What makes film art?

Statement of Inquiry:
Film is an art form which uses the talents of multiple creative professionals
All these cinema posters are films from the Golden Age of Hollywood

Research: When was the Golden (or classic) era of Hollywood?

Who were the main movie stars?
Discuss: How have films changed compared with today’s films?
Are these films still enjoyable today? Or is it better to remake them?
Make predictions:

What type of film do you think this was?

When do you think it was made?

When do you think it was set?

Would YOU want to watch it?

The Great Dictator (1940) was a political satire, condemning Hitler, Mussolini, the Nazis, and anti-Semitism. It was Chaplin’s
first full-sound production and was nominated for five Academy Awards.

The film tells the story of a Jewish hairdresser (Chaplin) who happens to look like a famous dictator. Chaplin is asked to
take his place. At the film’s conclusion, he rejects his position as emperor and gives an impassioned speech that has
become one of the most famous in film history.

Watch the clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8HdOHrc3OQ

1. Are you surprised to find this speech in a political comedy?

2. Can we still learn from this speech today? Is it still relevant? Is it more relevant today?

3. Why is his speech hopeful?

4. What message does he have for soldiers?

Watch the clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8HdOHrc3OQ

1. Are you surprised to find this speech in a political comedy?

2. Can we still learn from this speech today? Is it still relevant? Is it more relevant today?

3. Why is his speech hopeful?

4. What message does he have for soldiers?

5. Look at your answers.

Find three sentences from the speech which you can write in reported speech.
You can use reporting verbs like state, insist, or tell.
Are some films more ‘art’ than others?

Watch this short film on the history of independent/alternative film.

Independent Cinema: Crash Course Film History #12 - YouTube

Take notes.

Why were audiences getting tired of Hollywood films by the end of World War II?

Movement Defining features Famous directors/films

Italinan neo-realism
French New Wave
Independent US studios
New Hollywood Cinema
Summer blockbusters
1990’s independent films
These are the highest grossing
films of all time (allowing for
inflation).

Are you surprised? Why?

What do these films seem

to have in common?

What does this tell you

about popular film genres?
Avatar is one of the highest grossing films of the 21st Century,
but it has been criticised for its unoriginal plot
and colonial mentality.

What is Avatar’s plot?

How can it be considered positive?

In what ways is it unoriginal?

• Who was Pocahontas?

• Was the Disney version true to the

real story?

• Some critics have said that Avatar

is just ‘Pocahontas but in space’. Do
you agree?

• Do you agree with this

• statement?

• “While films have advanced hugely

in terms of cinematic/visual
techniques, storytelling has not
changed much since the Golden Age
of Hollywood.”
Do you agree with any of these critics about Avatar?

Cameron has made a racist film: "Avatar" has a "nauseatingly patronising" racist subtext, says Will Heaven at the Daily
Telegraph. With their "Maasai-style" clothing and "dreadlocked" hair, the Na’vi aliens are a "childish pastiche of the ethnic"
who must rely on the "principled white man" — protagonist Jake Sully — to "lead them out of danger." How did this famously
"left-wing director" make a film with such an "ugly mindset?"

It’s more well-meaning than that: Avatar may not be racist but it is undeniably a "fantasy about race," says Annalee Newitz on
I09.com. Jake Sully's efforts to save the Na’vi aliens is just a "sci-fi rehash of an old white guilt fantasy" that dates back to
"genocide" Europeans perpetrated against Native Americans. But well-meaning characters like Sully are just "a sneaky way of
turning every story about people of color into a story about being white." And directors should resist that impulse.

Cameron’s not racist…but Hollywood is: While Cameron throws around "racial power dynamics" in an "unsettling" way, says
Remington at The Moving Image, the fault comes from higher than that. You can imagine studio executives saying Jake’s
character is necessary "for the audience to connect with," rather than having the world saved by one of these alien "blue
people." The only problem with that is all Hollywood leading roles end up as white male characters — "unless your name is
Will Smith."
Short Film as a Social Commentary
Watch the Disney Pixar short film Purl:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6uuIHpFkuo

Questions:
How is Purl made to seem vulnerable?
How does Purl physically change? How could that be a symbol of society?
What is the moral of this film?

Now listen to the director. What was her motivation?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nK6mSsO6M8

Why does the director portray Purl as a ball of yarn?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwLZ1apzGnI
Many adverts use short film to promote their products, particularly at Christmas time.

Watch the following advert by British supermarket Sainsbury’s, based on a true story.
1914 | Sainsbury's Ad | Christmas 2014 - YouTube

Why do you think it would have been a popular advert?

Is it right to use sensitive moments in history to sell products?

Watch again. Make notes on the following features.

