Film Studies

Origin and history of arts and Film's place

Art is a diverse range of human activities involving the creation of visual, auditory or performing artifacts
(artworks), which express the creator's imagination, conceptual ideas, or technical skill, intended to be
appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.[1][2] Other activities related to the production
of works of art include the criticism of art, and the study of the history of art.

The arts, on the other hand, refers to the theory, human application and physical expression of creativity
found in human cultures and societies through skills and imagination in order to produce objects,
environments and experiences.

Major constituents of the arts include visual arts (including architecture, ceramics, drawing, filmmaking,
painting, photography, and sculpting), literary arts (including fiction, drama, poetry, and prose),
performing arts (including dance, music, and theatre), and culinary arts (including cooking, chocolate
making and winemaking).

Precursors of Film

The art of film has drawn on several earlier traditions in fields such as oral storytelling, literature, theatre
and visual arts. Forms of art and entertainment that had already featured moving and/or projected images
include:

shadowgraphy, probably used since prehistoric times

camera obscura, a natural phenomenon that has possibly been used as an artistic aid since prehistoric
times

shadow puppetry, possibly originated around 200 BCE in Central Asia, India, Indonesia or China

magic lantern, developed in the 1650s, also used in the multi-media phantasmagoria shows that were
popular from 1790 throughout the first half of the 19th century and could feature mechanical slides, rear
projection, mobile projectors, superimposition, dissolving views, live actors, smoke (sometimes to project
images upon), odors, sounds and even electric shocks.

History of Film-making

The movie industry as we know it today originated in the early 19th century through a series of
technological developments: the creation of photography, the discovery of the illusion of motion by
combining individual still images, and the study of human and animal locomotion. The history presented
here begins at the culmination of these technological developments, where the idea of the motion picture
as an entertainment industry first emerged. Since then, the industry has seen extraordinary
transformations, some driven by the artistic visions of individual participants, some by commercial
necessity, and still others by accident. The history of the cinema is complex, and for every important
innovator and movement listed here, others have been left out. Nonetheless, after reading this section you
will understand the broad arc of the development of a medium that has captured the imaginations of
audiences worldwide for over a century.
The Beginnings: Motion Picture Technology of the Late 19th Century

While the experience of watching movies on smartphones may seem like a drastic departure from the
communal nature of film viewing as we think of it today, in some ways the small-format, single-viewer
display is a return to film’s early roots. In 1891, the inventor Thomas Edison, together with William
Dickson, a young laboratory assistant, came out with what they called the kinetoscope, a device that
would become the predecessor to the motion picture projector. The kinetoscope was a cabinet with a
window through which individual viewers could experience the illusion of a moving image (Gale Virtual
Reference Library) (British Movie Classics). A perforated celluloid film strip with a sequence of images
on it was rapidly spooled between a light bulb and a lens, creating the illusion of motion (Britannica). The
images viewers could see in the kinetoscope captured events and performances that had been staged at
Edison’s film studio in East Orange, New Jersey, especially for the Edison kinetograph (the camera that
produced kinetoscope film sequences): circus performances, dancing women, cockfights, boxing matches,
and even a tooth extraction by a dentist (Robinson, 1994).

As the kinetoscope gained popularity, the Edison Company began installing machines in hotel lobbies,
amusement parks, and penny arcades, and soon kinetoscope parlors—where customers could pay around
25 cents for admission to a bank of machines—had opened around the country. However, when friends
and collaborators suggested that Edison find a way to project his kinetoscope images for audience
viewing, he apparently refused, claiming that such an invention would be a less profitable venture
(Britannica).

Because Edison hadn’t secured an international patent for his invention, variations of the kinetoscope
were soon being copied and distributed throughout Europe. This new form of entertainment was an
instant success, and a number of mechanics and inventors, seeing an opportunity, began toying with
methods of projecting the moving images onto a larger screen. However, it was the invention of two
brothers, Auguste and Louis Lumière—photographic goods manufacturers in Lyon, France—that saw the
most commercial success. In 1895, the brothers patented the cinématographe (from which we get the term
cinema), a lightweight film projector that also functioned as a camera and printer. Unlike the Edison
kinetograph, the cinématographe was lightweight enough for easy outdoor filming, and over the years the
brothers used the camera to take well over 1,000 short films, most of which depicted scenes from
everyday life. In December 1895, in the basement lounge of the Grand Café, Rue des Capucines in Paris,
the Lumières held the world’s first ever commercial film screening, a sequence of about 10 short scenes,
including the brother’s first film, Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory, a segment lasting less than a
minute and depicting workers leaving the family’s photographic instrument factory at the end of the day,
as shown in the still frame here in Figure 8.3 (Encyclopedia of the Age of Industry and Empire).

Believing that audiences would get bored watching scenes that they could just as easily observe on a
casual walk around the city, Louis Lumière claimed that the cinema was “an invention without a future
(Menand, 2005),” but a demand for motion pictures grew at such a rapid rate that soon representatives of
the Lumière company were traveling throughout Europe and the world, showing half-hour screenings of
the company’s films. While cinema initially competed with other popular forms of
entertainment—circuses, vaudeville acts, theater troupes, magic shows, and many others—eventually it
would supplant these various entertainments as the main commercial attraction (Menand, 2005). Within a
year of the Lumières’ first commercial screening, competing film companies were offering
moving-picture acts in music halls and vaudeville theaters across Great Britain. In the United States, the
Edison Company, having purchased the rights to an improved projector that they called the Vitascope,
held their first film screening in April 1896 at Koster and Bial’s Music Hall in Herald Square, New York
City.

Film’s profound impact on its earliest viewers is difficult to imagine today, inundated as many are by
video images. However, the sheer volume of reports about the early audience’s disbelief, delight, and
even fear at what they were seeing suggests that viewing a film was an overwhelming experience for
many. Spectators gasped at the realistic details in films such as Robert Paul’s Rough Sea at Dover, and at
times people panicked and tried to flee the theater during films in which trains or moving carriages sped
toward the audience (Robinson). Even the public’s perception of film as a medium was considerably
different from the contemporary understanding; the moving image was an improvement upon the
photograph—a medium with which viewers were already familiar—and this is perhaps why the earliest
films documented events in brief segments but didn’t tell stories. During this “novelty period” of cinema,
audiences were more interested by the phenomenon of the film projector itself, so vaudeville halls
advertised the kind of projector they were using (for example “The Vitascope—Edison’s Latest Marvel”)
(Balcanasu, et. al.), rather than the names of the films (Britannica Online).

By the close of the 19th century, as public excitement over the moving picture’s novelty gradually wore
off, filmmakers were also beginning to experiment with film’s possibilities as a medium in itself (not
simply, as it had been regarded up until then, as a tool for documentation, analogous to the camera or the
phonograph). Technical innovations allowed filmmakers like Parisian cinema owner Georges Méliès to
experiment with special effects that produced seemingly magical transformations on screen: flowers
turned into women, people disappeared with puffs of smoke, a man appeared where a woman had just
been standing, and other similar tricks (Robinson).

Not only did Méliès, a former magician, invent the “trick film,” which producers in England and the
United States began to imitate, but he was also the one to transform cinema into the narrative medium it is
today. Whereas before, filmmakers had only ever created single-shot films that lasted a minute or less,
Méliès began joining these short films together to create stories. His 30-scene Trip to the Moon (1902), a
film based on a Jules Verne novel, may have been the most widely seen production in cinema’s first
decade (Robinson). However, Méliès never developed his technique beyond treating the narrative film as
a staged theatrical performance; his camera, representing the vantage point of an audience facing a stage,
never moved during the filming of a scene. In 1912, Méliès released his last commercially successful
production, The Conquest of the Pole, and from then on, he lost audiences to filmmakers who were
experimenting with more sophisticated techniques (Encyclopedia of Communication and Information).

Georges Méliès’s Trip to the Moon was one of the first films to incorporate fantasy elements and to use
“trick” filming techniques, both of which heavily influenced future filmmakers.

