Unit 5: Directors and Auteur Theory
See Art of Watching Film chp.11
Read interviews and articles about their style and their films.
Listen to director's commentary on the DVDs.
Choose a director from the list and watch 3 of his/her films.
Complete a comprehensive film analysis for 1 of the films.
Answer the questions below using examples/scenes/shots from a min of 3 films.
Research the director's philosophy, background, work experience, and techniques.
How did the director get into the business? What was his/her first project?
What influences his/her style? What makes his/her style unique and personal?
Awards? Films? Techniques? Homage? Innovations?
Cite sources in your paper.
You will do this for Hughes and Hitchcock first. I have provided the links and research below.
COMPREHENSIVE FILM ANALYSIS:
SEE THE SHEET AND THESE QUESTIONS ALONG WITH YOUR SEQUENCE ANALYSIS FINAL FROM 1st SEMESTER TO HELP ANALYZE AN ENTIRE FILM.
What is the film's genre? How does the film use the conventions and iconography of the genre? Any changes? revisions? Explain.
How is the story told (linear, with flashbacks, flash-forwards, episodically)? What
“happens” in the plot? Discuss depth and range. Restricted narration?
How does the film cue particular reactions on the part of viewers (sound, editing,
characterization, camera movement, etc.)? Why does the film encourage such reactions?
Is the setting realistic or stylized? What atmosphere does the setting suggest? Do
particular objects or settings serve symbolic functions?
How are the characters costumed and made-up? What does their clothing or makeup
reveal about their social standing, ethnicity, nationality, gender, or age? How do costume
and makeup convey character?
What is illuminated, what is in the shadow? How does the lighting scheme shape our
perception of character, space, or mood?
What shot distances are used? Do you notice a movement from longer to closer shot
distances? When are the various shot distances used (e.g., the opening of the scene,
during a conversation, etc.)? What purposes do the shot distances serve?
How do camera angles function? How do they shape our view of characters or spaces?
How do camera movements function? What information do they provide about characters,
objects, and spaces? Do they guide the viewer’s eye toward particular details? Do they
align the viewer’s perspective with that of a character?
What types of cuts are used? How are the cuts used (to establish rhythm, shift between
characters, transition between spaces, mark passage of time)? Does editing comment on
the relationships between characters and/or spaces?
Do different characters use different kinds of language? Do certain characters speak
through their silences?
What is the music's purpose in the film? How does it direct our attention within the image?
How does it shape our interpretation of the image? How are sounds used?
How might industrial, social, and economic factors have influenced the film? Do conditions
in the filmmaking industry limit the way in which the film can represent particular
subjects? Does the film follow or critique dominant ideologies? Does it reflect and shape
particular cultural tensions?
General Terms
- Shot: continuous, unedited piece of film of any length
- Scene: a series of shots that together form a complete episode or unit of the narrative
- Storyboard: Drawn up when designing a production. Plans AV text and shows how each shot relates to sound track. (Think comic strip with directions - like a rough draft or outline for a film.)
- Montage: The editing together of a large number of shots with no intention of creating a continuous reality. A montage is often used to compress time, and montage shots are linked through a unified sound - either a voiceover or a piece of music.
- Parallel action: narrative strategy that crosscuts between two or more separate actions to create the illusion that they are occurring simultaneously
Shots
- Long Shot: Overall view from a distance of whole scene often used as an establishing shot - to set scene. Person - will show whole body.
- Medium or Mid Shot: Middle distance shot - can give background information while still focusing on subject. Person - usually shows waist to head.
- Close Up: Focuses on detail / expression / reaction. Person - shows either head or head and shoulders.
- Tracking shot: single continuous shot made with a camera moving along the ground
- Reverse shot: shot taken at a 180 degree angle from the preceding shot (reverse-shot editing is commonly used during dialogue, angle is often 120 to 160 degrees)
- Subjective Shot (P.O.V. Shot): Framed from a particular character's point of view. Audience sees what character sees.
Camera Movement
- Pan: Camera moves from side to side from a stationary position
- Tilt: Movement up or down from a stationary position
- Tracking: The camera moves to follow a moving object or person
Camera Angles
- Low Angle Camera: shoots up at subject. Used to increase size, power, status of subject
- High Angle Camera: shoots down at subject. Used to increase vulnerability, powerlessness, decrease size
Editing (the way shots are put together)
- Cut: The ending of a shot. If the cut seems inconsistent with the next shot, it is called a jump cut.
- Fade in or out: The image appears or disappears gradually. Often used as a division between scenes.
- Dissolve: One image fades in while another fades out so that for a few seconds, the two are superimposed.
