Film Art an Introduction 10th Edition Chapter 1
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Through reading this book I've discovered why modern movie
Found this book in a pile of discarded books and picked it up because the cover was compelling, and I know nothing about the art and science of movie-making. I'm rather glad I did because this was an excellent introduction into the field, with a nice balance of both application and theory and wide range of content covered from mainstream Hollywood to obscure experimental films, and from silent classics to modern digitally recorded cinema.Through reading this book I've discovered why modern movies leave me cold, compared to past ones; something I've never really really been able to put my finger on in a technical way. Now I know it's because the pace of cutting between cameras has doubled over the past few decades, leaving everything, even non-action movies, having something of a frenetic ADD sort of feel. Also, modern movies are made with television and DVD releases in mind, making camera work focus more on close-ups and a set form of easily partitioned scenes rather than grand-tableau long-shots and theatrically inspired middle shots. Now I know this, I have better idea of what in mind to look for when sorting out new releases to view.
While I'm not particularly interested in film criticism, either consuming it or producing it; and this book is geared towards a pedagogical inculcation of formalist principles of film criticism, there is much that everyone who is interested in watching movies, or making movies can glean from this textbook. Even if you're just making youtube videos for fun, reading this would give you a lot of technical aesthetic tools for making your videos seem a lot more polished with no extra time or money cost other than changing the way you handle your cameras and your lighting. If making an small indie movie is your goal, well, the chapter on the business end of movie making and production will likely put something of a reality check on your ambitions (take the time and money you think you will need and double it). Even I didn't know how many specialists skills it takes to make a movie to completion and then distribute it.
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It's not a manual book of film techniques. Yet it does encompass that issues from an artsy point of view. This book discusses elements of films (e.g., shots, lighting, color, mood, tone, narrative, plots, acts, genres, hollywood era, and many more), precisely on how they constitue the overall l
Film Art was my first book on film studies. I was not yet an avid film students by then, but this book captured my interest so deep as then it made me impatiently waiting for my future film-study classes.It's not a manual book of film techniques. Yet it does encompass that issues from an artsy point of view. This book discusses elements of films (e.g., shots, lighting, color, mood, tone, narrative, plots, acts, genres, hollywood era, and many more), precisely on how they constitue the overall look as well as meaning of a film. The vast explanations on every chapters are very informative for freshies in film study as they can understand film and the elements deeper than common viewers.
I think, after readers dwell on this book, they won't see the film as they were. Their mind will questioned and analyzed the effectiveness and the appropriateness of the elements on films.
In short, when I was a film student I found this book helped me a lot in shaping my film's critical skills. It was a great companion while I worked trough my weekly film journals.
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I was first introduced to first edition of the text way back in the late 1970s when it was smaller
Anyone with an interest in film or who likes to watch movies with an understanding of the processes that involve filmmaking, will get something from this excellent edition of a text book that has become the staple of film studies in a formal educational setting. Film Art: An Introduction (Eighth Edition) by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson is an excellent updating of a great film resource text.I was first introduced to first edition of the text way back in the late 1970s when it was smaller and contained fewer color pictures. The new Eighth Edition has color plates throughout, updated filmography and a CD-ROM disc addition, what the book blurb touts as "text-specific Tutorial CD-ROM with video clips", that greatly enhances the depth and applicability of the subject for the cineaste, the casual reader, and the student. About letter-size 11 inches by 8 and a half, but with the glossy pages containing a very generous selection of film stills, weighing in at 4 pounds (this is more than some of the new laptops), it is substantial but the size makes holding papers in between the pages quite convenient.
Comprehensive in scope, and structured to cover the industry as well as aesthetic concerns of film and newer media developments in video, Film Art is set up in six parts with a total of 12 chapters.
Part One, Film Art and Filmmaking, Chapter 1 "Film as Art: Creativity, Technology, and Business", is a good introduction in which the authors talk about the basic activity surrounding film. An overview of the major film companies and distributors as well as some perspective on the collaborative creativity involved from many diverse areas such as financing, marketing, and art direction, planning, and others, complete this section. What holds the viewer interested in Comparative Literature or a Post-Modernist evaluation of Film is primarily attended to in Part Two, Film Form, in which the authors discuss the principles a filmmaker uses to construct a film.