The Nickelodeon Craze (1904–1908)

One of these innovative filmmakers was Edwin S. Porter, a projectionist and engineer for the Edison
Company. Porter’s 12-minute film, The Great Train Robbery (1903), broke with the stagelike
compositions of Méliès-style films through its use of editing, camera pans, rear projections, and
diagonally composed shots that produced a continuity of action. Not only did The Great Train Robbery
establish the realistic narrative as a standard in cinema, it was also the first major box-office hit. Its
success paved the way for the growth of the film industry, as investors, recognizing the motion picture’s
great moneymaking potential, began opening the first permanent film theaters around the country.

Known as nickelodeons because of their 5 cent admission charge, these early motion picture theaters,
often housed in converted storefronts, were especially popular among the working class of the time, who
couldn’t afford live theater. Between 1904 and 1908, around 9,000 nickelodeons appeared in the United
States. It was the nickelodeon’s popularity that established film as a mass entertainment medium
(Dictionary of American History).

The “Biz”: The Motion Picture Industry Emerges

As the demand for motion pictures grew, production companies were created to meet it. At the peak of
nickelodeon popularity in 1910 (Britannica Online), there were 20 or so major motion picture companies
in the United States. However, heated disputes often broke out among these companies over patent rights
and industry control, leading even the most powerful among them to fear fragmentation that would loosen
their hold on the market (Fielding, 1967). Because of these concerns, the 10 leading
companies—including Edison, Biograph, Vitagraph, and others—formed the Motion Picture Patents
Company (MPPC) in 1908. The MPPC was a trade group that pooled the most significant motion picture
patents and established an exclusive contract between these companies and the Eastman Kodak Company
as a supplier of film stock. Also known as the Trust, the MPPC’s goal was to standardize the industry and
shut out competition through monopolistic control. Under the Trust’s licensing system, only certain
licensed companies could participate in the exchange, distribution, and production of film at different
levels of the industry—a shut-out tactic that eventually backfired, leading the excluded, independent
distributors to organize in opposition to the Trust (Britannica Online).

The Rise of the Feature

In these early years, theaters were still running single-reel films, which came at a standard length of 1,000
feet, allowing for about 16 minutes of playing time. However, companies began to import multiple-reel
films from European producers around 1907, and the format gained popular acceptance in the United
States in 1912 with Louis Mercanton’s highly successful Queen Elizabeth, a three-and-a-half reel
“feature,” starring the French actress Sarah Bernhardt. As exhibitors began to show more features—as the
multiple-reel film came to be called—they discovered a number of advantages over the single-reel short.
For one thing, audiences saw these longer films as special events and were willing to pay more for
admission, and because of the popularity of the feature narratives, features generally experienced longer
runs in theaters than their single-reel predecessors (Motion Pictures). Additionally, the feature film gained
popularity among the middle classes, who saw its length as analogous to the more “respectable”
entertainment of live theater (Motion Pictures). Following the example of the French film d’art, U.S.
feature producers often took their material from sources that would appeal to a wealthier and better
educated audience, such as histories, literature, and stage productions (Robinson).

As it turns out, the feature film was one factor that brought about the eventual downfall of the MPPC. The
inflexible structuring of the Trust’s exhibition and distribution system made the organization resistant to
change. When movie studio, and Trust member, Vitagraph began to release features like A Tale of Two
Cities (1911) and Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1910), the Trust forced it to exhibit the films serially in single-reel
showings to keep with industry standards. The MPPC also underestimated the appeal of the star system, a
trend that began when producers chose famous stage actors like Mary Pickford and James O’Neill to play
the leading roles in their productions and to grace their advertising posters (Robinson). Because of the
MPPC’s inflexibility, independent companies were the only ones able to capitalize on two important
trends that were to become film’s future: single-reel features and star power. Today, few people would
recognize names like Vitagraph or Biograph, but the independents that outlasted them—Universal,
Goldwyn (which would later merge with Metro and Mayer), Fox (later 20th Century Fox), and Paramount
(the later version of the Lasky Corporation)—have become household names.

Hollywood

As moviegoing increased in popularity among the middle class, and as the feature films began keeping
audiences in their seats for longer periods of time, exhibitors found a need to create more comfortable and
richly decorated theater spaces to attract their audiences. These “dream palaces,” so called because of
their often lavish embellishments of marble, brass, guilding, and cut glass, not only came to replace the
nickelodeon theater, but also created the demand that would lead to the Hollywood studio system. Some
producers realized that the growing demand for new work could only be met if the films were produced
on a regular, year-round system. However, this was impractical with the current system that often relied
on outdoor filming and was predominately based in Chicago and New York—two cities whose weather
conditions prevented outdoor filming for a significant portion of the year. Different companies attempted
filming in warmer locations such as Florida, Texas, and Cuba, but the place where producers eventually
found the most success was a small, industrial suburb of Los Angeles called Hollywood.

Hollywood proved to be an ideal location for a number of reasons. Not only was the climate temperate
and sunny year-round, but land was plentiful and cheap, and the location allowed close access to a
number of diverse topographies: mountains, lakes, desert, coasts, and forests. By 1915, more than 60
percent of U.S. film production was centered in Hollywood (Britannica Online).

The Art of Silent Film

While the development of narrative film was largely driven by commercial factors, it is also important to
acknowledge the role of individual artists who turned it into a medium of personal expression. The
motion picture of the silent era was generally simplistic in nature; acted in overly animated movements to
engage the eye; and accompanied by live music, played by musicians in the theater, and written titles to
create a mood and to narrate a story. Within the confines of this medium, one filmmaker in particular
emerged to transform the silent film into an art and to unlock its potential as a medium of serious
expression and persuasion. D. W. Griffith, who entered the film industry as an actor in 1907, quickly
moved to a directing role in which he worked closely with his camera crew to experiment with shots,
angles, and editing techniques that could heighten the emotional intensity of his scenes. He found that by
practicing parallel editing, in which a film alternates between two or more scenes of action, he could
create an illusion of simultaneity. He could then heighten the tension of the film’s drama by alternating
between cuts more and more rapidly until the scenes of action converged. Griffith used this technique to
great effect in his controversial film The Birth of a Nation, which will be discussed in greater detail later
on in this chapter. Other techniques that Griffith employed to new effect included panning shots, through
which he was able to establish a sense of scene and to engage his audience more fully in the experience of
the film, and tracking shots, or shots that traveled with the movement of a scene (Motion Pictures), which
allowed the audience—through the eye of the camera—to participate in the film’s action.

WHAT’S NEXT?

In the past 20 years, film production has been profoundly altered by the impact of rapidly improving
digital technology. Most mainstream productions are now shot on digital formats with subsequent
processes, such as editing and special effects, undertaken on computers.

Cinemas have invested in digital projection facilities capable of producing screen images that rival the
sharpness, detail and brightness of traditional film projection. Only a small number of more specialist
cinemas have retained film projection equipment.

Intermediality

From its beginnings, cinema has developed in close interaction and, to a certain extent, rivalry with its
sibling arts literature, the theatre, painting, dance, architecture and photography. Whilst, over the past two
decades, scholars have become increasingly interested in the relations between film and the other arts, to
date research efforts have concentrated mainly on specific interfaces notably between film and painting
and film and literature.

The border-crossings between cinema and the other arts that are at the centre of this project allow us to
revisit questions regarding the specificity of the cinematic medium, questions that are all the more
pressing in our digital, 'post-media' age. By engaging researchers and practitioners in dialogue around
these questions the network seeks to broaden the traditional horizon of film studies, fostering a better
understanding of the ways in which cinema is shaped by the other arts and providing a platform for
reflecting on film's status as an 'impure' medium where different art forms intersect and communicate.
Inserting itself into the burgeoning field of intermediality studies, which is stimulating thinking across
disciplines, the project will make a timely intervention in a more general debate about the relationship and
cross-fertilisation between different art forms.

Such historical assessments argue that cinema’s adaptation, convergence, and amalgamation of discrete
features from literature, music, dance, theatre and painting account for its intermedial quality.

Film Studies

The earliest serious writings on film and cinema began to appear soon after medium's birth, and the 1920s
saw the publication of the first historical accounts of cinema and the launch of some critical journals. By
the end of the 1930s, the idea of including film appreciation in school curricula had been put into practice
in the UK, the US, and elsewhere. This venture was prompted by a variety of sometimes contradictory
motives, including a social reform agenda originating from a desire to mitigate the supposedly harmful
influence of films on children, and a cultural appreciation approach which aimed to foster informed
responses to films. A key objective of introducing popular media like film into the classroom was to
educate children’s responses to the sounds and images that were part of their everyday lives; to teach
them to discriminate, in other words.

