Unit THREE - Motion in Media
Motion:
Like photographic images, motion can be literal and concrete (e.g.,
The Hurricane), or highly stylized (e.g., West Side story).
In dance, movements are defined by the space that encloses the choreography,
a three-dimensional stage. In media, (film) the frame performs a similar
function.
The meanings associated with various portions of the framing area are closely
related to the significance of certain kinds of movements:
Vertical Movement:
We generally consider the upper part of a frame as being more dynamic
than the bottom half.
Since our eyes apparently have a natural tendency to move upward over a frame
composition, vertical movements within screen space tend to suggest power,
authority, excitement.
Downward Movement:
Downward movements tend to suggest opposite ideas: grief, death, insignificance,
depression, weakness, and so on (The King and I).
Lateral And Depth Movement:
Supposedly, since we tend to read a picture from left to right, movement in this
direction seems psychologically natural, whereas movements from the right to left
often seems tense and uncomfortable.
A/V media producers often exploit this aspect. Frequently the protagonists of a
movie travels toward the right side of the screen, while villains move toward the
left (Red Badge of Courage, many other westerns).
Or, the protagonist, "in possible danger", moves from right to left (see
To Kill A Mockingbird, Evil Dead Part II, Run, Lola, Run).
Movement can be directed toward or away from the camera (depth).
Since we identify with the camera's lens, the effect of such movement is
somewhat like a character moving toward or away from us.
If the character is a villain or monster, walking toward the camera can be
seen as aggressive, hostile, and threatening (the "thing" is invading our
space).
If the character is attractive, movement toward the camera seems friendly,
inviting, sometimes seductive.
In either case, movement toward the audience is generally strong and
assertive, suggesting confidence on the part of the moving character.
Movement away from the camera tends to imply opposite meanings.
Intensity is decreased. Audiences feel safer when a psycho killer for
example moves away, for he/she is increasing the protective distance
between us and him/her.
In some contexts, such movements can seem weak, fearful, or suspicious
(see Close Encounters - end of opening sequence).
There are psychological differences between lateral movements
(side to side) and depth movements( toward or away from the camera).
Generally, if a character moves from right to left (or vice-versa), he
or she will seem determined - a person of action.
Of course lateral movements are necessarily photographed in brief takes -
not much space to work with going side to side within framed area.
Since lateral movements tend to emphasize speed and efficiency, they
are often used in action films (media).
On the other hand, when a character moves in or out of the depth of a
scene, the effect is often one of slowness.
Movements toward or away from the camera take longer to photograph than
lateral movements.
With a telephoto lens, such movements can seem hopelessly dragged out
(remember The Graduate).
Psychological films/television programs often employ movements in and
out of screen depth, especially to create a sense of tediousness,
hopelessness, and/or exhaustion.
This sensation is based in part on the fact that when depth movement is
photographed, the audience tends to anticipate a conclusion of the
movement. We wait for the character to arrive at his/her destination
(running down a long hallway for example).
Distance and Angle (as partially discussed previously):
In general, the further away action is filmed and the higher the shot
(high crane shot for example), the slower the movement tends to appear.
If movement is recorded from close and at a low angle, it seems more
intense, speeded up (example wagon train in westerns).
If there is a great deal of movement in a close shot, its effect on the
screen will be exaggerated. For this reason, media producers tend to
employ these ranges for relatively static scenes. The animation of two
people talking and gesturing can be enough movement to prevent most medium
shots from appearing static.
The closer and tighter a shot, the more the motion dominates.
A closer more tightly framed shot can suggest more danger and
desperation (e.g., a car chase).
Directorial "signature" movements (e.g., Spielberg's "Awe" Effect
slow camera movement toward character's expression, Hitchcock's
"subjective" POV dolly shots, Kubrick's "steadycam" shots, Cameron's
pivot shots).
Meanings inherent in certain types of movement:
Curved and swaying motions are generally perceived as graceful
(a tree blowing in a gentle breeze, ocean waves). Those that are
straight and direct strike us as intense, stimulating and powerful
(pouring rainstorm, cars rushing down a freeway).
(Kurosawa's use of environmental movement - symbolic kinetic
technique - Yojimbo)
Stasis:
Media producers (filmmakers) often use stasis or lack of movement to
suggest ideas such as exhaustion, spiritual paralysis, and even death
(The Shining). In such instances, even the slightest movement tends to
acquire magnified significance.
