1. Why Study Film?

2. Knowing how to analyze films and build thoughtful interpretations=
More enjoyment

3. Our Goal Identify the major elements of film art
Recognize the way those elements work together to produce meaning
Develop the skills necessary to interpret what we’re being told (sold?)

4. Cinematic Language The visual/aural vocabulary of film
Composed of integrated techniques and concepts

5. Actively Looking at Movies
Recognize the many tools and principles that filmmakers employ to tell stories, convey information and meaning, and influence emotions and ideas.
Understand movies as narrative, as artistic expression, and as a reflection of the cultures that produce and consume them.

6. What is a movie?
A series of still photos shown quickly to simulation motion
A type of communication
A form of popular entertainment
A narrative that tells a story
This “telling” is affected by cultural differences and the era in which it was produced.

7. Movie, Cinema, or a Film? Essentially interchangeable terms
Cinema: from the Greek kenesis (movement)
Often implies art films (e.g., “French Cinema”)
Film: from the original celluloid strip media
Movie: short for motion pictures
Motion is the essence of the movie medium 7

8. The Most Popular Art Form Today
Movies are not just watched in theaters today
TiVo, big-box retailers, and Redbox machines
Online, cable, and satellite stations
Streaming video, computers
Televisions
iPads, smart phones
Other systems not yet imagined 8

9. Communication & Culture

10. Communication
SUCCESSFUL transmission of a message from a source to a receiver
Must be sharing of meaning
Response, or feedback
Two types
Interpersonal
Mass

11. How it works…
Messages are encoded—transformed into understandable sign and symbol system
Once received, message is decoded—signs and symbols interpreted
Noise interferes with successful communication
Encoded messages carried by medium— means of sending information

12. Communication Model Who Says what To whom Though what channel
With what effect

13. Communication Model

14. What is Culture? Learned behavior of a social group.
Historically transmitted pattern of meaning.
Uses symbols to communicate knowledge.
How we make sense of our lives.
Communication is required for culture to exist.
Culture is learned.
It helps us define our world.
I. What do we mean by dominant culture? Majority. Unites us. People oppose this by learning new ways of thinking, changing patterns.
What do we mean by bounded (or co-) cultures? Smaller, niche. Allows us to differentiate. Can turn to division (Muslims – post 9/11)

15. Functions and Effects of Culture
Provides useful guidelines for behavior.
In pluralistic society both dominant and bounded cultures exist.
Cultural values can be contested.
It’s fluid, ever changing.
Culture can unite or divide.

16. Communication & Culture
Always remember, “the past causes the present and so the future.”
View all media through the frame of culture.
Fluid
Socially constructed
Shared meaning

17. History of Film

18. How does film “work?” Persistence of Vision
human eye retains an image on the retina for 1/24 of a second.
Phi Phenomenon & critical flicker fusion
If light is pulsed at a certain speed (24 fps), the illusion is continuous light. So, when pictures are flashed in quick succession, we perceive them as moving.

19. The Beginnings Late 1800s Film language (think language + culture!)
Industrial revolution
Immigration
Film language (think language + culture!)
People had to become film literate. It was like being in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language.
Had to understand cinematic alterations of time and space; how images and sound combine to create meaning; camera angles.
Industrial revolution (free time, free money, mechanics)
Immigration (silent movies required no lang)
The “old wives tale” of the train arriving at the station

20. Precursors of Film Phonotrope (aka Phonographantasmascope) Zoetrope
1800’s Europe
Phonotrope (aka Phonographantasmascope)
Zoetrope
A modern zoetrope, the “zoeflix”
And a 3D zoetrope

21. The Early Years - Pioneers
Eadweard Muybridge
Developed photography to reveal motion.
Wager by Ca. governor Stanford to show all 4 legs of a horse were in the air at one time.
Bullet-time – Matrix slo-mo technique which used the basic principles of Muybridge’s “The Horse in Motion.”

22. The Early Years - Pioneers
Eadweard Muybridge

23. The Early Years - Pioneers
Thomas Edison
After meeting Muybridge, he set out to invent a projector. As always with Edison, his assistant, Dickson, did.
Kinetoscope films
But boring. Why?

24. The Early Years - Pioneers
Thomas Edison
His assistant, Dickson also invented a better way to film – celluloid.
Quick history

25. The Early Years - Pioneers
Thomas Edison
Black Maria (N.J.) – motion picture studio (really just a box that could be rotated to have enough light.

26. The Early Years - Pioneers
Lumiere Brothers
They were considered the first to exhibit moving pictures – 1895
They thought it was “an invention without any future”
Films such as Workers Leaving the Station, Arrival of a Train at the Station

27. The Early Years - Pioneers
George Melies
The “cinemagician”
Created the “stop trick,” multiple exposures, time lapse photography and dissolves.
Still using proscenium staging.
Trip to the Moon