Film Art : An Introduction

by Bordwell, David

• ISBN13: 9780073535067
• ISBN10: 0073535060
• Edition: 8th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-12-16
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill College

Summary

Film is an art form with a language and an aesthetic all its own. Since 1979, Film Art by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson has been the best-selling and widely respected introduction to the study of cinema. Using a skills-centered approach, the authors strive to help students develop a core set of analytical tools that will deepen their understanding of any film, in any genre. Film Art is generously illustrated with frame enlargements that enable students to view images taken directly from the completed films.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xvii
Film Art and Filmmaking
Film as Art: Creativity, Technology, and Business	p. 2
Film Artistry in Shadow of a Doubt	p. 3
Box: A Closer Look: Picking out Patterns	p. 8
Mechanics of the Movies	p. 10
Illusion Machined	p. 10
Making the Movie: Film Production	p. 14
The Scriptwriting and Funding Phase	p. 15
The Preparation Phase	p. 16
Shooting Phase	p. 17
The Assembly Phase	p. 21
Box: A Closer Look: Some Terms and Roles in Film Production	p. 22
Artistic Implications of the Production Process	p. 25
Modes of Production	p. 25
Large-Scale Production	p. 25
Exploitation and Independent Production	p. 26
Small-Scale Production	p. 28
Artistic Implications of Different Modes of Production	p. 29
Box: A Closer Look: Convergences: Film and Video	p. 30
Bringing the Film to the Audience: Distribution and Exhibition	p. 34
Distribution: The Center of Power	p. 34
Exhibition: Theatrical and Nontheatrical	p. 39
Box: Movies on Screen: A 2004 Profile of Theatrical Exhibition	p. 41
Artistic Implications of Distribution and Exhibition	p. 42
Summary	p. 47
Where to Go from Here	p. 47
Websites	p. 50
Recommended DVDs	p. 50
Recommended DVD Supplements	p. 50
Film Form
The Significance of Film Form	p. 54
The Concept of Form in Film	p. 54
Form as System	p. 54
"Form" Versus "Content"	p. 56
Formal Expectations	p. 56
Conventions and Experience	p. 58
Form and Feeling	p. 59
Form and Meaning	p. 60
Evaluation	p. 63
Principles of Film Form	p. 65
Function	p. 65
Similarity and Repetition	p. 66
Difference and Variation	p. 67
Development	p. 68
Unity and Disunity	p. 70
Summary	p. 71
Where to Go from Here	p. 72
Websites	p. 73
Recommended DVD Supplements	p. 73
Narrative as a Formal System	p. 74
Principles of Narrative Construction	p. 74
Plot and Story	p. 76
Cause and Effect	p. 77
Time	p. 80
Space	p. 82
Box: A Closer Look: Playing Games with Story Time	p. 83
Openings, Closings, and Patterns of Development	p. 86
Narration: The Flow of Story Information	p. 88
Range of Story Information	p. 88
Depth of Story Information	p. 90
The Narrator	p. 92
Summing Up Narration	p. 93
The Classical Hollywood Cinema	p. 94
Narrative Form in Citizen Kane	p. 96
Overall Narrative Expectations in Citizen Kane	p. 96
Plot and Story m Citizen Kane	p. 97
Citizen Kane's Causality	p. 99
Time in Citizen Kane	p. 99
Motivation Citizen Kane	p. 102
Citizen Kane's Parallelism	p. 103
Patterns of Plot Development in Citizen Kane	p. 103
Narration in Citizen Kane	p. 104
Summary	p. 107
Where to Go from Here	p. 107
Websites	p. 109
Recommended DVD Supplements	p. 109
Film Style
The Shot: Mise-en-Scene	p. 112
What Is Mise-en-Scene?	p. 112
Aspects of Mise-en-Scene	p. 115
Setting	p. 115
Costume and Makeup	p. 119
Lighting	p. 124
Staging: Movement and Performance	p. 132
Box: A Closer Look: The Film Actor's Toolkit	p. 134
Putting It All Together: Mise-en-Scene in Space and Time	p. 140
Space	p. 142
Time	p. 149
Narrative Functions of Mise-en-Scene in Our Hospitality	p. 153
Summary	p. 158
Where to Go from Here	p. 158
Websites	p. 160
Recommended DVD Supplements	p. 160
The Shot: Cinematography	p. 162
The Photographic Image	p. 162
The Range of Tonalities	p. 162
Speed of Motion	p. 166
Perspective	p. 168
Box-A Closer Look: From Monsters to the Mundane: Computer-Generated imagery in The Lord of the Rings	p. 179
Framing	p. 182
Frame Dimensions and Shape	p. 183
Box: A Closer Look: Common Aspect Ratios of 35mm Film	p. 184
Onscreen and Offscreen Space	p. 187
Angle, Level, Height, and Distance of Framing	p. 190
The Mobile Frame	p. 194
Duration of the Image: The Long Take	p. 207
Functions of the Long Take	p. 208
The Long Take and the Mobile Frame	p. 210
Summary	p. 214
Where to Go from Here	p. 214
Websites	p. 216
Recommended DVD Supplements	p. 216
The Relation of Shot to Shot: Editing	p. 218
What Is Editing?	p. 218
Dimensions of Film Editing	p. 220
