CIN105Y1 Study Guide - Summer 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Classical Hollywood Cinema, Diegesis, Silence
12 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
CIN105Y1
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
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May 12, 2016
CIN LECTURE 2: FILM FORM
Film Form:
• “the overall set of relationships among a film’s parts”
• Formal analysis assumes an active perceiver and an art work that provides cues
• Through being experienced by people, form actually begins to have meaning (it has to be
recognized)
• The relationship between (1) the work of art itself and (2) the audience
• Form is what connects the filmmaker to the audience
• The audience has to make connections between the many parts of a film
• Bordwell and Thomson “If you are a director or screenwriter, you face perpetual
choices about form. As a viewer you are responding to it at every moment.”
Meaning is created in the interaction between film and audience
• How do films go about achieving meaning?
The meaning of the film does not reside entirely in the artwork (film) itself, or in
the viewer and what they assume they’re experiencing (the film isn’t just a blank
canvas for people to project their own desires on)—it is a collaboration between
the two
This means that meaning can vary and change
Ex. over time (something scary in 1935 isn’t the same today, even if the cue is
there) If the meaning simply resided in the artwork, the thing would still be
scary today
Film relies on this relationship
Meaning is contingent on time, location, place, etc. (dependent on social and
cultural factors, which affect the film-person relationship)
• Films can have many different types of meaning (***EXTRA)
1) referential (referring to something else)
2) explicit/implicit (making something very clear/cues which imply)
3) symptomatic (relationship meaning comes from the meaning of something
else)
• Film can have many different things happening simultaneously
• It is through form that content emerges (form and content are not mutually exclusive;
rather, content takes shape through form)
“Singing in the Rain”
• Explicit Meaning the struggle of adopting “talkies” in Hollywood at the time
• Referential Meaning challenges involved in making a particular film, Duelling
cavalier
• Theme/Symbolism, Implicit and Symptomatic Meanings relationships, working in the
film industry at the time, having a character vs. authenticity
• About…artistic collaboration, love affair, musical performances
Cinema Conventions:
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Document Summary
As a viewer you are responding to it at every moment. This means that meaning can vary and change. Ex. over time (something scary in 1935 isn"t the same today, even if the cue is there) if the meaning simply resided in the artwork, the thing would still be scary today. It is through form that content emerges (form and content are not mutually exclusive; rather, content takes shape through form) Resolution (at the end of the film) is a convention part of the internal clock of the cinema. In avant-garde cinema, many of these conventions are purposefully disrupted (sometimes this prevents us from understanding the film, such as in persona clip) Film is much more complex than a painting (audio-visual) Principles of film form (bordwell and thomson): function. In sitr, song is used for characters to express themselves: similarity and repetition. In sitr, lena"s screeching voice is a sonic motif (inability to enunciate, etc.
