Film Openings
Were shown three openings in lecture. State opinions on them all.
Jurassic Park
There is a strong sense of tension in this opening when the giant metal container is brought on camera, waiting to be opened. With the roars/screeches and rattling of the container, it strongly suggests that there is something inside there, and it is much larger than us. The mysterious monster goes for the real thrill when it makes its intention clear – kill the crew members guarding its pen. There is a strong sense of respect towards the creature in this opening scene. The crew does everything they can before coming to the ultimate conclusion of putting it down. This allows for the suspense and the thrill to last longer and let the audience know that this creature really is a threat and should be taken seriously.
The Godfather
The Godfather is a gang/mob themed movie. In its opening we see the Mob leader talking to the audience about his current problems. This is to portray that there will be strong emotional moments throughout the film, and that there is drama mixed in with the movie’s main genre.
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Right off the bat the watcher will know what kind of this movie could be. With vibrant colours and light music, it is indeed a comedy. However, there are relatable elements for the audience here, like the concept of people being careless with their money and ending up in debt, all because they cannot get enough of shopping for themselves.
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Film Form Structure
An artwork needs both form and content. Content as the subject and artwork (what the work is about), and form is the means by which the the subject is expressed and experienced.
In the world of movies, form is cinematic language: the tools and techniques that filmmakers use to convey meaning and mood to the viewer including lighting, mise-en-scene, cinematography, performance, editing and sound…
Form and contents are interrelated, interdependent and interactive.
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Cinematography
If we were to make films based on UFOs…
Close Encounters of the Third Kind – Mothership
This piece is rather unique. No dialogue was required to show what is happening with this scene. Humanity and Alien, instead of using speech, use a form of music-based Morse Code to communicate with one another.
Independence Day – Time’s Up
Here is a scene of an American city being assaulted by extraterrestrial beings. Iconic buildings are destroyed such as the Whitehouse. Conánn explained to us how the effects were made in this movie. They did not have the CGI technology back then, so instead, they built a small-scale city, rotated it and attached it to a thin wall. They then have blasts of fire shoot upward from the floor that engorge and burn the buildings.
Mars Attacks! – Attack of the White House
Tim Burton is a one of a kind with his work and style when it comes to film. This style is rather different from the creepy, corpse-like style he uses, this movie has a purposely old-fashioned animation style. The aliens completely CGI, and are animated to move just like humans.
The Neighbours – Marty explains Aliens
Clip from the funny tv show “The Neighbors”. Family father Marty tries to explain how “Death comes” to the aliens. His son (Max Charles) doesn’t like that at all. -Video Description
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Form and Expectations
Film grabs a hold of us because it creates expectations.
Example: American Beauty opening
This is a rather sinister scenario. It discovers just how far will someone go just to win the affections of another. This opening starts of showing the daily routine of a man, a routine which he seems to hate (perhaps he has a mental condition, like depression?) He seems to have lost something in his life, and he needs to embark on a journey to reclaim what was lost.
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Sometimes, the formal development didn’t really satisfy our expectations immediately. It is suspense, which involves a delay in fulfilling an established expectation. As the term implies, suspense leaves something suspended – not only the next element in a pattern but also our urge for completion.
Example: Jurassic Park – T-rex eats Goat and Escapes Pen
“This video shows what the absence of certain shots does to the suspense of the scene.
Version 1 – Re edited Scene
Version 2 – Original
I do not on any of the content in this clip.
The clip and film is owned by Universal Pictures.” -Video Description
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Parallel Editing
How suspense can cheat expectations.
Good Example: Silence of the Lambs – False Agent Raid
Expectations may also be cheated, as when we expect one outcome but get another. In general, surprise is a result of an expectation that is revealed to be incorrect.
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Form and Feeling
Emotion plays a large role in our experience of form. Emotions represented in the artwork & emotional response felt by the spectator.
Example: Charlie Chaplin – Lion’s Cage
Emotions represented within the film play particular roles in the film’s overall form.
Example: A Walk in Nature POSITIVE EMOTIONS
“As a part of my study in film I intended on moulding an emotional response through sight and sound.
I created TWO EXACTLY THE SAME VIDEOS with the same footage and same runtime, yet each one is different in lighting and music, evoking two completely different responses.
Motifs throughout both films represent polar opposites (e.g. the rope in the POSITIVE video represents childlike pleasure, a swing; in the NEGATIVE it is symbolic of depression and suicide)
To watch the other video check out my channel or follow the link below, hope you appreciate them!”- Video Description
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Meanings
- Referential Meaning – refers directly to things that happen in the plot and possibly to some aspects of the story that are merely implied by the plot
- Explicit Meaning – right on the surface of things—it is the result of what we have been explicitly shown and told onscreen.
- Implicit Meaning – more abstract than the first two meanings. It is about something general. This meaning isn’t stated directly. It is the interpretation.
- Symptomatic Meaning – another abstract meaning, and also general. It is ultimately ideological, and can be applied equally well to many other
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Fundamentals of Film Form
Three fundamental principles of film form:
1 – Light
Light is responsible for the image we see on the screen, whether photographed (shot) on film, created with a computer or drawn on pieces of celluloid.
Lighting is responsible for significant effects in each shot or scene. It enhances the texture, depth, emotions and mood.
2 – Movement
Movement separates cinema from all other two-dimensional pictorial art forms.
The movement we can see in the movie screen is an illusion, made possible by two interacting optical and perceptual phenomena: persistence of vision and the phi phenomenon.
Persistence of vision is the process by which the human brain retains an image for a fraction of a second longer than the eye records it. Phi phenomenon is the illusion of movement, the optical illusion of perceiving a series of still images, when viewed in rapid succession, as continuous motion.
“Can movement tell a story? Sure, if you’re as gifted as Akira Kurosawa. More than any other filmmaker, he had an innate understanding of movement and how to capture it onscreen. Join me today in studying the master, possibly the greatest composer of motion in film history.“- Video Description
3 – Space & Time
Film manipulates space and time equally well, and thus is a spatial and temporal art form.
Film can move from one space to another or make space move, or fragment time. In many different ways, film can record real time in its chronological passing, as well as subjective versions of time passing – slow motion.
“Shaji N Karun talks about Space, Time & how cinema has influenced human mind in a short time.
Shaji Neelakantan Karun is a National Award-winning Indian film director and cinematographer. His debut film Piravi (1988) won the Camera d’Or – Mention d’honneur at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival. He was the Premiere Chairman of the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, the first academy for film and TV in India and was also the Executive Chairman of International Film Festival of Kerala from 1998 to 2001. He is best known for his award winning films Piravi (1989), Vanaprastham (1999) and Kutty Srank (2009). He was the recipient of Padma Shri award in 2011.” – Video Description
Squigley Does Animation 