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- 9/17 Cinematic Techniques part II
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Please watch this second video on cinematic techniques
https://www.dropbox.com/s/n4mydsme2yr615c/Cinema%20II%20f20.avi?dl=0
then, like last week, please reply to these questions:
1) Name three different things you feel you learned.
2) Mention something you liked about the presentation.
3) Ask at least one question that now comes to mind about this presentation.
Please post your replies in this Discussion folder by next Thursday night, Sept. 23.
Name three different things you feel you learned.
Crosscutting, I discovered, takes movies to a whole new level. For example, in Slaughterhouse-five, the camera would alternate between the man’s current life and his experiences during World War II. It was fascinating to watch how his life changed through time but remained consistent. Also, as he was playing with his dog, his dog would age with time, which was amazing to watch.
I also learned that split-screen sequences provide viewers with much more information about what’s going on. They showed Carrie’s point of view of what she’s doing to the auditorium and how she’s killing all the different types of individuals in Carrie, and then they showed what the audience would see if they were there staring at her. It adds more depth and importance to the scenario.
Finally, I learned about the director’s temporal manipulation techniques, which included elliptical editing. I loved how this could be used to switch scenes from day to night and back again while keeping the character in the same location. For example, in Misery, when the crazy lady imprisoned the writer and forced him to sit and finish the story, he was in the same place, but you could tell how much time had passed by the way the scenes and his clothes changed, and in Day of the Locust, they used cars to edit people sitting at the same bus stop.
Mention something you liked about this presentation.
I enjoyed how the word “red-rum” became “murder” after the mirror scene in The Shining. That was a wonderful idea.
Ask at least one question when it comes to this presentation
Do the performers truly use their phones to hear each other during the phone sequences, or are they just talking to themselves?
Most actors are just pretending to hear someone a phone. Perhaps there may be some who insist on actually hearing the other side.
Questions about Cinematic Techniques II video
a. Name three different things you feel you learned.
1. In this film I learned that mirrors, if shown prominently often signify special meaning. In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937 film the mirror is used to transport the viewer from reality to fantasy world. The character Maleficent asks the mirror repeatedly “who is the fairest of them all?’ as if a mirror would tell us. In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone 2001 film the mirror allows Harry transports its viewers to an alternate time where Harry’s parents are still alive.
2. Cross-cutting panel scenes with overlapping or switching back and forth between scenes. Cross cutting has similar elements to visually link scenes. We see this the Rocky IV 1985 film in the scene where Rocky and Drago are doing their training techniques .This editing technique suggest that two scenes are happening simultaneously, though this isn’t always the case. Cross cutting gives the impression that this action is occurring in different location at the same time.
3. Elliptical editing is used to alter time. This technique helps to reduce the details in this process. Elliptical editing allows an event to be shorter than the period of the film. This occurs with cut between two shots to show part of the same event. Montages and elliptical editing are combined in today’s films such as Fight Club 1999 to produce a fast-paced film.
b. Mention something you liked about the presentation.
I liked the entirety of the film. I appreciated how a montage of scenes are used to give visual perspective of why these things such as cross- cutting are used. I also liked learning that numerous small jump cuts show small amounts of time. Due to the way this presentation was edited I feel compelled to watch every movie in this presentation. I actually despise not completing movies, so this will allow me to expand my horizons as I view some if not most of these films.
Dear Shania,
Oh, my! I always hope that students will want to see some of those movies because so many of them are worthwhile. However, there are some that are not worth your time and are there to demonstrate a point.
Since I add the titles and release years, they should be easy enough to research. (Don’t go by the end credits because I have re-edited these presentations every semester and do not update the end credits since most people ignore them.
c. Ask at least one question that now comes to mind about this presentation.
Is lens flare only used to for dramatic effects or can this be done without enhancing the stage lighting?
Lens flare is sometimes just a natural occurrence without enhancement. It depends on the lens angle and the light direction. People who don’t know better sometimes get lens flare accidentally on their cameras and usually it ruins their shots.
1) Name three different things you feel you learned.
1. I learned that when you mix two scenes together, you call it “cross cutting”.
2. I learned that sections aren’t as bad as they would seem in different situations.
3. I learned that lighting does indeed play a big role in situations. In Midnight Cowboy (1969) the movie is named Midnight, and the walkthrough is from day to night matching with its name.2) Mention something you liked about the presentation.
I liked that there were different scenes from romance to action to horror, giving it a more diverse taste. Also there were some gory scenes, which were pretty cool.3) Ask at least one question that now comes to mind about this presentation.
What was the average budget for films in the 1900s?Most movie studios brag about how expensive their films are to make, Asif, but
I don’t know about financing movies usually in the millions. Budgets are usually affected by the salaries of the actors and the amount of time and travel involved in filming. One would think that with computers things would be cheaper, but special effects are very expensive. As an example, look at this article about Henry Cavill’s mustache that was covered up due to a conflict in his filming roles: https://www.nme.com/news/heres-true-cost-henry-cavills-cgi-moustache-2363020 The end result looked terrible in the first Justice League release, https://www.nme.com/news/heres-true-cost-henry-cavills-cgi-moustache-2363020 and things were changed altogether for the ZackSnyder re-edit.Learning Points
1. This video helped draw out some techniques used to deliver abstract concepts to film audiences. One that stood out to me was the varied roles of mirrors. In general, mirrors in film allow a visual representation of introspection, or in many cases a tangible lens through which to view perceptions of reality. I noticed that the mirror truly is two way – sometimes serving as a window into reality from another world (Such as in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane,) and sometimes as a window into another world from reality (including in the films Carrie and Harry Potter & The Sorcerers Stone.) In a similar role, mirrors in The Lady from Shanghai and The Talented Mr. Ripley serve to incite the audience to question the protagonists own perception of reality in an empathetic manner.
2. The use of cross cutting and split screens bring multiple times or places into a single presentation that is unavailable in real life. This plurality of emotion and perception is a powerful tool for visual storytelling. In direct contrast to this broadened spectrum, silhouetting allows film-makers to narrow the visual spectrum and therefore increase the intensity of a scene by focusing on the macro, avoiding distraction by micro details. The two visual elements of a silhouette scene that the audience is likely to retain are the colors (establishing mood), and the action depicted as if it were an idea or thought without the distraction of unnecessary details.
3. One point from the video I would like to disagree with is the claim that time lapse has no equivalent in literature. I believe the use of time-lapse and jump scenes is simply a visual representation of literary descriptions of change, such as changing seasons, the bustling of a city, etc.
Your writing and vocabulary are impressive, Asher.
Presentation Takeaway
While all of the concepts presented are common in film, it was helpful to see them broken down down as techniques used in filming and editing to enhance the experience for an audience.
Question for Prof. Masiello
I am curious about the filming technique used for the mirror scene of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The camera angle appears to be perpendicular to the surface of the mirror, which would show the camera rather than the subject. How was this effect achieved?
If you look at that scene again, there is even the glass shown in closeup which helps with POV but also suggests that there was a double exposure perhaps going on. The way the transformation was done was by adding or removing filters sensitive to certain colors. The actor already had his makeup on and the filters revealed the ugliness gradually. I am guessing that Dr. Jekyll (Frederick March) was filmed separately from his counterpart in the mirror.
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