Efforts to introduce the study of films and cinema into higher education predated film teaching in schools:
in the US, a course called ‘Photoplay Composition’, launched at Columbia University in 1915, was the
first of several similar initiatives. But it wasn’t until the 1950s that the idea of a new scholarly discipline,
with its own body of knowledge and academic presence, began to take wider hold. In France in the late
1940s the filmologie movement had called for a serious study of film, and the 1950s saw several efforts at
naming the field; ‘cinematology’ was one suggestion. By the 1970s, though, film studies had become the
most widely adopted name for the discipline.

Film studies in this period was committed to taking popular cinema seriously, with the aim of creating
new knowledge, developing a rigorous approach towards theorising, and advancing a critical
consideration of the forms, styles and themes of Hollywood cinema in particular. Beyond Hollywood, a
selection of film movements and national cinemas were addressed, including the avant gardes of the first
decade of Soviet cinema and the films associated with 1920s German Expressionism. What Is Cinema?,
an English-language edition of the writings of Cahiers du cinéma critic André Bazin, was published in
1971 and formed a basis for influential work around medium specificity and realism and cinema. By the
1980s, a militant strand of film theory and analysis had produced protocols for ‘against-the-grain’ and
symptomatic readings of Hollywood films, a trend which became controversially associated with Screen.

Since the 1990s, a shift of attention broadly away from Hollywood and towards world cinema has gone
hand-in-hand with engagements with area studies and modern language studies. The digital revolution
and the accompanying media convergence and rise of digital cinema have prompted the reappearance in
the film studies agenda of fundamental questions (What is cinema?, What is the relationship between
cinema and the real?), as well as new debates around the ‘death’ of cinema, all revitalised by new
film-philosophical inquiry.

Today, film studies is a popular choice for students at all levels of higher education, with introductory
curricula typically including studies in film history, film genres, national cinemas, film criticism and
analysis, and film theory.

Genres

Film genres are categories that define a movie based on its narrative elements. Each genre is unique in the
types of stories they tell. Genres have changed and evolved over time, creating several subgenres that
further define the filmmaking styles. Film genres are important for screenwriters and film audiences
because they establish a tonal expectation. Some basic movie genres include:

Action: Movies in the action genre are fast-paced and include a lot of action like fight scenes, chase
scenes, and slow-motion shots. They can feature superheroes, martial arts, or exciting stunts. These
high-octane films are more about the execution of the plot rather than the plot itself. Action movies are
meant to be thrilling to watch and leave audience members on the edge of their seats. Cop movies,
disaster films, and some spy films all fall under the action category. Learn how to write an action
screenplay in our comprehensive guide here.

Adventure: The adventure genre is so similar to the action genre that adventure films are often
categorized as action/adventure movies. Films in the adventure genre usually contain the same basic
genre elements of an action movie with the setting as the key difference. Adventure movies are usually
set in an exotic, far away, or unfamiliar locale.

Comedy: Comedy films are funny and entertaining. The films in this genre center around a comedic
premise—usually putting someone in a challenging, amusing, or humorous situation they’re not prepared
to handle. Good comedy movies are less about making constant jokes, and more about presenting a
universally relatable, real-life story with complex characters who learn an important lesson.
Mockumentary, dark comedy (or black comedy), romantic comedy, parody/spoof, and slapstick comedy
are all examples of comedy subgenres.

Drama: The drama genre features stories with high stakes and a lot of conflicts. They’re plot-driven and
demand that every character and scene move the story forward. Dramas follow a clearly defined narrative
plot structure, portraying real-life scenarios or extreme situations with emotionally-driven characters.
Films that fall into drama sub-genres include historical drama, romantic drama, teen drama, medical
drama, docudrama, and film noir.

Fantasy: Films in the fantasy genre feature magical and supernatural elements that do not exist in the real
world. Although some films juxtapose a real-world setting with fantastical elements, many create entirely
imaginary universes with their own laws, logic, and populations of imaginary races and creatures. Like
science fiction films, fantasy films are speculative but are not tied to reality or scientific fact. High
fantasy, fairy tales, and magical realism are all fantasy subgenres.

Horror: Horror films feature elements that leave people with an overwhelming sense of fear and dread.
Horror movies often include serial killers or monsters as persistent, evil antagonists to play on viewers’
fears or nightmares. Audiences who love the horror genre seek out these movies specifically for the
adrenaline rush produced by ghosts, gore, monsters, and jump-scares. Films that fall into the horror
sub-genres include ghost stories, gothic horror movies, science fiction horror movies, supernatural
movies, dark fantasy movies, psychological horror movies, and slasher movies. Learn how to write a
horror screenplay with our comprehensive guide here.

Musicals: Musical films weave songs or musical numbers into the narrative to progress the story or
further develop the characters. Musicals are often tied to romance films but are not limited to that genre.
Musical movies involve big stage-like productions, integrating important premise or character elements
into the sequences.

Mystery: Mystery films are all about the puzzle, and often feature a detective or amateur sleuth who is
trying to solve it. Mystery films are full of suspense, and the protagonist searches for clues or evidence
throughout the movie, piecing together events and interviewing suspects to solve the central question.
Hardboiled noirs and police procedurals are two subcategories that often fall under the mystery genre.

Romance: Romance films are love stories. They center around two protagonists exploring some of the
elements of love like relationships, sacrifice, marriage, obsession, or destruction. Romance movies
sometimes feature hardships like illness, infidelity, tragedy, or other obstacles for the love interests to
overcome. Romantic comedies, gothic romance, and romantic action are some popular romance
subgenres.

Science fiction: The sci-fi genre builds worlds and alternate realities filled with imagined elements that
don’t exist in the real world. Science fiction spans a wide range of themes that often explore time travel,
space travel, are set in the future, and deal with the consequences of technological and scientific
advances. Sci-fi movies typically involve meticulous world-building with a strong attention to detail in
order for the audience to believe the story and universe.

Sports: Movies in the sports genre will center around a team, individual player, or fan, with the sport itself
used to motivate the plot and keep the story advancing. These movies aren’t fully focused on the sport
itself, however, mainly using it as a backdrop to provide context into the emotional arcs of the main
characters. Sports movies can be dramatic or comical, and are often meant to be allegorical.

Thriller: Thrillers expertly blend mystery, tension, and anticipation into one exciting story. Successful
thrillers are well-paced, often introducing red herrings, divulging plot twists, and revealing information at
the exact right moments to keep the audience intrigued. Thrillers often include a “ticking clock” aspect,
where the stakes are set against a finite amount of time. Crime films, political thrillers, and
techno-thrillers are all featured in the thriller genre.

Western: Westerns tell the tale of a cowboy or gunslinger pursuing an outlaw in the Wild West. The main
character is often seeking revenge and will face off with the criminal in a duel or shootout at the end.
Westerns are vivid productions set in the American West—such as the desert, mountains, or plains—that
can inspire and inform the characters and the action. Spaghetti westerns, space westerns, and sci-fi
westerns are all subgenres within the Western category.

Technical Elements of the film form

The five elements are narrative, cinematography, mise-en-scene, editing, sound.Theseelements compose
every scene in a movie and together constitute the essence of film.

Narrative is simply the ancient artform of storytelling. What a movie is about – its story,characters, and
world – forms its narrative. The narrative is present as soon as a script is finishedand before the
production of the movie even begins. For example, literature is pure, unfilterednarrative.For most casual
moviegoers a film succeeds or fails by its narrative. Whether someone likes thestory and can connect with
the characters is the basis for their appreciation of the film. This isn’treally fair, as judgment of narrative
is more often than not purely subjective. While there arestandards of narrative and a certain professional
expectation, a lot of the time assessments ofnarrative amount simply to individual opinion.

Dictionary.com defines cinematography as “the art or technique of motion-picture photography.”34 Being

a technical area, we do not want to put a simple formula in place.

