Name: Film By Maria Pramaggiore
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Film Summary

Film: A Critical Introduction by Maria Pramaggiore

Film: A Critical Introduction provides readers with the skills needed to successfully critique and analyze film and teaches strategies for translating ideas about film into written criticism and analysis. Intricate discussions of the current issues in film theory, from sound production to documentaries, keep readers' perspectives on film fresh and informed. Part I introduces readers to the importance of film analysis, offering helpful strategies for discerning the way films produce meaning. Part II examines the fundamental elements of film, including narrative form, mise en scene, cinematography, editing, and sound, and shows how these concepts can be used to interpret films. Part III frames the debates around ideological criticism, national and transnational cinema, and genre and auteur theory that animate contemporary film scholarship.

Preface x Part one Introduction to Film Analysis 1 1 Introduction 3 Cinema: A Confluence of Artistry, Industry, and Technology 4 How This Book is Organized 6 Technical Tips 8 2 An Approach to Film Analysis 9 Understanding Audience Expectations 10 Expectations and Modes of Organization 11 Expectations about Genres, Stars, and Directors 13 The Orchestration of Detail 14 Motifs 15 Parallels 16 Details and Structure 18 Parallels and Structure 18 Turning Points 18 Repetition and Non-chronological Structure 19 Creating Meaning Through the World Beyond the Film 20 Historical Events and Cultural Attitudes 20 Stars and Public Figures as References 21 Intertextual References 22 Meaningful References with Objects 26 The Goal of Film Analysis: Articulating Meaning 26 The Importance of Developing Interpretive Claims 30 Summary 30 Film Analysis: Reading Significant Details 31 The Orchestration of Detail in Pan's Labyrinth 31 3 Writing About Film 37 Getting Started 38 Keeping a Film Journal 38 Formulating a Thesis 38 Managing Verb Tense 39 Four Types of Writing About Film 39 The Scene Analysis Paper 39 "The Divided Human Spirit in Fritz Lang's The Big Heat" 41 The Film Analysis 43 "The Anxieties of Modernity in Steamboat Bill Jr." 44 The Research Paper 46 "The New Vampire as Sympathetic Gothic Heroine in Tomas Alfredson's Let The Right One In" 49 Conducting Archival Research 57 The Popular Review 58 "Aliens as Apartheid Metaphor in District 9" 59 Part Two Film Analysis 63 4 Narrative Form 65 Defining Narrative 66 Framing the Fictional World: Diegetic and Non-diegetic Elements 67 Within the Diegesis: Selecting and Organizing Events 69 Narrative Structure 70 Alternatives to Conventional Narrative Structure 72 Techniques in Practice: Narrative Structure in Stagecoach 74 Variations on Narrative Conventions: Beyond Structure 77 Perspective and Meaning 78 Character Subjectivity 80 Techniques in Practice: Noticing Shifts in Narration 82 Summary 84 Film Analysis: Analyzing Narrative Structure 85 5 Mise en Scene 91 Setting 93 Describing Setting: Visual and Spatial Attributes 95 The Functions of Setting 96 The Human Figure 97 Casting 97 Techniques in Practice: Same Film, Different Settings 97 Techniques in Practice: Same Setting, Different Film 98 Acting Style 101 Acting Brechtian: Distancing the Audience 103 Actors' Bodies: Figure Placement 104 Techniques in Practice: Figure Placement in Citizen Kane 104 Actors' Bodies: Costumes and Props 106 Actors' Bodies: Makeup 107 Lighting 109 Composition 114 Balance and Symmetry 114 Lines and Diagonals 115 Foreground and Background 117 Light and Dark 118 Color 118 Two Approaches to Mise en Scene 121 The Frame in Two Dimensions: Mise en Scene in German Expressionism 121 Combining Mise en Scene and Camerawork: The Frame in Three Dimensions in French Poetic Realism 122 Summary 124 Film Analysis: The Functions of Space 126 Spatial Oppositions in Thelma & Louise 126 6 Cinematography 129 The Camera in Time and