Micro properties of film structure - Psycho

Micro properties of film structure

• Difference between formalism and realism
• Mise en scene, mise en shot
• Colour in film
• Continually editing
• Montage versus long take
• Fast and slow motion
• Deep focus
• Camara angles
• Diagetic & non diagetic sound(soundtracks)

Now for the macro we will look at narrative (what is the story, what is happening how it developes) and narration (how the story is told to us)

Narrative:

-          refers to WHAT happens or what is depicted in films(as wells as novels)

-          refers to actions

Good film director in narrative: Steven Spielberg

Narration:

-          HOW that narrative is presented to the film spectator

-          It is the mechanism that controls how the spectator gains information about those actions, events and characters.

-          Eg. Amelie, fight club, Ridley Scotts Bladerunner

Narrative structure:

What is narrative structure based on?

-          Narrative logic à how it passes from scene to scene

-          Cause and effect – NOT random events. This is what drives the narrative.

-         Narrative logic in action: Event A a man is shot A points a gun in an off-screen direction and fires. In shot B another man is shown collapsing to the ground. Because of the way the shots are edited the spectator reads the event in shot A as the cause of the event in shot B because the editing the look connected.

What drives narrative?

- Cause and effect: one event causes another to happen

The cause and effect logic all relates all directly to Thornill. In other words, narrative development also has to be seen in relation to the characters itself, who motivate the cause-effect logic. The forward momentum North By Northwest is driven by the needs and wishes of Thornill. The film is about him providing his innocence.

Structure of narrative

-          Narrative is also much more than just a series of cause-effect events

-          The overall narrative structure of a film comprises, in the cast majority of cases, a beginning, a middle, and an end.

-          More technically after Tzvetan Todorv:

o         A state of equilibrium: in North by Northwest: Thorinill meeting his friend for a drink(and anticipating a trip to the theater with his mother). Being mistaken by another man by a sign he does to another person.

The liminal period:

-          The middle part of a film generally the most dynamic.

-          It is sometimes referred to as the liminal period

-          This is when narrative transgresses normal social events, before the equilibrium restored.

-          In the north by northwest it is only after Vandamm has been arrests the Thornill can return to normality

Psycho (Saul Bass) 1960

Scene 1:

Girl in bed, in hotel with her boyfriend. They don’t have much money, he is divorced and he has to give money to her wife constantly. He is broke that’s why they cant get married. They are in a hotel which paid by the hour, its lunchtime. He wants her to take afternoon off but she cant so she stands up, get dressed and goes away. She says im late, that’s what link us with the scene one and scene 2.

Scene 2:

Mary enters an office, she works there and sits in her desk. The theme of the story is going to be about money and marry as the co worker is talking about her getting married. Two men enter the offices who are the boss and Mr Cassity, he is giving his daughter (her baby) which says he loves her and he gives her 40thousand money. The boss says that it is dangerous to leave the money in the office because it is a lot of money so they should put it in the bank. The money is handed to Mary so she takes it to the bank, so she takes the money as they trust her, and she says she will go to the bank and afterwards asks to take the day off because she has a headache. The scene ends by her going off the office with the money.

Scence 3:

Mary’s house. Mary is getting dressed, she is packing her things (lots of things showing she will be very days far away), the money is in her bag, sound of tension, body language of tension (worried and determined face). She is putting the money in her bad, grabs her suitcase and goes away. Ends, with her leaving her house.

*In psycho, initial events occur more or less independently to the main characters. Marion is quickly killed off- and the film continues without her. Her boyfriend never reappears meaningfully.

Complete contrast with North by Northwest (1959)

Questions of Psycho:

Effect if we go straight to scene 3:

We would se a woman in the room packing a bag with an envelope, we wouldn’t understand that the envelope has so much money, from who is it. It would make us think that the woman is a victim, there is reason why she is like that and why she is packing everything..

In what ways is scene 3 an effect of scences 1 and 2?

Scene 3 is what is happening due to what she has done in scene two due to her problems in scene 1.

What is the significance of showing the money in the scene immediately after Marion and Sam talk about getting married?

It shows us the important of money and establishes the theme and how something that she needs so much is just in her hands.

Why don’t we see Sam leave the hotel and going to the airport or Lowery and Cassidy eating lunch?

Because it focus that Marion is the main character and it is something we suppose as science change and it shows how time has passed.

What other events are we NOT shown? Why?

She hasn’t gone to the bank, because she still has the money which shows she is steeling the money as it is at her house.

Contrast in money in scene 3 when it focus in the moneys envelope to show the importance of money, maybe by being no a perfect envelope shows that it has been steeled as it is damaged and it doesn’t has a name or direction. The contrast of the white envelope also shows the importance, and being so white might show purity or marriage.

Motif of film? Cause and effect

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