FIST 100 Finals
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
- parallel
- similarity bet. two characters or situations that invites the audience to compare the two
- depth of field
- distance that appears in focus in front of and behind the subject
- anime
- a style of japanese animation; not geared for young audiences
- offscreen space
- part of the story world that is implied and not shown
- minor studios
- didn't own distribution companies in studio era; Universal, Columbia, United Artists
- newsreel
- short documentary on current events; shown along cartoons and feature films in the 1930s
- motif
- narrative, visual, sound element that is repeated and thereby acquires significance to the story, characters
- selective focus
- technique of manipulating focus to direct the viewers attention
- horizontal integration
- term that refers to organization of an industry wherein one type of corporation also owns others in allied indutries
- eyeline match
- a continuity technique that preserves spatial continuity by using character's line of vision as motivation
- studio system
- model of industrial organization in the film industry from 1915 to 1946
- composition in depth
- technique of arranging actors on the set to take advantage of deep focus cinematography
- sound bridge
- scene transition wherein sound from one scene bleeds over into the next scene
- open-ended
- term describing a conclusion that does not answer all the questions raised in the story
- mother india
- mehboo khan/1957---radha; birju; ramu; shamu (husband)
- battle of algiers
- Gillo Pontecorvo/1966---ali la pointe; Gen. mathieu;
- episodic
- a non-standard narrative organization that assumes a "day in the life"
- interpretive claim
- statement that presents an argument about a films meaning and significance
- subtext
- unstated meaning implied by dialogue
- direct cinema
- cinema verite; documentary style in which the filmmaker attempts to remain as unobstrusive as possible
- extradiegetic
- non-diegetic; any element in the film that is not part of the imagined story world
- triumph of the will
- Leni Riefenstahl/1935---hitler.....
- insert
- shot hat interrupts a scenes master shot; may include character reactions or cutaways
- overlapping dialogue
- sound design the blends speech of several characters talking simultaneously
- non-diegetic
- term for narrative, sound, visual element not contained in the story world
- block booking
- outlawed studio era practice where studios forced exhibitors to book groups of films at once
- typecasting
- practice of repeatedly casting actors in similar roles across diff films
- canted angle
- dutch angle; a shot resulting from a static camera that is tilted to the right or the left
- denouement
- the falling of unraveling action after the climax of the narrative the leads to the resolution
- analog video
- a videotape system that records images onto magnetic tape
- assistant editor
- member of a film crew who assists the editor in technical aspects and supervises optical effects
- continuity editing
- also called invisible editing; minimizes audience awareness of shot transition
- masking
- using ordinary film and blocking out top and bottom to create 1.85:1 aspect ratio
- three act structure
- classical model narrative form; 1st-characters and conflicts; 2nd-complication leading to climax; 3rd-denouement
- integrated musical
- musical where some or all musical numbers are not narrative motivated
- loose framing
- technique of leaving empty space around the subject to convey openness and imply off screen space
- revisionist
- genre film that radically modifies accepted genre conventions for dramatic effect
- hollywood blacklist
- individuals who were prevented from working in the film industry because of suspected Communist interests
- anamorphic lens
- a technique using 35mm camera to create widescreen aspect ratio
- the godfather
- Francis Coppola/1972---Don vito carleone; michael carleone; santino
- 30-degree rule
- camera moves 30 degrees when there is a cut within a scene
- master shot
- single take that contains entire scene
- city symphony
- a type of short film that blends elements of documentary and avant-garde film to document the wonder of the city
- antagonist
- a character who in some way opposes the protagonist; leads to conflict
- roadshowing
- a marketing strategy of screening a blockbuster prior to general release only in premier theaters
- vertigo
- Alfred Hitchcock/1958---Scottie/John; Madeleine/Judy
- closure
- the characteristic of conventional narrative form where the conclusion ties all the loose ends
- third person narration
- literary narration from a viewpoint beyond any individual character
- high concept film
- post-studio era hollywood film appealing to mass audience; combines simple story with major movie stars and lavish marketing
- omniscient narration
- technique of storytelling from an all knowing POV rather than one individual character
- hybrid
- film that fuses conventions of two or more genres
- german expressionism
- film style that emerged in the 1910s in Germany; heavily indebted to expressionist art; influenced film noir
- formalist style
- alternative to classical/realist styles; explores abstraction/aesthetics instead of storytelling
- oeuvre
- consistent style, theme, and subject matter developed over the course of a director's body of work
- blue screen
- a technique used during production to create traveling mattes for special visual effects
- fabula
- chronological and complete account of all the events in a narrative
- bleach bypass
- a process of film development that involves leaving the silver grains in the emulsion; result: desaturated color
- soviet montage
- alternative to continuity editing, developed in silent soviet cinema; editing should exploit the diff bet. shots
- best boy
- crew member who assists the gaffer
- pixilation
- stop motion photography
- flashing
- prefogging; cinematographic technique that exposes raw film stock to light
- camera distance
- the space between the camera and the subject its filming
- hollywood ten
- ten hollywood writers and directors cited for contempt of congress for refusing to cooperate with House of un-american activities to root out communists in film industry
- pakeezah
- Kamal Amrohi/1972---shahabuddin; pakeezah/sahibjaan; salim ahmed khan
- pulling / pushing
- underdevelop to reduce contrast vs. overdevelop to increase contrast
- black girl
- ousmane sembene/1966---diouanna
- color filter
- a type of filter that absorbs certain wavelengths but leaves others unaffected
- cutaway
- an abrupt shot that focuses audience attention on precise details that might not be the focus of characters
- star system
- system initially developed for marketing films by creating and promoting stars as objects of admiration
