DOCUMENTARY AND THE COMING OF SOUND

by Bill Nichols
Documentary occupies a complex zone of representation in which the art of
observing, responding, and listening must be combined with the art of
shaping, interpreting, or arguing

Nowhere in the world does the coming of sound to documentary correspond

exactly to the coming of sound to the feature fiction film (1926-1928). Like
cinemascope, color, and most optical effects, sound films were a possibility long
before they were a reality. If the exact moment when sound bursts upon the
feature fiction film is a matter of technology, financing, aesthetics, and audience
expectations, it is no less a matter of similar issues, resolved in a different way,
for documentary film. (In many cases silent documentary filmmaking remained
entirely viable well into the 1960s and is exemplified by such work as John
Marshall's films of the Bushmen shot in the Kalahari desert and in the 8mm and
Super 8mm home movies that remained prevalent until the rise of the home
video recorder.)

Just as the advent of sound for the feature film industry in the late 1920s
prompted lively debate (principally about synchronous or non-synchronous uses
of sound, and between subordinate or contrapuntal relationships to character and
image), so the advent of sound in documentary posed an array of alternatives.
These ranged from poetic narratives to evocative portraits and from studio-
produced commentary to the actual speech of people in their everyday life. The
choices made among these alternatives are part of a larger story of the nature
and function of documentary film in the period from the late 1920s to the late
1930s when a dominant mode of expository documentary took hold and became
the equivalent of the classic Hollywood mode of production.

In the silent film era, documentary as a mode of representation that offered

perspectives on the historical world - sustained by an institutional framework
and community of practitioners, and armed with specific conventions
corresponding to distinct audience expectations - did not yet exist. We now
write about this early history with a retrospective knowledge we cannot deny but
which we also cannot project back onto a time that precedes its arrival. Cinema
lacked the taxonomic divisions we may now think natural, or inevitable. Early
cinema casually blended the staged and unstaged, actors and non-actors, fact and
fiction. Only as feature fiction films gained a dominant position did all other
forms become relegated to a subordinate or marginal status which still did not
necessarily differentiate carefully among these alternative forms. From the vast
array of possibilities that early cinema offered, some have been remembered,
others forgotten, some adopted, others ignored, some praised, others ridiculed.
Every new history opens the possibility of reconstructing this array of the

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remembered, adopted and praised, and of deconstructing the histories that have
come before. It must do so, however, on the terrain of what has survived (and
nothing survives by accident).

Compared to the amount of material that has survived and earned praise in the
history of narrative cinema, it is striking how few examples of what we now call
documentary are commonly identified from the period before 1930. Ellis, in his
standard history of documentary, for example, cites only 26 titles from the 1920s
in America, Europe, and the Soviet Union as significant works,1 while Jacobs
lists only 22 significant titles from the 1920s.2 Some of these, such as Alberto
Cavalcanti's Rien que les heures (1926), could just as easily be classified as part
of the early history of experimental cinema, but, given the vague state in which
all non-feature fiction existed, it can just as properly be considered an early
example of the documentary tradition. These lists suggest how severely limited
the field of reference has become. It is also noteworthy that not a single one of
these films from the 1920s makes use of sound.

When Louis Lumière privately demonstrated his new invention, the

cinématographe in March, 1895, by showing La Sortie des usines, it had the
shock of seeming to place life itself upon a screen. Erik Barnouw described the
effect this way: "The familiar, seen anew in this way, brought astonishment."3
Lumière may have acted out of convenience or from insight when he choose to
film his own workers leaving the Lumière factory for his demonstration.
Viewers could attest that what they now saw on a screen was what they could
have already seen in reality. If there was a trick, it was the trick of appearing to
duplicate reality. What could have been more overwhelmingly convincing of the
powers of the cinématographe than to see something already recognizable and
familiar re-presented in a totally unfamiliar but remarkably recognizable
manner?

Clearly, a central aspect of the early fascination with cinema generally was the
ability to recognize the world we already inhabited. The extraordinary power of
the photographic camera to take slices of reality and freeze them within an
illusionistic frame rose exponentially in this breathtaking succession of
cinematographic images that restored motion, and life, to the frozen image. The
living, seemingly embalmed on a strip of film, suddenly came back to life,
repeating actions and restoring events that had, until that moment, belonged to
the domain of the irretrievable: the historical past.

Cinema made possible an archive of reality distinct from any that had preceded
it. The act of recognition gave this archive a remarkable hold on the viewer. In
moving images a viewer might distinguish several levels of recognition: from
historical periods and their inhabitants generally, to well-known figures from

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those periods (Roosevelt, Lenin, or Hitler, for example), to individuals already
personally known to him or her but never seen in the form of moving pictures
before.4 The impression of reality conveyed by film depends heavily on this act
of recognition and it gave early cinema a distinctiveness that would remain at
the heart of the documentary tradition thereafter.

It was not until some 15 years after Lumière's first public demonstration of his
new device in December, 1895, that fiction film seized upon a functional
equivalent to this distinct form of historical recognition: the star. The use of stars
to create a powerful level of recognition (and identification by such complex
means as acting style, plot structure, and film editing - matched movement,
eyeline match, point of view) began to center the image around a complex figure
of body, individual (or actor), character, and the aura of the star. It
simultaneously began a movement away from equally plausible figures of social
space, specific groups, coalitions, or collectivities, cultures and their
transformation. The representation of workers begun perhaps inadvertently by
Lumière remained central to the tradition of social representation in the Soviet
Union but seldom elsewhere. The extraordinary range of works by Esfir Shub
(The Fall of the Romanov Empire (1927), The Great Road (1927), etc.) and
Dziga Vertov (Kino Pravda (1922-25), The Man with a Movie Camera (1929),
etc.), as well as works sometimes criticized for their reliance on staged situations
such as Eisenstein's Strike (1925) or Battleship Potemkin (1926), all belong to a
range of cinematic possibility that gradually became marginalized or suppressed
by mainstream documentary.

This act of suppression is nowhere more evident than in the fate of the workers'
newsreels produced in a number of countries from approximately 1928-1939.
These American, European, and Japanese counterparts to the newsreel work of
Dziga Vertov, produced by the U.S.'s Workers' Film and Photo League, The
Association for Popular Culture in the Netherlands, the Popular Association for
Film Art in Germany, and the Proletarian Film League (Prokino) in Japan, are
typically neglected in histories of the documentary.5 With the example of the
Soviet pioneers only poorly known elsewhere, workers newsreels usually
considered themselves as alternatives to the commercial newsreel makers such
as The March of Time in the United States or those produced by Polygoon in
Holland. The basic strategy was either to re-edit (and sometimes add new
intertitles to) commercial newsreels to change their point of view, or to present
footage of more specifically working class issues and topics. These efforts were
generally associated internationally with the New Revolutionary and Popular
Front policies of the Communist Party (1929-1939). As such, these political
newsreels and documentaries often had to resolve a tension between reporting
topical events and analyzing basic contradictions. This tension often drew film
activists in two different directions: toward political organizing work as such or

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toward more elaborate forms of filmmaking. The second choice was the one
eventually made by filmmakers like Joris Ivens or by the American Film and
Photo League members who went on to form Nykino (1934) or Frontier Films
(1937). In general, these groups represent an important effort to develop a
documentary film form directed at groups, processes, and issues, free from the
government sponsorship and control that characterized the work of people like
Pare Lorentz or John Grierson.

Documentary begins with the viewer's recognition of images that represent or

refer back to the historical world. To this filmmakers add their own voice, or
perspective, by various means. Documentary therefore occupies a complex zone
of representation in which the art of observing, responding, and listening must
be combined with the art of shaping, interpreting, or arguing. Viewers came to
realize that what they see when they see a documentary is a complex, often
semi-visible mixture of the historically real and the discursively constructed. To
the pleasure of recognition are added moral imperatives, political exhortations,
spiritual warnings, cautionary tales, romantic longings, and enchanted idylls.
The re-presentation of the historical world combined with the distinctive voice
of the filmmaker began to give the domain of documentary a use-value that
drew the attention of politicians and governments, poets and adventurers. It was
possible not only to represent reality with great exactitude (something that might
have remained primarily of scientific interest), but also to give audiences a view
of the world that had never been seen in quite the same way before.

These impulses gradually bifurcated into the two main divisions of nonfiction
film, the documentary and the avant-garde, but in the beginning such
distinctions were readily blurred (as the lists of films discussed as documentary
in both Ellis and Jacobs suggest). Those setting out to explore the world around
them and represent it in recognizable form were simultaneously interested in
discovering how they might reshape that world through cinematic techniques.

Another way to think of these two, nonexclusive tendencies (documentary and

avant-garde) is to think of them as cinematic versions of a twentieth-century
anthropological impulse, bent on broadening the scope of the familiar and
recognizable, and a corresponding surrealist impulse, bent on shocking or
shaking up existing assumptions about the familiar and recognizable within our
own culture.6 Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler's Mannahatta (1921), Ralph
Steiner's H2O (1929), Rien que les heures, Joris Ivens' The Bridge (1927), and
Dimitri Kirsanoff's Ménilmontant (1926) are among the films discussed in Ellis
and Jacobs that emphasize the surrealist impulse toward strange juxtaposition
most vividly, whereas Nanook of the North stands as the most celebrated
instance of the strange made familiar.

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 Nanook of the North (Flaherty)
This question of the filmmaker's voice and the extent to which it remained
unobtrusive or highly noticeable often took precedence over the
fiction/nonfiction distinction. Much of Robert Flaherty's remarkable success in
exhibiting Nanook of the North, for example, results from his astute combination
of a documentary attitude toward a preexisting world and a narrative strategy
with its unobtrusive - because so recognizably humanist - representation. In
Flaherty's romantic voice, Nanook becomes the first "star" of the documentary
film, and his tale of struggle against nature the documentary equivalent of the
folkloric and classic Hollywood tale of a hero's quest against obstacles and
adversity.

Flaherty's success in gaining theatrical release for his film is a key factor in his
elevation to founding pioneer, and that success is clearly due to his ability to
draw on aspects of the fiction film, narrative structure, and a specific, appealing
(humanist) perspective on man's [sic] relation to his world. The centrality of
Nanook contrasts with the marginality of Paul Strand's The Wave (1936), which
shares Flaherty's use of fictional technique and narrative structure, but replaces
his humanism with a loosely defined socialism, closer in spirit to the work of the
film and photo leagues.

Flaherty did not want to string together a series of semi-connected scenes of

disparate events, as the less commercially successful Edward S. Curtis did
before him in his In the Land of the Head-Hunters (1914), restored and retitled
In the Land of the War Canoes (1972), a narrative nonfiction set among the
Kwakiutl of the Pacific Northwest in a spirit clearly akin to Flaherty's tale of the
Inuit and the Arctic. Flaherty went beyond Curtis's proscenium stage camera
style, where a single long shot often constitutes each scene, to adopt many of the
editing devices of fiction film (close ups, continuity editing, match actions, and
so on) while also retaining great respect for the long take when the actual
duration of an event had distinct importance. Flaherty also substituted the
familiar (and heart-warming) tale of a nuclear family (Nanook's) for Curtis's
more lurid story of sexual jealousy, dubious ceremonies and rituals such as
head-hunting, and general sense of melodramatic excess.

5
Flaherty wanted to tell a story and to document the life of a people. Whether or
not these two aims were at odds with each other, or in what ways they combined
to produce specific effects depending on the voice of the filmmaker, may not
have troubled Flaherty himself as much as they have troubled documentary
filmmakers and theorists ever since.

Initially debated as fakery, the question of how telling a story intrudes upon the
historical world has since broadened considerably to include issues of
authentication, verification, and the effect of narrative as such.7 At first the issue
seemed more simple. It revolved around the question of intentionality. If the
historical artifact was not available (footage of Teddy Roosevelt shooting a lion,
or vivid details of the battle for San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American
War) or if it was inaccessible to the camera (the interior of an Inuit igloo), then
the filmmaker might take the license to recreate or stage the needed event
(replacing footage of another lion for one Roosevelt actually shot, filming
aspects of the battle of San Juan on a table-top complete with exploding ships
and cigar smoke, or building only half of an oversize igloo for Nanook of the
North 8). If the event itself demanded careful planning and choreography,
camera positions and movements could be plotted out in advance as they were
for Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will (1936).

Reenactment or reconstruction was a logical solution to the paradoxical

quandary a documentary filmmaker often confronts: how to film an actual event
that occurred before a camera could record it, or record it to telling effect.
Nanook of the North was certainly not the first film of its kind in this regard. At
least since Curtis's In the Land of the Head-Hunters in which he "painstakingly
reconstructed [settings] for precontact authenticity,"9 the goals of the filmmaker,
the anthropologist, and the story teller seemed entirely compatible.

As long as the intentions were honorable (as long as viewer's shared the
apparent intentions of the makers), these ways of giving creative shape to reality
were readily accepted. They were, in fact, the foundation stone of the creative
re-editing of existing footage in the work of Esfir Shub and some of the workers'
newsreels. They were also readily accepted by most viewers of the British films
made under John Grierson in the 1930s, despite the high degree of staging or
reenactment found in films like Night Mail (1936) or The Saving of Bill Blewitt
(1936). Similar strategies of reshaping and constructing what would then be
presented as reality was also central to Pare Lorentz's U.S. government
sponsored films The Plow that Broke the Plains (1936) and The River (1937),
films which also effectively introduced sound to the American documentary.
Flaherty's igloo, for example, escaped criticism since he was "intent on
authenticity of result."10 Less scrupulous filmmakers may have also been intent
on achieving a similar authenticity of result, but to less well-intentioned ends.

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Such ends, once detected, no longer justified the means. For much of the early
history of documentary, it was the individual shot that retained a special relation
to historical reality (and even this left considerable room for fabrication if done
in the spirit of well-intentioned authenticity). The combination of shots
remained less easily bound by principles of faithfulness or authenticity in any
straightforward empirical sense (as Vertov's and Eisenstein's films and the
heavily experimental films cited by Ellis and Jacobs remind us vividly). At this
larger level, techniques of joining together an array of artifacts or fragments
closely related to modernist collage remained at play until the introduction of
sound compelled a tamer version that was more compatible with the principles
of realism.

Only when the viewer's sense of the historically true and the filmmaker's sense
of creative license diverged did an issue arise. This left the charge of fakery or
distortion on clearly subjective ground. A documentary could seldom be called
authentic or fake on its own; external standards and expectations had to be
brought into consideration. The early actualités, or newsreels, often avoided
controversy for precisely this reason; when they staged or recreated events, it
was to reinforce feelings that were believed to be already present in their
viewers (such as anti-Spanish feeling in the United States during the Spanish-
American War). Fakery became the alternative charge to excessive frankness or
truthfulness sometimes made when films revealed too much of a world whose
miseries are not all of natural origin. Barnouw, for example, cites the example of
an early film shot in the West Indies by an anonymous Edison cameraman,
Native Women Coaling a Ship and Scrambling for Money (1903), as a work that
"must have left some disturbing feelings."11

To a considerable extent, Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North - and, to a

lesser extent, Moana (1926) - stand as the American documentary films of the
1920s. Some of the larger context in which they appeared has already been
suggested and, to the workers' newsreels, the avant-garde experiments, and the
work from Europe and the Soviet Union, films of travel and anthropology must
now be added, such as Merian Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack's Grass (1925)
and Chang (1927), Léon Poirier's La Crosière noire (1926), In the Land of the
Head-Hunters, and Marc Allegret and André Gide's Voyage au Congo (1927).

Another strain of work, close to Flaherty in its willingness to merge story telling
with claims of authenticity, goes back to documentaires romancés like Mèliés'
Loves of a Maori Chieftaness and the even more sensationalistic films of Mr.
and Mrs. Martin Johnson, such as Wonders of the Congo (1931) or Congorilla
(1929) about "big apes and little people,"12 and those of Frank Buck like Bring
'em Back Alive (1932), or their savage subversion in Luis Bu–uel's Land Without

7
Bread (1932). Some of these works also enjoyed commercial success but none
received the admiration, and principled criticism, reserved for Robert Flaherty.

Flaherty clearly sought to occupy the anthropological rather than the surrealist
side of the documentary impulse. Like the figure who may well be his fiction
film counterpart, Charles Chaplin, Flaherty's sensibility and attitude harkened
back to an earlier time. Without resorting to sound (neither he nor Chaplin ever
fully embraced sound, preferring the style and structure of silent cinema well
into the 1940s) and resisting the temptation to preach or explain, Flaherty relied
on his narrative tales of individual heroes to convey a sense of commonality
among disparate peoples. Romantic, or perhaps classical as Ellis suggests,13
Flaherty is also, like Chaplin and Renoir, best understood as a humanist.
Humanism, though, involved projecting aspects of our own culture onto the
kinship system and social values of another culture (particularly a nuclear family
structure and a repertoire of strong fathers, supportive mothers, and sons in the
process of coming of age). Flaherty's film families were carefully cast and
assembled for the duration of the filming, but the projection is an extraordinarily
compelling one despite its limitations, partly because few of us have adequate
knowledge of the cultures Flaherty filmed to separate what is authentic from
what is projection.

One compelling example of this blending of projection and authenticity is the

core narrative story of Nanook's struggle for survival in a harsh, forbidding
environment, retold later in Man of Aran (1934). In both cases the authenticity
of the ardors of the hunt were those of a bygone era which Flaherty had to
recreate, sometimes at the price of imperiling his own actors, sometimes at the
price of refusing to lend active assistance in order to film his actors' travail. A
frequently told story is that when Flaherty went to Samoa to make Moana he
could not find any conflict between man and the elements. Here was a land
where coconuts fell at your feet. Flaherty was stymied until he once again
discovered a bygone practice (body tattooing) that could approximate the ordeal
he needed to tell his story.

At this point, the degree to which the struggle with nature was a projection of
Flaherty's own brand of romantic humanism that could not place hunting, or
tattooing, within its own cultural context becomes more evident. As
anthropologists since Margaret Mead have demonstrated, Pacific Island society
is hardly idyllic simply because ample food exists and painful tattoo ceremonies
do not. The intricacies of tribal relationships, kinship structures, sexual desire,
self-esteem, and social standing can more than compensate for more
rudimentary forms of man-nature conflict. These, however, lay beyond
Flaherty's extraordinary, deeply respectful, and patient but also highly nostalgic,
culturally-determined view.

8
Ironically, Flaherty might be considered American documentary's first
celebrated historiographer and Pare Lorentz, with his poetic, government-
sponsored films on flood and drought - The River and The Plow that Broke the
Plains - its first acclaimed ethnographer. This is not history or ethnography as
historians or anthropologists might define it, but rather two distinct but not
exclusive impulses to represent the past (Flaherty and Curtis) or the present
(Lorentz and Grierson). If so, then Lorentz also stands in closer proximity to the
form of documentary that ushered in the use of sound and constituted a
dominant mode of representation well into the 1960s, if not beyond.
Exhortation, warnings, and proposals gradually replaced longings, enchantment,
and idylls as the dominant tone of documentary. It was a tone carried by the
sound track more fully than by images.

Lorentz's films, with their vast catalogue of images culled from across the
American Midwest, stepped far beyond the confines of a hero and his struggles.
Here was man against nature on a far vaster scale (but one that government
could still tame). The visual principle of juxtaposing images from clearly
different times and places still belonged to the modernist tradition of collage, but
by the time it was adopted by Lorentz in the United States and by Grierson in
England, it had lost much of its radical bite. The complete reversals of meaning
achieved by Esfir Shub or the workers' newsreels were lost in favor of a more
unified style of argumentation.

Collage administered shocks of an unprecedented kind. It turned up everywhere

in the period surrounding World War I from Picasso's The Violin (1913), Joyce's
Ulysses (1922, the same year as Nanook), Proust's The Remembrance of Thing's
Past (1919-25), Tatlin's First Exhibition of Painterly Reliefs (1914) and
Appolinaire's Calligrames (1918). Fernand Léger, who later made Ballet
Mécanique (1925), wrote in 1923: "The war has thrust me, as a soldier, into the
heart of a mechanical atmosphere. Here I discovered the beauty of the
fragment,"14

Collage belonged to war and the city, the ultimate and the everyday forms of
dislocation, alienation, fragmentation. Flaherty managed to escape all this but no
European or Soviet artist could. Collage became an aesthetic correlative to
disjointed social experience. The jarring effect of unexpected juxtapositions and
strange associations became a founding principle of Russian formalism. As
defamiliarization, dadaism, constructivism, Eisenstein's montage of attractions,
or Brecht's alienation effect, the collage principle operated to reconfigure time,
space, and the world it supports into fragments, fragments that could terrify, or,
as Walter Benjamin would argue, fragments that could liberate us from the
tyranny of tradition.

9
The nonfiction film generally offered immense opportunity for collage. It was
not bound by the conventions of continuity in time and space that governed the
character-centered fiction film, particularly in classic Hollywood narrative. It
could mix together images from anywhere to support or create a point. It was
not bound by the need to show only what could plausibly be part of a fictitious
character's world where dream, flashback, fantasy, or abstract summary
provided the outer limits of visual montage. Documentary could combine any
and everything as long as the voice of the filmmaker and interpretive action of
the audience remained to lend shape and meaning to the result.

This opportunity to rearrange fragments of the world was common to both the
avant-garde and documentary tendencies in cinema, but the two tendencies
gradually began to diverge as sound came to the nonfiction film. Again, the
process was slow and did not correspond to the time period associated with the
feature film. Through the first half of the 1930s, the use of sound took many
forms, often furthering the principles of collage through contrapuntal and non-
synchronous forms (in The Song of Ceylon (1934), Night Mail (1936), Vertov's
Enthusiasm: Symphony of the Don Basin (1931), Rotha's Pett and Pott (1934)
and Flaherty's Industrial Britain, produced by John Grierson (1933)). Grierson's
efforts to define and make popular the documentary as an alternative to
Hollywood in fact led him to encourage considerable experimentation with
sound in the early 1930s. As Lovell and Hillier note, under Grierson the
documentary movement became "a laboratory for experiments in the non-
naturalistic use of sound."15

Eventually, however, a dominant mode arose within the British documentary

movement that took hold in America as well. It concentrated sound into speech
and yoked speech to a rhetorical assertion. The speech became known as the
voice of God and the assertions became labeled didacticism, or propaganda. It
was into this increasingly dominant tradition, which included later British works
like Housing Problems (1935) and The Smoke Menace (1937) as well as sound
newsreels like The March of Time (1935), that Pare Lorentz stepped when he
made his two most famous films. The ethnographic impulse became
argumentative rather than observational, as it was to remain in anthropology or
in the later work in cinéma verité and cinéma direct. Collage became flattened
upon the Procrustean bed of expository logic, in which images serve primarily
as illustration for the rhetorical claims of a spoken commentary with its
problem-solving bent rather than allowing the potential of images as assembled
fragments to attain full force. Collage, sound, and documentary became tamed,
placed at the service of sponsors. The sponsors could vary radically in their
politics and ambitions (from Stalinism to the New Deal), but their impact
everywhere was both to give to documentary a dominant form at the same time
as they robbed it of more complex diversity and potential subversiveness. By the

10
late 1930s the coming of sound was complete (if not entirely embraced) and
documentary was both richer (in potential) and poorer (in its prevailing practice)
for it.

Notes

1. Jack C. Ellis, The Documentary Idea: A Critical History of English-Language

Documentary Film and Video (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1989): pp. 27-
28, 44, 56-57.
2. Lewis Jacobs, ed., The Documentary Tradition, 2nd. ed. (N.Y.: Norton, 1979): p. 70.
3. Erik Barnouw, A Documentary History of the Non-fiction Film (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1974): p. 7.
4. Bill Nichols, Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991): pp. 160-64.
5. As argued in William Alexander, Film on the Left: American Documentary Film from
1931 to 1941 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981); Bert Hogenkamp,
"Workers' Newsreels in Germany, the Netherlands, and Japan During the Twenties
and Thirties," "Show Us Life": Toward a History and Aesthetics of the Committed
Documentary, ed. Thomas Waugh (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1984); and Bill
Nichols, "American Documentary Film History," Screen 13.4 (Winter 1972-1973): pp.
108-115.
6. James Clifford, The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography,
Literature and Art (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988): p. 145.
7. See Michael Renov, ed., Theorizing Documentary (New York: Routledge, 1993) and
Hayden White, The Content of the Form (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1987).
8. Barnouw, pp. 24-26, 38.
9. Emilie de Brigard, "The History of Ethnographic Film," Principles of Visual
Anthropology, ed. Paul Hockings (The Hague: Mouton, 1975): p. 19.
10. Barnouw, p. 38.
11. Barnouw, p. 23.
12. Quoted in Barnouw, p. 50.
13. Ellis, p. 25.
14. Quoted in Susan Sontag, On Photography (New York: Delta-Dell, 1973): p. 204.
15. Alan Lovel and Jim Hillier, Studies in Documentary (London: Secker and Warburg,
1972): p. 28.

The original version of this essay was published in Spanish in Historia general del cine, co-
edited by Manuel Palacio for Catedra Publishers in Madrid.

Bill Nichols

Professor of Cinema Studies at San Francisco State University. Edited two widely used
anthologies, Movies and Methods I and II, and is author of Ideology and the Image,
Representing Reality, and the recent Blurred Boundaries.

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As part of this year's commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of cinema,
Documentary Box is running a four-part series of articles exploring the history of film's
relation to reality. Each piece, written by a different film historian, will investigate how both
documentary as a genre, as well as the "realistic feel" of cinema itself, have evolved over the
last century. Following Komatsu Hiroshi's discussion of early nonfiction cinema in
Documentary Box #5, Professor Bill Nichols of San Francisco State University considers in
this issue how the coming of sound helped form an orthodoxy in documentary practice in the
1920s and 30s.

- The Editor -
Poster for Dziga Vertov's Enthusiasm
-
Original URL http://www.informatics.tuad.ac.jp/net-expo/ff/box/box6/en/b6-1.html

Theory of the Film: Sound

by Bela Balazs

The Acoustic World

It is the business of the sound film to reveal for us our acoustic environment,,
the acoustic landscape in which we live, the speech of things and the intimate
whisperings of nature; all that has speech beyond human speech, and speaks to
us with the vast conversational powers of life and incessantly influences and
directs our thoughts and emotions, from the muttering of the sea to the din of a
great city, from the roar of machinery to the gentle patter of autumn rain on a
windowpane. The meaning of a floorboard creaking in a deserted room, a bullet
whistling past our ear, the deathwatch beetle ticking in old furniture, and the
forest spring tinkling over the stones. Sensitive lyrical poets always could hear
these significant sounds of life and describe them in words. It is for the sound
film to let them speak to us more directly from the screen.

Discovery of Noise
The sounds of our daytoday lifewe hitherto perceived merely as a confused
noise, as a formless mass of din, rather as an unmusical person may listen to a
symphony; at best he may be able to distinguish the leading melody, the rest will
fuse into a chaotic clamor. The sound film will teach us to analyze even chaotic

12
noise with our ear and read the score of life's symphony. Our ear will hear the
different voices in the general babble and distinguish their character as
manifestations of individual life. It is an old maxim that art saves us from chaos.
The arts differ from each other in the specific kind of chaos which they fight
against. The vocation of the sound film is to redeem us from the chaos of
shapeless noise by accepting it as expression, as significance, as meaning. . . .

Only when the sound film will have resolved noise into its elements, segregated
individual, intimate voices, and made them speak to us separately in vocal,
acoustic closeups; when these isolated detailsounds will be collated again in
purposeful order by soundmontage, will the sound film have become a new art.
When the director will be able to lead our ear as. he could once already lead our
eye in the silent film and by means of such guidance along a series of closeups
will be able to emphasize, separate, and bring into relation with each other the
sounds of life as he has done with its sights, then the rattle and clatter of life will
no longer overwhelm us in a lifeless chaos of sound. The sound camera will
intervene in this chaos of sound, form it and interpret it, and then it will again be
man himself who speaks to us from the sound screen.

The Picture Forms the Sound

In a sound film there is no need to explain the sounds. We see together with the
word the glance, the smile, the gesture, the whole chord of expression, the exact
nuance. Together with the sounds and voices of things we see their
physiognomy. The noise of a machine has a different coloring for us if we see
the whirling machinery at the same time. The sound of a wave is different if we
see its movement. Just as the shade and value of a color changes according to
what other colors are next to it in a painting, so the timbre of a sound changes in
accordance with the physiognomy or gesture of the visible source of the sound
seen together with the sound itself in a sound film in which acoustic and optical
impressions are equivalently linked together into a single picture.

In a radio play the stage has to be described in words, because sound alone is not
spacecreating.

Silence
Silence, too, is an acoustic effect, but only where sounds can be heard. The
presentation of silence is one of the most specific dramatic effects of the sound
film. No other art can reproduce silence, neither painting nor sculpture, 'neither
literature nor the silent film could do so. Even on the stage silence appears only
rarely as a dramatic effect and then only for short moments. Radio plays cannot
make us feel the depths of silence at all, because when no sounds come from our
set, the whole performance has ceased, as we cannot see any silent continuation
of the action. The sole material of the wireless play being sound, the result of the

13
cessation of sound is not silence but just nothing.

Silence and Space

Things that we see as being different from each other, appear even more
different when they emit sounds. They all sound different when they do this, but
they are all silent in the same way. There are thousands of different sounds and
voices, but the substance of silence appears one and the same for all. That is at
first hearing. Sound differentiates visible things, silence brings them closer to
each other and makes them less dissimilar. Every painting shows this happy
harmony, the hidden common language of mute things conversing with each
other, recognizing each others' shapes, and entering into relations with each.
other in a composition common to them all. This was a great advantage the
silent film had over the sound film. For its silence was not mute; it was given a
voice in the background music, and landscapes and men and the objects
surrounding them were shown on the screen against this common musical
background. This made them speak a common silent language and we could feel
their irrational conversation in the music which was common to them all.

But the silent film could reproduce silence only by roundabout means. On the
theatrical stage cessation of the dialogue does not touch off the great emotional
experience of silence, because the space of the stage is too small for that, and the
experience of silence is essentially a space experience

How do we perceive silence? By hearing nothing? That is a mere negative. Yet

man has few experiences more positive than the experience of silence. Deaf
people do not know what it is. But if a morning breeze blows the sound of a
cock crowing over to us from the neighboring village, if from the top of a high
mountain we hear the tapping of a woodcutter's axe far below in the valley, if we
can hear the crack of a whip a mile awaythen we are hearing the silence around
us. We feel the silence when we can hear the most distant sound or the slightest
rustle near us. Silence is when the buzzing of a fly on the windowpane fills the
whole room with sound and the ticking of a clock smashes time into fragments
with sledgehammer blows. The silence is greatest when we can hear very distant
sounds in a very large space. The widest space is our own if we can hear right
across it and the noise of the alien world reaches us from beyond its boundaries.
A completely soundless space on the contrary never appears quite concrete, and
quite real to our perception; we feel it to be weightless and unsubstantial, for
what we merely see is only a vision. We accept seen space as real only when it
contains sounds as well, for these give it the dimension of depth.

On the stage, a silence which is the reverse of speech may have a dramaturgical
function, as for instance if a noisy company suddenly falls silent when a new
character appears; but such a silence cannot last longer than a few seconds,

14
otherwise it curdles as it were and seems to stop the performance. On the stage,
the effect of silence cannot be drawn out or made to last.

In the film, silence can be extremely vivid and varied, for although it has no
voice, it has very many expressions and gestures. A silent glance can speak
volumes; its soundlessness makes it more expressive because the facial
movements of a silent figure may explain the reason for the silence, make us
feel its weight, its menace, its tension. In the film, silence does not halt action
even for an instant and such silent action gives even silence a living face.

The physiognomy of men is more intense when they are silent. More than that,
in silence even things drop their masks and seem to look at you with wide open
eyes. If a sound film shows us any object surrounded by the noises of everyday
life and then suddenly cuts out all sound and brings it up to us in isolated close-
up, then the physiognomy of that object takes on a significance and tension that
seems to provoke and invite the event which is to follow.

SoundExplaining Pictures
Not only the microdramatics expressed in the microphysiognomy of the face can
be made intelligible by the sound which causes it. Such a closeupplussound can
have the inverse effect. The closeup of a listener's face can explain the sound he
hears. We might perhaps not have noticed the significance of some sound or
noise if we had not seen its effect in the mirror of a human face. For instance we
hear the screaming of a siren. Such a sound does not acquire a dramatic
significance unless we can see from the expression on human faces that it is a
dangersignal, or a call to revolt. We may hear the sound of sobbing, but how
deep its meaning is will become evident only from the expression of sympathy
and understanding appearing on some human face. Further, the acoustic
character of a sound we understand is different too. We hear the sound of a siren
differently if we know that it is a warning of impending deadly peril.

The face of a man listening to music may also show two kinds of things. The
reflected effect of the music may throw light into the human soul; it may also
throw light on the music itself and suggest by means of the listener's facial
expression some experience touched off by this musical effect. If the director
shows us a closeup of the conductor while. an invisible orchestra is playing, not
only can the character of the music be made clear by the dumbshow of the
conductor, his facial expression may also give an interpretation of the sounds
and convey it to us. And the emotion produced in a human being by music and
demonstrated by a closeup of a face can enhance the power of a piece of music
in our eyes far more than any added decibels.

Asynchronous Sound
In a closeup in which the surroundings are not visible, a sound that seeps into

15
the shot sometimes impresses us as mysterious, simply because we cannot see
its source. It produces the tension arising from curiosity and expectation.
Sometimes the audience does not know what the sound is they hear, but the
character in the film can hear it, turn his face toward the sound, and see its
source before the audience does. This handling of picture and sound provides
rich opportunities for effects of tension and surprise.

Asynchronous sound (that is, when there is discrepancy between the things
heard and the things seen in the film) can acquire consid erable importance. If
the sound or voice is not tied up with a picture of its source, it may grow beyond
the dimensions of the latter. Then it is no longer the voice or sound of some
chance thing, but appears as a pronouncement of universal validity. . . . The
surest means by which a director can convey the pathos or symbolical
significance of sound or voice is precisely to use it
asynchronously.

Intimacy of Sound
Acoustic closeups make us perceive sounds which are included in the
accustomed noise of daytoday life, but which we never hear as individual
sounds because they are drowned in the general din. Possibly they even have an
effect on us but this effect never becomes conscious. If a closeup picks out such
a sound and thereby makes us aware of its effect, then at the same time its
influence on the action will have been made manifest.

On the stage such things are impossible. If a theatrical producer wanted to direct
the attention of the audience to a scarcely audible sigh, because that sigh
expresses a turningpoint in the action, then all the other actors in the same scene
would have to be very quiet, or else the actor who is to breathe the sigh would
have to be brought forward to the footlights. All this, however, would cause the
sigh to lose its essential character, which is that it is shy and retiring and must
remain scarcely audible. As in the silent film so in the sound film, scarcely
perceptible, intimate things can be conveyed with all the secrecy of the
unnoticed eavesdropper. Nothing need be silenced in order to demonstrate such
sounds for all to hearand they can yet be kept intimate. The general din can go
on, it may even drown completely a sound like the soft piping of a mosquito, but
we can get quite close to the source of the sound with the microphone and with
our ear and hear it nevertheless.

Subtle associations and interrelations of thoughts and emotions can be conveyed

by means of very low, soft sound effects. Such emotional or intellectual linkages
can play a decisive dramaturgical part. They may be anythingthe ticking of a
clock in an empty room, a slow drip from a burst pipe, or the moaning of a little

16
child in its sleep.

Sound Cannot be Isolated

In such closeups of sound we must be careful, however, to bear in mind the
specific nature of sound which never permits sound to be isolated from its
acoustic environment as a closeup shot can be isolated from its surroundings.
For what is not within the film frame cannot be seen by us, even if it is
immediately beside the things that are. Light or shadow can be thrown into the
picture from outside and the outline of a shadow can betray to the spectator what
is outside the frame but still in the same sector of space, although the picture
will show only a shadow. In sound things are different. An acoustic environment
inevitably encroaches on the doseup shot and what we hear in this case is not a
shadow or a beam of light, but the sounds themselves, which can always be
heard throughout the whole space of the picture, however small a section of that
space is included in the closeup. Sounds cannot be blocked out.

