cinema studies midterm

where the frame is mentally (or literally) divided into thirds, you want to put your main objects/people on or along these lines- makes more interesting image

very short focal length, causes heavy distortion

short focal length, exaggerates depth, distortion on edges

medium focal length

long focal length, flattens the screen space, sports, action at a distance

activities that take place before the filming of a movie, including financing, screenwriting, casting, location scouting, storyboarding, costume design, set building, etc. Key personnel include screenwriters, producers, casting directors, agents, art directors, set designers, and costume designers. -Scriptwriting/Funding/Casting/Production Design

actual shooting of a film on sets or on locations. Key personnel for this stage include the director, cinematographer, actors, production sound mixers, stunt coordinators, camera operators, grips, electricians, carpenters, make-up artists, caterers, and other on-set assistants and crew members.

processes that occur after and often also simultaneously with principal production, including editing, sound mixing , and special effects.

the practices and means by which movies are placed in venues where people can see them. distributors are companies who acquire the rights to a film and then make it available to public audiences by either renting/selling the film to theaters or other ancillary markets, like network/cable TV, video stores, or online streaming services.
-Marketing, gross (how much $ it makes)

Film marketing involves identifying an audience in order to best bring a movie to the attention of viewers so that they will want to watch it. Promotion refers to the specific ways a movie can be made into an object that audiences will want to see. The most common marketing and promotional strategy involve the star system, in which one or more well-known actors serve as advertising vehicles for a film. Other promotional strategies include trailers, television ads, social media marketing, and tie-ins like toys and games. Viral marketing refers to any process of advertising that relies on existing social networks to generate word-of-mouth excitement.

Film exhibition encompasses where, when, and how we watch movies. Throughout the twentieth century, most exhibitions took place in movie theaters, from movie palaces to multiplexes. Over the last two decades, that has changed, and most exhibition now occurs on TVs and other devices in private homes. The social activity of watching a movie in a theater differs greatly from the much more independent activity of watching a movie at home, raising questions about what this shift means for the film experience.
-Release strategy, number of theaters
-broadcast, on demand, streaming

refers to elements of a movie like actors, lighting, sets and settings, costumes, make-up, and other features of the image that exist independent of the camera and the processes of filming and editing. everything you SEE on the screen.
it's what a director uses to make meaning visually. think of it as visual storytelling
can be theatrical or naturalistic, but it's always deliberate

-setting/sets
-costumes/makeup/props
-lighting
-staginglocking

establish scenic realism and atmosphere

-from theater
-from the french new wave (after nazi regime, american films able to be distributed in france, popularized use of mise-en-scene by critics to describe american films)
-film as an art form

-props are objects that function as a part of the set
-costumes are the clothing and related accessories that define specific characters
-Make-up refers to cosmetics, including prosthetics, applied to the actors' faces and bodies that highlight or distort certain features

can be natural or directional and can range from hard to soft. -natural lighting
-directional lighting
-three-point lighting
-high key lighting
-low key lighting

comes from a natural source, like sunlight or firelight

deliberately set up to define and shape the object, area, or person being illuminated.

a common style of directional lighting that uses three sources: a key light to illuminate the object (brightest), backlighting to pick out the object from the background, and fill lighting that minimizes shadows

a high-contrast style that creates hard edges, distinctive shadows, and a harsh effect.

diffused, low-contrast lighting that reduces or eliminates hard edges and shadows and can be more flattering when filming people

Performance describes actors' use of language and physical expression to bring a character to life. Leading actors play the central characters in a film, while supporting actors play secondary characters. Blocking is the arrangement and movement of actors in relation to one another on a stage or set.

static (stays in one place) or mobile;
-pan (horizontal movement)
-tilt (vertical movement)
-tracking (dolly shot)
-crane
-steadicam
-hand-held

entire body and more

waist up

shoulders and up

image is oncreen for a prolonged period of time

cam is high up, overhead shot

cam is low

level shot

ratio of screen width to height
ratios:
-1.33:1 (TV, pre-1950's film, "Academy ratio")
-1.85:1 (some TV, US standard)
-2.35:1 (widescreen)

-cut
-fade-in/fade-out
-dissolve
-wipe

-way to keep space and time relations clear ("invisible editing"), establishes verisimilitude
-shot size correlates to shot duration

alternating between multiple strands of simultaneous narrative action

-camera setups only on one side of the axis of action
-relative positions in the frame remain the same

-long shot measures space (shot size)
-long take measures time (shot duration)

starts with a shot of a character, and then cuts to a shot of what or who that character is looking at (the reverse of the angle from the first shot), and finally cuts back to the initial shot to show the character's reaction

specifies that a shot should be followed only by another shot taken from a position greater than 30 degrees from that of the first. must move camera at least 30 degrees if no change in shot size

when a filmmaker breaks the 30 degree rule. an edit to a single, sequential shot that makes the action appear to leap forward in time.

have action appear longer on screen between cuts. a type of film transition that cuts from one shot to a closer shot in order to emphasize an action. Match on action cuts are used by filmmakers to generate seamless flow in editing.

-contemporary form of continuity
-shorter shot duration/more cuts
-fewer establishing shots
-more camera movement

a camera technique in which the focus changes over the course of the shot from one focal plane to another. (change focus from one object to another without cutting the shot)

occurs when the shapes, colors and/or overall movement of two shots match in composition, either within a scene or, especially, across a transition between two scenes. (think 2001:Space Odyssey bone and space station)