Le Quattro Volte

ESSAY TOPIC 3

Using the cinematic elements framework do an aesthetic evaluation of Micheangelo Frammartino’s film “Le Quattro Volte” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA_7dwyp3d0
and provide an argument for whether it is an apt example of a film from the slow cinema movement. Please include specific evidence from the film to make your case (no generalities).

[Maximum Length: Single Space- 11 font- 4 Pages]

I am also attaching an article on how to write about film. Please read this. It will help you do a good job on the paper. As the article points out you have to cite specific image, sound, narrative elements when you write about film, and then your interpretation of those elements in what the filmmaker is trying to communicate. Do not write in generalities.

Let me know if you have any questions.

1GLOSSARY OF FILMIC TERMSBASIC TERMS•Auteur: French for author. In film this means the director who has developed a distinctive style that is visible in his/her films.•Shot: One continuous piece of film footage, ending with an edit, or cut to the next shot. •Sequence: A series of shots combined to represent a discrete set of actions or a coherent narrative section. •Scene: Similar to a “sequence,” a series of shots combined to represent a set of actions happening within the same time and place. •Motif: Anything repeated more than a few times in a film. A motif can be visual (an image or cinematic technique), sonic (a sound or piece of music), or rhetorical (a word, phrase, metaphor, etc.).•Plot: The events happen in afilmmake up its plot.•Genre: A genre is aclassification of films defined by aset of narrative or stylistic conventions. CINEMATIC ELEMENTSCinematography:A term used to define the ways in which the camera captures the shot. Under the heading of cinematography, we speak of such things as the different lenses used by the camera, how the camera frames the shot, the angle of the camera relative to the action, and how the camera moves.Editing:Refers to how the individual shots are spliced together. The norm here is “continuity editing,” in which shots are put together to achieve narrative continuity—to make the action appear to flow logically and naturally from shot to shot.Mise-en-scène:A term in French literally meaning “put into the scene,” this term refers to the arrangement of actors and objects in front of the camera. Setting, lighting, costuming, and acting are aspects of mise-en-scène.Sound:Refers to both the sounds that come from the scene itself, such as spoken dialogue or ambient noise, and the sounds that are imposed on the scene, such as voice-overs or musical scores.CINEMATOGRAPHY TERMS1.Types of Shots:

2•Extreme Long Shot/ Extreme Wide Shot: A shot of a character’s full figure at a great distance, including a panoramic view of the surroundings.•Long Shot/ Wide Shot: A shot that includes a character’s full figure as well as the surroundings. Generally these types of shots are used to establish space and also called Establishing Shots.•Medium Shot: A shot that captures a figure from the waist up. •Close-Up: The frame is filled primarily by the subject’s face, including little to no background. •Extreme Close-Up: A shot filled entirely by a small part of the subject’s body.•POV (Point-of-View) Shot: A shot that indicates what a character might be seeing. This shot typically is placed/cut-in either after of before the shot of the character whose point of view it is supposed to be. This is also called a subjective shot and aims to have the audience identify with the character whose POV it is.•Handheld Shot: A shot taken with the camera off the tripod and supported on the camera operator’s shoulders. These shots tend to give the film a jittery, unstable feel many times.•Steadicam Shot:These are handheld shots as well but the camera is mounted on a Steadicam rig which results in the shot moving smoothly in contract to other handheld shots.•Long Take: A shot that continues for a long time without a cut. 2.Camera Angles:•High Angle:The camera looks down at the subject. •Low Angle:The camera looks up at the subject. •Dutch Angle/Canted Angle:A shot in which the framing is tipped, or no longer horizontal.These shots are used to indicate chaos and instability.3.Camera Movement:•Pan:The camera scans horizontally from a fixed axis. L ßàR •Tilt:The camera scans vertically from a fixed axis.•Track:The camera follows the action(tracks the action), travelling along a parallel path to capture the movement.The tracking shot might either be handheld (with the camera

3operator walking with the camera), on a Steadicam rig, or on a dolly (a piece of equipment on rail tracks on which the camera is mounted and is then pushed by dolly-grips).4.CameraLenses:•Long Lens:Also called a “telephoto lens,” this long focal length lens is used to capture subjects at a distance. It shortens/ compressesthe distance between background and foreground. It also has a narrower angle of coverage.•Wide Lens:A short focal length lens that exaggeratesthe distance between foreground and background. It also has a wider angle of coverage.5.Camera Focus:•Deep Focus:Objects in the background and foreground are equally in focus. •Shallow Focus:Only objects in one plane are in focus, while others in front and behind are out of focus. •Rack Focus:A shift from one plane of focus to another within a shot. •Zoom:Changes focal length to create motion towards or away from the subject.A zoom shot offers a more detailed view ofa subject/object.6.Other:•Aspect Ratio: The ratio of the horizontal to the vertical sides of an image. Until the 1950s almost all film was shot in a 4:3 or 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Nowadays films are made in a variety of aspect ratios—some of the most common being 1.66:1, 1.76:1, 1.85:1, and 2.35:1 (cinemascope).•Contrast: The ratio/differenceof light to dark in an image. When that ratio/differenceis high the image is considered to be high contrast.EDITING TERMS•Continuity Editing:The process of putting shots together to create the impression of continuous narrative time and/or visually coherent space.•Jump Cut: A cut that distorts continuity, skipping ahead in time and space.•180 Degree Rule:A principle of continuity editing dictating that the camera remain on one side of the action to maintain the viewer’s perspective and understanding of the left-right spatial relationship between characters.

4•Shot/ Reverse Shot:Alternating shots between subjects, usually in conversation, viewed from different camera positionswhile generally preserving the 180 degree rule.

•Montage: An approach to editing developed by Soviet filmmakers of the 1920s, such as Eisenstein, Pudovkin, and Vertov, which claimed that the uniqueness of the film medium arises from its ability to create an idea through juxtaposition of two of more shots/images each of which alone might never convey such an idea.

•Elliptical Editing: An cut that causes an ellipsis in the narrative-a disruption in time or space (a child in this scene in a village turns into a man in the next in New York city).

•Crosscutting/ Parallel Editing:Transitioning back and forth between two or more action sequences taking place simultaneously.

•Eyeline Match:A cut between a shot of a person looking towards an object and a shot of the object being viewed. •Match on Action:A cut that transitions between two different views of the same action so that the action appears continuous from one shot to the next.

•Graphic match:A cut that relates consecutive shots through repeated compositional features (shapes, colors, patterns, etc.).MISE-EN-SCENE TERMS1.Basics:

•Frame:The spatial parameters of a shot within which the scene is composed.

•Composition:The arrangement of subjects, props, and environments within the frame chosen. 2.Lighting:

•Three Point Lighting:Standard lighting using three light sources: a key light to provide the main source of illumination along with a fill light from another side and back light from behind. •High Key:Nearly all parts of the image are brightly illuminated.

•Low Key:Extreme contrast between light and dark within an image.

•Chiaroscuro:The use of strong contrasts between light and dark to create a sense of visual drama or a sense of volume and dimension to the space and the figures within it.3.Set Design: