Film Studies Units : I-V

Transcription

1 Units : I-V

2 TM Unit I Critical Introduction Mise-En-Scene The Shot Nickelodeons Origin of Film The Silent Era Realism and Formalism 2

3 TM Critical Introduction is a primer a pared-down introduction to the field. It is aimed at beginners. It simplifies things, which is to say that the information it contains is straightforward and aimed at every student who is willing to learn it. It s complicated material, but only to a point. tries to cover the subject of narrative cinema accurately but broadly, precisely but not comprehensively. 3

4 TM Critical Introduction REPRESENTATION AND REALITY The word representation. What does it mean and what technology does it take to represent real people or physical objects on film? These are two of the basic questions in film studies. The dictionary defines the verb to represent as to stand for; to symbolize; to indicate or communicate by signs or symbols. 4

5 TM Mise en-scene WHAT IS MISE-EN-SCENE? The term mise en-scene ( also mise-en-scène) describes the primary feature of cinematic representation. Mise-en-scene is the first step in understanding how films produce and reflect meaning. It s a term taken from the French, and it means that which has been put into the scene or put onstage. Everything literally everything in the filmed image is described by the term mise-en-scene : it s the expressive totality of what you see in a single film image. 5

6 TM Mise en-scene Mise-en-scene consists of all of the elements placed in front of the camera to be photographed: settings, props, lighting, costumes, makeup, and figure behavior (meaning actors, their gestures, and their facial expressions).. 6

7 TM Mise en-scene WHAT IS MISE-EN-SCENE? mise-en-scene is the totality of expressive content within the image. 7

8 TM The Shot what is a shot? A shot is the basic element of filmmaking a piece of film run through the camera, exposed, and developed an uninterrupted run of the camera an uninterrupted image on film. A shot is a unit of length or duration a minimal unit of dramatic material a scene is a longer unit usually consisting of several shots or more. 8

9 TM Nickelodeon NICKELODEON - BY THE WAY FILM HISTORY The nickelodeon was the first type of indoor exhibition space dedicated to showing projected motion pictures. Usually set up in converted storefronts, these small, simple theaters charged five cents for admission and flourished from about 1905 to

10 TM The Silent Era Georges Melies A Trip to the Moon, 1902 Pioneered editing, special effects, and storytelling 10

11 TM The Silent Era Standard length of films was about one reel or minutes Feature films started in Australia D.W. Griffith picked up on it Made Birth of a Nation in 1915 Most popular film of the 1910s Extremely racist 11

12 Talkies Al Jolson s The Jazz Singer was the 1 st film with sound, 1927 Used the Vitaphone system By 1929, almost all films were talkies Many silent film stars and directors couldn t adapt Started the Golden Age of Hollywood Lasted until the 1950s 12

13 Talkies The Jazz Singer is a 1927 American musical film. As the first feature-length motion picture with not only a synchronized recorded music score Also lip-synchronous singing and speech in several isolated sequences Its release heralded the commercial ascendance of sound films and the decline of the silent film era 13

14 Talkies Alam Ara is a 1931 Indian film directed by Ardeshir Irani. The first Indian sound film. Irani recognised the importance that sound would have on the cinema 14

15 What is Realism? Realism in the arts is the attempt to represent subject matter truthfully, without artificiality and avoiding artistic conventions, implausible, exotic and supernatural elements. A style of filmmaking that attempts to represent the look of objective reality as it s commonly perceived.. 15

16 What is Formalism? A style of filmmaking in which aesthetic forms take precedence over the subject matter as content. Time and space as ordinarily perceived are often distorted. For Formalism, film is an art because its properties are exploited to express filmmakers own vision 16

17 Elements of Film language Macro and Micro elements in film language Macro - Genre Narrative Representation Micro Cinematography Sound Editing Mise En Scene Special Effects 17

18 TM Unit II Early Cinema Lumière s Films Georges Méliès Origin of Indian Film Pioneer of Indian Cinema Dadasaheb Phalke Origin of Tamil Cinema Nataraja Rangaswamy Mudaliar S.S.Vasan's Chandralekha 18

19 Early Cinema Lumière brothers, French inventors and pioneer manufacturers of photographic equipment who devised an early motionpicture camera and projector called the Cinématographe ( cinema is derived from this name). 19

20 Georges Méliès French illusionist and film director who led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema. A stage magician at Theatre The first innovator in filmmaking. The inventor of seminal film tricks 20

21 Georges Méliès Visual cinematic tricks: Jump cut - a scene is cut in the middle of action Double exposure - two images are superimposed on the same piece of film Multiple images - the screen divided into several separate images 21

