing/jerky/disjointed/more pans than cuts? /fast-paced/slow-paced/ are there major changes in rhythm due to different editing? Shot duration? V. Sound Music: Is its source part of the story (=“diegetic”) or added on (=“nondiegetic”)? With diegetic sound the source of the sound can be visible (on-screen) or unseen (off-screen). What kind of music: classical/rock/exotic/familiar? Typical for the period depicted? Does music comment (foreshadow or contradict) the action? Does it irritate? What is the music’s purpose in a film? How does it direct our attention within the image? How does it shape our interpretation of the image? Sound effects: Artificial or natural sound? On- or off-screen source? Is there subjective sound? What does it signify? Dialogue/silence: Stilted or artificial language? Do different characters use different kinds of language? Slang, dialect, profanity? Allusion to other texts, quotations? Do certain characters speak through their silences? Voice-Over/Narration: Who is speaking and from where? Is voice-over part of the actionor (nondiegetically) outside of it? What does the narrator know and what is his/her relationship to the action? Is s/he reliable, omniscient, unreliable? Synchronization: Is sound matched with the image? Non-simultaneous sound? (For instance, reminiscing narrator or when sound from the next scene begins while the images of the last one are still on the screen. This is also called a “sound bridge”.) Second Midterm Review Note on the Structure of the Exam The midterm will again consist of two parts: 1) identification (fill-in and multiple-choice questions; 20-30% of total point value); and 2) analysis (short essays; 70-80%). The answers to questions in Part One will be drawn from the list of terms and concepts below. A typical fill-in question will consist of the definition of a term from the textbook or lecture with the term itself left blank or a brief clip from a film and a related question asking you to identify the kind of sound technique used in that clip. The essays in Part Two will focus on films on our syllabus (rather than clips show in lecture, though you are, of course, free to supplement your answers by referring to other relevant films). The questions may ask you to identify and analyze a clip shown during the exam or to write about thematic or theoretical issues raised in one or more films screened in our MW sessions. The information on this review sheet will help you to identify important technical and stylistic features of these films, but the essays should go beyond a discussion of formal features and explore the meaning of that sequence and the film as a whole. Key films for Second Midterm The Rules of the Game Citizen Kane Do the Right Thing In the Mood for Love The Conversation The River Night and Fog The Thin Blue Line Un Chien andalou Spirited Away Sound History of film sound     First sound films     Resistance and alternatives to sound     Multiple language versions and the problem of foreign languages     Adaptation of classical Hollywood cinema to sound Stages of sound design: design, recording, editing, mixing Perceptual properties: loudness, pitch, timbre Three types of film sound: speech, music, and noise (sound effects) Roles of sound personnel: foley artist, sound designer (Walter Murch) Sound mixing: dialogue overlap, sneaking in and sneaking out Dimensions of film sound     Rhythm         “Mickey-Mousing”     Fidelity     Spatial dimensions         Types of sound space (nondiegetic; onscreen and offscreen                 diegetic, internal and external diegetic, sound over)         Sound perspective     Temporal dimensions         Synchronous and asynchronous sound         Simultaneous and non-simultaneous sound (e.g., flashbacks)         Sound bridge Additional terms for sound studies     Sound match     Establishing sound     Generic sound     Soundscape     Subjective sound     Sound balance Documentary Types of documentary     Compilation     Interview     Direct cinema (cinéma vérité)     Nature film     Mockumentary History of documentary (Robert Flaherty, Pare Lorentz, Leni Riefenstahl) New documentary (Linda Williams reading) Errol Morris Experimental and avant-garde film Types of experimental film     Abstract and associational form Production system and exhibition circuits Structural film Surrealist film Animated film Types of animated film     Cut-outs     Clay animation     Model or puppet animation     Pixillation     Computer imaging Japanese anime Film history The Rules of the Game Citizen Kane Jean Renoir Orson Welles (and his collaborators: Herman Mankiewicz, Gregg Toland) Auteur theory French New Wave New Hollywood and Independent filmmaking
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