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French Basic 1 & 2
Quiz by Sylvain Normandeau
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French Basic 1 &2Auteur Theory is a way of looking at films that state that the director is the âauthorâ of a film. A film is a reflection of the directorâs artistic vision; so, a movie directed by a given filmmaker will have recognizable, recurring themes and visual queues that inform the audience who the director is (think a Hitchcock or Tarantino film) and shows a consistent artistic identity throughout that directorâs filmography. The 3 Components of Auteur Theory Andrew Sarris, film critic for The New York Times, expanded on Truffautâs writing and set out a more comprehensive definition for auteurs according to three main criteria: technical competence, distinguishable personality, and interior meaning. 1. Technical competence: Auteurs must be at the top of their craft in terms of technical filmmaking abilities. Auteurs always have a hand in multiple components of filmmaking and should be operating at a high level across the board. 2. Distinguishable personality: What separates auteurs from other technically gifted directors is their unmistakable personality and style. When looking at an auteurâs collected works, you can generally see shared filming techniques and consistent themes being explored. One of the primary tenets of auteur theory is that auteurs make movies that are unmistakably theirs. This is in sharp contrast with the standard studio directors of the era who were simply translating script to screen with little interrogation of the source material or editorial input. 3. Interior meaning: Auteurs make films that have layers of meaning and have more to say about the human condition. Films made by auteurs go beyond the pure entertainment-oriented spectacles produced by large studios, to instead reveal the filmmakers unique perspectives and ruminations on life. https://www.masterclass.com/articles/film-101-what-is-an-auteur#3ClNjwO6Gkgjd8ix2Cm5qI Who is the author of a TV program? It seems like it ought to be an easy question to answer, but it is not. There are, of course, scriptwriters, who are the literal authors of episodes in the sense of generating words that an actor eventually speaks, but in a soap opera or a sitcom there may be a dozen or more scriptwriters working on dialogue as the months go by. Is any one of them truly responsible for the overall tenor of the show, or are they just following rigid guidelines set down by other scriptwriters ahead of them? And the script is just the blueprint of an episode anyway. Actors, production designers, directors, videographers, editors, and on and on, are all necessary to construct an episode from that blueprint. Should we call one of them the author? And, at a more basic level, should we even bother looking for authors in television? Do viewers need to know who created a program in order to enjoy it? What does it add to our appreciation or understanding of television if we assign authorship of a program to an individual? In the closely related medium of the cinema, questions such as these have been answered by the auteur theory, which stems from the French word for âauthor,â auteur. Its basic precept is that a single individual is, and should be, the âauthorâ of a work in order for it to be a good, artistically valuable work. A book, poem, film, or television show should express this individualâs personality, his âvisionâ (the masculine pronoun is significant; auteurist studies almost all focus on men). This notion stems from the nineteenth-century Romantic image of the author as a figure who sits alone in a dingy room, scratching out angst-ridden poems with a quill pen. The tormented, misunderstood author or artist is a cherished character type that can be traced back to the poet Lord Byron (1788â1824) and observed in numerous portrayals of demented painters, musicians, and writers in television programs and other media. Consider this: Have you ever seen or read a story about a creative person who wasnât somehow strange or crazy? The auteur theory originated in French film criticism of the 1950s, where it was initially theorized that auteurs could be drawn from the ranks of producers, directors, scriptwriters, actors, and other filmmaking personnel.1 However, the vast bulk of auteurist film criticism has been about directors: Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, and Quentin Tarantino, among many others.Filmic Techniques Based on the work of Brad Smilanich Mis-en-Scene: originally a French theatrical term arrangements of all the visual elements of the stage area in film â âthe contents of the frame and the way those contents are organizedâ include: lighting, costume, dĂŠcor, props, camera movement or distance . . . all photographic decisions etc. Proxemics: Spatial relationship among characters within the mis-en-scene Rule of Thirds: a compositional rule of thumb in painting, design, photography etc. suggests image divided into 9 equal parts with two vertical and two horizontal lines important elements of the mis-en-scene should be placed along these lines and their intersections some suggest aligning with intersections makes for more interesting pictures than just centreing the subject Proxemics Camera Distance: Quite literally, how far the camera is from the subject being filmed The Hand Camera Camera Distance: Quite literally, how far the camera is from the subject being filmed Extreme Close Up: Singles out one small portion of the body or object Used to intensify emotion, or show reaction Camera Distance: Close up Shot: Shows head of character or small significant object Used to show emotions Camera Distance: Medium Shot: shows figures from the waist up allows character to be seen within background Camera Distance: Long Shot: shows figures from feet up similar to the âstageâ in live theatre orients audience to figures within a location or surrounding Camera Distance: Extreme Long Shot: Sometimes called an âestablishing shotâ Panoramic view of an exterior location orients