DRA 202 Flashcards
(89 cards)
1
Q
Ways to analyze movies
A
Interracial couple
Anti-Asian prejudice
The power of presentation
2
Q
Understanding movies by understanding
A
The complex ways they relate to society
3
Q
Critical lenses
A
Narrative structure Authorship Genre Series, prequels, sequels Realism Gender, race and class
4
Q
Narrative
A
Way in which the story of events are organized
5
Q
Feature films =
A
Narrative 1st
Everything else 2nd
6
Q
Classical Hollywood style
A
Moving from one important event to another
7
Q
Classical Hollywood narrative style
A
Plot should have clear forward direction, contributing to the resolution of goals
8
Q
Private goals
A
Heterosexual romance
9
Q
Public goals
A
Accomplishment of an important deed
10
Q
Plots and subplots
A
Main - dramatic
Plot - comic
Subplots - romantic
11
Q
Story
A
Events must be narrated in chronological order
12
Q
Plot
A
The arrangement of those events as they’re told
13
Q
Flashback (structure)
A
Creates plot w/ added suspense
14
Q
Free motif
A
Aren’t essential to retelling or explaining the narrative
Can be removed from the film w/o changing the narrative structure
15
Q
Name a free motif
A
Images of slaughtered animals
Typically give aesthetic complexity and thematic meaning to a film
16
Q
Bound motifs
A
Cannot be removed from the narrative w/o changing the chronological essence of the story. It’s what’s necessary for telling the story
17
Q
Delays
A
Sustain spectator interest, answering questions at different rates
18
Q
Snares
A
Being mislead
19
Q
Answers
A
Are answers
20
Q
Flashbacks
A
Reveal the “truth”
21
Q
Formal properties
A
Refer to the elements of the medium that shape what we see and hear when we watch a film
22
Q
2 elements of a film
A
Visual
Aural
23
Q
Visual images
A
How the story is told is inseparable from and as important as the story itself
24
Q
Stylistic features
A
B/W
SLO-mo
Image and sound
Simultaneous split-screen
25
Visual style and narrative effect
The story and manner in which its told is inseparable
26
Common stylistic techniques
- Invisible style
- Shot/reverse-shot editing
- Cutting on action/reaction
- establishing shots
- the 180-degree rule
- comic use of space
27
Shot/reverse-shot editing
A pattern whereby 1st a shot shows one character and then there is a cut to a reverse shot that shows us a nearly opposite view.
28
Cutting on action/reaction
- Action replaces dialogue
| - Reaction replaces the responsive line dialogue
29
Establishing shots
AKA master shots
Extreme long shots that shows (or establishes) the entire space in which the ensuing scene will take place
30
The 180-degree rule
A filmmaking guideline for spatial relations between 2 characters on screen.
Sets an imaginary axis between 2 characters or between a character and an object.
31
How filmmakers compose
Shots
Color
Shape
Light
=
Important part of our experience of their works
32
Offscreen space
| 6 potential areas
Spaces at left, right, top and bottom of the image
Behind camera
Beyond the horizon
33
Frame line
The sides of an image
34
Color and sound
Can be structured to create formal complexity
35
Free motifs
Become part of character and/or thematic development
36
Invisible style of editing
If a film is so well made that you don’t realize you’re watching a film
37
Private goals
You resolve something
38
2 departures of stylistic norm
B/W
Split screen
Long takes
Moving camera etc
39
A pattern whereby 1st a shot shows one character and then there’s a cut to a reverse shot is a
Shot reverse shot
40
Characters and motifs are represented within a system of formal elements into...
Plot composed of free and bound visual and aural motifs
41
Characters and motifs are represented within a system of formal elements...
Camera position/movement
Cutting patterns
Spatial relationships
-on/off screen space
42
Ahistorical author
Concepts of an author as a genius who possesses profound, universal insight outdated, dangerous
43
Establishing shots
set-up where the scene is going to take place
44
The director ultimately
Maintains the creative control.
They assemble everything
45
Public personas
Directors create a public persona thru public appearances
46
Genres like directors go thru developmental periods...
When films become more reflective, introspective or referential
47
What is an author?
Usually refers to someone responsible for creating a work of art
48
Directors style
Early
Middle
Late
49
Early
Introduces preoccupations in a simple manner
50
Middle
Develops them in a complex manner
51
Late
either extends them to an elaborate extreme or reduces them to a sparse simplicity that refers back to the previous work
52
Structural
all films are considered to be part of a group wherein any film can be fully understood only in relation to the entire structure or oeuvre
53
Linear and structural analysis is the...
study of the films themselves not the person who made them
54
Linear
study of the films themselves not the person who made them
55
Films that conform to a specific set of expectations are called...
Genre films
56
Genre means
Type
57
Series
Series - a number of movies that usually employ the same basic characters, situations, and style as the original movie. Each episode is self-contained; no knowledge of the events of an earlier film is necessary to an understanding of any other one.
58
Sequel
Starts where the prior film left off
59
Prequel
Prequel - a film whose story begins before that of the well-known film. The principle is similar.
60
Why remake a film
technical, make right a failure, translation, relaxation of censorship
61
Allusionism
New generation of filmmakers who learned their craft not within the industry but in film school
62
Why are stars important
-Most visible people involved in the movie
●Audiences pay to see them
●Major component of advertising
●Personal lives enhance a film’s popularity
63
Stage actors vs movie actors
- Stage actor creates full performance in one space and time before a live audience. Responsible for the timing, continuity, modulation, and the shaping of the whole performance. Can very performance from night to night.
- Movie actor seldom performs for more than a few minutes at a time. Acts in front of a camera in short bits over a roughly three-month period. Entire work is shot and pieced together by other people.
64
Actors vs stars
?
65
Language in cinema
Small part of what contributes the creation of that world
66
Dialogue
Primary means of maintaining a fictional world in theater
67
Screen plays
Read for enjoyment or taught separately for films
68
Reception study
Reception Study explores the variety of ways in which historically specific audiences have responded to films and other works of art as well as the reasons for those responses.
69
Plays
Written in spoken words
70
Films
Are performed words. Things that carry images and sound
71
Theater is a
Writers medium
72
Film is a ...
Directors medium
73
Reception includes...
Reception includes what kind of theater the film is screened in, how the film is advertised, and how it relates to current events
74
Unanticipated responses
Reactions of professional film critics
75
Language in cinema
Language in cinema is a (small) part of a fictional world created by image and sound
76
Screenplays
Screenplays are seldom read for enjoyment or taught separately from the films that were made using them.
77
Aesthetic identity of a play is contained in the...
Dialogue
78
Literature language..
With literature, language plays not only the dominant role but also the only role.
79
Literature is not _____, it is ______
Performed
| Read
80
Novels are
Pages with words
81
Difference b/t novels and films
differences in parallel narratives not variations on the same one.
82
Narratives are constructed around
Narratives are constructed around a set of questions that get resolved.
83
Feature films place strong emphasis on
resolving narrative questions
84
Differences in reception contexts
Movies - focused attention
■Image AND sound
○TV - assumed to be distracted
■Listening as opposed to listening AND watching; less likely to receive important info exclusively in visual terms
85
Narrative patterns in movies..
filmmakers assume that once you are in the theater they have your undivided attention. Plot builds towards a climax and resolution.
86
Tv vs film narratives
TV narratives are more segmented than film narratives and contain mini-climaxes that occur before a commercial
87
Film...
greatest creative control lies with the...
Director
88
Film...
Executive producers ...
Executive producers invest money in productions
89
Film...
Producers oversee the ...
Logistics of a production
