Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film / Edition 4

by Richard Barsam, Dave Monahan

Overview

Looking at Movies is the most effective introduction to film analysis available. From its very first chapter, Looking at Movies provides students with the tools they need to become perceptive viewers of film. The Fourth Edition is not only more comprehensive, but also more accessible and sophisticated in its integration of media.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393913026
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	10/09/2012
Edition description:	Fourth Edition
Pages:	640
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Richard Barsam (Ph.D., University of Southern California) is Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at Hunter College, City University of New York. He is the author of Nonfiction Film: A Critical History (rev., exp. ed. 1992), The Vision of Robert Flaherty: The Artist as Myth and Filmmaker (1988), In the Dark: A Primer for the Movies (1977), and Filmguide to "Triumph of the Will" (1975); editor of Nonfiction Film Theory and Criticism (1976); and contributing author to Paul Monaco’s The Sixties: 1960–1969 (Vol. 8, History of the American Cinema, 2001) and Filming Robert Flaherty’s "Louisiana Story": The Helen Van Dongen Diary (ed. Eva Orbanz, 1998). His articles and book reviews have appeared in Cinema Journal, Quarterly Review of Film Studies, Film Comment, Studies in Visual Communication, and Harper’s. He has been a member of the Executive Council of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, the Editorial Board of Cinema Journal, and the Board of Advisers of the History of American Cinema series, and he cofounded the journal Persistence of Vision.

Dave Monahan (M.F.A., Columbia University) is a Professor of Film Studies at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. His filmmaking work as a writer, director, and editor has been screened internationally in over seventy film festivals and has earned numerous awards, including the New Line Cinema Award for Most Original Film and the Seattle International Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for Best Animated Short Film.

Table of Contents

To Students
Preface
Acknowledgments

1. WHAT IS A MOVIE?

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

Movies Manipulate Space and Time in Ways That Other
Art Forms Cannot
Movies Depend on Light
Movies Provide an Illusion of Movement
Movies Can Depict Worlds Convincingly
Movies Generally Result from a Complex, Expensive, and Highly Collaborative Process

TYPES OF MOVIES

Nonfiction Films
Narrative Films
Animated Films
Experimental Films

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW
QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS
A NOTE ON "CASE STUDIES"
FOR FURTHER READING

2. FORM AND NARRATIVE

WHAT IS FORM?
PRINCIPLES OF FILM FORM
Form and Expectations
Form and Patterns
Form and Themes
Coherence, Progression, and Unity and Balance
WHAT IS NARRATIVE?
Telling the Story
ELEMENTS OF NARRATIVE
Story and Plot
Order
Events: Hubs and Satellites
Duration
Suspense versus Surprise
Frequency
Characters
Setting
Point of View
Scope
ANALYZING NARRATIVE
John Ford's Stagecoach
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW
QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS
FOR FURTHER READING

3. MISE-EN-SCÈNE AND DESIGN

WHAT IS MISE-EN-SCÈNE?
COMPOSITION AND MISE-EN-SCÈNE
Framing: What We See on the Screen
Kinesis: What Moves on the Screen
ANALYZING MISE-EN-SCÈNE
Jean Renoir's The Rules of the Game
WHAT IS DESIGN?
PROCESS AND ELEMENTS OF DESIGN
Roles of the Art Director and the Production Designer
Setting
Lighting
Costume, Makeup, and Hairstyle
International Styles and Development
ANALYZING DESIGN
Todd Solondz's Happiness
Sam Mendes's American Beauty
Michael Almereyda's Hamlet
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW
QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS
FOR FURTHER READING

4. CINEMATOGRAPHY

WHAT IS CINEMATOGRAPHY?
THE DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
The D.P.'s Responsibilities
CINEMATOGRAPHIC PROPERTIES OF THE SHOT
Film Stock
Lighting
Lenses
FRAMING OF THE SHOT
Visualization and Composition
Types of Shots
Depth
Camera Angle and Height
Scale
Camera Movement
SPEED AND LENGTH OF THE SHOT
SPECIAL EFFECTS CINEMATOGRAPHY
ANALYZING CINEMATOGRAPHY
Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW
QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS
FOR FURTHER READING

