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Cinema cent ans de jeunesse2014/15

Mark Reid BFI

L’Intervalleor spaces, spacing,

gaps

+The 4 types of space

Intimate

Personal

Social

Public

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A Typology of Spacing in Cinema

Ruptures and Separations

Spaces maintained by desire

Metaphysical and metaphorical

Different cultures: east Asian spacing

‘Them and us’: spaces between viewer and story

Two-shots

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Separations

Between Us, Christensen/ Mork, UK, 2004

Girl with a Suitcase, Italy, Zurlani, 1961

The Kid, Chaplin, US, 1921

Bridges of Madison County, Eastwood

L’Argent de Poche, Truffaut, France, 1976

Two Cars, One Night, Waititi, NZ, 2003

Kikujiro, Kitano, Japan, 1999

+Attraction, Desire, Space

Shara, Kawase, Japan, 2003

Girl with a Suitcase ♯1, Zurlani, Italy, 1961

Greed, von Stroheim, US, 1924

Short Film About Love, Kieslowski

The Awful Truth, McCarey, US, 1937

Through the Olive Trees, Kiarostami, Iran, 1994

Kikujiro, Kitano, Japan, 1999

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Metaphysical, Critical, and Metaphorical

Barry Lyndon , Kubrick, UK-US, 1975

Three Times, Hou-Hsiao Hsien, Taiwan, 2005

L’Atalante, Vigo, France, 1934

Utamaro, Mizoguchi, Japan, 1946

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Two-shots

Little Shop of Horrors, Oz, US, 1986

Woman Next Door, Truffaut, France, 1981

Miss Oyu, Mizoguchi, Japan, 1951

L’Avventura, Antonioni, Italy, 1960

Moonrise Kingdom, Anderson, US

+Them and Us

Gravity, Cuaron, 2014

Stalker, Tarkovsky, Russia, 1980

Spirit of the Beehive, Erice, Spain, 1973

Summer with Monika, Bergman, Sweden, 1953

+(East) Asian Spaces

Three Times, Hou H Hsien, Taiwan, 2005

Examining Mizoguchi’s Staging

Kikujiro, Kitano, Japan, 1999

Miss Oyu, Mizoguchi, Japan, 1951

+Exercise 1

Set up two characters both facing the camera, but 7 metres apart. Make a long focal length shot in which the closer face fills the frame. Take two more shots in both of which the first character’s face is the same size in the frame as the first shot, but adjust the focal length in each, to mid-focus, and then wide angle.

The purpose is to show how varying the depth of field creates different spacing effects

+ Three sample shots for Exercise 1: same distance between subjects, but focal lengths are telephoto, mid focus, and wide angle

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(Optional, or alternative) Exercise 1

Take four shots, or stills, of the four kinds of Physical Space: Intimate, Private, Public, Social. These can be found, shot as ‘Lumiere Minute’ style pieces, or created dramatically.

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Exercise 2

Take a full length shot of a character, facing the camera, who is looking at something or someone off-screen, behind the camera. The character progressively moves forward to the object they are looking at. Film it twice, once with a wide angle, and again in telephoto. Don’t use the auto-focus. Either manually pull focus, or se an arbitrary focus point that the character will move through.

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Exercise 3

Film the same situation in two or three different ways: in long take (static and/ or moving) and in an edited sequence. Person A gives something to Person B – a thing which creates tension or a separation. Exactly the same situation each time, though the actors can change. As little dialogue as possible. 1-2 minutes long

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(Optional, alternative)Exercise 3

Take the scene from Miss Oyu, featuring the man and woman arguing. Play without subtitles, and ask students to script the exchange. Have them block out a version of the scene between two of them, in a familiar space – in school. Shoot the scene using the same blocking and camera moves as Mizoguchi, but with the new dialogue.

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Film Essai

A character wants to join in an event or scenario, in which two or three other characters are already engaged. Eventually, the character pulls away, and moves away (‘reculs’), and the camera with them, but maybe keeping some connection with the scene (‘éloigné’, or ‘elastically’). And then they encounter another, previously unseen character.

6-7 minutes long