The Elements of art are the basic components of art-marking. It is impossible to create a work of art without using at least one of the seven elements of art. Artworks can also be analyzed according to the use of the elements in a work of art.
A table explaining the elements of art keywords
The Elements of art are stylistic features that are included within an art piece to help the artist communicate.
Form: every three dimensional object, which has a length, width and height, has a form. We can Identify two different types of forms: the Geometric ones and the Organic forms. The Geometric forms falls into a specific category and are typically man-made; some examples are the cone, tube, sphere or cylinder. On the other hand an organic form does not have a specific name associated with it since they are compared to naturally occurring forms. An artist goal is the one of recreating the illusion of a down form and he or she can accomplish that by observing how light reacts on the specific object in real life. There can be different elements to identify: highlight – the area where light is hitting the object directly-, midtone – the middle value of the local colour of the object-, core shadow – area shaded on the object-, cast shadow – areas shaded on the surfaces surrounding the object itself because the object blocks the light from it, reflected highlight – area on the object that is lighter because of reflected light off of surrounding objects.
Colour: in Art has a very important role and features, it has an effect on our mood and behaviour and refers to reflected light. In Art and films too colour has the ability to subtly manipulate the audience, affecting them physically (altering mood and feelings since it affects the centre of emotions in the hypothalamus), has a psychological effect (colours have a different impression of weight and size). the theory behind colour is split in three parts and each part is built upon the previous:
The colour wheel, theorised by Isaac Newton which offers a visual representation of the colours separating them into a spectrum found in prism they are arranged in a circle and the primary colours (yellow, red and blue) are equally spaced; the colour wheel is composed by Primary, Secondary and Tertiary colours. Primary colours (yellow, red and blue) can only be created through the use of natural pigments and are used to create the colours on the colour wheel. Secondary colours (orange, green and purple) are generated by mixing equally any of two primary colours so the combination of yellow and blue would create green, or mixing red and blue creates purple and red plus yellow is equal orange. Tertiary colours (red-purple, red-orange, blue green, yellow-green, blue-purple, yellow-orange) are, instead, created by mixing equally a primary colour with a secondary colour.
The colour values, a value of a colour determines the darkness or lightness of it. A hue, pure colour, can be affected by adding white, producing a tint, or black, producing a shade, to it.
The colours schemes, which are patterns with which colours are put together an a clever way. The monochromatic scheme represents none colour with its shades and tints. The analogous scheme, shows colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel. The complementary colour scheme, showing colours found directly across from each other on the colour wheel and offers great contrasts. Three colours found on the colour wheel which are equally spaced apart from each other are part of a colour triads scheme. Warm colours scheme is associated with warm things and cool colours scheme is associated with cool things.
Space: in art space can be the area around, above and within an object. An artist accomplishment can be recreate the illusion of space in his or her artworks. There are several techniques to achieve so: overlapping, positioning closer object and one prevents the view of the other creating the illusion of depth; placement, for example, an object placed higher within the picture it will appeal further away; size, smaller object will appear further away from the viewer; detail, having less detail on an object further away is more realistic; colour and value, further away objects tends to be cooler in temperature and lighter in value the closer they are the warmer darker in value they appear; perspective, a drawing created using linear perspective using lines to create the illusion of space on flat surfaces, all the parallel lines (orthogonals) in a painting or drawing using this system converge in a single vanishing point on the composition’s horizon line – we can identify 4 major types of perspective defined by the number of vanishing points lying on the horizon line: 1 point perspective, 2 point perspective, 3 point perspective and multi-point perspective; positive space, in the shapes or forms of interest; negative space, which is the empty space between the shapes or forms.
Texture: alludes to the way an object may feels to the touch or looks as it may feel if it were touched. A texture can be: Visual, 3D surface imitating a real texture; invented, 2D pattern created by using lines and shapes repeated; rough texture, which reflect light unevenly; smooth textures, instead reflect light evenly; matte, a surface that reflects a soft, dull light (shiny surfaces are the opposite); impasto, a painting technique in which the paint is built up on the surface to create a texture. Values are very useful in revealing the illusion of texture.
Line: the most basic element of art: a moving dot that controls a viewer’s eye it can describe edges it can indicate form as well as movement. Such techniques are hatching and cross hatching which are linear drawing techniques that can be used to create texture, value, and the illusion of form and light and is mostly used to create a full range of value. Contour lines help showing where an object ends. Line quality refers to the thickness or thinness of a line helping create the illusion of form in a drawing. Vertical lines move up and down without any slant, whereas horizontal lines are parallel to the horizon. Diagonal lines are lines that slant and zigzag lines are a combination of diagonal lines. Curved lines change direction gradually. A line variation helps adding interest to the lines. Lines can also be long or short and wide or skinny but also rough or smooth (texture).
Shape: when a line is enclosed a shape is created: they contribute to the balance within a work. They have a length and a width. Shapes can be geometric, regular shapes following math rules, and organic shapes which are freeform and seem to follow no rules.
Value: deals with the lightness or darkness of a colour. Showing full range of colours in an artwork is very good where there is an ample amount of light values (called tints) and dark values (called shades). Using a value scale, helps to create a full range of value.
The early usage of animation was about exploring its potential and was really influenced by the new vision of the century: in a context full of social change and political revolution, the role of all the arts were also questioned and re-defined by their most influential exponents. Among the famous individuals who contributed to the progress of Animation we can find James Stuart Blackton who introduced animation and other important film techniques that helped shape and stimulate the development of cinematic art: one of most famous works was “Humorous Phases of a Funny Face” (1906) which can be considered to be the earliest surviving American animated film where single exposures of drawings were simulating movement where the presence of an artist is only suggested to the audience.
Blackton pioneered stop frame animation. He brought innovation in the process of production in the industrial organisation making it more efficient and effective by employing faster or simpler working methods so that he could manage multiple films at once.
“Enchanted Drawing” (the first animated sequences recorded on standard picture film) is another famous work of his, where Blackton actually interacts with its drawing making it come to life.
One of the earliest pioneers of animation, along with Blackton was Émile Cohl: he is considered to be the creator of the first fully animated cartoon: ‘Fantasmagorie’ (1908). Even if It shared a similar look with Blackton’s chalk animation, there was a notable difference between Blackton’s characters and his: Cohl’s animation was drawn on hundred pieces of paper.
in the 1880’s Cohl and Jules Levy (who was the founder) were members of the artists and journalists movement called the “Incoherent”. The Incoherents presented work which was deliberately irrational and iconoclastic, “found” art objects, nonsense humoristic sketchs, drawings of children, and drawings “made by people who don’t know how to draw.”
