Russian Film: Art, Politics, & Society Prof. Vida Johnson, Tufts University

Russian Film: Art, Politics, & Society Prof. Vida Johnson, Tufts University, Boston, USA

THE LANGUAGE OF CINEMA

Most technical terms given below are from Louis Giannetti' s Understanding Movies Terms for film analysis represent an eclectic mix of critical approaches.

FRAME: 1. the smallest unit of film; any single image on a film strip; 2. the dividing line between the edges of the screen image and the enclosing darkness of the theater;

SHOT: one camera action without cut: i.e. an unedited strip of film; those images which are recorded continuously from the time the camera starts to the time it stops.

TAKE: a variation of a specific shot; the final shot is often selected from a number of takes.

SEQUENCE SHOT: a single lengthy take, usually involving complex staging and camera movements.

MASTER SHOT: an uninterrupted shot, usually taken from a long- or full-shot range, which contains an entire scene. Later, the closer shots are photographed, and an edited sequence, composed of a variety of shots, is constructed on the editor’s bench.

SEQUENCE: an imprecise structural unit of film, composed of a number of interrelated shots and leading to a major climax; a group of actions in one geographical location.

FIRST CUT: also called rough cut: the initial sequence of shots in a movie, often constructed by the director; crudely edited footage--a rough draft;

FINAL CUT: also called release print: the sequence of shots in a film as it will be released to the public;

MISE EN SCENE: the arrangement of visual weights and movements within a given space; In the live theater, the space is usually defined by the proscenium arch; in movies, by the frame which encloses the images. Cinematic mise en scene encompasses both the staging of the action and the way that it is photographed.

HOW ACTION IS STAGED OR COMPOSED:

OPEN FORMS: used primarily by realist filmmakers, these techniques are likely to be unobtrusive, with an emphasis on informal compositions and apparently haphazard designs. The frame is exploited to suggest a temporary masking, a window which arbitrarily cuts off part of the action.

CLOSED FORMS: a visual style which inclines toward self-conscious designs and carefully harmonized compositions. The frame is exploited to suggest a self-sufficient universe which encloses all the necessary visual information, usually in an aesthetically appealing manner.

FRAMING: determination of the spacial limits and composition of each shot;

TIGHT FRAMING : usually in close shots. The mise en scene is so carefully balanced and harmonized that the people photographed have little or

no freedom of movement.

3 VISUAL PLANES: foreground, middle ground, and background; the part of image which is the closest, mid-distance, and farthest away from spectator;

DOMINANT CONTRAST: also: dominant. That area of the film image which, because of a prominent visual contrast, compels the viewer’s most immediate attention. Occasionally the dominant can be aural (sound), in which case the image serves as a subsidiary contrast.

SUBSIDIARY CONTRAST: a subordinated element of the film image, complementing or contrasting with the dominant contrast.

INTRINSIC INTEREST: an unobtrusive area of the film image which nonetheless compels the viewer 's most immediate attention because of its dramatic or contextual importance. An object of intrinsic interest will take precedence over the formal dominant contrast.

PROXEMIC PATTERNS: the spacial relationships among characters within the mise• en-scene, and the apparent distance of the camera from the subject photographed. 4 major patterns: intimate (up to 18 inches), personal (1 1/2 to 4 feet roughly) , social (4 to 12 feet) and public distances (12-25 feet to infinity). they can be equated with the close and extreme close shot (intimate), a medium close range (personal) , medium and full range (social) and long and extreme long shot (public).

ALEATORY TECHNIQUES: techniques depending on the element of chance; images are not planned out in advance, but must be composed on the spot by a director who often acts as his own cameraman; usually employed in documentary or improvisational situations;

PHOTOGRAPHY -- HOW ACTION IS SHOT:

(distance, camera angle, movement, focus; lighting; color; opticals (filters & lenses); film speed;

CAMERA DISTANCE:

CLOSE-UP (cu): the image fills the screen in detail; shows very little, if any locale, concentrates on relatively small object; of people, the shot includes the face but no lower than the neck; psychological effect; extreme close-up: a variation of this shot: instead of a face, it might show only a person's eye or mouth.