Chapter 2 "The Significance of Film Form", covers form of a film and the significance of how it compares against the content in a film, and ultimately what those elements mean. There is a breakdown of the structural properties of The Wizard of Oz, as an example, and how the elements used in the movie are designed to create meaning.
Chapter 3 "Narrative as a Formal System", covers what narrative is, ultimately defining the concept as a cause-and-effect chain of events occurring over a period of time. The authors talk about the films like Citizen Kane and others that manipulate time duration, and causality to create meaning. My favorite section is Part Three Film Style, because it covers a number of aesthetic elements and gives good examples that exist in current films and examples as well from historical artifacts.
In Chapter 4 "The Shot: Mise-en-scene", the Bordwell and Thompson talk about the elusive French term and what it encompasses, covering two of my favorite films His Girl Friday, and 81/2. The section also discusses camera set ups and how the actor, and virtually everything that the camera sees is part of the mise en scene.
Chapter 5 "Cinematography" covers details of focal length, lens selection, and lab work like 'pushing' film in development to get more contrast, and is well explicated for the photographer who used film stock and development procedures to hone his craft. My interest is in putting together a complete visual picture and in Chapters 6 and 7 Bordwell and Thompson cover these elements clearly.
In Chapter 6 "The Relation of Shot to Shot: Editing", covering LA Confidential, The Birds, The Maltese Falcon and others, the authors talk about how editing shots together can create a pace and effect the viewer. This section has the most primal value to the film viewer who ultimately looks to the movie itself when analyzing film. I believe that the visual medium of filmmaking holds the meaning that so much theory attempts to uncover- Bordwell and Thompson seem to be at their strongest when evaluating purely visual value of movies aside from the theory.
One of the most overlooked elements in student films is discussed in Chapter 7 "Sound and the Cinema", in which the authors talk about sound bridges, how sound can add focus to scene and in particular how sound in Jackie Brown adds meaning to the film.
Another of my favorite sections is Chapter 8 "Style as a Formal System" which covers how many combined elements such as mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing and sound are combined by a filmmaker to develop a style. The authors talk about how style is plastic to the filmmaker and what it means to the viewer.
Again the elusive elements are well highlighted by the authors as they draw on visual examples to make their points. Part Four, Types of Films, covering Film Genres and Documentary, Experimental, and Animated Films, explicating what Genre is, and how to analyze a genre is a good section for the archivist or one who is interested in classifications. The section covers the Western, Horror, Musical and talks about the ultimate social function of genre.
Part Five Critical Analysis of Films, Chapter 11, "Film Criticism: Sample Analyses", with an Appendix on page 431 which covers how to organize your thinking in terms of writing about Film, with fine sample writing. I have turned to this section time and again to get a good understanding of how to think through a movie in terms of lighting, acting, art direction, camera movement, cinematography, direction and other possible discussion points such as political themes, feminist point of view, or even marketing concepts. Bordwell and Thompson excel in putting forth fine ideas, and generously, for the reader.
Part Six Film History, Chapter 12, "Film Art and Film History" looks at early cinema the Hollywood Cinema, Soviet Montage, French New Wave, Italian Neorealism and others and as an overview, covers many of the historical movements of film. This chapter also contains facts concerning the Asian market. Every chapter concludes with "Where to go From Here" a selection of current places to expand one's understanding and education of film and movie-making industry.
Page 472 at the end of the book continues this pattern with additional available texts from General through to French and Italian and up to the New Hollywood and Independent Filmmaking, and Contemporary Hong Kong Cinema.
The CD-ROM included covers many films with sample quizzes that allow the viewer to really just dust off his understanding of certain films and get in synch with the lexicon that the authors utilize to communicate film art. This is a great buy for anyone who love movies.
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One interesting thing about film is that
A fairly decent but not great book on film art, this book is more about the technical aspects of moviemaking and the history of film than seeking to find what makes film great or even art at all. So it comes across as large informative rather than enlightening. I've read many books on film and am a tremendous "Criterion" cinephile, really my point in reading a currently used college textbook was to find out what I didn't know, and there were a few things.One interesting thing about film is that there doesn't seem to be much consensus as to what constitutes great art in film, or why a film might be considered better than another, part of it may be that film is such a collaborative effort, with so many rich components. Although the director may be the auteur, other parties play a role. This book does a pretty good job walking through the various aspects of film, but it's very topical, and not very good at integrating ideas.