Music played in a restaurant cannot be completely cut out if a special closeup of

say two people softly talking together in a corner is to be shown. The band may
not always be seen in the picture, but it will always be heard. Nor is there any
need to silence the music altogether in order that we may hear the soft
whispering of the two guests as if we were sitting in their immediate vicinity.
The closeup will contain the whole acoustic atmosphere of the restaurant space.
Thus we will hear not only the people talking, we will also hear in what relation
their talking is to the sounds all round them. We will be able to place it in its
acoustic environment. Such soundpictures are often used in the film for the
purpose of creating an atmosphere. Just as the film can show visual landscapes,
so it can show acoustic landscapes, a tonal milieu.

Educating the Ear

Our eye recognizes things even if it has seen them only once or twice. Sounds
are much more difficult to recognize. We know far more visual forms than
sound forms. We are used to finding our way about the world without the
conscious assistance of our hearing. But without sight we are lost. Our ear,
however, is not less sensitive, it is only less educated than our eye. Science tells
us in fact that the ear can distinguish more delicate nuances than our eye. The
number of sounds and noises a human ear can distinguish runs into many
thousandsfar more than the shades of color and degrees of light we can
distinguish. There is however a considerable difference between perceiving a
sound and identifying its source. We may be aware that we are hearing a
different sound than before, without knowing to whom or what the sound
belongs. We may have more difficulty in perceiving things visually, but we
recognize them more easily once we have perceived them. Erdmann's

17
experiments showed that the ear can distinguish innumerable shades and degrees
in the noise of a large crowd, but at the same time it could not be stated with
certainty whether the noise was that of a merry or an angry crowd.

There is a very considerable difference between our visual and acoustic

education. One of the reasons for this is that we so often see without hearing.
We see things from afar, through a windowpane, on pictures, on photographs.
But we very rarely hear the sounds of nature and of life without seeing
something. We are not accustomed therefore to draw conclusions about visual
things from sounds we hear. This defective education of our hearing can be used
for many surprising effects in the sound film. We hear a hiss in the darkness. A
snake? A human face on the screen turns in terror toward the sound and the
spectators tense in their seats. The camera, too, turns toward the sound. And
behold the hiss is that of a kettle boiling on the gasring.

Such surprising disappointments may be tragic too. In such cases the slow
approach and the slow recognition of the sound may cause a far more terrifying
tension than the approach of something seen and therefore instantly recognized.
The roar of an approaching flood or landslide, approaching cries of grief or
terror which we discern and distinguish only gradually, impress us with the
inevitability of an approaching catastrophe with almost irresistible intensity.
These great possibilities of dramatic effect are due to the fact that such a slow
and gradual process of recognition can symbolize the desperate resistance of the
consciousness to understanding a reality which is already audible but which the
consciousness is reluctant to accept.

Sounds Throw No Shadow

Auditive culture can be increased like any other and the sound film is very
suitable to educate our ear. There are however definite limits to the possibilities
of finding our way about the world purely by sound, without any visual
impressions. The reason for this is that sounds throw no shadowsin other words
that sounds cannot produce shapes in space. Things which we see we must see
side by side; if we do not, one of them covers up the other so that it cannot be
seen. Visual impressions do not blend with each other. Sounds are different; if
several of them are present at the same time, they merge into one common
composite sound. We can see the dimension of space and see a direction in it.
But we cannot hear either dimension or direction. A quite unusual, rare
sensitivity of ear, the socalled absoluteis required to distinguish the several
sounds which make up a composite noise. But their place in space, the direction
of their source cannot be discerned even by a perfect ear, if no visual impression
is present to help. It is one of the basic formproblems of the radio play that
sound alone cannot represent space and hence cannot alone represent a stage.

18
Sounds Have No Sides
It is difficult to localize sound and a film director must take this fact into
account. If three people are talking together in a film and they are placed so that
we cannot see the movements of their mouths and if they do not accompany
their words by gestures, it is almost impossible to know which of them is
talking, unless the voices are very different. For sounds cannot be beamed as
precisely as light can be directed by a reflector. There are no such straight and
concentrated sound beams as there are rays of light.

The shapes of visible things have several sides, right side and left side, front and
back. Sound has no such aspects, a sound strip will not tell us from which side
the shot was made.

Sound Has a Space Coloring

Every natural sound reproduced by art on the stage or on the platform always
takes on a false tonecoloring, for it always assumes the coloring of the space in
which it is presented to the public and not of the space which it is supposed to
reproduce. If we hear a storm, the howling of the wind, a clap of thunder, etc.,
on the stage we always hear in it the timbre proper to the stage not in the timbre
proper to the forest, or ocean, or whatnot the scene is supposed to represent. If,
say, a choir sings in a church on the stage, we cannot hear the unmistakable
resonance of Gothic arches; for every sound bears the stamp of the space in
which it is actually produced.

Every sound has a spacebound character of its own. The same sound sounds
different in a small room, in a cellar, in a large empty hall, in a street, in a forest,
or on the sea.

Every sound which is really produced somewhere must of necessity have some
such spacequality and this is a very important quality indeed if use is to be made
of the sensual reproducing power of sound! It is this timbre local of sound which
is necessarily always falsified on the theatrical stage. One of the most valuable
artistic faculties of the microphone is that sounds shot at the point of origin are
perpetuated by it and retain their original tonal coloring. A sound recorded in a
cellar remains a cellar sound even if it is played back in a picture theater, just as
a film shot preserves the viewpoint of the camera, whatever the spectator's
viewpoint in the cinema auditorium may be. If the picture was taken from
above, the spectators will see the object from above, even if they have to look
upwards to the screen and not downwards. Just as our eye is identified with the
camera lens, so our ear is identified with the microphone and we hear the sounds
as the microphone originally heard them, irrespective of where the sound being
shown and the sound reproduced. In this way, in the sound film, the fixed,
immutable, permanent distance between spectator and actor is eliminated not

19
only visually . . . but acoustically as well. Not only as spectators, but as listeners,
too, we are transferred from our seats to the space in which the events depicted
on the screen are taking place.

The sound of sound

A Brief History of the Reproduction of Sound in Movie Theaters

by Rick Altman
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
What should sound sound like?
When you stand in the stereo showroom, or when you move your speakers around
the family room, how do you know when the sound sounds right? When THX
creator Tomlinson Holman designs crossover circuitry or specifies speaker type and
placement, how does he know when he has it right? Discussing the home THX
system, Holman stresses the importance of making films sound in the home just as
they do on the dubbing stage or in the theater.[1] But that only begs the question--
How do the people who design theater acoustics know when the sound sounds
right? In fact, how do any of us decide whether a sound reproducing system
represents the original sounds properly?

Clearly, it's not simply a question of fidelity to the original sound source. How
many of us have actually heard Toscanini at La Scala or the final mix of Star Wars
on the dubbing stage? Yet even though we' ve never heard the original, we have
very clear ideas of how the copy should sound. In fact, depending on our hearing
experience, we harbor quite divergent ideas about how Toscanini--and everything
else--should sound. When Aesop's Country Mouse paid a visit to his city-dwelling
cousin, he found the urban soundscape not to his liking at all. Indeed, if the City
Mouse were to drop in on his country cousin, he would probably conclude that
there is something 'unnatural' about a nocturnal soundtrack featuring no more than
the sound of crickets. For we learn to hear by hearing, and in doing so we form
quite specific notions about how sound should sound.

To an extent as yet unrecognized, cinema sound depends heavily on the very same
process. Though it is typically studied as an independent phenomenon, the history
of film sound cannot be properly understood unless it is correlated with the major
sound practices of each era. By listening to available sound, each generation learns
just what constitutes acceptable sound. But since the sound available to each
generation changes with transformations of taste and technology, it stands to reason

20
that the standards by which cinema sound is judged must vary from decade to
decade.

These changes are reflected throughout the history of cinema through such
developments as increased frequency and dynamicrange, modifications in the role
accorded to music, shifts in the relationship between sound scale and image scale,
and innovations like stereo or surround sound. Changing notions of how sound
should sound are thus readable through the history of variouscinema sound
practices. In particular, a fascinating record of varying spectator expectations
regarding sound is encapsulated in decisions as simple as the placement of speakers
in the theater.

Unless they happen to be sitting next to a misbehaved surround speaker or

watching a stereo film with a dead channel, most people pay little attention to the
location of speakers. Indeed, theater designers have systematically followed
Hollywood's tendency to dissimulate technology inside the theater (even though it
is often touted on the marquee outside), so much so that most spectators have
literally never even seen a cinema speaker (other than the surrounds). Yet the
location of speakers is remarkably indicative of contemporary presuppositions
about sound. Indeed, the history of cinema sound may conveniently be divided into
five periods, each featuring a different speaker configuration designed to match
cinema sound to current standards of how sound should sound.

During the latter half of the 1900s, the cinema industry entered into a profound
crisis. With the rise of the nickelodeon, the number of theaters exhibiting films had
grown so rapidly that producers were unable to meet demand. Forced to show the
same film as the competitor down the block, theater owners looked to sound
practices to differentiate their products.

Where previous films had been only intermittently accompanied by a vaudeville

orchestra, a lone untrained pianist, or not at all, exhibitors now sought to raise the
tone of their establishments through sound. Eschewing popular music and ragtime,
theaters instead increasingly featured light classical accompaniment performed by
competent musicians.

Before continuous musical accompaniment became the rule, however, enterprising

exhibitors labored mightily to make films sound like live theater. From 1908 to the
early Teens, the human voice commonly accompanied film projections. During the
late Aughts, films were often supplemented by carefully rehearsed actors speaking
lines in sync with the image. Indeed, there were enough "talking picture" troupes
(calling themselves Humanovo, Actologue, Ta-Mo-Pic, and the like) to support a
New York academy dedicated to training behind-the-screen actors. For theaters
unable to afford the full troupe, a live narrator was often used to secure the
narrative coherence of films longer on spectacle than clarity.

21
The real attention-getters, however, were the dozens of experiments with sound-on-
disc synchronization. The first of these systems to achieve a modicum of success
was Cameraphone, an avowed attempt to can vaudeville performances--image and
sound --for inexpensive distribution to the hinterlands. With one hundred locations
by the end of 1908, and continued expansion in 1909, Cameraphone was soon
joined by a bevy of imitators: Vivaphone, Electrograph, Phoneidograph,
Picturephone, Phonoscope, Gaumont's Chronophone, the British Cine-phone, and
many others, culminating in 1913 with Edison's ill-fated Kinetophone. Every one of
these systems, it should be noted, aims not at providing synchronized musical
accompaniment, but at reproducing the human voice (in keeping with the current
generic term for the phonograph: "talking machine" ). It is thus hardly surprising
that, after many experiments locating the loud speaker near the projector (the
simplest solution) or to the side of the screen (the traditional arrangement for
combined slide and phonograph presentations), virtually every early synchronized
sound system settled on a speaker location behind the screen (fig. 1), where the
resultant sound could most easily be assimilated to the body of the characters
observed on the screen.

Primarily the province of undercapitalized, independent enterprises, sound-on-disc

fell prey by the early Teens to a systematic producer campaign to feature
continuous musical accompaniment and narrative sound effects in preference to the
human voice. By the mid-Twenties, light classical orchestral or organ
accompaniment had become so pervasive as to relegate speech entirely to the
written form of inter-titles.

It is thus not so much the technology that changes with the Vitaphone system that
precipitated Hollywood's conversion to sound in the late Twenties. After all, even
though it benefits from Bell Laboratories' advances in electric recording and
amplification, Vitaphone is still nothing more than an improved version of the
dozens of sound-on-disc systems popular around 1910. Important changes had
come not in technology alone, but also in audience expectations regarding sound.
No longer was speech the film accompaniment of choice. Instead, discs were called
upon to provide the expected musical support for films that continued to carry
speech on intertitles.

When the Vitaphone system was first exploited commercially in 1926, we thus find
an entirely new speaker configuration, again reflecting current assumptions about
what kind of sound merits reproducing. While one speaker is maintained behind the
screen--in order to reproduce infrequent speeches, like Will Hays's introduction to
the initial Vitaphone shorts program--the other is located in the orchestra pit,
pointing upwards, simulating the sound of the orchestra it has displaced (fig. 2).
Pity the poor projectionist, frantically switching back and forth from one speaker to
the other, according to the type of sound reproduced.

22
From the films produced for the Vita-phone system during its first year of
operation, it is clear that Warners thought of synchronized sound as serving
alternately one of two purposes: either to replicate music or to serve as a public
address system (hardly surprising, since the Bell Labs research leading to
Vitaphone had included the development of a new public address system and a new
phonograph, the Orthophonic Victrola). The first Vitaphone shorts systematically
stress musical uses, while the first year's features range from Don Juan's ninety-
nine percent musical accompaniment (August 1926) to tentative experiments with
what we might call "megaphone speech" in The First Auto (June 1927). While the
latter film uses intertitles for all normal conversation, the Vitaphone system is
pressed into service each time a character shouts or calls out to another character,
thus taking advantage of the public address-like amplification provided by the
behind-the-screen speaker quite properly identified as loud.

Designed primarily for sounds made to be amplified, sounds that their makers seek
to project to a larger public, the Vitaphone system nevertheless proved unable to
determine its own fate, for technologies depend as much on their use as vice versa.
Starting with The Jazz Singer in October 1927, audiences were increasingly
exposed to a new kind of sound--not the theatrical kind meant to be projected to a
larger public, but a new more intimate sound that is presented as private, and thus
can only be overheard. When Jolson sings to the crowd in Coffee Dan' s, like
generations of vaudeville and theatrical performers before him he is purposely
projecting his voice to a large audience; but when he sings and talks privately to his
mother, an entirely new kind of relationship is established between the performer
and the amplification system. At Coffee Dan's, performer and technology are
aligned, the amplifying potential of the one overtly serving the other's amplificatory
purpose; in the privacy of the family living room, however, the amplifying
technology operates in spite of and against Jolson's quiet demeanor, thus changing
us spectators from the destined audience of a self- conscious performer to a group
of auditory voyeurs intent on hearing sounds that are not meant for us.

The new function of the antiquated sound-on-disc technology spawned by this

important change in filmmaking style is reflected as of 1929 by a revised
loudspeaker configuration. No longer present to replace the orchestra, the sound
now abandons the pit to settle fully behind the screen. Whereas 1926 sound practice
recognized the pit orchestra as the source of all music (typically thought of as
accompaniment), the many musical films of the 1927-29 period increasingly locate
the source of music on the screen. As revealed in a 1929 Western Electric ad (fig.
3), this new standard is recognized in theaters by henceforth placing both speakers
behind the screen, so that all sound can once again be identified with the activity
presented on that screen.

Note that there is nothing particularly logical about this change. Why should the
voice of Fox's Movietone News announcer come from behind the screen? It would
make more sense to identify him with the projection of the film by locating his

23
speaker near the projector, or to recognize his off-screen status by placing his
speaker next to the screen. Locating his voice behind the screen creates a spurious
identification between the announcer and the images he presents. And of course it
is precisely this identification that the new arrangement seeks to establish.
Increasingly, during Hollywood's heyday, the screen displaces all other aspects of
the film experience, to the point where generations of film theorists have assumed
that the whole of the cinema may be reduced to the screen alone, thus missing the
point that the speakers of Hollywood's classical period are dissimulated behind the
screen on purpose, in order to hide the real source of the sound by attributing it to
the image.

Ironically, the turn away from the classical tendency to dissimulate sound sources
occurs as a side effect of a movement designed to increase identification between
sound and image. Not content with a generalized correspondence between screen
image and behind-the-screen sound, technicians caught up in the high-fidelity
movement sought to enhance the spatial correspondences between cinema sound
and image. Following up on the 1933 Bell Labs experiments with broadcast stereo,
in 1940 Western Electric demonstrated a four-track stereo system (left-center-right-
control) aimed instead at the recording industry. Before stereo records began to
flood American markets in the late Fifties, however, stereo had been adopted by the
cinema industry under the most confused of circumstances. First introduced in
Cinerama's early Fifties travelogue extravaganzas, cinema stereo was given the
double task of meeting the needs both of fidelity (accurate spatialization) and of
spectacle (rapid, energetic movement). Only the familiar ping-pong sound of early
stereo records and films could simultaneously capture these two standards, yet the
panning of dialog across a wide screen and back ran directly counter to the
expectations of both cinema spectators (who had been trained to expect single-
source sound by classical Hollywood films and speaker placement) and home high-
fidelity listeners (who had been trained to regard monaural reproduction as the
norm).

When Fox tried to impose magnetic stereo on all CinemaScope users, four-track for
35mm (left-center-right-surround) and six-track for 70mm (adding half-left and
half-right channels), they thus found themselves bucking both economic and
representational objections. While the fully panned dialog championed in the mid-
Fifties by Fox and Todd-AO offered gains in a certain sort of fidelity, it failed to
match current (monaural) notions of high fidelity. The surround speakers created
the inverse problem. Used only intermittently, usually to reinforce spectacular
visual effects, surround sound worked directly against the ideal of spatial fidelity
applied to the three direction-al front speakers. So contradictory did this system
appear that most studios simply refused to follow Fox's lead. As John Belton
reports, M-G-M, Warners, Columbia, and Universal refused to ping-pong dialog,
reproducing it instead in mono, while most studios shied away from the surrounds,
with Columbia never using the fourth channel at all.[2]

24
The parallel development of stereo sound for music and cinema over the past forty
years offers a fascinating view of the way in which technological systems may be
retrofitted to existing standards. To make a longstory short, the difficulty of
matching Fifties cinema stereo to current monaural standards led to virtual
abandonment of stereo as a narrative tool during the Sixties and early Seventies,
with only music regularly receiving stereo treatment (in keeping with stereo's
conquest of the home music market during this period). Surround channels were so
seldom used that surround speakers fell into disrepair, offering more static than
anything else.

However, the late Seventies application of the new Dolby optical stereo variable
area matrixing with improved noise reduction to Star Wars, Close Encounters of
the Third Kind, and other fantasy blockbusters initiated a new era in speaker usage
(fig. 4). At first, a new generation of sound specialists labored mightily to employ
the surround speakers to enhance spatial fidelity. Having failed to learn a lesson
from the mistakes of Fifties stereo technicians, the sound designers of the post-Star
Wars era regularly placed spatially faithful narrative information in the surround
channel. Recalling the 3-D craze in the mid-Fifties, for a few years every menace,
every attack, every emotional scene seemed to begin or end behind the spectators.
Finally, it seemed, the surround channel had become an integral part of the film's
fundamental narrative fiber.

But not for long. Listening to theatrical reproduction of the sound he had designed
for Star Wars and its sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, Ben Burtt discovered that
due to poor equipment and managerial disinter- est the narrative sound events he
had carefully placed on the surround channel were simply not being properly
played in the theaters.[3] Starting in 1983 with the third film in the series, The
Return of the Jedi, Burtt initiated a new strategy, soon emulated by other sound
designers. All narrative information would henceforth emanate from the front
speakers, with the surrounds used for spectacular (but nonessential) enhancements.
Thus freed from any responsibility to present narrative events or even spatial
fidelity, the surrounds began a new career (especially in fantasy or horror films) as
purveyors of spectacular effects. Not since the antics of the vaudeville-trained
drummer accompanying silent comedy had cinema accorded such a place of
independence and honor to sound effects.

While the surrounds were being liberated from the demands of spatial fidelity or
narrative relevance, a similar transformation was taking place with the front
speakers. Since channels two and four of all six-channel 70mm prints (feeding the
half-left and half-right speakers) had long since been simply extrapolated from a
four-track master, they offered no new information. Beginning with Star Wars, a
new function was assigned to these speakers: to provide a boost for available low
frequency sound. Corresponding with Hollywood's renewed attempt to attract the
youth market through concentration on sci-fi, adventure, horror, and musical
superproductions, the creation of two "baby boom" channels realigned cinema

25
sound with a new and unexpected model, the rock concert with its characteristic
overamplification and earth- shaking bass.

Whereas Thirties film practice fostered unconscious visual and psychological

spectator identification with characters who appear as a perfect amalgam of image
and sound, the Eighties ushered in a new kind of visceral identification, dependent
on the sound system's overt ability, through bone-rattling bass and unexpected
surround effects, to cause spectators to vibrate-- quite literally--with the entire
narrative space. It is thus no longer the eyes, the ears, and the brain that alone
initiate identification and maintain contact with a sonic source; instead, it is the
whole body that establishes a relationship, marching to the beat of a different
woofer. Where sound was once hidden behind the image in order to allow more
complete identification with that image, now the sound source is flaunted, fostering
a separate sonic identification contesting the limited, rational draw of the image and
its visible characters.

By the time the "baby boom" speakers and the surrounds had been liberated from
narrative responsibilities, the center channel had already become specialized in
dialog reproduction. So deep-rooted is Hollywood's dedication to dialog
intelligibility (we mustn't forget that the conversion to sound was initiated by the
ultimate purveyors of dialog: the telephone company and its subsidiaries), that
nothing but perfectly understandable dialog could possibly satisfy spectator
expectations. Given Hollywood' s establishment during the Thirties of a clear
preference for clarity of dialog over careful matching of sound and image scales, it
is hardly surprising that stereo imaging would eventually be reserved primarily for
music, with dialog being routed uniquely through the center speaker.

What we see taking place over the past forty years is thus a systematic dismantling
of the unified classical Hollywood system whereby all sounds would be fused into
a single, unified soundtrack and funneled through a single cluster of speakers
behind the screen. Creating the fiction that all sound derives from and serves the
image (the familiar myth that has led to such a high level of disregard for cinema
sound in general), this classical flamework has been done away with by broad
dissemination, over the past decade, of a new system of discrete parts. Whereas the
soundtracks of the Thirties and Forties were marked by their ability to share a
single invisible loudspeaker (or a cluster of speakers all reproducing the same
sound at the same time), the new approach offers four virtually independent sound
outlets, each separately engineered and visibly located to serve a specific need and
to correspond to a different set of sound standards.

The new configuration and its purposes are most obvious in the many proprietary
home audio/video systems (including the home version of THX) that use Dolby Pro
Logic encoding to emulate the cinema theater situation. Receivers featuring
Yamaha's Digital Sound Field Processing, for example, offer six speaker outputs
(digitally processed from the four tracks on Dolby-encoded laserdiscs): left-center-

26
right-left surround-right surround-subwoofer (fig. 5). In 1929, these six channels
would have made no sense whatever, but when considered in terms of the multiple
and varying requirements enforced by our soundscape and our listening experience,
they openly reveal their source and function.

The left and right speakers offer standard stereo. Over the last quarter- century,
stereo has become increasingly specialized in the reproduction of music (records,
tapes, CDs, FM multiplexes, most uses of TV stereo), while narrative uses of the
very same media (particularly radio and television) have remained in the monaural
mode. The left and right channels of homevideo systems are thus primarily
dedicated to the reproduction of music. In fact, all Pro Logic receivers offer the
option of returning the system to a traditional home stereo mode, routing music
from nonvideo sources solely through the left and right channels, while dosing
down all other channels.

The center speaker offers a separate monaural channel, to which all dialog is
shunted. Listening to the center channel is like listening to a telephone during a
music concert, simultaneously satisfying our expectations for music reproduction
(large room with high levels of long, slow reverberation and a wide frequency
range) along with the standards that we have learned to apply to dialog
transmission (spacelessness and no reverb, with a relatively narrow frequency
range).

By virtue of its physical separation from the screen and because it carries no sound
events of crucial narrative importance, the surround channel (or two channels in the
case of THX, Yamaha, and certain other processors) is released from the standards
we apply to the front channels (directional fidelity for the stereo left/right
combination; equal intelligibility throughout the theater for the center). Seeking
"effects that are out of this world" (as a recent Adcom ad suggests), contemporary
films commonly create domains in which any sound effect, however farfetched,
will be deemed acceptable. Not just the fantasy worlds of outer space and
Transylvania, but also the apparently realistic realms of heavy military machinery
and undersea exploration create atmospheres in which synthesized or digitally
massaged sounds coming through the surround speakers can add to our pleasure, in
spite of--or rather because of-our inability to judge whether the sounds we are
hearing have any correspondence to reality.

Note how different this logic is from the standards applied to the limited number of
effects fed through the left and right frontspeakers, which are judged by altogether
different notions of spatial fidelity.

Derived from the baby boom speakers in 70mm theaters, the subwoofer reproduces
all low frequency sounds. In addition to extending the bass response of speakers
with insufficient bass extension, the subwoofer' s floor-shaking capacity offers the
possibility of representing cinema as a more participatory event. Yamaha's ad says

27
that "Cinema DSP blurs the line between watching a movie and actually being in
one." It might well have said that subwoofers blur the line between listening to film
music and actually being present at a rock concert, thus radically modifying the
identificatory relationship between the audience and the film.

Just as all modern music speakers involve a combination of woofers, midrange, and
tweeters, each serving a specific purpose and range governed by a network of
crossovers, so current theatrical and home configurations involve a series of quite
different speakers, each dedicated to a different purpose, connected by Dolby Pro
Logic and the twin needs of narrative and spectacle. While the logic is the same as
it was in 1909, with the success of the technology depending in large part on its
ability to conform to contemporary notions of what kind of sound deserves
reproduction, and how that sound should sound, today's results are far removed
from those of the beginning or even the middle of the century. Instead of alternately
satisfying divergent sound needs through differing sound systems and speaker
configurations, we have entered into an era where careful manipulation of
technology and representation alike have made it increasingly possible to satisfy a
large number of contradictory needs simultaneously.

As sound technology becomes increasingly microminiaturized--moving first from

theater to home and now to multimedia computer workstation- -it is tempting to
speculate about future developments. Will CD-ROM- equipped computers need
center speakers if they are to be used for talking books or voice-illustrated
encyclopedias? Will they have built- in subwoofers next year, so as to provide the
bass response needed for certain styles of music? Will they feature FM connections
to surround speakers, so that video games will feel truly wrap-around? We live in
exciting times, which only become more fascinating when we apply to them the
logic systematically applied to past developments in sound: in order to succeed,
each new sound technology must satisfy the needs created by the other sound
practices to which potential consumers are accustomed.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Footnotes:

1 Tomlinson Holman, "Home THX," Stereo Review, April 1994, pp. 54- 60.

2 John Belton, Widescreen Cinema (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992), p. 205ff.

3 Larry Blake, Film Sound Today (Hollywood: Reveille Press, 1984), p. 45ff.

Altman, Rick, The sound of sound.., Vol. 21, Cineaste, 01-01-1995, pp 68.

28
Sync Tanks
Creating sound for Director Jonathan Demme

*Home*

(Note: Introduction is taken from uncorrected proofs. Changes may be made

prior to publication.)

The documentary film can be regarded as the first genre of the cinema. During
the 1890s, when the cinema came into existence, most viewers saw some kind of
'actuality' film. These early documentaries were often simple, single-shot affairs,
showing newsworthy events, scenes from foreign lands, or everyday events.
However, more fictional, or 'staged' actualities also began to be produced from
the earliest years of the cinema, based on the special effects capacity of the
cinema. An example here might be the Lumière brothers' Arroseur arrose,
which appeared as early as 1895, but perhaps the most well known is Georges
Melies' A Trip to the Moon (1902). Between 1895 and 1905 a number of
identifiable genres of documentary film emerged, including 'topicals',
'travelogues', 'scenics', 'industrials', sports films, 'trick' films, 'fantsy' films, and
films which used fictional reconstruction or staging in a variety of ways. These
early genres of documentary film were quickly assimilated into existing modes
of popular culture and entertainment, and initially appeared in venues which
used other, non-filmic, forms of performance, such as acrobatics, song, and
dance.

From quite early on, however, the value of documentary film as a form of
promotion and persuasion was also recognised. For example, the 'industrials'
were usually made by corporate businesses in order to promote their image.
Examples include English 'industrials' such as The Story of a Piece of Slate
(1904). Such films were primarily descriptive and expressed little if any opinion
on the industrial processes they represented.

29
Later, however, the value of the documentary film as a form of social and
political critique, ideology and propaganda was quickly recognised, and
particularly so during World War I. During the war, the participating countries
all embarked upon major programmes of propaganda production involving the
use of the documentary film, and documentary moved out of the province of
entertainment and private sponsorship and into the service of the state. Initially,
government services were antipathetic and suspicious about this new medium
which had emerged from the working classes and appeared to posses the
worrying ability to show things which governments would prefer to keep well
hidden, or, at least, maintain as the preserve of minority elites. As a
consequence, strict controls were placed upon documentary film-making during
the war. For example, upon the outbreak of war, the War Office in England
allowed cameramen to accompany the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) into
France. A decisive victory had been expected, but when the BEF was forced to
retreat from Mons and Ypres in late 1914, all newsreel permits were withdrawn,
and a blanket censorship was imposed. Nevertheless, important films were made
during the war, in all the participating countries. Perhaps the most important of
these, though, was the British film Battle of the Somme (1916). This film,
striking for its images of life on the front line, had a considerable impact on its
audience. Nevertheless, it was produced within the constraints of an extensive
censorship system, and would not have appeared if its representations were not
acceptable to that system.

The documentary film did not really come into its own as a major and
significant form of film-making until the 1920s. Before 1920, documentary
films were largely 'un-authored', so to speak, and often rather simple in both
form and aspiration. Despite the appearance of Battle of the Somme, few large-
scale documentaries were made before 1920, and fewer of these can be regarded
as historically, aesthetically, or politically important. However, the inter-war
period in Europe was an age of ideology, and documentary film was soon put to
the service of political promotion, as well as artistic accomplishment.

One of the most important films in the history of the documentary film also
appeared as early as 1922. It is difficult to exaggerate the historical impact of
Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North. Set in the far north of Canada, Nanook of
the North presents compelling images of Eskimo life and reveals the startling
potential of the documentary film for bringing the everyday world to life. This
potential was not lost on early film theorists, who soon began to see
documentary film as the principal means through which a genuine form of film
art could be created, against the background of the accelerating domination of
the medium by the mass-produced Hollywood feature film. Thus, André
Sauvage regarded Nanook of the North as an example of 'pure cinema', by which

30
he meant that Flaherty's film foregrounded the raw, visual naturalism which
Sauvage believed to be at the heart of the aesthetic specificity of the medium.

Nanook was also an inspiration for the emergence of a number of hybrid

documentaries which appeared in France and Germany during the 1920s, which
combined documentary with modernist form. These include Rien que les heures
(Alberto Cavalcanti, 1926) and Berlin: die Symphonie der Grossstadt (Walter
Ruttmann, 1929). In addition to these films, Nanook also made it possible for
Schoedsack and Coopers' Grass (1925) and Chang (1928) to appear, with their
respective accounts of the tribulations of Iranian and Siamese peasant life and,
less directly, Victor Turin's Turksib (1929), with its epic story of the building of
the trans-Siberian railway. It was also in the Soviet Union that the second most
important documentary film of the 1895-1945 period emerged: Dziga Vertov's
Man With a Movie Camera (1929). As with Nanook of the North, it is also
difficult to exaggerate the importance which this film has had, both in terms of
the documentary film, and in terms of film theory.

The 1930-1945 period marked another stage in the historical development of the
documentary film, when individual authors began to emerge and documentary
was put to increasing social and political use. In the United States, the Workers'
Film and Photo League was formed, and committed films such as Native Land
(Paul Strand and Leo Hurwitz, 1942) appeared. Similar organisations sprang up
in Europe, and committed, or socially concerned, documentary film-makers such
as Joris Ivens, Henri Storck, Pare Lorentz, and Ivor Montagu also came to
prominence. In Britain, John Grierson's documentary film movement made
important films such as Drifters (1929) throughout the 1930s and 1940s, and
cultivated important film-makers, such as Paul Rotha, Alberto Cavalcanti, Basil
Wright and Humphrey Jennings. Wright'sThe Song of Ceylon (1934) and
Grierson's Drifters remain impressive today for their command of aesthetic form
and visual beauty. During the war the documentary film movement also played a
role in developing a new genre: that of the dramatised documentary, exemplified
by Jennings' Fires Were Started (1943).

After 1945, documentary film developed in a number of different directions.

More clearly 'authored' but still socially concerned films began to appear, by
directors such as Frederic Rossif, Karel Reisz, Lindsay Anderson, Georges
Franju, and Alain Resnais; of particular note is Resnais' Nuit et brouillard
(1957, Night and Fog), with its stark and uncompromising portrayal of the Nazi
death camps. Documentary genres were also developed further during this
period. Chris Marker produced philosophical travelogues such as Letter From
Siberia (1958), while the ethnographic film was taken to a new level of
importance by Robert Gardner in The Hunters (1956) and Dead Birds (1963).
Even more important however, in this respect, was Jean Rouch, and particularly

31
his ground-breaking, reflexive Chronicle of a Summer (1961). The films of
French film-makers such as Rouch also influenced the development of the North
American cinéma vérité movement, and the films of Robert Drew, Richard
Leacock, the Maysle Brothers and others, while this, in turn, influenced the film-
making of Frederick Wiseman. Interview based films, such as Marcel Ophuls'
The Sorrow and the Pity (1970) and the British TV series The World at War
(1974-5) also made important advances within the field, by tapping into
historical experience in an often profoundly moving and discomforting manner.
The World at War also broke new ground in telling the story of World War II
from the perspective of ordinary people, rather than from the perspectives of the
great and good.

During the period from the 1980s to the present, important documentary films
and film-makers continued to emerge. Important film-makers of this period
include Claude Lanzmann, Michael Moore, Errol Morris, Chris Marker, Jill
Godmilow, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Barbara Kopple, Julia Reichert, Nick Broomfield,
Molly Dineen, Peter Watkins, and many others too numerous to mention.

However, perhaps the most significant development during this period was the
gradual re-emergence of the documentary film as a mainstream cultural form
and the creation of new, popular genres. Today, genres such as the docu-soap,
reality TV, the 'mockumentary' and others receive widespread broadcast
coverage around the world and have significantly increased the audience for the
documentary film, turning it from the preserve of intellectuals and activists into
yet another form of mass entertainment. Nevertheless, the recent success of a
film such as Farenheit 9/11 bucks this trend and returns documentary to its
subversive roots. Farenheit 9/11 also exemplifies a characteristic common to
much recent documentary film-making: a tendency to indulge in a postmodern
bricolage of technique, ranging from straight interview to fanciful
reconstruction. Moore's film also illustrates another issue often set before
documentary film-makers—the issue of the impact of this genre of highly
realistic, and apparently persuasive cinema. Yet, despite its controversial
character and public exposure, Farenheit 9/11 did not stop George W. Bush
from being elected president in 2004.

To some extent, documentary film theory has reflected more general trends
within film theory. Early written attempts to assess the role and importance of
the documentary film tended to focus on questions of realism, authorship, and
social representation, reflecting the concerns of much so-called 'classical' film
theory. These include the work of Paul Rotha, Erik Barnouw, John Grierson,
Basil Wright and others. Later work by Andre Bazin and Siegfried Kracauer in
the field of film theory also contained a strong documentary dimension.

32
However, from the 1970s onward, documentary film theory tended to adopt the
concerns and intellectual orientations of theorists within the semiotic,
structuralist, post-structuralist and postmodernist camps of film theory. It was,
perhaps, inevitable that a medium such as documentary film would become a
subject of criticism, on account of its supposed 'realism', given the 'anti-realist'
orientation of 'screen theory' and its derivatives. Given the general tendency of
the period to dispense with 'master narratives' and a 'metaphysics of being', it
was not surprising to find documentary film theory becoming increasingly
preoccupied with the rhetoric and discursive patterns, the codes and interest-
based practices of the documentary film, rather than more abstract questions of
realism. Bill Nichols was something of a pioneer here, but he was quickly
followed by others. This approach to understanding the 'rhetoric' of the
documentary film also dominated documentary film theory in the 1980s and
1990s, often giving such theory a pronounced post-structuralist, postmodern, or
relativist orientation. Within these approaches, it is the practical impact that
documentary film and theory can have on behalf of the minority, or way in
which documentary film deploys a post-colonialist, patriarchal, or heterosexist
rhetoric, which is of particular import.

