Introduction to Film

Studies
Table of Contents
Unit 1​ 5
Nature of Art​ 6
Ways of Looking at Art​ 11
The Spectrum of Abstraction​ 11
The Modes of Discourse​ 13
The "Rapports de Production"​ 14
Narrative​ 18
Narrative structure​ 18
Restricted narration​ 21
Omniscient narration​ 21
Character​ 23
Point of View​ 23

Unit 2​ 24
Mise-en-scene​ 24
Actors​ 26
Location​ 26
Set design​ 26
Lighting​ 26
Shot blocking and camera placement​ 26
Composition​ 27
Depth of space​ 27
Film stock​ 27
Costumes​ 27
Hair and makeup​ 27
The Diachronic Shot​ 28
Set Design​ 28
Lighting​ 28
1. Key Lighting​ 29
2. Fill Lighting​ 29
3. Backlighting​ 30
4. Side Lighting​ 30
5. Practical Lighting​ 31
6. Bounce Lighting​ 31
7. Soft Lighting​ 32
8. Hard Lighting​ 32
9. High Key​ 32
10. Low Key​ 33
11. Motivated Lighting​ 33
12. Ambient Lighting​ 34
Types of shots​ 35
1. Establishing shot​ 35
2. Long shot​ 35
3. Medium shot​ 36
4. Medium close-up shot​ 36
5. Close-up shot​ 36
6. Extreme close-up shot​ 36
7. Two shot​ 37
8. Bird’s-eye view​ 38
9. High angle​ 38
10. Eye level​ 38
11. Low angle​ 38
12. Worm’s-eye view​ 38
13. Over the shoulder​ 39
14. Point of view​ 39
15. Pan​ 39
16. Tilt​ 40
17. Dolly​ 40
18. Truck​ 40
19. Pedestal​ 40
20. Roll​ 40
 Types of focus​ 41
Soft focus​ 41
Rack focus shot​ 42
Split focus diopter​ 43
Tilt shift​ 44
Camera Shots, Angles and Movement​ 45
Shot reverse shot​ 45
Types of transitions​ 46
The Dissolve​ 46
The Cutaway​ 46
The Wipe​ 47
The Fade​ 47
The L Cut & J Cut​ 48
Match Cut​ 49
Jump Cut​ 49
Mise-en-shot​ 50

Unit 3​ 52
Filmmakers​ 52
Auteurs​ 52
Criticism​ 53

Unit 4​ 54
Defining genres​ 54
A descriptive approach​ 54
A functional approach​ 54
Theory​ 55
Problems​ 55
Film noir​ 55

Unit 5​ 58
Documentary​ 58
Expository documentary​ 59
Observational documentary​ 59
Interactive documentary​ 59
Reflexive documentary​ 59
 Performative documentary​ 59

Unit 6​ 60
Review​ 60
Four functions of film reviewing​ 60
Journalism​ 60
Advertising​ 60
Criticism​ 60
Rhetoric (writing)​ 61
Four components of film reviewing​ 61
A condensed plot synopsis​ 61
Background information​ 61
A set of abbreviated arguments about the film​ 61
An evaluation​ 61
Evaluation and Criticism​ 62
Motivation​ 62
Compositional motivation​ 62
Realistic motivation​ 63
Intertextual motivation​ 63
Artistic motivation​ 63
Entertainment value​ 64
Social Value​ 64
Redemption​ 64

What do you need to watch?​ 66

Harishchandrachi factory​ 66
Cinema Paradiso​ 66
Auteur approach - Hitchcock​ 66
Psycho​ 66
Vertigo​ 66
Rear Window​ 67
Raja Harishchandra​ 67
Narrative​ 67
The Godfather​ 67
The Gunfighter​ 67
 The Great Dictator​ 67
Stranger Than Fiction​ 67
Citizen Kane​ 67
Volver​ 67
Pulp Fiction​ 67
Adaptation​ 68
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves​ 68
Horror Comedy​ 68
One Cut Of The Dead​ 68
Run lola run​ 68
Groundhog Day​ 68
Three colors: blue​ 68
Three colors: red​ 68
Three colors: white​ 68
7 Brides for 7 Brothers​ 69
Good Bad and Ugly​ 69
 Unit 1
Film as an Art

If poetry is what you can't translate, as Robert Frost once suggested, then "art" is what
you can't define.

Cinema: History, Discourse and Related Nomenclature

●​ The word ‘cinema’ is derived from the German word ‘kinein’, meaning “to move'',
alluding to cinema as ‘pictures set in motion’.
●​ Cinema was considered a ‘derivative/borrowed art form’, slightly displaced from
photography and theatre, and it was therefore looked down upon. Cinema was also often
labelled as “an invention without a future”.
●​ It was only in post-1990 India (at the onset of globalisation) that cinema became a
cultural signifier, the ‘nation’s pride’, as opposed to a mere art form.
●​ The first film ever: Edweard Muybridge studied and experimented with motion pictures
early on. He placed 24 cameras in a row and captured a shot of a horse galloping with
each camera, creating a cohesive impression of movement (1878).
●​ Today, cinema is synonymous to culture as well as the cultural products. Films borrow
from real people, and audiences borrow customs from films in turn (eg: the popularity of
destination/theme weddings is borrowed from cinema)
●​ Cinema also acts as a status symbol. While it may be considered as an open art form to
the masses, oftentimes gentrification takes place wherein its intended audience shifts to
rich/informed/middle-class audiences. Such gentrification took place in Indian cinema to
confer upon it a “respectable position”.
●​ The terms ‘cinema’, ‘movie’ and ‘film’ are used by laymen interchangeably. ‘Cinema’ is
a term with British origins, while the term ‘Movie’ has an American origin. In academia,
they hold different meanings.
●​ ‘Movie’ has originated from the words ‘moving pictures’ (in an alternate language). The
term ‘movie’ is indicative of a composite art. It is associated with the idea of popular
culture and the social norms that govern production and consumption (for instance, how
the common use of laptops, multiplexes or movie palaces govern the movie itself). The
term ‘movie’ must be used to understand the processes of production and the larger
 community patterns of reception: “How is the movie being consumed/produced?”. The
existence of such a term therefore negates the philosophy of “art for art’s sake”.
●​ Cinema refers to a system that makes use of codes to convey meaning. These codes are
understood through the lens of conventions, that may be universal or culture-specific. The
semantics/symbolism of white, black, blue and yellow (codes) are different in Native
American cultures and in typically Western industrialised cultures. The horror genre is
an example of a system of cinema, and so is ‘Latin American’ cinema. The scope of
cinema therefore takes into consideration the institutionalised characteristics of the
medium (eg: Documentaries are identified by certain definite characteristics).
●​ If Indian cinema the langue, then Sholay is the parole.
●​ ‘Film’ refers to the specific audio-visual text that is subject to the process of production
and consumption. Films can be categorised/grouped together to create the system of
cinema, through conventions like language, form, history, etc (this system exists on the
basis of rules, conventions, similarities, differences, etc.).