“Cartoons, which rebuff so ferociously painterly realism and filmic naturalism are set in a universe of transformation, overturning and provisionally”
This statement was created by modernist movements fro whom animation became an extension of their work and innovative thinking: the role of Art is defined during a time where anarchy was exploding into the cultural scene when Modernists (both a philosophical movement and an art movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries) and Dadaists (art movement formed during the First World War in Zurich in negative reaction to the horrors and folly of the war) also questioned the difference between high and popular culture – Art was never available to the people only for educated and wealthy to appreciate and understand it. This necessary debate arouse from the division in terms of accessibility to creativity. Animation in the midst of these polemic arguments softened the edges between his and mass forms of culture and was able to cross social and cultural divisions: from its very early stages animation was destined to be a multi-cultural, multifunctional medium fuelled by technological change. The avant – garde interest in animation is part focused upon the formal aesthetic potentials of film and animation, line and form movement and rhythm colour an d light.
There are several inventions which helped, in the1900, transforming production possibilities and facilitating assembly line production setting a path for animation:
1913 Raoul Barré, a French Canadian painter, cartoonist, animator of the silent film era, had invented the peg system which provided a universal registration system by creating common relationship with the background or the viewer’s point of view where the animated images shared foundation with each other.
1915 saw the introduction of cel: a transparent sheet used in the process of hand-drawn animation;
Mass production was priority since mass communication was a first concern, and America became land of filmmakers, immigrants coming over from Europe after the Wars in the midst of social reforms in Europe; European culture is abandoned in favour of American technology:
John Randolph Bray (1879-1978) was a pivotal figure in the development and organisation of the animated cartoon industry in the United States: he introduced the printed background and releasing the first animated colour film “the debut of Thomas cat” in 1920; it was produced by Earl Hurd for Bray Pictures using the Brewster Colour film process.
American animator, inventor, film director and producer, and studio founder and owner Max Fleischer was very influential in the whole process of animation. Max Fleischer invented the rotoscope, a time and labour saving device in which live-action film frames are traced as a guide for animated action. Brother Dave’s on-camera performance in a clown suit was rotoscoped into the character Ko-Ko the Clown, who starred in the “Out of the Inkwell” 1915
Winsor McCay was an American cartoonist and animator pioneer (he created the first animated documentary “sinking of the Lusitania” 1918). He is best known for the comic strip “Little Nemo” and the animated film “Gertie the Dinosaur”.
Audiences can be highly influenced by several media or entertainment platforms: newspapers and other kinds of informations (e.g. Television, magazines, events) have always been means of persuasion of very vast group of viewers. Nowadays these “traditional” means of information and persuasion have been sided by Social Media, Television and Web Sites.
Of course also Film and Animation can have other goals other that simple entertainment, becoming a very effective mean of influence and political persuasion: they can reach a large number of people and new technologies allow to produce more and more material capable of impressing its audience.
For this reason, in the last few decades, Print media has lost part of its importance progressively being substituted by new communication media: in particular some media platforms as social medias and podcasts have gained a great power of persuasion: when they are employed for propagandist intentions, the public can be easily manipulated due to the high sense of participation these means can usually lead to.
Also Films and Animation maintain their high power of persuasion thanks to the high number of new broadcast platforms they can use: more and more often these new platforms can mask subliminal contents that are easily dissimulated thanks to the impressive visuals they implement. The most common use of this power of persuasion is the commercial advertising: commercial communications are the outcome of thorough studies of the potential buyers and are produced with sophisticated techniques.
Nevertheless, sometimes communication media, and in particular films and animation are used to express personal struggle that the authors want to communicate to their public: in these cases these media assume their highest value because they become a way to share experiences and original points of view that can enrich the audience.
Also political persuasion makes a wide use of information and entertainment media: also politics are more and more spectacular because the new audience is used to impressive ways of communications and want to find the same modalities also in this kind of information.
Nowadays some sensitive issue are becoming more and more relevant: films and media are becoming a mean to explore and acknowledge some aspect of twenty-first century society as gender equality, race disparities, disability inclusion, ethical issues or political innovations.
All the considerations above can help to clarify how politics shapes media and communication: Cinema, Television and Documentaries have always been an important way of influence, but nowadays their transformation and progress make them more and more powerful means of persuasion.
Examples of politics affecting media inAnimation:
“Wall-E” (2008)
Wall-e is an example of an animation film with a high political content well hidden behind entertainment and beautifully executed CGI. The first political message is the pointless use of Earth resources operated by mankind: the Earth where Wall-E (standing for “Waste Allocation Load Lifter- Earth” class) operates is full of rubbish and abandoned things that humankind left behind him when leaving the planet because all its resources have been exploited. World population is exiled on an immense spaceship where man are slaves of A.I. and robots. They have the illusion of having everything they want and build their happiness on superficial activities that distract them from the reality of facts: the movie can be considered a clear criticism over consumistic society and undiscriminated use of resources even if the apparent thread of the plot is just a robot love story.
Animated Documentaries
Animation has been mostly used to represent fiction and illustrate the non-fiction could constitute an issue: it is not conventional but has much potential. This potential, for instance, resides in its usefulness to represent what has not been reported.
What constitutes an animated documentary?
According to Honess Roe, something can be considered to be an animated documentary if it fulfills the following criteria. (Annabelle Honess Roe is Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Surrey, UK. She has contributed chapters to a number of books and had articles published in Animation)
1. Has been recorded or created frame by frame.
2. Is about the world rather than a world wholly imagined by its creator.
3. Has been presented as a documentary by its producers and/or received as a documentary by audiences, festivals or critics
The employment of animation within a non-fiction context is not recent: it dates back to the early history of animation. In 1918 Winsor Mc Cay created what is thought to be the first animated documentary, “The Sinking of the Lusitania“. This work resulted from a lack of recorded footage of the incident itself: what the animator did was to recreate the events, as retold by survivors, using animation, trying to show that there is no distinction between live-action and animation in terms of their ability to show us reality.
However, the modern use of animated documentaries nourished the idea that animation’s illustrative function to be modest and discreet since it is mostly employed to clarify, explain, illustrate and emphasise.
What are the implications of using animation in a non-fiction context?
The first impression on animation is that it could alter reality of facts and by that not being completely objective, however this is one perspective on it: it can present the observable events and the world in non-conventional subjective, giving insights on the emotional and cognitive impact of a human experience, which means that it has the potential of shifting and broaden the limits of what and how we can show about reality, by offering new or alternative ways of seeing the world.
Animated documentaries can be ‘…means of accessing the now absent past, especially pasts from which the filmmakers have been ruptured due to trauma or other events that cause a disruption in the continuity of personal and collective memory.’ For example, Ari Folman’s animated documentary Waltz with Bashir explores into the horrors of the 1982 Lebanon warand it manifests his personal memories of the war through a first person narrative.
What issues arise from the use of animation in documentary?
