How to Read a Frame
Film StudiesFilm analysis is a process of investigating WHY and HOW a particular film affects us as it does. When doing analysis, we examine the significant decisions that were made in constructing the film to achieve the desired effect.
One of the most productive ways to do film analysis is to isolate a particular frame from a film and examine it closely and systematically according to an objective set of parameters. Not all of the parameters will be significantly relevant to a particular frame, but most will.
We look first at the strictly formal parameters of the image (the discursive dimension), then we look at the meaning that is created by this image (the diegetic dimension).
Finally, we try to put everything together and write out a prose discussion of the main point and effect of the image and how that effect is created.
DISCURSIVE (FORMAL) PARAMETERS
Film Stock
The look of the film is influenced by the very choice of film stock on which the movie is recorded. A basic distinction is between black & white and color. Some color stocks, such as Technicolor, create a bright, rather artificial feel. Others, such as Eastmancolor, tend to create color that seems more realistic.
Some film stocks are grainy, creating a gritty, realistic, documentary feel. There is great contrast between dark and light tones. Others are more glossy, with a fine grain, creating rich tones with lots of variation in the gray range (for black and white) or subtle variation in the colors (for color).
Remember, of course, that your ability to analyze the reproduction of a film frame depends upon the quality of the reproduction.
Film Gauge
Related to the choice of film stock is the gauge of the film stock that is chosen. Film gauge is the size and dimension of the film frame. Early on, theatrical films settled upon a 35mm size; beginning in the Fifties, 70mm became increasingly the size of choice for big-budget spectacle films.
The dimension of the film frame is know as its aspect ratio, the ratio of base to height. In its traditional form, the base is slightly greater than the height, by a ratio of 4 to 3 (or 1.33 to 1); this is known as Academy Aperture. Beginning in the Fifties, with the use of 70mm film, spectacles began to use wide-screen formats such as Panavision, Cinemascope, and Todd A-O. Panavision ratio is 2.2/1, while Cinemascope uses a ratio of 2.55/1. The television screen was designed to fit Academy Aperture. As a result, wide-screen films need to be altered before they can be shown on TV.
Lighting
The effect of an image is greatly dependent upon the lighting style chosen for the film as a whole. Generally speaking, the major contrast in film style is between High Key lighting and Low Key lighting. High Key style uses even, bright illumination, flooding the image with light and keeping shadows to a minimum. Low Key style tends to be murkier, with lots of shadow and selective patches of light.
To get at the lighting style of the frame, you also want to see whether the lighting is romantic (soft, diffuse, rounding out faces and creating gentle shadows) or realistic (harsh, flattening faces, casting harsh shadows). This is usually a function of the nature of the light source used, as well as any gels or filters that are placed between the lens and the image.
When studying the lighting in a particular frame, you also want to look for highlights, determine whether or not the lighting is pointing our attention to a particular part of the image (i.e., a character’s eyes, or to a knife on the table).
Also, look to see whether shadows are creating particular patterns or obscuring anything in the scene.
Focus
Along with lighting, focus is one of the primary means by which a filmmaker can guide the viewer’s attention to the most important details. One potential choice is between deep focus and shallow or selective focus. In deep focus, images are in sharp focus from the foreground through the midground to the background. This device is often used when the filmmaker wants to contrast elements within the shot (e.g., foreground vs. background). It tends to create a more “realistic” feeling. If selective focus is used, you want to specify what is being placed in focus, as well as what is being kept out of focus.
Another contrast is between soft focus and sharp focus. Soft focus is used to create a romantic, non-realistic effect. Sharp focus tends to give more of a realistic feeling.
Composition
You want to look at how the actors and objects in the image are composed, how they are laid out in the frame. Who is in the foreground? Who is in the background? Generally speaking, objects closer to the camera loom larger than those farther from the lens.
Do the characters and/or images fall into geometric figures, such as triangles or circles?
How about the number of characters? Is it a two-shot, a three-shot, a crowd scene? Who is facing camera, who is facing away or somewhere in between?
Closed/Open Frame, Dense/Simple Image
These two parameters are related to frame composition. With respect to closed/open frame, the frame can be composed to create a real feeling of openness by having the character in the middle of the frame and having nothing on either edge. We have a feeling that space goes on and on. On the other hand, a feeling of limitation, entrapment, claustrophobia can be created by having people, objects, or architectural details closing off the frame on either side (or perhaps only on one side). Sometimes the frame can be composed to create an effect of internal framing, where a character is framed by, for example, a doorway or window; this creates a frame within a frame and tends to emphasize the character, drawing our attention particularly to him or her.
A related element is the denseness of the image. Is the image filled with lots of little details, creating a sense of busy-ness, of noise? Or is the image simple, stark, peaceful. Very different moods will be created by each.
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