DOGME95 BIBLIOGRAPHY

[1] https://thedissolve.com/features/exposition/999-what-dogme-95-did-for-women-directors/ [REJECTED]

[2] https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=EsVYBL8ytLMC&pg=PA87&dq=Dogme+95&redir_esc=y&hl=en#v=onepage&q=Dogme%2095&f=false

[3] http://www.kosmorama.org/Artikler/After-The-Celebration.aspx

[4] http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-doing-it-dogme-style-1185855.html

[5] http://gorillafilmonline.com/features/film-stuff-explained/what-is-dogme-95/

[6] http://pov.imv.au.dk/Issue_10/section_1/artc1A.html

[7] Festen (1998) Thomas Vinterberg

[8] Dancer in the Dark (2000) Lars Von Trier

[9] The idiots (1998) Lars Von Trier

TASK

Film a variety of camera shots & camera movements to assemble for an AS Film/Media studies tutorial video.

This must include:
-Close up
-Extreme close up
-Mid shot
-Long shot
-Establishing shot/Extreme long shot
-Tracking shot/dolly
-Panning
-Tilting
-Zoom
-Zolly (reverse zoom dolly)

DOGME FILMS

THE IDIOTS

FESTEN (THE CELEBRATION)





DANCER IN THE DARK

APERTURE

The aperture of the first clip was F4, which means a moderate amount of light is being let into the lens. Because the day was fairly sunny, and I was filming in a shady spot, the image did not need too much or too little light let into the lens. The effect of having it set at a wider aperture such as F4 gave the image a shallow depth of field, putting subjects directly in front of the camera in focus, and everything behind it, out of focus. This technique is used to draw attention to a subject in film.

The second clip is is F8, a smaller aperture opening, allowing less light. I chose a location that had high contrasts of light to illustrate the difference. The light behind the leaves compared to the shadows on the tree trunk indicate that less light is being let into the lens. Another effect of this is a wider depth of field than the F4. This is shown as I switch focus between the leaves(closer to lens) and the trunk(background). The switch in focus is not as bold as the F4, and at times both subjects are mostly in focus.

The final clip shows an aperture of F22 which was the smallest aperture on the camera. This extremely small aperture lets in the least amount of light and so to compensate I chose a very bright shot and switched focus between the water and the wood around it to illustrate the extremely wide depth of field. This however did not work because the subjects were so close to each other so did not accurately illustrate the wide depth of field.

If I were to do this again, I would have chosen a better subject for the final aperture, as it did not accurately show the effect of the final aperture.

SHUTTERSPEED

The shutter speed of the first clip was 1/2500. As you can see, the high shutter speed gave the image clearly defined edges while the mobile moves, although it also made the aperture higher, making the image under exposed. This high quality means that the sharp image is stuttery when filming motion sequences. The second clip is 1/50, and the aperture has compensated for the reduction in shutter speed by reducing the aperture, making the image brighter. The image is also smoother, so a screenshot of the video reveals a slight blur as it moves. The final clip is 1/30. The aperture reduction caused the clip to be so overexposed that I had to decrease the ISO. The screenshot below also shows that the image is incredibly blurry.

If I were to do this again, I would compensate for the exposure better, so as to make all the clips the same brightness. It's harder to compare the images when each is a different brightness.

Contemporary World Cinema; SHOHINI CHAUDHURI

Contemporary World Cinema

dogme95

14

Danish film movement

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Scandinavian cinema was known in the 50's predominantly for it's silent cinema, but with the advent of sound, Scandinavian cinemas international prominence declined, and it became most known for it's  art cinema. In the 1990's, Scandinavian cinema came back into the international limelight with Dogme95; the danish film collective launched by Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg.

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Dogme95 started as a collective involving four Danish Directors: Lars Von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg, and Kristian Levring. It was launched with a manifesto in 1995, although the films announced by Danish TV station Danmarks Radio in return for broadcasting rights after Von Trier's arrangement with the Danish Film Institute fell through, did not appear until a few years later. The manifesto sets ou ten filmmaking rules known as the 'vow of chastity'. These stipulate:

Location shooting using only props and sets found found on site; diegetic sound; handheld shooting using only props and sets found on site; diegetic sound; handheld cameras, with the camera following the actors rather than actors moving to where the camera is; colour film stock and natural lighting; academy 35mm format; and contemporary stories set in the here and now. They prohibit optical work and filters, 'superficial' action involving guns and murders, and genre movies. Most provocatively, they insist that 'the director must not be credited'; according to Von Trier, this is 'a punch in the face to all directors'.

So far there have been two waves of Danish Dogme films. The first consisted of films made by the founding directors; Vinterbergs Festen (1998), Von Triers The Idiots (1998), Kragh-Jacobsen's Mifune, and Levring's The King Is Alive (2000). The second wave, currently ongoing, includes Lone Scherfig's Italian For Beginners, Susanne Bier's Open Hearts (2002). Ole Christian Madsen's Kira's Reason (2001), and Åke Sandgren's Truly Human (2001).