The director, being the chief creative person for a movie, is in charge of the cinematography with the
director of photography or the cinematographer being in charge of the actual camera, lighting, and
electrical crews.

Wikibooks, in their “Movie Making Manual,” defines the director of photography (DP) as being “in
charge of the actual image of a film project. They direct the camera/grip/lighting crews as to how the
lights should be placed, how the camera should be exposed, and basically anything related to the film
image. They will also choose the film stock and processing for the film. Many times the DP will be
present during color timing as well. The DP works very closely with the Director to realize his vision of
how the film should look.”35

Vocabulary
Extremely wide shot: Shows a broad view of the surroundings of the character and informs the audience
as to what is going on. It is often used as an opening shot to a new scene.

Wide shot: Shows the character from head to toe.

Medium wide shot: Shows the character, usually cut off below the knees, but it is wide enough to show
the settings around him or her and still be close enough to show the expressions on his or her face.

Medium shot: Shows the upper body, arms, and head.

Close up: Face and shoulders are showing, and it shows the expression on the character’s face very well.

Extreme close up: Only part of a character’s face is visible. It fills up the entire frame with details.

Angles:

High Angle: The camera, placed above eye level, is looking downward. This shot is often used to make
the character seem small, weak, young, or confused.

Medium Angle: Most commonly used.

Low Angle: Used to make the character seem bigger, stronger, more frightening, or nobler.

Over the shoulder: Close up of the character shown over the shoulder of another character.

Two shot: Both characters are shown in the frame. The camera moves.

Pan: The camera rotates side to side, while remaining in the same location. It is simply executed with a
tripod.

Tilt: The camera is moved to aim upward or downward without changing location. Also done with a
tripod.

Zoom: Basically, zoom is moving the lens without moving the camera around. I would not recommend
using this feature with a DSLR camera simply because it causes a fair amount of shakiness to your video
and will take the audience out of the scene. There are always exceptions, though, if the effect you desire
needs a zoom, then use the zoom. If you have a prime/fixed lens, you can use your feet to create a zoom.

Dolly: The camera moves side to side. This movement can be used to reveal something in a scene.

An extreme wide shot, as indicated below, is used at the beginning of a scene when the director wants to
identify where the scene is taking place. The establishing shot is a photo of a location that the viewer is
familiar with, so immediate recognition of the setting for the scene by the viewer is accomplished.

A medium or mid shot films an individual from the waist up. Medium shots are often used when filming a
conversation. When the director wants both people involved in a conversation to be seen at the same time,
a two shot is used. If three people are involved in a conversation the director may use a three shot
technique. When the director wants only one person in a shot, the person speaking may be shown and
then when this person stops speaking the reaction of the other person may be displayed in a separate shot.
The close-up shot is used in an emotional scene. This shot is used for very dramatic scenes where the
director wants the audience to feel emotion toward the character in a particular scene.

The two-shot and three-shot films are used when two or three people are in the same framed shot. A
director may wish to use this type of shot when he wants the viewer to watch the person doing the talking
and the reaction of the individual or individuals listening at the same time.

The over-the-shoulder shot and the point-of-view shot are used when the director wants to give the
audience a subjective viewpoint or make the audience feel like they are part of the action.

The over-the-shoulder shot is taken over the shoulder of one of the characters so the viewer sees the
shoulder and one side of the face and neck of the one individual as this person is talking to another
individual. The viewer actually sees what the first character is looking at. In other words, this puts the
viewer in the shoes of one of the characters, so that the viewer is able to see the reaction of the other
character.

The point-of-view shot gives the viewer the exact observation of what a character sees without the
shoulder and side of the head in the shot. This shot is more of a first-person view, where the viewer sees
exactly what the character is seeing.

Lighting

Lighting assists in establishing a background to the visual literacy that the director and movie crew are
creating. Lighting is done in a three-point process.

The first point is key lighting that provides essential lighting to the object, person or area that you want to
light for a shot.

The second point is fill lighting. If there is only a little fill lighting, then there are many shadows, and it
gives a dark and mysterious appearance. More fill light fills in the dark areas of an image.

The last point is back lighting and it gives a three-dimensional appearance to an object or person.

The design below includes a fourth point of lighting, that is, background lighting. This is used if there is
an object with a specific background that needs to be lit for a special reason.

Low-key light and no-fill light leaves shadows. This is the type of mood that would be appropriate for
crime, horror, or film noir movies. The higher the key and fill lighting are; the brighter and happier the
mood of the movie or scene is. A lot of key and fill lighting is appropriate for comedies and musicals.

Mise en Scène

Mise en scène, pronounced meez-ahn-sen, is a term used to describe the setting of a scene in a play or a
film. It refers to everything placed on the stage or in front of the camera—including people. In other
words, mise en scène is a catch-all for everything that contributes to the visual presentation and overall
“look” of a production. When translated from French, it means “placing on stage.”

10 Components of Mise en Scène in Film

Mise en scène creates a sense of place for the audience whether they realize it or not. It does so by using:

1. Actors: Actors, their performances, and their performance styles are crucial parts of mise en scène.
When an actor is on screen, they’re typically the focal point, so their presence carries a lot of weight for
the overall look of the story.

2. Location: The location of the scene sets the mood and supports the action. For example, in a scene in
which a man proposes to his girlfriend, a domestic setting sets a completely different tone than a public
one.

3. Set design: Set design refers to everything the audience sees within a particular scene. These details
help build out the world of the location and add even more context to the story. If it’s a dorm room, are
there books and notebooks on the desk to indicate studying? Or are there pizza boxes and red cups to
indicate a party?

4. Lighting: Lighting is often the tool that conveys mood most clearly. High-key lighting, often used in
musicals and romantic comedies, relies on hard light to minimize shadows. Low-key lighting, often used
in horror movies, features a high-contrast lighting pattern to both brighten and darken parts of the frame.

5. Shot blocking and camera placement: Blocking is working with performers to figure out their body
positions, gestures, and movements on stage. In cinema, blocking also involves working out the
placement and movements of the camera, and can impact the lighting, set design, and more. Both shot
blocking and camera placement are effective tools that convey things like characters’ status and
relationships to the audience.

6. Composition: Composition is the deliberate selection of frames and camera angles that make up a shot.
Manipulating composition can accentuate the emotional themes of the story and communicate a sense (or
lack) of meaning to the audience.

7. Depth of space: The depth of space is the distance between people, props, and scenery, both in relation
to one another and the camera. Much like shot blocking, it can tell the audience a lot about the tone of the
scene and the status of the characters. Is the space shallow or deep? Does this accurately capture the truth
of the narrative?

8. Film stock: The film stock refers to the appearance of the movie on the screen. Is it in black and white,
or color? Is the film fine-grain, or grainy? Each tells a different story.

9. Costumes: Costumes are the clothes actors wear and how they’re tailored to fit them. For costumes to
be effective, a costume designer must know which colors look right on a character, and then reconcile this
with the colors suited to the actor playing the part and the color palette of the production design.

10. Hair and makeup: Hair and makeup are the physical touches that help actors transform into their
characters, such as prosthetics, blood, or aging techniques. Like costumes, hair and makeup are
fundamental ingredients in the story being told.

Editing

There’s a reason film editing is often called “the invisible art”: The goal of most editors is to create a
seamless finished product, with no trace of their tampering. Film editing is part of post-production, or
everything that goes on after the actual shooting of the film stops. Other aspects of post-production
include sound editing and mixing, computer generated effects, and soundtrack creation. The film editor’s
job is to join together the various shots into scenes, and the scenes into a finished movie. They usually
work closely with the director to realize his or her vision for the film and to make the efforts of everyone
else involved shine.

Before the advent of digital editing, the film editor would literally cut up the film and piece it back
together. An editor would take long strips of film, cut them precisely, and stick them to other strips with
tape and glue, creating rolls of film.

In case you’re still doubting the importance of the film editor, consider the famous Kuleshov Effect. Lev
Kuleshov, a Soviet filmmaker, spliced together shots of a man’s face—showing no obvious
emotion—with shots of some food, a young girl in a coffin, and a beautiful woman. Audiences believed
that the actor expressed a different emotion each time: first hunger, then sadness, then desire. However,
each shot of the actor was identical. Instead, it was the context, given to the audience by the editing, that
created the illusion of emotion.