22 Georges Méliès Films A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la lune: 1902) A fantasy about a rocket journey to the moon The scene in which the spaceship hits the Moon's eye would go on to become one of the most iconic images in cinematic history. 22

23 Realism and Formalism Film Realism The Lumière tendencies to record the reality without changing it Film formalism The Méliès tendencies to recreate the reality or presenting a new, different reality 23

24 Pioneer of Indian Cinema I have to keep making films in my country so that it gets established as an industry at home. - Dadasaheb Phalke 95 movies and 26 short films during his career spanning 19 years, till

25 Dadasaheb Phalke The father of Indian Cinema Indian producer-director-screenwriter, known as the father of Indian cinema. Raja Harishchandra (1913), by Dadasaheb Phalke, was the first silent feature film made in India. 25

26 Origin of Tamil Cinema In 1897, M. Edwards first screened a selection of silent short films at the Victoria Public Hall in Madras. The films all featured non-fictional subjects; they were mostly photographed records of day-to-day events. 26

27 Origin of Tamil Cinema Samikannu Vincent was the first person to build a cinema theater in South India. He built the Variety Hall (now Delite Theatre) in Coimbatore in Introduced the concept of "Tent Cinema" in which a tent was erected on a stretch of open land close to a town or village to screen the films. 27

28 Origin of Tamil Cinema History of Tamil Cinema can be dated back to 1916 when Nataraja Rangaswamy Mudaliar made Keechaka Vadham, which was also the first silent film in South India. 28

29 Origin of Tamil Cinema S.S.Vasan's Chandralekha in 1948 was a landmark film in the history of Tamil cinema. Chandralekha was produced on a lavish budget and is among the most expensive tamil films of all time. Chandralekha was distributed by Gemini Studios, which was founded by Vasan in

30 Dravidian Cinema Tamil cinema has played a vital role in Dravidian politics in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Films have been influential in Indian politics since the days of the British Raj, when movies were used for anti-british propaganda. 30

31 Dravidian Cinema Nevertheless, the leaders of the Indian National Congress viewed movie media with contempt. It was the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), a Dravidian party, that made extensive use of this media for propaganda purposes. 31

32 Dravidian Cinema Nallathambi is a 1949 Tamil film starring and produced by N. S. Krishnan. The film's script was written by C. N. Annadurai. This film marked Annadurai's debut in Tamil films. 32

33 Dravidian Cinema Velaikkaari is a 1949 Indian Tamillanguage drama film directed by A. S. A. Sami and produced by M. Somasundaram under his production Jupiter Pictures. It was based on the play of the same name written by C. N. Annadurai 33

34 TM Unit III Motion Picture: An Introduction Auteur Theory Post-Structuralism Theory Postmodernism Narration NARRATOLOGY Apparatus Theory 34

35 Motion Picture: An Introduction Over the passing years, innovations and the emphasis of pioneering realization in the course of the prime stage of cinematic antiquity configured the craftsmanship applied to filmmaking. 35

36 Auteur Theory Andre Bazin is a renowned and influential French Film Critic and theorist. Bazin believed and favoured films having Montage and Realism. He has been considered as one of the best critics of all time; it is also considered that the founder and author of Cahiers du cinema Andre Bazin paved way for a breakthrough in traditional film making to French New Wave. 36

37 Auteur Theory It was in 1943, Bazin published in Cahiers du cinema literally means Notebook on Cinema that Directors are the authors of the film and should create their own signature style and not be totally influenced by the script given. Even though there are no specific definitions for Auteur Theory it can be said that the films reflects the personal ideas and styles of the director or director is the author of the work. 37

38 Post-Structuralism Theory on Films Post-structuralism is a theory defining the quality of realism as to understanding what is reality in its core essence and how substantial this very reality is being discerned by the human mind by the means of the given mediums. Presuppositions may construct a vision of imaginative items or may likewise refuse to accept the existence of the truth in an given object. 38

39 Post-Structuralism Theory on Films Post-structuralism reach over and above the technique of demeanor of human comprehension on system of ideas insinuating immutable internal rationality on interconnections outlining details of collective facts. In the domain of post-structuralism, a supposition undoubtedly has composite impact at every single aspect and details of consideration. 39

40 Evolution of Modernist Movement Postmodernist film Postmodernist film is a classification for works that articulate the themes and ideas of postmodernism through the medium of cinema. Postmodernist film attempts to subvert the mainstream conventions of narrative structure and characterization, and tests the audience's suspension of disbelief. Postmodernism defines as defiance and as a form of refusal to conform the ideas and theories of the modernist approach in films. 40