audience to a location Camera Distance: Camera Angle: Cameraâs angle of view relative to the subject being photographed High Angle Shot: looks down on the subject often used to make the subject look small and insignificant (in combination with camera distance) puts the camera (audience) in âpowerâ position Camera Angle: Low Angle Shot: looks up at the subject often used to make the subject look large and powerful puts the camera (audience) in a âsubmissiveâ position Camera Angle: Flat Angle Shot: camera on same plane as the subject feels most ânormalâ to an audience Camera Angle: Canted Shot: frame is unbalanced in relation to the subject may indicate a symbolic unbalance in the character Camera Angle: Camera Movement literally the camera moving with or around or to follow the subjects in the mis-en-scene or frame Camera Movement: Tilting Movement camera moves up or down on a horizontal axis similar to head nodding movement may be used to show subjects relation to surroundings Camera Movement: Panning Movement camera moves side to side on a vertical axis similar to head shaking movement may be used to establish setting Camera Movement: Dolly Movement camera mounted on a vehicle that moves along with the subject (camera moves, not pivots) follows the subject to signify something important Camera Movement: Crane Shot camera mounted on a crane or boom permits camera to move in & out, up & down, backward & forward often used for high aerial establishing shots Misc. Shots: Hand Held: camera carried to seem jerky, giving ârealistic feelâ Push In: camera moves up to a characterâs face to indicate an epiphany (realization) Spiral: camera circles subject for effect End for ELA 20-2 and 10-1 Shot Transitions/Editing: artificial editing done to string together multiple shots to create a narrative scene or sequence a cut is the change from one shot to another usually separated in to âsoftâ and âhardâ cuts Jump Cut: an instantaneous change from one shot to another this can be very natural or may disorient the audience, depending on how it is used Transitions/Editing Swish Pan: A pan where the speed of the camera is so fast that images are blurry used often to connect events in different settings that are connected by time Transitions/Editing Dissolve: transition where one shot gradually dissapears while another shot gradually appears often used to suggest change of setting or long time passage i.e. flashbacks Transitions/Editing Fade In/Out: transition where the shot gradually overexposes to white or underexposes to black often used to suggest a lengthy passage of time or change in location Transitions/Editing Wipe: transition where one shot is gradually eliminated as another shot moves onto the screen can be vertically or horizontally often suggests movement of the camera to another location Transitions/Editing Iris In/Out: transition where one shot gradually appears as an expanding circle in the middle of an old image suggests . . .??? Transitions/Editing Shot-Reverse Shot: one character is shown looking (often off-screen) at another character, and then the other character is shown looking "back" at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer unconciously assumes that they are looking at each other. Transitions/Editing Two-Shot: Face-up shot of two people. Often used in interviews, or when two presenters are hosting a show. A "One-Shot" could be a mid-shot of either of these subjects. A "Three-Shot", unsurprisingly, contains three people. Transitions/Editing Shot Transitions/Editing: Sound: used to reflect or enhance what is shown visually on the screen can include dialogue, music, sound effects, voiceover etc. Diegetic Sound: sound that has a source in the world of the story dialogue spoken by characters, sound made by objects, or music coming from a source grounded in the story of the film Non-diegetic Sound: sound that has a source outside the world of the story usually part of the score or the soundtrack Parallel Sound: sound that complements the image shown i.e. romantic music during a love scene Counterpoint Sound: sound that contradicts the âfeelingâ of the image a happy song played while images of graphic violence are portrayed Voiceover: voice of a non-visible narrator laid over the scene often provides some comment about the narrative of the film Sound Bridge: used to âsoftenâ the transition between one scene and another takes sound from the next shot and overlays it on the current shot 2-3 seconds earlier than we see the image Examples of Diegetic/Non-Diegetic: In the first clip, the non-diegetic music changes to diegetic music when the main character moves inside of the convenience store. In the second clip, the âduhn duhn duuuuhâ which often is non-diegetic becomes diegetic because it is the band in the passing bus playing that music! End for ELA 20-1 Lighting: Can be used by a director to: Control the mood of a scene guide a viewerâs eye to a specific place in mis-en-scene Emphasize and de-emphasize elements in frame Add texture and color Make people look beautiful, ugly, sinister, or angelic Standard 3-Point Lighting: uses three lights called the key light, fill light and back light forms the basis of most lighting. once you understand three point lighting you are well on the way to understanding all lighting. Key Light: main light usually the strongest and has the most influence on the look of the scene. it is placed to one side of the camera/subject so that side is well lit and other side has shadow. Fill Light: secondary light is placed on the opposite side of the key light used to fill the shadows created by key softer and less bright than key Back Light: placed behind the subject ; lights it from the rear. provides definition and subtle highlights around the subject's outlines. Separates subject from background provides a three-dimensional look. Standard 3-Point Lighting: http://www.zvork.fr/vls/ Try using this simulator to play with lighting with those 3 points.French basic introductionsBasic french questions about yourselfBasic frenchBasic French ConversationBasic French Verbs