Often, however, the sure sign of great editing is just how invisible it is. The Oscar-winning editor Walter
Murch, known for “Apocalypse Now” and “The Conversation,” once said that “Every film is a puzzle
really, from an editorial point of view.” Once the job is done, and done well, it’s hard to even notice the
separate pieces.

Editing Techniques & Principles

The editor begins with all the film footage. Footage is the raw, unedited material as it was originally
filmed by the movie camera or recorded by a video camera, which usually must be edited to create a
motion picture, video clip, television show, or similar completed work.39

Continuity editing is a system of cutting to maintain a continuous and clear narrative action. Continuity
editing relies upon matching screen direction, position, and temporal relations from shot to shot. The film
supports the viewer’s assumption that space and time are contiguous between successive shots.40 Logical
coherence is achieved through continuity editing.

One technique that is used is a B-Roll. A B-Roll is supplemental or alternative footage intercut with the
main shot.41

A basic principle in editing is the 180-degree rule. The 180-degree rule42 is a basic guideline regarding
the on-screen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene. An
imaginary line, called the axis, connects the characters, and by keeping the camera on one side of this axis
for every shot in the scene, the first character is always frame right of the second character, who is then
always frame left of the first. The camera passing over the axis is called jumping the line or crossing the
line; breaking the 180-degree rule by shooting on all sides is known as shooting in the round.

The last main area of editing that the director wants to arrive at is the appropriate rhythm for the movie.
Yale Film Studies elaborates the concept of movie rhythm by defining it as the “perceived rate and
regularity of sounds, series of shots and movements within the shots. Rhythmic factors include beat or
pulse, accent or stress and tempo or pace. Rhythm is one of the essential features of a film, for it
decisively contributes to its mood and overall impression on the viewer. . . . It is achieved through the
combination of mise-en-scene, cinematography, sound and editing. Rhythm can be understood as the final
balance of all the elements of a film.44

Finally, a montage is a technique in film editing in which a series of short shots are edited into a sequence
to condense space, time, and information.45

Editing Transitions

A “cut” in editing refers the splicing of two shots together. This cut is made by the film editor at the
editing stage of a film. Between sequences, the cut marks a rapid transition between one time and space
and another time and space, but depending on the nature of the cut, it will have different meanings.46

Cross-cutting is cutting a scene between different sets of action that can be occurring simultaneously or at
different times. Cross-cutting is used to build suspense or to show the relationship between the different
sets of action.47

Fade in48 and fade out49 are opposite effects. Fade in is a shot that begins in total darkness and gradually
lightens to full brightness. This is a type of transition is similar to “dissolve,” which is mentioned below.
A sound fade in gradually brings sound from being inaudible to a required volume.

Dissolve is a transition between two shots during which the first image gradually disappears while the
second image gradually appears; for a moment, the two images blend in superimposition.50

The third type of transition is the wipe. A wipe is a type of film transition where one shot replaces another
by travelling from one side of the frame to the other or with a special shape.51

A jump cut, which is a term that viewers often hear, is a cut in film editing in which two sequential shots
of the same subject are taken from camera positions that vary only slightly. This type of edit gives the
effect of jumping forward in time. This is a violation of continuity editing because the continuous time
and space are lost as the cut draws attention to the constructed nature of the film.52

Sound

Because we tend to think of film as a fundamentally visual medium, the importance of film sound is often
overlooked. Whether noticed or not, sound is a powerful film technique. Indeed, sound can actively shape
how we perceive and interpret the image.In the context of a film, moreover, sound falls into two
categories: diegetic and nondiegetic. Again, the film’s diegesis is the world of the film’s story; this
includes events that are presumed to have occurred and actions and spaces not shown onscreen.

Diegetic sound, then, includes any voice, musical passage, or sound effect represented as originating
within the film’s world. This can include the sounds of cars and conversations during a scene depicting a
busy metropolitan street. In contrast, nondiegetic sound would include mood music or narrator’s
commentary represented as coming from outside the space of the narrative (think of most film scores)

How to analyse/study/review films?

What is film analysis, and how does it differ from literary analysis?

Film analysis is the process in which film is analyzed in terms of semiotics, narrative structure, cultural
context, and mise-en-scene, among other approaches.

Different types of film analysis

Listed here are common approaches to film analysis, but this is by no means an exhaustive list, and you
may have discussed other approaches in class. As with any other assignment, make sure you understand
your professor’s expectations. This guide is best used to understand prompts or, in the case of more
open-ended assignments, consider the different ways to analyze film.

Keep in mind that any of the elements of film can be analyzed, oftentimes in tandem. A single film
analysis essay may simultaneously include all of the following approaches and more. As Jacques Aumont
and Michel Marie propose in Analysis of Film, there is no correct, universal way to write film analysis.

Semiotic analysis

Semiotic analysis is the analysis of meaning behind signs and symbols, typically involving metaphors,
analogies, and symbolism.

This doesn’t necessarily need to be something dramatic; think about how you extrapolate information
from the smallest signs in your day to day life. For instance, what characteristics can tell you about
someone’s personality? Something as simple as someone’s appearance can reveal information about
them. Mismatched shoes and bedhead might be a sign of carelessness (or something crazy happened that
morning!), while an immaculate dress shirt and tie would suggest that the person is prim and proper.
Continuing in that vein:

What might you be able to infer about characters from small hints?

How are these hints (signs) used to construct characters? How do they relate to the relative role of those
characters, or the relationships between multiple characters?

Symbols denote concepts (liberty, peace, etc.) and feelings (hate, love, etc.) that they often have nothing
to do with. They are used liberally in both literature and film, and finding them uses a similar process.
Ask yourself:

What objects or images are repeated in multiple instances?

In Frozen Elsa’s gloves appear in multiple scenes.

In what context do they appear?

Her gloves are first given to her by her father to restrain her magic. She continues to wear them
throughout the coronation scene, before finally, in the Let It Go sequence, she throws them away.

Again, the method of semiotic analysis in film is similar to that of literature. Think about the deeper
meaning behind objects or actions.
What might Elsa’s gloves represent?

Elsa’s gloves represent fear of her magic and, by extension, herself. Though she attempts to contain her
magic by hiding her hands within gloves and denying part of her identity, she eventually abandons the
gloves in a quest for self-acceptance.

Narrative structure analysis

Narrative structure analysis is the analysis of the story elements, including plot structure, character
motivations, and theme. Like the dramatic structure of literature (exposition, rising action, climax, falling
action, resolution), film has what is known as the Three-Act Structure: “Act One: Setup, Act Two:
Confrontation, and Act Three: Resolution.” Narrative structure analysis breaks the story of the film into
these three elements and might consider questions like:

How does the story follow or deviate from typical structures?

What is the effect of following or deviating from this structure?

What is the theme of the film, and how is that theme constructed?

Consider again the example of Frozen. You can use symbolism and narrative structure in conjunction by
placing the symbolic objects/events in the context of the narrative structure. For instance, the first
appearance of the gloves is in Act One, while their abandoning takes place in Act Two; thus, the story
progresses in such a way that demonstrates Elsa’s personal growth. By the time of Act Three, the
Resolution, her aversion to touch (a product of fearing her own magic) is gone, reflecting a theme of
self-acceptance.

Contextual analysis

Contextual analysis is analysis of the film as part of a broader context. Think about the culture, time, and
place of the film’s creation. What might the film say about the culture that created it? What were/are the
social and political concerns of the time period? Or, like researching the author of a novel, you might
consider the director, producer, and other people vital to the making of the film. What is the place of this
film in the director’s career? Does it align with his usual style of directing, or does it move in a new
direction? Other examples of contextual approaches might be analyzing the film in terms of a civil rights
or feminist movement.

For example, Frozen is often linked to the LGBTQ social movement. You might agree or disagree with
this interpretation, and, using evidence from the film, support your argument.

Some other questions to consider:

How does the meaning of the film change when seen outside of its culture?

What characteristics distinguishes the film as being of its particular culture?

