Notes on elements to watch in a film:

When we normally watch a movie we react emotionally to it. We are carried away
identifying with the characters, tracing their narrative graph. We most times willingly
suspend disbelief to the matter on hand. Based on this process, we articulate if the
film is ‘good’ or ‘bad’.

Therefore the element that normally play a significant role while we are watching,
grasping or reacting to a movie is the emotional quotient that primarily emerge from
the narrative elements of the film. Except on a few prominent occasion, we hardly
look at the construction of the plot or the narrative. Analysis of a movie would
probably reach another level if we get an insight into the formal design of the film
that supports the narrative.

In this methodology, we first look at how the narrative is weaved, ie.. how it is
structured. We also look at other narrative elements like characterization, character
graph and how it influences the plot and ultimately the theme of the movie. The
premise of the movie apparently showcased by such macro elements as exemplified
by the action that unfolds in the movie is in fact reinforced by what are called the
micro elements that are used in the cinematic language.

It is the language of the visuals and all that goes into it - the image size, camera
angles, movements, planes used, the kind of lighting, contrast, texture, colours etc…
We also have the sound elements - the kind of mix we have of voices, sound effects,
ambience, music and silent - the timber, frequency, levels and the pitch of them. And
then of course we have editing elements - the rhythm and continuity of it. All these
contribute to showcase the premise of the film, along with the plot of the film.

Notes on Essence of Cinema:

The essence of Cinema without which there is no creation in Cinema is the recording
of the Visual elements and the Audio elements incorporated into it. Cinema is an
Audio Visual medium, and even when Silent Films were made by and large while
they were playing in theaters there was a live music band playing music in
accordance with the pace and mood of the visuals that were beamed on the screen.

Without a canvas of some sort and a colour and a brush there is no creation in
painting. Without a stone and a chisel, there is no creation of the work in sculpting.
Without the actor, the audience and a stage there is no theatre. Similarly, without
the recording of the Visuals and the recording of the Audio, there is no creation in
Cinema,

But the mere recording of the Audio and Visuals themselves do not constitute or
define Cinema. The uniqueness of Cinema lies in the fact that it is a modern art that
deals with time. The magic in Cinema actually happens in this realm. When you are
dealing with Time you are dealing with Sequencing, which means placing two or
more things together.
The recording of the Visuals and Audio is just half the work done in Cinema. It is only
when Juxtaposition happens that Cinema is created. The Juxtaposition can happen
between Visuals and Visuals, Audio and Audio or between Visuals and Audio. It
provides significance to the creation. For example if a suspenseful music is slapped
on a shot of an actor energetically walking through a dark alley, there could be a
feeling of impending doom. If a playful music is used, the energy of the man could be
highlighted.

Notes on ‘Shot’ - the basic element in Cinema

A ‘shot’ is a practically a basic unit of film making. It can conventionally be defined as

a piece of recording of visual, measured from the moment that the camera is turned
on until the moment it is turned off. In relation to the video format, it also includes
the recording of the corresponding sound that is recorded and embedded into the
visual recording.

A film would have a number of Acts. These Acts would be made up of Scenes and the
Scene consists of a number of sequences. It is these Sequences that is made by
joining a series of Shots. Giving the analogy of literature, a story or an essay consists
of Paragraphs, the Paragraphs themselves consists of Sentences and the Sentences
are made up of words. In simple terms, the words can be treated as the basic unit in
literature.

Just as the Word itself can be further divided into morphemes, the smallest unit in a
language that contains a meaning, or into a combination of sounds that may or may
not have a meaning; the shot itself can be divided into various elements that
constitutes the visuals and in sound. But by and large, the ‘Shot’ is considered as the
basic Cinematic unit.

The shot thus shot on the recording device is brought to the editing table and
trimmed according to narrative needs, thus defining the editing shot. A Shot can thus
be a recorded Shot or an edited Shot.

Note on Lumiere Brothers and George Melies

Lumiere Brothers - Auguste and Louis Lumiere - are credited to have had the first
public screening of Cinema when they screened their shorts in 1895 in Paris. Their
shorts included ‘Workers Leaving a Factory’ and ‘Train Entering a Station’. Lumiere
Brothers had a camera that could hold only a limited amount of raw footage, less
than a minute Therefore the length of the film was only that much.

Lumier Brothers most films were aimed at capturing every day real life movements -
like people playing cards, travelers alighting from a trawler, a family feeding an
infant or workers leaving a factory. In that sense he can be considered as the first
documentary filmmaker.
George Melies was basically a magician by profession. So, most of his films made
during the same period were extensions of his magical acts - people popping in and
out of frame, characters coming out of books, rockets being launched etc… A
narrative was constructed, with a beginning, middle and an end. For example, in the
‘Trip to the Moon’, explorers on Earth plan and launch a manned rocket to the moon.
It crash lands on the moon, where they encounter life threatening aliens. They
escape from them and come back to the safety net of the earth.

