FAMST 96 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Diegesis, Slow Motion
27 Jun 2018
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ESSAY #4: City of God - First Draft
Read sample papers
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Review the prompt throughout writing process
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Film is one big flashback
Internal flashbacks in the succession of events
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Full circle
Starting in one place, ending in the same place (same time, same
happenings, etc.)
§
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What elements allow the viewer to infer time since there is no direct time card
Cultural aspects in the fabula
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The captions as scenes/storylines change {not so much??}
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Auditory cues
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Visual cues -- editing, transitions
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Sunrise - day - sunset - night
Knowing that days are passing
§
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Speed of clips
Slow motion
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Sped up actions
Ghost characters
Montage apartment scene
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Speed of the bullet that acts as a transition
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§
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Bordwell says we infer the succession of time from cues provided
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ANSWER THE PROMPT QUESTIONS prior to brainstorming and outlining
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Temporal order, temporal frequency,
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How elements of space might be related/connected in time through cause and
effect (sample paper)
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"Rhythm of the film is periodically accelerated" (times of chaos, "war" scenes,
etc.)
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BORDWELL
"…our comprehension of cinematic space…" (Pg. 76)
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"rhythm in narrative cinema comes down to this: by forcing the spectator to
make inferences at a certain rate, the narration governs what and how we
infer." (76)
The more information we're getting and the quicker we get it, the more
limited our knowledge is
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We don’t have a lot of time to hypothesize, just as the characters don't
have enough time to think before they act
Neither of us think of consequences
§
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Long times or static frames and pacing would allow us to constantly be
making hypotheses
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Rapid editing forces us to follow along with the story being shown, and
not create our own
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"the temporal relations in the fabula are derived by inference; the viewer fits
schemata to the cues proffered by the narration. This process affects three
aspects of time: the order of events, their frequency, and their duration." (77)
Temporal Order = Order of Events
Four general possibilities for the temporal order of events
Simultaneous events (story/fabula) & simultaneous
presentation (narration/syuzhet)
Split screens
Two events depicted but are supposed to be
happening at the same time
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Sound (offscreen)
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Deep space - multiple planes
Something happening in the background
and the foreground
}
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®
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Successive events & simultaneous presentation
Split screen
Seeing something and hearing something
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On one side, showing two people having a
conversation about something they did, and on
one side showing when they were actually doing
the action
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Apartment dissolves (ghost characters)
Overlapping
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Successive events being shown nearly at the same
time
But obviously two people cant be in one
place at once
}
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®
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Simultaneous events and successive presentation
Crosscutting
Two events happening at the same time but we're
switching from one place to another, one
scenario to another
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®
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Successive events and successive presentation
Separate events not happening at the same time and
not being presented at the same time
®
Could just mean chronological order
Not always though, just means events aren't
happening at the same time and aren't being
shown at the same time
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®
Flashbacks
Far out enough, City of God is 2, 1, 3
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®
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§
Temporal order
Recounting = telling or writing the past, motivated directly by
a character
E.g. I, Tonya interviews are all recountments
®
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Enactment = dramatizations□
Enacted recounting = enactment motivated first by the
recounting
The reason we see the enactment is because we are
being told of the event
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Narrators tell the audience self-consciously, and then
we see what they're talking about
®
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Flashbacks
External vs. internal
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External flashback = the very first/opening shot/scene
of the film
In City of God = chicken chase
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Flashback taking you to before the first event of
the plot
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Internal flashback
Doesn’t take us past what we've already seen
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Shows us different perspective of somewhere
we've already been
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®
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Flashforward□
§
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Temporal order in City of God
Clip: leading up to the very first flashback… what cues us to know that
we're about to get a flashback
Slow motion
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Spinning camera
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Diegetic sounds muted out except for his heartbeat and the cocking
of guns
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Ticking of a clock
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Wind tunnel-like sound
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Apartment story clips
Successive events being presented simultaneously
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Freeze frame and dissolves - editing enabled presentation
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Ghostly representation of characters
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Same character in two areas of the frame at once
§
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Split screens
Simultaneous events, simultaneous presentations
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Two different spaces being shown to us at once
§
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Otto and Ned
Internal flashback
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"why did you join the fucking war"
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Slow motion
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Sounds are echoed
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Pace is slowed down
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No diegetic sounds other than Otto's voice
§
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Section 7: Narration and Time
Tuesday, May 15, 2018
12:29 PM
Document Summary
Essay #4: city of god - first draft. Starting in one place, ending in the same place (same time, same happenings, etc. ) What elements allow the viewer to infer time since there is no direct time card. The captions as scenes/storylines change {not so much??} Speed of the bullet that acts as a transition. Bordwell says we infer the succession of time from cues provided. Answer the prompt questions prior to brainstorming and outlining. How elements of space might be related/connected in time through cause and effect (sample paper) "rhythm of the film is periodically accelerated" (times of chaos, "war" scenes, etc. ) "rhythm in narrative cinema comes down to this: by forcing the spectator to. "rhythm in narrative cinema comes down to this: by forcing the spectator to make inferences at a certain rate, the narration governs what and how we infer. " (76) The more information we"re getting and the quicker we get it, the more limited our knowledge is.