Mise-en-scene analysis

Mise-en-scene analysis is analysis of the arrangement of compositional elements in film—essentially, the

analysis of audiovisual elements that most distinctly separate film analysis from literary analysis.
Remember that the important part of a mise-en-scene analysis is not just identifying the elements of a
scene, but explaining the significance behind them.

What effects are created in a scene, and what is their purpose?

How does the film attempt to achieve its goal by the way it looks, and does it succeed?

Audiovisual elements that can be analyzed include (but are not limited to): props and costumes, setting,
lighting, camera angles, frames, special effects, choreography, music, color values, depth, placement of
characters, etc. Mise-en-scene is typically the most foreign part of writing film analysis because the other
components discussed are common to literary analysis, while mise-en-scene deals with elements unique
to film. Using specific film terminology bolsters credibility, but you should also consider your audience.
If your essay is meant to be accessible to non-specialist readers, explain what terms mean. The Resources
section of this handout has links to sites that describe mise-en-scene elements in detail.

Rewatching the film and creating screen captures (still images) of certain scenes can help with detailed
analysis of colors, positioning of actors, placement of objects, etc. Listening to the soundtrack can also be
helpful, especially when placed in the context of particular scenes.

Some example questions:

How is the lighting used to construct mood? Does the mood shift at any point during the film, and how is
that shift in mood created?

What does the setting say about certain characters? How are props used to reveal aspects of their
personality?

What songs were used, and why were they chosen? Are there any messages in the lyrics that pertain to the
theme?

Experimental films

Experimental and avant-garde film is cinema made outside of the film industry on an artisanal basis,
largely without regard to the structures and demands of traditional narrative film. While experimental film
as a separate mode of film practice is international, its most prevalent manifestations were in western
Europe before World War II and North America and Britain in the postwar period. Avant-garde film is
often produced in the context of the larger art world, particularly in relation to the visual arts and
literature.

As a genre, experimental film is a niche. These films by definition are unconventional, and therefore
almost never reach a wide audience. But it is nonetheless an essential niche: experimental films have
always formed the vanguard that goes on to determine the mainstream.

No formal characteristics

Many experimental films use the physical properties of the medium: photosensitivity, grain, color
saturation - but this often manifests itself in very different ways. In the reference books about film history,
the genre of experimental film often gets a rather cursory treatment. This is in part due to its very diverse
scope; it is not a genre that can easily be described in terms of its formal characteristics. Likewise,
experimental films are sometimes made in disciplines outside of film, such as science, visual art, or
music. When interpreting these films, the usual film-theoretical framework comes up short.

Gallery or cinema?

Though internationally oriented, the experimental film scene is a traditionally closed community, one that
has little connection to the rest of the Dutch film world. It is a subculture that largely takes place outside
of the regular cinemas. These films are more likely to be screened in museums, galleries, cinema clubs,
and special festivals, and it has its own distribution channels.

Heydays

Since the Second World War, there has really only been one period when experimental film became
visible to a wider audience. That was at the end of the 1960s and the early 1970s, an era that was
dominated by revolution, and a yearning for freedom and experimentation. In that period, experimental
film briefly won a regular place in the Dutch film circuit.

This heyday is where the roots of experimental film’s traditions can be found: an international orientation
and national activities; a formal approach and intuitive expression; the academy and the independent
studio.

An art film is typically a serious, independent film, aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market
audience.[1] It is "intended to be a serious, artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass
appeal",[2] "made primarily for aesthetic reasons rather than commercial profit",[3] and contains
"unconventional or highly symbolic content".[4]

Film critics and film studies scholars typically define an art film as possessing "formal qualities that mark
them as different from mainstream Hollywood films".[5] These qualities can include (among other
elements): a sense of social realism; an emphasis on the authorial expressiveness of the director; and a
focus on the thoughts, dreams, or motivations of characters, as opposed to the unfolding of a clear,
goal-driven story. Film scholar David Bordwell describes art cinema as "a film genre, with its own
distinct conventions".[6]

Extreme cinema is a genre of film distinguished by its use of excessive violence, torture, and sex of
extreme nature. The rising popularity of Asian films in the 21st century has contributed to the growth of
extreme cinema, although extreme cinema is still considered to be a cult-based genre. Being a relatively
new genre, extreme cinema is controversial and widely unaccepted by the mainstream media.[1] Extreme
cinema films target a specific and small audience group.[2]

Non-narrative film is an aesthetic of cinematic film that does not narrate, or relate "an event, whether real
or imaginary". It is usually a form of art film or experimental film, not made for mass entertainment.

Narrative film is the dominant aesthetic, though non-narrative film is not fully distinct from that aesthetic.
While the non-narrative film avoids "certain traits" of the narrative film, it "still retains a number of
narrative characteristics". Narrative film also occasionally uses "visual materials that are not
representational".[1] Although many abstract films are clearly devoid of narrative elements, distinction
between a narrative film and a non-narrative film can be rather vague and is often open for interpretation.
Unconventional imagery, concepts and structuring can obscure the narrativity of a film.

Slow cinema is a genre of art cinema film-making that emphasizes long takes, and is typically
characterised by a style that is minimalist, observational, and with little or no narrative.[1][2] It is
sometimes called "contemplative cinema".[3] Examples include Ben Rivers' Two Years at Sea,
Michelangelo Frammartino's Le Quattro Volte, Nili Portugali's And the alley she whitewashed in light
blue and Shaun Wilson's film 51 Paintings.[2][4][5]

A still image film, also called a picture movie, is a film that consists primarily or entirely of still images
rather than moving images, forgoing the illusion of motion either for aesthetic or practical reasons. These
films usually include a standard soundtrack, similar to what is found in typical sound films, complete with
music, sound effects, dialogue or narration. They may also use various editing techniques found in
traditional films, such as dissolves, zooms, and panning.[1]

This filmmaking technique is more common in historical documentaries, where old photographs may
provide the best documentation of certain events. Ken Burns is well known for having used it repeatedly
in his films. It is less common in narrative films, but has been done occasionally. Such films are typically
considered experimental or art films. Perhaps the best known narrative still image film is Chris Marker's
1962 film La Jetée, which was the inspiration for the 1995 film 12 Monkeys.[1]

Important Movements

A film movement is a wave of films usually following a particular trend in cinema of the time. Most
trending movements in cinema are regional but influence world cinema. These films have cultural origins
usually influenced by national tragedy, popular culture, or social issues.

Experimental techniques can be used to create the innovating filming styles. Boundaries in editing are
also pushed to the limit at times to give these films a unique identity. These innovating films impact
Hollywood and are very important in not only the history but also the future of cinema.

1. German Expressionism

German Expressionism took birth post the First World War, which saw the downfall of Germany. In these
times of distress when western films were banned in Germany, a film movement began that emphasised
on the exaggeration of the sets, costumes and lighting. Principal features of German Expressionism lay in
their use of colors, shadows that gave a surreal feel to their films. These ideas later influenced directors
like George Lucas and Ridley Scott. Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang, represents ideas popularised by
this film movement.

Notable Films in existence today: “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (1920 dir. Robert Wiene), “Metropolis”
(1927 dir. Fritz Lang)

2. Soviet Montage (the 1920s- 1930s)

Heavily influenced by the Russian society at the time, Soviet Montage Movement began in the 1920s. It
focused heavily on cut shots or montage cuts in contrast to continuity editing. This gave a novel feature to
the movies of this time and got across the message in a single shot through clips or images put together.

Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin is a product of this film movement.

3. French New Wave

There came a moment in the French film industry when young film critics got tired of monotonous styles
and topics used by film directors. In the late 1950s, they began a film movement that produced low
budget films. Jump cuts, tracking shots, which later inspired works of Martin Scorsese, handheld camera
work were some of the techniques that the French New Wave introduced.

Notable Films: “The 400 Blows” (1959 dir. Francois Truffaut), “Jules and Jim” (1962 dir. Francois
Truffaut) “Breathless” (1960 dir. Jean-Luc Godard)

4. New Hollywood

In the 1960s, the United States was radically changing. The old Hollywood studio system had set
formulas for filmmaking, which couldn’t even compete with television sitcoms of the time. And with the
war in Vietnam and race riots, people grew tired of films like “The sound of music”. Hollywood was
loosing money and filmmakers who had gone to film school and watched foreign films started directing
new Hollywood.