Since the early 1990s, however, the field of documentary film theory has
broadened, reflecting the spirit of 'post-theory' in film theory. One crucial
question affecting documentary film is the representation of history. Historical
work on the documentary film has continued, and includes the work of Ian
Aitken, Jack C. Ellis, Lewis Jacobs, Deane Williams, Thomas Waugh, and
others. Questions of documentary film theory and history are also explored in
the work of Charles Warren, Aitken, Derek Paget, William Rothman, Bert
Hogenkamp, Philip Rosen, Vivian Sobchack, Michael Renov, and others.
Questions of realism and reality in relation to the documentary film are also
explored in works by Rosen, Renov, Winston, Anna Grimshaw, and Linda
Williams. However, the issue of documentary film and its relation to questions
of truth-value, objectivity and reference are rarely considered, though Winston
has done so to some extent, and Aitken does in this Encyclopedia. Many of these
writers, together with others such as Julia Lesage, Carl Plantinga, Bill Nichols
and Trinh T. Minh-ha and Anna M Lopez, also continue to work in a framework
informed by gender and postmodern theory.

Structure of the Encyclopedia

In attempting to achieve the requisite degree of comprehensiveness, this
Encyclopedia has sought to encompass a wide range of different classificatory
categories. The most common categories to appear in the Encyclopedia are those
of individual films and film-makers. Entries here range from short 500 word
pieces, to much longer accounts of important films and film-makers, such as
Nanook of the North, or Dziga Vertov.

33
In addition to this category, the Encyclopedia has also attempted to assess more
broad-based documentary film-making traditions within nations and regions, or
within historical periods. These are, in general, much longer pieces, ranging
from 2,000 words to 7,000 words. Such entries attempt to sum up the most
important developments in the documentary film in respective nations, regions,
or historical periods. These entries may also prove to be particularly important
in bringing to light new material and insights, and in providing a rich source of
information for future research.

In addition to these two categories, the Encyclopedia also encompasses a variety

of theoretical areas. These include areas such as deconstruction or feminism.
Finally, a number of categories relating to style, technique, technology,
production, distribution, exhibition, and other factors are also included. All of
these entries have a pronounced critical dimension: contributors have been
encouraged to think hard about their entries and to interpret them insightfully.
All entries also contain detailed empirical sections, such as biographies,
bibliographies, and filmographies. Many of these are extensive and the product
of considerable research.

This Encyclopedia provides a much-needed infrastructural support for the field

of documentary film studies, and the material which it contains should provide
the basis for many future research projects. The Encyclopedia also enables the
field to be considered, and even eventually theorised, as a totality. It is now, and
for the first time, possible to make comparative studies of different national and
regional documentary film traditions, and to create an overall 'map' of the field.
This will prove an invaluable aid to future research.

One of the other functions of the Encyclopedia is to bring neglected authors,

films and geographical areas of production back into the light of analysis.
English speaking readers will, for example, discover here the names and details
of many little-known documentary film-makers from countries such as India,
Bosnia, China, and others. In this respect, the Encyclopedia will also play a
particularly important role in bringing attention to bear on films and film-makers
from the former Soviet bloc of eastern European countries. Still another
achievement of the Encyclopedia is to provide the opportunity for many
contributors to write about the documentary film. Many contributors to the
Encyclopedia are eminent scholars. Others are less well known, the
representatives of a new generation of writers in the field. Many of these have
produced admirably well-thought and researched entries. Other contributors—a
small number—are non-academic, but bring their own personal experience to
bear on the subject.

The field of documentary film studies is becoming an increasingly important

area of study. Since the 1980s, a growing number of publications have appeared

34
on the subject, and that subject has also begun to enjoy a greater presence within
the academy. Standing conferences such as Visible Evidence and others also
provide regular international forums for interested scholars to exchange ideas
and research findings. The Encyclopedia will aid this process of consolidation
and advancement, by making available a substantial corpus of critical writing
and data which colleagues can draw upon.

Finally, thanks must be given to the board of advisors of the

Encyclopedia……..I would like to thank them for their help and advice during
the course of this project.

Ian Aitken

“I was surprised to find that many people automatically assumed that any
documentary film would inevitably be objective. Perhaps the term is
unsatisfactory, but for me the distinction between the words document and
documentary is quite clear. Do we demand objectivity in the evidence presented
at a trial? No, the only demand is that each piece of evidence be as full a
subjective, truthful, honest presentation of the witness’s attitude as an oath on
the Bible can produce from him.” —Joris Ivens, from The Camera and I

“A post-modern ethnography is a cooperatively evolved text consisting of

fragments of discourse intended to evoke in the minds of both reader and writer
an emergent fantasy of a possible world of common-sense reality, and thus to
provoke an aesthetic integration that will have a therapeutic effect. It is, in a
word, poetry - not in its textual form, but in its return to the original context and
function of poetry, which, by means of its performative break with everyday
speech, evoked memories of the ethos of the community and thereby provoked
hearers to act ethically.” —Stephen Tyler, from “Post Modern Ethnography:
From Document of the Occult to Occult Document”

“The documentary is not a step to fiction film but a step to freedom.

Commercial fiction film is only real estate. When real auteurs, the Harvard
Business School graduates, produce films, their concern is neither art nor ideas,
but money. Maximize rents for a space called a seat. In documentaries, I
confront our history on my own terms. Brecht said that only boots can be made
to measure. He was right.” —Emile De Antonio

“Both realist and experimental documentary forms have been politicized by

feminist filmmakers who see their work as coming out of and having an
audience in the women’s movement. And in return, the exigencies, methods, and
forms of organization within that ongoing political movement have profoundly

35
affected the aesthetics of documentary film.” —Julia Lesage

“This false outburst of racist discourse gives us the opportunity to grasp both
ends of the ethnological process: a process of global liquidation; a process of
generalized exploitation. It must be repeated: ethnology is colonialism and the
absorption of the civilizing mission of the West, the mechanical adjustment of
cultures, the mechanical readjustment of the processes of industrialization; in
other terms, urbanization, education, brain washing, violence, and theft. There is
no scientific discourse in ethnology. This much we know. Well done
propaganda, ethnology is the day book of the white man on assignment in the
field; the white man, mandated by the historical sovereignty of European
thought and its singular vision of mankind.” —Stanilas Spero Adotevi

“…although the universal juridicism of modern society seems to fix limits on

the exercise of power, its universally widespread panopticism enables it to
operate, on the underside of the law, a machinery that is both immense and
minute, which supports, reinforces, multiplies the asymmetry of power and
undermines the limits that are traced around the law. The minute disciplines, the
panopticisms of everyday, may well be below the level of emergence of the
great apparatuses and the great political struggles.” —Michel Foucault

We Are the World Cinema:

Chacun son cinéma, ou,
Ce petit coup au coeur quand la lumière s’éteint et que le film commence

by Nicholas de Villiers

Nicholas de Villiers currently teaches film and literature at the University of

Minnesota in the Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature.
His 2004 dissertation, Opacities: Queer Strategies, explored the public personas
of Michel Foucault, Hervé Guibert, Roland Barthes and Andy Warhol. He has
published essays in Sexualities, Forum, Paragraph: A Journal of Modern
Critical Theory and Bright Lights Film Journal.

[T]he work in the mirror and the work in the seed have always
accompanied art without ever exhausting it […] By the same token, the
film within the film does not signal an end of history, and is no more self-
sufficient than the flashback or the dream: it is just a method of working
[…]
– Gilles Deleuze, Cinema 2: The Time-Image (1)

36
To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival in 2007,
Gilles Jacob commissioned a group of 33 well-known international directors to
each make a three-minute film capturing their feelings about “the motion-picture
theatre” (2). The interpretations of this assignment (3) vary in ways that are
interesting: some are about the cinema in general, but most reflect on the
conditions of viewing: in other words, the physical “salle de cinéma” itself.
Many include a film-within-a-film, mostly classic European arthouse films (by
Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Robert Bresson and the film’s dedicatee,
Federico Fellini), either on-screen, as accompanying sound, or as intertext.
Some are melancholic regarding the death of cinema (David Cronenberg’s At
the Suicide of the Last Jew in the World in the Last Cinema in the World), yet
others are cloyingly “heartwarming”, in the vein of Nuovo Cinema Paradiso
(Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988). The three-minute constraint (Théo Angelopoulos
literally titles his short Trois Minutes) seems to necessitate “invocation” of the
cinema’s power or allure, in other words each director’s “sense of cinema”.

The brevity of these vignettes sometimes means they run the risk of cliché
(including cliché auteurist trademarks (4)). Some of the directors seem to have
embraced this, choosing to tell a short “joke” complete with a punchline (“a man
walks into a movie theatre …”), such as Roman Polanski’s Cinéma érotique or
Manoel De Oliveira’s Recontre unique (Sole Meeting). But beyond the
stereotypes of cinéphilia – Nanni Moretti’s Diario di uno Spettatore (Diary of a
Spectator), Takeshi Kitano’s One Fine Day – something more akin to a genuine
cinema “fetish” emerges, whether in the truly Freudian formula of “I know
cinema is dead, but still … [I love it]”, or in the repeated motif of the motion-
picture theatre’s intimate connection with sexuality, its dark atmosphere
saturated with desire, arousal and contact. (5) Andrei Konchalovsky’s Dans le
noir (In the Dark), Wong Kar-wai’s I Travelled 9000 km to Give It to You and
Gus Van Sant’s First Kiss are the most explicit (risking soft-core porn cliché,
Van Sant’s frankly stupid film worst of all); Polanski’s Cinéma érotique and
Atom Egoyan’s Artaud Double Bill are more ironic; but perhaps the most
“erotic” pieces are Olivier Assayas’ Recrudescence (Upsurge) and Jean-Pierre
and Luc Dardenne’s stunning Dans l’obscurité (Darkness), both of which
combine sexuality with dexterous theft (in the manner of Jean Genet or
Bresson’s Pickpocket, 1959).

Many of the short films in Chacun son cinéma call to mind Roland Barthes’s
essay “Leaving the Movie Theater”, where Barthes describes being

fascinated twice over, by the image and its surroundings – as if I had two
bodies at the same time: a narcissistic body which gazes, lost, into the
engulfing mirror, and a perverse body, ready to fetishize not the image
but precisely what exceeds it: the texture of the sound, the hall, the

37
 darkness, the obscure mass of the other bodies, the rays of light, entering
the theater, leaving the hall […] (6)

Hou Hsiao-hsien’s
The Electric Princess House

It is apparent that many share a strong “cathexis” to the actual movie hall itself:
the red auditorium chairs, the dust-motes in the cone of light from the projector,
the architecture of old theatres. Rows of theatre chairs play a major role in Tsai
Ming-liang’s It’s a Dream (7), shot in a theatre in Kuala Lumpur, occupied by a
family sharing and eating durian fruit, and a woman who shares pears on a
skewer with the man sitting in the row behind her, in a wordless moment of
contact between strangers that is typical of Tsai’s body of work. Tsai’s
contribution is like a microcosm of his feature-length ode to the cinema, Bu san
(Goodbye, Dragon Inn, 2003). It’s a Dream and Tsai’s other short film,
Tianqiao bu jianle (The Skywalk is Gone, 2002), testify to his ability to use old
songs to perfectly capture a bittersweet feeling, and prove that brevity need not
equal glibness. Likewise, decrepit theatre chairs take on an almost monumental,
mournful cast at the conclusion of fellow Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien’s
The Electric Princess House, which starts as a period piece during the heyday of
the movie house, but ends with Bresson’s Mouchette (1967) playing in the
abandoned theatre like a ghostly apparition. Chen Kaige’s Zhanxiou Village is a
more lighthearted, perhaps too cute, period film about boys watching an old
Charlie Chaplin film, using their bicycles to run the projector’s motor. Fellow
“Fifth Generation” Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s En Regardent le film
(Movie Night) is similarly “touching” in its portrayal of youthful enthusiasm for
the magic of film, cleverly allegorized during a pause due to technical problems,
when the shadows of two men eating their supper are projected on the screen
like a puppet or magic-lantern show. Rey Chow has argued that this particular
ethnographic mode reveals how many discovered what it means to “be Chinese”
by watching film: “National self-consciousness is thus not only a matter of
watching ’China’ be represented on the screen; it is, more precisely, watching

38
oneself – as a film, as a spectacle, as something always already watched.” (8)
Raúl Ruiz provides a tongue-in-cheek surrealist take on the cliché of Western
anthropologists’ introductions of film technology to “tribal societies” in Le Don
(The Gift), but a quality of critical ethnography can be seen in many of the non-
Western European contributions to this “homage to Cannes”: Walter Salles’ A 8
944 km de Cannes (5,557 Miles from Cannes) most obviously, Raymond
Depardon’s Cinéma d’Eté (Open-Air Cinema), Elia Suleiman’s Irtebak and
Michael Cimino’s No Translation Needed more implicitly.

While each film is relatively “international”, cross-cultural relations are directly

addressed in Bille August’s The Last Dating Show, and the impact of politics
and war on moviegoing is foregrounded (rather heavy-handedly) in Amos
Gitai’s Le Dibbouk de Haifa (The Dybbuk of Haifa) and Wim Wenders’s War In
Peace, where young men watch Black Hawk Down (Ridley Scott, 2001) in a
ramshackle movie theatre in an otherwise finally peaceful town in the Congo.
While Wenders focuses on an almost exclusively male audience, by contrast
Abbas Kiarostami’s Where Is My Romeo? lingers over the teary-eyed
expressions of women watching the classic tragic romance (this feminine
“weepy” cliché is another common thread among several shorts, a rather
hackneyed illustration of film’s power to move an audience).

Jane Campion overtly treats gender inequity in her rather satirical contribution,
The Lady Bug, which is apt given her position as the only female director in a
collection which otherwise prides itself on its diversity (33 directors from 5
continents and 25 countries; but significantly translated “to each his own
cinema”). Some might ask why another prominent woman director, Claire
Denis, was not included, but the exact criteria for selection/contribution are
rather hard to reconstruct. The Guerilla Girls would surely have more to say on
this topic. (9)

The problem of class occasionally makes an appearance – as in Aki

Kaurismäki’s clever La Fonderie (The Foundry), in which factory workers
break from work to file into a theatre to watch the classic Lumière short of
workers leaving the factory – but the rest are generally rather petit-bourgeois
films.

Finally, there are those directors who interpreted the assignment to be about
Cannes itself: Youssef Chahine’s 47 Ans après (47 Years Later) and Lars von
Trier’s brutal attack on those who talk during screenings, Occupations. But
while talking before, during and after films is featured more favourably in some
of these shorts – Claude Lelouch’s Cinéma de boulevard (The Cinema Around
the Corner), Ken Loach’s Happy Ending – the other major preoccupation
revealed in many of the films is with blindness – especially in Ruiz’s The Gift,
Chen’s Zhanxiou Village and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Anna. Perhaps this

39
is an inevitable fascination for filmmakers and photographers (10), but it seems
particularly salient for this invocation of cinema as an atmosphere rather than as
image, which fetishizes “not the image but precisely what exceeds it” (as
Barthes put it). The best out of this mixed bag of films manage to evoke this
sense of cinéphilia as excessive love of the cinema. The alternate title – “that
thrill when the lights dim and the movie begins” – implies both light and
darkness, projected image and surroundings, visual pleasure and theatre-going
jouissance.

Endnotes
1. Gilles Deleuze, Cinema 2: The Time-Image, translated by Hugh
Tomlinson and Robert Galeta (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press, 1995 [1989]), p. 77.
2. An English-subtitled Region 2 DVD of Chacun son cinéma can be
purchased from http://www.fnac.com. The following is a list of
contributions, found at
http://www.filmbrain.com/filmbrain/2007/05/chacun_son_cinm.html:
Cinéma d’Eté (Open-Air Cinema, Raymond Depardon), One Fine Day
(Takeshi Kitano), Trois minutes (Three Minutes, Théo Angelopoulos),
Dans le noir (In the Dark, Andrei Konchalovsky), Diario di uno
Spettatore (Diary of a Spectator, Nanni Moretti), The Electric Princess
House (Hou Hsiao-hsien), Dans l’obscurité (Darkness, Jean-Pierre and
Luc Dardenne), Anna (Alejandro González Iñárritu), En Regardent le film
(Movie Night, Zhang Yimou), Le Dibbouk de Haifa (The Dybbuk of
Haifa, Amos Gitai), The Lady Bug (Jane Campion), Artaud Double Bill
(Atom Egoyan), La Fonderie (The Foundry, Aki Kaurismäki),
Recrudescence (Upsurge, Olivier Assayas), 47 Ans après (47 Years Later,
Youssef Chahine), It’s a Dream (Tsai Ming-Liang), Occupations (Lars
Von Trier), Le Don (The Gift, Raúl Ruiz), Cinéma de boulevard (The
Cinema Around the Corner, Claude Lelouch), First Kiss (Gus Van Sant),
Cinéma érotique (Roman Polanski), No Translation Needed (Michael
Cimino), At the Suicide of the Last Jew in the World in the Last Cinema in
the World (David Cronenberg), I Travelled 9000km to Give it to You
(Wong Kar-wai), Where is my Romeo? (Abbas Kiarostami), The Last
Dating Show (Bille August), Irtebak (Elia Suleiman), Recontre unique
(Sole Meeting, Manoel De Oliveira), A 8 944 km de Cannes (5,557 Miles
from Cannes, Walter Salles), War in Peace (Wim Wenders), Zhanxiou
Village (Chen Kaige), Happy Ending (Ken Loach). “Not on the DVD are
a second Walter Salles short, Joel and Ethan Coen’s World Cinema and
David Lynch’s Absurda, all delivered too late to be included.”

40
3. Gilles Jacob explains, “No director had knowledge of the other fragments,
or even synopses from his colleagues. They all accepted to discover them
at the same time as the festival-goers themselves, on May 20th, as well as
the general public, as it will be replayed the very same evening on
television [Canal +]” From:
http://www.festival-cannes.fr/index.php/en/article/49782.
4. Chacun son cinéma might be compared to “We Are the World” (1985) in
that both involve a collective effort that nonetheless showcases each
individual for their stereotypical “signature style”. Since the director’s
name usually comes at the end, it is possible to play a “guessing game”
with each film.
5. On this, see Samuel R. Delany, Times Square Red, Times Square Blue
(New York: New York University Press, 1999).
6. Roland Barthes, The Rustle of Language, translated by Richard Howard
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), p. 348.
7. Tsai makes use of the temporal logic unique to both dreams and
(surrealist) cinema, whereby it is possible to say, “I dreamt of my father as
a young man. He woke me in the middle of the night. We ate durians
together. My mother was there too. She was already an old lady.” I found
myself wishing that temporality and montage were experimented with
more by other directors.
8. Rey Chow, Primitive Passions: Visuality, Sexuality, Ethnography, and
Contemporary Chinese Cinema (New York: Columbia University Press,
1995), p. 9.
9. http://www.guerrillagirls.com/posters/unchained.shtml.
10.Some examples: Hervé Guibert’s novel, Des Aveugles (Paris: Gallimard,
1985), Harmony Korine’s Julien Donkey-boy (1999), Lars von Trier’s
Dancer in the Dark (2000), Derek Jarman’s Blue (1993).

41
 DOCUMENTARY FILM
All about Documentary Film Production
DOCUMENTARY FILM - TIPS for Documentary Film Production

THE FOUR BASIC DIVISIONS OF STYLE

1) EXPOSITORY DOCUMENTARY
Commenting on the Acting of the scene rather than being a part of it
-A lot of times Propaganda films (TV NEWS)
-Express point of view clearly and leave little room for misinterpretation

2) OBSERVATIONAL DOCUMENTARY
MIRROR TO THE WORLD - Way it's going on, is going on
-Keeping the camera rolling
-Story comes out of the life of the people, not from the actions of individuals
-Conveys the rhythms and texture of everyday life

3) REFLECTIVE DOCUMENTARY
A relationship between the filmmakers and its subjects
-Filmmaker is a part of the film. -Seen through the eyes of the filmmaker. They
are usually the main character in their own film

4) IMPRESSIONISTIC DOCUMENTARY
NO RULES-Poetic instead of argumentative-Generally categorized under
Experimental film

WE ALL LOOK AT OURSELVES AS UNIQUE - SO DO THE SUBJECTS

"The proper route to an understanding of the world is an examination of our

errors about it."
ERROL MORRIS director (The Thin Blue Line, Dr. Death)

A DOCUMENTARY DIRECTOR'S MAIN TASK IS LISTENING TO

PEOPLE

Once you get an idea worth spending some time on ASK QUESTIONS
1) Is it practical?
2) Would it be high or low budget?
3) Does it have broad or narrow audience appeal?
4) What approach could we take to the subject?

42
5) Can we sell the brilliant idea?
6) And if so, how?

CONCEPT - A comprehensive idea that will drive the film in a distinct direction
according to a clear plan

AMBIGUITIES - People who see they are being filmed want to know how to
act in front of the camera

IN DOCUMENTARY FILM
ARE WE THE FILMMAKER TELLING THE STORY
OR ARE THOSE OF OUR SUBJECT TELLING IT

In Documentary Film, just like any other film, you need to write a script before
you begin filming. You have to have a plan and an overall THEME in what you
are trying to say with this film.

DOCUMENTARY SCRIPT FUNCTIONS

1) The script is an organizing and structural tool. A reference and a guide that
helps everyone involved in the production

2) Communicates the idea of the film to everyone concerned. Helps everyone

understand what the film is about and where it is going

3) Essential to both the cameraman and the director. It conveys to the

cameraman a great deal about the mood, action and problems of the camera
work
Also helps the director define the approach and the progress of the film, its
inherent logic and continuity

4) Script helps crew answer a series of questions

-What is the appropriate budget for the film?
-How many locations are needed and how many days shooting?
-What lighting will be required?
-Will there be any special effects?
-Will archive material be needed?
-Are special cameras or lenses called for because of a particular scene?

5) Guides the Editor

As soon as you have an understanding of the subject, ASK YOURSELF:
Who are you going to show it to?

43
How will the project be cinematic?
How are you going to structure the film
What are you going to do?
What do you want to say?
How are you going to reach the audience?
What is the Target audience?
What is your own personal motivation to the subject?
Why is there a need for the film?
Why NOW?

THEN YOU'RE READY TO RESEARCH THE SUBJECT

As a researcher you must be an observer, analyst, student and note taker

1) PRINT RESEARCH
Learning to see and to distinguish the important fact from the obscuring detail
-Remember biased and self-serving points of view
-There lies, more lies and statistics in a lot of research

2) PHOTOGRAHS AND STOCK FOOTAGE

3) INTERVIEWS
-Talk to as many experts in the field as possible
-Get the best people -- the most knowledgeable, most open

4) LOCATION RESEARCH
-Getting the feel of the actual place
-Try to suck up the subject, getting as close as possible

RESEARCH IS LIKE AN ICEBERG -- SEVEN EIGHTHS OF IT IS BELOW

THE SURFACE AND CAN'T BE SEEN

Make quick choice and select boundaries

"It's sad that too many documentary filmmakers set out to make a documentary
and not a movie."
MICHAEL MOORE, director (Bowling for Columbine, Roger and Me)

DIRECTING THE DOCUMENTARY FILM

The job of the director is to find the pieces that will come together in the editing
to make a complete film

44
AS A DIRECTOR YOU HAVE TO BE TOTALLY SURE OF WHERE YOU
WANT TO GO AND HOW YOU ARE GOING TO GET THERE

Director has to have the ability to listen - Need to absorb and pay attention. In
trying to understand the progress of story, there is no other way but to LISTEN

YOU NEED THE INTELLIGENCE TO SHOOT THE RIGHT THING

-If you are uncertain, consult the crew and listen to their opinions

-When something happens that is completely out of your hands (and something
WILL happen) you need to make fast decisions in order TO SAVE THE FILM

THE DIRECTOR'S EYE

Please remember VISUALS

The sense of what is VISUALLY important

Let the cameraman know your thoughts and feelings

Have a good sense of freedom and composition

Seeing the best angle from which the story can be told

HUNTING FOR THE SYMBOLIC SHOT

DIRECTOR AND THE CAMERAMAN

Getting the Cameraman to understand and translate your vision to film as

accurately as possible. Then adding their own creative skills to the project

TALK OVER WITH THE CAMERAMAN ON WHAT YOU PLAN TO DO

WITH THE FILM

Most build the relationship of openness and trust -- a relationship where each
values and respects the other's creativity and judgement

REMEMBER: A shot doesn't stand by itself. It has to be edited into a sequence

DIRECTING THE INTERVIEW

You need to build confidence into the person being interviewed

-Make sure you get to know the person being interviewed
-You need to know your objectives and what you want to get out of the film

45
session

Make the subject feel that he or she matters

You are concerned and involved in what they have to say
That you care about their opinions

EMPATHY - The more the interviewer feels this, the better the interview

THREE BASIC SETUP POSSIBILITIES FOR THE INTERVIEW

1) The interviewee looks, or appears to look directly into the camera

ADDS A CERTAIN AUTHORITY, POLITICAL STANCE - I'M YOUR
FRIEND

2) The camera catches the interviewee obliquely, so that he or she seems to be

having a conversation with an unseen person off camera - left or right
MORE FORMAL AND FRIENDLY

3) The interviewee is seen on-camera with the interviewer so that we are quite
clear who is the second person involved in the conversation
WHEN THE HOST IS THE STAR OR WHEN YOU EXPECT A
CONFRONTATION

Ask yourself --- How far do you want the viewer to be drawn into the film?

People perform most naturally when they are doing some sort of ACTION

DON'T BE OVERLY SENTIMENTAL OR EMOTIONAL

EDITING THE DOCUMENTARY FILM

The best EDITING is done with a FRESH EYE

The Editor sees only what's on screen. Suggestion is to get someone else to edit
your film. They are not as close to the footage as you are

During filming, you should have ORGANIZED what you have shot for the
editor

When editing a documentary film, it's just like editing a Narrative film. You
have to make a STORY with the basic storytelling functions
The proper editing structure - CLIMAXES, PACE and RHYTHM

-Is there a smooth and effective opening?

46
-Is there a logical and emotionally effective development of ideas?
-Does the film have a growing sense of drama?
-Is it focussed?
-Are the climaxes falling in the right place?
-Is your ending effective?
-Is there a proper sense of conclusion?

CONTINUALLY ASK YOURSELF - Is the material really working where I

have placed it?

Pay attention to the RHYTHM within the sequence?

Are the shots at the right length?
Do they flow and bend well?

NARRATION IN A DOCUMENTARY
Pictorial narration rhythm and flow should be the fist consideration and the
words should be written to picture, rather than pictures adjusted to words

WRITING THE FINAL NARRATION

Can set up factual background of a film providing simple or complex
information that does now arise easily or naturally from the casual conversation
of the film participants

COMPLIMENT THE MOOD OF THE FILM

PROVIDE FOCUS AND EMPHASIS

LETTING THE READER KNOW THE 5 W'S

WHO, WHERE, WHEN, WHAT, WHY
You draw attention to certain situations and present evidence about them. The
Judgement must come from the viewer

The basic RULES OF NARRATION

1) Don't describe what can clearly be seen and understood by most people
2) And then AMPLIFY and explain what the picture doesn't show

CLEAR AND EXPRESSIVE

SIMPLE POWERFUL SENTENSES

DIRECTING ATTENTION - LETTING THE AUDIENCE SEE WHAT YOU

WANT THEM TO SEE

Remember that people remember the visuals - not the narration - don't be too

47
wordy

LET THE PICTURES TELL THE STORY

"I never, ever want to apologize for a film. If it's bad I'll say it's my fault. And
that's what I can say so far in all the films that I've done, that if you don't like it,
it's entirely my fault."
KENS BURNS director (The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz)

Tips for Making Your First Film Better

Whether you’re a student or hobbyist, there are some common mistakes made in
a filmmaker’s first film. Many students attempt to do too much with an
extremely low-budget, short film. Worse yet, students will often make their first
film too long.

The same concepts that apply to feature screenplay writing apply to first film
projects. The exception is with experimental film, where no rules apply except
the creativity of the creator. Most beginners are assigned to tell a story by their
instructor or are attempting a short story-telling film. Lets focus on the short
story-telling film project.

Short films use the same structure and story telling techniques as longer films.
The difference is that turning points and elements such as rising and falling
action are quicker. Turning points are when the direction of the story makes a
sudden turn. If one exercises the concepts of the popular instructor and writer,
Syd Field, then turning points for a five minute film would be at approximately
two minutes and four minutes. Most script analysts consider a feature length
film’s entire exposition to take up only about two to four inches of a script page
spread throughout the script (approximately 25 seconds). Therefore, for a five
minute film, there would only be about five seconds worth of exposition. This is
a critical factor in student films and is a common mistake. Student films are
often filled with exposition such as characters making long speeches about what
previously has happened to them. For that reason, students are wise to consider
making their first film with no dialogue. Then they might not encounter the
problems associated with exposition. Use of exposition is one of the more
difficult problems of making films.

Students should first strive to express their story in one short sentence. This is
also true for veteran screenplay writers preparing their pitch. Most often that
sentence takes hours or days to write. It is an important step, as executives won’t
listen to you after hearing that sentence if they don’t like it.

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Next, write a paragraph describing your story. One of the greatest problems is
that students often don’t have a clear protagonist or antagonist. These are the
same problems that experienced screenplay writers have. Writing is always a
continual challenge.

Let’s look at shooting. The single most common problem with cinematography
on student projects is camera movement. Of course exposure and composition
are critical, but badly motivated camera movement is common in student films.
Save complex camera moves for later when you’re much more experienced and
know when to use them properly. Any camera movement must be unobtrusive
and motivated by the action. I’m not suggesting that all shots should be static.
Instead, limit your movement and make sure it doesn’t call attention to itself
unless it is intentional. No single element (camera, music, acting) should stand
out on its own. Conveying your story in a seamless and unobtrusive manner so
the audience becomes one with the story is crucial to your filmmaking success.

This is just a brief look at common problems in student films. There are often
many other mistakes. Sound out of sync with the speaker and distorted sound
often destroy a student film. I’d really like to emphasis again the importance of
storytelling. If the student has a clear handle on his story, then the student takes
the rest of the process very seriously and does a good first film.

It’s also important to choose the most experienced crew possible. Don’t simply
work with friends. Find another student who has worked as cameraman on
several other student films so you have someone with experience. Filmmaking is
expensive. Be very selective when picking your crew and actors. Always try to
surround yourself with crewmembers who are more experienced than yourself.
Hopefully they will help save you on this first film project. If you are shooting
on film, then spend a lot of time with your lab manager getting advice and help.
Sometimes labs have special student rates.

The more time you spend in preparation prior to shooting, the more successful
your project will be. Producing is planning and preparation. Get your script
critiqued by your instructor or an experienced filmmaker. Put your cameraman
together with the film lab manager and discuss what film stock you would be
best using. Create storyboards so you and your cameraman have carefully
visualized the shooting in advance. Visit your locations with your cameraman
and other pertinent crewmembers in advance. Be aware of any power problems
that your gaffer might experience. Note whether or not there are any loud
ambient sounds at the locations such as it being in the landing pattern for LAX
Airport. If your using individuals homes or offices, make sure your
arrangements for using them are in writing and the agreement is very clear.
Also, make sure you have releases from all the talent or extras that appear on
camera. Take extra release forms with you on the shooting day just in case you

49
have to use someone unexpectedly as an extra or cast member. Create
breakdown sheets for each scene that includes all the requirements such a
personal, props, crew, cast and location needs. Complete a shooting schedule
and some alternative schedules in case of rainy days or sick crew or cast. If
possible, create a production board for your scheduling.

Most of all expect the unexpected and try to anticipate problems. Spending
several days with your actors rehearsing and blocking their movement is
invaluable. If you can bring some key crewmembers to rehearsal such as your
cameraman and editor, then it may be possible to discover some unforeseen
problems. It’s far better to discover them in a rehearsal hall than on location.

These same suggestions apply to feature length professional motion pictures and
not just to the beginner. For instance, on shooting days you might want to
contact your actors or crewmembers in the early morning to insure they are
awake and on the way to the location. Student filmmakers will likely have a
voluntary crew. You need to provide superb leadership when you have a free
crew. I’ve known students who decided to behave very autocratically to their
crew only to have them resign from their free job leaving the beginning
filmmaker in tears. Your job is to motivate the crewmembers in a friendly
manner and exercise much patience.

These are only a few suggestions for successful first short films. If your film is
successful and you enter it into student film competitions and win some awards,
then you are very fortunate. Most student films don’t qualify for any
competitions. Remember, short films are your first calling card for your
potential film career. Future employers at production companies often pay more
attention to these films than anything else on your resume. It is truly worth the
effort to do an excellent short film if you’re pursuing a career as a filmmaker.

--Mickey Grant

Selecting a Story

One of the most difficult decisions facing you as a filmmaker is choosing a

story you are capable of telling. This usually means choosing a story relevant
to your life experiences while having significance to an audience. Keep in
mind that successful stories aren't always for all audiences. A case in point is
films that compete at film festivals such as Sundance. For instance, the target
audience of a gay story will primarily be gay with cross over from art house
theater patrons.

Beginning writers often pick stories with too broad a scope. If it is a story about
the Vietnam War, they try to cover the entire war. Also, they might pick such a

50
story because they thing it will be a blockbuster. All too frequently, new writers
try to create duplicate stories of blockbusters. The production cycle from
completion of development to release often takes three or more years. During
this time, trends in audience preference will have changed.

New writers should focus on story ideas that have relevance to their lives. For
instance, if a writer has experience overcoming a substance abuse problem, then
they will have some powerful concepts regarding character motivation. If they
combine this story knowledge and their drive for writing the story along with
good story telling techniques, then they will create meaningful stories.

Stories, like music, are best when they come from the heart. Story telling is like
a good piece of music. It has to ring true to the minds of the audience. If the
audience perceives it as fake, it will fail. It is also important as a beginning
writer to realize that your audience isn't made of viewers in a theater. Instead, it
usually is professional readers at a production company or agency. Most of
these readers are organized in a union and look at over 100 scripts per day.

A simple beginning role is to write personal and meaningful stories and most of
all, flesh out your characters and storyline. Above all, keep it interesting and
motivated. Your characters must always have a reason for doing things.
Unmotivated action will cause a reader to stop reading your script immediately.
If your story and characters have a strong meaning to you, then likely you will
write with a great deal of care and compassion.

Getting to Know the Basics

I’ve been writing screenplays for many years. Recently I was asked to give a
brief explanation on writing a screenplay. Immediately, I thought of Syd Field’s
book, “Screenplay, The Foundations of Screenwriting.” Writing can get
complex especially if you’ve studied everything written about it, such as
“Dramatica” and John Truby's "Storyline."

For years I made sure that I had turning points at pages 29 and 90. At times a
cynical Hollywood producer would open my screenplay to those pages and find
the turning point and laugh at me. Fortunately, most people who are assigned to
read your screenplay don’t actually read it. This should be good news for
people who are reluctant to write. The main reason that they don’t read is that
they are given so much bad material. It’s much easier for them not to read your
screenplay yet write a brief coverage that indicates you have no idea what
you’re doing.

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So, here are basics of writing a screenplay:

 Make the first 10 pages dynamite. Period. This should be the best stuff
you’ve ever written in your life. Exposition should be delivered in these
first 10 pages as a really interesting aspect of your story. Remember,
exposition is your back-story. It’s the manner in which you subtly drop
hints on what’s happened before the story began. This should take up
about 1 or 2 inches of page space in your script. Believe me, it’s an art.
 Have a well defined protagonist and antagonist and make sure they have
an eventful and well-timed confrontation. These characters shouldn’t
simply be stereotypical archetypes, but should be very fully developed
and multi-dimensional.

 Drama means conflict. Create a map of the conflict in your story. When
you complete your scene outline, make sure that you include the
definition of each scene’s conflict. In order to have interesting scenes, it’s
important that conflict be organic and real.

 Write your ending first. This gives you a target of where you are going
with your story.