41 Postmodern Films 41

42 Postmodern Film Blue Velvet is a 1986 American neo-noir mystery film, written and directed by David Lynch. Blending psychological horror with film noir. 42

43 Narration Narrative is often simply equated with story, a sequence of causally linked events with a beginning, a middle, and an end; however, narrative has also come to be understood as an essential component of human discourse and a complex concept in its own right for many disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. 43

44 Narratology The study of narrative (narratology) has focused on written fiction, even though stories may be told (narrated) through a variety of media, including the cinema Literary narratology has had a major influence on the study of film narrative as such. As early as the 4th century BCE, Plato and Aristotle made the key distinction between mimesis (imitation of an event or action without a narrator) diegesis (telling a story through a narrator s agency).. 44

45 Narratology & Storytelling Narratology is the study of narrative and narrative structure and the ways that these affect our perception. 45

46 Elements of a Narrative Theory From Seymour Chatman. Coming to Terms: The Rhetoric of Narrative in Fiction and Films. Ithaca: Cornell UP, Each narrative has two parts: Story (histoire), the content or chain of events (actions, happenings), plus what may be called the existents (characters, items of setting) Discourse (discourse), that is, the expression, the means by which the content is communicated. In simple terms, the story is the what in a narrative that is depicted, discourse the how. 46

47 The Visual Channel From Seymour Chatman. Coming to Terms: The Rhetoric of Narrative in Fiction and Films. Ithaca: Cornell UP,

48 Apparatus Theory Apparatus Theory is a model of spectatorship and institutions. It argues that cinema is ideological (based on ideas) because the films are created to represent reality. Apparatus theory was dominant in the 1970s (following the 1960s where psychoanalytical theories and debates were very popular) and is derived from a combination of Marxist theory, semiotics and psychoanalysis. 48

49 Films Meghe Dhaka Tara is a 1960 film written and directed by Ritwik Ghatak, based on a social novel by Shaktipada Rajguru 49

50 Films The 400 Blows (1959) François Truffaut The French New Wave was a group of trailblazing directors who exploded onto the film scene in the late 1950s. The directors associated with the Nouvelle Vague, including Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette, Louis Malle, Alain Resnais, Agnes Varda and Jacques Demy 50

51 TM Unit IV Feminist Film Theory Laura Mulvey Male Gaze Sila Nerangalil Sila Manithargal Voyeurism Marxist Film Theory 51

52 Feminist Film Theory Feminist film theory is a theoretical film criticism derived from feminist politics and feminist theory. Feminists have many approaches to cinema analysis, regarding the film elements analyzed and their theoretical underpinnings. 52

53 Feminist Film Theory Iraivi is a 2016 Tamil drama film written and directed by Karthik Subbaraj 53

54 Laura Mulvey British Feminist Film Theorist. Mulvey is best known for her essay & thoughts, 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema', written in 1973 and published in 1975 in the influential British film theory journal Screen 54

55 MALE GAZE The term male gaze was coined by the feminist film critic Laura Mulvey in 1975 The male gaze is in three perspectives: 1.That of the man behind the camera, 2.That of the characters within the film 3.Representation, that of the male spectator 55

56 Male Gaze The term male gaze was coined by the feminist film critic Laura Mulvey in 1975 The male gaze is in three perspectives: That of the man behind the camera That of the characters within the film Representation, that of the male spectator 56

57 Male Gaze This was first offbeat film directed by Bhimsingh who was known for family melodramas. Sila Nerangalil Sila Manithargal (On Male Gaze) 57

58 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. 58

59 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. 59

60 Male Gaze Male Gaze with reference Taramani Trailer 60

61 Marxist Film Theory The origin of Marxist Film Theory began at the flourishing milestone that had began springing from the exertion of its founding advocates, Sergei Eisenstein, for instance, among a myriad of Soviet movie-makers during the 1920s, has demonstrated the concept of Marxism by the medium of cinema. 61

62 Marxist Film Theory Sergei Eisenstein s presupposition of a procedure of carefully choosing and filtering and segmentation together the segregated unit of film to create a continuous frame of scenes happen to be paramount to the motion picture, claiming its erudite cornerstone as an example of the Marxist argumentation. 62

63 Marxist Film Theory Eisenstein implemented the traditional argumentation mentality of disquisition that was set against by the contrary supposition, thus, carrying off from Marx s notions and formulations. 63

64 Marxist Film Theory Marxist Film Theory - Joker by Rajumurugan 64

65 How heroism or hero worship survive? Discuss with the help of Prof. M.S.S. Pandian s book titled The Image Trap: M.G. Ramachandran in Film and Politics 65

66 TM Unit V Two assignments in any two of the above areas 66