Nature of Art
●​ Art covers such a wide range of human endeavors that it is almost more an attitude than
an activity.
●​ The ancients recognized seven activities as arts: History, Poetry, Comedy, Tragedy,
Music, Dance, and Astronomy.
●​ Each was governed by its own muse, each had its own rules and aims, but all seven were
united by a common motivation: they were tools, useful to describe the universe and our
place in it. They were methods of understanding the mysteries of existence, and as such,
they themselves took on the aura of those mysteries.
●​ As a result, they were each aspects of religious activity: The performing arts celebrated
the rituals; history recorded the story of the race; astronomy searched the heavens.
●​ In each of these seven classical arts we can discover the roots of contemporary cultural
and scientific categories.
●​ By the thirteenth century, however, the word "art" had taken on a considerably more
practical connotation.
●​ The Liberal Arts curriculum of the medieval university still numbered seven components,
but the method of definition had shifted.
●​ The literary arts of the classical period—History, Poetry, Comedy, and Tragedy—had
merged into a vaguely defined mix of literature and philosophy and then had been
 reordered according to analytical principles as Grammar, Rhetoric, and Logic (the
Trivium), structural elements of the arts rather than qualities of them.
●​ Dance was dropped from the list and replaced by Geometry, marking the growing
importance of mathematics. Only Music and Astronomy remained unchanged from the
ancient categories.
●​ Outside the university cloisters, the word was even more flexible. We still speak of the
"art" of war, the medical "arts," even the "art" of angling.
●​ By the sixteenth century, "art" was clearly synonymous with "skill," and a wheelwright,
for example, was just as much an artist as a musician: each practiced a particular skill.
●​ By the late seventeenth century, the range of the word had begun to narrow once again.
●​ It was increasingly applied to activities that had never before been included—painting,
sculpture, drawing, architecture—what we now call the "Fine Arts."
●​ The rise of the concept of modern science as separate from and contradictory to the arts
meant that Astronomy and Geometry were no longer regarded in the same light as Poetry
or Music.
●​ By the late eighteenth century, the Romantic vision of the artist as specially endowed
restored some of the religious aura that had surrounded the word in classical times.
●​ A differentiation was now made between "artist" and "artisan." The former was
"creative" or "imaginative,"the latter simply a skilled workman.
●​ In the nineteenth century, as the concept of science developed, the narrowing of the
concept of art continued, as if in response to that more rigorously logical activity.
●​ What had once been "natural philosophy" was termed "natural science";the art of
alchemy became the science of chemistry.
●​ The new sciences were precisely defined intellectual activities, dependent on rigorous
methods of operation.
●​ The arts (which were increasingly seen as being that which science was not) were
therefore also more clearly defined.
●​ By the middle of the nineteenth century the word had more or less developed the
constellation of connotations we know today. It referred first to the visual, or "Fine," arts,
then more generally to literature and the musical arts.
●​ It could, on occasion, be stretched to include the performing arts and, although in its
broadest sense it still carried the medieval sense of skills, for the most part it was strictly
used to refer to more sophisticated endeavors.
●​ The romantic sense of the artist as a chosen one remained: "artists" were distinguished
not only from "artisans" (craftspeople) but also from "artistes" (performing artists) with
lower social and intellectual standing.
●​ With the establishment in the late nineteenth century of the concept of "social sciences,"
the spectrum of modern intellectual activity was complete and the range of art had
narrowed to its present domain.
●​ Those phenomena that yielded to study by the scientific method were ordered under the
rubric of science and were strictly defined. Other phenomena, less susceptible to
laboratory techniques and experimentation, but capable of being ordered with some logic
and clarity, were established in the gray area of the social sciences (economics, sociology,
politics, psychology, and sometimes even philosophy).
●​ Those areas of intellectual endeavor that could not be fit into either the physical or the
social sciences were left to the domain of art.
●​ As the development of the social sciences necessarily limited the practical, utilitarian
relevance of the arts, and probably in reaction to this phenomenon, theories of estheticism
evolved.
●​ With roots in the Romantic theory of the artist as prophet and priest, the "art for art's
sake" movement of the late Victorian age celebrated form over content and once more
changed the focus of the word.
●​ The arts were no longer simply approaches to a comprehension of the world; they were
now ends in themselves.
●​ Walter Pater declared that "all art aspires to the condition of music." Abstraction—pure
form—became the touchstone of the work of art and the main criterion by which works
of art were judged in the twentieth century.*
●​ The rush to abstraction accelerated rapidly during the first two-thirds of the twentieth
century.
●​ In the nineteenth century the avant-garde movement had taken the concept of progress
from developing technology and decided that some art must be more "advanced" than
other art.
●​ The theory of the avant garde, which was a dominating idea in the historical development
of the arts from the Romantic period until recently, expressed itself best in terms of
abstraction.
●​ In this respect the arts were, in effect, mimicking the sciences and technology, searching
for the basic elements of their "languages"—the "quanta"of painting or poetry or drama.
●​ The Dada movement of the 1920s parodied this development.
●​ The result was the minimalist work of the middle of this century, which marked the
endpoint of the struggle of the avant garde toward abstraction: Samuel Beckett's
forty-second dramas (or his ten-page novels), Josef Albers's color-exercise paintings,
JohnCage's silent musical works.
●​ Having reduced art to its most basic quanta, the only choice for artists (besides quitting)
was to begin over again to rebuild the structures of the arts.
●​ This new synthesis began in earnest in the 1960s (although the avant-garde abstractionists
had one last card to play: the so-called conceptual art movement of the 1970s, which
eliminated the work of art entirely, leaving only the idea behind).
●​ The end of the avant-garde fascination with abstraction came at the same time that
political and economic culture was, in parallel, discovering the fallacy of progress and
developing in its place a "steady state" theory of existence.
●​ From the vantage point of the turn of the twenty-first century, we might say that art made
the transition quicker and easier than politics and economics.
●​ The acceleration of abstraction, while it is certainly the main factor in the historical
development of the arts during the twentieth century, is not the only one.
●​ The force that counters this estheticism is our continuing sense of the political dimension
of the arts: that is, both their roots in the community, and their power to explain the
structure of society to us.
●​ In Western culture, the power of this relevance (which led the ancients to include History
on an equal footing with Music) has certainly not dominated, but it does have a long and
honorable history parallel with, if subordinate to, the esthetic impulse toward abstraction.
●​ In the 1970s, when the first edition of this book appeared, it seemed safe to assume that
as abstraction and reductionism faded away, the political dimension of art—its social
nature—would increase in importance.
●​ Instead, most of the arts, film chief among them, have settled down into a period of
commercial calm.
●​ There is an evident increase in the political and social quotient of most contemporary
arts: you can see it in the increasing prevalence of television docudramas and
reality-based programming, the mainstream influence of Rap music, and a renewed vigor
in independent filmmaking.
●​ However, the politics that these arts reflect hasn't progressed much beyond the stage it
had reached by 1970: more or less the same issues concern us now as then.
●​ "Don't kill the messenger" (and don't blame the artists). And, while the artists have
understood and accepted the passing of the avant garde, the politicians haven't yet freed
themselves from dependence on the Left-Right dialectic—now equally moribund—upon
which that artistic movement depended.
●​ So there is more politics in art—it's just poor quality politics.
●​ Technology is the third basic factor that has determined the history of the arts during the
past hundred years.
●​ Originally, the only way to produce art was in "real time": the singer sang the song, the
storyteller told the tale, the actors acted the drama.
●​ The development in prehistory of drawing and (through pictographs) of writing
represented a quantum jump in systems of communication. Images could be stored,
stories could be preserved, later to be recalled exactly.
●​ For seven thousand years the history of the arts was, essentially, the history of these two
representative media: the pictorial and the literary.
●​ The development of recording media, different from representative media in kind as well
as degree, was as significant historically as the invention of writing seven thousand years
earlier.
●​ Photography, film, and sound recording taken together shifted dramatically our historical
perspective.
●​ The representational arts made possible the "re-creation" of phenomena, but they required
the complex application of the codes and conventions of languages.
●​ Moreover, those languages were manipulated by individuals and therefore the element of
choice was and is highly significant in the representational arts.
●​ This element is the source of most of the esthetics of the pictorial and literary arts.
●​ What interests estheticians is not what is said but how it is said.
●​ In stark contrast, the recording arts provide a much more direct line of communication
between the subject and the observer. They do have their own codes and conventions, it's
true: a film or sound recording is not reality, after all.
●​ But the language of the recording media is both more direct and less ambiguous than
either written or pictorial language. In addition, the history of the recording arts
has—until recently—been a direct progression toward greater verisimilitude.
●​ Color film reproduces more of reality than does black-and-white; sound film is more
closely parallel to actual experience than is silent; and so forth.
●​ This qualitative difference between representational media and recording media is very
clear to those who use the latter for scientific purposes.
●​ Anthropologists, for example, are well aware of the advantages of film over the written
word.
●​ Film does not completely eliminate the intervention of a third party between the subject
and the observer, but it does significantly reduce the distortion that the presence of an
artist inevitably introduces.
●​ The result is a spectrum of the arts that looks like this:
• the performance arts, which happen in real time;
 • the representational arts, which depend on the established codes and conventions of
language (both pictorial and literary) to convey information about the subject to the
observer;
• the recording arts, which provide a more direct path between subject and observer:
media not without their own codes but qualitatively more direct than the media of the
representational arts.
●​ That is, until now. The application of digital technology to film and audio, which began
to gather momentum in the late 1980s, points to a new level of discourse: one that is
about to revolutionize our attitude toward the recording arts.
●​ Simply put, digital techniques like morphing and sampling destroy our faith in the
honesty of the images and sounds we see and hear.
●​ The verisimilitude is still there—but we can no longer trust our eyes and ears. We'll
discuss these remarkable developments in greater detail in Chapter 7

Ways of Looking at Art

The Spectrum of Abstraction
●​ This is one of the oldest theories of art, dating back to Aristotle's Poetics (fourth
century B.C.).
●​ According to the Greek philosopher, art was best understood as a type of
mimesis, an imitation of reality dependent on a medium (through which it was
expressed) and a mode (the way the medium was utilized). The more mimetic an
art is, then, the less abstract it is. In no case, however, is an art completely capable
of reproducing reality.
●​ A spectrum of the arts organized according to abstraction would look something
like this:
●​ The arts of design (clothing, furniture, eating utensils, and so forth), which often
are not even dignified by being included in the artistic spectrum, would be found
at the left end of this scale: highly mimetic (a fork comes very close to thoroughly
reproducing the idea of a fork) and least abstract.
●​ Moving from left to right we find architecture, which often has a very low esthetic
quotient, after all; then sculpture, which is both environmental and pictorial; then
painting, drawing, and the other graphic arts at the center of the pictorial area of
the spectrum.
●​ The dramatic arts combine pictorial and narrative elements in various measures.
The novel, short story, and often nonfiction as well are situated squarely in Ways
of Looking at Art Ways of Looking at Art the narrative range. Then come poetry,
which although basically narrative in nature also tends toward the musical end of
the spectrum (but sometimes in the other direction, toward the pictorial); dance,
combining elements of narrative with music; and finally, at the extreme right of
the spectrum, music—the most abstract and "esthetic" of the arts.
●​ Where do photography and film fit in? Because they are recording arts, they cover
essentially the entire range of this classical spectrum.
●​ Photography, which is a special case of film (stills rather than movies), naturally
situates itself in the pictorial area of the spectrum, but it can also fulfill functions
in the practical and environmental areas to the left of that position.
●​ Film covers a broad range, from practical (as a technical invention it is an
important scientific tool) through environmental, on through pictorial, dramatic,
and narrative to music.
●​ Although we know it best as one of the dramatic arts, film is strongly pictorial,
which is why films are collected more often in art museums than in libraries; it
 also has a much stronger narrative element than any of the other dramatic arts, a
characteristic recognized by filmmakers and because of its clear, organized
rhythms—as well as its soundtrack—it has close connections with music.
●​ Finally, in its more abstract incarnations, film is strongly environmental as well:
as display technologies mature, architects increasingly integrate filmed
backgrounds into their more tangible structures.
●​ This spectrum of abstraction is only one way to organize the artistic experience; it
is not in any sense a law.
●​ The dramatic area of the spectrum could easily be subsumed under pictorial and
narrative; the practical arts can be combined with the environmental. What is
important here is simply to indicate the range of abstraction, from the most
mimetic arts to the least mimetic.

