Chapter 5 provided us with a lot of information, as well as a lot of new vocabulary to help us look at film in a new way. My main takeaways fall under the categories Tonality, Perspective, and Framing.
Under tonality, there are a whole bunch of concepts and practices regarding lighting and coloration, but I must closely held onto Contrast and Exposure.
I know this example doesn’t come from a film, but I have known it for a while to be the epitome of contrast in an image. Back in high school theatre, we learned about good poster design and often referenced the poster for Broadway’s Wicked, primarily for the substantial contrast shown. It showcases two characters: Galinda (or Glinda), whose all-white design only touches Elphaba’s black costume. This white-on-black contrast makes the image so much more engaging.
Here’s an example from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, which showcases rather low exposure. This comes near the end of the film, when the mood, given the previous chaotic events, is much darker than at the beginning.
Continuing on this image example, the perspective shown appears to utilize a middle-focal-length lens. This avoids distortion at either end of the frame, while short-focal-length and long-focal-length lenses tend to distort the ends and obstruct binocular cues respectively. This image also showcases a certain depth of field. We see inside the house just fine, but, past the pole on the outside, the trees and background are blurred–outside of the given depth of field.
I found framing to be the most interesting section of the reading. It deals a lot with how shots are taken through angle, level, height, and distance, among other elements.
In Rabbits, by David Lynch, the framing often stays the same as its long, establishing shot, with slight reframing as characters move to the edges of the set. There are some exceptions to this, as seen in the below image:
Being able to see the full set becomes unsettling after a while, as the viewer never knows what could pop out of any corner at any moment, but shots like these are even more off-putting. The height of the camera tends to be high like a security camera, but then we’re suddenly eye-level with creatures we’ve already labeled as volatile/potentially dangerous. Additionally, the duration of shots is extremely long, which draws out the creepy mood even more. Framing can truly fully frame the viewer’s experience as they peer into the world of the film.
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