FA 255 Understanding Movies: Film Styles

1. Identify and explain the significance of the relationship between film art and society. 
2. Identify and define the forms, stylistic devices, and technologies used in cinema. 
3. Identify and compare cinematic styles, genres, themes, historical movements, critical approaches, and cultural contexts. 
4. Critically examine issues of diversity and inclusion in relation to film and society. 
5. Write critical analyses of films including at least one essay in MLA format with documentation. 

Statewide General Education Outcomes: 

1. Interpret and engage in the Arts and Letters, making use of the creative process to enrich the quality of life. 
2. Critically analyze values and ethics within a range of human experience and expression to engage more fully in local and global issues. 

• Industrial and Historical Context of Cinema 
  • Industry 
    • Modes of production 
      • The exclusion and inclusion of diverse artistic voices due to economic constraints 
      • An example of independent short films made by an artist from an historically marginalized group 
    • The classical Hollywood cinema and the Hollywood studio era 
      • The global exportation of the classical Hollywood cinema as cultural colonialism (“soft power”) 
      • The breakup of the studios (vertical integration) and contemporary multinational production analogs (horizontal integration) 
    • The coming of sound plus one other technological innovation in its socioeconomic and artistic context; color, widescreen, digital visual effects, etc. 
    • The presentation of “an evening’s entertainment” 
• Narrative Form as Dominant Film Form 
  • Definition of narrative 
    • Character, desire, conflict 
    • Stair step construction 
  • Large-scale parts or acts 
  • Narration: fabula and syuzhet 
  • Narration: range (restricted to unrestricted) and depth (perceptual and mental subjectivity) 
  • The role of the screenwriter 
  • Presold properties 
  • Serial form and stated universes, sequels, franchises 
    • Cinema’s relationship to other media (e.g., literary function, TV, video games, comic books) 
  • Documentary and avant garde and experimental forms 
• Mise-en-scene 
  • Composition and the construction of three-dimensional space 
    • Screen space 
    • Cognitive activity involved in the optical illusion of cinema 
  • Setting and sets  
  • Costumes, makeup, and props 
  • Natural and artificial light sources 
    • Three- and four-point lighting setups 
• Cinematography 
  • The camera 
    • Exposure: Aperature/f-stop, shutter speed, ISO 
    • Depth-of-field 
    • Focal length of lenses 
    • Frame rate 
  • Stock and sensor 
    • Film formats (e.g., 16mm, 35mm, 70mm) 
    • Aspect ratio 
    • Color and black-and-white 
    • Filters 
  • Techniques: Stationary framing 
    • Camera height 
    • Camera angle 
    • Shot scale 
  • Techniques: Mobile framing 
    • Tripod: Pan, tilt, elevator 
    • Dolly and tracking shots 
    • Jibs and cranes 
    • Handheld and Steadicam 
  • Ideological implications of stylistic techniques as posited by schools of critical thought: 
    • Feminist film theory (e.g., Laura Mulvey and objectification of women) 
    • Formalism, non-western visual perspectives (e.g., Yasujiro Ozu) 
• Editing 
  • Construction of time and space through editing 
  • Editing systems 
    • Continuity editing 
      • Analytical editing 
      • Constructive editing 
    • Violations of continuity editing 
      • Techniques 
        • Montage (Soviet and then Hollywood appropriation into continuity system) 
        • Jump cuts 
        • Elliptical editing 
      • Ideological implications of violations (e.g., resistance to Western capitalism via Soviet Montage)  
    • Basic editing techniques 
      • Cut 
      • Fade 
      • Dissolve 
      • Wipe 
      • Compositing 
      • 180 degree rule and axis of acton 
      • 30 degree rule 
      • Match on action 
      • Shot and reverse shot 
      • Eyeline match 
      • Parallel editing and crosscutting 
      • Long take, sequence shot 
      • Average Shot Length (ASL), historical changes 
      • Linear v. non-linear editing technologies 
    • Editing concepts 
      • Temporal order, duration, and frequency 
      • Graphic match 
      • Rhythm and tempo 
• Sound 
  • Basic elements 
    • Dialog 
    • Music 
    • Sound Effects 
  • Location recording, ADR, Foley 
  • Construction of time and space 
    • Synchronous, nonsynchronous, asynchronous, off-screen, sound perspective 
  • Qualities of sound 
    • Volume, pitch, timbre 
  • Diegetic v. non-diegetic sound 
  • Audio postproduction 
  • Importance of sound in production and history of industry 
  • Concept of “voice” and examples of inclusion/exclusion 
• Acting 
  • History of acting styles 
  • The star system and contemporary actor marketing 
  • The role of film style in constructing performance 
• Genre 
  • Genre as marketing 
  • Conventions: iconography, themes, and social context 
  • Sub-and hybrid genres, genre change, and cycles 
  • Repetition and variation in genre 
  • Cultural exchange and influence between genres 
• Filmmakers 
  • Authorship and the auteur theory (France and the U.S.) 
    • Consistent style and themes, original worldview, oeuvre 
    • Inherent sex and race biases in the auteur theory 
    • Underrepresented minority resistance to exclusion of auteur theory 
  • Film as collaborative art, technology and capita: The genius of the system, role of writer, producer, editor 
    •  TV analog in showrunner 
• Representation and Reality 
  • Critical approaches to studying film 
    • Historiography 
    • Formalism 
    • Ideological critique (e.g., feminism, race, ethnicity, class, colonialism, queer theory) 
    • Film audiences and reception theory, viewer participation, fandom 
    • Textual analysis 
• Lecture, Lab, and Screening 
  • Lab 
    • Introductory lecture 
    • Film screening 
  • Lecture 
    • Secondary lecture 
    • Assignment