The Modes of Discourse

●​ The second, more modern way to classify the various arts depends on the
relationships among the work, the artist, and the observer.
●​ This triangular image of the artistic experience directs our attention away from the
work itself, to the medium of communication.
●​ The degree of abstraction enters in here, too, but only insofar as it affects the
relationship between the artist and the observer.
●​ We are interested now not in the quality of the work itself, but in the mode of its
transmission.
●​ Organized this way, the system of artistic communication would look something
like this:
 ●​ Vertical axis = immediate experience of an art;
Horizontal axis = the transmission or narration of it.
●​ Artifacts, pictorial representations, and pictorial records (that area above the
horizontal axis) occupy space rather than time.
●​ Performances, literature, and film records are more concerned with time than with
space. (In the spectrum of abstraction, the space arts occupy the left-hand side of
the spectrum, the time arts the right.)
●​ Note that any single art occupies not a point in the Diagram but rather an area. A
painting, for example, is both an artifact and a representation. A building is not
only an artifact but also partially a representation and occasionally a performance.
(Architectural critics often use the language of drama to describe the experience
of a building; as we move through it our experience of it takes place in time.) The
recording arts, moreover, often use elements of performance and representation.
●​ The spectrum of abstraction gives us an index of the degree of abstraction
inherent in an art; in other words, it describes the actual relationship between an
art and its subject matter.
●​ The graph of modes of discourse gives us a simplified picture of the various
modes of discourse available to the artist.

The "Rapports de Production"

There is one final aspect of the artistic experience that should be investigated: what the
French call "rapports de production" (the relationships of production). How and why does
art get produced? How and why is it consumed? Here is the "triangle" of the artistic
experience:

1.​ Examination of the relationship between the artist and the work yields theories of
the production of art.
2.​ While analysis of the relationship between the work and the observer gives us
theories of its consumption.
3.​ The third leg of the triangle, artist-observer, has been until now potential rather
than actual, although the heightened interest in interactive means of
communication, which began in the early 1980s with the growth of online
services, now opens up this relationship to some interesting new possibilities. For
the first time, artists and observers have the technology to collaborate.

●​ Whether we approach the artistic experience from the point of view of production
or of consumption, there is a set of determinants that gives a particular shape to
the experience.
●​ Each of them serves a certain function, and each in turn yields its own general
system of criticism.
●​ Here is an outline of the determinants, their functions, and the systems of
criticism they support:
●​ These determinants of the rapports de production function in most human
activities, but their operation is especially evident in the arts, since it is there that
the economic and political factors that tend to dominate most other activities are
more in balance with the psychological and technical factors.
●​ Historically, the political determinant is primary: it is this factor that decides how
an art—or work of art—is used socially. Consumption is more important here
than production.
●​ The ritualistic aspect of the arts as celebrations of the community is at the heart
of this approach.
●​ The political determinant defines the relationship between the work of art and
the society that nurtures it.
●​ The psychological determinant, on the other hand, is introspective, focusing our
attention not on the relationship between the work and the world at large, but
on the connections between the work and the artist, and the work and the
observer.
●​ The technical determinant governs the language of the art. Given the basic
structure of the art—the particular qualities of oil paint, for example, versus
tempera or acrylics—what are the limits of the possibilities? How does the
translation of an idea into the language of the art affect the idea? What are the
thoughtforms of each particular artistic language? How have they shaped the
materials the artist utilizes? These questions are the province of the technical
determinant. The recording arts, because they are grounded in a much more
complex technology than the other arts, are especially susceptible to this kind of
analysis but even seemingly untechnological arts like the novel are deeply
influenced by the technical determinant. For example, the novel could not exist in
the form we know today without the invention of the printing press.
●​ Finally, all arts are inherently economic products and as such must eventually be
considered in economic terms. Again, film and the other recording arts are prime
examples of this phenomenon . Like architecture, they are both capital intensive
 and labor-intensive; that is, they involve large expenditures of money and they
often require large numbers of workers.
●​ These four determinants reveal themselves in new relationships at each stage of
the artistic process.
●​ The technological and economic determinants form the basis for any art. The
language of the art and its techniques exist before the artist decides to use them.
Moreover, each art is circumscribed by certain economic realities. Film, because
it is a very expensive art, is especially susceptible to the distortions caused by
economic considerations. The elaborate economic infrastructure of film—the
complex rules of production, distribution, and consumption that underlie the art—
set strict limitations on filmmakers, a fact that is often ignored by critics. These
economic factors, in turn, are related to certain political and psychological uses to
which an art can be put.
●​ As an economic commodity, for example, film can often best be understood as
selling a service that is essentially psychological in nature: we most often go to
movies for the emotional effects they provide.
●​ Artists, confronted with these various determinants, make choices within the
set of established possibilities, occasionally breaking new ground, most often
reorganizing and recombining existing factors.
●​ Once the work of art has been completed it has, in a sense, a life of its own.
●​ It is, first of all, an economic product to be exploited. This exploitation results in
certain psychological effects. The end product, as the influence of the film
spreads, is political.
●​ No matter how apolitical the work of art may seem, every work has political
relevance, like it or not.
●​ Historically, the political and psychological determinants have been recognized
as important factors in the artistic experience since classical times.
●​ Only recently, however, has serious attention been paid to the technical and
economic determinants of the work of art.
●​ The approach of semiotics is to study the arts and media as languages or language
systems—technical structures with inherent laws governing not only what is
"said'' but also how it is "said."
●​ Semiotics attempts to describe the codes and structural systems that operate in
cultural phenomena . It does this by using a linguistic model; that is, the semiotics
of film describes film as a "language."
 ●​ Dialectical criticism, on the other hand, studies the arts in their economic context.
It analyzes the direct relationships among the work, the artist, and the observer as
they are expressed in terms of economic and political structures.
●​ The addition of these two modern approaches to the arts—semiotics and
dialectics— gives us a fuller and more precise understanding of the complexities
of the artistic experience. It also allows us more freedom to define its limits.
●​ While the image of the artist as priest or prophet reigned, there was no way to
disconnect the experience of the work from the production of it.
●​ Art depended on artists. But when we recognize the technical and linguistic roots
of esthetics, we are more inclined to approach the artistic experience from the
point of view of the consumer.
●​ In other words, we can liberate ourselves from artist/priests and develop a
"protestant" theory of art.

Narrative
●​ The concept of ‘narrative' refers to what happens or what is depicted in films (as
well as novels), and ‘narration' refers to how that narrative is presented to the
film spectator (or reader of a novel).
●​ So narrative refers to actions, events and characters whereas narration describes a
mechanism that controls how the spectator gains information about those actions,
events and characters.

Narrative structure
●​ A narrative does not consist of a random series of events, but a series of events
related to one another in terms of cause and effect.
●​ If a film is based on narrative logic, an event on screen will be caused by a
previous event: event B happens because of event A.
●​ For example, A man in shot A points a gun in an off-screen direction and fires. In
shot B another man is shown collapsing to the ground because of the way shots
are edited together (shot B immediately following shot A), the spectator reads the
event in shot A as the cause of the event in shot B.
●​ Scenes as well as shots are also linked together by a cause-effect narrative logic.
Case study: Alfred Hitchcock’s film Psycho (1960)
●​ Not all shots and scenes in narrative films are linked by causal logic.
●​ We can imagine a shot of a man walking a dog followed by a close up shot of the
dog. If the shots are reversed, the meaning is still the same, since there is no
causal logic linking these two shots.
●​ Such shots can be characterised as being descriptive rather than narrative.
●​ It is common for most narrative films to contain moments of description.
●​ Indeed, the opening of Psycho contains several shots of the skyline of Phoenix,
Arizona, which are descriptive because they simply aim to describe the space in
which the narrative events are to unfold.
●​ However, the dominant structure that holds a narrative film together (including
Psycho) is still causal logic.
●​ In summary, for a film to appear coherent and meaningful, the relations between
its actions and events need to be motivated. In narrative films, this motivation is
supplied by the cause-effect logic.
●​ Sometimes, the cause-effect narrative logic is motivated by the needs and wishes
of characters.
●​ Narratives are structured in terms of a beginning (the initial state of
equilibrium), a middle (disruption of the equilibrium) and an end
(restoration of equilibrium).
●​ The progression from initial equilibrium to the restoration of equilibrium always
involves a transformation (usually of the films the main character).
●​ The middle period of a narrative can be called liminal because it depicts actions
that transgress everyday habits and routines.
●​ Narrative events are not necessarily presented in a linear, chronological order.
●​ Narrative events can be conveyed to the spectator through two methods:

Restricted narration

●​ Restricted narration ties the representation of film narrative to one

particular character only.
●​ The spectator only experiences those parts of the narrative that this one
particular character experiences.
●​ We can therefore think of restricted narration as a filter or barrier that only
allows the spectator limited access to the narrative events.
●​ This type of narration is typical in detective films such as The Big Sleep in
which the camera is tied to the detective throughout the film.

Omniscient narration

●​ In omniscient narration, on the other hand, the camera is more free to

jump from one character to another so that the spectator can gain more
information than any one character.
●​ Omniscient narration is therefore more like the view from a large window,
which allows the spectator a panoramic view of the narrative events.
●​ Omniscient narration is typical in melodramas.
●​ However, many films (such as North by Northwest) combine restricted
and omniscient narration.
Character
Point of View
 Unit 2
Film Aesthetics : Formalism and Realism

Mise-en-scene
●​ One of the most frequently used terms in filmmaking is mise-en-scene, which literally
translates to ‘putting on stage’ or ‘staging’.
●​ The term originates from the theatre, where it designates everything that appears on stage
- set design, lighting and character movement.
●​ In film studies, mise-en-scene has a vague meaning: it is either used in a broad way to
mean the filmed events together with the way those events were filmed or is used in a
narrower sense to designate the filmed events to mean what appears in front of the
camera, set design, lighting and character movement.