- Camera angle
- Symbols
- Music
- Basic plot structure.
Do you think most
advertisements follow the plot
structure of Freitag’s pyramid?
‘S’ stands for ‘shot’. What do you
think the other letters
stand for?
Which
types of
shots are
these?
Answers

TASK

Find an advert with

a narrative.

Present it to the
class, pointing out
its use of plot
structure and
perspective (angle
and shot).
Watch the film ‘Small Talk’.

What message does this give us about relationships?

Is true love real? Or is it romanticised by films and stories?

Do we lose our confidence as we get older? Why?

Watch how the perspective changes.

Why is it effective?

Small Talk - YouTube

Form vs Content
In films as in literature, it is important to distinguish these two aspects:
• Content: what is shown or told
• Form: how it is shown or told

Watch this video, from minute 7' to 15' 07"

• https://youtu.be/3HG8Q9ucr4k?t=420

For much of the time, the speaker talks about three sequences in Stanley
Kubrick's film The Shining (1980): here's one of the trailers
All three scenes involve the camera following a child on his tricycle, pedaling
around the empty hotel. However, HOW the different sequences are filmed,
and how differently so from each other, may have an important effect on
how audiences perceive the mood of the scene.
Form vs Content
TASK
In pairs or individually,
answer the following questions in the task discussion space. You can use the links to
start the video at the relevant time.
• 1. What is the difference between the two shots of the trains in terms of the
potential effect on the viewer? (7' to 7'14")
• 2. What makes the first scene feel creepy, according to the speaker? (7'15" to
13'40")
• 3. What makes the second and third scenes of the boy pedaling
around MORE creepy? (13'40" to 15'07)
 Formal analysis
Watch the opening 19’ 25” of Juno (Jason Reitman, 2007)
(Available on Disney+)

How are cinematography, sound, composition, design, movement,

performance, and editing orchestrated by creative artists like
screenwriters, directors, cinematographers, actors, editors, sound
designers, and art directors, as well as the many craftspeople who
implement their vision to create meaning?
The movie meaning expressed through form ranges from implicit
narrative information as straightforward as where and when a
particular scene takes place to more subtle implied meaning, such as
mood, tone, significance, or what a character is thinking or feeling.
Cinematic storytellers exploit every tool at their disposal and that,
therefore, every element in every frame is there for a reason.
It’s up to the analyst to carefully consider the narrative intent of the
moment, scene, or sequence before attempting any interpretation of
the formal elements used to communicate that intended meaning.
 Straightforward intent

Formal analysis For example, the simple awareness that Juno’s opening shot [1] is the first
image of the movie informs the analyst of the moment’s most basic and
explicit intent: to convey setting (contemporary middle-class suburbia) and
time of day (dawn).
Formal analysis – Reading deeper
How may this frame convey the character’s state of mind, as she is overwhelmed by the
prospect of her own teenage pregnancy?

Share your thoughts before reading the analysis in the following slide.
Consider this analysis. Does it work?
Juno is at the far left of the frame and is tiny in relationship to
the rest of the wide-angle composition. In fact, we may be well
into the four-second shot before we even spot her.
Her vulnerability is conveyed by the fact that she is dwarfed by
her surroundings.
 Even when the scene cuts to a closer viewpoint in the second shot,
she, as the subject of a movie composition, is much smaller in frame
than we are used to seeing, especially in the first shots used to
introduce a protagonist.
Do you still(?) agree?
The fact that she is standing in a front yard contemplating an empty
stuffed chair from a safe distance, as if the inanimate object might
attack at any moment, adds to our implicit impression of Juno as
alienated or off-balance.
Symbols
These shots also present the recurring theme
(or motif) of the empty chair that frames—
and in some ways defines—the story.
In this opening scene, accompanied by Juno’s
voice-over explanation “It started with a
chair,” the empty, displaced object represents
Juno’s status and emotional state, and
foreshadows the unconventional setting for
the sexual act that got her into this mess.
By the story’s conclusion, when Juno
announces “It ended with a chair,” the
motif—in the form of an adoptive mother’s
rocking chair—has been transformed, like
Juno herself, to embody hope and potential.
 Analysing a scene
Rewatch the waiting room sequence (18:47 to 20:20)
How many individual camera shots are there?

Then read the analysis in the following slides; notice the comments on
• content,
• form, and
• intention.

Analysis from Barsam & Monahan. (2010). Looking at Movies. An introduction to film
(3rd Ed). New York. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
The waiting-room sequence’s opening
shot dollies in (the camera moves
slowly toward the subject), which
gradually enlarges Juno in frame,
increasing her visual significance as
she fills out the clinic admittance form
on the clipboard in her hand.

