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UNIT 08 

TASK 2 THE BLOG

https://www.facebook.com/pg/Berties-Bites-396130610926610/notes/?ref=page_internal

TASK 1

Workshop notes

 

In this workshop you will learn about 5 Pioneers of the film industry, Technological Change and the principles of camera and lens use in cinematography, you will also see we have some examples of cameras as well as film for you to take a look at.

 

HERE IS A BREIF OVERVIEW OF THE TECHNOLOGY USED OVER TIME

 

P.J.C. Janssen was born on February 22, 1824

He was a director and cinematographer, known for The Passage of Venus (1874) and Discussion de Monsieur Janssen et de Monsieur Lagrange, P.J.C. Janssen, along with English scientist Joseph Norman Lockyer is credited with discovering the gaseous nature of the solar chromosphere and the element helium. In the year 1874, Janssen invented the Revolver of Janssen or Photographic Revolver, instrument that originated the chronophotograph. Later this invention was of great use for researchers like Etienne Jules Marey to carry out exhibitions and inventions. There is not much in research available on Jassen and the cinema world as he was more known in the science area but with him inventing the revolver this lead the way for more pioneers

He died on December 23, 1907 

 

 Eadweard Muybridge was born April 9, 1830 in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, nicknamed father of the motion picture.

Eadweard Muybridge's great breakthrough came in 1872 when he was hired by wealthy American businessman Leland Stanford, for whom Stanford University is named. Stanford was interested in whether horses lifted all legs off the ground at once during trotting and Muybridge was engaged to take photographs to settle the point. Although the experiment proved inconclusive at the time, Muybridge was re-engaged for further photographic studies in 1878. Using a battery of 12 cameras set side by side and a specially marked fence along the race track to pinpoint the horse's precise movements, Muybridge effectively created the first true study of motion. The photographs proved Stanford's claims and set the photographer on a lifelong search to create movement in photographs. This and later studies influenced a generation of French photographers (Étienne-Jules Marey, Louis Lumière and Auguste Lumière) and American Thomas A. Edison to develop apparatus that could take advantage of Muybridge's discoveries. Landscape photographer who later invented a device he called the "zoopraxiscope". The device projected a series of still pictures of running horses in a manner that suggested movement to the viewer. Thomas A. Edison saw a demonstration of the device and was inspired to develop true motion pictures.

He invented the still camera array, which predates the motion picture camera, and would later be re-popularized in The Matrix (1999). Today, similar setups of carefully timed multiple cameras are used in modern special effects photography, but they have the opposite goal of capturing changing camera angles, with little or no movement of the subject. This is often dubbed "bullet time" photography.

His photos adorn a wing of Kingston University. He was most known for

Child Bringing Bouquet to Woman Director (1887),Buffalo Running Director (1883), Baboon Climbing a Pole Director (1887), Ox Walking Director (1887). Died: May 8, 1904

 

Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince He was Born: August 28, 1842, Le Prince is considered the pioneer of the motion picture. His father was an intimate friend of Louis Daguerre (1787-1851), the famous pioneer of photography, who gave his son some early lessons in the art. In 1875 he saw a series of photographs taken by Eadweard Muybridge at Palo Alto, California. Le Prince was attracted to the idea of producing a series of photographs i.e. motion pictures. In the summer of 1888 Le Prince secured the services of Frederic Mason a wood-maker to make parts of cameras, etc. On returning to Leeds he employed as assistant James Longley who had worked with him before. Some of the metal work was also made by his inventor father-in-law (Joseph Whitley). LePrince had completed two cameras, each with a single lens, had photographed a series of pictures at the rate of 12- 16 per second in October 1888. Of the three remaining films housed at the National Media Museum Bradford, two of them were shot on 14th October 1888 in Roundhay, Leeds. The third was shot on Leeds Bridge.

 

On September 16, 1890 Le Prince left his friends, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Wilson at Bourges to visit his brother, an architect and surveyor of Dijon. He was last seen entering the train for Paris with his luggage. Intensive searches were made by French and English detectives, but to no avail. His disappearance remains a mystery to this day. In October of 1888, he filmed moving-picture sequences of Roundhay Garden, Leeds Bridge and his brother playing the accordion, using his single-lens camera and Eastman's paper negative film. This work may have been slightly in advance of the inventions of contemporaneous moving-picture pioneers such as William Friese-Greene and Wordsworth Donisthorpe, and years in advance of that of Auguste and Louis Lumière, and William Kennedy Dickson (who did the moving image work for Thomas Edison).

Pronounced Dead: September 16, 1890

 

Étienne-Jules Marey

 

Étienne-Jules Marey was a French scientist, physiologist, and chronophotagrapher. he became fascinated by movements of air and started to study bigger flying animals, like birds. He adopted and further developed animated photography into a separate field of chronophotograph in the 1880s. Marey's chronophotographic gun was made in 1882, this instrument was capable of taking 12 consecutive frames a second, with all the frames recorded on the same picture. Using these pictures, he studied horses, birds, dogs, sheep, donkeys, elephants, fish, microscopic creatures, molluscs, insects, reptiles, etc. Some call it Marey's "animated zoo”. In 1890 he published a substantial volume entitled Le Vol des Oiseaux (The Flight of Birds), richly illustrated with photographs, drawings, and diagrams. He also created stunningly precise sculptures of various flying birds. Marey also made movies. They were at a high speed (60 images per second) and of excellent image quality. His research on how to capture and display moving images helped the emerging field of cinematography. Towards the end of his life he returned to studying the movement of quite abstract forms, like a falling ball. His last great work was the observation and photography of smoke trails. Also, in 1901 he was able to build a smoke machine with 58 smoke trails. It became one of the first aerodynamic wind tunnels. In 1882, Marey invented the fusil photographique, a device which allowed him to take twelve separate photos in one second. After Eastman's introduction of celluloid film, Marey patented his Chrono Photographic Camera, with which a rapid succession of images could be taken.

 Marey died on May 15th, 1904.

 

Thomas A. Edison

 

Thomas A. Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio, USA as Thomas Alva Edison. He was a producer and director, known for The Trick Cyclist (1901), The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914) and Bicycle Trick Riding, No. 2 (1899). Made several experimental short films, some lasting only several seconds, mostly to test his equipment. One film--Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (1894) --which features a man sneezing, runs for 1-1/2 seconds. Using a primitive cylinder and foil device, he created the first known recording of a human voice (his own, reciting the poem "Mary Had A Little Lamb"). Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla (credited with the practical development of alternating current) briefly worked for Edison as a technician. He quit after arguing with Edison one too many times. Many of his experimental films were made in a small wooden building dubbed "The Black Maria" (spelled Maria but pronounced "Mariah") because it resembled a police wagon of the same name. Edison's Black Maria was built on a lot next to his lab and office. The building, essentially a large wooden shed covered with tar paper, was small enough that it was mounted on circular tracks so it could be turned to accommodate sunlight through an opening in the roof. The original has long since burned down, but a reproduction of the structure is located at the Edison National Historic Site (a museum with a preserved laboratory facility) in West Orange, New Jersey. Is credited with the invention of sprocketed cinema film. He was member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS)

Elected to the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2007 for his services to technology (inaugural election). Official induction ceremonies held in May 2008.

His attempts to force independent filmmakers to use his patented movie equipment resulted in an exodus of the film industry from the East Coast, where almost all films were produced, to California and a little town called Hollywood land, now known as Hollywood. Inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1969.

Founded Edison Records (1898-1929).

Inducted into the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014 (inaugural class).

Inducted into the IP (Intellectual Property) Hall of Fame in 2006 (inaugural class).

Inducted into the International Lineman Hall of Fame in 2006 (inaugural class).

Co-founder, with George Kleine, of K-E-S-E Service, a film distribution company, in 1916. It went out of business in 1927.

Inducted into the Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame.

Inducted into the Entrepreneur Walk of Fame in 2011 (inaugural class).

Founded Conquest Picture Company, a film production company active from 1917-18.

Founded Edison Manufacturing Co., a film production/distribution company. Although he founded the company, he was not a "hands-on" producer and had little if anything to do with the actual production of the films the company made.

 

The birth of colour

 

Colour motion picture film refers both to unexposed colour photographic film in a format suitable for use in a motion picture camera, and to finished motion picture film, ready for use in a projector, which bears images in colour.

The first colour cinematography was by additive colour systems such as the one patented by Edward Raymond Turner in 1899 and tested in 1902. A simplified additive system was successfully commercialised in 1909 as Kinemacolor. These early systems used black-and-white film to photograph and project two or more component images through different colour filters.

Around 1920, the first practical subtractive colour processes were introduced. These also used black-and-white film to photograph multiple colour-filtered source images, but the final product was a multi-coloured print that did not require special projection equipment. Before 1932, when three-strip Technicolor was introduced, commercialized subtractive processes used only two-colour components and could reproduce only a limited range of colour.

 

In 1935, Kodachrome was introduced, followed by Agfacolor in 1936. They were intended primarily for amateur home movies and "slides". These were the first films of the "integral tripack" type, coated with three layers of differently colour-sensitive emulsion, which is usually what is meant by the words "colour film" as commonly used. The few colour films still being made in the 2010s are of this type. The first colour negative films and corresponding print films were modified versions of these films. They were introduced around 1940 but only came into wide use for commercial motion picture production in the early 1950s. In the US, Eastman Kodak's Eastmancolor was the usual choice, but it was often re-branded with another trade name, such as "WarnerColor", by the studio or the film processor. Later colour films were standardized into two distinct processes: Eastman Colour Negative 2 chemistry (camera negative stocks, duplicating interpositive and internegative stocks) and Eastman Colour Positive 2 chemistry (positive prints for direct projection), usually abbreviated as ECN-2 and ECP-2. Fuji's products are compatible with ECN-2 and ECP-2.

Film was the dominant form of cinematography until the 2010s, when it was largely replaced by digital cinematography.

 

The principles of camera and lens use in cinematography.

 

There are many differences between film and digital photography. To most amateur photographers they do not matter much. They prefer the convenience, ease of use and lower cost of digital cameras and are not going to revert to the film age. However, understanding the differences can help taking even better photos and can also help when debating with friends about the future of film.

Following is a list of differences that are important to understand. The differences are listed in no particular order.

The sensor: The most obvious difference between film and digital is the sensor used to take the photo. With film cameras a film sensitive to light is placed behind the lens. When a photo is taken the shutter opens for a predetermined period of time and light hits the film. The result is a photo "printed" on the film. To take a new photo the film has to be rolled and a fresh "clean" film is place behind the lens. With digital cameras a fixed electronic sensor (sometimes known as CCD) is situated behind the lens. The sensor is built from tiny light sensitive sensors each representing a pixel. When the shutter opens light hits the sensor and each pixel gets its "value". Put together all the pixels comprise one photo. To take a new photo the photo is saved on a digital media and the CCD is electronically emptied.

