The Art of Film

We've been talking a lot about different techniques used in film, and I'm sure at times it's left you scratching your heads wondering, "how the heck does this apply to what we're doing in our projects?" Well, I know at times it seems like it's unrelated to what you're doing, but there is a point to all this. I hope that at least some of what you've read and looked at this semester has caused a lightbulb to go off in your head and that you've found some way to incorporate it into your work.

Our last reading from David Bordwell's book On Film Style is one of those that may have left you scratching your head a bit, and that's okay. Who is this Bazin character we keep hearing about and why is he important? What is la nouvelle critique and by the way, what's with all the French terminology? Well, it's not necessarily important that you have all the answers to these questions to know that there is something useful in there.

By now, we've talked enough about montage that hopefully you've made some connections with how it's used in film today, perhaps even in your own work, and how it has evolved over time. Decoupage is a little more foreign, but it's essentially the convention of cutting a scene into a sequence of wide, medium and close-up shots. This is something that undoubtedly you've had to figure out in your projects. And finally, there is the approach referred to in the text of profondeur de champ. It sounds fancy, and at the same time, the idea is deceptively simple, but in practice is decidedly complex. What this phrase refers to is the staging of elements in different areas of the scene, from foreground, to middleground, to background, all in one shot rather than cutting it into a sequence of several shots. We saw this quite a bit with Citizen Kane, and it started a trend in filmmaking that persists to this day, though it's not widely practiced.

As we get into the process of making films, we discover that each technique has its uses in different circumstances, and each presents its own inherent challenges. In many cases, it may actually be easier to break up an action into a sequence of several shots rather than trying to stage it creatively in a single shot. That doesn't mean one approach is wrong or right. There are so many choices to make in any film or video project, and it's up to you to decide which one is right for each instance. That's just one reason why looking at the work of other artists is so important. In selecting what to look at, we must not simply look at what's being done by mainstream and contemporary filmmakers, but also delve into the more obscure and historical examples to find the roots and influences of better known works. It is there that we may find some unexpected gems that reward our vigilance and inspire us in ways that we could not have otherwise imagined.