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April 1, 2019
We'll break these down later. First, let's get something meaningful out of the way. It's crucial not to mix up Film
Theory with Film Criticism or Film History. All three are very different studies and even more different ways to
approach film and filmmaking.
Film Criticism:
Film Criticism picks apart movies. It's done by scholars, who want to analyze the film's worth. And it's done
journalists, who review the film for the general population.
Film History:
Film History chronicles the journey of cinema from its start to the present day. Film History tracks landmark
changes that go with the passing of time.
Types Of Films
There are three main types of films. Realism, Classical, and Formalism. We have an article based on rejecting
realism and embracing formalism. So once you have the definitions down, circle back for some fun!
Realism:
This type of film focuses on the real. Movies and TV take us to many different places, but to fall into this
category, the piece has to be dedicated to showing the unfiltered world.
Some examples would be Fish Tank, The Bicycle Thief, The Deer Hunter, Kids.
Characteristics:
Nonprofessional actors (with exceptions)
No special effects
On location sets and props
Minimal editing
Natural lighting
Documentary-style
Realism strives to show the real world for what it is. It gets down and dirty. The ability to shoot and create
movies using phones and digital cameras has brought back a recent surge in Realism film. Some recent
movements in realism are Mumblecore films and Modern Realism. Films like The Florida Project, Fruitvale
Station, and Once strive to show their characters dealing with real issues of the day to day life.
Classical:
This falls between the two extremes of Realism and Formalism. Classical film still wants to emphasize authentic
moments between real people but with the manipulation of its creative production elements.
Movies like Lone Survivor, Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Trainwreck, and Spotlight.
Characteristics:
Professional actors
Minimal or no special effects
On location or in studio
Editing used for time-lapse
Lighting and sound used to create a mood
Most drama movies you watch falls into the Classical category. Remember, this is Classical in form, not to be
confused with the kinds you watch on TCM. But…lots of those classic movies are Classical too.
Still with me?
Formalism:
Formalism focuses on the Director bringing the audience an altered reality that they’ve created. It’s pretty much
every Guillermo Del Toro movie. And every Superhero movie. And every Star War. Most modern movies. Film
Theory and Disney are compatible. Who knew?
Characteristics:
Professional actors
Relies heavily on special effects
Editing speeds up or slows down time
Lighting and sound create exaggerations
Breaks the illusion of reality
Lucky for us there’s no actual Thanos showing up to wipe out the Earth’s population. But Formalism seeks to
show us a completely artificial world. A lot of times these movies are why we go to the theater. They’re also
responsible for the rise in animation for adults. This is how you apply Film Theory to Rick and Morty.
Shots
There are ten kinds of shots:
We dissect every scene as a combination of these shots. Different combos create different moods and different
directorial intentions.
Angles
There are four main angles:
Eye Level
High Angle
Low Angle
Oblique Angle
These angles are also used to elicit emotions from the viewer. When you’re making your shot lists and storyboard
think about how you can manipulate the viewer into emotions based on how you shoot the scene.
Lighting
There are four main kinds of lighting:
Each version of the lighting sets a mood. Think about the genres of movies you love. Comedy and Noir are lit
with different ways to get different moods. The better you get at making movies, the more you can blend these
styles for fresh and unique ways to draw an audience. Like in Game Night.
Color
There are two main kinds of color:
Saturated
conveys happiness, fantasies, romance, or some idyllic scenery
Think about the frames in Willy Wonka. The factory is seen as a wonderland where dreams come alive.
Desaturated
conveys the past, struggle, depression, or some other dystopia scenery
Compare Wonka to The Road. It looks like a place no one wants to be.
Sound
There are two main kinds of sound:
Diegetic
Sound whose source is visible on the screen or whose sound is implied to be present by the action in the film;
also characterized by offscreen or on-screen
Examples:
Voices of characters
The sound made by props
Music coming from instruments in film
The easiest way to understand diegetic sound is to think about what the characters on screen can hear.
Non-diegetic
Sound whose source is not visible on the screen nor has been applied by the action of the film; basically, any
sound that comes outside the story place
Examples:
Narrator’s commentary
Sound effects added for dramatic effect
Mood music
Again, these are things the audience hears that the characters do not.
Editing
Film editing is one of those things that usually go unnoticed in Hollywood films. An editor’s job is to make the
story fluid and work as a guide for the audience. If they’re bad at their job, the editing is noticeable, jerky, and
takes you out of the experience. Here are some different kinds of editing.