Sound
- Soundtrack: Consists of dialogue, sound effects and music. Should reveal something about the scene that visual images don't.
- Score: musical soundtrack
- Sound effects: all sounds that are neither dialogue nor music
- Voice-over: spoken words laid over the other tracks in sound mix to comment upon the narrative or to narrate
Film Analysis Essay Guidelines
Guide to Critical Assessment of Film
The following questions should help you in your critical evaluation of your film choice(s) for your assigned essay. Please keep in mind that sophisticated film, like literature, requires more than one viewing to begin to appreciate its purpose beyond merely the plot. You will need to view your film(s) with this in mind. You should use some of these questions to complete a journal on your film.
BACKGROUND
Who is the writer of the film? Has the screenplay been adapted from another work?
Who is the director?
When was the film made?
What is the film's primary concern or focus: plot, emotion effect, character, style, or idea?
STRUCTURE / FORM
Is it a good story? Remember the qualities of a good story from Unit 1?
What does the title mean in relation to the film as a whole?
How are the opening credits presented? Do they relate to meaning?
Why does the film start in the way that it does?
Are there any motifs (scenes, images, symbols) of dialogue which are repeated? What purpose do they serve?
What three or four sequences are most important in the film? Why? Pick out bits of dialogue you consider especially effective in revealing character and/or theme.
Is sound used in any vivid ways either to enhance the film? (i.e. Enhance drama, heighten tension, disorient the viewer, etc.)
How does the film use color or light/dark to suggest tone and mood in different scenes?
Are there any striking uses of perspective (seeing through a character's eyes, camera angle, etc.) How does this relate to the meaning of the scene?
Any Special effects? Do they dominate the film?
What observations can you make about the director's style?
How and when are scenes cut? Are there any patterns in the way the cuts function?
What specific scene constitutes the film's climax? How does this scene resolve the central issue of the film?
Does the film leave any disunities (loose ends) at the end? If so, what does it suggest?
Why does the film conclude on this particular image?
THEME
How does this film relate to the issues and questions evoked by your topic?
Does the film present a clear point-of-view on your topic? How?
Are there any aspects of theme which are left ambiguous at the end? Why?
How does this film relate to the other literary texts you have read on your topic (or in class this year or on your own)?
What were your expectations before seeing the film? How did these expectations influence your reaction to the film?
What were your personal reactions to the film? On a scale from 1-10 (10 being the best), rate the film and give reasons for your score.
IS IT ART?-(Remember the 4 V's from Unit 1)?
Is the film worth seeing again? What factors determine whether you want to see a film more than once? Which of these factors does this film use effectively? Explain.
ENDURING QUALITIES
Can this film stand the test of time? Why or why not? Does it relate to universal ideas or situations? What are they? Does it deal only with contemporary situations and ideas? Explain.
TRUTH-Verisimilitude?
Does the film deepen your understanding about some significant idea or cast new light on it? Does it present new ideas? Are the characters credible? Do they behave in ways you expect? Cite examples and explain.
BEAUTY
Is the film aesthetically pleasing? Do the quality of photography, color, sound, and performance and the use of special effects come together as a work of art should? Which aspects work especially well? Why? Describe how the quality of a particular scene from the film gives the viewer this sense of beauty.
UNITY
Are the shots and scenes organized logically? Describe one example of a particularly effective sequence. Describe one that seems weak. Tell why each of these sequences succeeds or fails.
TREATMENT-Voyeuristic? Vicarious?
Are the ideas suggested or are they stated? Discuss one scene and the particular idea, feeling, or mood it creates.
EMOTIONAL RESPONSE-Visceral?
Were you moved by the film? Did it make you feel sorrow or joy or anger? What emotion(s) did you feel when the film ended?
Many of the questions above are taken or adapted from Timothy Corrigan's A Short Guide to Writing About Film and David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson's Film Art: An Introduction (5th ed.) and Kurt Weiler of New Trier High School in Illinois.
See links and documents below for more information on Auteur Theory and analyzing a director's style.
questions_about_analyzing_a_directors_style.doc | |
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auteurtheory.pdf | |
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http://valerie-williamson.suite101.com/understanding-the-place-of-auteur-theory-in-film-theory-a360211
http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Academy-Awards-Crime-Films/Auteur-Theory-and-Authorship.html
DIRECTORS PROJECT: Alfred Hitchcock and John Hughes are who we will focus on this unit. We will watch a film or two in class by each director. You will read the articles and visit the links below to find out information about the director such as education, career, philosophy, themes, style, visual techniques, dialogue, music, structure, patterns, hidden messages, cameos, etc. Find examples of the director's style in the films screened in class. See the director project sheet for more help. You will use the examples from Hitchcock and Hughes as examples for how to organize your own group project.
