Get the Picture? : The Movie Lover's Guide to Watching Movies

by PIPER, JIM

• ISBN13: 9781581150810
• ISBN10: 1581150814
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2001-02-01
• Publisher: Allworth Press

Summary

Movie lovers from school-age to seniors will enjoy the favorite classics, pop flicks, and lesser-known gems discussed in this lively introduction to film, which also details how different techniques have been used throughout cinematic historyand how modern filmmakers are adapting those traditions today. Avoiding technical jargon, the author clearly explains key aspects of film: shots, scenes, sounds, cuts, styles, setting, mood, and meaning. Covered are classic, popular, foreign, and independent filmsmost of which are available at local video stores. Filled with fascinating comparisons of movies and evocative still shots, this large volume will stimulate readers to watch movies with a new sense of understanding and enjoyment.

Author Biography

Jim Piper has taught film study and filmmaking at Fresno City College in California for over thirty years. He still makes films—short, noncommercial films. He has taken awards in little festivals that accept personal films in places ranging from Palo Alto, California, to Brno, C.S.S.R, only it's not called C.S.S.R any more. He has lived through, and not just read about, huge changes in the American Cinema, and he remembers those pre-multiplex days when you could go around the corner to an art film theater and see a foreign film. He has published three books, two English texts and a filmmaking book way back when video was just a Hershey bar in Sony's hip pocket. He has been a contributing editor to a nationally circulated filmmaking magazine, and he likes to put together free, EZ, big-screen video festivals for the community. He resides in Fresno with his wife Carol, his stepson Kyle, three cats, two dogs, and seven fat goldfish in a pond.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction: Movies and Films	ix
I CINEMATICS
Shots	1	(28)
Frames
Angles
Moves
Optics
Composition
The Long Take: High Art or Playfulness?
Film Stock
Scenes	29	(18)
Lighting
Set Design
The Same, Only Different
Sounds	47	(20)
Dialog
Music
Sound Effects
Sound Mix
Sound to Picture
Cuts	67	(16)
Basics
Grammar
Time
Space
Art
Styles	83	(20)
The Great Divide: Realism versus Formalism
Elements of Style
Ones, Twos, and Threes
Eights, Nines, and Tens
The Rise of the Stylistic Middle
Classic Hollywood Style
Five Practitioners of Classic Style
New Cinematic Style and the Move to Formalism
Four Formalist Directors
Truth's Beauty
II STORY
Drama	103	(24)
Types
Conflict
Resolution
Believability
Point of View
Cinematics and Drama
Characters	127	(22)
Main Characters
Protagonists and Antagonists
Round and Flat Characters
Thematic Characters
Mythic Characters
Epic Characters
Characters Who Change for the Better
Characters Who Change for the Worse
Good Characters under Pressure to Change
Characters Who Should Change
Character Relationships
Cinematics and Character
Settings	149	(24)
Season
Era
Setting as Journey
Settings in Foreign Films
Cinematics and Natural Settings
Tones	173	(18)
Up Tones
Down Tones
Mixed Tones
Cinematics and Tone
Meanings	191	(28)
From Tone to Meaning
Genre Movies
Subtext
Micromeaning
Symbols?
Macromeaning
Countermyth
Theme
Arriving at Large Meaning in Two Contemporary Films
Triangulation
About the Author	219	(2)
Index	221