There was no set style, just influences from foreign films. These films were not for the entire family.
Promiscuous sex, drugs and at times violence became apart of these films. The films didn’t have
glamorous aesthetics and were gritty.

The films of Martin Scorsese and Terrence Malick truly define this movement; Badlands, Taxi Driver.

5. Italian Neorealism

After the Second World War Italy was in ruins. With an attitude that began to hate happy go luck films
from Hollywood, filmmakers began making poetic realism films.

These films wouldn’t be afraid to show realistic and gritty locations. The stories didn’t need to have a
happy ending. Poverty, crime, simplistic joys and sadness were seen as realistic and that’s what was
portrayed.

Notable Films: “Rome, Open City” (1945 dir. Roberto Rossellini), “The Bicycle Thieves” (1948 dir.
Vittorio De Sica)

6. Hong Kong New Wave

Whilst most films in China were made in Mandarin Chinese and filmed on stages, a few Cantonese
speaking Hong Kong filmmakers who had studied European films, decided to break apart from the
mainstream. The culture and history of Hong Kong is very different from the rest of China and these
filmmakers show it.

The new wavers made films grittier and in their natural Chinese dialect. They were inspired by Italian and
French cinema and used real locations. They pushed for their own identity. A lot of films were thrilling
crime films about the Triad gangs or Martial art films. Those that were of a different genera like comedy
or romance would have a fast energy like an action film.

Films: “Boat People” (1981 dir. Ann Hui) “Days of Being Wild” (1990 dir. Wong Kar-Wai) “A Better
Tomorrow” (1986 dir. John Woo)

7. South Korean New Wave

South Korea cinemas started to sell more tickets of domestic films apposed to foreign in 1998. In recent
years South Korean films have become sought after and watched by film lovers. The peninsula had been
known for years for its animation work for American cartoons like The Simpsons, but now they have a
live action voice by filmmakers from a unique culture.

What makes the films different is very much the culture. To the North is the oppressed North Korea that
threatens their country. A few defectors have luckily made it across the boarder. Oldboy shows the
isolation similar to North Korea and “The Host” (2006 dir. Bong Joon-ho) shows fears of invasion. They
also have a dark way of telling stories and push the limits.

The films take inspiration from not only western and Japanese new wave films but also from Pansori: a
Korean style of story telling. Korean films have rich stories but are at times criticised for going outside
comfort zones when it comes to violence and horror.

Notable Films: “Memories of Murder” (2003 dir. Bong Joon-ho) “Oldboy” (2003 dir. Park Chan-wook)

8. Japenese New Wave

After the American occupation following world war two, the film industry boosted. Samurai films would
later go onto inspire star wars. Ozu’s melodramas would inspire western films. And Kaiju monster and
sci-fi films would also gain worldwide notoriety whilst being a metaphor for the destruction of Japan
during world war two as well as boosting the growing toy industry. This was a golden age for Japanese
cinema. But other filmmakers wanted to be more expressive with the new freedom.

Thus came the Japanese new wave. They strayed away from the norm and went for more realist gritty
thrillers. Touching on taboo subjects and controversial themes, they didn’t hold back and scored their
films with Jazz music. Just as new Hollywood, the Japanese studios stopped only making films that were
appropriate for families to watch. Killings were no longer implied or suggested by giant monsters or
heroic samurais but committed by sick criminals.

Notable Films:

“Branded to Kill” (1967 dir. Seijun Suzuki) “Tokyo Drifter” (1966 dir. Sijun Suzuki) “Intentions Of
Murder” (1964 dir. Shohei Imamura) “The Face of Another” (1966 dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara) “Japanese
Summer: Double Suicide” (1967 dir. Nagisa Oshima) “Double Suicide” (1969 dir. Masahiro Shinoda)

9. Parallel Cinema (India)

The second largest film market is India. The market has attracted the likes of Disney. The biggest part of
Indian cinema has always been Bollywood: Hindi language films made in Mumbai (formally Bombay)
that base styles on historical Indian epics, ancient Sanskrit dramas, Parsi and Hollywood musicals. Indian
cinema has become known for lavish dance sequences and romantic music numbers. Films were rushed
out for profit and realism was a rarity in Indian cinema.

However realism was apparent in a few films such as 1946’s “Neecha Nagar” which Indian filmmakers
from the state of West Bengal chariest. Rather than copy the style of Hindi language films like other areas
of India had done during the Indian golden age, Bengali filmmakers were inspired by Bengali literature
and Italian neo realism and loathed the intrusive dances. The new wave would then extend to other
regions in India.

Notable Films: “Aparajito” (Language: Bengali 1956 dir. Satyajit Ray) “The Rat Trap” (Language:
Malayalam 1981 dir. Adoor Gopalakrishnan)

The Indian new wave changed Indian cinema forever. Mainstream Indian cinema still consists of dancing.
Even though this movement grew in the 1970s and 80s, it struggled with money and distribution in the
early 1990s but allowed and inspired Indian filmmakers to make films different from Bollywood.

This new wave pushed the way and allowed Indian directors like Mira Nair, Deepa Mehta, and Mani
Ratnam to make thought provoking dramas. As more and more parrell type films are coming out of
Indian and gaining recognition such as 2004’s Hindi film “Black Friday”, there seems to be the possibility
of resurgence. These films also inspired filmmakers outside of India by winning awards at the top film
festivals around the world.

“I think they quite like me when I work because I’m one of the safer directors to back, because even if my
films don’t bring their costs in back home, once they’re shown outside of India they manage to cover the
costs.” – Satyajit Ray

10. ritish New Wave

The cinema of the United Kingdom was strong. Walter Disney used his profits from the British box office
to re-invest in British made Disney films. Stanley Kubrick moved to Hertfordshire, England with his
British wife and made his films in Britain even if they were set elsewhere like Vietnam. GPO Film Unit
was a subdivision of the UK General Post Office, which helped fund the industry. Hammer and Ealing
studios films were packing cinemas around the world.

However, the films that were being made were much like Hollywood and left out realism. French new
wave and Kitchen sink realism of the British theatre, art, novels, film and television of the time
influenced a few filmmakers that shot in a cinema vertie documentary style similar to the free cinema
documentary movement.

Notable Films: “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning” (1960 dir. Karel Reisz) “Tom Jones” (1963 dir.
Tony Richardson)

11. Iranian New Wave

Iranian cinema is extremely unique and different. Although it had been going for years, the industry
didn’t start up until the ruling regime finally allowed the 1969 release of “The Cow”. Government
censorship is strict but the government started allowing more films to be made. Because of the countries
strict censorship, only a few western films are allowed into the country, however the Internet now allows
Iranians to watched banned films.

Iranian films are made with censorship in mind. Scripts are submitting to the government before they are
allowed to be made. Filmmakers must hide political messages. Women must not be shown not wearing a
veil and therefore films normally never show a woman at home, alone with her family. Sex and nudity is
never allowed. In the first wave, many films were banned, only a few were released after heavy editing.

In the second wave, filmmakers not only took inspiration from neo realism but documentaries. Iranian
filmmakers have kept rolling when an actor gets frustrated and loses charter. Improvisation is favored and
in some films we can hear the director in the background talking to the actors. Some films are
re-enactments of real life events acted by either actors or those who lived them.

Notable Films: “Offsides” (Banned in Iran 2006 dir. Jafar Panahi) “A Separation” (2011 dir. Asghar
Farhadi)

Film Theories

What Is Film Theory?

According to The Routledge Encyclopedia of Film Theory, Film Theory is“…a set of scholarly
approaches within the academic discipline of cinema studies that question the essentialism of cinema and
provides conceptual frameworks for understanding film's relationship to reality, the other arts, individual
viewers, and society at large."

Formalism

Formalist Film Theory looks at the technical aspects of film — shots, editing, lighting, sound. Thus,
formalists are concerned about how these elements work (or do not work) to create impact on the viewer.
Simply put, formalism focuses heavily on how the style of a production communicates an intended
message.