 This advice doesn’t hold for European screenwriters. European scripts

tend to have lots of loose ends at the story end.

These rules should get you started with a vague map of the territory. Remember
one primary rule:

When in doubt, write.

Story, Story, Story

One of the most obvious mistakes that beginning film makers make on their first
films is that they loose track of the supreme importance of the story. Everything
in the work of art is motivated by the story. The story drives the movie’s engine.
Every camera position and angle must be fully motivated by the story. In fact,
nothing should occur in the movie that isn’t motivated by the story. If a story has
problems, then nothing else can fix the movie… not even famous stars. Much of
what has come out of Hollywood over the past century could fill a football
stadium with endless cans of film where producers and directors tried to distract
the audience using stars, special effects, great music and other tools to try to
camouflage the fact that their film had a flawed story.

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Often beginning filmmakers put all their attention on getting “A” list stars
attached to their project and spend much time raising funds. Film making on
smaller budgets puts great demands on the above the line staff. It is for this
reason that so often story takes a back seat. Frequently I hear new filmmakers
describing their projects as “direct to video.” Most of the time, these new
directors and producers have no idea of the competitiveness of the market or for
that matter, what the market is. Recently I met a filmmaker who mentioned that
their low budget project was aimed at the “direct to video market.” I asked them
if they were going to attend the Independent Feature Film Market, but they were
totally unaware of the market or the organization IFP. I visited their project web
site and found no emphasis on their story. Instead, the emphasis was on the stars
attached and their rudimentary perception of the market. What is the prime thing
that film buyers find attractive at a market such as IFFM, Berlin or Cannes?

Story!

A good story is the talk of the market, especially if it is done on a shoestring

such as Robert Rodriquez’s “El Mariachi.” If rumor spreads from your market
screenings that you have a good story, you will have lots of deals offered to you.
Let’s take it a step further. Why “Story, Story, Story?” The story motivates
every thing in your film. The lighting should be motivated totally by it. Sound
design, art direction and every other aspect of the project hinges on the story. If
a scene doesn’t have coherent motivation, then there is no way a Director of
Photography can create a properly motivated shot. Often if people such as your
DP or Set Designer are having trouble with deciding a camera angle or color for
a wall for instance, usually there is a flaw with the motivation of the scene.

One of the best ways to overcome a story problem is during rehearsal or other
pre-production activities. As a director you look for any misunderstanding of the
story that your staff has. This is one of the last times you can correct story
problems. When a set designer asks you why a certain wall should be painted
gray, for example, make sure that there is a consensus of opinion regarding the
motivation for the color from the story. It shouldn’t simply be the opinion of an
autocratic director, but actually the “opinion” as motivated by the scene. Of
course everyone has their artistic opinion, but everyone needs to be in sync
regarding the motivation coming from the story.

If one walks away from a film and is overwhelmed how great the music track
was, then the film likely has a problem. How many films have you seen that all
you can remember is the music? Probably too many. If a single element such as
photography, music, sets or costumes stand out, then it was probably not
motivated by the story. If all the elements stand out as being great in a film, then

53
chances are, the story was great and all the department head and actors on the
film understood the story.

That brings us to another way films often fail. A great story has been handed to
a director who doesn’t understand it. If the principal auteur of the film hasn’t a
clue, then the film is being driven by a captain without a compass. I know of
many instances of this and have seen producers fire directors and replace them
often with an actor. In nearly all of the instances, it is still too late to save the
film as so much commitment was made in pre-production to the incorrect ideas
of the director who didn’t understand the story.

Mythic Structure in Almost Famous

During the 1990’s, screenwriters forced mythic structure into their creations.
There was a revival of Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces and
additional complimentary works such as Christopher Vogler’s wonderful book,
The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Storytellers and Screenwriters.
Writing guru John Truby workshops and programs aid screenwriters in mythic
structure. Melanie Anne Phillips created the amazing Dramatica Theory of
Story along with the Dramatica computer program. The result was a forced
mythic form fraught with endless rewrites. Hollywood’s quest for myth resulted
from the triumph of Star Wars and its mythic story structure.

Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous is the most successful and entertaining story
I’ve recently experienced. Crowe’s film achieved excellent mythic structure.
An entire college course could be created to focus just on analyzing Almost
Famous.

For this article, I’ll refer to both the screenplay published by Faber and Faber
and the DVD version of the movie. There are differences between the two and
sometimes I’ll comment on those. There is no draft number included on the
published screenplay. Cameron Crowe indicates that his script was 172 pages
which he shot and edited to 120 minutes for the theatrical release.

When I first saw the film I didn’t immediately recognize all elements of mythic
structure. This is one of the secrets of good writing. Most attempts at mythic
structure allow the structure to be so obvious that it overwhelms the viewing
experience. The audience is paying attention to the technique of writing rather
than the movie experience.

Joseph Campbell defines mythic structure as having the following structural

elements:

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  Ordinary World
 Call to Adventure
 Refusal of the Call
 Meeting the Mentor (Wise Old Man or Woman)
 Crossing the First Threshold
 Test, Allies, Enemies
 Approach to the Inmost Cave
 Supreme Ordeal
 Reward (Seizing the Sword)
 The Road Back
 Resurrection
 Return with the Elixir

When the film opens, we see the boy, William Miller, living in a very ordinary
world. We hear Alvin and the Chipmonks singing a Christmas song. How
much more ordinary could William’s world be? In some ways it’s more than
ordinary as his mother has put him two grades ahead and lied about his age to
him. The rules and stages of myth structure don’t need to be followed precisely.
In fact, allegiance to rules is what kills many screenplays.

William gets his “call to adventure” when his sister leaves home and whispers
“look under your bed, it’ll set you free.” Under his bed he finds a great stack of
‘60’s rock and roll albums. He opens Tommy by the Who and finds a note from
his sister. It reads “listen to Tommy with a candle burning and you will see your
entire future…” We then see him lighting a candle. We then see his future in
the next shot when he’s four years older and in a high school journalism class in
1973.

We first see his mentor, Lester Bangs, in a wild interview in a radio studio.
Lester is a rock and roll critic. After the radio interview, William gets the
opportunity to meet Lester. It turns out that William has already sent Lester
some articles he’s written on rock and roll. Lester gives advice throughout the
film, which sets up and defines the moral dilemma for William’s journey. He
tells him that he’ll be bought drinks by artists, meet girls and be offered drugs.
He then points out these people (the rock and roll stars) are not his friends. He
later tells him he needs to build his reputation by “being honest… and
unmerciful.” Lester, the Mentor, gives William his first assignment on his
journey to the “under world.”

William’s mother later drives him to his first assignment at a concert where he
will eventually confront the first “threshold guardian.” His mother cynically
observes the concertgoers arriving and comments, “an entire generation of
Cinderella’s and there’s no slipper coming.” The first time I viewed the film I
was so deeply involved in the characters that I didn’t notice these lines echoing

55
the mythic structure. His mother delivers him near the entrance to “the
underworld” which turns out to be the backstage entrance ramp. It is equipped
with an official “gate keeper” (a bouncer) who first rejects his desire to enter the
backstage world of rock and roll. Our fifteen-year-old William holds his copy
of Creem Magazine and tells Freddy the security man that he is there to cover
the Black Sabbath concert. Freddy checks his guest list and tells him he’s not on
the list and to go back up the ramp with the rest of the girls. One of the girls,
who call themselves “Band Aids”, turns out to become an ally on his eventual
quest. She calls herself Penny Lane. Eventually William uses cunning to get
past the gate keeper’s watch with the aid of a band called STILLWATER.

As the story continues, William gets an assignment from Rolling Stone

Magazine to write an article on STILLWATER. He calls his mentor and ally,
Lester to ask for advice. He says not to make friends with people who are trying
to use you “to further big business desire to glorify worthless rock stars like
Stillwater. And don’t let those swill merchants rewrite you.” Again, Lester has
defined William’s moral dilemma. The published script has a scene where
William’s journalism teacher enlist as his ally to try to convince his mom that he
should go on the road with the band. This scene was omitted from the final film.
Other allies include Penny Lane, Darryl (his sister’s boyfriend but omitted as an
ally in the movie), his mother, the other Band Aids, and finally, his sister. His
major test is to get the interview with Russell (the leader of Stillwater) and
complete his 3,000-word cover page article for Rolling Stone. Russell puts off
the interview time after time.

Much happens on the road while William pursues his goal. Penny attempts to
kill herself at one point. In effect, William saves her life. Eventually William
experiences a resurrection after he gives up and returns home. The final story he
presents to Rolling Stone is first enthusiastically accepted even though he never
got the real heart to heart interview with Russell. His story is instead a real
expose’ on behind-the-scenes road life. When Rolling Stone asks band
members, especially Russell, to confirm the story, Russell denies everything.

Penny Lane helps instigate the resurrection by causing Russell to interview with
William. Surprisingly, Russell travels to Williams home and is greeted by mom
who actually says there is still hope for him. We learn that Russell has
contacted Rolling Stone and vouched for the credibility of William’s article.
The film ends with William turning on his recorder and asking Russell the
questions he’d wanted to ask. William, Penny and Russell have all survived the
journey and are better for it.

Rules of Exposition

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Most beginning screenplay writers know that exposition should be minimal.
Many readers will measure a screenplay’s exposition, expecting no more than a
quarter page total. Unfortunately, exposition is often several pages.

Why should exposition be minimal? When a writer conveys back story (such as
history of the characters or previous incidents) he often loses his audience if the
exposition delivers long, drawn out explanations. The audience no longer
discovers the story through character actions. Instead the action is stopped
while the characters recite history -- talking to the audience and explaining the
story. When this happens, empathy with the characters disappears.

So, how does a writer deal with exposition? Most exposition is in the first ten
pages. Ten pages! That sounds formulaic but makes sense since the audience is
just discovering the characters and the plot line. It is also the time when most
readers will add the script to the reject pile. Professional readers first notice the
length of the screenplay, which is expected to be around 120 pages. They often
flip through the screenplay to determine the balance between dialogue and
action lines. Amateur writers usually have too much dialogue, hence a non-
visual story. An aspect of exposition exists at this stage -- it often takes a lot of
dialogue to ineffectively tell the back-story. Another unsuccessful method of
telling the back story is by flashbacks. Only a few films, such as Sophie’s
Choice, usefully employ back story. Flashbacks usually indicate story
problems. If you must, integrate sparse exposition in the dialogue with
motivated action so the reader’s interest is maintained. Most professional
readers will judge the writer at 10 pages. If the writer is somewhat confident,
then exposition is often the final determinant.

Many elementary writing books recommend exposition by having characters

argue about history that occurred prior to the film’s storyline. This provides an
emotional motivation to move the story forward. Most often, this appears as a
tool to disguise poor story telling. What is a great example of exposition? The
Godfather is an excellent example. The opening includes a scene where the
funeral undertaker, Bonasera, asks for justice from the Godfather regarding
some men who attacked his daughter. In this scene, we get a microcosmic view
of the Godfather and his world. No one announces that this is a mafia leader
and this is how the mafia functions. Bonasera simply tells his story and Don
Corleone responds how Bonasera hasn’t tried to be his friend but now comes for
help. Bonasera whispers into Don Corleone’s ear the kind of revenge he desires.
Obviously he wants the Don to kill the men who harmed his daughter. But he
insults the Don by asking how much he needs to pay. Finally, Bonasera bows
his head and asks the Don to “be my friend.” That was what the Don was
waiting to hear. Don Corleone tells him “some day, and that day may never
come, I would like to call upon you to do me a service in return.” With this

57
brief exposition, we get a clear idea of who Don Corleone is and how he
functions. The story (and history) unveils itself naturally. No excess details are
added, and only the bare history necessary to follow the story is included. Early
on we see FBI agents walking around the parked cars and writing down license
numbers at Don Corleone’s daughter’s wedding. This explains Corleone’s
relationship to the law without the audience being told.

Another great example of exposition is Tootsie. It opens with the main

character, which we later learn is Michael Dorsey, applying makeup. Then we
see him in various auditions. Each scene ends with the casting person indicating
that they are looking for someone a little younger or a little older or a little taller.
Then we see Michael leading an acting class. All of this is action revealing who
Michael is and what has happened to him. It prepares us for his decision of
auditioning for the role of Tootsie.

Why is flashback usually exposition? Most of the time it is simply a device to

explain what happened to the characters in the past without moving the plot
forward. Instead, the story comes to a halt. Professional readers are very savvy
to the use of flashbacks and that is often the immediate cause of a script being
rejected. Besides flashbacks, beware of simplistic techniques of adding
exposition such as having characters argue. As the characters argue and ask
each other questions, more and more explanation is added. Many script-writing
books have suggested this method as a way of camouflaging exposition but it is
often poorly used.

One of the best ways of learning how to effectively use exposition is to study
outstanding scripts. Carefully look for the little pieces of exposition that are
dropped into the script throughout the story. Appropriate use of exposition is
generally a sign of a well-developed storyline.

Camera Position 101

Beginning camera operators tend to use hand held shots and also zoom a lot.
Often their goal is to capture the look of MTV with it's edgy experimental
vision. These beginners have no idea how experienced and seasoned the camera
professionals are who capture the look for MTV. Some of that look is not even
done of location, but instead is manipulated in post production using effects
generators.

Good advice for new camera operators is that to lock the camera down on a
tripod. If you are following a moving subject, then use a tripod with a fluid head
mount. A friction head mount will cause jerky movements when panning the
action.

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There is a simple concept of directing camera which many call "dump truck
directing." This entails the camera continuously locked down on a tripod. It
also requires no panning of the camera or zooming of the lens. If a shot includes
broad movement and much action, then an appropriate wide shot is chosen. The
only other choices of shots are medium and close-up. High and low angle shots
are also allowable through adjustment of your tripod legs. It is best to avoid
extreme high or low angles. It is very important to keep your shots simple.

The wide angle shot described above is important in that is provides the
maximum coverage of your scene. Then reshoot the same entire scene as a
medium shot. Then shoot the scene again by shooting one (or more depending
on what's in the scene) various close-ups of the scene. It is also a a good idea to
grab a few close-ups of props that were used in the scene such as telephones or
other items used by actors.

The main reason for avoiding zooming is that you never can cut into a zoom in
progress. Generally, you can cut into a zoom only before it starts and then cut
out of it just as the zoom is completed.

It is also important to have a basic understanding of shot motivation. For the

beginner, this "dump truck directing" style is a good start. It allows you to
punch actor dialogue by cutting from a wide or medium shot to a close up of
them as they deliver their lines. It provides for complete coverage of your scene
and therefore the ability to have adequate choices during editing. One of the
best ways for a beginning camera operators to improve their shooting is to either
edit their scene or sit in the editing room and observe a professional editor
editing their work and commenting on problems they are having with the
coverage.

Battery Technology for Film & Video

If you’re a cameraperson shooting video or film on a daily basis, you're always

concerned with your batteries. Are they charged, about to go dead, or defective?
Most modern cameras have various indicators either thru the lens or elsewhere
that indicate the charge level. Batteries can be heavy. Often I wear a 12-volt
pack (with interchangeable charge ability of 120 and 220) around my waist that
looks like some kind of ammo pack. Sometimes, to reduce the maximum airline
weight of 70 pounds per container, I’ll first take out the battery belts and wear
them onboard which always gets stares.

Attempting to understand DC power supplies isn’t always easy today as there

are so many variations on similar products. There are a lot of things to take into
consideration such as the following:

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  Lead acid cells
 Nicad cells
 Lithium-ion batteries
 Discharge aspects
 Memory
 Voltage
 Capacity

Often camera personnel choose lead acid cell batteries since they handle bad
charging methods fairly flexibly. What I mean by bad charging habits is that the
battery has no memory and can be charged even when partially or nearly fully
charged. They also have a long shelf life. In terms of their use for video
cameras, they are fairly heavy when compared to other kinds of batteries. In
terms of video, they discharge quickly and your camera usually shuts down
quicker than other battery types. Also, if you store lead acid batteries fully
discharged, your equipment may suffer internal damage due to sulfidation.

NiCad cell batteries deliver much better performance. They deliver more
consistent voltage without the typical voltage discharge you find with lead acid
cell batteries. If you use lead acid batteries for your lights, you loose your color
temperature quickly because of the voltage drop. When using NiCad cells, color
temperature stays about the same during discharge. NiCad batteries are also
lighter weight.

Lithium-ion batteries represent the very best in batteries today and are costly.
They are extremely light and have a very long and extremely stable discharge
rate.

I live in California and energy conservation is on most Californians minds.

Battery life is can be averaged out to a cost-per-charge. NiCads beat lead acid
cell batteries in this judgment.

When you’re purchasing batteries you might want to look up the characteristics
of their discharge rate. Most major film and video battery companies have this
material online. In terms of cameras, this means that the camera will stop
working before the battery is fully discharged. In terms of lights, it means a
change in color temperature.

Choosing the voltage of your battery may also aid you if it is done with care.
For instance, if your camera uses 12 volts, you can choose a 13.2-volt battery
pack and also power your some lighting gear. At least when you use this
slightly higher volt battery, you may prevent early shutdowns of your camera.

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Many batteries have what is commonly referred to as “memory.” These types of
batteries require that you must have them about 99% discharged prior to
charging them. For years I used a 12-volt car lamp on location to make sure my
batteries were discharged before recharging them every night. This is a result of
the battery charger doesn’t react that the battery has a full charge and keeps
charging.

Batteries are a big subject and a very expensive part of production.

Understanding all aspects of how batteries work will truly aid your career in
filmmaking.

Natural Lighting 101

Lighting is an essential instruction for budding filmmakers. Let's start with the
most fundamental concepts in lighting.

Sunlight

The Sun is our primary source of light. Sunlight's characteristics change

depending on time of day, cloud cover, and season.

1.Morning. Sunlight in the morning is gentle. The Sun is at a low angle and
travels a distance through the atmosphere, resulting in pastel temperatures.
Morning light has little contrast compared to midday.

2.Midday. The Sun is at its harshest in the midday hours. The Sun is overhead,
traveling the shortest distance through the atmosphere, resulting in contrasty
shadows. Also, light from overhead causes "raccoon eyes" if you're not
careful.

3.Late Day. The Sun approaching dusk is similar to morning light, but isn't
usually as pastel as morning light. The Sun fades (sometimes quickly, so
keep your light meter handy), going through several stages of color
temperature.

4.After Dusk. There's a brief period after the Sun has set that there's still light.
The light temperature is very cool (blue tones), and contrast is minimal. The
light is very weak, and weakens very rapidly.

Cloud Cover

The presence of clouds act as reflectors and diffusers of light. A cloudy day is
less contrasty than the same location (at the same time) with no cloud cover.
Sometimes, patchy cloud cover can mean a difference in light meter readings

61
across your shot. If clouds are casting shadows on the ground, take the time to
meter both in and out of the cloud shadow.

Keeping Track of Tapes & Film

A common mistake with beginning filmmakers is not labeling film cans or tape
rolls properly. When I’m on location overseas, I don’t send my film to the lab,
so I end up with many rolls of film and videotapes. Once while working in
Bosnia, I had the van ceiling full of hidden videotapes in case the Bosnian Serbs
decided to confiscate tapes.

No matter the situation, it is critical that tapes and film cans be labeled properly.
Always have a complete camera report with each roll or have a matching
number on the roll’s box.

When you’re shooting film include special instructions for the lab on the roll.
Possibly you are force processing a roll--confusing instructions could have
disastrous results. Include the magazine number as a means of quality control.
If there are scratches or fogging caused by a faulty magazine, you can quickly
determine the faulty magazine and repair it.

During my brief work at a film lab, I was amazed at how unprofessional many
camera departments were at providing proper camera reports. Camera report
forms can be purchased from a camera rental house or picked up for free from
your laboratory in advance. The reports have information such as the date the
film was loaded into the magazine, company name, billing address, shipping
address, production number, director’s name, Director of Photography,
magazine number, roll number and kind of film. This is a good record to have if
you ever have to track down missing negatives. This information should also be
used for video shoots. It’s great to have notes on filters used and any pertinent
notes for later color correction in postproduction. I’ve even run into situations
where the colorist made a nighttime scene daytime. Most video camera
departments do very little other than number the tape roll since no processing is
required. When numbering videotapes, make sure you also number the case or
box that contains the tape. Also, on-location plastic-wrap the case with a Ziploc
bag. This helps keep rain, dirt, and sand out of the tape and film rolls. Once in
China I came back to my hotel room after diner to find the entire room flooded.
My tape rolls were saved by the zip lock bags and fortunately, I had placed my
active battery charger and batteries on top of an equipment case.

Properly storing, labeling and logging what’s on your tapes or film rolls is a tool
that will solve many problems for you in postproduction. If you handle this area
in a casual and messy manner, the wonderful story images you worked so hard
to capture might simply disappear.

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DV Cameras and Light Exposure

Videographers often measure their light by simply using the automatic setting
on their camera. This is a reflected light reading and isn’t the best method.
Taking an incident light reading gives a more accurate reading unless the shot is
a panorama or has a sunset in the background. In fact, I’d recommend the
automatic reflected light setting only be used in a fluid shooting situation where
the camera is moving a great deal and your lighting jn condition is frequently
changing in the shot.

If you are using a DV camera to shoot a low budget feature, then besides
utilizing incident light readings, also use a calibrated broadcast monitor to study
your lighting. It is critical that the monitor is set up correctly or you’ll be sadly
surprised later when you view your shot on a monitor in the post facility that has
been calibrated by a broadcast engineer. If you have an accurate monitor on
location that is at least 16 inches, you can study shadow detail and see lighting
problems. You’ll also be able to see problems with blotchy color in scenes.

Budget permitting, have an engineer supervise the setup of your broadcast

monitor. It is good to have an E.I.C. (Engineer in Charge) on such a shoot to do
field maintenance on equipment. If you have a wave form meter and
vectorscope, then the engineer can verify that you’re seeing the true picture and
also look for problems that might not appear in your monitor’s picture.

I’ve rarely seen American DP’s utilizing electronic cinematography utilizing

light meters. I’ve found it much more common in Europe.

Another reason for setting your iris to manual, is to control depth of field.
Depth of field is a dimension of distance where objects appear in focus in front
of and behind the focal plane. When shooting the various shots that make up a
scene, you’ll want a consistent depth of field so the scene is consistent. This is
possible only when using a manual exposure mode.

The next decision is whether to take an incident reading or a reflective reading.

That is an easy question to answer. If it is a panorama, then go with a reflective
reading. What counts is that you keep the depth of field consistent within the
various shots that make up the scene.

Good rules of thumb are to always take an incident reading and also keep your
exposure somewhere in the 5.6 to 8 f-stop range. If possible, have an accurate
broadcast monitor that allows you to study the image. This is a good starting
point on the road to proficient electronic cinematography.

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During my brief work at a film lab, I was amazed at how unprofessional many
camera departments were at providing proper camera reports. Camera report
forms can be purchased from a camera rental house or picked up for free from
your laboratory in advance. The reports have information such as the date the
film was loaded into the magazine, company name, billing address, shipping
address, production number, director’s name, Director of Photography,
magazine number, roll number and kind of film. This is a good record to have if
you ever have to track down missing negatives. This information should also be
used for video shoots. It’s great to have notes on filters used and any pertinent
notes for later color correction in postproduction. I’ve even run into situations
where the colorist made a nighttime scene daytime. Most video camera
departments do very little other than number the tape roll since no processing is
required. When numbering videotapes, make sure you also number the case or
box that contains the tape. Also, on-location plastic-wrap the case with a Ziploc
bag. This helps keep rain, dirt, and sand out of the tape and film rolls. Once in
China I came back to my hotel room after diner to find the entire room flooded.
My tape rolls were saved by the zip lock bags and fortunately, I had placed my
active battery charger and batteries on top of an equipment case.

Properly storing, labeling and logging what’s on your tapes or film rolls is a tool
that will solve many problems for you in postproduction. If you handle this area
in a casual and messy manner, the wonderful story images you worked so hard
to capture might simply disappear.

Light Meters

There are two methods of measuring exposure: incident light reading and
reflected light reading. The person who taught me about exposure was a Dutch
lighting director named Alex von Saher. He could talk for days about how to
take a reading.

Incident light readings are taken from the point of view of the talent where the
meter faces the camera. This is used for scenes that feature people on camera
with an area being lit of average brightness. The cameraperson stands where the
talent will stand and aims the light meter at the camera. To meter a specific
light, use a flat disk in place of the dome on the meter. It is wise to use two light
meters as a habit to double check readings. I use a Spectra Light meter and a
Minolta Digital meter. The Spectra requires that I insert a slide into it for the
ASA of the film. The reason for the dome on the meter is that it picks up all the
light hitting the meter. It is best described as a hemispherical plastic collector of
all the light hitting it. In effect, it’s three-dimensional and resembles the shape
of a human face. By adding a flat disk to the meter, you then get a directional

64
reading. This allows you to specifically point it at a key light for instance and
get a measurement for just the key. You can then point it toward your fill light
and get it’s reading. This allows you to determine if you want to reduce the
foot-candles on your key or fill lights by changing the light, its position, or the
need for a scrim. Once you’ve determined the intensity (foot candle level of a
scene) you can then determine the continuity of your key light levels. This
allows you to work at the same aperture setting for the entire scene and maintain
the same depth of field. When measuring for the key light, many
cinematographers prefer to shoot scenes at a particular f-stop, for instance, f/4.
Depending on the particular lens being used, f/4 will give a certain desired
“look” that the cinematographer is striving to achieve.

A reflected light reading is taken from the camera’s point of view. Cameras
with auto iris, such as most video and still cameras, have built-in reflected light
meters. With built-in reflected light meter, when you shoot a subject against a
sunset, the meter will give you an average reading making the subject appear
dark.. Tilt the meter downwards when taking an exterior reflected meter reading
to avoid including too much bright sky. This also applies when taking a
reflected reading with a built-in, through-the-lens light meter. Optimally, the
reflected reading should be taken off a gray card which has a reflectance of
eighteen percent.

When would you prefer to use a reflected reading instead of an incident reading?
It is mainly used on exteriors and large outdoor panoramas. This involves color
and contrast variations that are beyond your control. If you are shooting an
actor in such a situation, an incident reading won’t take into consideration the
brightness of the background exterior. A reflected reading is more suitable in
this example. If the actor is also being illuminated by lighting instruments, you
may want to do both type of readings and then interpret what the aperture should
be set. Another factor is what immediate background the actor is against. If it is
a white truck or sign, for instance, the reflected reading will cause the actor to be
overexposed. One method used by many cinematographers is to take a reflected
light reading of their hand (if the light is about the same and flesh tones are
similar) and then interpret the wide shot reflected reading and adjusting it
accordingly. The other choice is to use a spot meter and measure the actual
actors face and then interpret the balance between the wide reflected reading and
the actors face.

Fluorescent Lighting for Film and TV

Often as a member of the camera department you’ll be asked to shoot on a

location set which has a lot of fluorescent lighting all ready in place. This is
common on locations such as car dealerships, factories, airports, supermarkets
and hospitals. The big problem with having fluorescent lighting is that it has a

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green cast and that since it comes from a pulsating source it may also pulsate
when filmed.

Color correction can be done with an appropriate filter. It is still good to

measure the scenes average color temperature with a color meter when deciding
which filter to use. The filter you choose is dependent on the exact type of
fluorescent you’re using. Besides causing a greenish cast over the scene, the
picture may also be deficient in reds. If you had several Directors of
Photography view such a scene, you’ll probably get as many different filter
recommendations as are the number of photographers and many might be of
opposite points of view. It’s best to view various manufacturers
recommendations or the recommendations by your American Cinematographers
Manual and test them until you get the desired look. Besides camera filters, you
may want to add filters to your tungsten instruments and/or to the fluorescent
instruments. You might want to add a filter to your tungsten instruments to make
it compatible with your fluorescents. Besides your tungsten instruments, you
may want to filter any sunlight entering an interior so it matches your overall
fluorescent lit scene. Sometimes this may be very time consuming if you have
lots of windows. Many Director of Photography prefer to light close-ups in
these scenes with enough tungsten generated 3200 degree light so as to
overwhelm the florescent lighting which is dominant in the wide shot.

In documentaries and occasionally in dramatic features, the decision may be

made to completely light the scene in fluorescent light and simply use a camera
filter for basic overall correction. This is fast and efficient and most of the color
correction work is then left to the color timers at the lab. In this situation, it’s
best to use a camera mounted fluorescent instrument to light the faces for close-
ups. They may also be placed on light stands or at eye level. This way eye
shadows are also omitted. Be aware that you will also loose a lot of shadow
detail on the face when you do this. My experience when shooting 16mm, DV,
and HDTV is to use fluorescent soft light kits for the close-ups so as to help
eliminate contrast. This helps give the DV and HDTV cameras more of a film
look.

The other major problem created by fluorescent light is the flicker you often get
as a result of fluorescent being a pulsating source. If it’s frequency of its power
supply isn’t compatible with the camera speed, then the light will fluctuate on
the filmed image. Also, if it’s not compatible with the shutter angle of the
camera, the same thing will occur. The best combinations of frequency, film
speed and shutter opening are as follows for film cameras:

 50 kHz.—25fps with any shutter opening

 50 kHz —24fps with a shutter opening of 170—175 degree opening
 60 kHz--24fps with a shutter angle of 144 or 180 degrees.

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Don’t use fluorescent sources for creating slow motion effects by shooting at
48fps or higher. You will not be able to get rid of the pulsation of the light -- at
least that’s my unfortunate experience.

Fluorescent lighting is a common source of light on locations. In documentary,

you encounter it constantly. Student films frequently are plagued with poor
handling of fluorescent light. If you take into consideration its properties, you
can work with it and integrate it into the look of your scene. If you're working
on tape, you’ll immediately see it’s effect on your scene if you have a broadcast
and calibrated monitor on location. When shooting on tape, it’s always good to
make a camera report noting that fluorescent light was used to alert the editor of
the need to correct color.

Point of View Documentary Versus News Journalism

Michael Moore's documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" is regularly attacked by Bush

supporters, calling it unbalanced reporting. Is this a fair criticism of his film?

A documentary is a non-fiction film or video. The next time you visit your local
bookstore, look over the top-selling non-fiction books and you'll find a great
variety of opinions and perspectives. Best sellers are often "point of view" books
-- the author has a particular angle on a story that expresses a point of view. This
includes books and films that either support or are against the current war in
Iraq.

Some books are artistic expressions that deal with the real world via
photography or language. The same expression can be done with documentary.
Some of these films are categorized as experimental, but would also qualify as
documentaries.

One of my documentaries "The Cu Chi Tunnels" includes stories as told by Viet

Kong, our former enemies, as well as creative segments of sound, music, and
bomb explosions. I have worked both as a documentary filmmaker and also as a
journalist - two very different hats! I am far better as a documentary storyteller
since I struggle with the discipline of journalistic constraints.

Obviously "Fahrenheit 9/11" is a Point of View documentary, and not a news

documentary. Michael Moore's magic strikes a nerve in our society with his
point of view - valid as a documentary art form. Michael Moore, like me, would
probably have to struggle if working under the journalistic constraints of a show
like "60 Minutes."

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It might help to cite topic headings in Erik Barnouw's famous book
"Documentary: A History of the Non-Fiction Film." His topics categorize the
various forms of the documentary:

1. Explorer - such as in Robert Flaherty's "Nanook of the North."

2. Reporter
3. Painter - such as in Joris Iven's "Rain"
4. Advocate - such as in Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will" advocating
Nazi Germany
5. Bugler - such as in Frank Capra's "Why We Fight" films (World War II era)
6. Prosecutor - such as in Bossak and Kazimierezak's "Requiem for 500,000" a
documentary on genocide in Warsaw's Ghetto.
7. Poet - such as "Glass" by Bert Haanstra, an incredible film about an
automated assembly line in Holland.
8. Chronicler - such as the "March of Time" series featuring works of Roman
Karmen including his visit with Ho Chi Minh in 1954.
9. Promoter - such as in "Louisiana Story" by Frances Flaherty and sponsored by
Standard Oil.
10. Observer - such as in Frederick Wiseman's "Titicut Follies," which was
filmed in an institute for the criminally insane
11. Catalyst - such as in Jean Rouch's film "Jaguar," shot in Africa.
12. Guerilla - such as in "Why Vietman," which was produced by the
Department of Defense.

Documentary Interview Technique

Over the years, I’ve worked as a cameraman, editor, and producer and for the
past fifteen years as a director. As a cameraman and editor, I was privileged to
work with many of the best network correspondents, in both the U.S. and
England. I can’t imagine learning interview technique any other way. All too
often I meet directors who don’t have this experience and therefore stumble
through their interviews.

There are two criteria for directing interviews:

 Good research
 Good listening skills

There is a scene in the dramatic film, “The Passenger”, starring Jack Nicholson.
He is a journalist interviewing an African leader. The leader comments that
Jack's questions are more revealing about himself than anything else. This is
often the case with our everyday questions in life. They help define who we are.

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I’ve also worked for documentary directors who were so prepared in terms of
their research that they could dance circles around the expert being interviewed.
These directors were so busy demonstrating their knowledge that the real expert
wasn’t heard.

The opposite is also true. Some directors become so jaded over the years that
they discount the value of preparation. They attempt to be good listeners and
usually fail at that.

You can never do enough research but keep it under check. There is no need to
try to impress your interviewee. Most often, as a director, I tell the politician,
soldier or whoever I’m interviewing the general story we’re trying to capture.
At that point I let them start talking. If they are hesitant to talk, then I’ll ask
them a few introductory questions. I won’t reveal that I know the answers they
are giving me. I’ll then find something they are truly interested in talking about,
even if doesn’t have to do with the story I’m trying to tell. They enjoy the
conversation, which is revealed by body language and tone of voice. Usually
they will direct their conversation back to what I had originally conveyed. The
more genuine my listening skill, the more I capture the heart of the story. If I’m
not genuinely listening, their answers will be superficial.

Shooting in Black & White

Black and white film is a short cut to fantasyland. Kodak black and white film
stocks are excellent, although film makers have to option to shoot in color and
later convert to black and white. Still nothing beats shooting on a black and
white negative.

For filmmaking students, black and white is a wonderful and simple way to
signal a departure from reality. Kodak only manufactures black and white stock
to meet consumer demand and will (the last I checked) sell only five rolls to a
customer (400 ft. per roll). If you decide to shoot in black and white, be aware
that there are only a few film labs in the U.S. that will process and print b&w.
Presently, I know of only one lab in New York City that actually processes its
own black and white film. I found some great labs that specialize in black and
white processing in Eastern Europe (Poland in particular). Considering this fact,
it might take several days (or more) for you to see your dailies.

I have found it good practice to take your tail ends (film at the end of your rolls)
and shoot a 10-foot test. Then, cut this off the roll and process it on location with
a still photography processing kit. You might be lucky enough to find an old

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military or press portable processing kit at a garage sale. This test indicates the
following:

 If you are exposing correctly

 If you have any lens problems
 If there are any light leaks in the camera case
 If you have any gate scratches
 If there are any other camera problems

For testing on remote locations with no dailies, I generally use black and white
film on color shoots so I can determine if my camera is functioning properly.

Be aware that in the U.S. shooting in black and white is no longer cheaper than
shooting in color. However, in certain parts of Eastern Europe and Russia, black
and white is still cheaper. This is good to consider, and in some cases, your
dailies, processed in Eastern Europe and shipped to the U.S. might get to you
faster via UPS than if you ship them to a U.S. lab.

The 1940’s “film noir” and the look episodes of the Twilight Zone all project the
rich and clear images of black and white. Black and white continues to have a
future role in filmmaking. Films such as Spike Lee’s “She’s Gotta Have It” and
Jim Jarmusch’s “Down by Law” all demonstrate that black and white has many
uses.

--Mickey Grant

Camera Motivation

There may be an occasion when you walk away from a film amazed at the sheer
beauty of the cinematography. Minutes later, you realize this is your only
reaction to the film -- the other elements are uneventful.