The shot reestablishes her casual

acceptance of the impending
procedure, providing context for the
events to come. Its relatively long ten-
second duration sets up a relaxed
rhythm that will shift later along with
her state of mind. As the camera
reaches its closest point, a loud sound
invades the low hum of the previously
hushed waiting room.
This obtrusive drumming sound motivates a somewhat
startling cut to a new shot that plunges our viewpoint
right up into Juno’s face.

The sudden spatial shift gives the moment resonance and

conveys Juno’s thought process as she instantly shifts her
concentration from the admittance form to this strange
new sound.
She turns her head in search of the sound’s source, and the
camera adjusts to adopt her point of view of a mother and
the toddler sitting beside her.
The mother’s fingernails drumming on her own clipboard is revealed as the source of the
tapping sound. The sound’s abnormally loud level signals that we’re not hearing at a
natural volume level—we’ve begun to experience Juno’s psychological perceptions. The
little girl’s stare into Juno’s (and our) eyes helps to establish the association between the
fingernail sound and Juno’s latent guilt.
The sequence cuts back to the
already troubled-looking Juno. The
juxtaposition connects her anxious
expression to both the drumming
mother and the little girl’s gaze. The
camera creeps in on her again. This
time, the resulting enlargement keys
in our intuitive association of this
gradual intensification with a
character’s moment of realization.
Within half a second, another noise
joins the mix, and Juno’s head turns
in response.
The juxtaposition marks the next
shot as Juno’s point of view, but it is
much too close to be her literal
point of view. Like the unusually
loud sound, the unrealistically close
viewpoint of a woman picking her
thumbnail reflects not an actual
spatial relationship but the sight’s
significance to Juno.
When we cut back to Juno
about a second later, the
camera continues to close in
on her, and her gaze shifts
again to follow yet another
sound as it joins the rising
clamor.
A new shot of another set of
hands, again from a close-up,
psychological point of view,
shows a woman applying
fingernail polish.
What would normally be a
silent action emits a distinct,
abrasive sound.
When we cut back to Juno half a second later, she is much larger in the frame than
the last few times we saw her. This break in pattern conveys a sudden
intensification; this is really starting to get to her. Editing often establishes patterns
and rhythms, only to break them for dramatic impact.

Our appreciation of Juno’s situation is enhanced by the way editing connects her
reactions to the altered sights and sounds around her, as well as by her implied
isolation—she appears to be the only one who notices the increasingly boisterous
symphony of fingernails. Of course, Juno’s not entirely alone—the audience is with
her. At this point in the sequence, the audience has begun to associate the waiting-
room fingernails with Su-Chin’s attempt to humanize Juno’s condition.
Juno’s head jerks as yet another, even more
invasive sound enters the fray. We cut to
another close-up point-of-view shot, this
time of a young man scratching his arm. At
this point, another pattern is broken,
initiating the scene’s formal and dramatic
climax. Up until now, the sequence
alternated between shots of Juno and shots
of the fingernails as they caught her
attention. Each juxtaposition caused us to
identify with both Juno’s reaction and her
point of view.
This pattern is itself broken in several
ways by the scene’s final shot. We’ve
grown accustomed to seeing Juno look
around every time we see her, but this
time, she stares blankly ahead, immersed
in thought. A cacophony of fingernail
sounds rings in her (and our) ears as the
camera glides toward her for three and a
half very long seconds—a duration six
times longer than any of the previous nine
shots. These pattern shifts signal the
scene’s climax, which is further
emphasized by the moving camera’s
enlargement of Juno’s figure, a visual
action that cinematic language has trained
viewers to associate with a subject’s
moment of realization or decision.
But the shot doesn’t show us
Juno acting on that decision.
We don’t see her cover her
ears, throw down her
clipboard, or jump up from the
waitingroom banquette.
Instead, we are ripped
prematurely from this final
waiting-room image and are
plunged into a shot that drops
us into a different space and at
least several moments ahead in
time—back to Su-Chin chanting
in the parking lot.
 Before we can get our
bearings, the camera has
pivoted right to reveal Juno
bursting out of the clinic door
in the background. She races
past Su-Chin without a word.
This jarring She does not have to say
spatial, temporal, anything. Cinematic
and visual shift language— film form—has
helps us feel already told us what she
decided and why.
Juno’s own
instability at this
crucial narrative
moment.
Summative task 1:
You will watch a movie sequence and complete an analysis sheet where
you will:
1) describe the shots in terms of content and form and
2) discuss the possible reasons and intended effects for these film-
making decisions.
Summative task 2:
In groups,
• Choose a scene in one of the short stories we read in Unit 1.
• Sketch a storyboard with the different shots you would have.
• Present your storyboard to the class clearly identifying for each shot:
• Content
• Form
• Intentionality