What is Cinema? was the title of one of the most important books written on film theory, by Frenchman André Bazín. Bazín was interested in the aesthetic and metaphysical aspects of the medium, but “what is cinema,” in more practical terms? It’s a series of decisions, every shot, that deals with everything from composition to sound to quality of light to what shots precede or follow.
In this five-part mini-course, we go over the basic techniques filmmakers have at their disposal in order to convey information and create meaning in film:
- Cinematography - all operations involving the camera
- Mise-en-scene - all operations having to do with what is to be filmed by the camera
- Editing - the combination of individual shots to create desired effects
- Sound - all operations having to do with pre-recorded audio accompaniment for images
- Narrative - the assemblage of series of shots into stories
Each day, students will hear basic ideas about the uses and aspects of each of these techniques, illustrated by short sequences drawn from a wide variety of films from all over the world. For the last class, an entire feature film is screened, after which the students will perform a detailed stylistic analysis and interpretation based of what has been learned during the previous four days.