One of the issues with animation is that whatever is in the scene can communicate something which could leads to a lack of objectivity: animation changes how documentaries are perceived, undermining the conventional but misleading perspective that they are authoritative and objective. Somebody could argue that the creative take of animation keeps it real, reminding viewers that they are seeing a subjective narration: helping us to think of animation as a viable means of documentary expression is John Grierson who refers to documentary ‘as the creative treatment of actuality’.
In other words, Animation and Documentary should work together so tightly that the facts narrated become undistinguishable from the way they are represented, and the events or the notions reported are completely merged with the mean used.
However, the power of animated documentaries to override the mere reality is undeniable: but this power is not to be intended as a lack of objectivity, as it must be used to involve the audience at a higher level, this way fulfilling the “educational” intent usually attributed to documentary itself. When this goal is reached, the animated documentaries deny the critic often moved to them of interpose a layer – the animation itself – between the reality and the audience: the viewers are engaged as well as they would be in a “traditional” documentary.
Could animated documentary potentially detract from the seriousness of the situation?
The opinion of Animated material has been changing over decades in parallel with the advance in technique and technology that relies behind it. Even if some exceptional goals can be archived nowadays in terms of “credibility”, the role of animation is far from being seen as a representation of concrete facts and events. However an important default of live action seems to be forgotten: behind the production of a documentary there is an idea, a direction that the narrative takes on in order to represent the fact, and those facts are always considered to be true by the audience; but, what if those facts are the result of a subjective perception? So, at what extent animated documentaries can really alter reality more than live action documentaries do? Sure, for animation it might be more obvious and exaggerated but isn’t it our concept and opinion over it a bit prejudiced? Or, shouldn’t live action’s roles and parameters be reconsidered as well?
Could it prevent a direct engagement with the factual content of an animated documentary?Could this be positive?
The audience engagement with the facts reported by an animated documentary can be the same of a live action narration: animation can be able to involve the viewers on a very high level, as well as – and maybe even more – than “traditional” representation.
There is a historical attitude that animation is for children and is not suited to grown up material? How far do you agree/disagree with this?
Most of the time, in our culture context we tend to categorise things giving them a precise role and definition, so that there are no halos of doubts surrounding them. This could be the case of the idea that animation – or even comics – are “children material”, but there are several examples of animated works that adults have appreciated as much as children have, or even more due to their more experienced point of view. Moreover, the concept of synthesis of ideas and forms via animation requires innovative thinking as much as technical skills: symbols and metaphors behind the “childish” figures are in front of the viewer but somehow hidden from the sight of those who refuse to grasp them.
Could it lead to a more universal level of identification? Why do you think this might be?
I think that, even though some symbols and behaviours are not fully shared by all cultures, the animated representation of reality can help to override this differences, because it is nearer to a form of art as painting, and for this reason it tends to be someway more shareable by different societies and populations.
Mise en scène is a French term that refers to what is put into a scene or frame, it constitutes the visual information in from of the camera: is able to communicate essential information to the audience. As mentioned in the post of week 1, the Mise en scène is made up of various elements which all contribute lead the viewer in the right direction.
Gestures and poses of a character can add on to what we want to communicate: narrative is driven by the character. A Character doesn’t even really have to move to to maybe communicate an emotion or a state of mind. The features of a character are extremely important: from the way a character is designed, we can feel empathy with it, there are certain elements in its structure such as big eyes or mouth that have a strong power of communication making a character appealing too (babies and puppies have big eyes). But we could also have an affiliation with evil characters finding hope in them. The Gestures are how we express ideas or feelings through the body; creating natural gestures makes our characters feel believable. The line of action of a character dictates the intention of the action: most of the time it is necessary to break the rules of physics a little bit to to make it look right and readable.
It is difficult to develop a cohesive storyline but there are some definite rules that directors follow that may help, since that a consideration should be applied to put together a narrative in order for it to communicate.
A narrative is defined by the following rules:
A successful narrative must competently handle a medium to present a claim of events that engage an audience and satisfactorily conclude. A story is a chain of events that comes to a conclusion, able to make some rational understanding of what is happening overall.
All character-based narrative require the actors to have appeal and to perform convincingly in the role. Actors and characters should be able to extract their potential communication (for characters, animators are in charge).
It stipulates that the directors create the appeal and that they extract the potential performance of the actors to communicate the story.
Directors can make innovative films by taking the rules to the limit, since is quite difficult to completely break them; they can alter things and change the structure of the classic narrative.
The structure of narrative itself comes from Aristotle’s Poetics. In 350 BCE, Aristotle wrote that the plot structure of a drama is formed like a basic triangle:
Ethos is about establishing your authority to speak on the subject.
Logos is your logical argument for your point.
Pathos is your attempt to sway an audience emotionally.
Our traditional three acts come from this triangle.
Basic structure of a narrative
Beginning (Exposition, something to overcome or a goal)
Middle (Rising action, Climax)
End (Falling action, Denouement)
However, the need for a more detailed structure was necessary since plots become more intricate. Gustav Freytag, a German playwright and novelist, wrote a book called Die Technik des Dramas. In it, he put forth the five-act dramatic structure.
5 Acts structure structure of a narrative (more detailed)
Act 1: the exposition for the audience
Act 2: rising action, conflicts appear
Act 3: the climax, the problem get worse
Act 4: falling action, everything’s downhill
Act 5: denouement or resolution
Giving the previous structure, how can directors avoid the predictable element? by altering, shifting and manipulating the elements of the structure: for instance after a temporary resolution there could be a reappearing complication. Once all the the key elements are there, there are potential to start at different point in the film.
Talking about innovation in narrative Animation, even though it does share conventions (Disney Hyperrealism which is the use of normal cinema in animation or conventional cinema in animation), but it does have its own potentials such as metamorphosis which has symbolism, metaphors: somehow animation allows us to explore animation in avery different way compared to live action.
How does this ‘Pink Elephants on Parade’ sequence differ aesthetically from the rest of the film. Why do you think Disney might have included it?
In order to understand this scene we should put it into the context of the film itself: In the ‘Pink Elephants on Parade’ sequence, Dumbo and Timothy have dreams of Pink elephants from being drunk. It is a particularly sad moment for the elephant which can’t find his place and has just lost his family and when his friend notices that he has hiccups he suggest to drink some water which after reveals to be Champaign. The animation of the pink elephants is characterised by “metamorphosis” where continuity of the storytelling is archived by the association of images and colours: this technique allowed the animators to connect apparently unrelated images. In this case is a very useful tool to combine dreams, or hallucinations, with reality. The overall colours are very saturated and varied and the characters’ animations are particularly distorted and malleable which make it easier to transform them into shapes. This sequence stands out from the rest of the film for its very distinctive style and the lack of hyperrealism that characterises the other animations in the rest of scenes: the elephants floats in the air, they seems weightless, they are “full of impossible movements and fantastic visions” as Steven Schneider says; that is because this particular sequence was animated by animators from the East coast (who tended to emphasised artifice, nonlinear narrative just like Fleischer and Van Beuren did) who studied animation in New York. In the same film we can notice two different character designs for the elephants: the anthropomorphic Dumbo and the Pink Elephants who, other than having no eyes, they have a more “gothic” design, implying the strangeness of the scene. This scene, as uncorrelated as it might seem, leads actually to a crucial change in Dumbos life: he can use his ears to fly (because of the hallucinations he and his mouse friend had they found themselves the next morning on top of a tree).