●​ The codes of mise-en-scene are the tools with which the filmmaker alters and
modifies our reading of the shot.
●​ The filmmaker can also change the dimensions of the frame during the course of
the film by masking the image, either artificially or naturally through
composition.
●​ Just as important as the actual frame size, although less easily perceived, is the
filmmaker's attitude toward the limit of the frame.
●​ If the image of the frame is self-sufficient, then we can speak of it as a "closed
form."
●​ Conversely, if the filmmaker has composed the shot in such a way that we are
always subliminally aware of the area outside the frame, then the form is
considered to be "open."
●​ Open and closed forms are closely associated with the elements of movement in
the frame.
●​ If the camera tends to follow the subject faithfully, the form tends to be closed; if,
on the other hand, the filmmaker allows—even encourages—the subject to leave
the frame and reenter, the form is obviously open.
●​ The relationship between the movement within the frame and the movement of
the camera is one of the more sophisticated codes, and specifically cinematic.
●​ The masters of the Hollywood style of the thirties and forties tried never to allow
the subject to leave the frame (it was considered daring even if the subject did not
occupy the center of the 1.33 frame).
●​ In the sixties and seventies, film- makers like Michelangelo Antonioni were
equally faithful to the open widescreen form because it emphasizes the spaces
between people.
●​ The filmmaker, like most pictorial artists, composes in three dimensions.
1.​ One concerns the plane of the image (most important, naturally,
since the image is, after all, two-dimensional).
2.​ One deals with the geography of the space photographed (its plane
is parallel with the ground and the horizon).
3.​ The third involves the plane of depth perception, perpendicular to
both the frame plane and the geographical plane.
●​ This doesn't necessarily mean that he is trying to convey three-dimensional (or
stereoscopic) information. Naturally, these planes interlock.
●​ No filmmaker analyzes precisely how each single plane influences the
composition, but decisions are made that focus attention on pairs of planes.
10 Components of Mise en Scène in Film
Mise en scène creates a sense of place for the audience whether they realize it or not. It
does so by using:

1.​ Actors

Actors, their performances, and their performance styles are crucial parts of mise
en scène. When an actor is on screen, they’re typically the focal point, so their
presence carries a lot of weight for the overall look of the story.

2.​ Location

The location of the scene sets the mood and supports the action. For example, in a
scene in which a man proposes to his girlfriend, a domestic setting sets a
completely different tone than a public one.

3.​ Set design

Set design refers to everything the audience sees within a particular scene. These
details help build out the world of the location and add even more context to the
story. If it’s a dorm room, are there books and notebooks on the desk to indicate
studying? Or are there pizza boxes and red cups to indicate a party?

4.​ Lighting

Lighting is often the tool that conveys mood most clearly. High-key lighting,
often used in musicals and romantic comedies, relies on hard light to minimize
shadows. Low-key lighting, often used in horror movies, features a high-contrast
lighting pattern to both brighten and darken parts of the frame.

5.​ Shot blocking and camera placement

Blocking is working with performers to figure out their body positions, gestures,
and movements on stage. In cinema, blocking also involves working out the
placement and movements of the camera, and can impact the lighting, set design,
 and more. Both shot blocking and camera placement are effective tools that
convey things like characters’ status and relationships to the audience.

6.​ Composition

Composition is the deliberate selection of frames and camera angles that make up
a shot. Manipulating composition can accentuate the emotional themes of the
story and communicate a sense (or lack) of meaning to the audience.

7.​ Depth of space

The depth of space is the distance between people, props, and scenery, both in
relation to one another and the camera. Much like shot blocking, it can tell the
audience a lot about the tone of the scene and the status of the characters. Is the
space shallow or deep? Does this accurately capture the truth of the narrative?

8.​ Film stock

The film stock refers to the appearance of the movie on the screen. Is it in black
and white, or color? Is the film fine-grain, or grainy? Each tells a different story.

9.​ Costumes

Costumes are the clothes actors wear and how they’re tailored to fit them. For
costumes to be effective, a costume designer must know which colors look right
on a character, and then reconcile this with the colors suited to the actor playing
the part and the color palette of the production design.

10.​Hair and makeup

Hair and makeup are the physical touches that help actors transform into their
characters, such as prosthetics, blood, or aging techniques. Like costumes, hair
and makeup are fundamental ingredients in the story being told.

Reference:
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-mise-en-scene-in-film#10-compone
nts-of-mise-en-scne-in-film
The Diachronic Shot

Set Design
●​ If you read film credits you may notice the category of art director.
●​ Art directors are people who design or select the sets and decor of a film.
●​ Initially, their job was simply to create a background in which the action of the
film was to unfold.
●​ In the heyday of the Hollywood studios (from the1920’s to the end of the 1950’s)
art directors built entire worlds inside movie studios.
●​ More recently, some art directors have become production designers, whose job is
to coordinate the look of an entire film. They develop a visual concept around
which sets, props, lighting and costumes are designed to work together.
●​ There are also instances when the director takes over the job of the art director.
For example, the director Ridley Scott takes set design so seriously that he almost
takes over the job of a director on some of his films. On his film Blade Runner
(1982), for instance, he worked closely with the art department in conceiving and
designing sets. The futuristic ambience and look of the film was essentially
designed by Ridley Scott.
●​ The production designer begins by making sketches and by building miniature
sets in order to determine the best way to construct and film the actual sets.
●​ This is particularly important from a financial point of view because the film may
need several - even dozens - of sets, all of which require an army of carpenters,
prop buyers and so on, to construct and take it down again.
●​ This is in opposition to the theatre where only a few sets are constructed.
●​ Because of the Expense many film sets are only partly constructed.
●​ In other words, only those parts of the set that appear in the film need to be
constructed.

Lighting

​ The following are all the different types of lighting in film:

1. Key Lighting
The key light is also known as the main film light of a scene or
subject. This means it’s normally the strongest type of light in each
scene or photo. Even if your lighting crew is going for a
complicated multi-light setup, the key light is usually the first to be
set up.
However, just because it’s your “main” light doesn’t mean it
always has to be facing your subject. You can place your key light
anywhere, even from the side or behind your subject to create a
darker mood. Just avoid placing it near or right beside the camera
as this will create flat and direct lighting for your subject.

When to Use Key Lighting:

Use key lighting when you want to draw attention to a subject or
make it stand out from the rest of the scene.

2. Fill Lighting
As the name suggests, this technique is used to “fill in” and
remove the dark, shadowy areas that your key light creates. It is
noticeably less intense and placed in the opposite direction of the
key light, so you can add more dimension to your scene.
 Because the aim of fill lighting is to eliminate shadows, it’s
advisable to place it a little further and/or diffuse it with a reflector
(placed around 3/4 opposite to the key light) to create softer light
that spreads out evenly. Many scenes do well with just the key and
fill studio lighting as they are enough to add noticeable depth and
dimension to any object.

When to Use Fill Lighting:

Use fill lighting to counteract shadows, or to bring up exposure and
decrease the contrast in a scene. With fill light, your viewer can see
more of the scene clearly.

3. Backlighting
Backlighting is used to create a three-dimensional scene, which is
why it is also the last to be added in a three-point lighting setup.
This also faces your subject—a little higher from behind so as to
separate your subject from the background.
As with fill lighting, you’ll want to also diffuse your backlight so it
becomes less intense and covers a wider area of your subject. For
example, for subject mid-shots, you’ll want to also light up the
shoulders and base of the person’s neck instead of just the top of
their head. This technique can also be used on its own, without the
key and fill lights if you’re aiming for a silhouette.

When to Use Backlighting:

Use backlight to accentuate the silhouette of a subject, whether it’s
a person or an object. Backlighting creates a halo effect for
increased impact.

4. Side Lighting
Needless to say, side lighting is for illuminating your scene from
the side, parallel to your subject. It is often used on its own or with
just a faint fill light to give your scene a dramatic mood or what’s
referred to as “chiaroscuro” lighting. To really achieve this effect,
your side light should be strong so as to create strong contrast and
 low-key lighting that reveals the texture and accentuates the
contours of your subject.
When used with a fill light, it’s advisable to lessen the fill light’s
intensity down to 1/8 of that of the side light to keep the dramatic
look and feel of a scene.
When to Use Side Lighting:
Side lighting brings out the textures or edges in a scene. Using side
lighting creates a better sense of depth in a location. It can make
subjects seem farther off by accentuating the space between them.

5. Practical Lighting
Practical lighting is the use of regular, working light sources like
lamps, candles, or even the TV. These are usually intentionally
added in by the set designer or lighting crew to create a cinematic
nighttime scene. They may sometimes be used to also give off
subtle lighting for your subject.
However, practical lights are not always easy to work with, as
candles and lamps are typically not strong enough to light up a
subject. A hidden, supplementary motivated light (more on that
later) may be used or dimmers can be installed in lamps so the
light’s intensity can be adjusted.
When to Use Practical Lighting:
Use practical lighting when a performer or subject needs to interact
with a light source. For example, use a bedside lamp that needs to
function within the action of the scene.