It has some nicely presented and helpful examples and film stills, but these aren't particularly great.
Overall, a decent book, maybe more on an introductory level, but it does mention tons of films, many mediocre, which makes it difficult to follow, so I'm not sure if I would recommend it to anyone. The highlight for me anyway was it's treatment of the movie "Chungking Express" which recently saw for the first time.
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My main criticism of the book is the format of 1) stills from a film and 2) associated sentences or paragraphs of text explaining what the reader should be learning.
This format leaves something to be desired when talking about the pacing or tempo of a film, an essential aspect of experie
A decent textbook focussed on different aspects of how to analyze a film – definitions and discussions of what constitutes narrative in film, examinations of the roles of editing/cinematography/lighting choice –My main criticism of the book is the format of 1) stills from a film and 2) associated sentences or paragraphs of text explaining what the reader should be learning.
This format leaves something to be desired when talking about the pacing or tempo of a film, an essential aspect of experiencing a film (I must think of some good examples!)
Very good bibliographies at the end of each chapter – this book has gotten me reading many other books and articles about film by Ingmar Bergman, Andrei Tarkovsky, François Truffaut, Lotte Eisner, Siegfried Kracauer, Bruce Kawin, Bill Nichols and many more.
Also be advised: at least in my copy (8th edition), the included CD-ROM does not function properly unless your computer has a PowerPC processor.
I look forward to learning about more recent editions of this book!
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Gives you a nice repertoire for analysing the structure of different kinds of cinema, from the very beginning with the Lumière's train, up through the silent era and beyond, including experimental films, animated films, and documentaries. What bothers me most about the book, is that it's a textbook that happens to be about a subject I like. As a result, it's a bit bland in its descriptions, especially if you know some basic things about the art before you delve in.
Bordwell/Thomps
Read for schoolGives you a nice repertoire for analysing the structure of different kinds of cinema, from the very beginning with the Lumière's train, up through the silent era and beyond, including experimental films, animated films, and documentaries. What bothers me most about the book, is that it's a textbook that happens to be about a subject I like. As a result, it's a bit bland in its descriptions, especially if you know some basic things about the art before you delve in.
Bordwell/Thompson usually go in depth about _one_ film every chapter, and use it as an example of the chapter's subject. It's worth noting that if I hadn't seen the film (like Hitchcock's 'The Birds', which was used as one point of analysis), it was practically useless, even with the in-depth plot recap and pictures to follow along. And it's understandable, the mediums beauty lies in the medium, which cannot be re-imagined in book-form. Therefore, I think the authors should have removed some of the padding catering to analysis of the films and just outright state that they expect you to have seen the film to able to follow along, it would have made the pacing of the book that much better. I just ended up skimming through the boring parts anyway, but I don't like it, because I become fearful that I miss something important.
My favourite things about the book, was that it was open for different interpretations of film – there wasn't a right or a wrong way. What they did, was to help you along the way by explaining the general tools films use in regards to convey a narrative in a way the audience finds natural, and pulls in examples of directors who deliberately does the opposite. It is clear that the authors holds an enormous library of film history within their minds, which makes you pick up several good film suggestions, as well as you are likely to read about some of your favourites. I'm a bit disappointed they dedicated so much time to golden-era Hollywood films, as I'm not generally a fan of them myself, but it's understandable as they laid the foundations for most of the narrative feature films you see to this day.
As a textbook, it is useful, but if I were to read about film in my spare time, I think I would have searched for something a bit more unique and opinionated personally.
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This text needs more headings and signaling of what will be discussed where.
paragraphs will contain two partially related Ideas separated by a string of examples. you have to work harder to get the relevant information that you would have to work if the book was better organized.
I bought a used copy
Very informative, but could be better organized. I learned a lot, but unless I take notes and then sort the Information it is unlikely to stick to my brain because the organization isn't intuitive.This text needs more headings and signaling of what will be discussed where.
paragraphs will contain two partially related Ideas separated by a string of examples. you have to work harder to get the relevant information that you would have to work if the book was better organized.
I bought a used copy of an old edition of this textbook because it was cheap. two years later, you can probably pick up a later edition and it will likely be worth the update histories
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The descriptions of many films are given in excruciating detail, sometimes for no particular reason, and that made it difficult to read the book the whole way through instead of skimming certain bits. Many chapters felt incredibly repetitive and frankly didn't need so many examples to illustrate the point. The part about the history of the cinema was very surfa This was a CHORE. To be fair, it's a textbook and it reads like one. Don't look for any of the authors' personality between these pages.
