Audiovisual Narration and Filmmaking PDF

1- The audiovisual narrative The narration Narration is: - story - describing tool - perspective - characters - setting - initiative - action - time - goal - problem/conflict Nar...

1- The audiovisual narrative The narration Narration is: - story - describing tool - perspective - characters - setting - initiative - action - time - goal - problem/conflict Narration in terms of theory is a chain of events with cause-effect relations that runs through time and space (Bordwell, 1996). In other wor is the concatenation of events, by a narrator, causality and chronologically until their resolution. Narration → Remarkable polysemy: narrative, yric, dramatic A way of organizing a text by an annunciator: figure of narrator, aspects and circumstances that shape the story, point of view, relationship with the audience. Early cinema genealogy - The Lumiere Brothers - George Melier - Alice Guy - Thomas A. Edison In 1889 Thomas A. Edison created moving pictures, but he didn't think about the public screening. Some years later(1895), the Lumiere Brothers created the first moving cinematographic pictures that were public screening. The brothers projected three short stories (28-11-1895, Grand Café, París): 1. L'arrivée du train à la Ciotat → One only scene, the spectator thought that the train was going to jump out of the screen. 2. Le déjeuner de bébé → One of the brothers is filming and the other is acting with his family. 3. L'arroseur Arrosé → Some kind of characters are introduced, a primitive point of view is also included. Alice Guy She created “The Cabbage Fairy” (1896), a piece of film that was attached to fantasy. The Lumiere brothers never had talked about fantasy, they were attached to reality and the quotidian life. Alice created the first cinema fantasy. She wrote other pieces like,“Madame a des envies” (1906). This piece includes a main character that has physical and psychological features, the story has a goal and a chain of events. The film has different shots with different stages in order to compose a more dynamic event series. One thing that should be highlighted is the inclusion of close ups in other places, the idea of living with the main characters and forgetting about the other characters: This is perspective, audience, narration, point of view… Early narrative characteristics: - Narrative impulse - Design of charismatic figures (the seeds for the psychology of the characters) - Experimenting with fragmentation of space and time - Experimentation with montage and narrative continuity - Use of fiction as a tool for negotiating reality - Importance of humor and desire (principles of an authorial style) - Belive of cinema as a narrative vehicle Narration is also the act of converting a series of events into a series of intelligible forms → the transformation of these forms generates knowledge about the events. In this sense, Alice Guy's way of working is remarkable, her narrative moves away from theater. George Melier He was the boss of a theater and was very interested in the creative part. George had an artisanal perception of cinema, he created very chaotic images in terms of narration, to the point thet, their movies needed a commentator when they were projected. He was very good at illusionism, his movies showed a personal style with special effects, scenography… He was the first to catch the term “Super-production”. Narrative communication Active discipline in literary theory. Aims to understand the components of narrative. There are culturally specific ways of telling stories: - Narrative text: a cultural artifact in which an agent or narrator tells a story to the medium. NARRATOR → MESSAGE → PLOT → STORY → AUDIENCE (NARRATARY) Agent/narrator: agent that enunciates Narrative channel (medium): structure system composed of signs and governed by principles that establish relationships between Story and discourse: (showing and telling dimensions) The what/mimesis is the story and the how /diegesis is the discourse. Examples: 1. “Madame a des envies” - story/showing: the desire of the pregnant fun woman unchain caos - discourse/teling: cinematographic (close ups, repetition twists, sense of humor) 2. “A trip to the moon” - story/showing:the different stages of a trip to the moon - discourse/telling: theatrical and linguistic (filmed stages + commenter) STORY and DISCOURSE Story (he showing: what) Discourse (the telling: how) content container meaning (signified) significant (signifier) it does not depend on any particular language or particularities depending on the language medium of representation events textual organization of the events themes/topics shapes/form inference by the receiver (who makes sense by textual exposition of the meaning deduction) casual and chronological organization aesthetic organization familiarity strangeness  Audiovisual narration and fragmentation Fragmentation is what allows us to highlight the perspective and the discourse that is being recorded. It is not only organizing and selecting frames, it is the sense that the hall organization has. Fragmentation of the point of veis what distinguishes cinema from previous forms of expressions like theater. The establishment of different levels and sizes of planes and shots unables narrative continuity. The kuleshov effect The Kuleshov Effect is an editing effect initially demonstrated by Soviet filmmaker and film theorist, Lev Kuleshov. The basic principle of the Kuleshov Effect is that the audience derives new interpretations from composition and sequence. In fact, the interaction between shots can change the meaning altogether. Two shots in a sequence have more impact than a single shot.