6. Bounce Lighting
Bounce lighting is about literally bouncing the light from a strong
light source towards your subject or scene using a reflector or any
light-colored surface, such as walls and ceilings. Doing so creates a
bigger area of light that is more evenly spread out.
If executed properly, bounce lights can be used to create a much
softer key, fill, top, side, or backlighting, especially if you don’t
have a diffuser or softbox
When to Use Bounce Lighting:
 Bouncing light off the ceiling creates more diffuse illumination and
results in even, soft light. When you need more ambient light
across a whole environment, bounce light is a great choice.

7. Soft Lighting
Soft light doesn’t refer to any lighting direction, but it’s a
technique nonetheless. Cinematographers make use of soft lighting
(even when creating directional lighting with the techniques above)
for both aesthetic and situational reasons: to reduce or eliminate
harsh shadows, create drama, replicate subtle lighting coming from
outside, or all of the above.
When to Use Soft Lighting:
Soft lighting is more flattering on human subjects. The soft quality
of the light minimizes the appearance of shadows, wrinkles, and
blemishes. Use soft lighting for beautification.

8. Hard Lighting
Hard light can be sunlight or a strong light source. It’s usually
unwanted, but it certainly has cinematic benefits. You can create
hard lighting with direct sunlight or a small, powerful light source.
Despite it creating harsh shadows, hard lighting is great for
drawing attention to your main subject or to an area of the scene,
highlighting your subject’s contour, and creating a strong
silhouette.
When to Use Hard Lighting:
Hard lighting emphasizes changes in contour, shape, and texture.
Use hard lighting to create a more intense look.

9. High Key
High key refers to a style of lighting used to create a very bright
scene that’s visually shadowless, often close to overexposure.
Lighting ratios are ignored so all light sources would have pretty
much the same intensity. This technique is used in many movies,
TV sitcoms, commercials, and music videos today, but it first
 became popular during the classic Hollywood period in the 1930s
and 40s.
When to Use High Key Lighting:
Use high key lighting for dreamy sequences, or situations that
require overwhelming brightness.

10. Low Key

Being the opposite of high key, low key lighting for a scene would
mean a lot of shadows and possibly just one strong key light
source. The focus is on the use of shadows and how it creates
mystery, suspense, or drama for a scene and character instead of on
the use of lighting, which makes it great for horror and thriller
films.
When to Use Low Key Lighting:
Use low key lighting for moody scenes that require a film noir look
or for nighttime scenes.

11. Motivated Lighting

Motivated lighting is used to imitate a natural light source, such as
sunlight, moonlight, and street lamps at night. It’s also the kind of
lighting that enhances practical lights, should the director or
cinematographer wish to customize the intensity or coverage of the
latter using a separate light source.
To ensure that your motivated lighting looks as natural as possible,
several methods are used, such as the use of filters to create
window shadows and the use of colored gels to replicate the warm,
bright yellow light coming from the sun or the cool, faint bluish
light from the moon.
When to Use Motivated Lighting:
Use motivated lighting when you want to replicate a specific light
source’s quality of light. Filters, diffusers, and other modifiers are
helpful in these applications.
 12. Ambient Lighting
Using artificial light sources is still the best way to create a well-lit
scene that’s closely similar to or even better than what we see in
real life. However, there’s no reason not to make use of ambient or
available lights that already exist in your shooting location, may it
be sunlight, moonlight, street lamps, or even electric store signs.
When shooting during the day, you could always do it outdoors
and make use of natural sunlight (with or without a diffuser) and
supplement the scene with a secondary light for your subject
(bounced or using a separate light source). Early in the morning
and late in the afternoon or early evening are great times for
shooting outdoors if you want soft lighting. The only downside is
that the intensity and color of sunlight are not constant, so
remember to plan for the weather and sun placement.
When to Use Ambient Lighting:
Use ambient lighting when you want to illuminate your subjects
without worrying about a specific style or quality of light. Ambient
lighting is a relatively universal light source that evenly illuminates
whole environments or scenes.

​ Reference:
https://www.adorama.com/alc/basic-cinematography-lighting-techniques/
Types of shots

1. Establishing shot
The establishing shot is a very wide shot used at the start of a
sequence. It’s used to introduce the context in which the action
takes place. Aerial shots are usually the preferred pick for these
scenes, as they offer an unparalleled view of locations.

2. Long shot
A long shot captures the subject within a wide view of their
surroundings. This type of camera shot is commonly used to set the
scene. It gives viewers a sense of perspective as they can see how
the subject relates to their environment.
A closer version of the long shot is known as a full shot. In a full
shot, the subject fills the frame. This captures the subject’s general
appearance, while still showing the scenery surrounding them.
3. Medium shot
The medium shot is used to reveal more details on the subject,
capturing them from the waist up. As it includes the subject’s
hands and part of their surroundings, it’s the best way to capture
actions in detail, while maintaining a general view. This is why the
medium shot is one of the most popular types of shots.

There are two main variants of this shot: medium long shot and
cowboy shot. The medium long shot sits halfway between long and
medium shots. It frames the subject from the knees up. The
cowboy shot, which cuts the frame at mid-thigh, was widely used
in western movies in order to show gun holsters on cowboys’ hips.

4. Medium close-up shot

The medium close-up shot frames the subject from the chest up. It
is generally used to capture enough detail on the subject’s face,
while still keeping them within their surroundings. During
conversations, medium close-up shots are used to keep some
distance between the characters.

5. Close-up shot
A close-up shot tightly frames the subject’s face in order to focus
on their emotions. These types of shots are great to connect with
the audience, as there are no elements distracting them from the
subject’s gestures and reactions.

6. Extreme close-up shot

In an extreme close-up shot, a detail of the subject fills the whole
frame. It is used to emphasize certain features or actions. The most
common use of this shot will capture a character’s eyes, mouth, or
fingers performing a critical action.
7. Two shot
A two shot includes two subjects in the frame. They don’t
necessarily have to be next to each other, nor given equal
treatment. In many examples of a two shot, one subject is placed in
the foreground and the other, in the background.
8. Bird’s-eye view
Bird’s-eye view is the name given to the type of shot taken from an
elevated point. As its own name indicates, it offers a perspective
similar to that which birds see while flying. This camera angle is
used to magnify the scale and movement.
What used to be limited to a few selected filmmakers is now
available to videographers of any level thanks to the popularity of
drones.

9. High angle
A high angle shot is taken pointing the camera down on the
subject. As a result, the subject is perceived as vulnerable and
powerless. In this type of shot, the camera angle can be anywhere
from directly above the subject to just above the subject’s line of
sight.

10. Eye level

The eye level shot is considered the most natural camera angle.
Capturing the shot at eye-level offers a neutral perception of the
subject. Because it is the way in which we usually see people, this
camera angle can help the audience connect with the subject.

11. Low angle

A low angle shot is taken from below the subject’s eye line,
pointing upwards. This camera angle makes a subject look
powerful and imposing. This angle can create a visual distortion in
types of shots closer to the subject, as it’s not a common
point-of-view. Because of this, a low angle is commonly used with
wider frames such as medium or medium close-up shots.

12. Worm’s-eye view

The worm’s-eye view camera angle looks at an object or subject
from below. It is commonly used to capture tall elements in the
scene, such as trees or skyscrapers, and put them in perspective.
 This type of camera shot is mostly taken from a subject’s point of
view.

13. Over the shoulder

An over the shoulder framing captures the subject from behind
another character. Typically, the shot will include the second
character’s shoulder and part of their head. This camera angle is
primarily used during conversations, as it maintains both
characters in scene while focusing on one at a time.

14. Point of view

A point of view shot shows what the character is looking at. It is
used to highlight specific details or actions, such as being
threatened or seeing their reflection in the mirror. This type of shot
allows the audience to put themselves in the shoes of the subject.
As a result, it strengthens their connection with the subject and
scene.

15. Pan
Panning is the action of moving the camera horizontally on a fixed
axis. During a pan shot, the camera turns from side to side without
changing its position. This type of camera shot is commonly used
 to follow an action or to allow viewers to get a sense of location in
the sequence.

16. Tilt
Tilting is a type of shot in films in which the camera is moved
vertically on a fixed base. It is normally used to reveal the identity
of new characters or relate an action with its performer. In some
cases, tilt shots are used to offer a general view of the space
surrounding the character.

17. Dolly
On a dolly shot, the camera is attached to a wheeled device and
smoothly moves back and forth. The device itself is known as a
camera dolly. Dolly shots usually follow a subject as they move
around the scene, generally in front of or behind them.

18. Truck
Truck shots are those in which the camera is attached to a device
that moves smoothly along a horizontal track. These shots are most
commonly used to follow an action or walk the audience around a
scene. Because the camera itself is moving, the result allows
viewers to feel as if they are also moving across the scene.

19. Pedestal
A pedestal shot involves moving the camera vertically on a fixed
location. With these movements, the sight level of the audience is
changed while maintaining the same vision angle. Because the
camera is not static on its axis, new details are slowly revealed to
the viewer as the entire frame focus changes.

20. Roll
In a roll camera movement, the camera is rotated on its vertical
axis. During these type of shots, the camera is pointed at the same
subject. As a result, the footage is gyrated up to 180°. This
 movement is commonly used in action scenes or to capture a
feeling of sickness and dizziness.

​ ​ ​ Reference:
https://www.wix.com/blog/photography/2018/12/06/types-of-shots/

Types of focus

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/types-of-camera-focus-in-film/

1.​ Soft focus

If deep depth of field keeps everything we see sharp, soft focus
keeps nothing in focus. The entire frame is "soft," with a slight blur
or glow around your subjects. Soft focus shots require either
special lenses that have this "defect" or with a filter — they used to
stretch nylons across or wipe vaseline on the lens in the old days.
The end effect of soft focus is to give shots a dreamy or slightly
unreal quality. That's why we see them so often in dream
sequences or memories — a visual cue that separates the scene
from "now" or "reality."
Here's a great example from one of the best horror movies, Brian
De Palma's Carrie. This is ending of the film so there's a SPOILER
 ALERT in effect. Notice the haze in the air and the glow from
Sue's white dress.

