xiiCONTENTS
- CHAPTER Acknowledgments xix
- Looking at Movies
- Learning Objectives
- Looking at Movies
- What Is a Movie?
- Ways of Looking at Movies
- Invisibility and Cinematic Language
- Cultural Invisibility
- Implicit and Explicit Meaning
- Viewer Expectations
- Formal Analysis
- Cultural and Formal Analysis in Harry Potter
- Analyzing Movies
- Screening Checklist: Looking at Movies
- Questions for Review
- Movies Described or Illustrated in This Chapter
- CHAPTER
- Principles of Film Form
- Learning Objectives
- Film Form
- Form and Content
- Form and Expectations
- Patterns
- Fundamentals of Film Form
- Movies Depend on Light
- Movies Provide an Illusion of Movement
- Ways Movies Manipulate Space and Time in Unique
- Realism and Antirealism
- Verisimilitude
- Cinematic Language
- Analyzing Principles of Film Form
- Screening Checklist: Principles of Film Form
- Questions for Review
- Movies Described or Illustrated in This Chapter
- CHAPTER viiiCONTENTS
- Types of Movies
- Learning Objectives
- The Idea of Narrative
- Types of Movies
- Narrative Movies
- Documentary Movies
- Experimental Movies
- Hybrid Movies
- Genre
- Genre Conventions
- Story Formulas
- Theme
- Character Types
- Setting
- Presentation
- Stars
- Genre Conventions
- Six Major American Genres
- Gangster
- Film Noir
- Science Fiction
- Horror
- The Western
- The Musical
- Evolution and Transformation of Genre
- What about Animation?
- Analyzing Types of Movies
- Screening Checklist: Types of Movies
- Questions for Review
- Movies Described or Illustrated in This Chapter
- CHAPTER
- Elements of Narrative
- Learning Objectives
- What Is Narrative?
- Characters
- Narrative Structure
- The Screenwriter
- Elements of Narrative
- Story and Plot
- Order
- Events
- Duration
- Suspense versus Surprise
- Repetition
- Setting
- Scope
- Looking at Narrative: John Ford’s Stagecoach
- Story, Screenwriter, and Screenplay
- Narration and Narrator
- Characters
- Narrative Structure
- Plot
- Order
- Diegetic and Nondiegetic Elements
- Events
- Duration
- Repetition
- Suspense
- Setting
- Scope
- Analyzing Elements of Narrative
- Screening Checklist: Elements of Narrative
- Questions for Review
- Movies Described or Illustrated in This Chapter
- CHAPTER CONTENTSix
- Mise-en-Scène
- Learning Objectives
- What Is Mise-en-Scène?
- Design
- The Production Designer
- Elements of Design
- Setting, Decor, and Properties
- Lighting
- Costume, Makeup, and Hairstyle
- International Styles of Design
- Composition
- Framing: What We See on the Screen
- On-screen and Offscreen Space
- Open and Closed Framing
- Kinesis: What Moves on the Screen
- Movement of Figures within the Frame
- Framing: What We See on the Screen
- Looking at Mise-en-Scène
- Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow
- Sam Mendes’s American Beauty
- Analyzing Mise-en-Scène
- Screening Checklist: Mise-en-Scène
- Questions for Review
- Movies Described or Illustrated in This Chapter
- CHAPTER
- Cinematography
- Learning Objectives
- What Is Cinematography?
- The Director of Photography
- Cinematographic Properties of the Shot
- Film Stock
- Black and White
- Color
- Lighting
- Source
- Quality
- Direction
- Color
- Lenses
- Film Stock
- Framing of the Shot
- Implied Proximity to the Camera
- Shot Types
- Depth
- Camera Angle and Height
- Eye Level
- High Angle
- Low Angle
- Dutch Angle
- Aerial View
- Scale
- Camera Movement
- Pan Shot
- Tilt Shot
- Dolly Shot
- Zoom
- Crane Shot
- Handheld Camera
- Steadicam
- Framing and Point of View
- Implied Proximity to the Camera
- Speed and Length of the Shot
- Special Effects
- In-Camera, Mechanical, and Laboratory Effects
- Computer-Generated Imagery
- Analyzing Cinematography
- Screening Checklist: Cinematography
- Questions for Review
- Movies Described or Illustrated in this Chapter
- CHAPTER
- Acting
- Learning Objectives
- What Is Acting?
- Movie Actors
- The Evolution of Screen Acting
- Early Screen-Acting Styles
- D. W. Griffith and Lillian Gish
- The Influence of Sound
- Acting in the Classical Studio Era
- Method Acting
- Screen Acting Today
- Technology and Acting
- Casting Actors
- Factors Involved in Casting
- Aspects of Performance
- Types of Roles
- Preparing for Roles
- Naturalistic and Nonnaturalistic Styles
- Improvisational Acting
- Directors and Actors
- How Filmmaking Affects Acting
- Framing, Composition, Lighting, and the Long Take
- The Camera and the Close-up
- Acting and Editing
- Looking at Acting xCONTENTS
- Barbara Stanwyck in King Vidor’s Stella Dallas
- Michelle Williams in Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine
- Analyzing Acting
- Screening Checklist: Acting
- Questions for Review
- Movies Described or Illustrated in This Chapter
- CHAPTER
- Editing
- Learning Objectives
- What Is Editing?
