Film Studies PDF - 4 - Space

4- SPACE Typologies of space Vale (1996) define these considerations: - Type (The kind of place where the movie is set. Denotation can determine the action) - Mode (Connotation. The characteristics of the space that can define the...

4- SPACE Typologies of space Vale (1996) define these considerations: - Type (The kind of place where the movie is set. Denotation can determine the action) - Mode (Connotation. The characteristics of the space that can define the characters,mie or actions) - Purpose (What is that space make to handle, what is going to happen in hat space) - Relationship (Space with the characters. Characteristics like privacity, socialization,clandestinity…) - Location (Sociocultural characteristics related to place and time) Space in audiovisual narration It is where characters interact and events appen, the space inform the audience about the events. Is a point of observation. Represented in every shot. surroundings are linked to the actions justifaying character's conduction and justifaying. In AV narration, narraton and description of the space are simultanius. The filmic space cannot stop being shown, and the framing and mise-en-scene cannot stop showin actions that are happening simultaneuslly in the same space. → ACTIONS ARE LINKED TO THE FILMIC SPACE Space: - staging (preparation of a fictional world). - scenography - lighting - composition. - framing (definition of a POV). - shot size - type angle - height and level - focal distance - depth of field - camera movement - POV - duration - on-off screen - montage (construction of space-time relations). - lineal - non-lineal - parallel Scenography Creating an ambience that reproduces the place where the story takes place (fiction), argues about something (documentary) or informs. Creates an atmosphere, gives credibility to the action or events. The set creates spaces with the appropriate atmosphere for each theme, expressing the inner world of the characters and provoking concerns in the viewer. Lighting It is the base element of all visual techniques. Sensation of three-dimensionality (two-dimensions). Directs attention towards elements on frame.  Contributes to the maintenance of certain aesthetics. It must be consistent with the setting. Fulfils a double function: it enables the viewing of the image and allows the deepening of the ultimate meaning of the speech. Composition and atrezzo Distribution of the objects in the scene. Informative / influential. Rear Window. Narrative economy. Certain objects can avoid going into detail on action locations (based on stereotypes). Framing Shot Implies decision-making of the fragment of space that you want to represent and assumes a point of view that configures the image. It can be one unique shooting action or various actions or effects that do not include cuts. - Shot sizes in filmmaking Extreme Wide Shot (ELS). Long Shot (LS) / Wide Shot (WS). Full Shot (FS). Medium Long Shot (MLS) / Medium Wide Shot (MWS). Cowboy Shot. Medium Shot (MS). Medium Close Up (MCU). Close Up (CU). Extreme Close Up (ECU). Establishing Shot. - Camera framing types. Placing subjects and objects in shots. Camera shots are all about composition: rather than pointing the camera at the subject, there is a need to compose an image. Single Shot. Two Shot. Three Shot. Over-the-Shoulder Shot (OTS). Point-of-View Shot (POV). Camera height, angle and level Due to the IMR there are:  Medium and full shots: height of the camera = height of the characters' chests. It corresponds to the gaze of a hypothetical observer. Close-ups: camera level = eye level of the subject. Audience's level corresponds to characters' eye level. Low or high shots can help expose actions and emphasize situations. The position of the camera in relation to the subjects can affect the way the viewer perceives the scene. A scene may be shot simultaneously from multiple camera angles to amplify the cinematic effect and the emotions. That would be a Frequency 1S = x D. Focal distance and depth of field DOF is the term used to describe the size of the area in the image where objects appear acceptably shark. The area in question is known as the field, and the size (in z-space) of that area is the depth of that field. The center most point of the field is known as the point of focus. The imaginary two-dimensional plane that extends from that point is known as the plane of focus. And any part of the image that falls directly on this plane is officially in focus. Camera movement Camera movement is a powerful filmmaking tool employed to modify the relationship between the subject and the camera frame, with the goal of altering the viewer's perspective of space and time for a more impactful and visceral visual storytelling. The way a camera moves can give meaning to what's happening on screen. You can burst into a room, drone over from on high, pan with a head turn, and dolly-zoom for any revelation. Static and shots with movement - Significance of movement: Change of POV. Relationship of the character with the location. Reveling new characters or objects through movement. Description of the space, increasing and establishing relationships with new information (off-screen). Change spacial references and adding new information. Reinforces the audience's integration using continuous references or disrupts it due to showing the "artificious" effects. - Camera movements Panoramia (Pan).  