Graphic Relations Between Shot A and Shot B	p. 221
Rhythmic Relations Between Shot A and Shot B	p. 226
Spatial Relations Between Shot A and Shot B	p. 227
Temporal Relations Between Shot A and Shot B	p. 229
Continuity Editing	p. 231
Spatial Continuity: The 180[Degrees] System	p. 231
Continuity Editing in The Maltese Falcon	p. 234
Continuity Editing: Some Fine Points	p. 238
More Refinements: Crossing the Axis of Action	p. 242
Crosscutting	p. 244
Temporal Editing: Order, Frequency, and Duration	p. 245
Box: A Closer Look: Intensified Continuity: L.A. Confidential and Contemporary Editing	p. 246
Alternatives to Continuity Editing	p. 251
Graphic and Rhythmic Possibilities	p. 251
Spatial and Temporal Discontinuity	p. 252
Functions of Discontinuity Editing: October	p. 257
Summary	p. 260
Where to Go from Here	p. 261
Websites	p. 263
Recommended DVD Supplements	p. 263
Sound in the Cinema	p. 264
The Powers of Sound	p. 265
Fundamentals of Film Sound	p. 267
Perceptual Properties	p. 267
Selection, Alteration, and Combination	p. 268
Dimensions of Film Sound	p. 275
Rhythm	p. 275
Fidelity	p. 278
Space	p. 278
Box: A Closer Look: Offscreen Sound and Optical Point of View: The Money Exchange in Jackie Brown	p. 280
Time	p. 287
Functions of Film Sound: A Man Escaped	p. 293
Fontaine's Commentary	p. 293
Sound Effects and Narration	p. 294
Sound Motifs	p. 295
Music	p. 296
A Sample Sequence	p. 296
Summary	p. 300
Where to Go from Here	p. 301
Websites	p. 303
Recommended DVD Supplements	p. 303
Summary: Style as a Formal System	p. 304
The Concept of Style	p. 304
Style and the Filmmaker	p. 304
Style and the Viewer	p. 305
Analyzing Film Style	p. 306
Determine the Organization Structure	p. 306
Identify the Salient Techniques Used	p. 306
Trace Out Patterns of Techniques	p. 307
Propose Functions for the Salient Techniques and the Patterns They Form	p. 308
Style in Citizen Kane	p. 309
Summary	p. 316
Where to Go from Here	p. 316
Recommended DVD Supplements	p. 316
Types of Films
Film Genres	p. 318
Understanding Genre	p. 318
Defining a Genre	p. 318
Analyzing a Genre	p. 320
Genre History	p. 321
Box: A Closer Look: A Contemporary Genre: The Crime Thriller	p. 322
The Social Functions of Genres	p. 326
Three Genres	p. 328
The Western	p. 328
The Horror Film	p. 329
The Musical	p. 332
Summary	p. 336
Where to Go from Here	p. 336
Websites	p. 337
Recommended DVD Supplements	p. 337
Documentary, Experimental, and Animated Films	p. 338
Documentary	p. 338
What Is a Documentary?	p. 338
Types Documentary	p. 340
The Boundaries Between Documentary and Fiction	p. 341
Types of Form in Documentary Films	p. 342
Categorical Form	p. 343
Rhetorical Form	p. 348
Experimental Film	p. 355
Types of Form in Experimental Films	p. 356
Abstract Form	p. 356
Associational Form	p. 363
The Animated Film	p. 370
An Example of Narrative Animation: Duck Amuck	p. 373
An Example of Experimental Animation: Fuji	p. 375
Summary	p. 378
Where to Go from Here	p. 378
Websites	p. 380
Recommended DVD Supplements	p. 381
Critical Analysis of Films
Film Criticism: Critical Analyses	p. 384
The Classical Narrative Cinema	p. 385
His Girl Friday	p. 385
North by Northwest	p. 388
Do The Right Thing	p. 392
Narrative Alternatives to Classical Filmmaking	p. 397
Breathless (A Bout de Souffle)	p. 397
Tokyo Story (Tokyo Monogatari)	p. 401
Chungking Express (Chung Hing sam lam)	p. 405
Documentary Form and Style	p. 410
Man with a Movie Camera (Chelovek s kinoapparatom)	p. 410
The Thin Blue Line	p. 413
Form, Style, and Ideology	p. 419
Meet Me in St. Louis	p. 419
Raging Bull	p. 426
Writing a Critical Analysis of a Film	p. 431
Preparing to Write	p. 431
Develop a Thesis That Your Essay Will Explain and Support	p. 431
Draw Up a Segmentation of the Entire Film	p. 431
Note Outstanding Instances of Film Technique	p. 432
Organizing and Writing	p. 433
Summary	p. 434
Sample Essay: Fantasy and Reality in The King of Comedy	p. 435
Where to Go from Here	p. 437
Sample-Analysis Films on DVD	p. 438
Film History
Film Art and Film History	p. 440
Early Cinema (1893-1903)	p. 441
The Development of the Classical Hollywood Cinema (1908-1927)	p. 444
German Expressionism (1919-1926)	p. 447
French Impressionism and Surrealism (1918-1930)	p. 450
Impressionism	p. 450
Surrealism	p. 452
Soviet Montage (1924-1930)	p. 453
The Classical Hollywood Cinema After the Coming of Sound	p. 456
Italian Neorealism (1942-1951)	p. 459
The French New Wave (1959-1964)	p. 461
The New Hollywood and Independent Filmmaking	p. 463
Contemporary Hong Kong Cinema	p. 468
Where to Go from Here	p. 472
Recommended DVDs	p. 474
Recommended DVD Supplements	p. 476
Glossary	p. 477
Credits	p. 482
Index	p. 483
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.