MEDIUM SHOT or MID-SHOT (ms): a relatively close shot, where the major part but not the entire image is on screen and is presented in moderate detail. A mid-shot of the figure generally includes the body from the knees or the waist up. "The American Shot" - - from the knees up; an informational shot. variations include the two-shot (2 figures from the waist up), the three shot (3 figures) , over-the-shoulder shot (2 figures one facing and one with back to camera) ;

LONG SHOT (ls) : corresponds approximately to the distances between the audience and the stage in the live theater; presents even more info. than the mid-shot; full-shot: closest range within the long shot: just barely includes the human body in full; extreme or very long shot: taken from a great distance, sometimes as far as a 1/4 mile; almost always an exterior shot which shows much

of the locale: at times called an establishing shot, because it serves as a spacial frame of reference for closer shots. deep-focus shot: a variation of the long shot;

CAMERA ANGLE:

LOW ANGLE: subject is photographed from below; slight low angle has ennobling effect in the case of the human figure; increases stature; extreme low angle: the figure inspires fear, awe, and demonstrates immense power .

HIGH ANGLE: subject is photographed from above; person thus photographed is reduced in stature and significance and seems harmless or vulnerable. the camera is often place on a crane;

BIRD'S EYE VIEW: extreme high angle shot where a scene is photographed from directly overhead; most disorienting angle of all since we seldom view events from this perspective; dehumanizing effect: people seem ant-like and insignificant.

EYE LEVEL: no angular displacement in the shot at all: perspective is eye-to• eye with the object photographed; the most neutral shot approximately the way an actual observer might view a scene: i.e. from 5-6 feet off the ground.

OBLIQUE ANGLE: a shot photographed by a tilted camera; when the image is project'ed on screen, the subject itself seems to be tilted on a diagonal; suggests tension, transition, and impending movement;

POINT-OF-VIEW SHOT: (also subjective camera, first person camera) any shot taken from the vantage point of a character in the film; what he sees; camera becomes a person in the narrative, acts as a character 's eyes.

CAMERA SPEED and MECHANICAL DISTORTION OF MOVEMENT

NORMAL SPEED: 24 frames per second for sound film; 16-18 frames per second for silent films depending on speed at which handcranked films were operated;

FAST MOTION: fewer frames per second; (if action is photographed at a slower rate than 24 fps, when the film is projected at the standard rate of 24 fps, the action will appear to be moving at a faster rate than normal.

SLOW MOTION: more frames per second than the normal 24 fps; so action takes longer than normal when projected; used in violence, sports, love scenes;

REVERSE MOTION : a series of images are photographed with the film reversed; When projected normally, the effect is to suggest backward movement.

FREEZE FRAME: a shot composed of a single frame that is reprinted a number of times on the filmstrip which, when projected, gives the illusion of a still photograph;

TIME-LAPSE PHOTOGRAPHY: a means of speeding up action by removing frames on a regular basis in the process of editing;

ANIMATION: photographing inanimate object or individual drawings frame by frame, with each frame differing minutely from its predecessor. When such images are projected at the standard speed of 24 fps, the result is that the objects or drawings appear to move, and hence seem

"animated" .

PIXILLATION: also stop-motion photography. An animation technique involving the photographing of live actors frame by frame; When the sequence is projected at the standard speed of 24 fps., the actors move abruptly and jerkily, like cartoon figures;

CAMERA FOCUS

DEEP FOCUS: a technique of photography which permits all distance planes to remain clearly in focus, from closeup ranges to infinity.

SHALLOW FOCUS: action field is in sharp focus but other areas are blurred; draws attention to out-of -focus plane;

SOFT FOCUS: the sharpness of the entire image is reduced by placing an optical device (soft-focus lens, diffusion disk, open-weave cloth, etc.) over the lens.