T11t. Tracking shots (Travelling). Zoom. Dolly shots. Handy camera. VFX. Focal distance variation (variable lense). Objective and subjective shots Subjective shots depend on: Position and activity of the camera. Position and activity of the elements in relation to the camera. Relationship between visual image and sound. - How to construct them? Gaze raccord. Image and movement composition. Temporary duration of the shot Important things to consider between two cuts: Lecture. Relationship between all shots. Desired effect on the audience. Situation, action and detail Requirements for a good audiovisual narration: Locate in a specific space, clearly observe the action performed, and give significant details about the specific action. Establishing shots. Action shots. Detail shots. The Offscreen space (as a narrative concept) The diegetic space is inseparably constituted by two types of space: What is onscreen in a film is what the camera visualizes for the viewer within its frame. The offscreen, instead, entails actions and spaces that a viewer imagines or adds to a cinematic frame to fill out its significance. How to create an off-screen diegetic space Characters' gaze or gestures. Movements of characters/objects The Square (Ruben Östlund, 2012). Sound.  ° character speaking to an off-screen space. character on off-screen that speaks. diegetic music (contest on The Square). Scenography. Elements from off-screen: shadows, parts that are larger, etc. - Unexpected actions - Narrative economy - Suspense - Regulation content - Sugestión - Censorship - Imaginary - Cultural canons Cultural conventions Scene composed by: 1. What we see. 2. What we don't see → stimulates more imagination than the part we see. 3. Time 4. Silence (ambient sound) Construction of the AV spaces Narrative Audiovisual Space It is the result of the combination of: - Onscreen space in the shot + union of the shots + sound = illusion of unity (actually based on discontinuity). - It is through montage how the audiovisual space is constructed and its temporality too, thanks to the relationship between shots. Also, through montage and the discourse's logic, the action can take place in different locations = parallel montage. Sound in the offscreen scene - Psico (stabs in the shower scene) → it doesn’ shows the murder because of censorship, we perceive it because of the sound of the knife, the violins and the girl shouting.  - Jaws (screen in which a girl is eaten by the shark) → the shark is evicted because of narrative economy, but it is represented with the music (everytime the shark is going to attack the music changes. With the music, Spilberg gives the shark a human mentality that calculates the ataks) and the POV of the shot: under the sea, as the shark was the camera. Sound allows us to perceive the audiovisual space and receive information. An immediate relationship of mutual interdependence is established between sound and the visual image. The same visual image can vary its meaning depending on the sound. Sound can be the decisive factor for the final construction of the audiovisual space. The use of off-screen voice or voice over reinforces the capacity of sound: it focuses attention on a specific aspect. Music and space Music can maintain the continuity of events and spaces. The unity of an event subdivided into different actions can be underlined by keeping the same music. It also maintains unity between different events, but that have structural coherence in the story (summaries, montage sequences). It is very suitable for describing specific places and characters. Clear association between types of music and specific spaces (circuses, schools). Music also facilitates space-time transitions. Keeping music allows you to smooth transitions between different sequences that have no direct relationship between them. Sound effects Sound effects are inarticulate sounds. They create a diegetic sound environment. Essential factor to configure the diegetic space. They also establish moods, referring to a non-diegetic space-time. Sound can be diegetic or non-diegetic: it comes from a source and generates a space. If you can locate the space where the sound source comes from = diegetic, either it is onscreen or off-screen. Although Michael Chion (1993:78) proposes highlighting other types of sound: Ambient sound. It surrounds a certain situation and provides a sound atmosphere. The location of the source of the sound does not matter. Internal sound. Located in the present of the action, it comes from within a character (physical sound, like the heart, or mental). Sound on the air. Sound that is heard at a given moment and that is emitted by electrical retransmissions, such as that emitted by a radio.