Continuity:
o a collapse of time and space while preserving fluidity
Classical:
o This style jumps from long shot to medium shot to close up for dramatic effect
Radical Subjective Continuity:
o cuts of different time and space for dramatic effect
Thematic:
o edits that are driven by a particular theme
Associative:
o juxtaposition of two shots that when combined have meaning (but separate, they do not)
Dialectic:
o edits drove by expressing a contradiction
An editor’s job is hard. You can make it easier by planning your shots and making storyboards.
Mise-en-Scene
Mise-en-scene is a French word that means “placed on the stage.” Everything that appears before the camera
and how it’s arranged on the screen to convey meaning in the film. So be smart when you’re organizing furniture
around a room. It matters. Mise-en-scene can be broken down into the following:
Apparatus theory
This theory, dominant in the 1970s, says that ALL movies were made to reflect some reality and ideology. That
means that every part of a movie, acting, cinematography, lighting, sound, has meaning. The main argument is
that the viewer takes all these elements in as they watch and the view helps impose meaning onto the film. Kind
of like that time I told everyone Super 8 was about the Oedipus complex because the entire third act of the movie
takes place inside a metaphorical womb and is about a little boy who has to physically let his mother go to move
on in life.
I KNOW I AM RIGHT! THINK ABOUT IT!
Auteur theory
We have an entire post chasing Auteur theory which you can view here. But the basic gist is that the Director
puts his/her stamp on a movie because they oversee all audio and visual elements of the motion picture, is more
to be considered the “author” of the movie than is the writer of the screenplay. This became a popular theory in
France in the 1940s. American critic Andrew Sarris pushed this idea, but it took hold in 1951 when Andre Bazin
wrote about it in his periodical Cahiers du cinéma. The theory is still tossed around today, with many people
trying to add rules on how many movies the director must make and whether or not the director can also be the
writer.
Writers are used to getting the short end of the stick all over Hollywood so suffice it to say; they’re not huge
proponents of Auteur theory. But no one cares.
Genre Studies
Genre Studies is probably the broadest of these Film Theories. It breaks down films into their genre and then
analyzes what tropes or themes show up over and over. Then Genre Studies Theorists try to see if those
themes mean something about the world or time in which they occurred. Are the hard-boiled 80’s cop movies
actually about Toxic Masculinity? How is the damsel in distress used and subverted in the Action Genre? Why is
sex punished in horror films?
Queer theory
Queer Theory came about in the early 1990s. Like Feminist Film, it breaks films down from the perspective of
how they originated. It proposes that film, thanks to early codes and cultural constraints, were all made from the
“straight” perspective. By breaking this barrier down, queer theory can show the limitations of that model and
work to undo the norm. For more on Queer Theory, check out this breakdown from Film Reference.
Some examples of Queer Theory in action are Todd Haynes’s Poison, which used the horror film genre to
investigate the politics of gay sexual practices of the AIDS era. Also Kimberly Pierce’s Boys Don’t Cry, which
uses Feminist Film Theory AND Queer Theory to expose the way society treats a Transgender protagonist.
Professors
If you went to Film School or took a Media Studies course in college you probably already know about this path.
Most Film Theorists are college professors. They teach all over the world and have a vast array of specialties.
My favorite Professor in college recently wrote a book on Italian American portraits of Masculinity in Film and
Television. The nice part here is you can find and chase your niche. Sure, you have to go to school for a long
time, get your doctorate, search a job, beg for tenure, and deal with college kids, but people seem to love it…
Critics
Think you’re ready to take over where Siskel and Ebert left off? RIP. Are you the person your friends go to
before Rotten Tomatoes? Maybe a career in Film Criticism is right for your future. As we mentioned before. It’s
not about “good” and “bad” but having a breadth of knowledge that allows you to compare a movie/TV show to
the pantheon of entertainment that came before it.
You can comment on how the lighting changes the tone. Or how the director’s control of the edit makes the
movie too long, too short, or just right. Or you could even make a YouTube channel where you blow all that up
and focus on nitpicks.
Creators
Lastly, if you’re going to be a creator in Hollywood, you’re going to need to know your stuff. The last thing you
want to do is be in a general meeting or a pitch and not know your stuff. Producers are going to ask for visual
references. They’re going to want to know that you have control on the page and the sound stage.
Film Theory is going to help you create more original, inspired content.
https://nofilmschool.com/Film-theory-basic-terms