CAMERA MOVEMENT

PAN: panning shot; a horizontal movement of the camera from left to right or vice-versa; (vertical plane fixed); tends to emphasize connectedness; zip pan (also flash pan, swish pan, whip pan) : a pan which moves so quickly that the subject photographed blurs on the screen; reaction pan: similar to a reaction shot, only instead of cutting, the director pans to a character 's response;

TILT: a vertical movement of the camera (up or down) from a fixed horizontal plane;

ROLL: a circular movement of the camera from a fixed point in space; rare;

TRACKING (TRUCKING, DOLLY) SHOT: a shot taken from a moving vehicle; a horizontal movement (or vertical) in which the entire camera moves along with the action (often on rails); can suggest gradual revelation, either literal or psychological; dolly in/out; a tracking shot perpendicular to the horizon: the camera moves towards or away from an object;

CRANE SHOT: a shot taken from a crane, a device similar to but smaller than the mechanical arms used by the telephone company to repair phone 1ines; allows the camera fluidly dip down, rise, move in any direction: essentially airborne dolly shots; aerial shot: usually taken from a helicopter;

HAND-HELD: shots taken by lightweight camera which is carried by a moving cameraman; hand-held shots are often jumpy and ragged and are used to depict some character 's point of view;

ZOOM LENS, ZOOM SHOT: after the development of the varifocal lens, the ability of the stationary camera to move into and away from an object; often plunges the viewer in or out of a scene rapidly; dolly or crane shots tend to give the viewer a sense of entering into or withdrawing from a set; zoom lenses foreshorten people and flatten space; we are entering a scene, we feel as though a small portion of it has been thrust toward us.

ANTICIPATORY CAMERA: the placement of camera to anticipate movements of an action before it occurs, to suggest fate or predestination;

LIGHTING

AVAILABLE LIGHTING: use of only the illumination which actually exists on a location, either natural (the sun) or artificial (house lamps).

KEY LIGHT: the main source of illumination for a shot;

HIGH CONTRAST: a style of lighting emphasizing harsh shafts and dramatic streaks of lights and darks. Often used in thrillers and melodramas;

HIGH KEY: a style of lighting emphasizing bright, even illumination, with few conspicuous shadows; used mostly in comedies , musicals and light films;

LOW KEY: a style that emphasizes diffused shadows and atmospheric pools of light. (Often used in mysteries and thrillers)

Lighting can be used realistically or expressionistically; the first tends to favor available lighting; the second uses artificial sources of light for heightened effect and is guided by symbolic implications of light, darkness, and shadow; lighting from above tends to create a romantic, spiritual effect on a face (for ex.); lighting from below tends to make a face appear sinister, eerie; a face half plunged in darkness can suggest ambivalence, inner division; when the subject blocks out the source of light there is often a threatening effect. backlighting, especially from the sun, can give a golden halo effect;

cinematic color is still a relative crude approximation; expressionists use color for symbolic purposes and rely on the subconscious, strongly emotional appeal of color; in general cool colors (blue, green, violet) tend to suggest tranquility, aloofness, and serenity; warm colors (red, yellow, orange) suggest stimulation, violence, aggressiveness; filters are used often to produce muted or artificial tones which imply dream-like states. illusion, and the past or future, i.e. times other than the present reality; color can be used in point of view shots which present a character 's view of a situation;

OPTICALS

LENSES: telephoto or long lens: used to get close-ups from extreme distances; side effects: in sharp focus on only 1 distance plane; flattens images, decreasing sense of distance between depth planes; wide-angle or short lens: possess short focal lengths and have wide angles of view; used in deep focus shots, preserve sharpness of focus on virtual ly all distance planes; side-effects: the wider the angle, the more lines and shapes tend to warp, especially at the edges of the image; movement in or away from camera is exaggerated; fish-eye-lens - most extreme wide-angle lens; creates such severe distortions that the lateral portions of the screen seem reflected in a sphere;

OPTICAL PRINTER: used to create effects such as double exposure, the superimposition of two images; portrays two levels of reality, used in fantasy, dream or supernatural sequences; multiple exposure: superimposition of many images simultaneously; used to suggest mood, time lapses, mixing of time, places, objects, events;

MIXAGE: the modification of sound to create audio effects; sound editor

combines various soundtracks for one final version;

MUSIC IN: music generated from an instrument within the shot itself or in the off-screen space;

MUSIC OVER, NOISE OVER, VOICE OVER: not generated within the shot.

