Dissertation Title (place holder): Manipulating the Scene: Creating a calculated impression for the audience through cinematography and editing in storyboards.
A key role in the manipulation of the frame is the movement of the camera. Through Cinematography we can identify which shot to use to create a certain atmosphere. For example a canted shot would be used to show danger and would most likely be used to tell the viewer that an action is about to happen. Cinematography is further emphasised through the use of Mise – en – scène, the staging of the scene. The backgrounds and costumes of the actors visually tell the audience, where the story is set, through both location and time period. The use of the costume gives a first impression to the viewer with the personality and the location emphasises this fact further. Expanding on the previous example, if the foreground contained a knife gripped in a characters hand, and the character in the background centre of the canted shot was slightly out of focus, lighting directly behind, the audience know an action will occur; the audience automatically piece together the interaction that will happen between the two characters in the frame. The use of the background lighting creates an impression of innocence to the unsuspecting background character and the use of the foreground characters appearance being cut down to their hand, manipulates the viewer to perceive a murderous intent. (Van Sijll, J. (2005) Cinematic Storytelling: The 100 Most Powerful Film Conventions Every Filmmaker Must Know. Seattle: Michael Wiese Productions) (collegefilmandmediastudies.com) This use of cinematography and Mise – en – scène connects with Narrative Retardation, the use of only allowing the audience to absorb so much information. This can be further combined with Meir Sternberg’s suspense theory. Sternberg goes on to describe how when information is withheld from the viewer, the audience think back to past actions to make sense with the action that is happening in the current scene. This sets a sense of foreboding for the audience once past actions begin to link with current ones. (Bordwell, D. (1985) Narration in the Fiction Film. London and New York: Routledge)
The use of editing significantly aids the persuasion of the shot, it is interpreted that some atmospheres can only be portrayed through precise timing of cuts and inclusion of shots that entwine with a completely different scene. V.I Pudovkin created an experiment that involved a still shot of an actor with a neutral expression sliced in between shots of three different items, a bowl of soup, a coffin containing a dead woman and a little girl playing with a toy. This experiment was used to see what perception that the audience would have created from this montage, what emotion they feel from the actor; whether this neutral atmosphere would transfer back to the viewer or change entirely. Interesting the feedback from the audience found the shot with the bowl of soup to rely the message of hunger, the coffin to show a sad man and the third to show a joyful adult. This experiment shows exactly how the power of the composition can manipulate the audience to create a certain impression, how our mind connects certain traits between the items and the actor shown. (Dancyger, K. (2006) The Technique of Film and Video Editing: History, Theory and Practice. 4th Ed. Oxford: Focal Press.)
An example of precise cuts can be seen in Hitchcock’s Psycho storyboards. The iconic shower scene shows cuts from the intruder to Marion Crane as the knife lowers down. The use of Narrative Retardation aids the visual storytelling of the scene as the close up shots of both characters engage the viewer, it makes the viewer feel part of that moment through being so up close with the victim. It can be interpreted that the use of Realism and Classicism can be seen through the positioning of the camera and the storytelling that takes place. Hitchcock creates this story using characters and locations that are purposely made to seem realistic, all for the purpose of visually communicating to the audience that the murders have actually taken place. Classicism is shown through the amount of close up shots that the audience perceive through the shower scene, as the knife draws closer and the cuts grow more rapid to Marion, the audience feel the panic and sheer terror that she does, it makes the audience empathetic towards her. (http://ehhsfilmhistory.blogspot.co.uk/p/realism-formalism-and-classicism.html) (Halligan, F. (2013) The Art of Movie Storyboards: Visualising the Action of the World's Greatest Films. Film Craft, Lewes: Ilex)
Jean Mitry, a film theorist, used realist and formalist arguments to create a sense of cinema. He used realism to differentiate cinema from other forms of artistic disciplines and used formalism to prove that film was more than just a recording; it could engage with the audience. Umberto Eco challenges this thesis through cinema presentation, he theorized that cinema is a form of language like paintings and morse code, but it would never be able to engage directly with reality. Eco’s argument leans to categorize cinema as a discipline of semiotics, disbanding any sense of reality that Mitry’s thesis argues for; Mitry argues that the use of perception can inform reality to the audience, the camera can capture that sense of truth.
‘Cinema is just such a human means of representation, despite the adage that “the camera never lies”.’
Theories:
Formalism, Classicism and Realism
Cinematography, Mise – en – scène and Film Editing
Narrative Retardation and Curiosity Hypothesis
Semiotics and Structuralism
I really enjoyed this exercise, it made me consider and pull together research that I had acquired over the past summer holiday and month. Writing these words made me feel more confident about beginning to write the dissertation.
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