So, what is wrong with this film? How can a film seem so beautiful yet be
otherwise meaningless? Often when photography fails to derive motivation from
the script, the story goal is never achieved. In fact, anything in a film that
derives its story sense from something other than the script will cause the story
to be lost. When the audience experiences a film, it is usually for the first time
and over a specific time frame. Most viewers haven’t read the script and only
know the film from what is presented on the screen.

Part of the problem is that everyone on the director’s team has read the script
many times and can simply project information into a scene that the audience
doesn’t see. It is easy to forget that the audience only knows what is presented
on the screen. To the audience, the film is an unknown experience.

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John Sayles says it best in his book, Thinking in Pictures: The Making of
Matewan.

If one of the elements (script, acting and picture) drags on the others, or
contradicts them or is distractingly awkward, it can take the viewer out of
the flow of the story.

Another excellent book that discusses camera motivation is The Art of the
Storyboard by John Hart.

Since the shot itself is the smallest element that makes up the scenario, it
dictates its own psychological, artistic, and intellectual demands. The
primary questions that one has to ask in reference to the content of the
shot are these:

 What are the demands of the script?

 Who is involved in the scene?
 In what locale do these characters exist?
 Why are they there?
 What mood will enhance the setup of this particular shot?
 What colors will augment the emotions involved in the conflict?
 Where will the camera be placed to best advantage?
 What lenses will be used of establishing the shot?

As John Sayles says, “an element that contradicts pulls the viewer out of the
story.” An element contradicts a story when it is contrary to the story.

Another aspect of shot motivation is related to bad storylines. Some stories are
so bad that they totally depend on “fancy” photography, special effects and
action to entice the audience. A good example of this “smoke and mirror”
approach exists in most episodes of “Walker Texas Ranger.”

The cameraman creates the world that the editor will later occupy for many
months. If the editing transpires without proper awareness of shot motivation,
then all is lost. If the editor doesn’t understand the motivation of the script
including any motivational echoes incorporated by the Director of Photography
during the shooting, then the audience could be drawn from the story. For
example, a wrong decision on when to cut to a reaction shot of a character can
announce that reaction too early, destroying the cadence of the story. Anything
that pulls the audience out of the reality of the film will destroy that fragile
world in which they are participating. Once this occurs it is almost impossible to
pull the audience back.

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Anything causing awareness of camera movement pulls the audience out of the
story. Directors of Photography create their own methods to suspend the
audience within the story. Jon Boorstin discusses this in his book, The
Hollywood Eye:

Keeping the audience in the picture is the cameraman’s constant concern,

even in the most ordinary scene. Consider two people talking while driving
in a car. Cameramen do not like to shoot this scene. It is almost impossible to
come up with something new, and most of the old solutions give cameramen
hives. In the first place, the cameraman is constrained. There is no room to
maneuver; unless the camera is put in the backseat and photographs the back
of the actors heads the cameraman has to build a camera mount outside the
car. Where? The cameraman and the director must make a basic choice: do
they want the audience to be inside the car with the actors or outside the car
looking in?

Boorstin continues on with many decisions required of the director and

cameraman. Lighting, limitations caused by camera mounting devices, lenses
and many other considerations are discussed in reference to the motivation of
scene. Nothing is arbitrary about cameral position, angle, movement or lighting.
Everything is tied to the motivation of the scene. Who is the protagonist and
what do they want is the major consideration of every scene. What is in their
way of obtaining they want is also or primary importance. Take all this into
consideration regarding story motivation and then ask the same questions
regarding the aspects of camera and what the audience is going to see.

If there is confusion about the story, then the most basic questions about where
to place the camera will prove difficult. During pre-production, if one
encounters some difficult questions about potential camera positions or
problems with the storyboard, then possibly it’s time to again focus on the
script. Possibly the script might be fine but the director and their team have
some confusion. This is the time, during pre-production, to solve these
problems. If you encounter these problems while on location, then you are in
trouble. If you’re a beginning filmmaker, remember, you get very few second
chances. Don’t fool yourself into believing you’ll solve this problem later.

Shooting Overseas

A project in a foreign country can be challenging and rewarding. Start by hiring

a liaison. Call a news bureau such as ABC, BBC or CNN in the nearest major
city. These bureaus often hire freelancers or outside production companies, and
will know who is the best. Your liaison, will become an invaluable resource,
and can be given the title location manager or similar credit.

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 If your budget permits, take a pre-production trip. Often countries, especially
communist countries such as China, Vietnam and Cuba, require various permits.
Many Third World governments require special permission to bring professional
equipment into their countries. Generally your liaison is familiar with custom
officers at the airport and can handle this for you. Nothing is worse than
arriving at 10 p.m. in Cairo along with 25 shipping containers of gear and your
liaison is not at the airport to help you through customs!

A pre-production trip includes lots of planning. Often your liaison will want to
take you to various official ministries for introductions or official permission. It
is recommended that you follow protocol since your experience in that country
is minimal.

 China. Shooting in China requires lots of brief chats and pleasantries,

such as having tea during the first three or four meetings. You will be
ready to discuss business immediately but that’s not how they do it! Also,
in China shoots are routed through China Co-production Corporation. It
is very bureaucratic; expect to hear thirty “no’s” before you hear a “yes.”
 Vietnam. Most permits are handled locally except for large projects,
which are handled by the Ministry of Culture Film Department in Hanoi.
This is a very small department of four amazing professionals who are
easy to work with and very polite.
 Mid East. Shooting in the Mid East requires lots of patience in obtaining
permission. When working in any country and especially the Mid East,
visit your Embassy and introduce yourself to the Press or Information
Attaché. They can provide useful information, and official and unofficial
advice. Establish contacts at your Embassy or Consulate in countries,
such as Yeman, that have kidnapping of foreigners. Also, Embassy
personal can steer in the right direction for the necessary permissions.
 War Zones. Working in war zones is a different story. In Bosnia, for
instance, you first had to register with the U.N. in Zagrab, Croatia, for
necessary permits and identification before registering with the Bosnian
government office.

Equipment

When entering war zones, take batteries that are 220 volts. If that country has
frequent brown outs, then opt for batteries rated 120 volts with voltage
converters. Often 180 volts can’t run a camera with a 220-volt power supply or
charge a 220-rated battery properly. Voltage regulators are essential for location
edit systems and computers. Some cities, such as Ho Chi Minh City, have both
120 volts and 220 volts. Check your power supply with a meter just to be sure.

Lighting

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Lighting is another problem. Hire a local lighting company that will know how
to deal with various permits and power drops from the electric company. On a
shoot in a small town in Taiwan, I waited with my crew for five hours for the
power company official to arrive and legally give us a drop with a meter
attached. Finally, one of my Taiwanese crew just climbed the pole and tied in to
the power. Later when the official arrived, a few dollars smoothed ruffled
feathers. Use a local lighting company and let them do what it takes to ensure
that appropriate authorities are happy. In major cities in China and Vietnam
lighting on location is difficult, since the wiring isn’t rated to handle even the
dim bulbs that light the buildings. Take the time to solve these problems before
production begins, and always expect the unexpected.

Film Transport

Regarding shooting motion picture film on smaller budget productions, it is

often a problem shipping film back to your lab in Europe or the U.S. Have
someone travel with the film as accompanied baggage. One problem is the use
of x-rays to inspect the cargo. In the U.S. x-ray machines are film safe. In
Third World countries machines are often turned up to the maximum ray
emission. Ask for your film containers to be hand inspected but there is the
chance that they might be inspected again later. Or, pack the film in an igloo
container that is larger than the requirements of baggage x-ray machines.
Igloo’s largest container fits those requirements in most instances yet fits the
airlines requirements for size. Security will require your presence while they
hand inspect the contents. Keep this in mind for audiotapes, dat tape and
videotape.

Immunizations

Expect the unexpected. Be sure that the crew is fully immunized before
production, and check the CDC for any outbreak reports.

One last thing to remember -- be more humble and respectful than usual. Never
raise your voice, especially in public, to your foreign counterpart. You could
jeopardize your permits to shoot in that country and you’ll be lucky to leave the
country with your equipment. In this instance, often the videotape or film is
confiscated. Instead, always show patience and calmness. If your shoot is a
success, you’ll have foreign crewmembers that will be your friends for life.

Book Review

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Book Review: Digital Filmmaking: The Changing Art and Craft of Making
Motion Pictures by Thomas A. Ohanian and Michael Phillips

This fabulous book is a must for anyone considering shooting a project on

digital video or HDTV. Timely issues are addressed, such as what happens
when you shoot video (approx. 30fps) and then transfer to film (24fps). One of
the chapters is titled, “24p: Twenty-Four Frames, Progressively Scanned.” 24p
and video was a major issue at the NAB Convention (National Association of
Broadcasters) last April.

The book describes the new digital frontier, and also takes time to review
traditional film making process. Also, rather than just deal with digital cameras
and nonlinear editing, Ohanian and Phillips also take a look at digital technology
uses in other areas of film such as storyboard and costume design. There is even
a section on the use of Storyboard Quick and an industry viewpoint with
Storyboard Quick’s co-developer, Paul Clatworthy writing about the future of
digital previsualization. These highlighted areas, called “Industry Viewpoints”
create compelling interest throughout each chapter where industry experts such
as editor Pietro Scalia (JFK-Academy Award for best editing) contribute much
insight.

Will film editing and other traditional film methods become obsolete is a
question the book addresses. The authors point out the many innovations that
editors have achieved, moving from film to digital video editing, such as the
method of “cheap telecine.” Here, the editor uses the conventional flatbed film
editor modified to include a CCD camera. Rather than spend thousands
transferring at a facility, the editor simply transfers with his flatbed and then
edits on an Avid or other nonlinear system. This is so much faster than film
editing.

Digital Consultant Van Ling points out that “like in many fields, it (digital
technology) can be easy to fall into the temptation of the technological
imperative it that if the technology is out there, you should be using it or you’ll
be behind the times.” He continues, stating that filmmakers need to focus on
“weaving a good yarn.” The authors stress that “adoption of a new methodology
or a new technology must take into account two issues: 1) does the new way
decrease the cost of getting the film into distribution, or 2) is there a different
benefit, such as increased creativity?” Any filmmaker who knows how to
harness the digital technology with taste and creativity so the story telling is
enhanced will be the successful storyteller.

The second edition looks at industry standard programs such as Movie Magic
Budgeting and unveils many unique features. Digital technology has influenced
today’s film making from script, budget, storyboarding, and costume design

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programs to the way the film or digital video is shot. The Director of
Photography often has his laptop near the camera with storyboards loaded.
Many camera operators now wear on their belt a BE Logger which is a wireless
time code reader. The logger detects camera starts and stops for automatic
logging of takes. The unit display indicates camera roll, scene, take, time code
start, time code out, duration of take and other factors. After a days shooting,
the unit is plugged into a master logging software program where all events and
attributes are easily manipulated. For instance, it can tell an Avid editor where
to cue to a particular scene. Many other digital aids to production are described
in the book.

What might be of most interest to film makers is the aspect of shooting on

digital video or HDTV and transferring the final product to 35mm motion
picture film for theatrical release. The authors cover this topic thoroughly by
looking at many different avenues to shoot and methods of film transfer,
including interviews with lab and sound professionals. The various aspects of
conversion and quality of the sound track is expertly covered. This is now a
very popular way for independents to produce features for about $100,000.
Most theaters don’t have digital projectors yet so this section of the book will be
very valuable to a producer who is contemplating digital to film as a method of
production.

Included in the book is a lengthy discussion of the Association of Independent

Commercial Editors (ACE) in June 1999. A full transcript of the event with
streaming audio is available at www.24p.com.

This book should be required reading for those in the industry and will be an
invaluable reference for upcoming productions.

Music for Film Almost Famous

I had an instructor in graduate school, Bobby Knight, who wrote the music for
TV series such as Lassie. One of the most important things I remember from his
course was that music, or any other film element, should never overshadow the
audience’s psychic emersion into the film. Anything that helped point out
technique or artistry would pull the audience out of this zen-like experience.

Almost Famous does a wonderful job of using music. When I first viewed the
film, I became lost in the story. The music of the fictitious band STILLWATER
was vibrant and alive. It felt like “new” music even though it was meant to
mimic the rock and roll bands of that era.

Nancy Wilson of Heart (Cameron Crowe’s wife) along with Cameron wrote the
music for the band STILLWATER. Peter Frampton wrote two songs as well.

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Nancy Wilson receives credit for the music score and Danny Bramson receives
credit as Music Supervisor. What makes the music in the film work is its
inherent relationship with the story. Let’s take the exterior scene of the sports
arena where Penny Lane and William are exiting the arena. Occasionally we
can hear his mother’s distant whistle in the background. The music under the
scene is unobtrusive and complimentary to both the dialogue and the mother’s
whistle. Penny is revealing to William that she is going to Morocco for a year.
The music echoes the mood lightly and doesn’t distract from the whistle of the
mom in the background.

I am amazed how well integrated the music is in the story. It’s present in so
much of the film. Occasionally there is a scene with dialogue only, such as the
scene where William’s mom calls his hotel room and Estrella answers the
phone. Estrella first thinks it is Maryann with the pot. When she finds out it’s
William’s mom she defends William and tells the mom she should be proud of
him. By not using music in this scene the focus is on the dialogue, which
centers on the moral issue of William’s life in this new world of rock and roll.
It’s important to know when to use music and when to use silence or dialogue
alone.

The overall sound mix utilizes much music. Often the music is mixed with
other backstage sounds. There is a flow between the musical padding behind
dialogue scenes and the actual stage music or music generated by radios within
scenes. Music is also indicates a change in scene such as the time William is
sharing secrets with Russell and then some guys in a car invite them to a party.
The film then does a hard cut to the party and the music cuts in hard and strong.
This helps the story flow and increases the forward momentum of the
storytelling.

One of the best scenes utilizing music is the tour bus scene the morning after
Russell’s bout with LSD at a party. The tour bus has picked up a humiliated and
still-stoned Russell while party goers watch the bus pull away. The song Tiny
Dancer is playing on the bus stereo. At one point a band member starts singing
along with the song and then others join in. Finally, Russell starts singing along
and the tension is relieved. This use of music creates a well motivated scene
dramatically and the key story element is the use of the song.

Shotgun Microphone Techniques

Most sound people prefer to use a shotgun microphone over a Lavaliere (link to
Lavaliere article) in most cases. A shotgun microphone (mounted on a boom) is
more realistic in terms of echoing how someone sounds in a room. The room
acoustics are heard in the sound that the boom mic picks up. A wireless

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microphone captures sound in a manner that isn’t as realistic. It often sounds
controlled and reflects its placement in a room rather than the dynamics of the
room. Also, when working in a studio for live TV, it’s easier to use a shotgun in
terms of having to have less EQ changes.

The difference between the sound of a wireless Lavaliere microphone and a

boom mounted shotgun microphone is most apparent when mic-ing several
people delivering dialogue. If a wireless microphone is placed on each of the
people, then the sound is very out front. Each of the people sound as if they
were recorded in a small booth by themselves. The boom mounted shotgun will
included the dynamics of the room. This brings us to the question, why would
we then ever want to use a wireless lav microphone? News and interview shows
featuring talking heads fair better with lavs. Also, often it is difficult to
choreograph the appropriate movement of a boom microphone.

You can have an outstanding shotgun microphone such as the Audio-Technica

4071 shotgun but if your boom person is not capable, then you’re in trouble. On
live TV shows, get a script to your boom person at the same time you deliver it
to your actors. The boom person has to coordinate their movements with the
movements of the actors and cameras. Not only is it important to keep the
shotgun pointed toward the person delivering dialogue, it’s important to keep it
out of camera view. If it’s a wide shot, then it is more challenging to keep the
boom out of the shot. The boom person must follow the script rapidly so they
can quickly aim the shotgun toward the next speaker. Their job requires
attention to detail and manual dexterity. It’s not easy to guess the aim of a
shotgun mic at the end of a 26’ boom.

The same logic that applies to studio TV shows applies to most film projects.
Some lighting rigs contain lights such as Varilites that have lots of fan noise.
When you encounter this situation try several shotguns and look for one with
great off-axis frequency response.

If you have several people talking on camera (drama or interview show) and
they are all wearing wireless mics, there is a chance that they will either step on
each other’s lines or talk at the same time. When this happens, the other talent’s
lav mics pick up the other dialogue as well. The sound mixer will attempt to
prevent this but it is difficult. This doesn’t happen when you’re using a shotgun
microphone on a boom.

A final reason for using a boom person is that some talent refuses to wear
lavaliere microphones. Perhaps it’s too much of a distraction.

On Location: Lavaliere Microphones

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One of the most common microphones used on location for dramatic features
and documentaries is the lavaliere microphone (also called a lav). On dramas, it
is often used in combination with a boom mic so the sound gains ambience.
When later mixed, the boom and lav mics create “real” sound.

Often lavs are attached to a wireless microphone. Clothing noise, popping

noise, wind, cable noise, and noise associated with the battery’s mounting all
need to be taken into consideration when using lavs.

In documentaries, you don’t usually need to hide the lav. It is common to see
lavs clipped onto the clothes of the on-camera speaker. I only use a lav as a last
resort in my documentary work as it tends to sound unreal, especially if there is
a lot of action in the background. Therefore, most often I’ll use a boom mic.
Also, if the on-camera person is turning their head various directions while
speaking, the quality of the sound changes even though the lav has an omni
directional pattern. I have always found that these changes become distracting
when I’m in the mixing room toward the end of the production. I always try to
think about what problems will my sound give me when I’m in the final mix.

Clip-on Lavs
There are several different types of clips and tie tacks. Place the mic as close to
the mouth as possible on the shirt collar or jacket lapel. Some sound persons are
adept at placing the lav cradled in the knot on the necktie. It’s tricky to avoid
the sounds of the tie’s material scraping against the lav or the cable.

Windscreens are very important for lavs. Besides helping to prevent wind noise,
they also help to prevent popping noise that talent makes when saying plosives
such as the sound “p.” If you’re indoors on a stage, you can do without a
windscreen.

Another noise generated by a lav is the sound of the cable. Loop the lav cable
through the teeth of the clip so it can’t move around. If it just hangs from the
lav, you’ll hear it.

Hiding Lavs
Use toupe tape on the back of the lav to adhere to the body of the talent. Take
safeguards to prevent the cable from dangling and creating noise. Add some
tape to the cable a short distance from the lav so it has some slack and doesn’t
dangle. I’ve also hidden lavs in creative places such as under beards and under
the brim of cowboy hats. Prior to shooting make sure there is no noise being
created by the mic. Also, work with the wardrobe department to avoid starched
shirts and other rough material that rubs against the lav. And always avoid
corduroy shirts!

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 If the lav is being connected to a wireless transmitter, tape the antenna to the
talent’s body in the same direction as the receiving antenna. Also, you can use
an elastic bandage wrapped around the actors waist to hold the wireless
transmitter.

It is important to use fresh batteries with your lav mic. On features I suggest a
new battery every day even if you don’t think you need it. I’ve also experienced
problems with the battery contacts in the unit. You should always clean them
with contact cleaner.

Want to learn more? Read the book Producing Great Sound for Digital Video
by Jay Rose.

 --Mickey Grant

Conforming Original Camera Negative to Video Edit

It’s much more economical and faster to shoot your project on 35mm (beyond
HDTV quality) and edit on tape using a non-linear edit system such as Avid.
Essentially here are the steps that are involved in this process:

1. Shoot on film
2. Edit on tape
3. Conform the original film to the tape edit

If you choose the “traditional” way of editing on film, you’re looking at the cost
of an expensive work print (copy of the original). You would then edit on a
flatbed edit machine such as a Moviola. Edits and changes on a flatbed system
take much longer than those on a non-linear system such as Avid. Also, you’ll
spend more time organizing outtakes and loose ends in large edit bends. In
contrast, this process takes seconds on Avid. Finally, you have to conform the
original 16mm or 35mm to the original camera negative using the edge numbers
that match on both the work print and original. Again, this is a manual and time-
consuming job.

Keykode Numbers for Autoedit

How does Eastman’s Keykode work? After you shoot on film, the negative to
edit is transferred to tape. Eastman Keykode numbers are machine readable bar-
code on all Eastman camera films. These numbers are burned in with the time
code when film is transferred to video. This enables the negative editor to match
the camera original precisely to the final video edit. This process provides a

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direct link back to the film for every frame. The Avid system allows tremendous
editing freedom, and with Keykode numbers, if the editor removes 2 frames
(1/12th a second), there’s no worry about where the heck they came from when
it’s time to go back to the camera negative. This could never be done with time
code numbers alone.

Keykode numbers get the lab, the editor, the colorist and the negative cutter
talking the same language. For the telecine operator, Keykode numbers not only
specify shot position on the film roll but also the film emulsion number and film
type. This helps the telecine operator to be alert to subtle differences during
color correction. You can use Keykode numbers with the same camera you shot
many years ago. Only the transfer facility needs a bar-code reader and software,
and these are economical. Every colorist should have a reader because Keykode
numbers don’t change.

It’s the best marriage between tape and film.

Conforming Original Camera Negative to Video Edit

In the old days (the ‘80’s and before) many of us independent filmmakers
dreamt of making a 16mm blowup to 35mm film. If we were blessed, we shot
Super 16 and hopefully also could afford a flatbed Super16 editing machine. We
spent years courting the 2 New York labs of the times, TVC and DuArts.
Blowups were expensive and averaged $30,000 or more for a feature. The rule
of thumb was to shoot a half stop or more overexposed (hot) to burn out the
huge grains. Blowups increased contrast so it was also best to shoot a 16 camera
negative with as little contrast as possible. The dark shadowy areas were nearly
indistinct in the picture and some labs developed ways to help increase shadow
detail. I learned making a 16 dupe negative (most often people would blowup to
35 at this stage) from my camera negative before making a 35 negative helped to
reduce the focus of the grain. This way I would get a better “film look”
projected image in the final 35mm release print. There were so many tricks to
learn on the road to Sundance and Cannes.

We now enter the HDTV era. Many in the industry today are asking, “Is film
dead?” The era of digital exhibition will arrive later this decade. What
advantages does HDTV or DV give the filmmaker over 35mm film? Many high-
end DV cameras have 700 (16:9 aspect ratio) or 900 lines (4:3 aspect ratio). Not
all DV cameras are this good a quality. HDTV cameras supply a signal that is
approximately 1080 lines of vertical video. That is not true with all HDTV
cameras. The other issue is with frames per second. Recently 24p cameras
(www.24p.com) have been released that shoot at 24fps, the same speed as film
projectors in theaters. The majority of features shot in the past few years used
cameras that are 30fps. The 30i cameras using 1035 vertical lines (most similar

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to 1:1:85 aspect ratio of today’s theater screens) and transferred to 35mm film
using 60 fields per second and the Sony M-Mode Transfer process gives the
viewer an image that has the “film blurred look” of a stock shot on 35mm film.
Most lab technicians agree that lower end DV (Sony 1000) masters transferred
to 35mm look similar to 16mm blowups.

Let’s take a closer look at NTSC video and its 60 fields per second. NTSC at 30
fps is a standard in the video industry, but what does 60 fields actually mean?
James Tocher, manager of the Vancouver, B.C.-based Digital Film Group
provides an explanation:

“The nature of interlaced video is actually 60 interwoven fields per second; 30

fps in the sense of individual frames do not actually exist in interlaced video.
This is partly a good thing however as it turns out for us in the way that our
process of getting 60 field / second video to 24 fps film. That is because we
utilize all 60 fields in a blended fashion to make 24 fps. Each field of video
represents a part of the captured motion which is critical to the perception of
smooth movement. As you know, in film, even though you have less frames, the
blurring that occurs when something is moving actually helps the perception of
smooth movement also. We mimic that blurring effect in our process to create a
progressive looking frame in the end that has the resolution of the all the fields
represented and yet still appears like a solid progressive frame.”

Sound is major when considering this kind of transfer to 35mm film. When you
go from 30fps audio to 24fps, there will be approximately 5% difference in
sound pitch. Often, sound for these projects is recorded on a DAT system. It is
critical when recording with a DAT to have a sync generator outputting video
black in HDTV. If you don’t do this, you’ll have problems later with sync. You
still can use your recorded sound on camera as a reference backup, but it won’t
be in sync with your DAT recorder unless you output a reference black from the
camera to the DAT. This can be done using a wireless transmitter or with a
cable. One reason for recording on a DAT is control and avoidance of this pitch
problem. You’re still going to have to correct the pitch of dialogue to match
theater specifications but all this will be done in post.

There are many philosophies on lighting DV or HDTV for a blowup to 35mm.

Many DP’s (or DOP’s) say to light the same way you’d light to do a 16mm
blowup, which means reducing contrast and increasing shadow detail. With this
method, common throughout history of film, you’d expose for the blacks to
capture as much shadow detail as possible. Recently, DV and HDTV DP’s
recommend exposing for the whites, as the blacks will take care of themselves.
The amount of detail which HDTV holds in the shadows is amazing--about 6
stops. This is opposite of our experience shooting analog video and film. New
rule of thumb: with digital video, underexpose!

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Is film dead? Not yet, but there is more happening blurring the distinction
between film and TV media.

Director Spotlight Michael Bay

Michael Bay is the youngest director to have a film reaching the billion-dollar
mark. That film was Armageddon, released in July 1998. Michael is currently
34 and has another major film, Pearl Harbor about to open (May 25, 2001).

Michael was born February 17, 1965 in Las Angeles, California. He attended
Wesleyan University and majored in English and film. While at Wesleyan, Bay
won the Frank Capra Award for Best Student Film. He did his graduate film
work at Pasadena Art Center College of Design.

Bay’s initial commercial work was in music videos. After directing the music
video of Donny Osmond’s comeback, he took a job at Propaganda Films where
he directed music videos for many artists such as Lionel Richie and Aerosmith.
He then moved into television advertising. His first commercial was an ad for
the American Red Cross that won a Clio. He did many 60-second commercials
as short stories. These were for clients such as Nike, Coca-Cola and Mercedes.
Bay was most known for his Got Milk series of commercials that also won him a
Clio. His commercial directing won him the Gold and Silver Lions at Cannes.

Bay always wanted to direct a feature and this desire finally materialized when
he met Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson. They offered him the chance to
direct Bad Boys (1995), which grossed over $160 million worldwide. The
following is his filmography as a director:

 Pearl Harbor (May 25, 2001)

 Armageddon (1998)
 The Rock (1995)
 Bad Boys (1995)
 Shadows and Light: From a Different View (1992)

His acting credits include the following:

 Cayote Ugly (2000) Photographer

 Franky Goes to Hollywood (1999) Himself
 Mystery Men (1999) Frat Boy
 Armageddon (1998) NASA Scientist
 Shadows and Light: From a Different View (1992) Himself
 Vengeance: The Story of Tony Cimo (1986) Sled Agent

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Director Spotlight Robert Rodriguez

San Antonio native, Robert Rodriquez, started his directorial career in his
backyard at age 12. He later attended the University of Texas Film Department.
He is now 32 and father of 3 boys and lives on a ranch near Austin, Texas. His
company is called Los Hooligans Productions which he founded along with his
wife, Elizabeth Avellan. He has completed the following films:

 Bedhead—completed in 1991 starring his 4 brothers and sisters and also

credited as animator
 El Mariachi— first feature film completed in 1992 which he received the
audience award at Sundance—also credited as additional editor, camera
operator and steadicam operator
 Roadracers (also know as Rebel Highway)—made for TV film completed
in 1994
 Desparado—completed in 1995 and also credited as steadicam operator
 Four Rooms—completed in 1995 as a segment of “The Misbehavers”
 From Dusk Till Dawn—1996 and also credited as camera operator and
steadicam operator
 The Faculty—1998 and also credited as camera operator
 Spy Kids—2001 and just released

Spy Kids recently opened to great success. It’s basically a Hispanic film shot in
a warehouse in Austin. Its art director did a wonderful job of making Austin,
Texas look like a city in South America. Reviews for this film have generally
been fantastic.

Other credits include writer of Spy Kids and From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The
Hangman’s Daughter (story credit).

Director Spotlight Gloria Rolando

Recently I had the pleasure of going to Havana and interviewing Gloria

Rolando, an Afro-Cuban female filmmaker. Gloria is the head of an
independent filmmaking group called Imagines del Caribe. She just completed a
low budget independent dramatic short feature film titled “Raices de Mi
Corazon” (Roots of My Heart). It deals with the 1912 massacre of over 6,000
members of Independents of Color. This organization was the first Black
political party in the Northern hemisphere outside of Haiti. The story’s main
character is named Mercedes, an Afro-Cuban living in Havana. Between
dreams and reality, Mercedes learns the history of two of her great grandparents
and their relationship with the Independents of Color. The film was done for
only $6,500 and complete with only 15 days of shooting. Ms. Rolando told me

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that she financed the film independently with little contributions from many
people.

I asked Ms. Rolando how she entered the film business. She indicated that her
initial study was in art history. Initially she was interested in dramatic film and
worked as an Assistant Director but was repulsed by the violence in the films.
She then turned to the documentary film as she liked to see how research was
integrated into a film’s story. One of her first jobs was for the famous Cuban
director, Santiago Alvarez, whom I had the chance of spending two weeks with
in 1993 in Amsterdam. Ms. Rolando was given a position in Mr. Alvarez’s
editing room. She told me that Mr. Alvarez mentally composed his films by
physically hanging the shots in order in large film bins. He liked the physical
feel of film and likely if he were alive today not be interested in off lining on
video. The first film she worked with Mr. Alvarez was titled “La Soledad de
Los Dioses.” “It was a film about foreign debt in Latin America and the
Caribbean—there was a conference that dealt with this subject that Mr. Alvarez
shot that took place in Cuba near the end of the 1980’s.” Mr. Alvarez
humanized this very abstract subject by using Proverbs and other biblical
references. Her job was to help Mr. Alvarez find various Latin American
paintings and Mexican murals that he would then film and integrate into the
story. “Santiago’s theme was that if we (society) didn’t solve these problems of
massive foreign debt, then at some point God would be alone as humanity would
cease.”

 Gloria Rolando’s career has continued now for over 20 years. Some of
her other films are as follows:
 Oggun:AnInternal Presence— on Orisha Oggun, the god of war, metals
and civilization, as experienced in the life of Cuban Yoruba singer,
Lazaro Ros.
 My Footsteps in Baragua— on the history of West Indian people living in
Cuba from Jamaica, Barbados and many other Caribbean countries.
 Eyes of the Rainbow—a film on Assata Shakur, the Black Panther and
Black Liberation Army leader who took refuge in Cuba.
 El Alacran (The Scorpion)— deals with the carnival in Havana.

For the past month and continuing through early May, Gloria Rolando will have
her new film, “Roots of My Heart”, on tour in the U.S. The following is a
tentative schedule for April and May, 2001:

 4/15-4/16 Indiana University, Center for Latin American and Caribbean

Studies
 4/17-4/19 Auburn Avenue Research Library on African-American
Culture and History, Atlanta, GA

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  4/22-4/24 Caribbean Film Festival, Winona State University, Winona,
MN
 4/25-4/26 Nebraska Wesleyan University, Lincoln, Nebraska
 5/1-5/6 San Francisco-Bay Area contact: dblock@sfghpeds.ucsf.edu

Cuba has a wonderful film festival every year. Many of Ms. Rolando’s films
have been screened there.

Film in Ireland

For the last 20 years Europe has had little success in regaining its share of
theatrical screens on its home turf. The dominance of Hollywood in Europe has
made it difficult for European films to find even a few screens to project its
films. Ireland, with a growing film industry, is one of the few successes. Ireland
had the highest cinema attendance rate in Europe in 1996 and also achieved the
largest rate of video rental in Europe that year. Also, it’s actors and directors are
even gaining an even stronger foothold in Hollywood. Irish films were very
successful at film festivals in the mid to late 1990’s and were surprisingly
successful in many European countries and the U.S. For instance, Neil Jordan’s
Michael Collins was the most successful film in 1996 in Ireland and also gained
international success. It dealt with the Irish civil war and played very well on
many American screens.

What were some of the reasons for the revival of Irish film in the 1990’s? Well,
one of the major components of its success would have to include the activities
of the European Media Program, which is funded by the European Commission
in Brussels. The European Media Program is designed as a fist against the
dominance of Hollywood films in Europe. This program includes various
programs under its central umbrella such as the EAVE Program, which I also
participated. EAVE is part of the European Media Program and is somewhat
similar to Sundance. European producers submit a project to the program and if
chosen then participate in a year-long series of meetings where top professionals
from around the world are brought in to help mentor the producer (and his staff,
writers, etc.) to fully develop the project. There are several other programs
similar to this in the European Media Program and all of them are designed to
help give European films a fighting chance against American films. The
European Media Program is key to Ireland’s cinema success. In 1997 the
European Media Program gave the Irish Film Board about 48% of it’s funding.
It should also be added that production is very small in Northern Ireland, which
has mostly support from Ch. 4 London.

Exactly how did Ireland come into such prominence in cinema in the 1990’s?
What films, directors, and actors propelled it into this dominance? Probably the

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greatest influence on these films was the intense Anglo-Irish political war ,
especially in relationship to Northern Ireland. Most of the films that got
international attention dealt with this conflict. What made Neil Jordan’s film
Michael Collins so amazing is that it actually was an epic. It didn’t deal with
this conflict on a contemporary scale but dealt with it historically during the
period from 1916 to 1923. Part of what made this film was a contribution by
Warner Brothers of $25 million dollars. The film was extremely successful in
Ireland but bombed with English critics and didn’t do well in terms of Oscars.
One of the most important aspects of this epic was that it depicted young Ireland
torn between two versions of it’s postcolonial future. The film contains graphic
violence but so impressed Irish censors with it’s historical importance that they
gave it a “PG” rating and hoped it would attract younger viewers.

Terry George and Jim Sheridan collaborated on three important films in the
90’s constituting the following titles:

 In the Name of the Father (1993)

 Some Mother’s Son (1996)
 The Boxer (1998)

These three films played a powerful role in Ireland’s self examination of it’s
politics and how it projected itself to the world through cinema. In the Name of
the Father inflamed the British government, judicial system, and press. It
caused even more anger by the Irish community living in Britain. It exposed the
credibility of the British justice system at an international level. All this was
done with a fairly simple story line that dealt with the life of Gerry Conlon who
was wrongly convicted of a 1974 IRA bombing. It is a compelling story of
wrongly convicted people overcoming criminal wrongdoing within the British
justice system. It is also a story of some of these people overcoming racism. It
was attacked in the British and American press and labeled “pro-IRA” by many
critics. In no way was the screenplay pro-IRA as the principal characters were
distanced from the IRA prisoner that was also being held in their prison. Some
Mother’s Son is a somewhat similar story in that it takes place in prison. What
makes it interesting is that it’s told from the viewpoint of the mothers of a group
of prisoners who are on a hunger strike, which will lead to their deaths. It shows
the complexity of people’s viewpoints in Ireland as these mothers are from very
different backgrounds and their various friends have ambivalent opinions.
Because of this, many republicans didn’t like the film and it was obviously hated
by the British. The Boxer was not near as successful as the other two films. It
stars Daniel Day-Lewis and is the story of an IRA man just released from prison
that establishes a gym and tries to rebuild his career. As it turns out he is not
just boxing people in the ring but is also boxing shadows of his former political
life.

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 What has made Irish film so successful in the past years is the public’s
enjoyment of watching others examine the core of their beliefs in such a public
medium. This is important stuff and is often the crux of many other war films
and documentaries such as news documentaries about the violence in Bosnia.
Much can be gained by screening one of these Irish movies. They are about life
being lived very intensely.

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Some guidelines for analysis of film sequences

Jeffrey Geiger

When observing the vast array of visual and aural elements that make up the
moving image, it might seem a daunting task to begin sorting out useful material
from extraneous matter. Since it is nearly impossible to engage with every shot in
a two-hour film, most instructors will suggest breaking the film down into key
scenes or sequences, in order to facilitate a closer analysis of the film’s key
components.