What does a different sensor mean? The main difference is in the Depth of Field. Since digital sensors are smaller in size than a 35mm film the depth of field will be much higher and in fact in most compact digital cameras almost infinite. The result is that blur backgrounds can not be created.

The cost of a photo: Photos taken with a digital camera literally cost nothing. The photos are kept in erasable memory and thus can always be discarded at no cost. Also, the photos you would like to keep can be copied to digital media such as a computer's hard disk. With storage prices going down the cost of saving a photo on disk is practically zero. Film does cost money. With a film camera you have to pay for the roll of film, for developing the negative and for printing the photo. Every time you press the shutter button you spend money.

The capacity: With ever growing storage capacities digital cameras today can hold hundreds and sometimes thousands of photos on a single media. You can always have a few more in your pocket and changing is very fast. The result is that a digital camera has practically infinite capacity. You can shoot as many photos as you want and at the end of the day just dump them on your computer's disk. Film cameras' capacity is very limited. A roll of 36 photos can only hold 36 photos. After a roll is used changing to a new roll can take time and is not easy to do in scenarios such as darkness or a harsh environment. For that reason, many professional journalists carry a few cameras on them and instead of changing rolls they turn and use another camera just so that they do not miss a shooting opportunity.

The feedback: One of the most important features of the digital camera is instant feedback. Almost all digital cameras include a small LCD screen. Once a photo is shot you can go back and watch it on that screen. The ability to see how the photo looks like results in better photos. If the photo is not good, you can take another one. Being able to see the photos on the spot results in an educated decision how to fix a photo or how to better compose it. It takes a lot of the guessing away from photography. With film cameras there is no way to know how the photo on the film will look like when printed.

With digital cameras you can actually take photos without having your eye glued to the viewfinder. Overhead shots where you raise the camera over your head are much easier to do since you can still see what the camera is shooting by just looking up at its LCD screen.

Correcting photos: With digital cameras photos can be corrected using photo editing software. Some correction abilities are built-in to the cameras but many more are available as software packages for your PC. With film cameras what you get is what you get. After the film is developed it is very hard to make any corrections. Usually if corrections are absolutely needed the negative or the printed photo will be scanned (i.e. converted to digital) corrected and then printed again (in a long and costly process).

Changing conditions: Every roll of film is designed for best results in a specific environment. For example, there are indoor and outdoor films or films with different light sensitivity. If conditions change rapidly a film camera user will have to either shoot with the wrong film, change the roll (and usually lose photos that were not used in the current roll) or use another camera with a different film in it. The results of shooting with the wrong film can be distorted colours (reddish photos for example), a grainy photo and more.

With digital cameras the characteristics of the sensor can be changed instantly for each photo taken. With a click of a button the camera can be put in an indoor or outdoor mode, low light, night photography etc. Some cameras will automatically sense the scenario and set the sensor mode accordingly.

The myth of quality: While it is true that film photography has its advantages the claim for superior quality is no longer true. As digital camera evolved the quality of high end digital SLR cameras is superb and, in many ways, even better than film. When considering quality, you should also consider the quality in terms of composition and the scenario caught in the photo. With digital cameras' high capacity, zero photo cost and instant adaptability to changing conditions photographers can produce better compositions and experiment more to get the best photo possible.

Longevity: We have also paged through old photo albums of our grandparents. The photo looked a bit yellow, scratched and just plain "old". Storage of printed film photos or even negatives results in quality deterioration. Digital photos on the other hand never lose their quality. A digital photo will be identical today and 500 years from now. As long as we remember to refresh the digital media every now and then and to back it up our photos can literally list forever and not lose their quality.

 

The first rule of using the lens is don’t use the auto focus. Keep your finger off the zoom button while you’re filming. Just use it to set the lens before you start shooting.

If you have a basic camera, it probably has a button with ‘W’ and ‘T’ settings on it. Or it might have a picture of a landscape and a picture of a portrait. W stands for wide angle and T stands for telephoto. (Some cameras have fixed lenses, and many pro filmmakers use prime lenses – these don’t zoom, you swap the lens to get wide-angle or telephoto shots).

Wide angle Two shot of woman and man

When you shoot on a wide-angle setting, the camera takes in a wide section of the scene in front of it. This means that it’s easy to fit a lot in. It’s good for filming indoors. It also means you have to get much closer to the subject to make them look big. It’s easier to hold wide angle lenses steady, and if you do get close to the subject it makes the perspective look more dramatic. It makes closeups of people look wacky, though.

Telephoto Telephoto shot of face

The telephoto setting is like looking through a telescope. It’s hard to handhold, so you will probably need to use a tripod. It’s good for making subjects that are further away look bigger. It seems to flatten perspective, and it usually makes for flattering closeups.

Focus If everything in the scene is in focus, like the shot at the top of the page, it’s called a deep focus shot. This is easier to do with a wide-angle lens and a small camera. You can change the amount that’s in focus – the depth of field – by changing the size of the aperture*. This is the name for the hole in the lens that lets light in. When the aperture is smaller, the lens lets less light in but more of the scene is in focus.