Reference
the Guardian. 2021. Why I love … Dumbo’s pink elephants. [online] Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/aug/16/why-i-love-dumbo-pink-elephants> [Accessed 18 October 2021].
How did cartoons such as Duck Amuck (Dir. Chuck Jones, 1953) differ from/or diverge from Disney realism and classical Hollywood cinema. Make a list. Consider things such as aesthetics, the sound, the performance of the characters, the style of animation and the ideology.
This episode was produced by Warner Bros and one of Chuck Jones’s greatest moments of his career. According to the director Chuck Jones, this film demonstrated for the first time that animation can create characters with a recognizable personality, independent of their appearance, milieu, or voice. However, characters in many Warner’s cartoons often seem to be trying to break out of the frame as they address the audience animator can do absolutely anything, absolutely easily. It treats and looks at the subject from a different perspective.
At the beginning, the first few seconds, actually do not show anything different is about to happen: there are even the initial credits which look like those at the beginning of the first disney films. But, after few seconds, as Duffy duck proceeds forward into the scene the drawing start to disappear leaving him without any environment to being animated in. He talks directly to the animator, breaking the borders between him and his creator wondering why there is no scenery: somehow is like he is talking to us, a possible interaction within the character and the audience since that at first we can only see the drawing tools. He then starts a numerous attempt to adjust to whatever the animator is creating, trying to fit it. The result is that whatever way the animator draws him like, which ever costume or props he has, his very distinctive personality comes across the same in each example. It definitely make use of the advantages of using animation rather then conventional filmmaking: to create life itself (when the animator erases Duffy or draws him differently) and create also fantastical things which diverge from the reality (especially in the last few seconds when the animator duplicates him or make the frame collapse over him). There is also an interesting aspect in the last scene: is actually bugs bunny who has been animating him so there is an animation within an animation which adds up to the unrealistic aspect of the context.
If we pay a closer attention to Disney productions over the years we notice a common structure from which each film develops their own story: it is “the hero’s journey” formulated by Joseph Campbell in the book “a hero with a thousand faces”. it can be perceived as a cycle that takes place in the universe in which the hero lives. All the key stages happen in a special world but he starts and finishes (transformed) in his ordinary world. Some could argue that Disney’s attention to detail tends to be more directed towards animation rather than the story: this led many figures in the past years to try and broke the rules of Disney.
Can you think of any animation studios/forms of animation/animators who have imitated or been influenced by Disney’s hyperreal animation aesthetic in their editing? How do they do this? Include animation in its myriad forms in your consideration of your answer.
There is always been the box office battle between Disney/Pixar and Dreamworks (even though ones can argue that the productions from the latter are more mature and deal with more introspective themes). We can spot similarly in a large number of films that they released around the same period. This is what happened in two film regarding stories set in South America: “The Road to El Dorado” (Dreamworks) and Emperor’s New Groove” (Disney), featuring an adventure comedy with a very similar narrative progression. Moreover, we can notice similarities between their animation styles and character concepts and design. In “The Road to El Dorado” the reference of Disney hyperrealism is easy to identify: the fictitious events and characters of the film are constructed to make the audience believe they are viewing events and characters that actually exist. The story was too derivative of the hall of fame of Disney Renaissance movies that came before it.
The following is a clip from the film:
Can you think of any any animation studios/forms of animation/animators who resist this aesthetic? How do they do this? Include animation in its myriad forms in your consideration of your answer.
On the other hand, some made a shift towards Disney’s production procedures and hyperrealism such as Studio Ghibli created in 1985 by Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. The reason why their storytelling is so different from the Disney’s one is because is based on a different culture, the Japanese one: this way of telling a story is called “kishōtenketsu” (which characterised the fist Studio Ghibli’s films). Compared to the storytelling that western cultures are used to the kishōtenketsu includes long, quiet and introspective moments (often conceived as a window for the audience to be part of that particular passage) interrupted by a sudden change of events. This is method is often misinterpreted as a lack of action (relevant to the development of the film) or driving conflict. This method is the one we can find in works such as “My Neighbor Totoro”.
Editing is a fundamental aspect of filmmaking: it has the power of bringing together a group of shots and transform them into a complete film. Its process differs from what is that is being edited: in animation, for instance, the editing starts in the pre-production phase with Storyboards, since they have to be more careful of what to include in a shot.
Purposes:
Behind the editing of a film lies the whole narrative structure of a film it ensures that the action and therefore the narrative is clear and understandable, defines how the storytelling progresses. It is also a powerful tool to bring to the screen a symbolic language full of messages and cut away elements that are not relevant: the metamorphosis in particular is able to change an object into another one which can be perceived as a narrative itself.
3 Golden Rules:
it should be invisible to the eyes of the audience: the artificial part of the film should not be perceived
The storyteller should never let the audience get ahead of them – less is more.
The audience has to be a participant, not just a spectator.
The Alternative to an editing can be considered the “Long take” since the viewer gains the most obvious plot information from the shot but there is no cut occurring.
A type of editing is the montage which as the power to generate a shock or a new idea by bringing individual shots together (an examples the shower scene from Psyco)
An important method of editing is continuity editing: it creates a sense of flow. an example could be “river boat scene” from “the night fo the hunter” where characters are not in the same frame, but its obvious by the editing that they are chasing each other, however, the last three shots are able to change the scenario to prepare the audience for the next part of the story.
Editing make use of shot transitions to travel throughout space and time. Although the shot have to follow a certain path an inner logic, which is the continuity.
We can identify four different ways to archive continuity:
Graphic relations between shots: any element of the mist-en-scène can create a graphic continuity or a graphic contrast. e.g. “hallelujah scene” Shrek (2001): nobody is in the right place and all in different locations and that is represented by the graphic matches between the elements in each character’s environment.
Rhythmic relations between shots: A shot can vary in its duration and the duration of shots alters their rhythmic succession: it has the power to add suspense to a scene and tension (“the Birds” – Hitchcock (1963). A steady rhythm is achieved with shots of the same length, on the contrary shots that differ in length create an irregular rhythm.
Spatial relations between shots: used to situate the narrative in a space: shots are taken from different camera positions and edited together to recreate the whole space. E.g. Psycho first scene: the sounds and images together make the audience understand that something is off and the sequence communicates a sense of remoteness of the place where the car is headed to. It can be archived through the 180 degree rule. Spacial continuity can be maintained with match cuts (math on action and eyeliner match).
