Helpful Terms
Indicating:
Acting performance that is focused upon excessive physical expression of
emotions in easily recognizable ways. eg: An actor playing a role of an angry
man might shake his fist in the air and grimace. We get it, you're really mad.
Next time try actually giving up your ego and feeling the emotion and let's see
where that gets your performance.
Packing:
Actors must do their packing before getting the portal to the inner life of the
character to open up to them. This means that when first introduced to the
character, the actor then begins the contemplative and creative process of
understanding the character. The actor will think about such things as what the
character ate for breakfast that morning and why, the character's favorite
color, and who was the character's first grade teacher, etc.
Beat: The
place of a natural pause in the script or movement.
The Middle
Space: The place that allows an actor to observe his performance whilst
performing. It is the place between actor and observer, and so having the actor
hog up space in the audience to watch himself as well is plain bad form.
Anachronistic Response: Moving the body in a (sometimes cliche) way that is
representative of an era other than the one being created in the world of the
film.
Chirascuro
Lighting: Rembrandt lighting; fast FALL OFF ratio 1:1 or equal parts dark to
light.
Motivated/Unmotivated
light: Light source is suggested in the frame - motivated. Media and the Mind
For week one,
we are concerned with the elements of film syntax. That is, why do we use a two
shot, why do we use a close-up shot rather than a longshot for a certain part
of the film, why do we use sound effects and what kind, etc.
For your
guided study: Start looking at basic film aesthetics websites and books and
figure out even the most rudimentary aspects of film aesthetics such as
"CU" and "LS", "SPFX" and "SFX."
To ponder:
Film language has evolved only over the last 100 years. The meanings it has have
been shaped by the modern mind. Yet, much of film harkens its visual
composition and themes to Western Civilization's visual art tradition.
The way film
theorists discuss this concept is rooted in a consideration of film as art.
One of the
basic film theories related to this is: Auteur Theory.
The other of
the basic building blocks is Aesthetics.
So, we are
understanding film as art that is created by a series of choices (such as
lighting, sound, etc.)
Now, if we are
understanding art and its grounding in choices, what we are doing is studying
Aesthetics. What that amounts to is thinking about how lighting quality or
sound-tracking (choices in production design) etc. (a) work with the human
brain, (b) work to create Unity in production design (or fail at it), and (c)
evolve a filmic language as an art form and visual syntax (e.g. we know that a
close-up shot means one thing as opposed to a long shot.)
Finally, we
are scholars and need to learn how to use scholarly tools, and therefore I
bring you to use the tools of film journals and the historically pertinent, Cahiers du Cinema.
The last
assignment is meant to be a fun, creative exercise where you can use what
you've learned by thinking about aesthetics, reading about filmmaking, and
actively observing three films.
See how I wove
this all together? It's like Karate
Kid.
So by the end
of the weeks, you will have thought about the fundamentals of film theory and
learned how to use them, too.
If you would
like further information to explore regarding Film and Music theory:
Film Theory in
Practice:
Philosophy of
Narratology:
Persistence of
Vision:
Depth of
Field:
and
You will find
a lot of articles of value for this course at:
and
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