Shallow focus shot in a shallow focus shot only part of the scene is in focus. This is useful for putting distracting backgrounds out of focus, and for making individual things or people stand out against the blurred background. Telephoto lenses on bigger cameras (such as DSLRs) naturally have shallow depth of field so they are useful for shallow focus shots. You can reduce the depth of field by opening up the aperture, though you’ll need to make sure the shot isn’t overexposed. More about exposure

Some filmmakers use pull focus or rack focus to change focus during a shot. This can change the emphasis from one part of the scene to another. To do this effectively you need a system still camera or a large sensor video camera with a lens that is easy to focus manually. You can buy follow focus attachments that make this easier. It’s not worth trying to do this if you have a small automatic camera.

Just to confuse things, aperture is a fraction, so a larger number means a smaller hole. F2.8 – which should properly be written f/2.8 – lets in twice as much light as f/4.

The diagram on the bottom is of the exposure triangle(ref to hand out)

Resubmission of unit 8 P7 and P8

 

In regards to theoretical frame works in film I have choose to use “The Wizard of Oz”, my reasoning behind this is the film is, the story has underlying economic and political references that make it a popular tool for teaching university and high school students, mainly in the United States but also in the UK about the economic depression of the late 19th Century.

At a time when some economists fear an onset of deflation, and economic certainties melt away like a drenched wicked witch, the Tin Woodman represents the industrial worker, the scarecrow is the farmer and the cowardly lion is William Jennings Bryan, who at the time was a Democratic presidential candidate who supported the silver cause but he failed to win votes from eastern workers and lost the 1896 election.

How does this relate to genre and film theories, well the film shows the change in feminism within the real world with women seeking for more independence away for just being a mother and house wife but also shows male roles in the reverse context and relying on a woman for support and structure i.e. lion no courage, scarecrow no brain and the tin man no heart.

Worley’s notion of magic seems to address a fundamental characteristic of the fantasy genre

and, indeed, The Wizard of Oz itself. Oz is never suggested as a far-off, undiscovered

territory that scientists could map, as it would be in science fiction, but is instead a magical

land that resists such logical explanations. However, this land is not perceived as threatening

to either Dorothy or the audience exposed to it, separating it also from the fear-ridden

imagery of horror. There are things to be afraid of in Oz, the Wicked Witch being the

supreme example, but the land itself is not fearful for its otherworldly nature alone. On the

contrary, its otherness is joyful. It is perhaps this positive encounter with a sense of magic

that seems to best represent the unique aesthetic response of the fantasy viewer.

Religious

Over the decades, The Wizard of Oz has been seen by many Christians (and used often in sermons) as an allegory of faith. The Yellow Brick Road is the path to enlightenment, with the characters encountering a variety of emblems of sin and temptation along the way toward the Emerald City, which is a kind of a heaven. Also, the Wicked Witch is killed with water, suggesting baptism.

Atheist

This theory almost all the same elements as the religious, but then interprets them in the opposite direction that is, God, a.k.a. the Wizard, isn’t real, there’s a mortal behind the curtain, and all that spiritual side is illusory. This theory corresponds better with the book, where Oz is more about duplicity and illusion, than the movie. In fact, early in the book’s publishing career, Christian Fundamentalists tried to get it banned for suggesting that humanity’s gifts came from within and were not God-given.

Feminist

The fact that anyone who actually has any real power in Oz Dorothy and the witches is female, and perhaps just as important, note how the men are all lacking to some degree, be they wizards without power, lions without courage, tin men without hearts, or scarecrows without brains. This may not be incidental, L. Frank Baum’s mother-in-law was the influential suffragist Matilda Joslyn Gage, a colleague of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and many have noted how Matilda’s radical feminism made its way into Baum’s Oz books. The author himself, who was very close to his mother-in-law, was the secretary of his local women’s suffrage club and edited a newspaper that made women’s rights its key crusading issue.

 

The characters in The Wizard of Oz correlate to important elements in the crusade against the gold standard, they also just happen to map out the various figures described in the psychoanalytic theories of C.G. Jung. Dorothy, the dreaming innocent, is on a quest toward individuation/self-actualization, and her companions correspond to the first three stages of Jung’s conception of the Animus the male inner personality of the female. Meanwhile, the Good Witch Glinda corresponds to the Jungian archetype of the Mother, Toto is the Trickster, and the Wicked Witch and her flying monkeys could be Jung’s Shadow, the repressed and potentially dark side of the personality.

 

On Rocky it is far more of a different aspect the series is really a classic trilogy. The original “Rocky” (1976) and “Rocky II” (1979) tell the story of an ordinary, underestimated “bum” reaching deep down and discovering the champion within. The first film ends with Rocky losing, by judge’s decision his fight against the heavyweight champ Apollo Creed but winning a more personal victory by making it through an entire fifteen rounds in the ring as no previous challenger had. But by the end of the film it shows that it is ok for a man to cry, be humble and also be grateful all at the same time.

Across four decades, we’ve witnessed a full-blown, epic saga of a man perpetually considering, but never achieving, retirement. To watch the closing minutes of the second film you’d swear you’re seeing the exact moment when the eighties emerged from the late seventies. Personal victories and moral victories are no longer enough: the audience is now, unambiguously and supporting a winner. The tone of the films and the feel of the character shift radically when we pick back up with him in the third film (1982) Rocky has adjusted comfortably to wealth. His sloppy hair has been tamed and reconstructed by some stern product of the era. His body has gone from solid and bulky  heavyweight to ripped, a gaudy sculpture for a new-money art collector and, most strikingly  we’ve flashed forward, past the bulk of his professional career a few shots of him defeating anonymous challengers blink by in a credits montage, set to “Eye of the Tiger,” but we never learn these men’s names and none of these fights seem to have made much of an impression.