Non-danish Dogme films have not equalled the Danish Films success, either critically or commercially. This inevitably leads to speculation that Danish Dogme films are 'founded in a specific location and sensibility' which the foreign films lack. John Orr, for example, sees Dogme's emphasis on restrictions as recalling Lutheran denial and suffering.

Dogme95 claims to be a 'rescue action' designed to counteract;certain tendencies' in cinema today. According to some reports, Contrier and Vinterberg drew up the manifesto in 'a mere 25 minutes amid gales of laughter'. Both solemn and playful, the rules are designed to provoke the film establishment and to give filmmakers fresh inspiration through the creative use of limitations. the idea that creativity can flourish when one has constraints rather than complete freedom has a long history and is shared by other filmmakers working under completely different circumstances including Abbas Kiarostami who's films must comply with strict Iranian state censorship. Removing the directors credit however, has done little to shake the auteur concept which remains attached to all dogme films.

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Dogme has become known for it's 'back to basic' realism. The Dogme filmmakers despite to force 'the truth' out to their charachter and settings, swearing to so do 'at the cost of good taste and any aestheric considerations'. Dogme's emphasis on contemporary stories, location shooting, and handheld cameras recalls Italian Neoralism, while the idea of the camera following the actors, and not vice versa, evokes American independent filmmaker John Cassavetes, whose 16mm Arriflex cameras achieved an intense intimacy with actors in films like Faces (1968).  With even more flexible camera technology, Dogme takes on emotional closeness with actors yet further. Dogme also subverts 'fly on the wall' documentary film conventions, where the cameraman is a passive observer, and makes the cameraman a participant in the action. Shaky, hyperactive camerawork and abrupt jump cuts abound in the early films, 'conveying raw, truth telling qualities' but also emphasising confusion and highlighting the limits of their 'truth capturing potential'.

Peoples idea of a legitimate film is defined by high production values, expensive special effects, established genres like science fiction, disaster movies, or thrillers involving violent, 'superficial action'. As Von Trier asserts, films like Festen lend incentives to filmmakers in other small nations, who can see that 'if that's a film, then we can make films too'. 

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When Christian reveals the family secret in he guise of a celebratory toast, the guests attempt to take it for what it pretends to be and carry on with the festivities. The effectiveness of these scenes is due partly t the casting of henning moritz, a well known danish star, against type as helge. The extras playing the guests were not told about his role as child abuser in this film, so they reveal genuine surprise or fail to register Christians news altogether. This establishes the pattern of response to his revelations: as christian opens up cracks in the polite dinner party façade, the rest of the family and the german toastmaster use dinner paty rituals - further toasts, coffee, after-dinner cigarettes, music and dancing next door - to reseal the façade and sustain appearances. When Christian makes his second charge that his father murdered his sister, his brother michael and some other guests forcibly eject him from the house. Vinterberg understand that, in this respect (of keeping a lid on things) his film has really 'touched something Danish, and that people have felt...provoked by it'. The ritual of manners only ceases to work when christians other sister Helene agrees to read lindas suicide note, which she had hidden in a pill bottle.

When Gbatokai, Helene's African American boyfriend, arrives at the party, in a taxi driven by vinterberg playing a cameo role, we learn more about the family's insularity by their attitudes to him. Michael starts up a racists danish dong to taunt him, a childrens song, which everybody know, evoking the swing toward the xenophobic far right in den marks contemporary political climate. In addition to race, Festen foregrounds class issues. The impetus for change comes from the servants, who steal the guests car keys to stop them from leaving and to ensure they hear christian out.

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With it's country house and upper middle class dinner party, festen contains more than shades of bergman, as well as lii brunels nature of bourgeois dinner rituals. It also draws heavily on Scandinavian Kammerspiel traditions. However, festens handheld home-camcorder style, with it's restless, jerky camerawork, gives it an edgy quality, introducing an amateurish desperation into the scrutiny of intimate lives. the dizzy camerawork underlines the sense of disorientation, unease and moral chaos - the loss of control in a setting where behaviour is supposed to be controlled. Operating a small digital camera, cameraman Anthony Dod Mantle mingles with the actors like an extra guest at party, sometimes physically intervening in the action. This explains the first scene when michael orders his wife, Mette and his children out of the car to make room for christian; there would indeed not be enough room with the cameraman too. Moreover, the cameraman knowledge of narrative events appears to be just as restricted as ours - he is often taken by surprise, as when the angry Mette jostles the camera.