Structuralism

Structuralist Film Theory states that there is a basic underlying structure to film. By comparing patterns
and relationships of the structure within a single film, and between several films, we can better
understand meaning. Structuralism focuses on recurring themes as well as the use of signs, symbols, and
conventions to interpret film.

Apparatus theory

Apparatus Theory states that film is unavoidably ideological in nature. The simple mechanics of
representation — what is shot and what is cut — intertwine with the filmmakers individual point of view.
This holds that creating a film is inherently a political act — either reinforcing or subverting the dominant
cultural paradigm.

Marxist film theory

Marxist Film Theory is primarily concerned with the production of film. It focuses on the relationship of
the filmmaker to the film, and the relationship of the film to the audience. Marxist theory is based in
influencing the viewer through realistic and unbiased structure. With this, Marxist filmmakers use jump
cuts and jarring edits to avoid suspension of disbelief within their audience.

Feminist film theory

Feminist Film Theory examines the relationship between women and film. Originally focused on
depictions of women in cinema, Feminist Theory critiques The Male Gaze. In this framework, men are
active participants in the world and women are objects that matter only so far as their relationship to men.
Feminist Film Theory also questions how representation on screen and in the filmmaking process reflect
the real world.

Queer theory

Queer Theory examines film’s role in creating heterosexual social norms. It examines and questions
depictions of people whose sexual and gender identities have been historically marginalized.

Auteur theory

Auteur Theory promotes the idea that the director ultimately is the author (auteur) of a film. This
perspective holds that although others, such as the screenwriter and the cinematographer, are major
creative forces, the director has final authority. That is, a true auteur has distinctive characteristics that
mark their work, regardless of other influences on the project.

NeoFormalism

NeoFormalism is a push back towards looking at the very elements that make up a film and a rejection of
the over-reliance on symbolism in modern theory. Neoformalists take into account to the cognitive effect
of film on the viewer. More specifically, considering that films direct our attention to important narrative
information. NeoFormalism also points out that art is not simply symbolism because, art often asks the
viewer to look at familiar objects and concepts through new lenses.

Postcolonial theory

The Post Colonial theory is a sector of speculative disquisition that works on the societal evaluation of the
activities of colonization particularly its influential repercussions. Its point of concentration is targeted on
reviewing the connection within the civil and constitutional strengths. Colonizing a territory is a type of
jurisdiction that runs and dominates a colonized place. This is an accepted and substantiated classification
on modern-day archive that cross-examines certain lifestyles, as well. In the hypothesis of
Post-colonialism, a certain culture identifies every aspects of demeanor and refinements of another
society. This theory likewise takes into academic research the personal affinities that these colonial states
manifest interactively.

Voyeurism

Voyeurism is a term that specifies a conduct of someone who is engrossed in prying on the personal
affairs and lifestyles of other individuals. Most specifically it denotes a demeanor of lasciviousness as
they secretly look at the people who are naked while they are in the act of sexual practices. That is, on the
other hand, not just the only factors that define the meaning of voyeurism. Film viewing can also be
called as a voyeurism where the spectator takes physical pleasures while watching heated scenes that are
demonstrated in the film.

A number of cinematic films also take voyeurism as an abstraction for their films. In the 1954 film ‘Rear
Window ’ by Alfred Hitchcock he described voyeurism in the depiction of the lead actor named Jefferies
who spends his life surveying the neighbors using binoculars, while he is in a chair because of his broken
leg.

Notable film theorists

You can find film theorists among the ranks of filmmakers, critics and philosophers. This is a small
selection of notable theorists and is by no means comprehensive.

Germaine Dulac

Germaine Dulac was an early French filmmaker and film theorist. She began making films in the 1910s
with an interest in differentiating film as a distinct art, separate from painting or literature. Dulac started
out as an Impressionist, and her film La Coquille et le Clergyman has been regarded as the first Surrealist
film. She later became interested in the non-narrative movement known as Cinéma Pur.

Scene from "The Seashell and the Clergyman" (1928) aka “La coquille et le clergyman” Woman with
surprised look on her face.

Dziga Vertov

Dziga Vertov was a Soviet theorist and an early documentarian. He believed that the camera acted as a
second eye, and through editing, actual footage of real-life could unlock deeply hidden truths about
society. He often made his films in public places with secret hidden cameras. His film Man with a Movie
Camera is a classic of documentary filmmaking. Sight and Sound ranked Man with a Movie Camera as
the 8th best film ever made. His ideas have been influential with the Cinéma Vérité movement.

Lev Kuleshov

Lev Kuleshov was another Soviet filmmaker and theorist. He was particularly interested in the power of
montage to create meaning and emotional impact. His theories of editing are still taught today as ‘The
Kuleshov Effect’. His work also led to the theory of creative geography.

Sergei Eisenstein

Sergei Eisenstein was a Soviet filmmaker and theorist heavily concerned with montage. Like Kuleshov,
Eisenstein believed that editing was the essential aspect that set film apart. He deeply examined the power
of placing juxtaposing shots together to create an idea or feeling in his audience that was greater than
either image would have alone. His 1925 film Battleship Potemkin received acclaim worldwide and is
still used in film schools to show the power of montage.

André Bazin

André Bazin was a French film critic and theorist whose work in the 1940s challenged the prevailing
attitudes of the ‘20s and ‘30s. Bazin argued that what made cinema its own art form was its ability to
capture reality. He felt that what made film unique was the ability to show objective reality using
long-takes, deep focus and misé en scene. He was a proponent of documentary and Italian Neo-realism
and was a founder and long-time editor of Cahiers Du Cinéma.

François Truffaut

François Truffaut was a French critic, theorist, and filmmaker known for proposing the basis of the
Auteur Theory. He was a particularly harsh critic. His debut film, The 400 Blows, won him the Best
Director award at the Cannes Film Festival. Truffaut dedicated the film to his friend and mentor, André
Bazin. Truffaut is known as one of the founders of the French New Wave movement.

Laura Mulvey

Laura Mulvey is a contemporary British film theorist and filmmaker. Her work focuses on the
intersection of film theory, psychoanalysis and feminism. Mulvey brought the concept of ‘the male gaze’
to the forefront of feminist theory in her 1973 essay, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. She called
for a new female avant-garde film movement to counter the patriarchy of classic Hollywood Cinema. She
then went on to co-write and co-direct several films, including the experimental Riddles of the Sphinx.

Scene from "Riddles of the Sphinx" (1977) Woman standing with out-stretched arms on pink and purple
background.

Bracha Ettinger

Bracha Ettinger is an Isreali-born, contemporary French film theorist. Her work has revolutionized the
state of feminist film theory by introducing the concept of ‘The Matriaxial Gaze’ which finds women as
the subject, instead of the object, but also deconstructs the structure of the subject itself.

Scope and future of film-making

Film and literature

Efforts to develop a systematic understanding of film are almost as old as cinema itself. When these
efforts took root within the university in the 1960s and early 1970s, they shared at least three
characteristics with other forms of humanistic inquiry: (1) film is a medium of aesthetic importance; the
most important dimension to cinema is its capacity to take form as art, just as the most important
dimension of writing is its capacity to take form as literature; (2) film art, like literature, affects viewers in
a similar, aesthetic manner that is removed from the contingencies of time and place; it transcends the
local to attain a more timeless significance; and (3) the history of the cinema is the history of its
emergence as an art form.

The notion of 'film as text' is a metaphor drawn from the idea of reading a book. It suggests that in many
ways reading a book is like watching a film, and that we might take some of the things we know about the
one and apply them to the other.

The storage means are different, of course. A book has words printed on paper (although it can also be
read on a screen or read to you by a voice on a tape or disc). A film is stored on plastic film (or tape or
disc) and is displayed on a screen. Various kinds of optical illusions have to occur for our eyes and brains
to register what we see as continuous action like what we normally see around us: people talking, and so
on. With a book, a different set of 'imaginative illusions' also allow us to 'see' and 'hear' in our minds the
events described.

Our metaphor (film as text) means that in both cases, book and film, we can 'read' the story, both in the
sense of taking it in as it goes along and in that of being able to hold 'all' of it in our minds, after taking it
in, for evaluation, analysis and enjoyment. The various chapters in this book are about these last
activities, considering films after we've 'read' them, and talking about our 'readings' of them.

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