Apollo Creed had been nearly as sympathetic and charismatic as our hero, but Lang is all comic book villainy. By nasty attitude alone he manages to produce a fatal heart attack in Mickey the beloved trainer. It’s all very inspiring, if rather more brutishly efficient than the previous movies. Now go back to the first shot of the entire epic, three decades earlier. The first image on screen the first face to appear, is not Stallone’s or any of his co-stars’ it is a mural of Jesus Christ.

Any egoist can build a monument to himself, but it is an extraordinary accomplishment to deify oneself or, at least the persona of one’s better nature and have it move many grown men to tears as the “Rocky” films have.

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Chronological/Linear

The most traditional and most common narrative structure is the linear or chronological one. Such a story is organised around a series of events and key moments that have often been labelled and ordered as follows: the rising action or precipitating incident, the conflict, the obligatory moment, the climax, the resolution, and the falling action. Most children's stories and many of the classics in literature and film move through this predictable, archetypal structure.

The Fractured Narrative

Some writers and storytellers prefer to structure their narratives less linearly, so they are able to jump back and forth in time. If you think about scenes in films where there is a flashback, you'll get a sense for how time can be fractured or bent to alter or intensify a story. William Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying" is a powerful example of a fractured narrative structure in that the entire book looks at a single brief event through the eyes and voices of a half dozen characters. To pull this off, Faulkner has to move his narrative back through time as each character tells the tale as he experienced or witnessed it.

Framed Narrative

Some stories are actually stories within other stories. In Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," for example, the narrator Marlowe is on a boat out on the Thames with a handful of other seamen when he tells them the story of his trip into the heart of the Congo region. While engrossed in the Congo portion of the story, the reader might even forget that the narrator is actually finished with the Congo journey, retelling it to his fellow sailors on that boat. "The Wizard of Oz" is a similarly framed narrative. The Oz portion of the story is only occurring inside Dorothy's head; it is a dream sequence embedded within Dorothy's "home" life in Kansas.

The Circular or Epic Narrative

Some tales end where they begin, with the hero or protagonist returning home after his epic journey. Homer's "Odyssey" is a prime example of this. Odysseus must leave his beloved island Ithaca and his soul mate Penelope to take what amounts to a 30-year odyssey. But ultimately, the journey ends with his return home. Joseph Campbell, one of the foremost authorities on myths and heroes' journeys, found this circular narrative to be a prominent narrative structure across cultures, religions, and time periods.

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A SENSE OF PLACE

A sense of place to in the film and photographic industry can be interrupted as many different ways but to me is means to explore the different possibilities in many different areas.

The other thing to consider with sense of place is camera shots. Do you want to have different shots such close-up, mid, wide also camera angles either POV (point of view), tracking, over the shoulder or even facing shots (one person in shot on left then on the right.
With a sense of place, you can tell the story without using dialog or scripts and use music or even a poem read over the film footage.
Also, you have to look at time-based media. Usually time-based media are video, slide, film, audio or computer based. Part of what it means to experience the art is to watch it unfold over time according to the temporal logic of the medium as it is played back. Early examples of time-based media date back to the 1960s, in particular the art of Bruce Nauman, who would record happenings to be played back in the gallery. His Performance Corridor, made in 1968, was a recording of a performance in which people edged their way down a dark narrow tunnel. Since Nauman’s early explorations, artists have also experimented with the elasticity of the medium in order to stretch time and space. In 1993 Douglas Gordon slowed down Alfred Hitchcock’s film Psycho for twenty-four hours.

Also, while composing a film on this subject you have to look at the different types of theories you can use within the film such as:
Apparatus theory, Auteur theory, Cognitive film theory, Genre studies, Linguistic film theory, Marxist film theory, Psychoanalytic film theory, Queer theory, Schreiber theory, Screen theory, Structuralist film theory. Using these theories, it can help you develop you film for a specific audience or film genre  

Also the use of different filters can give a different feel to a film for example using a yellow lens filter will give you more of a brighter and lighter atmosphere where using dark filter and ND filter you can make scenes feel more moody and dark a good comparison of this would be hollyoaks in the UK and friends in the USA

What Is Narrative Film?

Since their emergence in the late 19th century, films have played a significant role in the lives of people around the world. For example, movies have the power to share new ideas and teach lessons about the past or future. Sometimes, films only exist to entertain us. Just like there are many different styles of art, there are many different styles of film, but the style most commonly found in movie theatres is the narrative film.

In simple terms, narrative films are those that tell a story. Movies like The Wizard of Oz, The Goonies, or Rocky are all examples of narrative films because they are driven by a story that has a particular structure. If this seems like a huge category, it's probably because many films fit into this category. The size of the category, however, doesn't mean that narrative film doesn't have specific criteria.

According to narrative theory, films follow a particular pattern that is best described through example. Consider the classic The Wizard of Oz, which begins by introducing characters like Dorothy, Auntie Em, and Miss Gulch. The characters then experience an upset to their equilibrium - the tornado - that presents them with a challenge to overcome. Finally, the story resolves itself when Dorothy finally makes it home and restores equilibrium to her fictional world.

The Wizard of Oz: A Classic Example of a Narrative Film

In general, each part of a narrative film serves the purpose of moving the story forward. This means that each character has a specific role in the story, and those that do not remain in the back ground as 'extras'. Similarly, everything that the characters do or say throughout a film also serves a purpose. For example, in Rocky, the story centre’s around Rocky and his fight to be someone better through boxing but also shows a tender side when faced with dating.