Remember: Camera movement itself can imply specific meaning within a
shot (e.g., crane, dolly, pan, tilt, pivot etc.).
Mechanical Distortion of Movement -
Animation
Fast Motion
Slow Motion
Reverse Motion
Freeze Frame
Unit THREE - Basic Script Structure (Model): 1. Exposition - Introduce characters and convey general information to the audience (what the audiovisual presentation is basically about) - tone (comedy, mystery, fantasy?) - time and place (time/period, location) - who is protagonist - what is the dramatic conflict? (dramatic conflict - characters pursuing contradictory goals and objectives. Dramatic conflict is the heart of a good narrative) - possible time-lock 2. Development - Explores characters/situations in detail. - complications - predictability (foreshadowing) - coincidence(s) 3. Climax - Presents the culmination of character development and often resolves conflict. 4. Resolution - The end of the story. Is it closed or open- ended? (denouement - point in plot, after the climax, when everything is unraveled and resolved). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Plot Points - An incident/event that "hooks" into the action and spins (twists) it in another direction. Obstacles - A form of plot points (less magnitude). There can be many obstacles throughout a script - things that stand in the way of characters reaching goals/objectives (creates necessary dramatic tension). False Climax - Moment where everything might appear hopeless/ lost for characters (Hero is doomed!). Or, just the sensation that the story has reached its climatic point (see any "Slasher" movie). A false climax might often take the form of a third and final plot point. 'obstacles ...................................... Expo--pp1--development----------pp2--------pp3-----climax-----resolution Positive and Negative Space - We are inclined to believe that movie/TV characters and a tale do not spring full-blown from the first frame, but that they lived before we met them. Similarly, once the presentation is over, in the minds of both writer and audience, the tale continues (why else would we have so many sequels?). Negative space can be deemed that area before and after the positive space ("plot") of the script story. Thinking in terms of negative and positive space can assist in developing where to begin and end a script (for the writer). SCENES AND SEQUENCES: The Scene - Two things are in every scene - time and place. Place - Where does your scene take place? In an office, car, at the beach? What is the location of the scene? Time - What time of day or night does your scene take place? Morning, afternoon, night, late night? Every scene occurs within a specific place at a specific time. Anytime there is a change in either of these elements, we're viewing a new scene. Scenes can have a beginning, middle, and end. But an audiovisual director only needs to show part of a scene. He/she can choose only to show the beginning, middle, or just the end. Very rarely is a scene depicted in its entirety. The scene is more often than not a fragment of the whole. The Sequence - A series of scenes tied together, or connected by one single idea (e.g. the wedding sequence in The Godfather). Every sequence has a beginning, middle, and end. A sequence is a whole, a block of dramatic action, complete within itself. A media director can have as many or as few sequences as they wish. There's no rule about the number one needs. All the media director needs to know is the idea behind the sequence (context) in order to create a series of scenes (content).
