LECTURE ONE

SOME TERMS

Movement: Camera:

pan/tilt: (camera moves on its own axis
tracking shot/dolly shot: camera and base move (often on a track)
Camera position changes (multiple shots)
 Homage: A tribute paid to someone by citing their filmic work.

Superimposition: film is exposed and run back a short distance, then re-exposed with some change in what is being photographed. For a short while the unchanged and changed aspects appear simultaneously (two images appear on top of one another).

Montage: In Russian editing, the bringing together of shots to give additional meaning to the film Historically:

Zootrope: Round box like object with slits in the side. A paper with several images goes inside and when the box is spun on a spindle, the images viewed through the slits appear to move.

Muybridge: Race horse problem: Are all four legs off the ground at once. Set of serial photos which are precursors to film

EARLY FILMS

No camera movement: All action is by subjects on screen. Film documents performance.
Serpentine Dances,
Strong Man: Eugene Sandow
Workers leaving factory.
Train arriving at station (terrified viewere who ran from the theater)
No editing (cutting between shots) Everything is in one “shot”
Early films tend to be documentaries: They document an event rather than being creative in and of themselves. Later story telling appears (film becomes narrative
 Motion picture film begins to differ from still photography more and more as several possibilities are realized.
(1) time becomes an element along with motion (Motion requires duration or time)
(2) Some special effects appear early. If you stop the camera and start it again things can “pop” in and out of view.
(3) Camera begins to move
a. Initially on moving objects like trains
b. Later it “pans”
 (4) camera shifts its position relative to the subject (close-ups)
(5) Editing happens
(6) often little or no story telling (7) special effects are in place - largely making things appear and disappear In effect film becomes a distinctive art style largely through the introduction of mechanisms which are not available to other art forms. When a play is filmed, it may either remain static and appear the way the play would to a spectator, or the film can take on a life of its own based on camera movement, camera (both in placement and in actually moving – panning, tilting, tracking, etc.)
A film which documents a play has little to offer as a film, when the film becomes artistic is when the people involved in making the film exploit those areas (domains) that are unique to film – this includes all of the visual arts to which an element of time (which allows for motion) can be introduced.
In a single still photo (or single frame from a piece of film) there can be no camera movement, no change of position of camera and no editing.
Camera Movement Pan: camera moves horizontally on it own axis (comapre tracking shot) Tracking: Camera moves on a moving object - track, wheel chair etc. Tilt: camera moves vertically on its own axis. Boom: camera moves vertically on a book or crane, What are films?

Film refers both to a strip of celluloid on which miages can be rendered by exposure to light and an art form/

What is art? (consider core – art, music required. Not film)

Many definitions.
If everything is art then, nothing is art. No contrast
Art is a category that people use to classify certain things
We do not discuss people walking on the street as art – it is not presented that way. If we put people on a stage and have them walk we ask people to interpret it as art.
Kinds of arts Graphic: 2 dimensional - painting
Plastic: 3 dimensional - sculpture
Performing: 4 dimensional (includes time) requires interpretation between creator and spectator – music, theater, film.
 The Trip to the Moon and The Great Train Robbery exhibit narrative films in which the story line continues across different shots. The Trip to the Moon emphasizes the "special effects "magic" that appealed to many film makers who saw in it, the major difference between what film could do and what could be done in theater.

The Great Train Robbery on the other hand emphasizes realism not "film tricks. These two appraoches develop into two different approaches - a formalist one, where emphasis is more on making people aware of the film and its structure, as opposed to realism which stress the content of the film in the hopes that viewers will basically feel they are looking at a real event through a window (almost). Realism is ofetn assisted by such techniques as long shots. Think about the shot where the passengers are made to get off the train and have their valuables taken from them.

The final scene of the man pointing his pistol at the camera (audience) and firing is one of the first close-ups. It was so impressive to audiences the projectionists often showed it before the film and after as well!

An important part deals with the connection between shots. Shots are like words, editing is like grammar. An important aspect of linking shots is called "montage" which has several meanings. In Russian editing it means juxtaposing shots so that an additional meaning can be seen. It is a kind of "The sum is greater than the whole of its parts". Examples were shown from Stachka (Strike) (1925) (sergei Eisenstein, director); Apocalypse Now (1979) (Francis Ford Coppola, director) and Bowling for Columbine (2002) (Michael Moore. director).