Given that Rocky is a narrative film, every scene and song relates to the central plot and doesn't diverge by introducing sub-plots or characters with their own storylines. 

Early Narrative Film
The moving picture debuted at the 1893 World's Fair with the introduction of Thomas Edison's kinetoscope, a stationary viewing machine that showed short films, about 30 seconds in length, on a variety of subjects. These films were little more than vignettes that depicted events like boxing matches, horse racing or native dances, sound was very rarely used. The kinetoscope was something of a novelty for viewers, but in the decade that followed, investors and filmmakers had a hard time finding a profitable use for this new technology.

The first film that was The Horse in Motion (1878) and only lasted 15 seconds

Also with narrative film and TV there is a big difference between European and American interpretations for instance with the USA a lot of their narrative films it is filmed with more glow using brighter filters such as yellow or gold which gives a happy feel to the were the European film is more dark and the settings are more edgy using darker filters in my opinion this adds more of a real life element to the film or TV show

F/Stops and T/Stops

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f/stops are a bit more confusing because the numbers appear so arbitrary. This is the standard sequence of f/stops from f/1.4 to f/22. Although it may not seem intuitive at first, in this sequence the f/1.4 setting lets in the most light while the f/22 setting lets in the least. Also, each of these f/stops has precisely the same halving/doubling relationship as the shutter speed sequence.

1.4 2.0 2.8 4 5.6 8 11 16 22

On the face of it, going from f/4 to f/5.6 doesn't sound like halving the amount of light. What's more, 5.6 is a larger number and sounds like it ought to be more light, not less. Neither does f/4 to f/2.8 sound like doubling the amount of light. In fact, each of the numbers in this sequence is a halving/doubling of the amount of light from its immediate neighbours, just like the shutter speed settings are. Not only that, but it makes sense, as I shall show below.

The reason that both the halving and doubling and the smaller numbers mean more light things make sense is that the f/stop is a ratio. The ratio is between the diameter of the aperture in the lens and the focal length of the lens. The focal length is generally measured in millimeters, so we'll stick with those as our unit of measure. On a 50mm lens, f/2 is saying that the diameter of the aperture is 25mm. The ratio is: 50/25 = 2. That seems pretty straightforward. A good question might be, what is the area of that aperture? Well, the aperture is usually a set of five to fifteen blades which form a roughly circular hole, so we'll use the formula for the area of a circle, which as I'm sure you'll recall is &pi * radius2. For π I'll use 3.14159265. On our 50mm lens, the aperture at f/2 has a diameter of 25mm which is a radius of 12.5mm. The area of the aperture is thus π X 12.52, or 3.14159265 X 156.25, or 490.9 square millimetres.

This fact by itself isn't all that useful. It is useful in relation to the adjacent f/stops. What is the area of the aperture at f/2.8? Well, because the f/stop is a ratio of the focal length to diameter, our 50mm lens at f/2.8 would have a diameter of 50/2.8 = 17.86mm. Remember, we have to divide that by 2 to get the radius of 8.93mm, so the area of the circle thus formed would be π X 8.932, or 250.5 square mm. Rounding off a bit, that's about 250 sq. mm at f/2.8 and 500 sq. mm at f/2, a double/half relationship. Aha! So that's it! The area of the hole doubles and halves, it's just represented by a ratio on the lens! No wonder it's so darn confusing.

The F-Stop is a theoretical value, while the T-Stop is an actual tested value. So while both the Zeiss Otus 55mm f/1.4 and 85mm f/1.4 lenses have a wide-open F-Number of 1.4, they actually transmit different values. According to DxOMark’s tests, the 55mm Otus transmission is T1.5 while the 85mm Otus transmission is T1.7.

Which brings us to the question you’re probably asking yourself right now: why do most photography lenses use F-Stop and cinema lenses use T-Stop? Wolfcrow explains this as well.

According to him, there are three reasons photography lens manufacturers don’t bother with T-Stops:

In-camera light metering will compensate for the minor exposure difference between two different lenses with the same F-Stop but different T-Stops.

The biggest transmission difference you’ll get is about 1/3 of a stop, which is no problem to fix in post-processing.

T-Stop testing every new lens is expensive and time consuming; because of reasons 1 and 2, it’s not worth the investment for photography lenses.

Cinematography, on the other hand, is more complicated. Multiple scenes, sometimes captured on multiple days, and often consisting of multiple angles shot with multiple lenses means correcting exposure in post can be expensive. Plus, even if new tech means all you’re saving is minutes per day, those minutes can cost thousands on a huge production.

Modern camera technology makes F-Stops a viable option for today’s filmmakers, but the top cinema lenses still guarantee the real-world exposure of T-Stops.

Theoretical frameworks

Specific theories of film
• Apparatus theory
• Auteur theory
• Cognitive film theory
• Genre theory
• Linguistic film theory
• Marxist film theory
• Psychoanalytic film theory
• Queer theory
• Schreiber theory
• Screen theory
• Structuralist film theory

​

Within my ‘sense of place’ short film I have tried to give a none bias view of travelling on the roads around London in a day and the near misses that happen on the roads.
When I first set out to create this short film, I thought about using my own footage as well as borrowed footage but after a few thoughts and discussions with my fellow peers on the course this would have made my film more of a bias towards motorcycles as it would be my journey through my eyes.
Once I researched and found the footage I wanted to use and a piece of music that would fit the feel of your heart racing when a near miss happens. Once I started to piece the footage together, I soon realised it was very similar to how a pecking order works in the wild and who has the bigger power wins for example an elephant heard warning off lions from their young.
I would probably describe the theories in my film as the following  

Apparatus theory my reasoning behind this is because my short film represent reality with realistic images and sounds. Apparatus theory also states that within the text's perspective, the central position of the viewer is ideological. With my film this effect is ideological because it is reproduced reality and the cinematic experience affects the viewer on a deep level. Apparatus theory also argues that cinema maintains the dominant ideology of the culture within the viewer. Ideology is not imposed on cinema but is part of its nature and it shapes the way the audience thinks. Apparatus theory also follows an institutional model of spectatorship.

