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Discuss the relation Discuss the relation between scholarship, between scholarship,
criticism and criticism and production in production in
filmmaking and discuss filmmaking and discuss its impact on film style.its impact on film style.
Film criticismFilm criticism
Anybody who actively seeks to understand a film he/she sees.
A Critic already knows the formal patterns of a film– Repetitions, variations, narrative.
Film reviews - usually based on their genres, plot, narration and style- Adheres to a focus.
involved in viewing and writing about films critically
Criticism in filmmakingCriticism in filmmaking
The practice of analyzing, classifying, interpreting, or evaluating literary or other artistic works.
What really makes a critic a critic? Can we criticize if we do not know the subject? Aren’t we all critics? Two kinds of critics :
• Criticism in the affective meaning : subjective.• Criticism of the techniques, of the know-how :
objective.
Film ScholarshipFilm Scholarship
Studies Film in general on a broader scaleCritical of not just individual films but a
whole body of work.Involved in viewing and writing about films
critically; usually a thesis with a common theme.
Has in depth knowledge of the film industry.
Scholarship in filmmakingScholarship in filmmaking
Knowledge in technique fields :• Special effects• Editing• …
Knowledge in cultural fields :• Art• Literature• Cinema• …
Film ProductionFilm Production
Entire process of making a filmIncluding pre and post production but
usually means the ‘shooting’ phaseDirector is responsible for itIncludes coordination of sets, costumes,
production designs, graphic artists, etc.
Between scholarship and Between scholarship and criticismcriticism
In affective criticism, scholarship does not help. Scholarship helps in criticism of the of the know-
how. Evolution :
Cultures change in the time, new fashions appear… Affective criticism changes Criticism does not like the same
films than before. In scholarship, new techniques appear.
Critics ask for more and more special effects, for bigger and bigger productions…
Between scholarship and Between scholarship and productionproduction
It exists between direct relations and scholarship and production :
Production needs scholarship to make films. Scholarship needs production since if there were
not production, there would not be any scholarship in filmmaking.
Their evolution is also linked : Nowadays, production looks for more and more
technical skills. So that, scholarship needs to adapt to new techniques.
Between criticism and Between criticism and productionproduction
Nowadays, production does not take risks anymore.
Sympathize with the audience’s situation if appropriate
Film styleFilm style
Patterned and significant use of techniques
:Mise en scene
:Cinematography
:Editing
:Sound
“It’s what you call style in retrospect only. At the time of Making the movie, it’s just about making individual choices.”-Ethan Coen, producer, writer.
Formalism and the Soviet Formalism and the Soviet MontageMontage
Formalism– That film should be a translation of observed
characteristics into the forms of the medium.– Against Realism– Concerned with with methods of restructuring reality
into aesthetically appealing designs using: -mise en scène; or aurally, in stylized dialogue, symbolic
sound effects, and musical motifs. Lev Kuleshov
– Montage :Shots, rather than just 'edited' together, are constructed.
– a number of short shots woven together– Communicate information in a short period
Soviet MontageSoviet MontageSergei Eisenstein
– Dialectical Montage– Films: Battleship Potemkin, Strike, October, – Ex. In Battleship of potemkin, a sailor smashes a plate
and it occurs over ten cuts. Intellectual Montage Study of existing methods of film making and
introducing new ones- Adding to the text of film making
Eisenstein’s written theories
- work of Dziga Vertov and Lev Kuleshov
- early predecessors of Eisenstein’s montage theories and practices
Influence:DW griffith’s Intolerance
French New WaveFrench New Wave
A group of men from who wrote for the Paris film Journal, Cahiers Du cinema.
Film critics and filmmakers Andre Bazin, Francois Truffaut, Eric Rohmer, Jean Luc
Goddard, Claude Charbrol, Jacques Rivette.– Critical of popular French films; decided to make their
own.– Came up with ‘Auteur theory’ – To be Auteurs themselves
Production and StyleProduction and Style
Shooting on LocationUsing inexpensive light weight portable
camerasfilm stock requiring less light cheap portable sound equipment
StyleStyle More panning and tracking shots Favoured Mise en scene and Long takes freeze-
frames, jump-cuts, expansive camera movements i.e in Breathless, Jules et Jim
Causal connections become quite loose Ends ambiguously richly complex characterizations emotional realism
– Examining of the face; breathless, 400blows (Antoine’s stricken face at the end), etc.
– “often emphasized the complexity of the a character’s inner reactions”- Ian Morrison
French New Wave DirectorsFrench New Wave Directors
Claude Chabrol (Less Bonnes Femmes); Jean Luc Godard (Breathless; My Life to Live); Alain Resnais (Hiroshima Mon Amour; Last Year at Marienbad); Jacques Rivette (Paris Belongs to Us); Francois Truffaut (The 400 Blows; Jules and Jim; Shoot the Piano Player).
ScholarshipScholarship
Andre Bazin on the Soviet Montage ‘it did not give us the event; it alluded to it.'
Eisenstein's system of Dialectical Montage not the realistic meaning of a particular shot, but rhythmic relationship and juxtaposition of the
shots Bazin: reality of event is important, montage is
expressionism and probably tricks.
Impact on styleImpact on style
Jump cuts from Soviet Montage to Jump cuts in French New wave
Magnify time and SpaceFrench New wave films made frequent
references to Hollywood ‘Auteurs’ like Alfred Hitchcock, Orson welles, etc.
conclusionconclusion
Films at every stage of reinvention
from German expressionism, Soviet montage to Structuralism to post modernism
- all products of film criticism and film scholarship.
- Impact greatly the production and style of films.
Essays, books, movies, interviews
-texts film makers refer to when making movies.