Festens style is very confrontational. Shock cuts abound, as in the abrupt could cut when Helene screams, hits the wall and then is sick in the bathroom after her quiet decorum at the dinner table. Vinterberg comments that, in the absence of other means such as dramatic music or lighting effects, 'you just have your actors, so you have to make them faint, or puke or fight'. Fester is widely accredited as an acting triumph, but that doesn't mean other stylistic devices are redundant. For example, Dod Mantle's cinematography makes use of available light to convert the storys darkening mood. As the evening wears on and light diminishes, the pixels become increasingly visible, suggesting that the image is disintegrating just as the family falls apart. The interior scenes after christian is ejected from the house are all shot in low light conditions - as is the films psychological nadir, when michael beats up his father. Michael reacts to news of his fathers incest in the only way he knows - by assaulting him and thereby assuming his legacy.

The film also manages to tell a ghost story within the confines of the rules, thereby exceeding narrow conceptions of realism. when helene finds linda's suicide note, the film cuts to shots of Christians girlfriend Pia submerged in the bath, suggesting the drowned sisters ghostly presence. Slow motion shots and static overhead shots indicate that we are not outside the agitated viewpoint of the camerman/ guest who dominates the rest of the film. Slow motion announces linda presence again when christian collapses and hallucinates. Yet, because dogme rules forbid special effects and flashbacks, we never actually leave the here and now. A persistent ringing phone punctuates this hallucinating sequence, existing both as a reality within the hallucination - linda call to christian from the spirit world - and as the reality that wakes him, an actual telephone call from helene. Dogme does not allow superimposed titles, hence opening and closing credits must be conveyed by other means. Festen uses pieces of paper floating in water, another allusion to linda's presence outside the film.

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ISO

The first clip shows a low ISO of 200. Pausing the clip shows in detail that the image is clear and colours are defined. This is a high quality image compared to clip 2, which is an ISO of 3200. The image is quite blurry in the background from grain and after pausing you can see that the graininess affects the whole image, lowering the quality. This is because the ISO is amplifying the low light source rather than taking a natural image from an area with a prominent light source, such as the first clip which is taken outside.

If I would do this again, I would have focused better on the subjects, and used some kind of jib or tripod since using the stabiliser during editing just lowered the quality.

DOGME95

The "Vow of Chastity," is as follows:

1. Shooting must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in (if a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be chosen where this prop is to be found).
2. The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. (Music must not be used unless it occurs where the scene is being shot.)
3. The camera must be hand-held. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted.
4. The film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable. (If there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera).
5. Optical work and filters are forbidden.
6. Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden. (That is to say that the film takes place here and now).
7. Genre movies are not acceptable.
8. The film format must be Academy 35 mm.
9. The director must not be credited.

relate film to other films and to issues surrounding 

include comparative/historical/cultural analysis 

do three films

construct a logical argument, give evidence and details for the viewers

analyse evidence

short statement that sets out what it' going to do, describes the interpretation and anticipates each stage of the argument

identifies clearly my critical perspective of the topic. Indicate what the central argument is, and how that argument is important to understanding the films on that topic

include quotes and references

EDITING

In 1895 the Lumiere Brothers invented Cinematographe. The product of which was films that had scenes of long duration, usually around 3 or 4 minutes. The films were static shots of people moving along or around different locations, and didn't really tell a story. 

In 1901, Edwin S Porter released a film that was similar in that the shots were long duration, but they actually told a story. This film portrays the day of some firemen responding to a call. The use of editing in this film compares to the Lumiere brothers because it contains some of the first uses of cut ins.

In 1908 D.W Griffiths film 'money mad' used different camera angles and pace of editing for the first time. This was the first American feature film and the discovery of the close up. Lev Kuleshov coined the term The Kuleshov effect. This was essentially the invention of the montage. This technique was shown in the 1925 film 'Battleship Potemkin'.

The Moviola was invented in 1917 by Iwan Serrurier. It was originally a film projector to be sold to the general public, but it cost $600 ($20,000 modern day equivalent). He changed the design to make it a precision editing device for filmmakers. Many studios adopted the Moviola including Universal Studios, Warner Brothers, Charles Chaplin Studios, Buster Keaton Productions, Mary Pickford, Mack Sennett, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

The flatbed editor became a popular machine for film editing in the 1970's, but by the 1990's they had become almost completely obsolete due to the popularity of digital, non-linear editing.

Picture and sound rolls load onto separate motorized disks, called "plates." A prism reflects the film image onto a viewing screen, while a magnetic playback head reads the magnetic audio tracks. When the editor finds a point to cut one shot into another, he marks it on both picture and sound rolls, then makes the cut and splices in the next shot.

Offline editing is the process where an EDL (edit decision list) is created, using the bare minimum of equipment. Rough copies of the footage could be used by the offline editors to essentially create a final version of the production, ready for the online editors. One very basic method is paper and pencil editing. 