One simple approach to being more attentive to significant elements of the film
image recalls the major categories of the Academy Awards, which are given out
to producers ("best picture"), writers, directors, actors, cinematographers,
makeup artists, art directors, costume designers, editors, score composers,
and others. Of course, many would argue that the Oscars rarely go to the best
films; that issue aside, if we can keep these categories in mind, we’ve gone some
distance towards highlighting important details embedded in the moving image.

Context

The category of producing brings up the idea of context—the fact that films are
always the products of specific social and historical conditions. They are also, by
and large, commercial ventures bound by commercial imperatives. It is worth
trying to familiarize yourself with the general socio-historical backdrop to a film
through additional reading and through clues contained in the images themselves.
Why might a specific place and moment in history have given rise to a particular
film? Consider the conditions of production (is it a Hollywood blockbuster, a
small-scale experimental film, European art cinema, or something else?) and the
kind of critical and popular reception it might have had. Who would have been
the film’s target audience? Who or what does it "speak" to? Would this film have
resembled others made around the same time, or would it have stood out? Try
also to position yourself socially and historically in relation to the film. Have
certain cultural differences or historical changes had an impact on whether you
enjoy and understand the film?

Script

It is often difficult to remember, when watching a completed visual text, that

almost all films begin on the page before being transferred to the screen. The
writing or screenplay category helps us to recall that behind every great film is
usually a great script. Try to imagine how the film would appear on the page,

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paying attention to aspects of the dialogue and plot. Is the dialogue simple and
direct or highly complex and allusive? Keep in mind that the script not only
designates the actors’ spoken lines and stage directions, but attempts to conjure
up larger visual and tonal components of the film, such as settings, camera
movements, and the overall mood that the film should create.

Furthermore, thinking about the script also involves thinking about the overall
structure of the plot, and, ultimately, this brings up the whole question of
narrative. Since the vast majority of films we watch are narrative films, you will
need to examine the role of narrative in constructing meaning. Even experimental
films such as Un Chien Andalou, that aims to challenge narrative conventions, or
documentary films like Nanook of the North, tend to tell stories on some level.

On the level of narrative, it is worth asking: what are the basic conflicts and
oppositions that structure the plot, and what are its recurring themes and ideas? Is
the plot purely linear, or are there flashbacks and other manipulations of
chronology? Are we being told more than one story at the same time (cross-
cutting or parallel editing), and if so, what is the relationship between the stories?
Think about the manner in which the story is conveyed: do we follow the plot
solely through a straightforward dramatization of events or are we guided by
intertitles, superimposed words on the screen, or voice-overs? Does the film ever
break with convention through the use of narrative elision, repetition, or other
interruptions of the continuity? Does the plot "self-reflexively" draw attention to
the fact that we are watching a film by using devices such as film within a film;
does it frequently refer to filmmaking, cinema-going, or film culture more
generally? Thinking about narrative also leads us to consider the issue of genre,
or the common features that lead to one kind of narrative being grouped in with
others. Is this a western, a musical, a melodrama, a screwball comedy? How does
the film signify genre through its use of themes, images, and technique?

Directors

A great deal, if not most, of the information needed to do productive film analysis
can by achieved by exploring the connotations of complex signifiers contained in
the image itself. Thinking about directing can be helpful here, since in most cases
the director determines the how the screenplay will be interpreted for the screen.
Directors oversee most of the categories discussed below, and can determine the
overall pace, style, and technical quality of a film. They not only call the shots,
but also are instrumental in determining the overall mise-en-scène of the film
(that is, what is "put in the scene" or, literally, "put upon the stage": the spaces
and movements conjured up by the image, including the placement and
movement of actors, camera movements, locations, set decoration, costumes, and
make-up). The director also supervises the editing and postproduction stages of
the film.

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It is worth noting, therefore, whether the film was made by a "name" director
who, through critical consensus, has attained the status of an auteur, or by a
relatively unknown person. In this case of an auteur, are there any aspects of the
film that recall the director’s other work? What kind of impact might these
associations have upon the film you are watching?

On a thematic level, for example, Howard Hawks has been identified as

frequently including strong female characters in his films during a historical
period in the US marked by prominent representations of male dominance. The
presence of these female characters might suggest the need to consider more
complex readings of representations of masculinity and femininity in all of his
films. On a technical or stylistic level, John Ford is frequently frames characters
and situations through windows and doors, creating a painterly "frame within a
frame" effect. This recurring technique suggests the need to further consider
associations conjured up by thresholds, which tend to connote potential
movement, transition, and change. These frames also suggest significant
juxtapositions between interiors and exteriors: between the realm of safety and
domestic order and the realm of danger and the unknown. That said, a director-
centered approach is far from foolproof, and often runs the risk of ascribing
intentionality to the image: that is, second-guessing the intentions of the
filmmakers, based on scant evidence. Ultimately, the meanings we gather from
reading moving images are our own—but it always important to back up these
claims with evidence from the film.

Actors

Clearly, good film analysis requires looking carefully at the image and making
note of actions, objects, and spatial relations taking place within the frame, even
when they appear wholly unremarkable. Acting, for example, can be natural, but
it can also be intentionally played up (melodramatic or "over the top"), played
down (muted or deadpan), or entirely non-professional. In Hollywood films,
particularly, the presence of a star such as John Wayne or Katherine Hepburn
can also have an impact on the status and meanings associated with particular
characters. An entire film might be a star vehicle for Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts,
Marlon Brando, or an actor-director like Clint Eastwood, in which case we need
to think not just about the significance of particular characters to the plot, but also
about how "extra-filmic" aspects of the film’s star persona interact with the "pro-
filmic" of the narrative itself—that is, how a star can influence the both the
production and popular reception of a film, thereby influencing the meanings
produced by what ends up on the screen.

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Motion picture photography

Cinematography is a general term for the techniques of motion picture

photography. This category defines the "look" of the film and encompasses a
diverse range of aesthetic choices, such as framing, camera movement, film
speed (slow or fast motion), film stock (black and white or color; fine grained or
coarse grained), exposures, camera angles, lenses (deep focus, wide angle,
zoom), shot selection (wide, medium, two-shot, close up), lighting (natural or
artificial, high key or low key), and other technical areas. A film’s
cinematography contains innumerable revealing details, but it is usually designed
(at least in the classical Hollywood tradition) to be unobtrusive: facilitating,
rather than upstaging, the telling of the story. Some films, like Citizen Kane—
known for cinematographer Gregg Toland’s deep focus and long takes—have
intentionally pushed the limits of this presupposition, developing creative and
innovative takes on cinematic realism while constructing a highly artificial mise-
en-scène. In a famous scene following the screening of a newsreel about Kane’s
life near the beginning of the film, reporters and editors of "News on the
March"—a parody of "The March of Time" newsreels—are dramatically backlit
by a projector booth and an empty movie screen as they discuss Kane’s
mysterious life. In some shots, their silhouetted, gesticulating arms and hands
appear to throw beams of light across the room. While on one level this might be
read as primarily a virtuoso photographer’s display, serving no function beyond
the visual, but on another level the dramatic lighting setup impels us to speculate
about the images’ possible significance. Are these reporters heroic figures on a
quest for truth? Or, confident as they appear, are they floundering amidst the
projector’s bright light and an empty screen, their figures articulating only empty
space as they embark on a futile attempt to discover "Rosebud"?

Editing

If cinematography defines the "look" of the image, editing determines the rhythm
and pace of the film. Editing encompasses not just the process of stringing shots
together to make up particular sequences, but involves the assemblage and
sequencing of whole scenes or sections of the film, thus determining how the
narrative unfolds (for example, the story of Memento unfolds backward—this is
mainly a narrative device, but on another level it required a skilful editing job to
allow for the transitions between scenes to make sense). One tends to think of
editing as primarily pertaining to the visible "cut" between shots, but it extends to
other areas too, such as sound. The dominant system of editing, handed down
from the Hollywood tradition, is known as continuity editing, which strives to
render the cuts invisible in order to produce a seamless visual and narrative
experience. Continuity editing involves such techniques as cuts on action
(creating the illusion of continuous motion from one shot to the next), shot-

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reverse-shot structuring that obeys the "180 degree rule" (positing an artificial
line which the camera cannot cross, thereby creating the illusion of a unified
space across shots), eye-line match (in which the look of a character is matched
spatially to what he or she is looking at), and sound bridging (in which
continuous music or sound is used to "bridge" the cuts between shots), among
other techniques.

Alternatives to continuity editing are increasingly common, and have been

widely imported into mainstream video and filmmaking. Still, these alternatives
have long been associated with various forms of resistance to dominant modes of
film production, and therefore have been seen as working in opposition to
dominant ideology. Eisenstein’s montage theory, for example, posits that shots
and editing are the basic components of film: he called them "the nerve of
cinema." Eisenstein argued that a dialectical relationship exists between separate
images or signifiers, and that the juxtaposition of shots in film generates new
meanings that were absent from the original components. That is, shot ‘a’
juxtaposed with shot ‘b’ leads to a new idea, ‘c’, which expands beyond the ideas
associated with individual shots ‘a’ and ‘b’. This concept led Eisenstein to
advocate an editing technique—montage—in which the dynamic juxtaposition of
shots engendered radical associations in the film viewer. Other alternative editing
styles range from the disorienting Surrealism of Buñuel and Dali’s Un Chien
Andalou to the use of jump cuts in Godard’s Breathless—a technique Godard
expanded as he developed a theory of "countercinema." In almost all of these
cases, alternatives to continuity editing have suggested to its purveyors that
editing practice can constitute a conscious refusal of the ideological status quo
implied in the standard Hollywood style.

When analyzing the editing of a particular film or sequence, then, make note of
the techniques described above; if you notice alternative techniques to the
classical Hollywood mode, such as eye-line mismatches, abrupt cuts, violation of
the 180 degree rule, and so on (and you will find that many Hollywood films also
intentionally go against these rules), try to consider the function and implications
of these techniques within the overall mise-en-scène and narrative framework of
the film. Think too, especially, of the impact of these techniques on the viewer,
and whether they willingly throw viewers out of the framework of belief
normally created by the narrative structure. Is the editing encouraging absorption
into the narrative, or is it striving to make the viewer more intently aware of the
viewing process itself?

Sound

The last component to be discussed here, sound, is frequently overlooked and

underplayed in film analysis. Sound comprises spoken dialogue, sound effects,
music, and all other aural aspects of the film—sounds that are, in most cases,

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produced artificially in the studio through post-dubbing. When listening to a film,
try to become more sensitive to the illusory aspects of artificial sound. Sounds
of footsteps, tinkling keys, and slamming doors might seem authentic since they
are bound to the diegesis—the narrative world conjured up by the film—while
the musical score, even while helping to trigger emotional responses, may sound
patently artificial. But both diegetic sound (that is, the on-screen and off-screen
sounds heard by the characters in the film that constitute part of the narrative) and
non-diegetic sound (all other sound effects, such as voice-overs and musical
scores) is produced long after the visuals, and matched to the visual track during
postproduction.

Studio productions like Casablanca, The Godfather, and 2001 rely on artificial
sound in order to maintain continuity—artificial sound levels can be highly
regulated in the process of post-dubbing, while real sound is more unpredictable.
Furthermore, actors and directors have come to rely on post-dubbing as an
opportunity to smooth over flaws in vocal performances or to disguise gaps in the
narrative. A number of films, such as Donan and Kelly’s Singin’ in the Rain,
Almodovar’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and Fellini’s 8 ½,
directly address the process of sound production as part of the plot, and in so
doing ironically draw attention to the ways that the fictional cinematic world
produces aural and visual fantasy. Pasolini’s Theorema uses artificial sound that
is so obviously ‘poorly’ done that we can’t help but notice its fakeness, thereby
making us aware of the cinema’s production of illusion. A keen ear will begin to
pick up the subtle differences between artificial sound and real sound. Many
films, such as Kiarostami’s Close-Up or Through the Olive Trees, reject the use
of artificial sound, due to financial restrictions and/or the desire to enhance a
sense of cinematic realism. Real sound, with its uncontrollable bumps, scratches,
and dogs barking in the distance, can often have a more visceral and immediate
impact than the standard Hollywood offering.

Remember, finally, that the best film analysis avoids placing too much emphasis
on obvious aspects of the film, such as retelling the plot, reproducing passages of
dialogue, or simply listing visual techniques. The best analysis works to reveal
the denser meanings behind the surface of the film, drawing on concrete
examples from the text. Good analysis examines the broader implications of what
the film represents, rather than what it shows.

( February 2004)© Jeffrey Geiger 2004

This page was last modified by Belinda Waterman on 30 October

2006.
© Copyright 2007, University of Essex. All rights reserved.
Film still reproduced with permission of BFI Stills, Posters and Designs.

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(Note: Sample material is taken from uncorrected proofs. Changes may be made
prior to publication.)

EDITING TECHNIQUES

Motion picture editing (whether film or television) is basically the act of

shortening and rearranging audio visual material, and can include the addition of
music, sound effects, graphics, animation, voice-over narration and other
elements as needed for the unfolding of the film story. In documentary, the
editor often must review and make decisions about many hours of location
footage including observational, interviews and archival material.

The goal when deciding on specific editorial techniques, styles and forms is to
effectively communicate to the viewer, and may include various additional goals
including producing a specific psychological or emotional response, educating
on a specific topic, introducing interesting characters and ideas, examining and
exploring history and social trends. The documentary film editor is an artist who
helps endow the film with a richness and resonance that did not exist in the raw
materials. By using rhythm and pacing, holding back information, allowing
pauses, utilizing music, dialogue and other sounds, emphasizing the emotional
character of an actor or subject, using a variety of shots, cross-cutting between
scenes and actions, the editor prods the documentary toward the psychological
and intellectual domain that we have come to expect from great art and effective
communication.

Very early in the history of filmmaking, there were several filmmakers who
theorized this unique stage of the process, and attempted to explain both the
rationales for various techniques and the power inherent in the editorial process.
Various fields, including psychology, sociology and media politics have
examined editorial forms for their power to persuade and tell stories. There are
dozens of commonly understood and effectively utilized techniques used by

95
editors to unfold a documentary story for the film screen, television and web
presentation. Following are selected examples:

180 degree rule – states that when on location, one mentally places an imaginary
line between two people talking or based on the direction of the action. The
camera is placed on one side of this imaginary line, and it can move anywhere
within 180 degrees of this line to keep screen direction constant.

30 degree rule – states that if one is planning on editing together two shots of
the same person or thing, the camera should be placed 30 degrees away in the
second shot from its placement in the first shot to avoid a visual jump cut.

Continuity – the successful and unnoticeable continuation of a scene in terms of

placement of objects, weather conditions, and camera placement.

Cross-cutting – interweaving two threads of the storyline, from different

locations and often different time periods.

Cut – an instant change from one shot to another.

Cutaway shot – a shot of something within or around the environment where the
action or conversation is occurring, used to avoid visual jump cuts or to
compress time.

Establishing shot – often an exterior shot of the location in which the action will
be occurring, incorporated to help the audience get their bearings and to
understand where they are.

L-cut or Split edit – an editing technique that manipulates aural space by letting
the audio of one shot continue under the visuals of another shot.

Montage – shots assembled in rapid succession to communicate a particular

image, mood or idea.

Reaction shot – a shot that shows the reaction of one person to another person or
situation.

Transitions – techniques from segueing from one visual and/or sound to another,
including Dissolve, Fade, Graphic Match, and Time Lapse. Used to
psychologically move the audience from one point of the story to the next.

C. Melinda Levin

http://www.routledge-ny.com/ref/documentary/editing.html

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http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/htmfiles/docnotes.htm
YALE FILM STUDIES
Film Analysis Web Site 2.0

WHAT THE FILM ANALYSIS GUIDE COVERS

Welcome to the Yale Film Analysis Web Site.

The Film Analysis Guide was developed to meet the needs of faculty and
students at Yale who are interested in becoming familiar with the vocabulary of
film studies and the techniques of cinema. The user can either read the complete
document or search out a particular topic of interest. -- Related links within the
Guide are provided as appropriate, as are links to film clips illustrating the topic
or term in question.

HOW THE GUIDE IS ORGANIZED

The Guide is broken into six parts corresponding to the major divisions within
cinema technique and film studies. These major divisions are further broken
down into sections, subsections and definitions for terms. The final Part
(Analysis) offers basic examples of how to analyze two film sequences.

NAVIGATING THE GUIDE

If you see a drop down menu in the left frame, but no table of contents, click on
the button below. (This problem occasionally arises with some older browsers
that are unable to understand the particular JavaScript instructions used to create
the table of contents.)

There are multiple ways to navigate the Film Analysis Guide, depending on the
type of browser being used and the visitor's needs. For those who wish to read
the Guide straight through without skipping around, the complete site can be
navigated using the forward and backward arrows visible at the top and bottom
of each page.

97
Most users are likely to prefer to browse the site using the navigational tools
offered in the left frame. The content for each of the major divisions (e.g.,
cinematography) is clustered in a single web page. In addition, particular topics
within the major divisions can be accessed by expanding the table of contents
and clicking on the relevant link or by using the alphabetized index and search
function. If you are unfamiliar with navigating this sort of site, more detailed
instructions can be found in the menu item labeled About this Guide.

You can view the complete list of film clips used in the Guide by choosing the
Film Clips option on the drop down menu to the left.

CONVENTIONS USED IN THIS GUIDE

When the film icon appears next to an image, that means that a film clip can be
viewed that illustrates the relevant topic or term. Click on the icon to start the
clip. In order to view the clips, you must have the Windows Media Player and
browser plug-in installed on your computer. If you do not, they can be
downloaded for free at
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/default.asp.

Cross-links within the Guide are offered to direct the user to related concepts or
to provide a more detailed discussion of a particular topic.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Yale University's Film Study Center houses a large collection of films on a

variety of formats. Click on Film Study Center or use the drop down menu on
the left frame from anywhere within this site to learn more.

Yale University Libraries host a research guide on film studies which will help
you to find film related articles and publications. The URL is
http://www.library.yale.edu/humanities/film/.

Click here, or on the drop down menu to check our weekly list of On-Campus
Film Screenings.

FEEDBACK

Send comments, corrections and suggestions about this site to Mariano Prunes.

CREDITS

Mariano Prunes, Michael Raine, Mary Litch

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 URL: http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis
Last Modified: August 27, 2002
Certifying Authority: Film Studies Program
Copyright © 2002 Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520

Part 1: Basic Terms

AUTEUR

French for "author". Used by critics writing for Cahiers du cinema and other
journals to indicate the figure, usually the director, who stamped a film with
his/her own "personality". Opposed to "metteurs en scene" who merely
transcribed a work achieved in another medium into film. The concept allowed
critics to evaluate highly works of American genre cinema that were otherwise
dismissed in favor of the developing European art cinema.

Director Abbas Kiarostami appearing as himself in the last scene of Taste of

Cherry (Ta'm e Guilass, Iran, 1997)

DIEGESIS

The diegesis includes objects, events, spaces and the characters that inhabit
them, including things, actions, and attitudes not explicitly presented in the film
but inferred by the audience. That audience constructs a diegetic world from the
material presented in a narrative film. Some films make it impossible to
construct a coherent diegetic world, for example Last Year at Marienbad
(L'année dernière à Marienbad, Alan Resnais, 1961) or even contain no diegesis
at all but deal only with the formal properties of film, for instance Mothlight
(Stan Brakhage, 1963). The "diegetic world" of the documentary is usually taken

99
to be simply the world, but some drama documentaries test that assumption such
as Land Without Bread (Las Hurdes, Luis Buñuel, 1932).

Different media have different forms of diegesis. Henry V (Lawrence Olivier,

England, 1944) starts with a long crane shot across a detailed model landscape of 16th
century London. Over the course of its narrative, the film shifts its diegetic register from the
presentational form of the Elizabethan theater to the representational form of mainstream
narrative cinema.

EDITING

The joining together of clips of film into a single filmstrip. The cut is a simple
edit but there are many other possible ways to transition from one shot to
another. See the section on editing.

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Picture: Yelizaveta Svilova at the editing table of Man with the Movie Camera
(Chelovek s kinoapparatom, Dziga Vertov USSR, 1929)

FLASHBACK FLASHFORWARD

A jump backwards or forwards in diegetic time. With the use of flashback /

flashforward the order of events in the plot no longer matches the order of
events in the story. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) is a famous film
composed almost entirely of flashbacks and flashforwards. The film timeline
spans over 60 years, as it traces the life of Charles Foster Kane from his
childhood to his deathbed -- and on into the repercussions of his actions on the
people around him. Some characters appear at several time periods in the film,
usually being interviewed in the present and appearing in the past as they tell the
reporter of their memories of Kane. Joseph Cotten, who plays Kane's best friend,
is shown here as an old man in a rest home (with the help of some heavy make-
up) and as a young man working with Kane in his newspaper.

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FOCUS

Focus refers to the degree to which light rays coming from any particular part of
an object pass through the lens and reconverge at the same point on a frame of
the film negative, creating sharp outlines and distinct textures that match the
original object. This optical property of the cinema creates variations in depth of
field -- through shallow focus, deep focus, and techniques such as racking focus.
Dziga Vertov's films celebrated the power of cinema to create a "communist
decoding of reality", most overtly in Man with the Movie Camera (Chelovek s
kinoapparatom, USSR, 1929).

GENRES

Types of film recognized by audiences and/or producers, sometimes

retrospectively. These types are distinguished by narrative or stylistic
conventions, or merely by their discursive organization in influential criticism.
Genres are made necessary by high volume industrial production, for example in
the mainstream cinema of the U.S.A and Japan.

Thriller/Detective film: The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)

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 Horror film: Bride of Frankestein (John Whale, 1935)

Western: The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)

Musical: Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen, 1952)

MISE-EN-SCENE

All the things that are "put in the scene": the setting, the decor, the lighting, the
costumes, the performance etc. Narrative films often manipulate the elements of
mise-en-scene, such as decor, costume, and acting to intensify or undermine the
ostensible significance of a particular scene.

STORY / PLOT

Perhaps more correctly labelled fabula and syuzhet, story refers to all the
audience infers about the events that occur in the diegesis on the basis of what
they are shown by the plot -- the events that are directly presented in the film.
The order, duration, and setting of those events, as well as the relation between
them, all constitute elements of the plot. Story is always more extensive than
plot even in the most straightforward drama but certain genres, such as the film
noir and the thriller, manipulate the relationship of story and plot for dramatic
purposes. A film such as Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000) forces its audience
to continually reconstruct the story told in a temporally convoluted plot.

SCENE / SEQUENCE

A scene is a segment of a narrative film that usually takes place in a single time
and place, often with the same characters. Sometimes a single scene may contain
two lines of action, occurring in different spaces or even different times, that are
related by means of crosscutting. Scene and sequence can usually be used

103
interchangeably, though the latter term can also refer to a longer segment of film
that does not obey the spatial and temporal unities of a single scene. For
example, a montage sequence that shows in a few shots a process that occurs
over a period of time.

SHOT

A single stream of images, uninterrupted by editing. The shot can use a static or
a mobile framing, a standard or a non-standard frame rate, but it must be
continuous. The shot is one of the basic units of cinema yet has always been
subject to manipulation, for example stop-motion cinematography or
superimposition. In contemporary cinema, with the use of computer graphics
and sequences built-up from a series of still frames (eg. The Matrix), the
boundaries of the shot are increasingly being challenged.

Part 2: Mise-en-scene

The representation of space affects the reading of a film. Depth, proximity, size
and proportions of the places and objects in a film can be manipulated through
camera placement and lenses, lighting, decor, effectively determining mood or
relationships between elements in the diegetic world.

Section 1 - Decor

An important elememt of "putting in the scene" is décor, the objects contained in

and the setting of a scene. Décor can be used to amplify character emotion or the
dominant mood of a film. In these shots from 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley
Kubrick, 1969) the futuristic furniture and reduced color scheme stress the
sterility and impersonality of the space station environment. Later, the digital
nature of the HAL computer is represented by the repeating patterns and strong
geometrical design of the set.

In Senso (Luchino Visconti, Italy, 1954) décor emphazises the social difference
between a wealthy married woman in her richly furnished apartment and her

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soldier lover in the barren military barracks. Ultimately, she finds the contrast so
appalling that she ruins her reputation and financial standing in order to satisfy
her lover's desire for a luxurious lifestyle.

REAR PROJECTION

Usually used to combine foreground action, often actors in conversation, with a

background often shot earlier, on location. Rear projection provides an
economical way to set films in exotic or dangerous locations without having to
transport expensive stars or endure demanding conditions. In some films, the
relationship between scenes shot on location and scenes shot using rear
projection becomes a signifying pattern. In other films, it's just cheap...

Rear projection is featured extensively in Douglas Sirk's lush melodrama

Written On The Wind (1956). Specifically, almost every car ride is shot in this
way, a common feature in Classical Hollywood films, due to the physical
restrains of shooting in the studio. In addition, by speeding up the rate of the
projected images in the background, or quickly changing its angle, rear
projection allows for an impression of speed that involves no real danger.

Even if one of the protagonists of Written On The Wind is a fast-driving

alcoholic millionaire (and therefore there are multiple instances of careless
driving), rear projection is preferred to stunts both for economic and aesthetic
reasons. For example, physical spectacle is not as important in a melodrama as it
would be in an action film..

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Section 2 - Lighting

The intensity, direction, and quality of lighting have a profound effect on the
way an image is perceived. Light affects the way colors are rendered, both in
terms of hue and depth, and can focus attention on particular elements of the
composition. Much like movement in the cinema, the history of lighting
technology is intrisically linked to the history of film style. Most mainstream
films rely on the three-point lighting style, and its genre variations. Other films,
for example documentaries and realist cinema, rely on natural light to create a
sense of authenticity.

THREE-POINT LIGHTING

The standard lighting scheme for classical narrative cinema. In order to model
an actor's face (or another object) with a sense of depth, light from three
directions is used, as in the diagram below. A backlight picks out the subject
from its background, a bright key light highlights the object and a fill light from
the opposite side ensures that the key light casts only faint shadows.

Illustration courtesy of http://www.tcf.ua.edu/TVCrit/

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These shots from Written On The Wind (Douglas Sirk, 1956) demostrate the
classical use of three-point lighting. Laurel Bacall and Rock Hudson are
rendered glamorous by the balanced lighting. Compare this to the manipulation
of lighting for expressive purposes on the high-key lighting and low-key lighting
pages.

HIGH-KEY LIGHTING

A lighting scheme in which the fill light is raised to almost the same level as the
key light. This produces images that are usually very bright and that feature few
shadows on the principal subjects. This bright image is characteristic of
entertainment genres such as musicals and comedies such as Peking Opera
Blues (Do Ma Daan, Tsui Hark, Honk Kong, 1986)

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LOW-KEY LIGHTING

A lighting scheme that employs very little fill light, creating strong contrasts
between the brightest and darkest parts of an image and often creating strong
shadows that obscure parts of the principal subjects. This lighting scheme is
often associated with "hard-boiled" or suspense genres such as film noir. Here
are some examples from Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958.)

Section 3 - Space

The representation of space affects the reading of a film. Depth, proximity, size
and proportions of the places and objects in a film can be manipulated through
camera placement and lenses, lighting, decor, effectively determining mood or
relationships between elements in the diegetic world.

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DEEP SPACE

A film utilizes deep space when significant elements of an image are positioned
both near to and distant from the camera. For deep space these objects do not
have to be in focus, a defining characteristic of deep focus. Staging in deep
space is the opposite of staging in shallow space.

Deep space is used throughout many Iranian films such as The Color of
Paradise (Rang-e Khoda,1999). Director Majid Majidi likes to integrate the
characters into their natural surroundings, to map out the actual distances
involved between one location and another in order to emphasize just exactly
how hard it is for a particular character (especially children) to move from one
place to another.

In this composition, Mohammad's father looks in apprehension at the school

where his blind son is visiting.In the far background, Mohammad is playing with
his sister and other "normal" children, but his father does not believe
Mohammad should try to mingle with them since he could never be their equal,
due to his disability. On the other hand, Mohammad enjoys the company of his
new friends in the countryside much more than the School for the Blind in
Tehran, where he spends most of the year. The distance between the two points
of view, as well as the impossibility of communication between Mohammad and
his father (the son is too respectful of his father, the father finds his son's
situation too painful), is reflected in the deep use of mise-en-scene.

FRONTALITY

Frontality refers to the staging of elements, often human figures, so that they
face the camera square-on. This arrangement is an alternative to oblique staging.
Frontal staging is usually avoided by the invisible style of continuity editing,
since it supposedly breaks the spectator's illusion of peeking into a separate

109
world, by having characters look directly into the camera as if they were aware
of the viewers' presence. Some films may go even further and have the
characters speak to the camera, in what is called a direct address. Accordingly,
frontality is often used in films that are more willing to play with, or openly
defy, the distance between the screen and the spectator. In this shot from The
Stendhal Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Italy, 1996) Dario Argento
exploits the iconicity of frontal staging in multiple ways.

First, he situates his characters on a parallel plane with the famous profile
portraits of The Duke of Urbino and his wife by Piero Della Francesca. Then, he
flattens the characters by making the space between them and the paintings
shallow with the use of a zoom lens, while keeping all planes in focus. As a
reflexive auteur, Argento thus uses frontality to equate his characters with the
paintings: both are fictional creations, the product of an artist's work. As a final
self-referential pun, Argento has his Japanese tourist taking a picture of us!

MATTE SHOT

A process shot in which two photographic images (usually background and

foreground) are combined into a single image using an optical printer. Matte
shots can be used to add elements to a realistic scene or to create fantasy spaces.
In these four examples from Vertigo (1958), director Alfred Hitchcock uses all
possible combinations. In the first image, the white belfry is a model added on
the foreground of a shot of the roof; in the second image, the sky in the
background is clearly a painting, with the purpose of making us believe the
scene takes place on a bell tower's top floor, rather than on the studio's ground.

110
The other two shots belong to the fantasy sequence of Scottie's dream. In the
first one his face is superimposed over a campy "unconscious" image; the last
one reverses the process, having a mixture of "real" and matted elements in the
background (the roof and the belfry) with the added silhouette in the foreground.

Matte shooting is one of the most common techniques used in studio

filmmaking, either for economical reasons (it's cheaper to shot a picture of the
Eiffel tower than to travel to Paris) or because it would be impossible or too
dangerous to try to shot in the real space. Sometimes, as when animation and
real figures interact, that space may not even exist. In recent years, however,
special effects and computer generated images have taken over the function of
matte shots.

OFFSCREEN SPACE

Space that exists in the diegesis but that is not visible in the frame. Offscreen
space becomes significant when the viewer's attention is called to an event or
presence in the diegesis that is not visible in the frame. Offscreen space is
commonly exploited for suspense in horror and thriller films, such as The
Stendhal Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Dario Argento, Italy, 1996)

111
As discussed in the offscreen sound entry, this scene from Life on Earth (La Vie
sur Terre, Abderrahmane Sissako, Mauritania, 1998) explores the difficulties of
establishing communication in a postcolonial space that still depends on the
former colonial master for its technology and even its calendar.

SHALLOW SPACE

The opposite of deep space, in shallow space the image is staged with very little
depth. The figures in the image occupy the same or closely positioned planes.
While the resulting image loses realistic appeal, its flatness enhances its pictorial
qualities. Striking graphic patters can be achieved through shallow space. In
these frames from My Neighbor Totoro (Tonari No Totoro, Japan, 1988)
Miyazaki fills the entire background with a lamp-eyed, grinning catbus. Shallow
space creates ambiguity: is the cat brimming with joy at the sisters' encounter, or
is he about to eat them?

Shallow space can be staged, or it can also be achieved optically, with the use of
a telephoto lens.This is particularly useful for creating claustrophic images,
since it makes the characters look like they are being crushed against the
background.

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Section 4 - Costume

Costume simply refers to the clothes that characters wear. Costume in narrative
cinema is used to signify character, or advertise particular fashions, or to make
clear distinctions between characters.

In this example from Life on Earth (La Vie sur Terre, 1998) filmmaker and actor
Abderrahmane Sissako uses "similar" costumes (long loose clothes, big hats) to
further stress the cultural and psychological implications of a nomadic existence,
split between the cold affluence of France and the colorful poverty of
Mauritania.

Section 5 - Acting

There is enormous historical and cultural variation in performance styles in the

cinema. Early melodramatic styles, clearly indebted to the 19th century theater,
gave way in Western cinema to a relatively naturalistic style. There are many
alternatives to the dominant style: the kabuki-influenced performances of kyu-
geki Japanese period films, the use of non-professional actors in Italian
neorealism, the typage of silent Soviet Cinema, the improvisatory practices of
directors like John Cassavettes or Eric Rohmer, the slapstick comedy of Laurel
and Hardy, or the deadpan of Buster Keaton and Jacques Tatí, not to mention the
exuberant histrionics of Bollywood films.

TYPAGE

Typage refers to the selection of actors on the basis that their facial or bodily
features readily convey the truth of the character the actor plays. Usually
associated with the Soviet Montage school, these filmmakers thought that the
life-experience of a non-actor guaranteed the authenticity of their performance
when they attempted a dramatic role similar to their real social role. Typage is
related to the use of stereotype in commuicating the essential qualities of a

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character. Although current casting practices can no longer be described as
typage, the use of performers with experience in the role they played is common
to most films, whether they rely on the star system, or on non-professional
actors. In Pudovkin's Storm Over Asia (Potomok Chingis-Khana, USSR, 1928),
professional and non-professional actors are used alike. The cast was selected
not on terms of their skills or reputation, but on their physical ressemblance to
the following types:

the hero of the Mongol people... and the explotative English capitalist

the partisan's leader, noble and stoic in his deathbed...and the pompous and
greedy general

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the partisan woman, strong mother and fighter... and the decrepit general's wife
with royal ambitions

Part 3: Cinematography

Section 1 - Quality

This section explores some of the elements at play in the construction of a shot.
As the critics at Cahiers du cinéma maintained, the "how" is as important as the
"what" in the cinema. The look of an image, its balance of dark and light, the
depth of the space in focus, the relation of background and foreground, etc. all
affect the reception of the image. For instance, the optical qualities of grainy
black and white in Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, Maarakat madinat al
Jazaer, Algeria, 1965) seem to guarantee its authenticity. On the other hand, the
shimmering Technicolor of a musical such as Singin' in the Rain (Stanley
Donen, 1952) suggests an out-of-this-world glamor and excitement.

COLOR

Early films were shot in black and white but the cinema soon included color
images. These images were initially painted or stencilled onto the film but by the
1930s filmmakers were able to include color sequences in their films. Apart
from the added realism or glamor that a color image could provide, color is also
used to create aesthetic patterns and to establish character or emotion in
narrative cinema.

In Federico Fellini's extravagant Juliet of the Spirits (Giulietta degli Spiriti,

1965) colors separate the bourgeois reality and the fantasy daydreamings of the
title character, who partyhops between black and white and reds and purples.

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Juliet of the Spirits was the first Fellini film in color, and he intended to make
full use of it. In order to further enhance the contrast with his previous work, he
cast his favorite actress and wife Giulietta Massina, the protagonist of Fellini's
earlier successes such as Nights of Cabiria (Le Notti di Cabiria, 1957) in which
she plays a destitute hooker in a grim suburban environment. Now Fellini has
the same actress play a rich housewife in luscious technicolor, obviously
signaling a clear turning point from his early Neorealism-inspired films.

Contrary to popular belief (and Goethe), colors do not necessarily carry

exclusive meanings. Compare the use of red in Ingmar Bergman's Cries and
Whispers (Viskingar Och Rop, 1972),

and Zhang Yimou's Ju Dou (1990), for example.

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While Zhang exploits red as a cliched signifier of unrestrained passion, Bergman
associates the color with stagnation and contaminated blood.

CONTRAST

The ratio of dark to light in an image. If the difference between the light and
dark areas is large, the image is said to be "high contrast". If the difference is
small, it is referred to as "low contrast" Most films use low contrast to achieve a
more naturalistic lighting. High contrast is usually associated with the low key
lighting of dark scenes in genres such as the horror film and the film noir. A
common cliche is to use contrast between light and dark to distinguish between
good and evil. The use of contrast in a scene may draw on racist or sexist
connotations.

