Introduction to Film Studies

Mise-en-scène

The Lens: Depth of Field and Focus

Depth of focus = the range

before the lens within which

objects can be photographed

in sharp focus. A lens with a depth of field of 10ft (3m) to infinity renders any object in that range clearly, but anything outside it (e.g. in 4ft) goes out of focus.

Lens: Depth of Field and Focus

• A wide-angle lens has a relatively greater depth of field than does a telephoto lens. A scene from Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane – an example of ‘pan’ focus. All the people in this frame are in sharp focus.

Lens: Depth of Field and Focus

• Only one plane is in focus and the other planes are blurred – shallow focus. David Fincher’s Social Network (2010) A young man’s head in focus, another man in front slightly out of focus, and everybody beyond the central figure completely out of focus.

Lens: Depth of Field and Focus

• Objects nearer to the camera are thrown out of focus, so that the viewer’s attentions is drawn to the min the sharper middle ground.

• A popular visual style in the 1940s.

• More recent example, Godfather (1972)

Lens: Depth of Field and Focus

• Selective focus can be used for a more abstract compositional effect. Leo Carax’s Boy Meet Girl (1984)

• Song 1.20.00

Lens: Depth of Field and Focus

• Faster film stock, wider-angle lens, more intense lighting yield a greater depth of field. Deep focus　 photography, in which everything is in focus. In Citizen Kane Greg Toland achieved memorable deep focus photography.

Lens: Depth of Field and Focus

• Deep focus photography a popular stylistic choice in the 1940s and 50s. Samuel Fuller, Underworld USA (1961)

Lens: Depth of Field and Focus

• Deep focus photography revived in the 1970s

• Spielberg’s films such as Jaws and The Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Lens: Depth of Field and Focus

• Perspective relations can be adjusted by using rack (racking) focus or pulling focus. One object is in focus in one plane and you rack focus so that another thing in another place, which was out of focus, come in focus. Wes Anderson’s Rushmore

rack focus

Framing

Framing

Framing

Framing

Framing

• Framing effects the image by means of:

(1)The size and shape of the frame

(2)The way the frame defines on-screen and off-screen space

(3)The way framing controls the distance, angle, and height of a viewpoint

• The shape of the frames

• On-screen space and off-screen space

• Distance, angle and height of the viewpoint

• Aspect ration = the ratio of frame width to frame height; 3 to 2 or 1.33:1

Framing

• An early experiment to change the shape of a frame

• Abel Gance’s ‘Triptych’, composed of three normal frames shot separately and combined side by side.

• First attempt to create an wide, panoramic screen

Framing

• The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences established ‘Academy Ratio’ 1.33:1 in the 1930s

• Standard worldwide until the mid-1950s

Framing

• A variety of widescreen ratios have dominated the 35 mm filmmaking since the 1950s

• 1.85:1 in North America (Alien); 1.66:1 in Europe (Lancelot du lac)

Widescreen format more frequently used in Europe than US, Robert Bresson’s Lancelot du lac (1974)

Framing

• A 2.35:1 aspect ration was standardized by the name of CinemaScope during the 1950s.

• King Hu’s A Touch of Zen (1970)

Framing

• How to make a widescreen

• Hard matte = To mask a frame at some stage in production or exhibition

Framing • The imaged photographed squeezed horizontally by a special lens and another special lens unsqueeze the image during projection. Anamorphic lens and anamorphic process

Framing

• Emphasizing the horizontal expanse, widescreens were initially associated with spectacle genres – Westerns, travelogues, musicals, historical epics.

• David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Framing

• Widescreen can be used for intimate drama as well. Kurosawa’s Read Beard creates a deep space photography with foreground, middle ground and background images.

Framing

• Screen size and shape affect the frame composition.

• The audience’s attention is drawn to one area of the image by putting important information slightly off centre.

Framing

• Many scenes in Woody Allen’s Husbands and Wives fill the frame with bustle and movements shot in the hand-held camera. The audience’s attention shuttles around the frame according to who is speaking and who responds to the speaker.

Divorce

Framing

• The frame is normally rectangular. Filmmakers can change its shape by attaching masks over either the camera’s lens to block the passage of light. A circular mask is called iris, frequently used in silent cinema. ‘Circular’ dance in Abel Gance’s La Rou

Framing

• In D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance the frame is boldly blocked out to leave only a vertical line or diagonal line.

Framing

• Split-screen creates different frame shapes. Two or more different images, each with its own frame size and shape appear within the larger frame. Telephone conversation in Philips Smalley’s Suspense (1913)

Framing

• The moment before guided missiles are launched are made more tense by splitting the frame into several images and giving the audience a good knowledge about what is going on. Robert Aldrich’s Twilight’s Last Gleaming

Framing

• 6 off-screen spaces

• The space beyond each of the four edges of the frame – left, right, top and bottom

• The space behind the set

• The space behind the camera

Framing

• ‘Little Girl Lost’ is an episode in the American television series, Twilight Zone. In this episode a young girl has accidentally passed through a hole into another dimension. Her parents and friends try to locate off-screen and rescue her.

Framing

• Many characters appear and diverse actions take place in Hou Hsiao Hsien’s Good Bye South, Good Bye. The camera captures a group of people and move on to another group and action leaving behind people and actions in one scene. Indications of off-screen. Quarrel 24.00