The descriptions of many films are given in excruciating detail, sometimes for no particular reason, and that made it difficult to read the book the whole way through instead of skimming certain bits. Many chapters felt incredibly repetitive and frankly didn't need so many examples to illustrate the point. The part about the history of the cinema was very surface level and insubstantial (and the authors said as much) to the point that it almost made no sense to have it in the book, especially since the same authors already have a separate book dealing with this topic.
However, it gives the reader a bigger picture of the industry and the art form if they never systemised their knowledge about them. Although, to be honest, I don't know who this book's target audience is, since it's too basic for anyone already interested in film and chosing it as a career, but too dry and almost academic for a laywoman like myself. ...more
This book has been around and is highly influential. It seems like every other film textbook has copped its structure, examples, and terminology, yet dropping the clarity and precision of the original. Whatever your feelings on neoformalism, Bordwell is an actual thinker and he sticks to his paradigm through every chapter.
The function-based analysis is very easy to explain but can be
This book is very good. I used it to teach a film class this semester after comparing it to another standard text.This book has been around and is highly influential. It seems like every other film textbook has copped its structure, examples, and terminology, yet dropping the clarity and precision of the original. Whatever your feelings on neoformalism, Bordwell is an actual thinker and he sticks to his paradigm through every chapter.
The function-based analysis is very easy to explain but can be very hard for students to actually apply in their coursework. It demands that you respond with an active argument: the style of framing in this scene serves this narrative function... serves this stylistic function. Everything does something. It's tricky for people who are used to passive media consumption, though it seems like that's exactly the skill you should expect to develop in a film appreciation class.
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My other supplemental textbook to my intro course for film studies. This textbook has many examples of different techniques used throughout film history. Really great stuff for those interested in the subject and even those who only have a passing interest.
If you're a film dork, it's an informative, instructive read.
A quick word about form. This is the first textbook I've read in a long time, and I was impressed by its utility - its ability to select and explain. Brand new this is an expensive book, but the ability to buy it at far less than full price are legion. And if you choose one of these you get a lot of book for your money, not least probably around 1,000 film stills, many in colour. Without some people having to buy the full price version I doubt the whole thing would be viable. ...more
I was quite pleasantly surprised by the depth of analysis provided in the book of countless films. The subtitle "An Introduction" is pretty misleading in that I found it pretty comprehensive in its attention to detail with its analysis of certain aspects of films from lighting down
I've gone through film school, like a real production course and professionally work in lighting for film & TV now when I decided to dust off my old copy from my first year of film school to pick up where I left off.I was quite pleasantly surprised by the depth of analysis provided in the book of countless films. The subtitle "An Introduction" is pretty misleading in that I found it pretty comprehensive in its attention to detail with its analysis of certain aspects of films from lighting down to acting in a very accessible way, even as someone that has worked on about 5 feature films in the lighting department myself.
It helps someone getting into film studies into the mind of a director and critic, to consider all aspects of production that led to what you see on screen and inspire a passion for cinema that you may have forgotten about if you only browse the trending category on Netflix these days.
I ended up adding about 100 films to my watchlist by the time I closed the cover 7 years after I bought this book for film school as part of a reading list I was given; which is not bad considering I've spent the last 7 years actively watching about 700 films, mostly to enhance my vocabulary when working collaboratively with a cinematographer on a film set. Looking forward to watching some others I missed in my favourite genres.
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Comprehensive, un-stuffy and painless introduction to the world of films. All the various techniques and how they've been (maybe still are) used.
(note I read a _very_ early [possibly "obsolete"] edition of this book - I doubt it made any difference though, as while later editions seemingly expand the content
Reread (mainly because I was looking for something and the index is not all that comprehensive [and besides, what I was looking for turned out to be in a different book by the same author])Comprehensive, un-stuffy and painless introduction to the world of films. All the various techniques and how they've been (maybe still are) used.
(note I read a _very_ early [possibly "obsolete"] edition of this book - I doubt it made any difference though, as while later editions seemingly expand the content and include some of the very recent techniques, the overall organization and thrust is apparently very much the same)
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Film Art an Introduction 10th Edition Chapter 1
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