While Melies was upfront that his work was a fictional construction, the films made
by Lumiere Brothers tries to capture reality or subtly reconstruct it without being
upfront about it. In his 1895 film ‘Gardner’ a gardener watering his plants is
disturbed by a mischievous boy when he stops on the water pipe. The gardener
spanks the boy and chases him away to return back to his job. There is a narrative
construction, but it is not obvious to the viewers, unlike the films of Melies.

Note on the language of Silent Cinema

The advent of the Camera in the late 19th century could be seen as an extension of
the advent of the still photograph. The Scientific Revolution that we went through in
the 16th and the 17th Centuries, made us inquire into the basic nature of things and
understand them. Painting got realistic, the still photograph furthered that realism
and the Camera gave the reality of movement to these still images. So, the initial
films were all about celebration of this movement - the train entering a station,
workers leaving a factory, workers breaking a wall etc…

The fact that editing was not prevalent in the initial stages, made most of the early
silent films what are called as ‘Sequence Shots’ ie.. the entire sequence that is made
up of a single shot. The camera was at a distant, as if it were an observer watching a
stage play. Edwin Porter who worked fro Thomas Edition quickly figured out that the
camera could not only capture what is happening in real time, but we can also inter
cut between events happening is two separate sets of time and space.

DW Griffith through his films like ‘Birth of A Nation’, showed the world the power of
the Close up, as he figured out that t he camera can not just remain a distant
observer, but also move closer to the subject. So, from being a Singe shot sequence,
each sequence started having more number of shots. This necessitated the process
of editing.

The Russian silent filmmakers, especially Vsevolod Pudovkin and Sergei Eisenstein,
furthered the art of editing - defining it as an act that not just puts together a
narrative construction, but which also has the power to create meanings, emotions
and statements. Two totally unrelated elements could be put together and a totally
third thing could be evoked out of it. Thus developed the language of Silent Cinema.

Notes on Eisenstein’s Montage Theory.

To figure out Sergei Eisenstein's theory of Montage, we first have to get a foothold
on the Analytical Decoupage of WD Griffith. Also called as the Analytical Editing
method the world over, this method of constructing a narrative in Cinema was a step
ahead of the ‘Sequence Shot’ of the silent era where the action played around
without cuts and in long shots. Griffith moved the camera closer to the subject that
is of interest and guided the attention of the audience. The logic of moving the
camera and thus changing the magnification of the subject mimicked the way human
mind looked at a particular event - looking at the most compelling aspect in an event.

IF there are multiple camera set ups that necessitates that the action be broken into
various shots in the sequence, it naturally let to the necessity of these shots be
assembled together to give the audience a continuous sense of the event that is
taking place. Editing therefore supplemented the smooth comprehension of the
event that occurred in the sequence. The Russian theorists and filmmakers viewed
the process of joining the sots together as an act of creation, rather than it being
supplementary to the narrated event.

They looked at editing as the act of assembling the shots to form a narrative and
distinguished it from the word ‘Montage’, which also means ‘mounting’ in French.
Which means you make it exist or create it. Lev Kuleshov through his experiments
found out that the meaning that is mounted arises out of the juxtaposing of the two
shots. This creation was called as Montage. Eisenstein developed the idea further
breaking away from the constraints of the continuity decoupage and editing of
Griffith. He and the other Soviets film theorists argued for a different meaning of
montage which is tuned to the process of dialectics that a synthesis is created by the
confrontation of two opposite things.

Eisenstein theorized about five types of montage. Metric montage dealt with the
physical length of the shot. In Rhythmic montage, the rhythm of the action within
the shot is taken into consideration while cutting, rather than the physical length.
Tonal montage is when you cut shots in accordance to the dominant tonal quality In
the shots and their strongly binding emotional quality of the shots. The Over-tonal
montage covers all the first three aspects mentioned above. Finally there is the
ineffectual montage, where the joined shots convey not a tone nor an emotion, but
a thought.

Notes on Axis of action in film

Over the 130 odd years since the camera was invented, the language of Cinema has
evolved in various paths. Although the language of cinema cannot be called as a
language as English or Hindi would be called as, certain practices in the usage of the
medium has been so entrenched that it has almost becomes a language rule. The
Axis of Action rule is one of them.

