classwork - Analysis of Casablanca

Mise En Scene

This is used to bring about the classical genre of the time. Bar's, club's, cafes and police stations are all portrayed to look and feel very classy. The costumes are all very upper class, suits and long gowns and an over arching theme of stripes is used. The stripes seem to be used to either make the men and women seem broader than they actually are or it may just be used as motif and some kind of formalist editing (continuity editing). 

Lighting

The lighting in this film is definitely of a formalist film. As part of chiaroscuro the lighting creates a huge contrast between light and shadow

Camera Work

Sound

Editing

(UNFINISHED)!!!!!

classwork - Classical Hollywood Cinima

the 3 films that i would like to watch in class and i believe are key to the golden age of Hollywood. 

• Casablanca 

• The wizard of oz 

• It's a wonderful life

homework - Discuss the 5 areas of formalist film in 'Run Lola Run'

1. lighting - The lighting is used in such a way so that you are only really identifying Lola's bright red hair and possibly the surrounding bright yellow and red objects. Most of the lighting is natural and the odd indoor scenes that do occur don't contain any obvious spot or diffused lights. The bed scene that occurs 2 times in the film uses the over running theme of red as a filter to possibly draw you away from Lola's red hair and look more and the image as a whole. Or the red filter could be used to show death easily coming and going
2. camera work - Always centering the image on Lola's red hair is one of the key features of the film. To give any film a specific colour will always have the desired effect of sticking in the audiences memory. Another key element is the fact that when the scenes are repeated throughout the three different runs, the camera movement is identical which then builds a sense of dejavu in the viewers mind.
   
3. sound - The soundtrack includes many musical patterns, like the everlasting string chords, of 'The Unanswered Question' an early 20th-century ensemble work by American writer Charles Ives. Other
   
4. editing -Although most effects in this film would have been done through camera work and lighting. Making the red in Lola's hair stand out as much as it does would definitely have been done using a program such as final cut pro.
   
5. mise en scene - Run Lola Rim was shot extensively in Berlin, Germany and there are 18 confirmed locations in which the film was shot.
   

classwork - German Expressionism

1) What are the key features of german expressionism ?

Nosferatu: the spooky musical changes from horror to romance set the scene for pretty much all german expressionism as a key genre in formalist film. Black and white was of course the only way they could film the footage but I also believe that without the black and white the key lighting would not have been as effective and scary. The shadows at the beginning of the film are surprisingly effective as you don't quite know what you are looking at but you know even without seeing the creature itself its not a good omen. The subtitles, for me, are a pointless extra as you can understand what is happening without being told over and over again that there is a ' sudden fever'.

German Expressionism also depends heavily on mise-en-scene. Shapes are distorted and exaggerated unrealistically for expressive purposes. Actors often wear heavy makeup and move in jerky or slow, sinuous patterns. Most important, all of the elements of the mise-en-scene interact graphically to create an overall composition.

2. Where and where can the influence of German expressionism be seen in film history?

Even before German expressionism became well know, you can see signs of it as far back as the 1920's with films like 'The Golem' and 'Nosferatu'. Traits of such films have been seen throughout film history with 'Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde' and' the cabinet of Dr Caligari'