Announcement
• Please do the reading
-Textbook (formal analysis)
-The film term list
• SA2.1 due Thursday midnight
-Film available on Canvas
-Prepare for SA2.2 (comparative cultural analysis)
Thursday: Movie Day; prompts distributed
About SA 2.1
• Do you describe a specific scene and identify the details?
• Do you use clear and logical language?
• Do you focus on 1-2 particular categories of basic elements?
• Do you develop your analysis by giving at least one example
(for the category) from the scene of the kinds of mise-enscene/camera movement/sound/editing?
• Do you cite the reading or place in dialogue with other
scenes/films?
• Do you ask a(n) effective question about the scene? Start
with a keyword and conclude with a question that you are
interested in and might dig deeper in the following
assignments
Panning Shot
Tracking Shot
Stationary camera
Moving camera
turns on an axis;
sweeps from left to right or
from right to left
moves along a linear path;
horizontally on wheels or
railroad-like tracks
Stationary Cam
movement
Moving Cam
movement
Stationary camera
Mobile camera
(shooting from a moving object)
mostly used for
Establishing shot,
Still shot,
Scenery shot,
Panning shot;
Long take (one scene)
Tracking/dolly shot
(travelling shot)
Moving shot,
Crane shot;
Long take (sequence shot)
Handheld
shooting
Stabilized
shooting
handheld camera
professional
stabilized
camera/steadycam
Mobile, Shaky,
Naturalist,
disturbing
Stable, Smooth,
Continuous,
More common
Writing About Film
-Who is your audience?
-To be an investigator, detective
-Observation: details, evidence
- Critical Analysis
Searching for Evidence
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Mise-en-scene (setting/prop, subjects, composition)
Camera Movement
Sound
Editing
Film Editing
Editing
Shot-shot relations:
graphic; rhythmic; spatial; temporal
editing basics:
4 kinds of edit (transitions); 4 kinds of emphasis
Two approaches to editing:
 for continuity (Classical Hollywood Style)
 for discontinuity (Soviet Montage)
Two aesthetic styles
 editing matters
 the lack of editing (single shot cinema; slow
cinema; cinema of stasis)
Shot-shot Relations
Graphic
Purely pictorial qualities
Mise-en-scene and most cinematographic aspects
For smooth continuity or abrupt contrast
Shot-shot Relations
Rhythmic
About the length of individual shots
(Short as a single frame or thousands of frames long)
Several shot lengths form a discernible pattern
Cinematic rhythm:
editing rhythm + other film techniques (movement
in the mise-en-scene, camera position and
movement, the rhythm of sound, the overall
context)
Shot-shot Relations
Spatial
Create film space (juxtapose any two points in space;
construct a whole space out of component parts)
Kuleshov Effect: any series of shots that in the
absence of an establishing shot prompts the
spectator to infer a spatial whole on the basis of
seeing only portions of the space.
Emphasize different lines of action taking place in
separate places;
Ambiguous and uncertain spatial relations
(Parallel editing/Crosscutting)
Shot-shot Relations
Temporal
Control the time of the action; story-plot relation
Flashback; Flash-forward
Elliptical editing (punctuation; empty frame; cutaway)
Overlapping editing
Two Approaches I
Editing for Continuity
 Ensure spatial continuity
180 degree system (consistent relative positions in the
frame, consistent eyelines, consistent screen direction)
 Establishing shot (master shot)
 Shot-reverse shot pattern (reestablishing shot)
 Eyeline match
 Ensure temporal continuity
The narrative progression, no gaps
Soundtrack (diegetic sound overlapping on cuts)
Match on action
 Temporal ellipsis
Dissolve/fade/wipe/cut; montage sequence
Shot/Reverse shot
Two Approaches II
Editing for Discontinuity
 Graphic and rhythmic possibilities
 Spatial and temporal discontinuity
Soviet Montage
Two techniques:
Jump cut; nondiegetic insert
Axial cutting (violation of 30 degree rule)
Two Aesthetic Styles
Editing Matters
Action movie; parallel editing
The lack of editing
Long take style
Mise-en-scene; Realism; Observational, nonnarrative; stillness/motion
single shot cinema; slow cinema; cinema of stasis
parallel editing
How the sequence works
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Narrative
Composition–cinematography/Mise-en-scene
Sound
Editing
Audience address
Other considerations
Audience Address
 “Position”: Does the film acknowledge the spectator, or do events
transpire as if no one were present? （Do characters look into the
camera or pretend it is not there, for instance? –Direct Address）
 “Emotion”: How does the film position the spectator vis-a-vis the
onscreen events? (through music that "tells" us how to respond or
distances us from the action)
 “Values/Convention”: Does the film appeal to certain
expectations/conventions and subvert them or conform to them?
 “Ideology”: Does the film address contemporary social issues and
intend to convince its audience?