Genre Theory the reason why I think my film fits into this area, is purely that my film has structural elements that combine in the telling of a story and finds patterns in collections of stories. With these elements or sometimes called semiotic codes begin to carry inherent information.

Marxist film theory I think this theory is very appropriate for my film the story is told through a clash of one image against the next, also in a wider way my film refers to power relationships on the roads in London through the use of moving image. 

Screen theory fits in well with my film this is because there is diversity instead of unity within the road users and the near misses that happen throughout which in turn shows the realism of the communicated content. This is also explained by Screen's conceptualization of the post-structuralist theory, which regards a text as an act of intervention in the present so that the film is considered a work of production of meanings rather than reflection. 

Structuralist film theory the way my film is structured it emphasizes and conveys a meaning through the use of codes and conventions the same way languages are used to construct meaning in communication. However, structuralist film differs from linguistic in that its codifications include a more apparent temporal aspect. Also, I feel that my film fits in here as it is a combination of shots which use a time-lapse of traffic over the A13 through a whole day in between the near miss clips then back again to the traffic time-lapse.

Resubmission unit 8 P3&P5

 

 

• Apparatus theory

Apparatus theory began its sprawling sweep in the 70’s and pulled its core alpha existence from a few suppositions such as Marxist Film theory and Psychoanalysis. Apparatus theory evolved partially from significant theory that defines the ideals of Psychoanalysis and the suppositions of Karl Marx in his notions and stands concerning Cinemas and Films. Emphasizing on the aspects and embodiment of Films that elicits bureaucratic, fiscal, and civil ground rules and stratagem to which was, campaigned by Marx as in some measure, adapted to the ground-breaking birth of Apparatus theory in films and retaining the impression that movies and silver-screen cinemas in essence are actually a shared ideal of certain individuals in a group or society.

Apparatus theory is an affinity between the movie audiences and the eyes of the movie cameras being used in a cinematic film. To be able to understand and identify what the audience wants and vice versa and also to make audiences identify themselves and their passions with the movie they watch. with such an understanding the spectator identifies the cinematic apparatus through the act of perception. The process of perception originates from the spectator’s point of view, as the visual images are seen and transcends in the subjects head akin to the shots and angles of the camera, the spectators gets to experience the narration point of characters that is recorded and shown in the screen. The spectators become the projects, receiver and also the camera that recorded the view point. This process can be argued it has limited relevance in the real world, on the other hand this theory can be used as a bridge that peeks into a spectator thinking process and improve on the projection in consumption of moving images.

Directors that have used this theory are:

Alfred Hitchcock in “The Birds” and “The man who knew too much”

Tim Burton in “Ed Wood”

Michael Robert Winner in the death wish seriesTop of Form


• Auteur theory

Andre Bazin introduced Auteur theory that said directors are the creators of the film. Making the director’s own style only makes the film unique and creative. The theory believed that a bad director can make good films and a good director can make bad films. Explaining on the view it can be said that the good film can be made only when the director believes himself that he can create greatest piece of work given the script to work as skeletal frame to work on. If the director hid his influence and style with the script overwhelming the ideas of the director then the film has every chance to fail.

The theory was well received and caught attention of many; it is one of the highly criticized theories. Even though it is true directors involvement is necessary, it is also true that a film can’t be made by a director alone. Theory ignores the script criteria.

The influence of Auteur Theory came to United States only in 1963, when a Film Critic from New York – Andrew Sarris wrote a book called “The American Cinema” that described the perception of major American directors on film making. In his book Andre Sarris agrees that role of the director as an author needs expertise in the fields of technicality, signature style, and influence of personality but a movie simply cannot be made without a team effort from actors, script, camera techniques and every single detail that needs to be appeared on the screen. A good example of this theory is “City of god” Filmed and released in Brazil and directed by Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund 


• Cognitive film theory

Cognitive Theory is a presupposition that tackles and is dedicated about the individual’s understanding of things happening around them, a study of the human intellect and how quickly people can adjust and adapt themselves by digesting and engulfing in the brain about the panorama of life that gets to behold every single day, whether from real life personal experiences or from the diverse entertainments that is registered by viewing television or cinema is Cognitive theory. The Cognitive Theory aims to exemplify the vitality of human comprehension through the given medium of artistry. Cognitive theory existed in its intent to unravel every person’s brain and interests. How quickly to get to the bottom of things, how easily identify a given object of picture or sound or word or the tastes of a given food or delicacy.

This particular theory provides more depth and essence and framework and eloquent recapitulation and vivid and most often than not, outlandish extemporization and symbolization of the every aspects in a film including the settings of a film, the lighting, the careful and thorough choices of the sound scores, the in-depth choices of the castings and characterizations and the staffs and the crews and even the scriptwriter’s pool, and even how the script be wisely and perfectly deliberated and be metamorphosed, transforming it to be much larger than life itself no matter how impossible transforming the hugely unimaginable to become beyond imaginable in the heart of the people’s core fantasies and imaginations.