- The Film Editor
- The Editor’s Responsibilities
- Spatial Relationships between Shots
- Temporal Relationships between Shots
- Rhythm
- The Editor’s Responsibilities
- Discontinuity Major Approaches to Editing: Continuity and
- Conventions of Continuity Editing
- Master Scene Technique
- Screen Direction
- Editing Techniques That Maintain Continuity
- Shot/Reverse Shot
- Match Cuts
- Parallel Editing
- Point-of-View Editing
- Other Transitions between Shots
- The Jump Cut
- Fade
- Dissolve
- Wipe
- Iris Shot
- Freeze-Frame
- Split Screen
- Conventions of Continuity Editing
- Looking at Acting xCONTENTS
- Looking at Editing CONTENTSxi
- Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund’s City of God
- Analyzing Editing
- Screening Checklist: Editing
- Questions for Review
- Movies Described or Illustrated in This Chapter
- CHAPTER
- Sound
- Learning Objectives
- What Is Sound?
- Sound Production
- Design
- Recording
- Editing
- Mixing
- Describing Film Sound
- Pitch, Loudness, Quality
- Fidelity
- Sources of Film Sound
- Diegetic versus Nondiegetic
- On-screen versus Offscreen
- Internal versus External
- Types of Film Sound
- Vocal Sounds
- Environmental Sounds
- Music
- Silence
- War of the Worlds Types of Sound in Steven Spielberg’s
- Functions of Film Sound
- Audience Awareness
- Audience Expectations
- Expression of Point of View
- Rhythm
- Characterization
- Continuity
- Emphasis
- Sound in Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane
- Sources and Types
- Functions
- Characterization
- Themes
- Analyzing Sound
- Screening Checklist: Sound
- Questions for Review
- Movies Described or Illustrated in This Chapter
- CHAPTER
- Film History
- Learning Objectives
- What Is Film History?
- Basic Approaches to Studying Film History
- The Aesthetic Approach
- The Technological Approach
- The Economic Approach
- Film as Social History
- A Short Overview of Film History
- Precinema
- Photography
- Series Photography
- 1891–1903: The First Movies
- The Silent Period 1908–1927: Origins of the Classical Hollywood Style–—
- 1919–1931: German Expressionism
- 1918–1930: French Avant-Garde Filmmaking
- 1924–1930: The Soviet Montage Movement
- Golden Age 1927–1947: Classical Hollywood Style in Hollywood’s
- Precinema
- 1942–1951: Italian Neorealism
- 1959–1964: French New Wave
- Europe, and Asia 1947–Present: New Cinemas in Great Britain,
- England and the Free Cinema Movement
- Denmark and the Dogme 95 Movement
- Germany and Das neue Kino
- Japan and Postwar Filmmaking
- China and Postwar Filmmaking
- The People’s Republic
- Hong Kong
- Taiwan
- India
- 1965–1995: The New American Cinema
- Analyzing Film History
- Screening Checklist: Film History
- Questions for Review
- Movies Described or Illustrated in This Chapter
- CHAPTER
- Production Systems Filmmaking Technologies and
- Learning Objectives
- The Whole Equation
- Overview Film, Video, and Digital Technologies: An
- Film Technology
- Video Technology
- Digital Technology
- Film versus Digital Technology
- How a Movie Is Made
- Preproduction
- Production
- Postproduction
- The Studio System
- Organization before
- Organization after
- Organization during the Golden Age
- The Decline of the Studio System
- The Independent System
- Labor and Unions
- Professional Organizations and Standardization
- Financing in the Industry
- Marketing and Distribution
- Production in Hollywood Today
- 3-D Movies: Gimmick or Trend of the Future
- Foreign Influences on Hollywood Films
- Maverick Producers and Directors
- Systems Thinking about Filmmaking Technologies and Production
- Production Systems Screening Checklist: Filmmaking Technologies and
- Questions for Review
- Movies Described or Illustrated in This Chapter
- For Further Viewing
- Further Viewing
- Academy Award Winners for Best Picture
- Sight & Sound: Top Ten Best Movies of All Time
- American Movies of All Time American Film Institute: One Hundred Greatest
- All Time Entertainment Weekly: One Hundred Greatest Movies of
- Twentieth Century The Village Voice: One Hundred Best Films of the
- Glossary
- Further Reading
- Permissions Acknowledgments
- Index
- How a Movie Is Made