This, also called as the the 180 degree rule, is about the placement of the camera in
a sequence when two characters are interacting with each other. The rule states that
if it is established in the beginning of the sequence that when Character A is looking
at Character B he / she is looking at the right side direction of the camera, then in
the entire sequence he / she should continue to look at the right side of the camera
in every shot that he / she is interacting with Character B. So would be the case, visa
versa.

IN other words, if an imaginary line is drawn between the said two characters
involved in the action of a sequence and if the Camera is placed on one side of the
imaginary line, thus defining the looks mentioned above; this line should not be
overstepped when the camera is placed for another shot in the sequence. In case
you cross the line and place the camera on the other side, Character A will look right
side of the frame while looking at Character B and visa verse.

This change in the gaze direction of the Characters could create confusion in the
minds of the viewers as to where the characters are placed in the settings.
Continuity of looks is bound to be broken. The only ways to break this rule is to have
an intermediary shot where the camera is place right at the axis, or move the
characters / camera within the frame so that the look direction get changed or use a
cut away shot in between.

Notes on the Basic elements of Screenplay

In narrative cinema one of the main thing that holds the film together is the
Screenplay. A plot is what happens in a movie screen, the Screenplay is the Audio-
Visual form of it in a written form. There are some directors who sketchily write
things or do not have the script in a written form by choice as they go into the
shooting mode. But indulging in such a situation is a bit risky, considering the
logistics involved in the process of film making. The screenplay on its own is not a
standalone literary piece. Nor does it fully presents the experience that a film gives
while we watch it. But it is never the less an important document to prepare at the
pre-production stage.

In a dramatic narrative format, there are five main elements that encompass the
Screenplay. The first one is ‘Characters’. A movie will always have what Aristotle calls
as a ‘personage’. It is about a person and his or her journey. The characters would
have certain thoughts that would manifest itself in his/her actions and dialogues.

Characterization of these characters are the foundations upon which the film is
based on. The thoughts and the worldview that the characters imbibe in themselves
would stem from their psychological, sociological and psychological background -
what Lajos Egri calls the ‘Bone Structure’. This Bone Structure is the driving force of
the actions that the characters take in a given situation and therefore that would be
the foundation for the plot.

The actions these characters would endure would occur in a certain space and in
certain time. That action is based on certain need or want that the characters need
to fulfil. The journey that the characters take in order to fulfil this need, is what is
called the ‘Plot’ - the second main pillars of Screenplay. Aristotle opines that the plot
is not about the ‘personages’ but about the actions that these ‘personages’ go
through.

There is always a ‘structure’ to this action that the characters get involved in the plot.
The action has a beginning, it has a middle and it ends. Aristotle called it a unity of
action. There might or might not be a unity of time and space in a plot - but without
this unity of action there is no plot. A lot of commentators, especially from the
Screenplay Writing fraternity in Hollywood who strongly propagate the three act
structure based on the beginning, middle and end of the action. But Aristotle never
used the term three act structure. He talks about a structure where there is an
element of ‘discovery’ by/on/with the characters prior to which the plot is moving in
one particular direction. After this important discovery the nature of things change
in the plot, its direction changed ; a ‘reversal’ happens.

Finally, all these do not occur for the sake of itself. The action that the protagonists
undergo in the plot that happens in a certain space and in certain time has a purpose
to it. It proves or disproves certain hypothesis. This is the what we call the ‘Premise’
of the film. It could be as simple as ‘love is eternal’ for Romeo Juliet’s plot or ‘over
ambition is self destructive in Hamlet.

Notes on the stages of Film Production

There are three aspects to a film production, the process of making a film - Pre-
production, Production and Post Production.

At the Pre-Production stage is when you prepare for the shooting. After the
screenplay is ready, it would be discussed with the main crew so that there is a
general agreement about its implementation feasibility. The direction team will
make a production break down listing the locations, the number of scenes, costumes,
sets, properties and figure out if any special effects is needed. The camera team
along with the direction team will scout for the location and fix it in consultation
with the production team which will them make it ready for shooting. The casting is
one, look test figured out and if necessary the pre-shooting rehearsal is completed.
The direction team will do the shot break down in consultation with the crew. Te
sound team will figure out the soundscape of the film, while the camera team will
figure out the lighting pattern and look, taking the support of the Production
designer. The editing team will ensure that the shot break down is done keeping in
mind the editing continuity and the possible rhythm of the film. The Chief Assistant
Director and the Production controller makes a shooting schedule.

At the shooting stage the Chief Assistant Director in consultation with the Production
crew prepares a call sheet for the next day shoot. It is a document that describes the
shooting details of the next day - the location, sets, properties, lights, actors and
crew needed and the number of shots planned. WHile taking a particular shot,
rehearsals are done with the c=actors and camera, after the lightning is done. The
direction teams maintains a continuity sheet, the camera and the sound team make
their own shooting reports - figuring out which shot could possibly be used in the
editing.