Directors that have used this theory are:

Gus Van Sant “Good Will Hunting”

Michael Bay “Pearl Harbor”

Steven Soderbergh “Erin Brockovich”


• Genre theory

Film genre defines a type of aesthetic framework in cinema and in filmmaking set-ups. It is an illustration of the type of technique in a film that both attracts and caters to the audience or group or individual’s desires who serves as a component to a gathered spectator to a particular motion picture even to a Television screen viewing public or person’s varied tastes to a certain movie. Film genres can often turn or may drive a movie goer to become interactive to a certain film. Film genre embodies in itself the components that moviegoers love and expects in a motion picture. These elements serve as a building block to the films. It helps a motion picture spring and bloom even larger than life. These components, when applied perfectly may lead a certain film to mark in history and most of all in the hearts and minds of the movie-goers. The examples of these components are lighting, Sound Score, Film set and location, Atmosphere as well as the cinematography.
 

• Marxist film theory

This particular exercise was carried down and got adopted through the 1930s in China as it was stimulated by Chinese cinematic faction dubbed as the left-wing. The acceleration did not stop there as Marxism was once more utilized in the era French New Wave business of cinematic supposition survey. The said method on motion picture educations concentrates at the course of films which occasionally preserve and denounce an orientation that distinguish the middle-class global insights of the exertions of Marxist film theory, the exertion consists of four processes such as bisection of menial work on the fabrication of resources, rank formation, rapid pace of technological extemporization on the manner of fabrication and product trade. Despite the fact that the Marxist Film Theory, being the oldest body of film theories, the Marxist ideas and ideals is dubbed as like a bane to the enterprise mandated by the cinema trade of the United States of America, however, the standpoint of Marxist Film Theory materializes itself in a myriad of American motion pictures. Sergei Eisenstein’s presupposition of a procedure of carefully choosing and filtering and segmentation together the segregated unit of film to create a continuous frame of scenes happen to be paramount to the motion picture, claiming its erudite cornerstone as an example of the Marxist argumentation.

Directors that have used this theory are:

Hector Babenco “kiss of the spider woman”

Chris Sivertson “I know who killed me”

 

• Psychoanalytic film theory

A method to investigate the mystery behind the thoughts and unconscious activity in the human mind can be analyzed through psychology. This thought process is associated with film studies to make psychoanalysis on films. Sigmund Freud, in 19th century brought forward the psychoanalytical process on the films that are practiced worldwide even today. Even though it is evident that psychoanalysis on the film started in 1930-40, but wasn’t until 1970s that the psychoanalytical theory started taking shape in regard to the effects of cinema in mind. According to Freud there are three types of psyches in the human mind Id – Uncontrolled, Ego – repressed, Super Ego – authorities over id and ego. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, this musical cinematic motion picture was directed by Mel Stuart and released on June 30, 1971 with Gene Wilder portraying the title role as Willy Wonka. This movie conveys the tale about a boy named Charlie Bucket, as portrayed by Peter Ostrum, when he luckily given a Golden Ticket that grants him an opportunity to pay a visit to the chocolate mill of Willy Wonka along with four other kids from random places of the globe. The movie was subjected with favorable appraisals yet in theater establishments it turned out to be a letdown, still, it has become a cult film because of its recurrent television airtime and domestic recreation vending. his psychological film is about feeding and satisfying the cravings and fantasy of a kid over a chocolate and how his universe was completely encompassed by such fancy.

 

 


• Screen theory

The focal specialization of Screen hypothesis is aimed throughout the notion on a vision that is conceived by the audience. It is the study of the results of how the cinematic camera and refinement turns the film viewers as a gist in the film, as the British Journal Screen becomes more famous, the academic work had also earned a profound impact in the film dissertations. The number one intention of screen theory is to measure the significance of the entertainment in the lives of the ordinary people. Every film serves as a mirror to the life of a common individual. The advocates of screen theory aims to discover the primary reason why people are driven to believe right away with conviction what their eyes only sees on the films. Why does the community embrace so quickly the principles that are inculcated in their minds by the medium of the film narratives and its contexts? These questions are what made these theorists to take on an in-depth study on the unmistakable relationship between the film viewers to a certain film. The importance of this theory is how the approaches of film survey are carried on and to typify, as well, the significant accomplishments of the screen theory in films.

 


• Structuralist film theory

Structuralist Film Theory come to light from the existence of Structuralism, from which it has initially originated. Structuralist Film Theory, ever since it began to flourish, it has become widespread in its constant enhancements and usage in the industry of filmmaking. This concept, this Structuralist Film Theory, adds more prominence on any movie that uses this particular approach. Structuralist Film Theory is a theory that aims to give the movie-goers a taste of what a film of any genre is all about. To present the very essence of a film, making the viewing public realize and understand the potential and the very core significance of a film, presenting a film in structures that can makes the movie-goers easily adapt into by means of the usage of structural techniques such as movie elements that effortlessly grabs the curiosity and attention of an individual or a group of people mostly as a whole, to make a moviegoer see how a movie is all about not just through his or her eyes but also through his or her perusing mind and human understanding.

Directors that have used this theory are:

Carl Theodor Dreyer “The passion of Joan arc”

 

There are loads of other film theories used in the cinematic industry this is just a few that I have selected by going through my research I have found over 50+ different types of theoretical theories and to get in to each one would take a lot of time most of my information I found was from Wikipedia.

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