Temporal relations between shots: the order, the duration, the frequency of events can be controlled by editing. Plots may not be chronological: flashback (analepsis) cuts to an earlier story and then returns to the present; flashforward (prolepsis) cuts to a future story event that has not yet occurred chronologically, then returns to the present. There are inventive ways to deal with these. Woody Allen in “Annie Hall” (1977) avoids analysis by using a split screen so that the chronology of events is not interrupted. Editing can distort time (“Batman Begins” the journey that the character takes only take three minutes but it is perceived as much longer).
Screen direction is an important aspect of continuity editing: is the direction that actors or objects appear to be moving on the screen from the point of view of the camera and of the audience; so the movement of the camera is governed by the rules of screen direction. Following the screen direction means that once is achieved it has to maintain consistency in order to avoid audience confusion. Some tools to maintain screen continuity are:axis of action, imaginary lines and the 180 degree rule. the imaginary line can be crossed if any of the actors are seen changing screen direction within a shot. (e.g. neutral shot: subjects move directly towards or away the camera, so the sense of direction is neutral).
Disney Hyperrealism
Paul Wells described it as “a mode of animation which, despite the medium ‘s artifice, strives for realism”. This artistic paradigm is a sort of parameter which people take from or break (e.g. Fleischer, America East coast animators). During the early stages of Disney, believability rather than absolute realiswbacame the driving principle: they took conventional filmmaking and imposed it into their filmmaking.
With the spread of the Industrial Revolution in Europe and North America in the 18th and 19th centuries came experimentation with machines that would make images appear to move.
1609:MAGIC LANTERNS – an image projector using pictures on sheets of glass (however some not consider it as animation since they were assisted to move by human hand live in front of the audience).
1824: THAUMATROPE – a rotating mechanism with a different picture on each side and when rotated, you saw a combined picture (persistence of vision).
1831: PHENAKITOSCOPE – it featured spinning disks reflected in mirrors that made it seen like the pictures were moving.
1834:ZOETROPE – showed a clip, a spinning cylinder with a ring of pictures on the inside which where drawn on interchangeable strips that spin and made images appear to move.
1868: FLIP-BOOK (KINEOGRAPH) – it reached a wide audience and is credited with inspiring early animators.
1877: MOVIEOLA/PRAXINOSCOPE – expanded the zoetrope, using multiple wheels to rotate images. It is also considered to have shown the first prototype of the animated cartoon.
1900 -1930 The Silent Era
The early 20th century marks the beginning of theatrical showings of cartoons, especially in the United States and France. Many animators form studios, with Bray Studios in New York proving the most successful of this era. Bray helped launch the careers of the cartoonists that created Mighty Mouse, Betty Boop, and Woody Woodpecker.
1906: “Humorous phases of funny faces”(Produced by James Stewart Blackton) – marks the first entirely animated film, using stop-motion photography to create action.
1914: “Gertie the dinosaur” (Produced by Winther McKay) – the dinosaur who is given different commands by its creator is considered first moved drawn animation in good quality and the first cartoon to feature an appealing character. Gertie had also a personality and a gender.
1919: “Felix the Cat” (Produced by Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer) – Musical “Mews and Feline Follies” introduced Felix the Cat, a children’s comedy cartoon character, often considered the first animated movie star.
Animation starts developing its next term
1928: “Steamboat Willie”(featuring Mickey Mouse) —becomes the first cartoon with the sound printed on the film, and is the first notable success for Walt Disney Studios, founded in Los Angeles in 1923.
Walt Disney and his brother Roy co-founded Walt Disney Productions, which became one of the best-known motion-picture production companies in the world. During his lifetime Walt Disney won 22 Academy Awards. He innovated animation other than theme park design; he also was particularly noted as a filmmaker and a popular showman.
1930 – 1950s The Golden Age of American Animation
1929: “Wallstreet Crash” (Black Thursday) – this major American stock market crash led to the “10 years depression”: people had very few food and money. However, theatre played an important role during this period, and people were made aware of the entertainment of animation: theatrical cartoons became an integral part of popular culture. “The Skeleton Dance” is an example.
The “Great Depression” led to a vast production of cartoons and during this time Disney produces something that would change Animation forever.
1937: “Snow White” – this is the first ever featured film to use hand-drawn animation. this film is revolutionary for its time also because it made use of new techniques:
Rotoscoping technique: an animation technique that animators use to trace over motion picture footage, frame by frame, to produce realistic action.
Multi-plane Camera: this new machine made possible to obtain a real feeling of depth and dimension in the painted backgrounds: this camera was positioned on top of the different oil painter layers of glass sheets which had a particular order and were moved accordingly to the movement of action of the scene and then the camera would take the picture each time.
Moviolas: this large screen machine was used for viewing his detailed nature and scenic cinematography, shot for Walt Disney Studios: it assured that the film had no mistakes.
Disney created also its own sound effects and music.
The Artists involved in the film showed their skills by coming up with distinctive characteristics for the characters created: the dwarfs, for instance, were named after their personalities.
1960 – 1980s The American Television Era
The animation industry began to adapt to the fact that television continued its rise as the entertainment medium of choice for American families. Studios created many cartoons for TV, using a “limited animation” style. By the mid ‘80s, with help from cable channels such as The Disney Channel and Nickolodeon, cartoons were ubiquitous on TV.
1960: “The Flintstones”(Hanna-Barbera) – the first animated series on prime-time television.
Animation grew and grew with “Looney Toones” (1969), and clay Animation being Hollywoods way of creating real looking monsters by animators like Henry Hausen, who made the “skeleton scene of the underworld” animation in “Jason and the argonauts”.
1980 – 2014 The Modern American Era
The CGI (computer generated imagery) revolutionized animation. A principal difference of CGI animation compared to traditional animation is that drawing is replaced by 3D modeling, almost like a virtual version of stop-motion. A form of animation that combines the two and uses 2D computer drawing can be considered computer aided animation.
1984: “The Adventures of Andre and Wallie B) – This short film was the first fully CGI-animated film, created by The Graphics Group, the precursor to Pixar.
1986: “Pixar” – Steve Jobs has bought the Graphic division from Lucas Films (which gain its notoriety between the 1979 and 1983 withe the Star Wars Series) and, with Edwin Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith, they found the “Pixar Animation Studios Company” and create a new breed Animation which is the CGI which involves creating Animation using computers: this new process is easier and cheaper compared the previous methods and makes cartoons almost realistic. Pixar produces in 1995 the first fully Computer Animated Feature: “Toy Story”
As digital imaging techniques continue to improve in quality and affordability, it becomes increasingly difficult to draw a clear line between live action and animation. Films such as The Matrix (1999), Star Wars: Episode One (1999), and Gladiator (2000), incorporate backgrounds, action sequences, and even major characters conceived by illustrators and brought to life by technology. Despite these boundary-pushing advances, full-figure, traditionally animated films continue to be produced such as The Iron Giant (1999) where Brad Bird was the artist.