SYNCHRONOUS SOUND: the agreement of correspondence between image and sound which are recorded simultaneously or seem so in the finished print. Synchronous sounds appear to derive from an obvious source of visuals.

NON-SYNCHRONOU S SOUND: also commentative sound; sound and image are not recorded simultaneously, or the sound is detached from its source in the film image. Music in a film is usually non-synchronous.

EDITING

EDITING: the joining of one shot (strip of film) with another. The shots can picture events and objects in different places at different times.

MONTAGE: the art of editing. Rapid juxtaposition of shots to create new meaning.

FLASH-BACK: editing technique suggesting the interruption of the present by shots from the past;

FLASH-FORWARD: editing technique suggesting interruption of the present by shots from the future;

TYPES OF TRANSITIONS:

CUT: instantaneous change from one shot to another;

DISSOLVE: a shot linking effect in which the image from one shot fades out while a second shot fades in simultaneously through multiple exposure;

MATCH CUT/MATCH DISSOLVE: a cut or dissolve linking images which have similar shapes and occupy similar area;

FADE IN/OUT: one shot dissolves to a strip of black leader, briefly leaving the entire screen in darkness, and then the following shot fades in;

WIPE: a shot is "wiped" off the screen by an imaginary vertical line which rolls one shot off the screen while the next shot appears successively from left to right (or vice versa) on the screen; (up/down motion also)

JUMP CUT: advance in the action by cutting out unneeded footage which can be implied -- time advance; this abrupt transition between shots can be disorienting in terms of time and space;

CROSS CUTTING: (action cutting) the alternating of shots from two sequences, often in different locales, suggesting that they are taking place at the same time;

SHOT-REVERSE-SHOT; camera perspective alternates between two objects -- common in dialogue;

SUPERIMPOSITION (also multiple exposure): two or more images placed over each other to produce a unique, disorienting perspective;

SPLIT SCREEN: two or more separate images within the frame which do not overlap;

IRIS IN/OUT : a masking shot in which part of the image is blocked by closing the diaphragm (iris in) or opening it (iris out);

BASIC TYPES OF EDITING STYLES (Giannetti's terms):

CUTTING TO CONTINUITY: a type of editing in which the shots are arranged to preserve the fluidity of an action without showing all of it; An unobtrusive condensation of a continuous action; (also narrative cutting)

CLASSICAL CUTTING: a style of editing developed by Griffith, in which a sequence of shots is determined by a scene's dramatic and emotional emphases rather than by its physical action alone. The sequence of shots represents the breakdown of the event into its psychological as well as logical components. (i.e. a series of psychologically connected shots)

THEMATIC CUTTING: called MONTAGE in Europe; stresses association of ideas irrespective of the continuity of real time and space.

RUSSIAN MONTAGE:

Kuleshov' s terminology:

1. narrative cuts -- promotes development of story

2. intellectual cuts -- evoke intellectual response a .metaphorical or associational cut (Pudovkin's film: river breaking vs. men rebelling;) b.contrastive cuts -- (ex: alternating scenes of poverty with riches) c.parallel cuts -- cutting on similarity in situation, or physical shapes, etc.

3. emotional cuts -- evoke emotional response a. rhythmical cuts -- slow vs. fast -- (long vs. short length of film used, or shots of equal duration) ; sets up rhythm of movement b. tonal cuts -- change in light -- affect mood c. form cuts -- cutting on similarity or difference in form -- (jabbing pencil to sword) d. directional cuts -- (streaming men first left to right then right to left - - in both Potemkin and Mother)

MONTAGE can function on all three levels simultaneously;

Pudovkin's breakdown of different types of montage:

1. contrast 2. parallelism 3. symbolism 4. simultaneity

5. leitmotif (reiteration of theme by repeating motif)

Pudovkin -- linkage montage: associative editing of logically unrelated scenes to form a plastic synthesis; mostly supports n a r r a t i v e ;