Soft Focus in Carrie

You can see how just a slight adjustment to soft focus gives a scene an
entirely new context. Granted, soft focus is a bit old-fashioned but it's just
one of many cinematography techniques that packs a punch.

2.​ Rack focus shot

We've already covered shallow focus but we can take that
technique a step further. When you want to shift the focal plane
from foreground to background, or vice versa, the rack focus shot
is ideal.
By adjusting the focal length of the lens, you can direct the
audiences' attention even more. Shifting focus from one subject to
another can also forego the need to cut between two shots. This has
a practical benefit (saving time on set) but it also helps keep the
audience engaged.
Here's our breakdown of how rack focus shots are used, with a
look at Daniel Craig's first appearance as James Bond in Casino
Royale.
 It should be clear that keeping the action in a single shot, with a
rack focus, can be a really effective tool in visual storytelling. It
keeps the shot dynamic and it gives the audience a direct
connection to what's happening. Remember the rack focus when
you're shot listing — it's a time saver on set and it just might be
ideal for the scene.

3.​ Split focus diopter

A split diopter lens is a fascinating piece of equipment. Essentially,
it creates two separate shallow focal planes in a single shot. This
means something in the foreground can be in shallow focus, as can
something else in the background. But why wouldn't you just use
deep focus or rack focus between the two subjects?
Deep focus might leave too much to chance — you have to hope
that the audience pays attention to what's important. And a rack
focus can't keep both subjects in focus at the same time. In these
moments, the best option is the split diopter.
Quentin Tarantino is a big fan of the split diopter lens. You can
find these shots in many of Tarantino's best movies like Pulp
Fiction and The Hateful Eight. Here's a quick explanation behind
the split diopter shot.
 The trouble with the split diopter is that is produces shots
that are "impossible." In other words, our eyes can't create
their own split focus image, it's unnatural. So, when we see
it in a film, you run the risk of pulling the audience out of
the movie.
4.​ Tilt shift
Of the various types of camera focus in film, the tilt shift is
perhaps the most radical. Normally, a camera lens is aligned
directly with the camera's sensor. With a tilt shift lens, the lens can
be either tilted vertically or shifted horizontally in relation to the
sensor.
These lenses can be used to capture natural-looking images, such
as panoramic landscapes. Or they can be used to make an entire
city look like a toy model. Here's a compilation of tilt shift shots to
give you an idea of how this works.
 Similar to the split diopter, tilt shift shots provide an unnatural
perspective. In other words, if you're thinking of adding a tilt shift
shot like this into your shot list, it better be for a good reason.

Camera Shots, Angles and Movement

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/shot-reverse-shot-cutaways-coverage/#shot-reverse-s
hot
1.​ Shot reverse shot
Shot reverse shot refers to when a filmmaker places a camera setup
on a subject, and then uses a subsequent setup to show the reverse
view of the previous setup. This is different from the Kuleshov
effect in that shot reverse shot applies a narrower definition,
requiring the filmmaker to show the reverse angle of their previous
shot.
Shot reverse shot is most often used for dialogue scenes, and will
often use over-the-shoulder shots, or matching single shots for the
 interaction. The standard operating procedure for shot reverse shot
is to use matching shots, meaning the above considerations are
identical in each shot

Types of transitions

https://www.musicgateway.com/blog/how-to/film-transition
1.​ The Dissolve
The dissolve is a film transition editing technique. It gives the
impression of one video clip dissolving into the next one that
appears on screen.
The first video clip will gradually become lighter and then the
second clip will begin to fade in and eventually come into focus.
Usually, the viewer of the film won’t even realise it’s happening
until it’s finished, as it’s a subtle film transition technique.
The quick dissolves convey action and life, and the slower
dissolves are used to create an atmosphere of despair.

2.​ The Cutaway

A commonly asked question is ‘what is the most basic form of
transition’? It has got to be the basic cutaway.
This type of film transition sees the filmmaker moving the scene to
another, and then returning back to the scene that they left.
 This is a great way of adding some excitement into the film, as
well as changing the pace of the clip.

3.​ The Wipe

Think of this film transition as the opposite of what the dissolve
does, due to the way that it captures the attention of the audience.
It will be easier here to break up the different transition techniques
that the wipe can offer.
There’s the iris wipe (the shape of a circle), matrix wipe (the
pattern of shapes), clock wipe (rotating the shape in clock hands),
heart wipe (the shape of a heart) and the invisible wipe (the use of
walls to cover cut).
The two most commonly used are the natural wipe and the iris
wipe.
The natural wipe is pretty self-explanatory, as the aim of the
transition is to be as seamless as possible for the audience.
The iris wipe is used to focus on the cemental subject while
cropping out the majority of the rest of the frame.
The Star Wars franchise is a great example of the wipe film
transition technique – and this is the excuse you’ve been waiting
for to go and re-watch the movies!

4.​ The Fade

This is one of the most common types of transitions in film. It’s
typically used to signify the beginning or ending of a scene.
 It’s a popular transition technique for filmmakers who are fading to
black or white. You will probably recognise this technique in many
opening sequences of your favourite TV shows.

5.​ The L Cut & J Cut

This type of film transition technique is also known as a split edit,
and it’s a film technique that’s been around since the analog
filming days.
Put simply, it’s when the sound of the scene of a film transitions
over to the next scene (or shot) despite the fact the sound no longer
matches the video. These types of edits are great for portraying
conversions between characters.
If the camera followed every person when they were speaking it
would start to feel unnatural for the audience. Whereas being able
to see the reactions on people’s faces as they respond emotionally
to what the other person is saying is far more natural (and
entertaining) to watch.
So, what’s the J Cut? Well, it’s where the sound of the scene plays
before the corresponding shot does. This gives the effect of the
visual trailing behind the audio.
6.​ Match Cut
When it comes to film editing transitions, you don’t get more
creative than the match cut!
This style of cut can add a stylish edge to your scene and it’s a
great way for you to get your creative juices flowing. Technically
speaking, it’s a standard cut but it stands out from the others thanks
to the way it matches the actions of both shots.
A fantastic example of this film editing transition is from the
movie Psycho (1960). During the shower scene you can see the
drain and the water swirling down it, before the shot crossfades to
a close up shot of Marion Crane’s eye.
Her eye is in the same position (in the frame) as the drain. If you
haven’t already, go and watch this movie!

7.​ Jump Cut

Now we have the jump cut. This type of film transition is very
noticeable to your audience.
To create it you will need a longer film clip and then to cut key
elements out of it. Then put the bits you wish to include back into
your timeline.
This causes the clip to appear as though it’s jumping through time.
Mise-en-shot
●​ Mise-en-scene designates the film events, set design, lighting, and the movement
of the actors.
●​ The process of filming, of translating mise-en-scene into film is called
mise-en-shot.
●​ Mise-en-shot literally means ‘putting into shots’ or simply ‘shooting (a film).’
●​ A major part of the art of filmmaking involves the interaction between the filmed
events (Mise-en-scene) and the way they are filmed (Mise-en-shot).
●​ To make a successful film, filmmakers need to establish a productive relation
between mise-en-scene and mise-en-shot.
●​ The main parameters of mise-en-shot include:
○​ Camera position
○​ Camera movement
○​ Shot scale
○​ The duration of the single shot
○​ The pace of editing

●​ The following are the 3 options directors have used in rendering scene on film:
○​ Using a long take
○​ Using deep focus photography
○​ Using editing
 Unit 3
Film Authorship

Filmmakers
●​

Auteurs
●​ The auteur policy emerges from the film criticism of the French journal Cahiers
du Cinema in the 1950’s.
●​ The policy was put into practice by a number of critics who became well known
filmmakers of the French New Wave of the 1960’s.
●​ The Cahiers du Cinema critics and the New Wave filmmakers defined themselves
against literature, against the literary script, and against the tradition of quality,
and instead promoted ‘the cinema’ as such.
●​ The auteur policy therefore emobies Marshall McLuhan’s idea that ‘the medium
is the message’.
●​ An auteur in the Hollywood studio system is a director who transcends the script
by imposing on it his or her own style and vision.
●​ This is primarily done through the director’s manipulation of mise-en-scene or
mise-en-shot.
●​ Most critics do not distinguish Mise-en-scene from mise-en-shot but are content
to absorb Mise-en-shot into Mise-en-scene. However, this distinction is crucial
when discussing the director as auteur.
●​ The aim of auteur policy is to assign to certain directors the title of artists, rather
than thinking of them as mere technicians.
●​ Auteur critics studied the style and themes (or subject matter) of a director’s films
and assigned to them the title of art if they show a consistency of style and team.
●​ Directors whose films show a consistency of style and theme are called
auteurs.
●​ By contrast, directors who show no consistency of style and theme in their work
are called metteurs-en-scene, and are relegated to the status of mere technicians
rather than artists.
●​ According to auteur critics, the difference between an auteur and a
metteur-en-scene is that, whereas an auteur can transform a mediocre script into a
 great film, a metteur-en-scene can only make a mediocre film out of a mediocre
script.
●​ In contrast to the judgements of Cahiers du Cinema, Movie critics recognised that
even auteurs can make bad films and that the metteur-en-scene can, occasionally
at least, make a good film.
●​ Auteur critics made the evaluative distinction between an auteur and a
metteur-en-scene because an auteur is able to maintain a consistency of style and
theme by working against the constraints of the Hollywood mode of production.
●​ In other words an auteur is able to transcend the restrictions imposed upon him or
her by the Hollywood studio system.
●​ An important question: Is it legitimate to concentrate on the director as the
primary creator of the film?
●​ Auteur critics acknowledge that the cinema is, of course, a collective activity
involving many people at various stages of pre-production, production and
post-production.
●​ Nevertheless, the auteur critics argue, it is the director who makes the choices
concerning framing, camera position, the duration of the shot, and so on
(mise-en-shot basically).
●​ Mise-en-shot is what makes a film unique, what distinguishes film from other arts
and this is what auteur critics focus on.
●​ During the early 1960’s, Andrew Sarris introduced the auteur policy into North
American film criticism by arguing that the auteur theory is primarily a history of
American cinema, since it develops a historical awareness of what individual
directors have achieved in the past.
●​ This is in contrast to Hollywood practice where, according to studio executives, a
director is only as good as the last film he or she made.