***For 10 points extra credit: create a 25 point quiz for Hitchcock or Hughes based on info. from all of the articles below.
DIRECTORS PROJECT
The links below will give examples of
what your director project should look like.
You will also show clips from 3 different
movies to explain techniques. Remember
to cover the director's life, work, influences,
career, philosophy, and filming techniques.
HITCHCOCK
READ HITCHCOCK INFO. BELOW and TAKE NOTES TO COMPLETE THE DIRECTOR ASSIGNMENT. FIND EXAMPLES IN THE FILM SHOWN IN CLASS:
http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/jamarch-177707-alfred-hitchcock-film-movies-education-ppt-powerpoint/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KXMZWLVaVs
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19981206/REVIEWS08/401010353/1023
http://www.nj.com/entertainment/movies/index.ssf/2010/10/a_psycho_analysis_alfred_hitchcocks_spookiest_movie_brought_with_it_the_end_of_hollywood_innocence.
html
http://alfredhitchcock.wordpress.com/about/
http://www.cmn.hs.h.kyoto-u.ac.jp/CMN9/kato-psycho2.html
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tours/hitch/tour1.html
http://www.borgus.com/think/hitch.htm
Alfred Hitchcock – Master of Paradox
http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/05/hitchcock.html
The Shower Scene and several spoofs in other films:
http://brobible.com/life/article/13158858-10-great-spoofs-psycho-shower-scene-50-years-after-mothers-first-s/
http://www-as.phy.ohiou.edu/~rouzie/569A/body/Shower.htm
http://heavy.com/movies/get-your-gore-on/2010/10/cleansed-of-your-sins-ten-facts-about-the-shower-scene-of-alfred-hitchcocks-psycho/
Just One Hitch
http://themave.com/Hitch/
Master of Suspense
http://hitchcock.tv/
More Hitchcock info. below.
http://www.borgus.com/hitch/
psycho.pdf | |
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http://www.filmsite.org/psyc.html
PSYCHO FILM ANALYSIS
http://stevenderosa.com/writingwithhitchcock/history.html
THIS ARTICLE IS ABOUT HITCHCOCK AS A WRITER.
http://www.filmsite.org/vert.html
VERTIGO FILM ANAYLSES
https://narrativejourney.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/vertigo-hitchcock-1958/
http://www.film.com/movies/whats-the-big-deal-vertigo-1958
THE ARTIST PAYS TRIBUTE TO VERTIGO SEE SCENES BELOW:
http://reel3.com/homage-or-theft-the-artist-and-the-sound-of-vertigo/
TOY STORY 2 PAYS TRIBUTE TO VERTIGO-SEE WHICH SCENES HERE
http://www.cinephiliabeyond.org/the-most-studied-and-analyzed-film-of-alfred-hitchcocks-career-vertigo-is-on-every-level-a-masterclass-in-filmmaking/
http://filmstudiesforfree.blogspot.com/2010/11/study-of-single-film-alfred-hitchcocks.html
Vertigo Movie Review & Film Summary (1958) | Roger Ebert
https://narrativejourney.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/vertigo-hitchcock-1958/
http://www.film.com/movies/whats-the-big-deal-vertigo-1958
THE ARTIST PAYS TRIBUTE TO VERTIGO SEE SCENES BELOW:
http://reel3.com/homage-or-theft-the-artist-and-the-sound-of-vertigo/
TOY STORY 2 PAYS TRIBUTE TO VERTIGO-SEE WHICH SCENES HERE
http://www.cinephiliabeyond.org/the-most-studied-and-analyzed-film-of-alfred-hitchcocks-career-vertigo-is-on-every-level-a-masterclass-in-filmmaking/
http://filmstudiesforfree.blogspot.com/2010/11/study-of-single-film-alfred-hitchcocks.html
Vertigo Movie Review & Film Summary (1958) | Roger Ebert
http://filmdirectors.co/alfred-hitchcock-filmmaking-techniques/
JOHN HUGHES
(SAME DIRECTIONS AS HITCHCOCK). SEE ARTICLES AND INFORMATION BELOW. FIND EXAMPLES IN THE FILM SHOWN IN CLASS.
Extra Credit for analyzing another Hughes and Hitchcock film besides the ones shown in class.
READ HUGHES ARTICLES BELOW, FIND YOUR OWN INFO online, AND TAKE NOTES:
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19850215/REVIEWS/502150301
the_breakfast_clubscreenplay.pdf | |
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ferrisbuellersdayoff.pdf | |
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