space in cinema part 1: a window onto a world
TRANSCRIPT
Space• Space in Cinema is defined by “the frame.”
• The frame is a two-dimensional boundary, a rectangle with height and width, a window through which, at any given moment, a part of the film’s world is revealed to us.
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In an essay from 1929, “The Filmic Fourth Dimension,” Sergei Eisenstein wrote about the impossibility of “the single-meaningness” of the film frame, which “can never be an inflexible letter of the alphabet, but must always remain a multiple-meaning ideogram.” And part of the frame’s meaning lies outside of the frame itself, in the implied off-screen space that surrounds it, accumulated in fragments from places the film has already taken us.
http://filmmakermagazine.com/49337-the-blue-velvet-project-143/
SpaceInside the frame is material, physical, specific.
Outside the frame is imagination, suggestion, memory.
SpaceInside the frame is material, physical, specific.
Outside the frame is imagination, suggestion, memory.
http://filmmakermagazine.com/49337-the-blue-velvet-project-143/
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Aside – The “frame” also defines time in cinema, but that’s a different definition of frame. More on that later.
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An aside from Director David Lynch
http://youtu.be/wKiIroiCvZ0http://youtu.be/BcNLEwf2pOw
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Movies are a two dimensional medium. As with the frame, there is width and height, but all depth is an illusion.
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Aspect Ratios
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_(image)
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Standard or Academy ratio (4 X 3 or 1.33:1). In adopting the 35 mm format, early filmmakers established the standard aspect ratio as a classical rectangle with a ratio of four units of width to three units of height. Thus if the projected image is twenty feet wide it will be fifteen feet high. This became the official ratio for American films in 1932.
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Widescreen. Experiments in wider aspect ratios are almost as old as cinema itself. Early filmmakers often employed mattes to reshape their images WITHIN the 4:3 ratio, straining against the tyranny of the frame.
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Widescreen. Experiments in wider aspect ratios are almost as old as cinema itself. Early filmmakers often employed mattes to reshape their images WITHIN the 4:3 ratio, straining against the tyranny of the frame.
“The Wildcat” Ernst Lubitsch (1921)
https://youtu.be/Ix083lwckFshttps://youtu.be/im_pEraUTUs
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Widescreen. In 1927, director Abel Gance’s combined three side-by-side regular-sized screens, producing an effective aspect ratio of 3.99:1, for “Napoleon.”
“Napoleon”– Abel Gance (1927)
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http://vimeo.com/26322723http://youtu.be/cMlnRP3qOYE
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Widescreen: Efforts to introduce widescreen technology were not successful until the 1950s when cinema tried to counter program against television. Some of the 1950s widescreens had a ratio of as much as 2.66:1 (CinemaScope).
Fred Waller – Inventor; Oversaw the photographic research and special effects department for Paramount Studios in the 1920s and 30s
Aside
http://www.in70mm.com/news/2002/this_is_cinerama/chapters/index.htmhttp://www.ferdyonfilms.com/2008/persons-of-interest-fred-waller/243/
Fred Waller – One of the inventors of the water ski. Waller devised his skis, Akwa Skees, as a camera platform (1925).
Aside
http://www.cineramaadventure.com/skees.htm
Fred Waller – As a director, championed African-American performers.
Aside
http://www.cineramaadventure.com/featurette.htm
Fred Waller – Director
“Symphony in Black” (1935)
Aside
Duke-Ellington-and-his-Orchestra-Symphony-in-Black.mov
https://youtu.be/YEA2NpGA8gc
Fred Waller – Invented a 360 Degree Still Camera
Aside
http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/widescreen/wingcr1.htm
Fred Waller – Developed Vitarama for the 1939 World’s Fair.
The system used eleven synchronized cameras and projectors for a gigantic image.
Aside
http://jimlanescinedrome.blogspot.com/2012/08/ups-and-downs-of-rollercoaster-part-1.html
Fred Waller – The Vitarama was overshadowed by another technology that debuted at the same World’s Fair - Television
Aside
http://www.earlytelevision.org/worlds_fair.html
Fred Waller – Adapted the Vitarama technology into a “virtual reality” training system for World War II pilots – the Waller Gunnery Trainer (1943)
Aside
http://www.cineramaadventure.com/trainer.htmhttp://in70mm.com/cinerama/archive/gunnery/index.htm
Fred Waller – Waller Gunnery Trainer
Aside
http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/widescreen/waller01.htm
Fred Waller – Waller Gunnery Trainer
Aside
http://www.in70mm.com/cinerama/archive/war/index.htm
Fred Waller – The Gunnery Trainer evolved into Cinerama (2.60:1), a wide screen movie system employing three synchronized cameras and projectors (1952).
Aside
http://www.in70mm.com/cinerama/archive/story/index.htm
Today’s Cinerama, another technology to distract movie goers from smaller screens, is IMAX (1.36:1)
The aspect ratio is similar to that standardized in the 1930’s but MUCH BIGGER.