The basic assembly could be made with the help of an editor on the set, immediately
after the days shoot. The editing process can start even after the shoot is over. At
the first stage shots are assembled in terms of the script order. Then the editor
complete what is called a rough cut, post discussion with the crew members this cut
is fine tuned and a final cut is made. Once the visuals are locked, the film goes to the
sound post production stage where noises in the sound recorders are cleaned,
dubbing of dialogues done if needed, ambience sound tracks added, sound effects
created or added and a proper mix of all these tracks is done. Once this process is
over, the final output is taken - depending on where the exhibition of the film is
taking place.

Note on Kuleshov Effect

Post the Russian Revolution in 1917 where the Russian Royalty rule was over thrown
by the Bolsheviks, a section of the Labour Party; it was the era of the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republic. Also called as the USSR, the region became a federation of
different sovereign states that believed in a common ideology that sought power to
the working class or the proletariat.

It was the time of nation building and finding a native voice under the leadership of
Vladimir Lenin. One of the off shoots of this was the creation of the National Film
School (VGIK) by Lenin in 1919. Lev Kuleshov was a Soviet film maker and theorist
who thought in this school. He emphasized to his students that the power of cinema
lies in the editing process; and that it is its unique language that distinguished
Cinema from other arts.

He conducted various experiments in the school in this regard, the most famous of
them is what is called the Kuleshov effect. He first shot a mid shot of a famous Soviet
actor of his times - his expression was blank. He then spliced it with a close up shot
of a bowl of hot steaming food and showed it to an audience. They felt that the man
is hungry. HE then joined the same expressionless shot with that of a dead body.
People interpreted that the man is very sad. Finally, he joined the shot with a shot of
a glamorous lady. The audience thought that he ogled at the lady with evil intentions.

Thus he proved that the meaning generation in Cinema happens when two shots are
juxtaposed together. Shot A and shot B might not be related, but when they are put
together in a sequence the narrative occurs in the mind of the audience. The
meaning is not individually in Shot A neither it is in shot B, but it occurs when A and
B are synthesized. This findings was in tune with the ideological position of the
people of the Soviet Union that sought collectivism rather than individualism.

The Kuleshev effect is now widely used in almost all fiction films.

Notes on German Expressionism

Humankind’s quest to know what really constitutes world that we live in and how is
it patterned gave rise to the Scientific revolution. This quest to find out what is real,
reflected in the arts. In literature, in painting etc… there was an attempt to bring in
some amount of objective realism. The works of writers Emie Zola and Gustave
Flaubert or the paintings of Gustav Courbet or Jean-Francois Millet being a case in
point.

There grew another set of artists whose work focused on depicting the inner realism
of the subjects or themselves - the impressionists. In Expressionism the image of the
reality is distorted as a formal device to portray the inner feelings of the painter or
the poet. In Germany this movement grew strong in the early 20th Century - the
works of painter Ernst Barlach and poet Ernst Stadler being a case in point. By 1920
this movement spilled on to films with the release of ‘The Cabinet of Dr Caligeri’ by
Robert Wiene.

It should be noted that between 1914 and 1918 Germany was involved in a World
war where it brutally got defeated and humiliated. Under the treaty it was forced to
make with the Allies, it had to pay huge sums of money as reparations. Its own
infrastructure and economy was in shambles, people lost their loved ones by the
plenty in the war, there was depression and gloom. All that reflected in the formal
devices in the German Expressionist films.

Lets take ‘The Cabinet of Dr Caligeri’ as an example.The plot begins with a

mesmerized lady narrating a story that is set in a small village in Germany there are a
series of murders that take place. The needle of suspicion falls on a somnambulist or
sleepwalker who comes from the dead and the man who controls him, Dr Caligeri.
IN the end the protagonist, who is the mesmerized lady’s fiancee, confronts Dr
Caligari we realise that every character in the film is an inmate of a mental asylum
that is run and controlled by Dr Caligari.

True to the essential nature of expressionism, the plot itself is very twisted and bleak.
TO add to this, the setting - the village in Germany - physically takes a distorted form.
Houses are crooked, windows are slanted and out of proportion, streets are slanted,
streetlamps are of unnatural heights. The images are in high contrast and the lighting
is sharp with the direction of the source looking unnatural. Shadows seem unnatural.
The acting is stylized and overtly expressive. Everything seem to be boxed in such a
expressive formal context.

It would seem that the German Expressionist films like ‘The Cabinet of Dr Caligeri’
truly mirrored the distorted psyche of the entire German population post the defeat,
humiliation and depression that resulted form their defeat in the war.