When the offline EDL is completed, it is transferred to the online editors, who then use professional editing software to complete a final edit according to the EDL from the offline editors.

The CMX 600 was the first non-linear video editing system. It was introduced in 1971 by CMX Systems, and was referred to as a "RAVE", or Random Access Video Editor. The right monitor, which played the preview video, was used by the editor to make cuts and edit decisions. The left monitor was used to display the edited video.

The CMX 600 cost $250,000 USD at its introduction. only 6 systems were manufactured. They were used to edit several television shows and commercials.

Adobe Premiere Pro is a timeline-based video editing software application. It has been used to edit feature films, such as Gone Girl, Captain Abu Raed, and Monsters. 

Premiere Pro can be used with other Adobe creative suite applications such as After Effects, photoshop, and Adobestory.

CAMERA AND LIGHTING TECHNIQUES

How and why does lighting affect camera techniques for moving image?

High quality, and well thought out lighting can mean the difference between your film looking like low budget social realism, and a big budget blockbuster. David Sterritt describes the use of elaborate lighting as part of the; "classical Hollywood style" [it] results from a cluster of principles, practices, and procedures that Hollywood studios (and others eager to emulate their financial success) have promulgated since the 1920s. Among its main characteristics are;

-Three-point lighting that maximizes the visibility and clarity of images" [1]
By describing it as a Hollywood Style, Sterritt suggests that lighting is essential to create a frame where the editing is as invisible as it is in Hollywood films.

This shot from the short film My Utopia [2] shows how the room looks normally, and how the lighting has made the frame appear. Their choice of lighting is directly affected by the shot they use in this scene. All shots are either extreme close ups from a high angle on the students, or they're this very shot below, at different levels of close ups and long shots, so as to keep the lighting on the chalkboard the same the whole time.

[2]



Each camera technique is unique and implies a different meaning to the last. The effect of a camera technique is less prevalent if the cinematography is the same through each shot. By having obvious, and artistic lighting that contrasts shot by shot, the scene not only becomes more artistic and vibrant, but the messages being conveyed are more obvious.
[4]
For instance, in this scene from True Detective, a continuous panning/tracking shot is used with no cuts. From the point that they enter the house, the lighting changes dramatically depending on which room Cohle enters. This technique is used because, had they used cuts and static cameras to show Cohle entering each room, it would have given an image of calmness and control, it would have been focusing on Cohle instead of the state of the house, and not accurately depicting the chaos and danger that a handheld tracking shot shows.

Because of the director choosing to use a tracking shot, both the drastic and subtle changes in each room had to be displayed solely from the cinematography. There's backlighting on Cohles body the whole way through, to emphasise the focus on the environment, we see his face lit up briefly as he passes through the hallway between rooms, just to give us a quick glimpse at his facial expression and a clue as to the situation from his mind. The only room in the house without low key lighting is the child's room, suggesting innocence.

This explanation of the scene through lighting is used so commonly in film because it's easy to see that dark = bad and light = good. By using exaggerated contrasts like in this sequence, every audience member can subliminally pick up on negative characters or scenes simply from the lighting. This is supported by an analysis in Cinematography theory and practice; "Take this opening frame from Punch Drunk Love. The wide and distant shot emphasises his isolation and loneliness reinforced by the colour scheme and the lack of wall decoration. The dull shapeless overhead fluorescent lighting underscores the mood and tone of the scene." [3]

1 The Films of Jean Luc Godard: Seeing the Invisible
2 http://stillmotionblog.com/lighting-with-purpose/
3 Cinematography theory and practice 2nd edition
4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_HuFuKiq8U

lighting equipment and setups for the following scenarios;

• A small documentary where portability is paramount

-LED, Adjustable/dimmable brightness Light Kit with Carrying Bag & Stands. Weighs just under 30 pounds for portability. Comes with a carrying case and softboxes that fit over the lights to diffuse them and cast an even, flattering glow on your interview subject.

-Micro-LED on-camera light. Heat Free LED, reduced fire risk. Flicker free output for continuous, smooth shots. Battery powered for portability. Lightweight and compact.

• ‘Talking head’ style interviews

-2 lamps with softboxes. One key light for the majority of the face, one fill light further away for a softer brightness to fill in the darker parts to the side.

-1 lamp without softbox on boom mic (with counterweight) that points down from behind head. This is the hair light to separate the subject from the background.

-2 lamps with barn doors, pointed at background for the backlight.

• A ‘night time’ shoot.

- 1 harsh lamp without softbox to put behind subjects out of shot as a hair light. Positioned high up and pointed down. Good for urban environments, less for rural areas.
- 1 - 2 very bright backlights for buildings or structures behind subjects to create backdrop that separates subjects from background. Best in urban area.

- 1 very dim key light near camera, pointed at faces, only to make sure faces aren't completely in shadow.