Space 133 Creating Meaning in Time: The Shot 133 Altering Time: Slow and Fast Motion 134 The Camera and Space: Height, Angle, and Shot Distance 138 Camera Height 138 Camera Angle 139 Camera Distance 141 Camera Movement: Exploring Space 144 Horizontal and Vertical Movement 144 Movement in Three Dimensions 145 Lenses and Filters: The Frame in Depth 148 The Visual Characteristics of Lenses: Depth of Field and Focal Length 148 Techniques in Practice: Patterns of Camera Placement and Movement 150 The Zoom Lens 153 Combining Camera Movement and Lens Movement 154 Through the Lens: Filters and Diffusers 155 Film Stock 157 Characteristics of Film Stock 157 Techniques in Practice: Lenses and the Creation of Space 157 Light and Exposure 163 Film Stock and Color 163 Wide Film and Widescreen Formats 168 Stereoscopic 3D: Then and Now 169 Processing Film Stock 171 Special Visual Effects 171 Manipulating the Image on the Set 173 Creating Scene Transitions, Titles, and Credits: The Optical Printer 175 Optical and Digital Compositing: Assembling the Elements of the Shot 176 Performance Capture 177 Computer-Generated Images 178 Adding and Subtracting Frames 179 Digital Cinema: Post-Production 179 Digital Cinematography and Film Style 180 Summary 182 Film Analysis: Cinematography as a Storytelling Device 184 Entrapment and Escape in Ratcatcher 184 7 Editing 191 The Attributes of Editing: Creating Meaning Through Collage, Tempo, and Timing 193 Joining Images: A Collage of Graphic Qualities 193 Tempo 195 Shot Length 195 Shot Transitions 196 Adjusting the Timing of Shot Transitions 198 Techniques in Practice: Using Contrasting Imagery and Timing to Romanticize the Outlaws in Bonnie and Clyde 199 Story-Centered Editing and the Construction of Meaning 201 Editing and Time 201 Condensing and Expanding Time 202 Suggesting the Simultaneity of Events 203 Arranging the Order of Events 204 Editing and Space 205 Shot/Reverse Shot 206 Eyeline Match 208 Cutting to Emphasize Group Dynamics 209 Cutaways 209 Beyond Narrative: Creating Meaning Outside the Story 210 Continuity Editing: Conventional Patterns and "Bending the Rules" 210 Continuity and Space 211 Continuity and Chronology 212 "Breaking the Rules": The French New Wave and its Influence 215 Associational Editing: Editing and Metaphor 217 Soviet Montage 217 Summary 221 Techniques in Practice: Soviet Montage Aesthetics in The Godfather 222 Film Analysis: Classical Editing 224 Editing in Notorious 224 8 Sound 227 Film Sound: A Brief History 228 Critical Debates over Film Sound 230 Freeing Sound from Image 233 The Relationship Between Sound and Image 234 Emphasizing the Contrast Between Onscreen and Offscreen Space 235 Emphasizing the Difference Between Objective Images and Subjective Sounds 236 Emphasizing the Difference Between Diegetic Details and Non-diegetic Sound 236 Emphasizing the Difference Between Image Time and Sound Time 237 Emphasizing Differences in Image Mood and Sound Mood 238 Three Components of Film Sound 239 Dialogue 239 Text and Subtext 239 Volume 239 Pitch 240 Speech Characteristics 240 Acoustic Qualities 242 Addressing the Audience: the Voice-over 243 Sound Effects 245 Functions of Sound Effects 245 Characteristics of Sound Effects 247 Techniques in Practice: The Human Voice as Aural Object 248 Techniques in Practice: Sound Effects and the Construction of Class in Days of Heaven 253 Music 255 Functions of Film Music 255 Five Characteristics of Film Music 258 Techniques in Practice: Bernard Herrmann's Score and Travis Bickle's Troubled Masculinity in Taxi Driver 265 Summary 267 Film Analysis: The Human Voice and Sound Effects 269 Sound in No Country for Old Men: A Tradition of Violence 269 9 Alternatives to Narrative Fiction Film: Documentary and Avant-garde Films 275 Three Modes of Filmmaking: A Comparison 276 Documentary Film: "The Creative Treatment of Actuality" 279 Narrative Documentaries 281 Documentary Form 282 Voice of Authority 283 Talking Heads and