| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Extreme long shot | shows large amount of space in shot, primarily used for crowds and large setting |
| Long shot | works well to show characters from head to toe, shows details and characters |
| Medium Long Shot | from knees up |
| Medium Shot | from waist up |
| two shot | 2 characters within one scene, shows conversation between characters, establishes relationship between characters "establishing shot" |
| Extreme Close-Up | shows some important detail |
| close up | the most important shot in American cinema, audiences can identify with character, shows emotion to facial details |
| mise-en-scene | french for everything put or placed in scene, reveals aspects of characters, how we feel about them, and larger messages/ideas communicated by film. |
| what does mise-en-scene include? | setting, lighting, costumes, props, make-up, acting style. |
| melodrama | melo=music, any sort of dramatic film or story that uses music to heighten or intensify emotion, focuses on domestic life or life within home, features female protagonists, express anxieties about changing world, feature a moral lesson, depicts middle class characters. |
| D.W. Griffith major influences | edwin porter (Great Train Robbery), Belasco Theater (Expressive Emotion)Cinematic characteristics of D.W.Griffith films*variety of shots, camera movement, editing/crosscutting, actors always the same, most films were 2 reels or more, deals with same themes (young, hot woman, pure and innocent, threatened by outside forces) |
| crosscutting | when you cut between actions occuring in two different locations simultaneously. |
| sub-genre | all of the characteristics of a large category (melodrama) + a list of characteristics applicable to itself as a group. |
| The Yellow Peril Films | 19-teens + 20's subgenre of melodramatic films. |
| Characteristics of Yellow Peril Films | white female character that does something she is not supposed to do, is raped (literally or symbolically) or humiliated by rescue, or there's a threat of rape, usually by a villainous asian male character. |
| What is the typical punishment for the Asian villain in Yellow Peril Films? | lynching, spectacle of assault. These films were meant to make asians fearful and to be a warning to white women. |
| What was the deal with the rapists in Yellow Pencil films typically being asian men? | Immigration at the time was based on labor needs, asian men were allowed before asian women, fears of opiates/opium dens, drug use among asians, fears of immigrants taking jobs. |
| Cecille B. Demille | filmmaker, made 'The Cheat' 1915 (same year as Birth of A Nation)'The Cheat'* 1915, example of a yellow peril film. Edith Hardy uses charity funds for Wall Street investments in hopes of buying some new gowns. She loses all the money and borrows from wealthy oriental Tori. When her husband gives her the amount she borrowed, Tori won't take it back, branding her shoulder with a Japanese sign of his ownership. She shoots him. Her husband takes the blame. In court Edith reveals all to an angry mob. |
| Describe the symbolism involved in 'The Cheat' | music indicates the characters culture/ethnicity, phallic shaped object used to brand Edith (symbollic rape), Edith's hair is down to symbolize her shame at rescue, crowd descends on asian Tori (symbolic lynching). |
| Mise en place for 'The Cheat' | lighting-darkness used, low key, more shadows, sinister. costume-big hats/costumes show social status, tori wears western clothes in public, an asian clothes in private (symbolizing he's evil). props-golf clubs symbolize relaxation. make-up-dramatic makeup on woman, also on tori to emphasize his ethnic difference. acting style-over dramatic to accentuate emotion. |
| Iris | special effect in scene used in 'The Cheat'. circular shaped exposure that can close and open around a character's head. Usually indicates a dream sequence. |
Combine with other sets
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