For instance, this shot from Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (1958) employs high
contrast to further emphasize racial differences between a blonde American
woman and a menacing Mexican man.

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DEEP FOCUS

Like deep space, deep focus involves staging an event on film such that
significant elements occupy widely separated planes in the image. Unlike deep
space, deep focus requires that elements at very different depths of the image
both be in focus. In these two shots from Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958)
Besieged (L'Assedio, Bernardo Bertolucci,1998) all of the different planes of the
image are given equal importance through deep focus, not only to the characters
(like the man peeking at the window in the first image), but also to the spaces
(Shanduray's basement room in the second).

While deep focus may be used occasionally, some auteurs use it consistently for
they believe it achieves a truer representation of space. Directors like Jean
Renoir, Orson Welles, Hou Hsao-Hsien, or Abbas Kiarostami all use deep focus
as an essential part of their signature style.

SHALLOW FOCUS

A restricted depth of field, which keeps only one plane in sharp focus; the
opposite of deep focus. Used to direct the viewer's attention to one element of a
scene. Shallow focus is very common in close-up, as in these two shots from
Central Station (Central do Brasil, Walter Selles, Brazil, 1998).

Shallow focus suggests psychological introspection, since a character appears as

oblivious to the world around her/him. It is therefore commonly employed in

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genres such as the melodrama, where the actions and thoughts of an individual
prevail over everything else.

DEPTH OF FIELD

The distance through which elements in an image are in sharp focus. Bright light
and a narrow lens aperture tend to produce a larger depth of field, as does using
a wide-angle rather than a long lens. A shallow depth of field is often used as a
technique to focus audience attention on the most significant aspect of a scene
without having to use an analytic cut-in.

Depth of field is directly connected, but not to be confused, with focus. Focus is
the quality (the "sharpness" of an object as it is registered in the image) and
depth of field refers to the extent to which the space represented is in focus. For
a given lens aperture and level of lighting, the longer the focal distance (the
distance between the lens and the object that is in focus) the greater the focal
depth. For a given focal distance, the greater the level of lighting or the narrower
the aperture, the greater the focal depth. For that reason, close-up shooting and
shooting in low light conditions often results in images with very shallow depth
of field. An image with shallow depth of field, as this frame from Peking Opera
Blues (Do Ma Daan, Tsui Hark , 1986), has some elements in focus, but others
are not.

EXPOSURE

A camera lens has an aperture that controls how much light passes through the
lens and onto the film. If the aperture is widened, more light comes through and
the resultant image will become more exposed. If an image is so pale that the
detail begins to disappear, it can be described as "overexposed". Conversely, a
narrow aperture that allows through less light will produce a darker image than

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normal, known as "underexposed". Exposure can be manipulated to guide an
audience's response to a scene.

In his film Traffic (2000), Steven Soderbergh decided to shot all of the
sequences in the Northern Mexico desert overexposed. The resulting images
give an impression of a barren, desolated land being mercilessly burnt by the
sun, a no-man's land over which police and customs have no control.

RACKING FOCUS

Racking focus refers to the practice of changing the focus of a lens such that an
element in one plane of the image goes out of focus and an element at another
plane in the image comes into focus. This technique is an even more overt way
of steering audience attention through the scene, as well as of linking two spaces
or objects. For instance in this scene from Peking Opera Blues (Do Ma Daan,
Tsui Hark, Honk Kong, 1986), a connection is made between an activist in
hiding and a police officer who is pursuing him.

Racking focus is usually done quite quickly; in a way, the technique tries to
mimick a brief, fleeting glance that can be used to quicken the tempo or increase
suspense.

RATE

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A typical sound film is shot at a frame rate of 24 frames per second. If the
number of frames exposed in each second is increased, the action will seem to
move more slowly than normal when it is played back. Conversely, the fewer
the number of frames exposed each second, the more rapid the resulting action
appears to be. The extreme case of frame rate manipulation is stop-motion, when
the camera takes only one frame then the subject is manipulated or allowed to
change before taking another frame.

In this clip from Vertov's Man with the Movie Camera (Chelovek s
kinoapparatom, USSR, 1929) stop motion is used to give the impression than
the chairs open up by themselves.

In Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai, Japan, 1954), slow motion

is used to contrast the emotional rescue of a child with the death of the man who
kidnapped him.

TELEPHOTO SHOT

An image shot with an extremely long lens is called a telephoto shot. The effect
of using a long lens is to compress the apparent depth of an image, so that
elements that are relatively close or far away from the camera seem to lie at
approximately the same distance. In this first shot from Payback (Brian
Helgeland, 1999), we can clearly see there is a considerable distance beteen the
fallen body and the red car.

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Yet, when a telephoto lens is used for a close-up of Mel Gibson, his face looks
like it is pressed against the car! Here a telephoto lens create a shallow space,
which combines with extreme canted framing to suggest the physical and
psychological disarray of a man who has been betrayed, shot, and left for dead.

ZOOM SHOT

The zoom shot uses a lens with several elements that allows the filmmaker to
change the focal length of the lens (see telephoto shot) while the shot is in
progress. We seem to move toward or away from the subject, while the quality
of the image changes from that of a shorter to a longer lens, or vice versa. The
change in apparent distance from the subject is similar to the crane or tracking
shots, but changes in depth of field and apparent size is quite different. Zooms
are commonly used at the beginning of a scene, or even a film, to introduce an
object or character by focusing on it. In the initial sequence of The Stendhal
Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Dario Argento, Italy, 1996), the camera
zooms from a medium long shot of people cueing up at a museum's entrance to a
medium close-up of the female protagonist.

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Few cinematic techniques are used in isolation. Notice how the woman "helps" the zoom to
achieve its purpose of singling her out by moving around.

In another clip from the same film, a zooms is used to offer a more detailed view
of an object. Furthermore, as we move closer and closer to the painting
(Caravaggio's Head of Medusa, 1590-1600) , both our attention and tension are
increased.

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Section 2 - Framing

In one sense, cinema is an art of selection. The edges of the image create a
"frame" that includes or excludes aspects of what occurs in front of the camera
-- the "profilmic event". The expressive qualities of framing include the angle of
the camera to the object, the aspect ratio of the projected image, the relationship
between camera and object, and the association of camera with character. In
Cruel Story of Youth (Seishun zankoku monogatari, Oshima Nagisa, 1960) the
radical decentering of the character in relation to the frame marks their failed
struggle to find a place in their world.

ANGLE OF FRAMING

Many films are shot with a camera that appears to be at approximately the same
height as its subject. However, it is possible to film from a position that is
significantly lower or higher than the dominant element of the shot. In that case,
the image is described as low angle or high angle respectively. Angle of framing
can be used to indicate the relation between a character and the camera's point of
view. Or can simply be used to create striking visual compositions.

Camera angle is often used to suggest either vulnerability or power. In The

Color of Paradise (Rang-e Khoda,1999) the father, who rules absolute over his
family, is often portrayed from a low angle, therefore aggrandizing his figure.

On the other hand, his blind son Mohammad and his elderly grandmother are
often shot from a high angle, emphasizing their dependence and smallness.
These interpretations are not exclusive, however. The relation between camera
and subject can be rendered ironic, or it may suggest more the subject of

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perception than to the state of the object. The father in this film is so busy
smiling at his fiancee that he falls off his horse, while Mohammed and her
granny seen from above may also indicate that God is watching over them, and
keeping them under protection.

ASPECT RATIO

The ratio of the horizontal to the vertical sides of an image. Until the 1950s
almost all film was shot in a 4:3 or 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Some filmmakers used
multiple projectors to create a wider aspect ratio whereas others claimed that the
screen should be square, not rectangular. Widescreen formats became more
popular in the 1950s and now films are made in a variety of aspect ratios -- some
of the most common being 1.66:1, 1.76:1, 1.85:1, and 2.35:1 (cinemascope).

Widescreen films are often trimmed for television or video release, effectively
altering the original compositions. Some DVD's have the option of showing the
film in its original format and in a reduced ratio that fits the TV screen. Compare
the same frame from Bertolucci's Besieged (L'Assedio, 1998). Objects appear
much more cramped with the reduced aspect ratio, giving an impression of
physical (and psychological) space different from the theatrical release.

LEVEL OF FRAMING

Not only the angle from which a camera films but the height can also be a
significant element in a film. A low-level camera is placed close to the ground
whereas a high-level camera would be placed above the typical perspective
shown in the cinema. Camera level is used to signify sympathy for characters
who occupy particular levels in the image, or just to create pleasurable
compositions. Camera level is obviously used to a greater advantage when the
difference in height bewteen objects or characters is greater. In The Color of
Paradise (Rang-e Khoda, Iran, 1999) Majid Majidi uses different camera height
to emphasize the difference between Mohammad and his father.

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In the first image, the camera concentrates on Mohammad as he recognizes his
father's hand, after patiently waiting for him for hours. The father is almost
absent from the scene; only the part of him that Mohammad touches is visible,
therefore increasing our empathy with the blind boy. On the second image,
camera level is adjusted to the father's size, making Mohammed a puny,
defenceless figure in a world that overcomes him. The first shot is on
Mohammad's School for the Blind, while the second is on a shop in Tehran.
Through different camera levels, the director makes clear where Mohammad's
fits and where he does not.

CANTED FRAMING

Canted Framing is a view in which the frame is not level; either the right or left
side is lower than the other, causing objects in the scene to appear slanted out of
an upright positon.Canted framings are used to create an impression of chaos
and instability. They are therefore associated with the frantic rhythms of action
films, music videos and animation.

Many Hong Kong films of the 80s and 90s blend elements of the genres
mentioned above, for instance Tsui Hark's Peking Opera Blues (Do Ma Daan,
1986). These films employ unconventional framings to achieve their signature
dizzing, freewheeling style. Canted framings are also common when shooting
with a Steadycam.

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FOLLOWING SHOT

A shot with framing that shifts to keep a moving figure onscreen. A following
shot combines a camera movement, like panning, tracking, tilting or craning,
with the specific function of directing our attention to a character or object as
he/she/it moves inside the frame. In this shot from Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley
Kubrick, 1999) the camera pans slightly to accompany a couple into the
ballroom floor.

REFRAMING

Short panning or tilting movements to adjust for the figures' movements,

keeping them onscreen or centered. An important technique of continuity
editing, thanks to its unobstrusive nature. The characters' actions take
precedence over the camera movements, as in this dancing scene from Kubrick's
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

POINT-OF-VIEW SHOT

A shot taken with the camera placed approximately where the character's eyes
would be, showing what the character would see; usually cut in before or after a
shot of the character looking. Horror films and thrillers often use POV shots to
suggest a menacing and unseen presence in the scene. Films that use many
point-of-view shots tend toward dynamic and non-naturalistic style. In this clip

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from Peking Opera Blues (Do Ma Daan, Tsui Hark, Hong Kong, 1986) the
female impersonator's fear of the soldier who attempts to procure him for his
general is rendered comic by the cut to POV and wide angle.

POV is one of the means by which audiences are encouraged to identify with
characters. However, it is actually a relatively rare technique: identificatory
mechanisms rely more on sympathetic character and the flow of narrative
information than on simple optical affiliation.

WIDE ANGLE LENS

A lens of short focal length that affects a scene's perspective by distorting

straight lines near the edges of the frame and by exaggerating the distance
between foreground and background planes. In doing so it allows for more space
to enter the frame (hence the name "wide"), which makes it more convenient for
shooting in a closed location, for instance a real room, rather than a three-wall
studio room. In addition, a wider lens allows for a bigger depth of field. In
35mm filming, a wide angle lens is 30mm or less. See also telephoto lens.

Since a wide angle lens distorts the edges of an image, as in this frame from Yi
Yi (Edward Yang, Taiwan, 2000), extreme wide lenses are avoided in
naturalistic styles, or they are used in unrestrained or open spaces, with no
converging lines around the edges of the frame.

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Section 3 - Scale

If the same object were filmed at different shot scales it would often signify
quite differently. Shot scale can foster intimacy with a character, or conversely,
it can swallow the character in its environment.Orson Welles exploited
divergent shot scales in Citizen Kane (1941) to demonstrate the changing power
relationship between Charles Foster Kane and his lawyer. As a boy, his figure is
lost in the snow at the back of the shot as the lawyer arranges for his adoption.
As a young man he rebels against Bernstein's oversight, rising in the frame as he
asserts himself.

EXTREME LONG SHOT

A framing in which the scale of the object shown is very small; a building,
landscape, or crowd of people will fill the screen. Usually the first or last shots
of a sequence, that can also function as establishing shots.. The following
examples of framing from Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999) and A
Summer Tale (Conte d'Été, Eric Rohmer, 1996) well illustrate the range of uses for this
particular shot scale.

These two extreme long shots are also establishing shots. However, their
primary function is different. Whereas Rohmer give us a standard establishing
shot that introduces the locale where the main characters are about to meet,
Kubrick uses the ballroom shot mainly as a brief transition between two more

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important scenes. While the two shots above have similar sizes, some extreme
long shots can be significantly larger, particularly if shot from the air with the
help of cranes or helicopters. This kind of extreme long shot is also called bird's
eye view shot, since it gives an aerial perspective of the scene.

LONG SHOT

A framing in which the scale of the object shown is small; a standing human
figure would appear nearly the height of the screen. It makes for a relatively
stable shot that can accomodate movement without reframing. It is therefore
commonly used in genres where a full body action is to be seen in its entirety, for instance
Hollywood Musicals or 1970s Martial Arts films.

Another advantage of the long shot is that it allows to show a character and
her/his surroundings in a single frame, as in these two images from Eyes Wide
Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999) and A Summer Tale (Conte d'Été, Eric Rohmer,
1996).

MEDIUM LONG SHOT

Framing such than an object four or five feet high would fill most of the screen
vertically. Also called plain américain, given its recurrence in the Western
genre, where it was important to keep a cowboy's weapon in the image.

Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)

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 A Summer Tale (Conte d'Été) France Eric Rohmer, 1996

MEDIUM CLOSE-UP

A framing in which the scale of the object shown is fairly large; a human figure
seen from the chest up would fill most of the screen. Another common shot
scale.

Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)

A Summer Tale (Conte d'Été, Eric Rohmer, 1996)

CLOSE-UP

A framing in which the scale of the object shown is relatively large. In a close-
up a person's head, or some other similarly sized object, would fill the frame.
Framing scales are not universal, but rather established in relationship with other
frames from the same film. These two shots from Eyes Wide Shut and A Summer
Tale can be described as close-ups, even if one starts at the neck and the second at the upper
chest..

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Framing scales are usually drawn in relationship to the human figure but this can
be misleading since a frame need not include people. Accordingly, this shot
from The Color of Paradise (Rang-e Khoda, Majid Majidi, Iran,1999) is also a
close-up.

EXTREME CLOSE-UP

A framing in which the scale of the object shown is very large; most commonly,
a small object or a part of the body usually shot with a zoom lens. Again, faces
are the most recurrent images in extreme close-ups, as these images from The
Color of Paradise (Rang-e Khoda,Majid Majidi, 1999),

The Stendhal Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Dario Argento, 1996),

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and My Neighbor Totoro (Tonari No Totoro, Miyazaki Hayao, 1988)
demonstrate. With regard to the latter, it should be noted that while all of these
film terms equally applies to animation, the technical procedure to achieve a
particular effect can be very different. For instance this last frame is a drawing
of Totoro's teeth, not a zoom on his face, as it would have been the case in a
live-action film.

Section 4 - Movement

There are many ways to move a camera: in fluid long takes, rapid and confusing
motions, etc. that establish the rhythm and point of view of a scene.A film such
as Man with the Movie Camera ( Chelovek s kinoapparatom, Dziga Vertov,
USSR, 1929) features a full catalog of the creative possibilities open to the film
camera. In one famous sequence, we get to see the cinematographer using a car
as a mobile support for a tracking shot. Furthermore, one soon realizes that the
whole process is probably being mirrored by a second car, in order to film the
first one.

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Scenes taken from both cameras are playfully incorporated into the film. Was
this image of the car passing by taken by the first or the second car/camera unit?

CRANE SHOT

A shot with a change in framing rendered by having the camera above the
ground and moving through the air in any direction. It is accomplished by
placing the camera on a crane (basically, a large cantilevered arm) or similar
device. Crane shots are often long or extreme long shots: they lend the camera a
sense of mobility and often give the viewer a feeling of omniscience over the
characters.

Crane shots can also be used to achieve a flowing rhythm, particularly in a long
take, as in this clip from The Player (Altman, 1992)

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HANDHELD CAMERA, STEADYCAM

The use of the camera operator's body as a camera support, either holding it by
hand or using a gyroscopic stabilizer and a harness. Newsreel and wartime
camera operators favored smaller cameras such as the Eclair that were quickly
adopted by documentarist and avant-garde filmmakers, notably the cinéma
verité movement of the 1950s and 1960s. They were also used by young
filmmakers since they were cheap and lent the images a greater feeling of
sponteneity. At the time this challenge to prevailing standards was perceived as
anti-cinematic but eventually it came to be accepted as a style. Whereas hand
held cameras give a film an unstable, jerky feel, they also allows for a greater
degree of movement and flexibility than bulkier standard cameras --at a fraction
of the cost. Filmmakers now are experimenting with digital video in a similar
way. Gyroscopically stabilized "steadicams" were invented in the 1970s and
made it possible to create smooth "tracking" shots without cumbersome
equipment. More recently, they are extensively used in music videos and in the
films of the Dogme movement, such as Lars Von Trier's Dancer in the Dark
(Denmark, 2000)

Ironically, while today's steadicams allow for a fairly stable image, Lars Von
Trier and his accolites prefer to exacerbate the jerkiness and unstability
traditionally associated with these cameras as a marker of visceral autorial
intervention. In fact, combining steadicam shooting with aggressive reframings
and jump cuts , or even by shooting on low definition formats, Dogme and other
radical filmmaking movements attempt to create a new cinematic look as further
away as possible from mainstream Hollywood.

PAN

A camera movement with the camera body turning to the right or left. On the
screen, it produces a mobile framing which scans the space horizontally. A pan
directly and immediately connects two places or characters, thus making us
aware of their proximity. The speed at which a pan occurs can be expoited for
different dramatic purposes. For instance, in a Mizoguchi or a Hou film, two
characters may be having a conversation in a room, and after several minutes,
the camera might pan and reveal a third person was also present, thus changing
the whole implication of the scene. In a film like Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000),

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on the other hand, pans are usually very quick, suggesting that characters have no time to
waste, and that decisions must be taken fast, therefore contributing to the sense of imminent
danger and moral urgency that the films tries to communicate.

In the clip above, the defense lawyer has just finished a long, clever speech, yet
the judge has no second thoughts on his verdict, nor any pity for the
(presumably guilty) accused and their rich legal cohorts. Lastly, a pan does not
necessarily mean that the camera moves along an horizontal line. This clip from
The Stendhal Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Dario Argento,1996),
illustrates what we could call a 360° pan.

TILT

A camera movement with the camera body swiveling upward or downward on a

stationary support. It produces a mobile framing that scans the space vertically.
Its function is similar to that of pans and tracking shots, albeit on a vertical axis.
In this clip from Besieged (L'Assedio, Italy, 1998) Bernardo Bertolucci uses a tilt
to establish the social (and even racial) distance between an African housemaid
and her wealthy English employer.

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A tilt usually also implies a change in the angle of framing; in this clip the
camera starts with a high angle view of the woman and ends up on a low angle
view of the man --which obviously reinforces the social inequality of their
relationship. Lastly, a tilt is also a means of gradually uncovering offscreen
space. This can be exploited for suspense, since a sense of anticipation grows in
the viewer as the camera movement forces her/his attention in a precise
direction, yet never knowing when it will stop, nor what will be found there.

TRACKING SHOT

A mobile framing that travels through space forward, backward, or laterally. See
also crane shot, pan, and tilt. A tracking shot usually follows a character or
object as it moves along the screen. Contrary to the pan, which mimicks a
turning head, a tracking shot physically accompanies the entire range of
movement. It therefore creates a closer affinity with the character or object
moving, since the spectator is not just watching him/her moving, but moving
with him/her. A standard tracking shot, as it was devised in the Classical Studio
filmmaking, consisted in placing the camera on a wheeled support called a dolly,
and moving it along rails or tracks to ensure the smoothness of movement
associated with the continuity editing style. As cameras became lighter and
steadier, tracking shots became more flexible and creative: bycicles,
wheelchairs, roller skates, and many ingenious wheeled artifacts augmented the
range of movement of tracking shots. In this clip from Central Station (Central
do Brasil, Walter Salles, Brazil, 1998), one ininterrupted movement is rendered
with two different tracking shots, linked by a match on action.

The first is a classic tracking shot, with the camera on rails sideways to the
character that is moving, following the child as the trains departs. The second
uses the train as a dolly, as it moves away from the running child. Indeed,
tracking shots are one of the most suggestive and creative camera movements,

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one that can be accomplished in a number of clever ways. Not surprisingly,
some auteurs like Max Ophuls or Orson Welles made virtuosistic tracking shots
a staple of their films, often in conjuntion with long takes.

WHIP PAN

An extremely fast movement of the camera from side to side, which briefly
causes the image to blur into a set of indistinct horizontal streaks. Often an
imperceptible cut will join two whip pans to create a trick transition between
scenes. As opposed to dissolves, action or graphic matches, and fades --the most
common transitions of the continuity style-- whip pans always stand out, given
their abrupt, brisk nature. Commonly used in flashy action genres such as kung-
fu movies from the 70s, like Fists of Fury (Tang Shan Da Xiong, Wei Lo, Honk
Kong, 1971).

Part 4: Editing

Section 1 - Devices

a) TRANSITIONS

The shot is defined by editing but editing also works to join shots together.
There are many ways of effecting that transition, some more evident than others.
In the analytical tradition, editing serves to establish space and lead the viewer
to the most salient aspects of a scene. In the classical continuity style, editing
techniques avoid drawing attention to themselves. In a constructivist tradition
such as Soviet Montage cinema, there is no such false modesty. Vertov's Man
with the Movie Camera (Chelovek s kinoapparatom, USSR, 1929) celebrates the
power of the cinema to create a new reality out of disparate fragments.

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CHEAT CUT

Cheat cut. In the continuity editing system, a cut which purports to show
continuous time and space from shot to shot but which actually mismatches the
position of figures or objects in the scene. In this sequence from Meet Me in St.
Louis (Vincente Minelli, 1944) the editing sacrifices actual physical space for
dramatic space. As we can see in the first shot, there is a wall behind the
telephone.

However, that wall magically disappears in the third shot in order to show both
the telephone and the family seated around the dining table (an important
element in the film) from an angle that would had been impossible in an actual

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room. Cheat cuts were also often used to disguise the relatively short stature of
leading men in relation to their statuesque female co-stars.

CROSSCUTTING, aka PARALLEL EDITING

Editing that alternates shots of two or more lines of action occurring in different
places, usually simultaneously. The two actions are therefore linked, associating
the characters from both lines of action. In this extended clip from Edward
Yang's Yi Yi (Taiwan, 2000), father and daughter go out on dates at presumably
the same time, and go through the same motions, even if the father is in Japan
and the daughter in Taipei.

To further stress the similarities, the father is actually reliving his first date with
his first girlfriend (whom he has just met again after 20 years), while his
daughter is actually on her first date! Yang uses parallel editing across space and
time to suggest that history repeats itself, generation after generation.

CUT-IN, CUT AWAY

An instantaneous shift from a distant framing to a closer view of some portion fo

the same space, and vice versa. In Lars Von Trier's Dancer in the Dark
( Denmark, 2000) Selma and Bill have a dramatic conversation in Bill's car that
is framed by a cut-in and a cut-away.

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The two cuts neatly bracket Bill's anguished confession as a separate moment,
private and isolated, that only Selma knows about. This editing-constructed
secrecy will ultimately have drastic consequences for Selma.

DISSOLVE

A transition between two shots during which the first image gradually
disappears while the second image gradually appears; for a moment the two
images blend in superimposition. Dissolves can be used as a fairly
straighforward editing device to link any two scenes, or in more creative ways,
for instance to suggest hallucinatory states. In this series of shots from The
Stendhal Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Dario Argento, 1996), a young
woman becomes so absorbed by Brueghel's The Fall of Icarus that she actually
dives into the painting's sea! (at least in her imagination, in "real life" she faints).

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IRIS

A round, moving mask that can close down to end a scene (iris-out) or
emphasize a detail, or it can open to begin a scene (iris-in) or to reveal more
space around a detail. For instance, in this scene from Neighbors (Buster Keaton,
1920), the iris is used with the comic effect of gradually revealing that the female protagonist
is 1) ready for her wedding and 2) ready for her not-too-luxurious wedding.

Iris is a common device of early films (at at time when some techniques like
zooming were not feasible), so much so that when it is used after 1930 it is often
perceived as charminlgly anachronistic or nostalgic, as in Truffaut's Shoot the
Piano Player (1960).

JUMP CUT

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An elliptical cut that appears to be an interruption of a single shot. Either the
figures seem to change instantly against a constant background, or the
background changes instantly while the figures remain constant. See also
elliptical editing, steadicam.. Jump cuts are anathema to Classical Hollywood
continuity editing, but feature prominently in avant-garde and radical
filmmaking.When the French Nouvelle Vague films of the 1960s made jump
cuts an essential part of their playful, modern outlook, many directors from
around the globe started to use jump cuts --either creatively or in a last ditch
attempt to become "hip". More recently, jump cuts are more commonly
associated with music videos, video or alternative filmmaking, like Lars Von
Trier's Dogma films. Here is an example from Dancer in the Dark (Denmark,
2000).

Jump cuts are used expressively, to suggest the ruminations or ambivalences of

a character, or of his/her everyday life, but they are also a clear signifier of
rupture with mainstream film storytelling. Rather than presenting a film as a
perfectly self-contained story that seamlessly unfold in front of us, jump cuts are
like utterances that evidentiates both the artificiality and the difficulties of
telling such a story.

ESTABLISHING SHOT/REESTABLISHING SHOT

A shot, usually involving a distant framing, that shows the spatial relations
among the important figures, objects, and setting in a scene. Usually, the first
few shots in a scene are establishing shots, as they introduces us to a location
and the space relationships inside it.

In the initial sequence from Peking Opera Blues (Do Ma Daan, Honk
Kong,1986), director Tsui Hark uses three shots to establish the locale. In the
first one, three musicians are shown against a fireplace in what looks like a
luxurious room. Our suspicions are confirmed by the second establishing shot,
which shows us the other half of the ample room (shot/ reverse shot) and reveals
a party going on.

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After this introduction, the camera moves forward with several close-ups of both
the musicians and the spectators. At the end of the sequence, Hark shows us the
entire room in a larger shot. This final establishing shot is called a reestablishing
shot, for it shows us once again the spatial relationships introduced with the
establishing shots.

SHOT/REVERSE SHOT

Two or more shots edited together that alternate characters, typically in a

conversation situation. In continuity editing, characters in one framing usually
look left, in the other framing, right. Over-the-shoulder framings are common in
shot/reverse-shot editing. Shot / reverse shots are one of the most firmly
established conventions in cinema, and they are usually linked through the
equally persuasive eyeline matches. These conventions have become so strong
that they can be exploited to make improbable meanings convincing, as in this
sequence from The Stendhal Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Italy,1996).
Director Dario Argento has his protagonist Anna looking at Botticelli's The
Birth of Venus (c1485)...

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...but with the use of successive shot/ reverse shots, eyeline matches and
matching framings, it soons begins to look as if Venus herself is looking at
Anna!

SUPERIMPOSITION

The exposure of more than one image on the same film strip. Unlike a dissolve,
a superimposition does not signify a transition from one scene to another. The
technique was often used to allow the same performer to appear simultaneously
as two characters on the screen (for example Son of the Sheik), to express
subjective or intoxicated vision (The Last Laugh), or simply to introduce a
narrative element from another part of the diegetic world into the scene. In this
clip from Neighbors (Buster Keaton, 1920), the resentful father of the bride looks at the
wedding ring and immediately associates in his mind with a five and dime store. The
subjective shot gives us a clear indication of his opinion of his soon to be son-in-law.

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WIPE

A transition betwen shots in which a line passes across the screen, eliminating
the first shot as it goes and replacing it with the next one. A very dynamic and
noticeable transition, it is usually employed in action or adventure films. It often
suggest a brief temporal ellypsis and a direct connection between the two
images. In this example from Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (Sichinin No Samurai,
Japan, 1954), the old man's words are immediately corroborated by the
wandering, destitute samurai coming into town.

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As other transitions devices, like the whip pan, wipes became fashionable at an
specific historical time (the 1950s and 1960s), so much so as to became stylistic
markers of the film of the period.

b) MATCHES

Editing matches refer to those techniques that join as well as divide two shots by
making some form of connection between them. That connection can be inferred
from the situation portrayed in the scene (for example, eyeline match) or can be
of a purely optical nature (graphic match).

EYELINE MATCH

A cut obeying the axis of action principle, in which the first shot shows a person
off in one direction and the second shows a nearby space containing what he or
she sees. If the person looks left, the following shot should imply that the looker
is offscreen right. The following shots from Dario Argento's The Stendhal
Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Italy, 1996), depict Anna looking at a
painting, Brueghel's The Fall of Icarus. The scene takes place inside Firenze's
most famous museum, the Uffizi Gallery.

First we see her looking... then we see what she looks at.

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As her interest grows, the eyeline match (that is the connection between looker
and looked) is stressed with matching close-ups of Anna's face and Icarus's falling
into the ocean in the painting.Again, this implies that Anna is looking directly at Icarus's
body.

Ironically, even if Argento managed to film inside the real Uffizi gallery, the
painting he wanted to use, The Fall of Icarus, is not part of the museum's
collection! The painting that we see is probably a reproduction, shot in the
studio, and edited together with Anna's shots in the Uffizi to make us believe
that they are both in the same room. As this example demonstrates, eyeline
matches can be a very persuasive tool to construct space in a film, real or
imagined.

GRAPHIC MATCH

Two successive shots joined so as to create a strong similarity of compositional

elements (e.g., color, shape). Used in trasparent continuity styles to smooth the
transition between two shots, as in this clip from Women On The Verge Of A
Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios, Almodóvar,
1988).

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Graphic matches can also be used to make metaphorical associations, as in
Soviet Montage style. Furthermore, some directors like Ozu Yasujiro use
graphic matches as an integral part of their film style.

MATCH ON ACTION

A cut which splices two different views of the same action together at the same
moment in the movement, making it seem to continue uninterrupted. Quite
logically, these characteristics make it one of the most common transitions in the
continuity style. Here is an example from Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000)

A match on action adds variety and dinamism to a scene, since it conveys two
movements: the one that actually takes place on screen, and an implied one by
the viewer, since her/his position is shifted.

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c) DURATION

Only since the introduction of editing to the cinema at the turn of the 20th
century has not-editing become an option. The decision to extend a shot can be
as significant as the decision to cut it. Editing can affect the experience of time
in the cinema by creating a gap between screen time and diegetic time (Montage
and overlapping editing) or by establishing a fast or slow rhythm for the scene.

LONG TAKE, aka PLAN-SEQUENCE

A shot that continues for an unusually lengthy time before the transition to the
next shot. The average lenght per shot differs greatly for different times and
places, but most contemporary films tend to have faster editing rates. In general
lines, any shot above one minute can be considered a long take. Here is an
excerpt from the initial shot of Robert Altman's The Player (1992) which not
only runs for more than eight minutes, but it is in itself an hommage to another
famous long take, the first shot of Welles's Touch of Evil (1958).

Unless shot at a fixed angle, with a fixed camera and no movement, long takes
are extremely hard to shoot. They have to be choreographed and rehearsed to the
last detail, since any error would make it necessary to start all over again from
scratch. Sophisticated long takes such as this one from The Player, which
includes all kinds of camera movements and zooms, are often seen as auteuristic
marks of virtuosity. Aside from the challenge of shooting in real time, long takes
decisively influence a film's rhythm. Depending on how much movement is
included, a long take can make a film tense, stagnant and spell-binding, or
daring, flowing and carefree.Indeed, directors like Altman, Welles, Renoir,
Angelopoulos, Tarkovski or Mizoguchi have made long takes (usually in
combination with deep focus and deep space) an essential part of their film
styles.

OVERLAPPING EDITING

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Cuts that repeat part or all of an action, thus expanding its viewing time and plot
duration. Most commonly associated with experimental filmmmaking, due to its
temporally disconcerting and purely graphic nature, it is also featured in films in
which action and movement take precedence over plot and dialogue: sports
documentaries, musicals, martial arts, etc. Overlapping editing is a common
characteristic of the frenzied Hong Kong action films of the 80s and 90s. When
director John Woo moved to Hollywood, he tried to incorporate some of that
style into mainstream action films, such as Mission: Impossible 2 (2000).

RHYTHM

The perceived rate and regularity of sounds, series of shots, and movements
within the shots. Rhythmic factors include beat (or pulse), accent (or stress), and
tempo (or pace). Rhythm is one of the essential features of a film, for it
decisively contributes to its mood and overall impression on the spectator. It is
also one of the most complex to analyze, since it is achieved through the
combination of mise-en-scene, cinematography, sound and editing. Indeed,
rhythm can be understood as the final balance all of the elements of a film. Let
us compare how rhythm can radically alter the treatment of a similar scene.
These two clips from Deconstructing Harry (Woody Allen, 1997) and Cries and
Whispers (Viskingar Och Rop, Ingmar Bergman, Sweden1972) feature a couple
at a table, and both clips feature a moment of fracture between the two
characters. Still, they could not be more dissimilar. Allen employs fast cuts
(even jump cuts), pans, quick dialogue and gesturing, as he concentrates
exclusively on the two characters, shot from a variety of angles but always in
medium close-up and close-up.

Even if both characters overtly disagree with each other, there is an overall
feeling of warmth and inmediacy between them, suggested by their proximity
(established in short pans and close-ups) and in the tone of their speech. The

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quick camera movements and different camera placements suggest the
uneasiness of both characters, as they budge on their seats.

Cries and Whispers, on the other hand, present us with a scene of horrifying
stillness. Bergman accentuates the separation between man and woman by
shooting them frontally and almost eliminating dialogue. In this context, even
the smallest sounds of forks and knives sound ominous; a glass shattering
resonates like a shot.

Furthermore, the mise-en-scene becomes as equally, if not more, important than

the characters, reducing everything to dour red, black and whites. The feeling of
claustrophobia is enhanced by the use of shallow space, having the characters
become one with the austere backgrounds. Pace is deliberately slow, and it only
quickes when the glass breaks and both characters lift up their heads, only to
immediately return to normal. Bergman accelerates the rhythm for a second,
punctuating the moment of the glass breaking so that a trivial incident is
magnified into a clear signal of disaster.

Lastly, rhythm is, almost by definition, intrisically related to music and sound.
Some of the most striking examples of the use of music as a film's driving force
occur in the (endlessly imitated) spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, which were
written in close collaboration with composer Ennio Morricone. In fact,
sometimes the music would be composed first and then a scene that fitted that
rhythm would be shot, thus reversing the customary order.

The prelude to the final shotdown of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Il Buono,
il Brutto, il Cattivo, Italy, 1966) runs for several minutes (of which we only see
the last minute here), as three men face each other in a triangle, waiting to see
who will take the first step. One of the film's theme songs is played in its
entirety, from a slow, elegiac beginning to a frenzy crescendo that is abruptly
cut off by the first gunshot. The slow mounting crescendo is paralleled by an

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increase in the editing rate, and an intensified framing (the sequence actually
begins on a long shot similar to the previous one).

Section 2 - Styles

The patterned use of transitions, matches and duration can be identified as a

cinematic style. Editing styles are usually associated with historical moments,
technological developments, or national schools.

CONTINUITY EDITING

A system of cutting to maintain continuous and clear narrative action.

Continuity editing relies upon matching screen direction, position, and temporal
relations from shot to shot. The film supports the viewer's assumption that space
and time are contiguous between successive shots. Also, the diegesis is more
readily understood when directions on the screen match directions in the world
of the film. The "180° rule," shown in the diagram below, dictates that the
camera should stay in one of the areas on either side of the axis of action (an
imaginary line drawn between the two major dramatic elements A and B in a
scene, usually two characters).