Unit THREE - Sound There are three types of sound in media productions: Sound effects, Music, and spoken Language. These can be employed independently or in any combination. They can be realistic or expressionistic in nature. Realistic sounds tend to be synchronous. They derive their source from the images, and are often recorded simultaneously with them (we see the source). Expressionistic sounds tend to be non-synchronous. They are detached from their source. They may provide contrast with the image, or produce a meaning not readily apparent in the visual image. Often, we don't see the source of sound (e.g., music score). Rene Clair - Observed that an A/V presentation (in this case, film) can let us hear a door slam, so that a director does not have to show us the action as well. In this, and in other instances sound can be used to replace the shot (we don't have to see a shot of the door). Clair also pointed out that sound could also act as a continuity device, once the relationship between image and sound had been made clear. During a sequence, there is no need to cut back to re-establishing shots, since the continuity of the soundtrack will provide a perpetual continuity for all the shots. Sound Montage - Orson Welles was probably the first director to develop sound montage. This is where the dialogue between two or more characters overlaps. Gives us a sense of how language and sounds are actually heard in reality. The language is not so important for what it expresses, but rather, like a musical composition, for the emotional effect it evokes as pure sound. Robert Altman used sound montage technique in MASH, McCabe and Mrs. Miller and Nashville. Like Welles, Altman uses language as pure sound, particularly in some of the scenes from McCabe and Mrs. Miller, in which as many as twenty different sound tracks were mixed. Sound Effects - Although the primary function of sound effects is generally believed to be atmospheric, they can also be surprisingly precise sources of meaning in visual media. 1. The pitch, volume, and tempo of sound effects can strongly affect our responses. High pitched sounds are generally strident and produce a sense of tension. If these types of sounds are prolonged, their harsh shrillness can be unnerving. For this reason, high pitched sounds (NOTE: This goes for music as well) are often employed in suspense sequences, especially just before and during the climax. Low frequency sounds are often used to emphasize the dignity or solemnity of a scene (a funeral march with the beat of the drums for example). Low pitched sounds can also suggest anxiety and mystery. Frequently, a suspense sequence begins with such sounds which gradually increase in frequency as the scene peaks. 2. Sound volume works in much the same way. Loud sounds tend to be forceful, intense, and dynamic, whereas quiet sounds strike us as delicate. The soundtrack of Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange is almost consistently loud: noises are magnified; dialogue is shouted rather than delivered at normal volume. Our ears are assaulted by a barrage of relentless noises. Kubrick uses this technique to "attack" the audience aurally. In effect, the volume never permits us to relax: the noise is as violent in its intensity as the dramatic events of the film. 3. Tempo of sound - The faster the tempo, the greater the tension produced in the listener (e.g., any automobile chase sequence, sequence from Jaws). 4. Off-screen sounds usually bring off-screen space into play: the sound tends to expand the image beyond the confines of the frame. A war film for instance, with the sounds of guns and cannons, can be constant reminders to the soldiers in the trenches of the dangers they must face when they enter the battlefield. 5. Sound effects can evoke terror in suspense films and thrillers. Since we tend to fear what we can't see, directors like Hitchcock, Fritz Lang and David Lynch will sometimes use non-synchronous sound effects to strike a note of anxiety. The sound of a creaking door in a darkened room can be more fearful than an image of someone hiding by a door. 6. Sound effects can serve explicit symbolic functions. Symbolic noises can be determined by the dramatic content. For example, in Bergman's Wild Strawberries, the protagonist, an elderly professor, has a nightmare. The surrealistic sequence is virtually silent except for the insistent sound of a heart beat - a reminder for the professor that his life will soon end. 7. Sound effects can be used for association. A character can be associated with a particular sound effect early in a film. Every time we hear the particular sound, we will conjure up the image of the character. In Lang's M, the child murderer is identified by a tune he whistles off-screen. During the early portions of the movie, we never see him, but we recognize him by his sinister tune. 8. Just like our eyes accept the illusionary movement of films/videos, our ears accept sounds presented within films/videos that would not exist in reality. Media producers aware of this fact, often provide unique sounds within the context of their story to enhance our involvement (e.g., Star Wars - sounds of spaceships zipping through outer space [remember, outer space is void of sound; it's a vacuum]. Also filmmakers often "enhance" naturalistic sounds for effect(enhanced reality). 