Criticism
●​ Uniqueness of personality, brash individuality, persistence of obsession
and originality were given an evaluative power above that of stylistic
smoothness or social awareness.
●​ Both the auteur critics and the New Wave directors have been criticised
for their lack of social commitment.
 Unit 4
Film Genres

Defining genres
●​ Auteurism emphasises the uniqueness of a film, whereas genre study emphasises
the similarities that exist between a group of films.
●​ Genre study privileges a film’s conformity to a pre-existing set of conventions.
●​ Genre study groups together a large body of films according to the common
attributes that make that film a typical example of its type.
●​ Genre study privileges what is general, standard, ordinary, typical, familiar,
conventional, average and accepted in a group of films.
●​ Auteurism privileges what is specific, unique, unusual, inventive, exceptional and
challenging in a group of films.
●​ The same film, of course, can be analysed from the perspective of genre study or
auteurism. For example, Blonde Venus has been studied both as a genre film - a
melodrama - and as an auteurist film.
●​ There are two main approaches to genre:
○​ A descriptive approach
■​ A descriptive approach divides up the Hollywood cake into genre
slices and defines each genre according to its properties, or
common attributes.
○​ A functional approach
■​ A descriptive approach is supplemented by an approach that
defines the function of genre films.
■​ The purpose of the functional approach to genre studies is to bring
a film back into the realm of the everyday; or more accurately, to
relate a fiction film to its nonfictional context.
■​ Genre critics do this in order to answer the question:
●​ How do films speak to us?
●​ What events in our everyday lives are they indirectly
representing?
■​ These questions are necessary because they explain why millions
of people go to the cinema every week.
Theory
Problems
●​ To study a film as a genre involves treating it, not as a unique entity, but as a
member of a general category, as a certain type of film.
●​ The aim of descriptive approach is to classify, or organise, a large number of films
into a small number of groups.
●​ In film studies, this process of classification does not systematically organise
films into genres.
●​ This is because the boundaries between film genres are fuzzy.
●​ Moreover, genres change over time.
●​ Most films are hybrid genres, since they possess the common attributes of more
than one genre. A typical example is the singing cowboy film, which possesses
the attributes of both the musical and the Western.
●​ Other problems that arise in the descriptive approach:
○​ How do we define genres?
○​ Do we rely on categories identified by the film industry or categories
defined by film critics?
○​ How do we identify the common attributes of genres?
○​ If we start by grouping films together and then identifying their common
attributes, we must ask ourselves: Why did we group these particular films
together?

●​ One of the biggest problems with the genre approach is being able to establish a
causal link between a film and its social and historical context. For example,
Invasion of the Body Snatchers can be read as either supporting or opposing
American Cold War ideology. What role does the film’s historical and social
context play? Does the film’s context constitute evidence that supports an
argument?

Film noir
●​ For many film critics film noir does not refer to a genre, but to a style within the thriller
or gangster film.
●​ However, film noir does have a sufficient number of attributes and a cultural function that
can identify it as a legitimate genre.
●​ In terms of mise en scene and mise en shot (the traditional way of identifying film noir),
the film noir has the following attributes:
○​ Expressionist devices, such as chiaroscuro lighting and skewed framing, creating
a high contrast image made up of dense shadows, silhouettes, oblique lines and
unbalanced compositions
○​ Subjective techniques such as voiceovers and flashbacks
○​ Equal emphasis given to actors and setting.
●​ The film noir style uses the formalist techniques of image distortion.
●​ The film noir’s use of these techniques is usually attributed to the influence of German
expressionist films (such as The Cabinet of Dr Caligari) and partly to the fact that many
film noirs were directed by European expatriate directors such as Edward Dmytryk and
Billy Wilder.
●​ In terms of narrative and themes, the film noir has the following attributes:
○​ In terms of major characters, a femme fatale and an alienated hero, who is usually
a private detective living on the edge of the law.
○​ A network of minor characters (who nonetheless play a prominent role), most of
whom are morally ambivalent and somehow interrelated.
○​ Convoluted and incoherent narratives, created by ambiguous character
motivation, the detective following false leads and sudden reversals of action
○​ The foregrounding of a narrator or a commentator, motivating the use of
voiceover and flashbacks
○​ The representation of crime and its investigation
○​ An emphasis on realistic urban settings (which give some film noirs a
semi-documentary look)
○​ The loss of hope, leading to despair, isolation and paranoia.
●​ The femme fatale is the dominant attribute of the film noir. She is presented as a desirable
but dangerous woman, who challenges patriarchal values and the authority of male
characters.
●​ In fact, the film noir can be described as a struggle between the transgressive femme
fatale and the alienated hero.
●​ Sometimes, the hero is destroyed but, more often, he overcomes the desirability of the
femme fatale and destroys her.
●​ The alienated hero is usually a detective.
●​ Film noirs are based on the detective fiction of writers such as Dashiell Hammett,
Raymond Chandler, Cornell Woolrich and James M. Cain.
●​ What is significant about film noir detective is that he is sharply distinguished from both
the gentleman mastermind, such as Sherlock Holmes, and the compliant detective
working for the professional police force. The private detective is a lone individual who
embodies his own moral law.
●​ The emphasis in the film noir is on the independent male fighting the criminals, the
femmes fatales, as well as the inefficient, corrupt and inhuman government organisations.
●​ These two figures, the femme fatale and the alienated detective hero, are a symptom of
the upheavals witnessed during the 1940’s in North American society.
●​ Feminist film critics point out that the femme fatale is a ‘masculine construct’, since she
reflects male concern and insecurity over women’s changing roles during the Second
World War - particularly women’s entry into the traditionally male workplace.
●​ This signifies women’s economic independence, the fact that many women no longer
believed that setting up a family to be their top priority and that there were fewer jobs
available to the men who returned from war.
 Unit 5
Non-fiction films

Documentary
Some of the basic premises film spectators normally hold about documentaries:

●​ Firstly, the events filmed must be unstaged; that is, the events must exist above and
beyond the activity of filming them. In fiction films, by contrast, events are staged for the
express purpose of being filmed. The unstaged nature of the events in documentaries
therefore suggest that the events have an existence independent of the cinema. This is
what gives them their authenticity.
●​ Secondly, documentaries are conventionally understood to be non fiction films. In other
words, they must be sharply distinguished from fiction films. The world depicted in the
documentary is real, not imaginary.
●​ Thirdly, it is often assumed that the documentary filmmaker simply observes and makes
an objective record of real events.
In recent times, all three assumptions have come under scrutiny.

●​ It is now commonplace to argue that the very presence of the camera influences the
filmed events.
●​ Documentary film makers employ a wide variety of techniques in putting their films
together; they do not simply point the camera towards their subject and let the camera
roll. The documentary film maker cannot simply observe and objectively record because
he or she makes technical choices - selecting the camera angle, camera lens, film stock,
deciding how to edit shots together and so on.
●​ This seems to make the documentary personal and subjective.
●​ An important question that arises is that: How do the selections made by the documentary
filmmaker manipulate the events? Because all documentary films ‘manipulate’ events,
then it may be better to use a more neutral term, such as ‘shape’ events.
●​ We can reserve the term ‘manipulation’ for documentaries that can be categorised as
propaganda - those that hide from the spectator the processes they use in shaping the
events.
●​ Bill Nicholas divided up the documentary cake into five slices.
●​ Each type of documentary is defined and distinguished according to how it shapes the
events being filmed by means of particular techniques selected by the filmmaker.

1.​ Expository documentary

○​ The expository documentary employs the following techniques: a
disembodied and authoritative voiceover commentary, plus a series of
images that aim to be descriptive and informative.
2.​Observational documentary
○​ The observational documentary tries to present a ‘slice of life’, or a direct
representation of the filmed events. The film maker attempts to be
completely invisible, that is, an uninvolved bystander.
3.​Interactive documentary
○​ The interactive documentary makes the film maker’s presence prominent,
as he or she interacts with the people or events being filmed. These
interactions primarily take the form of interviews, which draw out specific
comments and responses from those who are filmed.
4.​Reflexive documentary
○​ The reflexive documentary attempts to expose to the spectator the
conventions of documentary representation. Rather than focus on the
events and people filmed, the reflexive documentary focuses on how they
are filmed. The effect is that the reflexive documentary challenges the
documentary’s apparent ability to reveal the truth.
5.​ Performative documentary
○​ Performative documentary deflects attention away from the world and
towards the expressive dimension of film. That is, reference to the world is
marginalised and the poetic and expressive dimensions of film are
emphasized.
 Unit 6
Film Reception

Review
●​ Film reviewing, indeed criticism in general, is commonly called professional fault
finding, particularly by those whose work is frequently reviewed.