2009: “Avatar” (Produced by James Cameron) – Avatar breaks the barrier between live action and digital moviemaking (almost fully made in CGI) its production, almost four years, is an important milestone for the industry.
History of CGI & VFX
Before analysing the history of CGI and VFX I think it would be appropriate to state their differences since they are closely related but are not similar to each other. When VFX is used for a film, CGI becomes a part of the process. However, both CGI vs VFX can be created independently.
CGI includes all the tools and techniques aimed at the digital construction of audiovisual material, starting from almost zero. Any type of image or other graphic content made entirely on the computer by special software is an example of CGI. However, the acronym is generally associated with the construction of images (objects, characters, environments) in 3D graphics, which combines different elements, knowledge and artistic needs. Example of CGI: animated films, but also elements and entire sequences within live-action films.
VFX is a set of processes designed to digitally process audiovisual material and its results. The ultimate goal of visual effects is therefore an alteration of the original product that consists in the combination of live-action footage with new elements, which can be generated on the computer (CGI) and/or from other material of actual acquisition. Example of VFX: the green-screen, or chroma key, replacing the famous green background with another image.
The main differences is that Visual effects include any element that is not taken directly from the camera but added virtually in the post-production process. Computer graphics involves the modeling of 2D and 3D objects on a digital platform and the subsequent rendering of such images. CGI can be part of VFX. VFX are used to create visual situations otherwise impossible to achieve: images shot live on a physical set can be enriched in post-production with digitally created models or elements, or in CGI.
Regarding VFX, just like CGI it has been a huge part of film and tv as well as others aspects of media too. in the first era of VFX they did not have the technology and equipment we have today. Some valuable example of early experiments are: a combination print made by Oscar Gustave Rejlander, a Swedish Photographer. Therefore he created the world’s first special effects image in 1857; he achieved that by integrating sections of 32 negatives into one single image. Or Alred Clark, an American film director who made the first ever motion picture special effect in 1895: a stop-motion effect used in the re-enactment of the Mary Queen of Scots beheading. George Méliès, a French special effect pioneer, had an important role in the rise of VFX too: in “Le voyage dans la Lune” he discovered techniques like split screen and double exposure process.
Hollywood played an important role in the progression of VFX and CGI in the 1910s and 1920s and filmmaker like David Walk Griffith would be key in the development of video transitions like in and out iris effect (which is still used in Premiere Pro and After Effects).
in the 1940s Colour was introduced which had a big impact on VFX: colour grading is important to establish an overall mood for a scene for instance.
As I mentioned before, CGI includes the creation of still or animated visual content with computer software. CGI most commonly refers to the 3D computer graphics used to create characters, scenes and special effects in films, television and games. The technology is also used in everything from advertising, architecture, engineering, virtual reality and even art.
The first application of CGI to cinema can be considered 1950’s “Vertigo” by Alfred Hitchcock, but only in 1972 we have the first 3D Computer Generated short film: “A Computer Animated Hand” by Edwin Catmull and Fred Parke, which introduced 3D computer graphics to the world: they digitised and animated datas starting from drawn triangles and polygons in ink on a hand.
A big step forward was made for CGI development in the making of “Westworld” (1973) for the “Gunslinger vision” scene where a robot’s view is represented. The movie had a great success and inspired a sequel as well.
Since then CGI and VFX had a great development:
During the 80s we have witnessed several examples of innovating use of CGI in Cinema and the potential it had, such as “The Trench Run Briefing”, “Tron” (1982) or “Star Wars: A New Hope”(1977). (VFX played a big role in the work of James Cameron, this film required him to set up his own effect shop to achieve massive effect shot in it).
In 1985 the ILM brought the first real Computer Generated character to the screen in “Young Sherlock Holmes” with the “stained glass knight” scene.
1989: “the Abyss” – this film won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for the 75 seconds screen time of the water tentacle. They used an early version of Photoshop, which was the first use of this software in a featured film.
in 1991 James Cameron improved upon the previous water effects and used them for the liquid metal cyborg in “Terminator 2: Judgement Day” (which was also honoured by the Academy for its Visual Effects).
A new revolution in CGI can be considered to be “Jurassic Park” (1993). This film revolutionised Computer Graphics: Spielberg was one of the few people to use CGI and VFX in films. Some of the innovation it brought to the screen were:
They used photo real dinosaurs, complete with skeleton textured skin and detailed muscles.
For the animation they used “the dinosaurs input device”, which was an armature that was hooked up to a workstation to convert the creatures poses in real life into keyframes in the computer.
In order to replicate the movement of the dinosaurs, the animators studied and created footage of the correct animals and of the crew moving around, jumping, running: they were able to devise various walk cycles and make the creatures believably interact withe the environment
In 1993 the Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Science honoured the incredible effort made with an award.
“Toy Story”(1995), that I already mentioned above, is one of the milestones of CGI being the first feature- length film made entirely by Computer Animation.
Over the years the amount of movies created using CGI and VFX has widely increased and both techniques and quality have improved also due to the technology innovation that has made available more and more powerful machines.
Some of the most valuables examples are:
1996: “DragonHeart” – where the face of the character “Draco”, the dragon, was modelled after Sean Connery who voiced the character itself.
1999: “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace” – for this film ILM finished over 2,000 visual effects.
2002: “Star Wars:Episode II – Attack of the clones”– the well know character of Yoda is introduced and all-digital.
2003: “Matrix- Reloaded” – for this film the artists used a process called “Universal Capture” to produce a 3D recording of the real actor’s performance which allowed to play it back from different angles and under different lighting conditions enabling to extract movement. This process combines two powerful computer vision techniques: optical flow and photogrammetry.
2005: “King Kong” (Peter Jackson) – the actor Andy Serkis (who also performed as the creature “Gollum” in “Lord of the Rings: two towers”) provided both onset reference and motion capture performance for the main character: his facial expressions were captured by using 132 sensors attached to his face and showed on King Kong’s face. Moreover the film implied a large number of VFX shots in a single film, in fact the film won an Academy for Best Visual Effects.
2006: “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead man’s chest” (Gore Verbinski) – ILM put its skills to test for the character “Davy Jones” and it was a success: the octopus-like characterphysical appearance is completely computer-generated and was so true to life that it was mistaken for a live action performance with prosthetic makeup.