- CGI
- images that originate from computer graphics technology, rather than photography
- negative cutter
- technician responsible for splicing an assembling film negative to editor's spec
- ethnographic film
- type of documentary film whose purpose is to present the way of life of a culture
- character actor
- an actor whose career rests on playing minor or secondary quirky roles
- vertical integration
- business model adopted by major studios where they controlled production, distribution, exhibition
- classical style
- a style associated with hollywood filmmaking; emphasized efficient storytelling vs. aesthetic innovation
- descriptive claim
- a neutral account of the basic plot and style of a film
- meshes of the afternoon
- Maya Deren/Alexander Hammid/1943---man;woman
- aperture
- variable opening in camera lens that control amount of light entering
- ADR
- automatic dialogue replacement; technique for recording synchronized dialogue in post-production
- blaxploitation
- an action film cycle of the late 60s that featured bold, rebellious Black characters
- available light
- natural light
- Actualites
- early films that documented everyday events (ie workers leaving a factory)
- compilation film
- a film composed entirely of footage from other films
- backstory
- details of character's past that emerge as film unfolds
- major studios
- five vertically integrated corps; exerted greatest control in studio era; MGM, Warner Brothers, RKO, 20th Century Fox, Paramount
- Brechtian distanciation
- drawing attention to the process of representation to break the theatrical illusion and elicit an intellectual response
- ali: fear eats the soul
- Rainer werner fassbinder/1974---emmi kurowski; ali
- aerial shot
- a shot filmed from an airplane or helicopter
- cameo
- a short screen appearance by a celebrity playing himself or herself
- foley artists
- crew member who works in post production to create sounds of the story world
- base
- a flexible celluloid strip that, with emulsion layer, comprises 35mm film stock
- apparatus theory
- Jean-Louis Baudry; body of thought that film medium's technological apparatus, not only content of film, is inherently ideological
- blockbuster
- large-budget film whose strategy is to swamp the competition through market saturation
- backstage musical
- musical film where each song and dance number narratively motivated by plot
- animation
- creating the appearance of movement by drawing a series of frames that are projected sequentially
- phi phenomenon
- optical effect whereby the human eye fills the gaps bet closely spaced objects; two lightbulbs - look like swinging
- avant-garde film
- experimental film or underground cinema; for artistic movement vs. commercial success; small audience, made by one person or small group
- graphic match
- shot transition emphasizing visual similarities between consecutive shots
- average shot length
- average length in seconds of a series of shots; measure of pace within scene of whole film
- color consultant
- a specialist who monitors the processing of color on the set and in the lab
- persistence of vision
- optical effect whereby the eye continues to register a visual stimulus in the brain for a while even if stimulus is removed
- runaway productions
- film production shot outside the US for economic reasons
- prostheses
- devices attached to faces of actors to change their appearance
- B-roll
- secondary footage that is interspersed with master shots
- parallel editing
- switch bet. two locations that make it seem as if events are happening simultaneously
- intertextual reference
- narrative, visual, sound element that refers viewers to other films or works of art
- interpellation
- Louis Althusser; term for the way in which a society creates its subjects through ideological state apparatuses (?)
- dailies
- also called rushes, footage exposed and developed quickly for director evaluation
- propaganda film
- documentary or a narrative film (rare) that features only one side of the argument
- restricted narration
- narrative approach that limits the audience's view of events to that of the main characters in the fim
- diegesis
- the imagined world of the story
- ten
- abbas kiarostami/2002---driver mom; kid
- genre
- a class or type of film; films belonging to a particular genre share narrative conventions, etc.
- charge coupler device
- chip in a video camera that converts light to electronic signal
- production values
- a measure of the visual and sound quality of the film; low budget vs. high budget
- forced development
- technique of overdeveloping film to correct underexposure
- genre conventions
- rules of character, setting, and narrative that films belonging to a genre obey
- blocking
- production term referring to coordinating actors' movements with lines of dialogue
- rashomon
- Akira Kurosawa/1950---tajomaru(bandit); masako(wife); takehiro(husband)
- four-part structure
- contemporary modification of the standard three-act structure that identifies a critical turning point at the halfway mark of narrative film
- auteur
- author; term for film directors popularized by French film critics for directors with distinctive style
- first person narration
- story narrated by one of the characters within the story
- tableau shot
- mother long shot in which the film frame resembles the proscenium arc of the stage, distancing the audience
- composition
- visual arrangement of objects, actors, and space within the frame
- line of action
- narrative path of the main or supporting actors; complex films may have many
- narrative sequencing
- arrangement of images to depict a unified story time
- academy ratio
- aspect ratio 1.33:1 standardized by Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences
- line reading
- the way an actor delivers a line of dialogue, including pauses, inflection
- chiaroscuro
- artful use of light and dark areas in the composition in black and white filmmaking
- 180-degree rule
- continuity editing rule for positioning the camera in order to maintain screen direction
- forced perspective
- system of constructing/arranging buildings to create an illusion of depth
- realist style
- film style that in contrast to classical and formalist styles, focuses on characters, place, and spontaneity and digressiveness of life
- method acting
- style of stage acting developed from the teachings of Constantin Stanislavsky; get into character using emotional memory
- frame narration
- plotline that surrounds an embedded tale
- Kuleshov effect
- mental phenomenon by which viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation
- orthochromatic
- film stock used in early cinema that was insensitive to red hues
- night & fog
- Alan Resnais/1955