An Introduction to Film

The week three reading from Film Art: An Introduction by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson introduces styles of film making.

Narrative

Narrative can be described as a series of events initiated by the association of cause and effect. These events transpire in time and space. Typically there is is one situation presented at the beginning of a narrative. Over time this situation will develop through cause and effect. The changed situation results in the end of the plot.

Plot and Story

Story: A recount of events.

Plot: The explicit events that are displayed on screen.

Diegetic: What the characters in the narrative experience.

Non-diegetic: The elements added to the film that would not be experienced by the characters.

An audience is capable of inferring events that take place, despite not being shown them in the plot. Events that occur can both explicitly and implicitly allow for the story to make sense as a whole. A role of a filmmaker is to select the events that will form the plot. The audience will combine both the plot and the non-diegetic material to form a greater understanding of the film’s meaning.

Cause and Effect

Characters are the common motivation for cause and effect as they initiate and respond to events (intentionally and unintentionally). Characters are given traits that help identify them amongst other characters in the film. These characteristics are presented more obviously then they are in real life. The traits they are given serve the purpose in the film of creating or reacting to events (cause and effect).

Cause and effect can also occur through environmental or natural circumstances. The audience will search for the reason for the event’s occurrence (cause). Significant plot information is often presented in earlier scenes in the film that comes into play later.

An audience becomes curious when a plot conceals information relating to the causes. Similarly, a mystery is created in a plot when integral information relating to the cause is being withheld and suspense is experience by the audience while they are anticipating the effects.

Time

Comprehending the time in which cause and effect events occur helps the audience develop an understanding of the structure of the narrative. A plot does not include unimportant events which do not contribute meaning to the story.

Temporal Order

The order in which the story occurs is referred to as temporal order. The audience will construct an understanding of the story from the plot whether or not it is presented chronologically.

Temporal Duration

A plot is compiled of particular events of significance that span across varied periods of time. Story length could vary from a few days to a life time. The plot duration is developed from the story duration and screen duration comes from the plot duration. Screen duration is established by the film techniques employed in presenting the plot.

Temporal Frequency

Significant events in the story can be repeated numerously in the plot to develop the audience’s understanding of events. The repetition infers the integral causes presented in these events.

Space

The settings in films are essential to developing the audience’s understanding of the narrative. Locations in the story can be left out of the plot, yet still be acknowledged and understood as part of the story.

Openings, Closing and Patterns of Development

The situation presented in the beginning of a film provides the audience with a grounding of what will eventuate in the plot. It creates curiosity, particularly if the plot commences after an important event has already occurred. If this the case, the action the audience did not witness will be exposed through dialogue or other means. Potential cause and effects are presented and expectations are created.

Patterns form during the development of the plot. A character may learn of new knowledge that will impact the end of the film or they may achieved their goal, whether it be an object or situation.

Experimental Film

Experimental film is intentionally unconventional in the way it avoids the content mainstream cinema produce and the style in which they create it. These avant-garde works do not have to contain a narrative, but rather they can be told through a poetic style like the assortment of clips seen in Ballet Mécanique. These works can also be fictional stories that provoke the viewer to draw meaning.

Abstract Form

Abstract film can use footage of everyday objects, both natural and man-made in a way that accentuates their abstract qualities. The abstract organisation of this footage occurs when filmmakers contrast these visuals with other images to emphasise significant physical attributes such as colour, shape, size and movement within the shots. In Ballet Mécanique the audience interpret unity between the movements of the human eye and mechanical objects.

Influential and admirable abstract film Ballet Mécanique uses techniques to emphasise the mechanical quality of ordinary people and objects. Léger and Murphy frame objects and humans closely to hide other aspects that are not as significant. This technique highlights objects’ physical qualities including texture and shape. With a great deal of visual information being displayed rapidly, the audience must search for the associations between the visuals to draw meaning from the motifs. These techniques alter the audiences’ perception of human movement by presenting them as a mechanical movement. The constant pulsation of images forms the mechanical ballet. In the final clip of the film the human movements from the woman seen in the opening now conjure a new meaning based on the interpretation that her gestures appear machine like. This abstract film succeeds in giving the audience an altered understanding of everyday visuals.

Association form

Associational form positions disconnected sounds and images together to give the audience an opportunity to draw the association. The complex links created between multiple mundane images encourage the audience to interpret and therefore the films must have a shorter time frame, as they are demanding of the audience.

This genre of work gives the filmmakers opportunities to edit together a variety of previously recorded footage. This arrangement of images in found footage films place the visuals in a new context and therefore provoke different connotations.

Documentary

Documentary films are usually presented in a narrative form, but can also be non-narrative. These non-narratives include categorical (present information in a simplistic style) and rhetorical form (aim to persuade the audience).

Categorical Form

The filmmaker systematically organises the information into groups to form an order for the documentary. These categories can be based on basic understanding, practicality or personal points of view.

Rhetorical Form

The filmmaker actively presents the information in a way that they believe will convince the audience to agree with the argument. This explicit form also aims to provoke the audience to act on their new understanding of the subject.

This documentary style will state the importance of the issue, present only their point of view on the subject to make it seem accurate, rely on emotions of audience and then finally attempt to convince the audience to take action.

Arguments presented in these documentaries can be identified in three categories.

1. Arguments from the source: Primary and reliable information.

2. Arguments that revolve around the subject: Exploits commonly held opinions and does not provide integral information that may skew the filmmaker’s argument.

3. Arguments that revolve around the subject: Relies on an audience’s emotions and also does not provide integral information that may skew the filmmaker’s argument.

 

 

It is useful to form a basic understanding of film narratives before delving into experimental and documentary styles that are relevant to the K-films that will be created in this subject.