9. Ambiance - Naturalistic sounds can often be utilized to generate a particular atmosphere/mood. 10. Like absolute stasis in a movie, absolute silence in A/V presentations tends to call attention to itself. Any significant stretch of silence creates an eerie vacuum - a sense of something impending about to burst (e.g., Bonnie and Clyde). Silent moments can suggest anxiety, fear, suspicion, and in other contexts, rage, evasion, or total exhaustion. Silence can also symbolize death, since we tend to associate sound with the presence of ongoing life (e.g., in Little Big Man where the soundtrack is "dead" after the protagonist's Indian wife and child are brutally murdered by some cavalry soldiers). Music - 1. Music functions in a variety of ways in movies. Beginning with the opening credits, it can serve as a kind of overture, to suggest the general mood or spirit of the film as a whole 2. Certain kinds of music can suggest locales, classes, or ethnic groups. (e.g., Easy Rider, Quadrophenia). Music can also be used for foreshadowing. Hitchcock and DePalma for example will often accompany an apparently casual sequence with "anxious" music - a warning to the audience to be prepared. Sometimes these musical warnings are false alarms; other times they explode into frightening crescendos. Similarly, when actors are required to assume restrained or neutral expressions, music can suggest their internal - hidden emotions. 3. Music can also convey sudden emotional shifts within a continuous scene (e.g., happy one moment, sad the next). 4. Music can also function as an ironic contrast to a sequence. In many cases, the predominant mood of a scene can be neutralized or even reversed with contrasting music (e.g., Bonnie and Clyde, Alice's Restaurant). 5. Characterizations can be suggested through musical motifs (e.g. A particular piece of music is played every time a character appears on screen). Music can often give viewers the "essence" of a character (good, bad - happy, sad, etc.) Bernard Herrmann's music for Mysterious Island is used to introduce various oversized/horrific creatures to the audience. Their musical motifs are played whenever they appear on screen. 6. Characterization can be even more precise when lyrics are added to music. In Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show, pop tunes of the 1950s are used in association with specific characters (also Some Like It Hot, American Graffiti). 7. Music can also be used to communicate the major theme of a film. Hopper's Easy Rider begins with the two likable protagonists selling drugs in order to stake themselves to a journey they plan to take to New Orleans. The visuals during this sequence aren't particularly condemnatory, but on the sound track, Steppenwolf's rock tune "The Pusher" makes it clear what we are to think of the transaction. 8. Musicals themselves can also be expressive or realistic (see Meet Me in St. Louis, The Pirate, American in Paris or A Star is Born, Cabaret, All That Jazz). Language - There are two basic types of spoken language in movies - the monologue (includes on/off-screen) and dialogue. Monologues are often associated with documentaries, in which an off-screen narrator provides the audience with factual information accompanying the visuals. Monologues in fiction A/V presentations - This technique is especially useful in condensing events and time. An off-screen monologue (offscreen narration) tends to give a movie a sense of objectivity, and provides us with greater insights into the significance of the visuals (sometimes narration is done from third-person perspective). On-screen monologue - This type of narrative monologue can provide us with the "internal" feelings of a character - often something which only the audience is privy to (e.g., the internal monologue is what a character is thinking). Originally a dramatic and novelistic device, the internal monologue is in fact frequently used in cinematic adaptations of plays and novels (sometimes used for mixing thoughts and speech -e.g., Olivier's Hamlet). Dialogue - One of the major differences between stage dialogue and screen dialogue is the degree of articulation. The theater is a visual as well as aural medium, but in general, the spoken word is dominant. If information is conveyed visually in the theater, it must be larger than life, for most of the audience is too far from the stage to perceive visual nuances. The convention of articulation is necessary, therefore, to compensate for visual loss. Stage dialogue is usually not realistic or natural - real people don't articulate their emotions and ideas with such precision. In movies and television, the conventions of articulation can be relaxed. Since the close-up can show the most minute detail, verbal comment is often not as important. This greater spatial flexibility means that language doesn't have to carry the heavy burden that stage dialogue does - the image conveys most of the dominant meaning. Therefore, dialogue in film can be as realistic as it is in everyday life. Language permits a director more visual freedom, not less. Because speech can reveal a person's class, occupation, prejudices, and style, the director doesn't need to waste time establishing these characteristics visually. There are many instances where language is the most economical and precise way of conveying meaning in visual media.
UNIT THREE REVIEW Motion Vertical, Horizontal (Lateral), Downward movement Movement in and out of depth (toward/away from camera) Distance and angle from camera Close-up Stasis The Script - Story Structure Basic model - exposition/development/climax/resolution Plot Points Obstacles False Climax Climax/Resolution (endings - open or closed) Positive/Negative space Scene/Sequence Sound Realistic/Expressionistic Sounds (Synchronous/ Non-synchronous) Sound Montage Sound Effects Tempo Pitch Volume (Symbolic, Association, Enhanced) Off-Screen Sounds Music - Various Functions Language - Dialogue/Monologue (Forms)
Press the "play arrow" on the quicktime controller window to view the video clip. Where was the above movie filmed (location)? Who directed the film? List at least two other "masterworks" by this director. Finally, who played the "gill creature" (there were two performers) and what were their actual occupations (prior to making this film)? First two (2) Media Aesthetics students to provide the correct responses (via armstrom@tcc.fl.edu), will receive four (4) bonus points to be used for the final Unit Three exam. Congratulations to Alyson and Lori for having the correct responses to the above trivia questions.