Director-Participant 283 Direct Cinema and Cinema Verite 285 Self-reflexive Documentary 286 The Mockumentary 287 Two Theoretical Questions 288 Documentary Spectatorship 288 Ethics and Ethnography 290 Avant-garde Film 291 Surrealist Cinema 292 Abstract Film 294 The City Symphony 295 Techniques in Practice: Interpreting Abstract Films 295 Structuralist Film 299 The Compilation Film 299 Conducting Research on Documentary and Avant-garde Films: Locating Sources 300 Summary 301 Film Analysis: Interpreting Avant-garde Films 303 Analyzing Meshes of the Afternoon 303 Part Three Cinema and Culture 307 10 Film and Ideology 309 Ideology and Film Analysis 311 The Institutional Enforcement of Ideology: The Production Code and the Anti-Communist Witch Hunts 314 Anti-Communist Witch Hunts and Hollywood Cinema 316 Ideology and Film Spectatorship 318 Topics in Ideological Criticism 322 Racial Ideology and American Cinema 322 Gender and Cinema 327 Sexuality and Cinema 332 Disability and Cinema 336 11 Social Context and Film Style: National, International, and Transnational Cinema 343 Hollywood's Industrial Context: The Studio System as Dream Factory 344 Classical Style 344 Economic Practice and Hollywood Convention 345 American Values and Hollywood Style 347 Hollywood Conquers the World? 349 International Art Cinema 350 The Industry and Ideology of "Art" 352 Italian Neorealism 354 Third Cinema 355 Fourth Cinema 357 National and Transnational Cinemas 359 12 Film Stardom as a Cultural Phenomenon 365 Stars and the Movie Industry 367 The Dynamics of Performance 369 The Star Persona 371 Stardom and Ideology 375 Stars and Subcultures 377 Fan Culture 379 13 Genre 381 What Makes a Genre? 382 Major American Genres 388 The Western 388 Film Noir and the Hard-boiled Detective Film 392 The Action Film 393 The Science Fiction Film 396 The Musical 398 Using Genre to Interpret Films 401 Genre Film and Aesthetic Appeal: Cliche or Strategic Repetition? 401 Genre and the Status Quo 402 Genres as Culturally Responsive Artifacts 403 Genre and Film Authorship 404 14 Film Authorship 407 The Idea of the Auteur: From Cahiers du Cinema to the Sarris-Kael Debate 408 Auteur as Marketing Strategy: Old and New Hollywood 410 Studio-era Auteurs: Welles and Hitchcock 411 Blockbuster Auteurs: Spielberg and Lucas 413 Using the Auteur Approach to Interpret and Evaluate Films 413 The Auteur and the Consistency Thesis 414 The Life and Work of an Auteur: Studying Biographical Influence 417 Auteurs and Anomalies: Studying Aberrational Films 418 Auteurs and Ancestors: The Question of Influence 421 15 Cinema as Industry: Economics and Technology 429 The Changing Structure of the Film Industry 431 From Oligopolies to Conglomerates 431 Horizontal Integration: Merchandise and Games 432 Globalization 433 Industry Labor Practices 434 Outsourcing 434 Star Compensation 435 Runaway Productions 435 Creative Centralization 436 Films as Products 437 The Blockbuster 437 The High Concept Film 437 New Modes of Marketing 438 Independent Film Culture 439 Two Independent Institutions: Sundance and Miramax 440 Film and the New Technology 442 The Rise of the DVD and Blu-ray 445 Film and Digital Technologies 446 Glossary 451 Bibliography 458 Index 463 Picture Credits 468

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Sku

CIN0205770770G

ISBN 13

9780205770779

ISBN 10

0205770770

Title

Film: A Critical Introduction by Maria Pramaggiore

Author

Maria Pramaggiore

Condition

Used - Good

Binding type

Paperback

Publisher

Pearson Education (US)

Year published

2011-05-05

Number of pages

480

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N/A

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Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.

Note

This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

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Film: A Critical Introduction by Maria Pramaggiore

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