Critical Approaches to Film

Lesson 5

A Daring Daylight Burglary (dir. Mottershaw, 1903)

Last week recap

• Last Week:

• Discontinuity Editing

• Discontinuity editing techniques/ effects

• 30 degree rule

• Montage: Hollywood

• Motage: Soviet

• Kuleshov Experiment

• Brief intro to French New Wave

• Brief intro to Truffaut

• Screening of La Nuit Ameriaine

Today’s Lesson:

• To carry out close textual analysis of the film

last week; focusing on film form (including

mise-en-scene and sound)

• Introduction to Assessment 1

Sound

Crucial but often under-analysed

Three components:

- Voice

- Music

- Noise/sound effects

How might these different elements be

meaningful?

Sound: some key terms

Diegetic or non-diegetic

Internal diegetic

Voiceover

On-screen or off-screen

Sound bridge

Cinematography: shot scale

Extreme long shotOften an

‘establishing shot’

Cinematography: shot scale

Long shot

Cinematography: shot scale

Medium long shot A ‘two shot’

Cinematography: shot scale

Medium shot

Cinematography: shot scale

Medium close-up

Cinematography: shot scale

Close-up

Cinematography: shot scale

Extreme close-up

Cinematography: angles

Eye-level

Low angle

High angle

Subjective shots

Point of view shots

Over the

shoulder shot

Depth of field

Deep focus

Shallow focus

Setting

• Set or real location

Costumes

Props

Actors’ performances

Staging/composition