Standard IMAX screen is 22 × 16.1 m (72 × 52.8 ft)
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The Dark Knight Rises Premieres in IMAX at Liberty Science Center http://youtu.be/Wm2vIaD3GYQ
IMAX – 1.36:1 (old shape, new size)
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http://youtu.be/Ou6_MkIvKOo http://youtu.be/2p8OALI74h0
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The World Seen Through the Frame
So, what do we see through this frame? The Real World, Staged?
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The World Seen Through the Frame
So, what do we see through this frame? The Real World, Dressed?
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The World Seen Through the Frame
So, what do we see through this frame? The Real World, Dressed?
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The World Seen Through the Frame
So, what do we see through this frame? The Real World, Dressed?
Behind the Scenes: Filming Marvel's The Avengers in Cleveland, Ohiohttp://youtu.be/h9eKsv-icXQ
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The World Seen Through the Frame
So, what do we see through this frame? Location - A real place chosen to shoot one or more shots for a film.
Jaws filming locations http://youtu.be/7cRpoMpUgC0
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The World Seen Through the Frame
So, what do we see through this frame? A Constructed World?
Film psychology THE SHINING spatial awareness and set design 1of2 http://youtu.be/0sUIxXCCFWw
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The World Seen Through the Frame
So, what do we see through this frame? A Constructed World?
Film psychology THE SHINING spatial awareness and set design 2of2 http://youtu.be/IfJ8rK7eJeQ
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The World Seen Through the Frame
So, what do we see through this frame? Stage Set - A place built to
specifications as an environment for one of more shots in a film.
New SKYFALL Production Videoblog http://youtu.be/GK5ws85Rxd8
SpaceThe World Seen Through the Frame
• Set Extension - Extending or replacing various elements within a scene through various special effects.
• Glass Shots and Hanging Miniatures.
http://mtmedia.mtsu.edu:8888/ebowen/Hollywood Glass Shots Miniatures.mov
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The World Seen Through the Frame
• Set Extension - Extending or replacing various elements within through various special effects.
• Foreground (hanging) miniatures. “Ben-Hur” (1925)
SpaceThe World Seen Through the Frame
• Set Extension - Extending or replacing various elements within through various special effects.
• Foreground (hanging) miniatures. “Ben-Hur” (1925)
http://mtmedia.mtsu.edu:8888/ebowen/Ben Hur.mov
SpaceThe World Seen Through the Frame
• Set Extension - Extending or replacing various elements within through various special effects.
• Mattes. “Ben-Hur” (1959)
SpaceThe World Seen Through the Frame
• Set Extension - Extending or replacing various elements within through various special effects.
• Mattes. “Ben-Hur” (1959)
SpaceThe World Seen Through the Frame
• Set Extension - Extending or replacing various elements within through various special effects.
• Mattes. “Ben-Hur” (1959)
SpaceThe World Seen Through the Frame
• Set Extension - Extending or replacing various elements within through various special effects.
• Mattes. “Ben-Hur” (1959)
SpaceThe World Seen Through the Frame
• Set Extension - Extending or replacing various elements within through various special effects.
• Mattes. “Ben-Hur” (1959)
SpaceThe World Seen Through the Frame
• Set Extension - Extending or replacing various elements within through various special effects.
• Virtual extension.
Stargate Studios Virtual Backlot Reel 2012-Demo https://vimeo.com/35769675
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The World Seen Through the Frame
• Virtual Set - An environment created through digital effects. “Tron: Legacy” (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhyScbAZrFs
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The World Seen Through the Frame
• Virtual Actors – “Tron: Legacy” (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhyScbAZrFs
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The World Seen Through the Frame
• Virtual Actors - “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow”(2004) Laurence Olivier (1907-1989)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqGBt0124bY
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The World Seen Through the Frame
• Virtual Actors - “Terminator Salvation” (2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7YYfgx_cHo
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The World Seen Through the Frame
• Virtual Actors - The Uncanny Valley
Dirtgirlworld - Get Grubbyhttp://youtu.be/rR2Ac3ZvidU
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The World Seen Through the Frame
• Virtual Actors - The Uncanny Valley
http://research.universityofcalifornia.edu/stories/2012/02/uncanny.html
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The World Seen Through the Frame
• Virtual Actors - The Uncanny Valley
Extra Credits: The Uncanny Valley http://youtu.be/9K1Kd9mZL8g
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The World Seen Through the Frame
• Virtual Actors - The Uncanny Valley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNdAIPoh8a4
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The World Seen Through the Frame
• Virtual Actors – “Sim0ne” (2002)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=salcZxwspxg
SpaceThe World Seen Through the Frame
And how are we meant to perceive this reality.
As Reality? As Idealized Reality?
As Stylized Reality? As Fantasy?