2008: “The Curious case of Benjamin Button” (David Fisher) – this is the story of a man who ages backwards, so the face of Brad Pitt, the actor who played the main character was scanned and after digitally aged assisted by the “Mova Contour Technology”. This software records surfaces (specifically of actors’ faces) digitally, by using fluorescent makeup and stereo triangulation, allowing for very detailed digitisation and manipulation (the system captures images which are then used to generate dense per frame surface reconstructions. It then generates a temporally coherent mesh by tracking an invisible random pattern fluorescent makeup that is applied to the capture surface).
Last but not least, one film which had to be mentioned is “Avatar” (2009) directed by James Cameron. During filming, the director made use of his “virtual camera system”, a new way of directing motion-capture filmmaking. The system shows the actors’ virtual correspondents in their digital surroundings in real time, allowing the director to adjust and direct scenes just as if shooting live action.
VFX and CGI are a lot more common in films and tv shows now, our current era shows how much we rely on it to create world wide phenomenon.
The process of creating CGI is long, challenging and very technical. Teams are large and very diverse which means there are opportunities for all types of people ranging from hardcore coders through to illustrators and non-artists who like managing teams – Art Department, Pre-visualisation, Asset Department, Research and Development, Animation, Matchmove, FX Simulation, Lighting, Matte paint, Rotoscoping, Compositing, Production.
The History of Film
(from Paul Merton’s “weird and wonderful world of early cinema” documentary on BBC)
On December 28th 1895 the Lumière brothers demonstrated their invention of motion pictures for the very first time: they put a projector,the Cinematograph, on a stall which would project the “film” on a cloth screen. The most notable example is a train coming into a station which terrified and mesmerised people at the same time: some people left the room because they thought that the train was going to run them over.
However the Lumière brothers weren’t the only ones to be working on the principle of projecting moving photographs: both in Europe and America, inventors were separately and simultaneously coming up with creations which led to the invention of the Cinema:
In 1877Edward Muybridge in order to understand if at any point in a horse gallop are four legs off the ground. So he set up a system of 12 still camera, spaced from each other, which were triggered by the horse hooves passing on trip wire: the result was a succession of photographs which gives the impression of movement.
In 1891Thomas Edison had perfected the Kinetoscope in America.
In 1892Emile Raynaud projected the first animated film on the Praxinoscope.
in 1895Max Skladanowsky and his brother invented the Bioscope and projected moving images to an audience two month before the Lumière’s screening (however it was technically inferior the Cinematograph since it was a much more reliable system).
In 1896Robert W. Paul, after the end of his partnership with Birt Acres (with whom he invented the first 35mm camera in 1895), Robert Paul continued to work on the development of his camera. He demonstrated his projector “The Theatrograph” the very same day that French entertainer Félicien Trewey gave a preview of the Lumière Cinématographe at the Regent Street Polytechnic, just five miles away.
Before the invention of Cinema theatres films were usually shown in Musicals as variety acts, just like the “serpentine dace” where is shown a woman moving cloths in a choreograph.
A distinctive figure in the early Cinema was George Méliès, his interest in magic led him to experiment with filmmaking leading him to become on of the most famous filmmaker of his time. Among other things, he also embraced hand colouring other than turning the camera into a sort of “magic box” using tricks as double-exposure (achieved by rewinding the film in the camera several times to exactly the same position, for instance). By a camera technical mistake he discovers how to mimic magic tricks.
His English “counterpart” was George Albert Smith, a stage hypnotist and magic lantern exhibitor. He experimented with close-up shots and reverse motion shots. In “Grandma reading glass” he uses a magnifying lens to show the grandma eyes.
James Williamson was a filmmaker influenced by the work of Smith. He is famous for developing the film narrative: he was one of the first to develop multi shot films and he also used to cut from one shot to another from different camera angles to create dramatic effects.
One of the first world’s first female directors and producers was Alice Guy, a French pioneer filmmaker, and one of the first to make a narrative fiction film. She was the first woman to direct a film. From 1896 to 1906, she was probably the only female filmmaker in the world. She experimented with color-tinting, interracial casting, and special effects. Two examples of her works is “how monsieur takes his bath” and “race for the sausage”: this films show that she had a keen sense of humour as well.
With the development of cinematic techniques film stars start to emerge too. such as Andre Deed, the first comic star of cinema, he was a musical comedian and had plenty of personality who appeared in some Méliès films. Another important star figure was Max Linder, one of the most popular comedian in the world. the reasons for his success was his dedication to his work, his expressive eyes and the truthfulness in the way he acted. However, Max Linder is an example of how the war changed the cinema industry: after he fought in the war (he was also thought to be dead at some point), he was not himself anymore since he endured physical and mental trauma. At the end of the Great War Hollywood took over as the leader of world cinema and by that time the cinema language was already formed.
Film Language: “How to Speak Movies”
Just as it happened for a good book and a mesmerising painting, films have their unspoken language too, they communicate with a visual language which is used by directors to plan their movies, since from how a camera is placed it can tell a particular story. there is a “Shot Dialogue” since the most basic unit of a film is a shot. Each shot can mean something on their own. However, how do we speak movies?
One of the dimensions of the camera is length in which the camera moves horizontally: the “shot length”, which can be described as wide (far) and tight (near). With a wide shot someone can see the entirety of a subject or of a scene. Let’s see in more detail all the different shots times:
EXTREME WIDE SHOT – which is wider than a wide shot and though which the audience can watch the whole scene from a distance.
MEDIUM SHOT – a partial bodyshop of the subject, so it could be from the knees down or from the waist up.
TWO SHOTS – which involves two subjects are in a frame.
CLOSE-UP – a type of shot that tightly frames a person or object to show details.
EXTREMECLOSE-UP – which frames a subject very closely, often so much so that the outer portions of the subject are cut off by the edges of the frame.
If the camera is moved vertically we are talking about the angle. the most neutral angle in which a camera is positioned could be at eye level where the audience is at the level of the actor. But there are other more elaborate shot angles:
HIGH ANGLE SHOT – where the camera looks down at the subject which can add a silly mood to the scene.
LOW ANGLE SHOT – in which the camera looks up at the subject; it can make perceive a subject to be to be menacing.
DUTCH ANGLE – where the camera looks at the subject from a tilted angle.
The third dimension of the camera is depth with involves focus and lenses (an important tool for controlling focus). The distance between the nearest and farthest parts in an image that appears in focus is referred as depth of field.
DEEP FOCUS – a shot that has a long depth of field and where everything is in focus.
SHALLOW FOCUS – where the shot is partially in focus, which is a technique used to show an important part of the frame).
RACK FOCUS – which can draw the eye to important details since is done with a short depth of field and the focus is changed at mid-shot.
TILT SHIFT – where a fake shallow focus is involved: a special lens or the work in post-production can selectively blur part of the image creating an artificial depth of field.
Some type of lenses are:
Telephoto lens, long lenses that compress space.
Wide angle lens, which gives a space more depth.
Fish eye, which distorts images.
The movement that a film director can decide for the camera to make also influence the overall scene:
HANDHELD SHOT – this way of holding a camera gives more freedom to the cameramen on one hand but it’s more unpredictable.
STEADY-CAM – which is technically a handheld shot but with a rig which helps to stabilise it, giving the scene a flowing, dreamy effect.
PAN – the camera is left on a tripod and can be moved horizontally left or right, for example.
TILT – a camera movement that allows to swivel the camera vertically up or down.
ZOOM – which modifies the shot length by adjusting the lens from wide to tight or vice versa.
DOLLY/TRACKING SHOT – the camera moves with the subject or without since both the camera and the rig are moved and the camera is put on a moving dolly or tracks.
JIB/CRANE SHOT – the camera is moved upwards since is put on a platform, raised above the subject or brought down to it.
DOLLY ZOOM – it enhances the motion of a scene: is essentially an optical illusion caused by zooming in or out on the camera lens while tracking the camera.
Colour, Lighting, Space, all of these things create the “Mise en Scène”, the overall look of a film. Before actually starting rolling the camera there are certain aspects to take in considerations in a scene:
SET DRESSING – objects in a setting which are not used by actors in a scene but can add texture in a scene or show a character.
PROPS – objets that are “active” in the scene and that actors made use of.
COSTUMES – to create a coherence with the plot and show characters personality.
A particularly relevant element of the “Mise en Scène” is Lighting: each frame captures light bounced off the subjects. However filmmakers cannot only rely on natural lighting so setups are used to achieve the desired lighting.
THREE POINT LIGHTING – the basic triad of lighting setup, ideal for close-ups, is composed by key light (main source of light in the scene), fill light (which fills in the shadows created by the key light) and the back light (lights the back of a subject separating them from the background).
From this standard artificial lighting style there are some variations:
HIGH KEY LIGHTING – characterised by bright colours, strong key lights and strong fill light.
LOW KEY LIGHTING – where key lights and fill lights are weaker but backlights are strong which emphasises the outline of a subject.
CHIARO SCURO – from Italian meaning light and dark typical of film noir where there is a high contrast between the bright parts and the darker ones. This style generally take advantage of the techniques such as the hard-lighting (bright key lights that cast dark shadows) or soft lighting (lights are diffused through a filter, scalping the subject without harming it.
However lights can also only set the mood :
AMBIENT LIGHTING – which make use of the light in the scene.
UNMOTIVATED LIGHTING – shaping the scene without being an element of it.
MOTIVATED LIGHTING – on the contrary the light is an element of the scene.
In a similar way that filmmakers can control light, they control Colour. In the early stage of film a colour effects that they were using was tinting, where the scene was given a certain colour.
Another important colour technique is colour grading where film colours are selectively adjusted for a distinctive look. Regarding the colour palette it enhances either the entire spectrum or selectively draws attention to a single colour.
The use of Space within a frame can tell so much about it and can make it unique. here are some features that characterise space:
BALANCE – it gives a weight to the scene.
DEEP SPACE – in order to draw the attention to the distance between two elements of the scene positioned far from each other.
SHALLOW SPACE – which implies no depth at all.
OFF SCREEN SPACE – the elements in the scene draw the audience attention to something out of the frame.
BLOCKING – the overall movements an actor makes in the scene.
When it comes to filmmaking a substantial role is covered by the Editing: it is the key to blending images and sounds to make us feel emotionally connected and sometimes truly there in the film we’re watching. The following is a glossary which lists the terms involved in the editing process.
SEQUENCE SHOT – a long-running shot usually over a minute that takes in a lot of action in a scene, sometimes it covers simple dialogue or covers a complicate sequence events.
THE CUT – is the basic transition between the end of one shot and the beginning of another.
Some other common transitions may include:
DISSOLVE – where one shot slowly fades into another sharing the same space for a few seconds
WIPE – which frames one shot and a second rolling over the first
FADE IN AND FADE OUT – a common way to going to and from a black screen.
In order to create a believable and coherent film there are some “rules” and directions that one’s need to understand in order to apply them to their film.
CONTINUITY EDITING – paradoxically this technique should be invisible to the audience eyes, is the developing a syntax of shots to make believe that the plot is happening simultaneously.
CONTINUITY ERRORS – on the other hand, when during the filmmaking established conventions can be broken. For instance, when the logic of a scene does not match with what is happening leading the audience mind to perceive something odd without, sometimes, even being aware of them.
SCREEN DIRECTION – having a consistent direction of movement between shots in order to give the audience a sense of relative location and establish a continuous space.
MATCH ON ACTION – which allows to get the action continue from one shot to the next.
EYELINE – to help the audience understand what the character is looking at, filmmakers make use of this technique to make them parts of the action.
180 DEGREE RULE – a basic guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene: an invisible axis that the camera should not go beyond. Breaking this guideline could make perceive actions to not be entirely unintelligible, leading to the “crossing the axis“.
ESTABLISHING SHOT – an informing shot that shows where the scene takes place.
MASTER SHOT – which shows a scene in its entirety to everyone’s location. Usually, the master shot is the first shot checked off during the shooting of a scene.
REVERSE ANGLE – a shot the usually shows who or what the first character was looking at.
INSERT SHOT – useful to show important details breaking away from the main action.
SHOT/REVERSE SHOT – used often in dialogues sequences to follow the eyeline of characters exchanging looks.
CROSS CUTTING – In a cross-cut, the camera will cut away from one action to another action, which can suggest the simultaneity of these two actions but this is not always the case: it establishes actions occurring at the same time.
DISCONTINUITY EDITING – where the filmmaker will deliberately use an arrangement of shots that seem out of place or confusing relative to a traditional narrative.
Time is essential for filmmaking and often directors and filmmakers take advantage of the nature of time during the creative process involved in the editing phase:
FREEZE FRAME – where a single frame of film is stopped.
SLOW MOTION – the “normal speed of action” is slowed down.
FAST MOTION – adds a comical aspects to the scene speeding the action up.
REVERSE MOTION – allows to portray unrealistic phenomenon making the action play backwards.
Intentional breaks and continuity can lead to impossible things to happen:
JUMP CUT – an editing technique that cuts between two sequential shots. Jump cuts give the effect of moving forward through time; moreover they can remove the dead weight of a scene.
MATCH CUT – a technique that take advantage of the similar graphics in a scene to transition from one to another.
The editor can show the continuity between two or more shots by framing them in the same scene:
SPLIT SCREEN – two shots or more are spliced into the same frame showing simultaneous action.
OVERLAY – editing technique that allows to place part of one shot over another shot and compositing the two.
MONTAGE – in French the term means to assembly or set up. Is a simple but yet difficult type of editing technique to link shots together through a theme or thrown time to create a third meaning. It is a powerful mean also for showing the unreal: Symbolism and Expressionism can make use of it.