Eisenstein -- collision montage: montage in opposition to straight narrative; through a dialectical process of contrasting images arriving as a new reality, a new idea, or synthesis;

DESCRIPTIVE & CRITICAL TERMINOLOGY FOR FILM ANALYSIS:

DIALECTICS, DIALECTICAL: an analytical methodology, derived from Hegel and Marx, that juxtaposes pairs of opposites--a thesis and antithesis- • in order to arrive at a synthesis of ideas;

KINETIC: pertaining to motion and movement;

PROTAGONIST/CHARACTER: person who appears on the screen, usually played by an actor; occasionally some object may be a protagonist, the main subject of a film; (or an important one) ; one can speak of character type, his/her physical characteristics, acting styles;

TYPAGE: casting of roles based on physical type; often finding non• professional, non-actor who simply looks the part; common in Russian silent film;

SETTING - DECOR: all props, scenery which create mood of the period and backdrop for the action;

PLOT OR NARRATIVE: the story told on the screen; critics often differentiate the plot, the actual events of the story (fabula, histoire) from its artistic presentation (syuzhet, discours);

DIEGESIS: the "recounted story" of the film; the fictional world of the story;

DIAGETIC: pertaining to the telling of the story; diagetic theory conceives of narration as consisting either literally or analogically of verbal activity: telling; Russian Formalists and film theoreticians such as Kuleshov, Vertov, Eisenstein and Pudovkin compared cinema to poetic language;

MIMETIC: theory conceives· of narration as the presentation of a spectacle: a showing;

MOTIF: any unobtrusive technique, object, image, that is systematically repeated.

THEME: an important idea or concept presented through association and repetition of images or motifs.

SYMBOL: a figurative device in which an object, event or cinematic technique has significance beyond its literal meaning. Symbols are usually abstract and based on convention rather that literal, physical connections between two objects or ideas. (A heart can be a symbol of love as well as a human organ).

METAPHOR: an implied comparison between two otherwise unlike elements, meaningful in a figurative rather than literal sense; (rose = love)

ALLEGORY: a figurative device in which stylized characters and situations represent rather obvious ideas, such as Justice, Death...

SYNECHDOCHE: a figurative device in which the part stands for the whole; (marching feet = army)

METONYMY: a figurative device: the use of the image of one thing to represent another to which it has some logical relation; (bare feet = poverty) (bottle = strong drink)

INDEX (synechdoche or metonymy): a sign (image) used to communicate an idea; thermometer = heat;

TROPE: a repeated word, visual image, musical expression, any film element used in a figurative sense; also a common or overused filmic element often defining a film genre: such as "the usual horror movie tropes."

CODES/SUBCODES: the rules and sets of identifiable elements, an understanding of which allows us to interpret a film;

ICONOGRAPHY: use of a well-known cultural symbol in an artistic representation; in movies, iconography can involve a star's persona, the pre• established conventions of a genre, the use of archetypal characters, or stylistic features of setting, props, lighting, etc .

GENRE: a recognizable type of film characterized by certain pre- established conventions; some common Soviet genres are war films, "brigade" films, musicals, detective films, comedies, science fiction films ...

ARCHETYPE: an original model or type after which similar things are patterned; archetypes can be well-known story patterns, universal experiences, or personality types. Myths, fairy tales, genres, cultural heroes are generally archetypal, as are the basic cycles of life and nature;

REALISM: style of filmmaking which attempts to duplicate the look of reality as it is commonly perceived, with emphasis on authentic locations and details long shots, lengthy takes, eye-level placements of the camera, a minimum of editing and special effects;

FORMALISM: (also EXPRESSIONISM) a style of filmmaking which distorts time and space as ordinarily perceived in reality; Emphasis is placed on the essential characteristics of objects and people, not necessarily on their superficial appearance. Typical expressionist techniques are fragmentary editing, a wide variety of shots, extreme angles and lighting effects, and the use of distorting lenses and special effects;

AUTEUR THEORY: holds that the director is the major creator of film art. A strong director (an auteur) stamps the material with his person vision, even when working with an externally imposed script or genre;