5. ACTING

WHAT IS ACTING?
The Paradox of Acting
Early Screen-Acting Styles
D. W. Griffith and Lillian Gish
Konstantin Stanislavsky and Method Acting
Bertolt Brecht
The Influence of Sound
Movie Stars in the Golden Age of Hollywood
Screen Acting Today
CASTING ACTORS
Factors Involved in Casting
ASPECTS OF PERFORMANCE
Types of Roles
Preparing for Roles
Naturalistic and Nonnaturalistic Styles
Improvisational Acting
Directors and Actors
HOW FILMMAKING AFFECTS ACTING
Framing, Composition, Lighting, and the Long Take
The Camera and the Close-Up
ANALYZING ACTING
Barbara Stanwyck in King Vidor's Stella Dallas
Maggie Smith in Jack Clayton's The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW
QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS
FOR FURTHER READING

6. EDITING

WHAT IS EDITING?
Continuity Editing
Discontinuity Editing
THE EDITOR'S RESPONSIBILITIES
Spatial, Temporal, and Visual Relationships between
Individual Shots
Rhythm
Mood
Ellipsis
Separation
Pattern
Slow Disclosure
CONVENTIONS OF EDITING
Establishing Shot
Match Cut
Point-of-View Editing
Parallel Editing
Shot/Reverse Shot
Jump Cut
Fade-In and Fade-Out
Dissolve
Wipe
Iris-In and Iris-Out
Flashback and Flashforward
Freeze Frame
Split-Screen
Montage
Conventions of Editing in Mark Sandrich's Top Hat
EDITING AND POSTPRODUCTION
THE EDITOR'S TOOLS
Editing with Rudimentary Equipment and with Upright and Flatbed Machines
Linear Editing with Videotape
Nonlinear Digital Editing with Computerized Equipment
ANALYZING FILM EDITING
D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation
Buster Keaton's Sherlock, Jr.
Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin
Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia
Orson Welles's Citizen Kane
Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront
Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho
Sidney Lumet's The Pawnbroker
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW
QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS
FOR FURTHER READING

7. SOUND

WHAT IS SOUND?
PHYSICAL AND PERCEPTUAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SOUND
SOURCES OF FILM SOUND
Diegetic or Nondiegetic
Internal or External
Onscreen or Offscreen
Synchronous or Asynchronous
Production or Postproduction
TYPES OF FILM SOUND
Vocal Sounds (Dialogue and Narration)
Environmental Sounds (Ambient Sound and Sound Effects)
Music
Silence
FUNCTIONS OF FILM SOUND
Audience Awareness
Audience Expectations
Rhythm
Character
Fidelity
Continuity
Emphasis
Juxtaposition
Montage
SOUND VERSUS SILENCE
Technological Challenges
Commercial Challenges
Aesthetic Challenges
SOUND PRODUCTION
Design
Recording
Editing
Mixing
ANALYZING FILM SOUND
Orson Welles's Citizen Kane
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW
QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS
FOR FURTHER READING

8. WRITING ABOUT MOVIES

JOINING THE CRITICAL CONVERSATION ABOUT MOVIES
FUNDAMENTAL TECHNIQUES
Summarizing Plot
Analyzing Shots, Scenes, and Sequences
Taking Notes
Taking Advantage of Tape, DVD, and the Internet
Writing Descriptively
Making an Argument
Incorporating Sources
ASSIGNMENTS AND STRATEGIES
Critical Analysis
Movie Review versus Critical Analysis
Research Paper
EXPLICIT, IMPLICIT, AND IDEOLOGICAL MEANINGS
GENRE STUDY
CRITICAL AND THEORETICAL APPROACHES
Interpretive Frameworks
Auteurism
Psychological Criticism
Ideological Criticism
APPLIED READINGS
Die Hard: Mimicry and Catharsis
Die Hard: Binary Oppositions
Wall Street: Freudianism
Vertigo: Cognitive Psychology
Rear Window: Auteurism
Metropolis: Marxism
Thelma and Louise: Feminism
Repo Man: Cultural Studies
THE WRITING PROCESS
Prewriting: Discovering What You Want to Say
Generating Text
Revising

FOR FURTHER READING

SAMPLE STUDENT PAPER: "MODERN INDEMNITY" BY JAMES ARNETT

APPENDIX: OVERVIEW OF HOLLYWOOD PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

THE STUDIO SYSTEM

Organization before 1931
Organization after 1931
Organization During the Golden Age
Decline of the Studio System

THE INDEPENDENT SYSTEM

Financing in the Industry
Marketing and Distribution

FOR FURTHER READING AND VIEWING

Glossary

Permissions and Acknowledgements

Index