By following this rule the filmmaker ensures that each character occupies a
consistent area of the frame, helping the audience to understand the layout of the
scene. This sense of a consistent space is reinforced by the use of techniques
such as the eyeline match or match on action. In this sequence from Neighbors
(Buster Keaton, 1920), continuity is maintained by the spatial and temporal
contiguity of the shots and the preservation of direction between world and
screen. More importantly, the shots are matched on Keaton's actions as he
shuttles across the courtyard from stairwell to stairwell.

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In the Hollywood continuity editing system the angle of the camera axis to the
axis of action usually changes by more than 30 ° between two shots, for example
in a conversation scene rendered as a series of shot/reverse shots. The 180° line
is not usually crossed unless the transition is smoothed by a POV shot or a
reestablishing shot.

MONTAGE

1. A synonym for editing. 2. An approach to editing developed by the Soviet

filmmakers of the 1920s such as Pudovkin, Vertov and Eisenstein; it emphasizes
dynamic, often discontinuous, relationships between shots and the juxtaposition
of images to create ideas not present in either shot by itself. Sergei Eisenstein, in
particular, developed a complex theory of montage that included montage within
the shot, between sound and image, multiple levels of overtones, as well as in
the conflict between two shots. This sequence from October (Oktyabr, USSR,
1927) is an example of Eisenstein's intellectual montage. The increasingly
primitive icons from various world religions are linked by patterns of duration,
screen direction and shot scale to produce the concept of religion as a degenerate
practice used to legitimate corrupt states.

Soviet Montage proved to be influential around the world for commercial as

well as avant-garde filmmakers. We can see echoes of Pudovkin in The Grapes
of Wrath (John Ford, USA, 1939), Mother India (Mehboob Khan, India, 1957),
and The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, USA, 1973). In a famous sequence
from the latter film, shots of Michael attending his son's baptism are intercut

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with the brutal killings of his rivals. Rather than stressing the temporal
simultaneity of the events (it is highly unlikely that all of the New York Mafia
heads can be caught off guard at exactly the same time!), the montage suggests
Michael's dual nature and committement to both his "families", as well as his
ability to gain acceptance into both on their own terms -- through religion and
violence.

ELLIPTICAL EDITING

Shot transitions that omit parts of an event, causing an ellipses in plot and story
duration. In this clip from Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000), a drug party is
rendered through elliptical editing (achieved with a plentiful use of dissolves
and jump cuts) in order to both shorten the time and suggest the character's
rambling mental states.

Elliptical editing need not be confined to a same place and time. A seven-minute
song sequence from Hum Aapke Hain Koun (Sooraj Bartjatya, India 1994)
dances us through several months in the life of a family, from a cricket match to
a ritual welcoming a new wife.

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from scenes of the newlyweds' daily life... to the announcement of Pooja's
pregnacy,

from a gift shower for the upcoming baby... to multiple scenes of celebrations,
as Pooja's approaches her ninth month.

Part 5: Sound

Section I - Sound Editing

Sound in the cinema does not necessarily match the image, nor does it have to
be continuous. The sound bridge is used to ease the transition between shots in
the continuity style. Sound can also be used to reintroduce events from earlier in
the diegesis. Especially since the introduction of magnetic tape recording after
WWII, the possibilities of sound manipulation and layering have increased
tremendously. Directors such as Robert Altman are famous for their complex
use of the soundtrack, layering multiple voices and sound effects in a sort of
"sonic deep focus." In this clip from Nashville (1975), we simultaneously hear a
conversation between an English reporter and her guide, a gospel choir singing,
and the sound engineers' chatter.

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SOUND BRIDGE

Sound bridges can lead in or out of a scene. They can occur at the beginning of
one scene when the sound from the previous scene carries over briefly before
the sound from the new scene begins. Alternatively, they can occur at the end of
a scene, when the sound from the next scene is heard before the image appears
on the screen. Sound bridges are one of the most common transitions in the
continuity editing style, one that stresses the connection between both scenes
since their mood (suggested by the music) is still the same. But sound bridges
can also be used quite creatively, as in this clip from Yi Yi (Taiwan, 2000).
Director Edward Yang uses a sound bridge both to play with our expectations.
The clip begins with a high angle shot of a couple arguing under a highway. A
piano starts playing and the scene cuts into a house interior, where a pregnant
woman is looking at some cd's...

...finally, the camera pans to reveal a young girl (previously offscreen) playing
the piano. It is only then that we realize the music is diegetic, and that the young
girl was looking at the window at her best friend and her boyfriend. The
romantic melody she plays as she realizes they are breaking up in turn
introduces a now possible future relationship for her -- which eventually
happens, as she starts dating her best friend's ex-boyfriend later in the film.

SONIC FLASHBACK

Sound from one diegetic time is heard over images from a later time. In this
example from Kurosawa's No Regrets for Our Youth (Waga seishun ni kui nashi,
Japan, 1946), the heroine Yukie hears the voices of her dead father and executed
husband, voicing the aspirations that sustain her continuing struggle.

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Sonic flashback often carries this kind of moral or emotional overtone, making a
character's motivation explicit.

Section 2 - Source

Most basically, this category refers to the place of a sound in relation to the
frame and to the world of the film. A sound can be onscreen or offscreen,
diegetic or nondiegetic (including voice over), it can be recorded separately
from the image or at the moment of filming. Sound source depends on numerous
technical, economic, and aesthetic considerations, each of which can affect the
final significance of a film.

DIEGETIC/NON-DIEGETIC SOUND

Any voice, musical passage, or sound effect presented as originating froma

source within the film's world is diegetic. If it originates outside the film (as
most background music) then it is non-diegetic.

A further distinction can be made between external and internal diegetic sound.
In the first clip from Almodóvar's Women On The Verge Of A Nervous
Breakdown (Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios, 1988) we hear Iván
speaking into the microphone as he works on the Spanish dubbing of Johnny
Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954). Since he is speaking out loud and any other
character could hear him, this is an example of external diegetic sound. This clip
has no non-diegetic sounds other than the brief keyboard chord that introduces
the scene.

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Sound and diegesis gets more complicated in the next clip, from Dario Argento's
The Stendhal Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Italy, 1996). As Anna looks
at Paolo Uccello's famous painting of the Battle of San Romano (c1435), we
begin to hear the sounds of the battle: horses whimpering, weapons clashing,
etc. These sounds exist only in Anna's troubled mind, which is highly sensitive
to works of art. These are internal diegetic sounds (inside of a character's mind)
that no one else in the gallery can hear.

On the other hand, the Ennio Morricone eerie score that sets up the scene and
mixes with the battle sounds, is a common example of non-diegetic sound,
sounds that only the spectators can hear. (Obviously, no boom-box blasting
tourist is allowed into the Uffizi's gallery!)

DIRECT SOUND

When using direct sound, the music, noise, and speech of the profilmic event at
the moment of filming is recorded in the film. This is the opposite of
postsynchronization in which the sound is dubbed on top of an existing, silent
image. Studio systems use multiple microphones to record directly and with the
utmost clarity. On the other hand, some national cinemas, notably Italy, India
and Japan, have avoided direct sound at some stage in their histories and dubbed
the dialogues to the film after the shooting. But direct sound can also mean
something other than the clearly defined synchronized sound of Hollywood
films -- the Cinéma verité, third world filmmaking and other documentarist,
improvisatory and realist styles that also record sound directly but with an
elementary microphone set-up, as in Abbas Kiarostami's Taste of Cherry (Ta'm e
Guilass, Iran, 1997).

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The result maintains the immediacy of direct sound at the expense of clarity.
Furthermore, incidental sounds (street noise, etc) are not mixed down, but left
"as it is". Impression and mood are favored over precision: not every word can
be made out. The final sonic picture is blurred and harder to understand, but
arguably closer to what we perceive in real life.

NONSIMULTANEOUS SOUND

Diegetic sound that comes from a source in time either earlier or later than the
images it accompanies. In this clip from Almodóvar's Women On The Verge Of
A Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios, Spain, 1988)
Pepa adds the female voice to the dubbing of Johnny Guitar, the male voice
having previously been recorded by Pepa's ex-lover Ivan. (You can see Ivan's
dubbing here)

While Pepa's voice is diagetic and simultaneous, Ivan's voice is also diegetic,
and yet it is nonsimultaneous, since it comes from a previous moment in the
film. Almodóvar uses nonsimultaneous sound to establish a conversation that
should have taken place but never did (Ivan is not returning Pepa's calls and she
is becoming desperate) when, with a perverse melodramatic twist, he has the
jilted lovers repeating the words of another couple of cinematic jilted lovers. As
in this example, nonsimultaneous sound is often used to suggest recurrent
obsessions and other hallucinatory states.

OFFSCREEN SOUND

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Simultaneous sound from a source assumed to be in the space of the scene but
outside what is visible onscreen. In Life on Earth (La Vie sur Terre,
Abderrahmane Sissako, 1998) a telephone operator tries to help a woman getting
a call trough. While he tries to establish a connection, the camera examines the
office and the other people present in the scene. Yet, even if the operator and the
woman are now offscreen, their centrality to the scene is alway tangible through
sounds (dialing, talking, etc).

Of course, a film may use offscreen sound to play with our assumptions. In this
clip from Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al Borde de
un Ataque de Nervios, Pedro Almodóvar, 1988), we hear a woman and a man's
voices in conversation, in what it looks like a film production studio. Even if we
do not see the speakers, we instantly believe they must be around. Gradually, the
camera shows us that we are in a dubbing studio, and only the woman is present,
the man's voice being previously recorded. Moreover, theirs is not a real
conversation but lines from a movie dialogue.

POSTSYNCHRONIZATION DUBBING

The process of adding sound to images after they have been shot and assembled.
This can include dubbing of voices, as well as inserting diegetic music or sound
effects. It is the opposite of direct sound. It is not, however, the opposite of
synchronous sound, since sound and image are also matched here, even if at a
later stage in the editing process. Compare the French dubbed, or post-
synchronized, version of Mission: Impossible 2 (John Woo, 2000), with the
sychronized original.

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You can hear the original English version here.

SOUND PERSPECTIVE

The sense of a sound's position in space, yielded by volume, timbre, pitch, and,
in stereophonic reproduction systems, binaural information. Used to create a
more realistic sense of space, with events happening (that is, coming from)
closer or further away. Listen closely to this clip from The Magnificent
Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942) as the woman goes through her door and
comes back.

As soon as she closes the door her voice sounds muffled and distant (she is
walking away), then grows clearer (she is coming back), then at full volume
again, as she comes out. We can also hear hushing remarks that gives us a sense
of the absent presence of a whole web of family members in the house. The
stronger the voice, the closer his/ her room. Sound perspective, combined with
offscreen space, also gives us clues as to who (and most importantly, where) is
present in a scene. Welles' use of sound in this scene is unusual since Classical
Hollywood Cinema generally sacrifices sound perspective to narrative
comprehensibility.

SYNCHRONOUS SOUND

Sound that is matched temporally with the movements occuring in the images,
as when dialogue corresponds to lip movements. The norm for Hollywood films
is to synchronize sound and image at the moment of shooting; others national

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cinemas do it later (see direct sound, postsyncronization) Compare the original
English version of Mission: Impossible 2 (John Woo, 2000),

with the French dubbed version.

VOICE OVER

When a voice, often that of a character in the film, is heard while we see an
image of a space and time in which that character is not actually speaking. The
voice over is often used to give a sense of a character's subjectivity or to narrate
an event told in flashback. It is overwhelmingly associated with genres such as
film noir, and its obsessesive characters with a dark past. It also features
prominently in most films dealing with autobiography, nostalgia, and literary
adaptation. In the title sequence from The Ice Storm (1997) Ang Lee uses voice
over to situate the plot in time and to introduce the subject matter (i.e., the
American family in the 1970s), while also giving an indication of his main
character's ideas and general culture.

While a very common and useful device, voice over is an often abused
technique. Over dependance on voice over to vent a character's thoughts can be
interpreted as a telling signal of a director's lack of creativity --or a training on
literature and theater, rather than visual arts. But voice over can also be used in
non literal or ironic ways, as when the words a character speaks do not seem to
match the actions he/she performs. Some avant garde films, for instance, make
purposely disconcerting uses of voice over narration.

163
Section 3 - Quality

Much like quality of the image, the aural properties of a sound -- its timbre,
volume, reverb, sustain, etc. -- have a major effect on a film's aesthetic. A film
can register the space in which a sound is produced (its sound signature) or it
can be otherwise manipulated for dramatic purposes. The recording of Orson
Welles' voice at the end of Touch of Evil (1958) adds a menacing reverb to his
confession.

The mediation of Abbas Kiarostami's voice through the walkie-talkie and the
video quality of the image in the coda of Taste of Cherry (Ta'm e Guilass, Iran,
1997) underscore the reflexivity that is characteristic of his films.

Part 6: Analysis

EXAMPLES OF FILM ANALYSIS

Click on the links below to see extremely rudimentary examples of shot

breakdown and close analysis of sequences from various films. You should aim
to go beyond these examples in the precision and cogency of the analyses in
your assignments.

Rocco and his Brothers (Rocco e i suoi fratelli, Luchino Visconti, Italy, 1960)

Il Grido (Michelangelo Antononi, Italy, 1957)

164
Click here if the Table of Contents frame is not visible at the left side of your
screen.

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Rocco and his Brothers (Luchino Visconti, Italy, 1960)

In the beginning of the film, the working-class Parondi family has just migrated
to Milan from southern Italy. Unable to stay with the oldest son and his
Milanese in-laws, they relocate to a housing project.

SHOT
IMAGE ANALYSIS
DESCRIPTION

Editing: shot#1 fade

in (can't see it in this
Rocco and his family
clip)
(Parondi) moving into
Cinematography: LS
new lodging, in a
establishing shot
housing project in the
becomes MLS as
outskirts of Milan. We
characters move
see the family through
toward camera
the fence; their new
slight pan to the
home is visually like a
right, following the
prison. The day is rainy
characters
-- typical of a Milanese
slight refraings all
winter but new to the
the way through to
family. They are not
keep characters
dressed for the weather
centered
and shiver against the
Sound: street noise
cold. Drab, low-contrast
Mise-en-scene: gate,
image.
lines across image,
rainy street, mist,
reflective

165
 Mom speaks, even if she
has many grown up sons.
Editing: (same shot) She's the boss. Even if
Cinematography: they are actually entering
MLS, widescreen, (that is, outside), her
black figures on light cries holding the fence
background brings prison images to
Sound: suddenly mind, calling for
loud: Rosaria calls for help/guards (that is, from
the porter. offscreen the inside). Or rather,
sound (high reverb) animals in the zoo, an
of porter's response association later
Mise-en-scene: reinforzed by the
gesturing: cold; neighbors' malicious
clothing: low class, gossip (ie: Africans =
immigrants (not southerners = animals).
winter clothes) The family huddles
together -- a group
against an unfriendly
northern society.
Editing: (same shot)
Cinematography: Porter speaks in
MLS Milanese;
Sound: dialogue, two communication is
different dialects difficult, lot of gesturing.
(Milanese and [Native informant note:
Southern) This is not dialect but
Mise-en-scene: porter accent -- the film makes
appears from an effort to establish
offscreen space; linguistic differences but
at the same time seeks to
make that difference
comprehensible to a
general audience]. Post-
synchronized dialogue
detaches voices from the
space of the image.
Widescreen: good for
extended families, group
portraits. Visconti
heavily pictorial, his
aristocratic education
allows him to draw

166
 compositions from royal
group portraits, ironically
applied to this family.
Reinforces the "epic"
nature of the film.
Editing: Shot #2, Wider shot: the lens
match on action as "opens up" with the door.
gate opens The camera remains
Cinematography: LS, detached from the
pan following characters: no POV shot,
characters no eyeline match, not
Sound: dialogue reverse shots of the
continues family. Instead the shot
Mise-en-scene: stresses the relation of
reflections of rain, the family to the
gestures for overwhelming municipal
communication architecture.
We get a better look at
the cart: ready for war,
with mom as general; or
exodus imagery. This
family in exile from its
traditional home. Camera
Editing: (same shot) cuts, now showing the
Cinematography: LS family from the back,
Sound: noise of dwarfed by the
footsteps architecture. The path
Mise-en-scene: cart, looks like a corridor in a
imposing postwar prison block, the
housing project, identical apartments are
passing woman turns like cells. They have
to look. been sent to the
basement: a slow descent
into hell. This is
registered in the bodily
attitude of the family
members, dressed in
black.

167
Editing: shot#3,
match on action as
the woman keep
walking and meets
the porter
Cinematography: Again, the family is
ELS of family; closer dwarfed by the prison-
shot of gossiping like project. The
couple,grey tone, separation of the family
ends with fade to in extreme background
black from the gossiping
Sound: postrecorded women in extreme
close-up dialogue foreground mirrors a
between the two cultural separation
Milanese women, between north and south,
make fun of the even though they all
immigrants belong to the same social
Mise-en-scene: big class.
housing project, all
houses are the same.
Deep space connects
commenting women
to family.
Editing: Shot #4; fade New scene: the objects
in indicate the low class and
Cinematography: lack of education of the
darker image, slight Parondi family. The
track left then pan objects associated with
right across basement the family take over the
apartment to window; function of dialogue in
it is snowing this long
Sound: silent tracking/panning shot.
Mise-en-scene: The images indicate the
religious imagery, importance of religion
family photographs, and the family, and their
simple food, no elementary eating and
curtains, bare walls sleeping arrangements.
The low key lighting in
the image gives us a
sense of the drabness of
their existence in their
new lodgings. The shot
of the windows shows

168
 that they are buried
underground. It is not yet
dawn; they spend all the
daylight hours working.
The film shows that
immigrants from the
regions are even "lower"
than the local working
class.
Editing: shot #5, cut
Cinematography: Rocco wakes up first and
crane shot rises with sleeps alone; he is
Rocco then tracks different from his
right with him as he brothers; the most
walks across the responsible, serious. As
room to the second in the title, the film here
window. Mirror of visually singles out
shot #4. Lights come Rocco for special
on in the background. attention. The track back
Sound: silent across the room reveals
Mise-en-scene: Same that he is sleeping in the
objects we see in shot "kitchen". We see that it
#4. gesturing: it's is snowing.
cold.
Rocco opens the and
realizes it is snowing
Editing: (same shot)
(probably first time for
Cinematography:
the whole family).
track and pan left, as
Neighbors are waking up
Rocco retraces his
too, to go to work: lights,
steps across the room.
noises; one gets the idea
camera obstructed by
most people in the
pillar.
apartments share a
Sound: window
similar social standing.
opening, voices of
The obstruction of the
people waking up in
camera indicates the
the neighborhood
"reality" of the setting:
Mise-en-scene:
the space is not arranged
bottles of oil or wine
for optimum visibility
in window, more of
but seems to exist "prior"
basement apartment
to the filming (even
though this may be a set).

169
 The harsh sidelighting on
Rocco is part of a visual
rhetoric that impresses on
Editing: (same shot) us the harshness of their
lifestyle. In general the
Cinematography:
film is structured by
MCU, as Rocco
strong contrasts:
approaches the
north/south,
camera
pan stops as Rocco modernity/backwardness,
reaches for the light city/country,
education/ignorance and,
switch
Sound: click of light ultimately, good and evil.
switch, Rocco calls to The MCU starts to bring
us closer to Rocco in the
his brothers
Mise-en-scene: bare narrative: earlier he has
been seen as part of his
bulb lights up room.
family; now the camera
bulb in image.
contemplates him alone.
heavily shadowed
Alain Delon here is cast
face.
strongly against the
romantic type he had
established in France.
Editing: (same shot) The other brothers are in
Cinematography: MS the next room. Later in
as Rocco walks away the scene we'll see the
from the camera into whole basement where
the adjacent room the many Parondis live,
Sound: Rocco calls virtually one on top of
his brothers to wake each other. The
up architectural / social
Mise-en-scene: characterization begun in
family photograph on this scene will continue
wall, whitewashed in the following
walls. sequence. The bare bulb
as another mark of
poverty and
improvisation, along with
the bare walls and the
hanging herbs etc. They
were expecting to stay
with the oldest son's in-
laws. Instead, they find
themselves in this

170
 dungeon.

URL: http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis
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Certifying Authority: Film Studies Program
Copyright © 2002 Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520

Il grido (Michelangelo Antononi, Italy, 1957)

The final sequence of Antonioni's Il grido. Began as documentarist in this

region, interested in landscape earlier features were melodramas, here returns to
Po valley, last film before famous trilogy: L'avventura, L'eclisse, La notte
(1960-63). Antonioni's first color film, Red Desert (1964) sealed his reputation
as a high modernist, a reexamination of same topics as Il grido, but greater shift
from neorealist observation to modernist reflexivity. Story of film: Aldo,
industrial worker and his growing alienation from other people (workers,
lovers), final realization of the physical and spiritual emptiness that surrounds
him. This sequence contrasts social agitation of factory workers struggling with
police against the lonely journey of one worker, followed by Elvira, one of his
mistresses…

IMAGE SHOT DESCRIPTION ANALYSIS

Aerial view. Familiar
Editing: shot#1
from landscape
Cinematography: ELS,
documentaries. People
extreme high angle
lost in / vanishing into
establishing shot. grey
the landscape.
tone: low contrast black
Problem of individual
and white images.
consciousness reaches
Sound: people running
climax in this film. Po
and shouting
valley, famous
Mise-en-scene: Misty
neorealist location,
landscape - never get
from end of Paisa
clear shot in film.
(1946).
Editing: shot#2, match Police and protestors
in action of the as two vectors across
protesters going off the the landscape.
road Depersonalized
Cinematography: LS, forces.
camera descends to eye
level
Sound: sounds gets

171
louder, as demonstrators
clash with the police
Mise-en-scene:
silhouettes against the
sky; even if far away,
the caps allows to tell
policemen apart
Editing: same shot
Cinematography: LS,
tracks down the steep,
following the people as Graceful camera
they get off the road movement that
Sound: shouting keeps mimics the terrain.
getting louder
Mise-en-scene: same as
above
Editing: shot#3, quick Contrast w/ Aldo -
cut single figure,
Cinematography: ELS, returning to the
pans left following Aldo deserted factory LS;
as he enters the factory The bars on the grate
through the side door are like a prison. Aldo
Sound: sudden change to wants to get away
total silence; we only from the world.
hear Aldo's footsteps Washed out images in
Mise-en-scene: Aldo this sequence: low
approaches and grasps contrast black and
prison-like fence; white as corrolary to
individual vs. vitiated emotions.
modern/industrial time of day usually
building constrasted unspecific in this film.
with groups/ nature of Season is late
previous scenes autumn/winter.
Editing: same shot (long Dead time: actions not
take). simply achieved but
Cinematography: LS, constantly obstructed,
pan continues and tracks derailed. Challenging
forwards (or zooms?) for the viewer too...
onto Aldo, turns into a
MLS
Sound: Aldo's footsteps,
which grow louder or
softer as he stops or

172
quicken his pace
Mise-en-scene: stresses
Aldo's isolation,
deserted factory. Shift
from landscape to
factory.
Editing: same shot
Cinematography: Lack of contrast in the
camera stops panning at image reduces the
the fence and follows distinction between
Aldo as he goes further landscape and factory.
inside, goes from MLS Landscape drab, so is
to LS to ELS factory, so are people.
Sound: One of Antonioni's
Mise-en-scene: bare main themes is the
tree, deserted sugar denaturalization of the
refinery, grey buildings landscape.
against grey sky.
Editing: shot#4, abrupt
cut, back to the
demonstration.
Cinematography: LS,
camera pans slightly Looks like she's part
right, taking the curve of running group, but
and following a woman separated in image.
who steps out we realize that she is
Sound: again, abrupt Elvira, whom we have
change in dynamics, seen in the previous
loud, fast footsteps of sequence running after
many people running Aldo.
Mise-en-scene: woman
singled out by her
running across the
screen
Editing: shot#5, another Tower is significant in
quick cut, by now we this film: this is where
know this is parallel Aldo worked. Film
editing; an eyeline refuses to show us
match to something Aldo's perspective, or
above is suggested as even his eyeline
Aldo lifts up his eyes, match to the tower
but we can't see what he that we realize he is
is looking at (tower, looking at. Like the

173
already important in the
diegesis).
relations between the
Cinematography: MS
characters, all
Sound: again, change to
linkages in this film
total silence
are tenuous.
Mise-en-scene: Aldo
looks up at tower.
Editing: shot#6, cut back
to the road
Cinematography: LS of
a woman (Elvira?);
track/pan as she
Parallel construction
separates herself from
of the editing between
the protesters and runs
Aldo and the woman
toward the factory fence
who is chasing him is
Sound: now her sound is
emphasized by
matched to Aldo's,
contrast of loud/quiet
softer, only one set of
sound of feet.
footsteps
Mise-en-scene: Elvira
separated from the
group, moving toward
factory.
Editing: same shot The fence and the
Cinematography: MLS dark shape of the earth
of Elvira (always tracks bank correlate with
along with her) as she the emotional
presses herself againts separation between
the fence these characters, part
Sound: silence of the emotional
Mise-en-scene: deep background that leads
space, we realize this is to the conclusion of
Aldo in the background the film.
Editing: shot#7, match Again, notice that
in action/eyeline match, time slows down with
as Elvira was looking at Aldo; he is the only
Aldo walking away one not running, and
Cinematography: MS. he is shot in longer
tracking Aldo, as he takes with minimal
stops and starts sound. This is not the
Sound: Aldo's footsteps, cause-and-effect chain
slowing, as if in doubt of plot but the dead
Mise-en-scene: Framing time of story. He just

174
constantly changes,
wanders around,
Aldo framed against
looking at the deserted
buildings for most of
buildings.
this sequence.
Editing: same shot (long
take)
Cinematography: MLS,
The tower. This was
camera stops tracking as
the place where Aldo
Aldo stops to look a the
is first shown in the
tower.
film, before
Sound: silence, then
descending and
louder footsteps as Aldo
running out through
makes up his mind and
the gate. The
goes towards the tower
recapitulation of that
Mise-en-scene: Now
scene in reverse
Aldo ventures into
suggests that the story
central compound, we
is coming full circle.
see refinery tower where
he worked in the
background.
Editing: same shot
Cinematography: LS, tilt
We realize the tower,
that brings the top of the
like Aldo, is a marker
tower on screen and
of solitude. Aldo is
leaves Aldo off screen.
associated with the
Sound: footsteps
tower as elements that
Mise-en-scene: Tower
physically stand apart
dominates the
from their
composition. Another
surroundings.
solitary composition in
the film.
Editing: shot#8 cut, real Real time / dead time.
time: cut to HA shots The time Aldo is
Cinematography: LS, absent from the
high angle, crane (tracks previous shot seems
upwards)as Aldo goes approximately equal
up the stairs to the time it would
Sound: silence, Aldo take for Aldo to reach
slow but firm steps the tower -- the film
Mise-en-scene: rails and insists of the real time
metal surfaces of the of action, at the
tower. expense of drama.

175
Editing: same shot (long
Film narration is
take, we get to see each
uncommunicative in
step on the stairs)
not letting us know
Cinematography: MS, as
what characters see or
Aldo gets neare to the
even what they are
camera, which keeps
about to do: we have
craning (not a tilt) and
to reconstruct their
reframing on him.
field of view in
Sound: steps
retrospect and are
Mise-en-scene: Aldo
constantly surprised
looking out, no idea
by what they do.
what he's looking at.
Same scale as Aldo
before, LS, then she
Editing: shot#9, cut as gets nearer, etc. but
Aldo leaves frame in she is running, and we
previous shot don't see her whole
Cinematography: movements (much
mirrors Aldo entrance shorter takes) each
(reinforces parallel character has a
construction), from ELS different time
to MS as Elvira signature. The film
approaches the camera establishes different
Sound: hurried footsteps rhythms for different
Mise-en-scene: characters. This is a
recognize factory more important
landmarks structureal principle
than the typical
narrative arc.
Before, we had an
opposition between
Editing: shot#10, cut
the longer shots of
Cinematography: MLS,
Aldo and shorter shots
camera pans/tilts, keeps
of Elvira following.
following Aldo's ascent
Now the length of the
Sound: light footsteps
shots becomes similar,
Mise-en-scene:
but the pace within the
continues following
shot is still contrasted:
Aldo's actions from shot
Elvira always runs,
#8
while Aldo moves
slowly.

176
 Elvira's urgency is
contrasted to Aldo's
previous pensive
mood. She does not
care for the buildings,
Editing: shot#11, cut does not belong there,
Cinematography: ELS as Aldo does. The
Sound: silence (footsteps longer takes
in the distance) emphasize Aldo's
Mise-en-scene: again, connection with the
Elvira retraces Aldo's factory, which is not
path so significant to
Elvira. Accordingly,
Elvira's scenes in the
factory are
significantly shorter
than Aldo's.
Aldo goes further and
further away from the
world, becomes more
Editing: shot#12, eyeline
and more
match, as shot#11 end
insignificant.He has
with Elvira looking up
been associated with
Cinematography: ELS;
the tower from the
unbalanced framing
beginning of the film
Sound: silence (footsteps
and now he returns to
in the distance)
it. The movement
Mise-en-scene: striking
hints at a spiritual
modernist composition,
aspect of the film:
de-centered, as Aldo and
Aldo is portrayed as a
the tower become one.
kind of "holy fool"
who hasn't adapted to
the modern world.
Editing: same shot The composition of
Cinematography: MS of this shot reinforces the
Elvira as she comes into paired relation
the foreground, ELS of between Aldo and
Aldo. Elvira, in their
Sound: loud and near as simultaneous
Elvira steps in similarity and
Mise-en-scene: use of opposition. They are
offscreen space; as soon present to each other
as Elvira comes in, she but out of reach. False

177
 POV shot: seems like
the tower is seen from
Elvira's perspective,
as shown in shot#11,
but then she walks
into the frame. This
ambiguous setup is
common to Antonioni:
balances the frame the arrangement of
camera, subject, and
object is understood
retrospectively, in
contrast to the
piecemeal style that
leads a viewer through
the significant
elements of a scene.
Editing: same shot (long
Contrast between
take)
puny human figure
Cinematography: ELS as
and the monumental
Elvira runs towards the
tower and buildings;
side of the tower, slight
sense of hopelessness
tilt downwards to follow
of her cause is
her
nowhere more
Sound: hurried, sudden
evident, as her cry
footsteps running away;
pierces the empty
first word of the
space. The tower
sequence, as she shouts
looks increasingly
his name.
"alien" -- less an
Mise-en-scene: Elvira is
industrial machine
again dwarfed by the
than a space ship.
tower
Editing: shot#13, cut. Notice that Aldo is
Reaction shot as Aldo more and more often
starts, hearing Elvira's shot from the back,
call. stressing his
Cinematography: MLS alienation/indifference
Sound: Elvira's voice, to everything around
Aldo's footsteps him. This is the last
Mise-en-scene: time we will clearly
gesturing; Aldo looks see his face; almost as
baffled, as if awakening if he is taking his
from a trance leave. The last frame

178
 after he exits is empty,
again reinforcing the
feeling that "he is no
longer there". Contrast
of shot scale between
the end of shot 12 and
the beginning of shot
13 marks an emphatic
break. The sequence is
accelerating to its
conclusion.

Editing: shot#14, match

in action as Aldo enters
the frame
Contrast of size
Cinematography: MS of
underlines sense that
Aldo, ELS of Elvira,
Aldo is removed from
high angle. Unusual,
emotional contact
high angle over-the-
with his ex-mistress.
shoulder shot.
Also from the human
Sound: Elvira's voice
scale of objects on the
Mise-en-scene: deep
ground.
space, deep focus,
contrast in size of
figures
Editing: shot#15, match
Aldo is now
in action as Aldo waves
definitevely trapped in
his hand; and a
a narrow space, after
suggested POV shot
traveling across so
from Elvira's
many open, empty
perspective.
spaces. End of the
Cinematography: LS,
road, with nowhere to
low angle. Space seems
go. Again, POV is
flattened: Perhaps a
understood only
telephoto lens?
retrospectively, when
Sound: silence
we see the following
Mise-en-scene: Staircase
shot of Elvira.
traps Aldo.

179
Editing: shot#16, eyeline
First close-up of
match on object of
Elvira, thus allowing
Aldo's gaze
her some
Cinematography: MCU
individuality/ feelings.
Sound: she utters a cry,
Meshing of nature and
as she notices Aldo's
factory into modern,
swaying, then anguished
inhuman space. Tree
silence
in the background as
Mise-en-scene: wintry,
unexpected intrusion
industrial scene.
of nature into factory
Inexpensive, nondescript
compound. Will recur
clothing -- Elvira is a
later.
housewife.
Scene is extended in
Editing: shot#17,
duration but sense of
shot/reverse shot with
dead time replaced by
shot#18, same as
sense of anxiety. What
shot#14 and shot#15
will happen? Repeated
Cinematography: MS of
shot reinforces sense
Aldo, ELS of Elvira,
of trance-like
high angle
repetition in this scene
Sound: total silence
that is a culmination
Mise-en-scene: deep
of Aldo's almost
space, deep focus,
somnambulist
contrast in size of
procession around the
figures, same camera
countryside in this
placement as shot#14
film.
Editing:shot#18,
shot/reverse-shot,
graphically matched to Tension between
shot 12 but from another graphic pattern and
position spatial dislocation.
Cinematography: MLS Elvira has been
of Elvira, ELS of Aldo, running through the
low angle whole sequence but
Sound: total silence not she stands and
Mise-en-scene: deep watches.
space, deep focus: we
see Aldo start to fall

180
 Shot scale: this is the
first MS of Elvira in
the sequence. She
screams: this is "Il
grido" (the scream) of
the title, a (possible)
connection to Munch's
painting of the same
name and same theme
(modern alienation).
Editing: shot#19, cut.
Melodrama reappears
reaction shot of Elvira as
when she
she looks at Aldo
screams/gestures but
Cinematography: MS
is at the same time
Sound: sudden,
attenuated by the
desperate cry of Elvira
dubbing (sound comes
("il grido") as Aldo falls;
from somewhere else
we hear him crashing to
and it shows) and
the ground offscreen
thematically as well
Mise-en-scene: Violent
since this is not the
gestures of surprise and
"important" woman;
anguish
more a casual witness,
really. Plus, we don't
see Aldo falling, only
a thud as he crashes.
Desperate gestures,
which seem all the
more brutal when
contrasted with the
emotional monotony
of the film.
Editing: same shot Quasi-religious
Cinematography: slow associations with
crane movement Pieta; she is the more
sideways and to lower motherly of all three
level, from MS to LS. women (2 children,
Same angle. and Aldo). Never see
Sound: silence; at the his face in the final
end of the scene moments, either too
soundtrack music starts far away, or shot from
playing, for the first time the back. Further non-
in the sequence identification
Mise-en-scene: Elvira (opposite of

181
 melodrama) She
kneels beside him,
silent. Soundtrack
music starts, first time
walks up to and kneels
in the whole sequence,
besides Aldo's body.
sounds odd, almost
Prostrate body, kneeling
vulgar. A waltz
body, tree in
(played with some
background. Deep space,
electronic instruments,
frontal blocking
sounds a bit
mechanical).
Incongruous
conclusion to the film.
Very unexpected
ending, further
modernist detachment,
but also reserved in its
Editing: shot#20, cut refusal to show
Cinematography: ELS of gruesome spectacle.
the empty factory, high The film reworks
angle vulgar melodramatic
Sound: soundtrack intimacy in its respect
music for the suffering of the
Mise-en-scene: deserted characters and their
factory, deep space, we fundamental
still see people & horses impenetrability.
on the road, in the People passing onthe
background road in the
background remind us
that life goes on,
indifferent to
individual suffering.
Editing: same shot.
Cinematography:
camera pans and tilts
down to include the two
figures, ELS, high angle. Fine
The End appears
Sound: soundtrack
music
Mise-en-scene:

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URL: http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis
Last Modified: August 27, 2002
Certifying Authority: Film Studies Program
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