Films
Name a documentary (short, excerpt or feature) we have screened in the course
The Quick and the Dead
Stranger Comes to Town
Workers Leaving the Googleplex
Inside Out
Codes of Honour
Kanesatake: 270 Years of Resistance
Highway of Tears
Mobilize
Ahoy Métis!
The Stairs
Ilha das Flores (Isle of Flowers)
Mothlight
A Movie
Window Water Baby Moving
Fluid Frontiers
Identify the author/reading title for the following quote:
"Imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, an eye unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure of perception."
Stan Brakhage "Metaphors on Vision"
What is a convention?
Typical or standard characteristics that allow us to distinguish between film types
Name the 4 genre cycles
1. Experimental
2. Classical
3. Revisionist
4. Parodic
What is the 180 degree rule?
The 180-degree rule is a cinematography guideline that states that two characters in a scene should maintain the same left/right relationship to one another.
Who directed Rhymes for Young Ghouls?
Jeff Barnaby
Identify the author/reading title for the following quote:
"What precisely is the cinema of attraction[s]? First it is a cinema that bases itself on the quality that Leger celebrated: its ability to show something."
Tom Gunning "The Cinema of Attraction: Early Film, Its Spectator, and the Avant-Garde"
What is a graphic match?
A cut between shots which matches similar compositional elements (e.g., shape, colour, etc).
Why choose experimental filmmaking?
-Freedom
-Marginalized or excluded voices expressing personal tories, experiences, and ideas
-Unconventional topics or taboo subjects
-Sense of play and discovery
-Can be spontaneous or take years to complete
-Communicate that which is untranslatable through words
What is a motif?
Any recurring element that has symbolic significance in a story.
Name a director that made 2 or more films on the syllabus?
Ryan Coogler
Howard Hawks
Jane Campion
Stan Brakhage
Identify the author/reading title for the following quote:
"The range of differences makes it impractical to seek a single perspective for thinking about all Indigenous films. At the least, no such pan-Indigenous perspective should be constructed from ideas rooted mostly in AngloEuropean traditions."
Houston Wood “Dimensions of Difference in Indigenous Film”
How would you define documentary as a film form?
Every documentary claims to present factual information about the world
According to Lev Manovich, what are the 'principles of new media'?
1. Numerical representation
2. Modularity
3. Automation
4. Variability
5. Transcoding
What is the difference between diegetic and non-diegetic sound?
Diegetic sound: noise which exists within the world of the film.
Non-diegetic sound: sound that does not exist within the storyworld
What experimental film was made without the use of a camera
Mothlight
Identify the author/reading title for the following quote:
"The artist was now in a position to create the illusion of three-dimensional space within which things appeared to exist as our eyes in reality see them."
Andre Bazin “The Ontology of the Photographic Image"
What is meant by 'transcoding'?
The process wherein new media/computerization gradually impacts cultural categories and concepts
What is the difference between continuity and discontinuity editing?
Continuity editing:
-Editing to go unnoticed (don’t want to see the cut)
-Techniques to hide violence of cut: 180 rule, cutting on action, continuous movement, match on action
-Concentrate on the story over editing
-Create a smooth flow from shot to shot
Discontinuity editing:
-Editing that we’re meant to notice (calls our attention)
-Meaning derived from juxtaposition
-Deliberately creating contrasts between cuts
What are the five principles of film form?
1. Similarity/repetition
2. Difference/variation
3. Development
4. Unity
5. Function
Name the killers in Scream
Billy and Stuart
Identify the author/reading title for the following quote:
"Synthesis that evolves from the opposition between between thesis and anithesis. It is equally of basic importance for the correct conception of art and all art forms."
Sergei Eisenstein "The Dramaturgy of Film Form"
A group of related genre films that experience popularity and influence over a brief period of time
Name 4 ways the concept of ‘national cinema’ is commonly understood
1. Domestic film industry - economic definition
2. Body of films - textual definition
3. Audience - exhibition definiton
4. Film criticism - discourse definition
What is the difference between range and depth of narration?
Range: the spectator's range of knowledge about story events.
Depth: measured by the depth of the spectator's understanding of a character's thoughts and feelings.