Four functions of film reviewing

According to David Bordwell:

■​ Journalism
●​ As journalism, film reviewing presents to the reader news on the
latest film releases and more specifically, significant aspects of a
particular film. For example, the fees of the film’s main stars may
be very high or the cost of production is excessive.
●​ More specifically, we can identify two types of film journalism:
○​ Journalism of opinion, in which the journalist presents a
carefully thought-out position on a film, backed up with a
set of arguments and background information;
○​ Journalism of taste, in which the journalist presents a
simple evaluation of a film.
■​ Advertising
●​ As advertising, a review functions to publicise a film and
encourages its readers to go to cinema.
●​ Film industry can therefore be seen as a service industry, since it
functions as a service to both the studio that financed and produced
the film (by advertising their film), and as a service to film goers,
by functioning as a consumer’s guide to the best and worst films
currently available.
■​ Criticism
●​ As criticism, a review involves the description, analysis and
evaluation of films.
 ■​ Rhetoric (writing)
●​ As writing, reviews become essays and are read for their own
intrinsic literary merits, which may lead to them being republished
in a single authored anthology.

○​ Occasionally, a reviewer may write a condescending review, allowing the reader

to feel superior to the film.
○​ The review therefore informs the reader of films he or she should know about, but
without recommending that the reader go and see the film. Here, the review is
certainly not functioning as advertising, quite the reverse.
○​ This usually applies to reviews of the summer blockbusters in the highbrow press.

Four components of film reviewing

David Bordwell emphasises that a review usually consists of the following four
components:

●​ A condensed plot synopsis

○​ The condensed plot synopsis is simply a description of the film’s plot.
○​ Most synopses tend to emphasise the big moments in the film, although it
is careful not to reveal the film’s ending.
●​ Background information
○​ The background information includes genre, stars, director, anecdotes
about the film’s production and reception and so on (this is where review
functions as news).
●​ A set of abbreviated arguments about the film
○​ The set of abbreviated arguments about the film is the reviewer’s main
focus, as he or she analyses and comments on the film.
●​ An evaluation
○​ Finally, the reviewer offers an evaluation of the film and (implicitly or
explicitly) a recommendation to see/not to see the film.
○​ The evaluation is the result of the reviewer’s activity and is backed up by
his or her set of abbreviated arguments and knowledge of the film’s
background.
 ●​ Of course, the reviewer’s judgement, writing style and decisions about how much
background information and condensed arguments to give the reader, is
determined by the projected readership and the perceived character of the paper or
magazine.
●​ For example, A broadsheet newspaper, such as The Observer has a projected
readership that is perceived to be highly literate and knowledgeable of debates in
the arts, culture and society. A film review in such a newspaper will therefore be
strong on background information and condensed arguments, while making an
evaluative judgment implicit. It conforms to a journalism of opinion.
●​ A review in a tabloid newspaper, on the other hand, emphasises plot information
and summary judgements. It is a journalism of taste.

Evaluation and Criticism

●​ What are reviewers looking for when they evaluate a film? Here’s what they want:
○​ The motivation of what happens in a film
○​ Entertainment value
○​ Social value

Motivation
●​ In relation to motivation, reviewers are looking for the relevance of or
justification for a particular narrative event or technical skill such as an elaborate
camera movement or special effects.
●​ Motivation creates a sense of unity and coherence.
●​ David Bordwell has identified four types of motivation in the cinema:
○​ Compositional motivation
■​ Refers to the formal structure of the film’s narrative.
■​ An action or event in the narrative is motivated if it constitutes part
of the film’s cause-effect logic.
■​ If an action or event falls outside the cause-effect logic, it is
deemed to be unmotivated.
■​ In contemporary Hollywood cinema, this usually applies to the
many prolonged action sequences and special effects that appear
on screen as if for no other reason than to overwhelm the
audience’s senses and shock their nervous system.
 ○​ Realistic motivation
■​ Does not necessarily mean that the action or event under question
is literal or true to life
■​ What it can also mean is that, within the world of the film’s fiction,
the action or event is plausible or believable.
■​ For example, in The Lost World: Jurassic Park, it is plausible for a
T-Rex to eat Eddie but not plausible for it to speak English.
However, within the context of everyday life, it is implausible for a
T-Rex to eat Eddie or anyone else for that matter, because the
T-Rex is an extinct species and has not yet been brought back to
life through genetic engineering.
■​ So realistic motivation not only means authentic or corresponding
to everyday life but also means plausible and believable within the
boundaries of the film’s fiction.​
○​ Intertextual motivation
■​ This includes the relation between the film and its source (such as
a famous novel), and the relation between the film and the genre to
which it belongs.
■​ If a film is based on a famous novel, reviewers will invariably look
for the similarities and differences between the two.
○​ Artistic motivation
■​ This means that a particular film technique is motivated for
aesthetic reasons.
■​ For example, an elaborate camera movement may serve the
function of creating an unusual pattern, or simply to demonstrate
the virtuosity of the director.

●​ When a critic complains that a particular event or technique in a film is not

motivated, he or she is arguing that it does not contribute to the overall coherence
of the film but distracts from that coherence because it appears arbitrary.
●​ Critics who look only for compositional/realistic/intertextual motivation, while
debunking artistic motivation, can be called conservative critics, while those who
also seek out and praise artistic motivation are called radical critics.
●​ Conservative critics try to cultivate commonsense rationalism, by suggesting that
a film must not disturb our commonsense ideas.
 ●​ Radical critics on the other hand challenge our everyday assumptions and show us
the world from a different perspective.

Entertainment value
●​ A review that looks for entertainment value considers whether the film functions
as an escapist experience for the audience.
●​ Firstly, a film is entertaining if it is successful in holding audiences' attention and
arousing their emotions.
●​ One important way this is achieved is by encouraging spectators to identify with a
character or set of characters within the film.
●​ A film must therefore give the time and space to express and develop a
character’s psychology.
●​ However, it is equally possible to answer that a film is entertaining if it takes the
audience on a roller coaster ride, offering them an experience that amazes their
senses and startles their nervous system.
●​ Emphasis is placed upon spectacle (extraordinary action sequences and special
effects) and sound (loud explosions, stereo and surround sound and so on).

Social Value
●​ In complete contrast to entertainment value, a film reviewer may evaluate a film
positively if it depicts an important social value.
●​ Occasionally, Hollywood films depict a social issue that is not usually discussed,
such as the traumas of a victim of gang rape, as in Jonathan Kaplan’s The
Acuused (1988).

Redemption​
●​ This is a practice that reviewers indulge in - namely, looking for good points in an
otherwise bad film.
●​ It is very common for reviewers to criticise a film’s script or, more generally, the
lack of coherence of a film’s narrative.
●​ Here, reviewers are looking for compositional, realistic and/or intertextual
motivation, but fail to find it.
●​ Some reviewers may even attempt to rewrite the script, making suggestions about
how it could have been improved.
●​ Reviewers looking for artistic motivation may argue that the film is saved by
technical virtuosity of the camera work, editing or set design.
●​ In a bad film, a reviewer may single out any strong acting roles, then make the
point that the talent of the particular actor is wasted in this film.
●​ Finally, the set design may be the strongest point and may even be the star of the
film - that is, may upstage the actors - and the narrative, if they are not strong
enough to compete with the lavish sets.
 What do you need to watch?
(Credits to Srikar, Harshini, and Mariya)

NOTE: While accessing films in Fmovies or other sites, please check for different server options
for subtitles. Servers like OpenSource, Server Media or Server CDN have subtitles or you can
add subtitle files from the computer.

The films listed below are a part of our syllabus.

Harishchandrachi factory
Available on Netflix
Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICvCtMpexfg&ab_channel=ChinmayChaudhari

Cinema Paradiso
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kFfTHmPZtg&ab_channel=DiogoLima

Auteur approach - HITCHCOCK

Psycho
Link:https://www.mxplayer.in/movie/watch-psycho-movie-online-3dc8d9d3c3775d5045c958e54
fe90d98?watch=true

Vertigo
Link: https://fmoviesf.co/movie/vertigo-1958-032668/

Rear Window
Link: https://fmoviesf.co/movie/rear-window-1954-032740/
 Raja Harishchandra
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zevm0Zjc-k&ab_channel=NupurMovies

Narrative
The Godfather
Available on Amazon Prime Video
Link: https://gototub.com/the-godfather-full-movie-online-free/

The Gunfighter
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWs4WA--eKU&ab_channel=MAGNETFILM

The Great Dictator

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1TSTYKnD3k&ab_channel=HammadAliButt

Stranger Than Fiction

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WckdnyTat3I

Citizen Kane
Link: https://fmoviesf.co/movie/citizen-kane-1941-031198/

Volver
Link: https://fmoviesf.co/movie/volver-2006-035266/

Pulp Fiction
Link: https://ask4movie.cc/pulp-fiction-1994-2/
Adaptation
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj1A9Mtz13k&ab_channel=DisneyCinema

Horror Comedy
One Cut Of The Dead
Link: https://fmoviesf.co/movie/one-cut-of-the-dead/

The films listed below are not a part of our syllabus. However, you can watch them for
reference.

Run lola run

Link: https://fmoviesf.co/movie/run-lola-run-1998-031416/

Groundhog Day
Link: https://fmoviesf.co/movie/groundhog-day-1993-030505/

Three colors: blue

Link: https://fmoviesf.co/movie/three-colors-blue-1993-020738/

Three colors: red

Link: https://fmoviesf.co/movie/three-colors-red-1994-020737/

Three colors: white

Link: https://fmoviesf.co/movie/three-colors-white-1994-031414/
7 Brides for 7 Brothers

Good Bad and Ugly

Link: https://fmoviesf.co/movie/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-1966-030774/