FORM, CONTENT, and MEANING

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FORM, CONTENT, and MEANING

• Art within Physical and Psychological Spaces

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COMPOSITION

• We have already determined that COMPOSITION
  determines how and what your viewer will observe
  within the frame
• COMPOSITION and FRAME are both considered forms
• In film, the main concerns of form are distance
  and space and how they apply to the viewer
  psychologically

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PERSONAL SPACE

• In real-life, personal space is culturally
  defined
• Closeness is a psychological concept

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PERSONAL SPACE IN ART

• In ART, distance is set up by the artist
• The viewer has no control over their personal
  space because the artist is deciding how
  physically close the viewer is to the subject
  matter!

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3 BASIC DISTANCES IN FILM
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LONG SHOT

• a composition where the subject matter is
  usually small, far from the camera, surrounded by
  large amounts of information about the
  environment and surroundings

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MEDIUM / MID SHOT

• subject matter is closer to camera, usually
  occupying about half the frame (if a person is
  the subject, typically he or she is seen from the
  waist up)

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CLOSE UP

• in a close up the subject typically fills the
  frame and very little of the environment is
  visible

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NERVOUS MAN IN A FOUR DOLLAR ROOM

• As we watch Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room
  again, think about the concept of distance and
  space
• When you see a Distance Composition happening on
  screen, call it out Close Up! Long Shot! Etc.

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• When did you, as an audience, feel most likely to
  share this characters feelings? When did you
  empathize, or feel sorry for him?
• When were you most likely to judge him, make
  decisions about him, or be more intellectual
  about the situation?

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THE BASIC FILM DISTANCES AS PSYCHOLOGICAL AND
EMOTIONAL INDICATORS
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LONG SHOT

• in the Long Shot, the viewers emotional and
  empathy levels are down and the audience is prone
  to be intellectual and analytical about the image
  or situation depicted in the artwork

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CLOSE UP

• in the Close Up, where the subject fills the
  frame and distance between subject and viewer has
  been closed, the viewers emotional levels have
  been raised - the intellectual is DOWN and the
  empathy is UP

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THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

• The final showdown sequence in Sergio Leones The
  Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is very famous for
  its manipulation of aesthetic distance, or the
  use of the psychological connotations of Long,
  Medium, and Close Up composition forms
• As we watch the segment, think about what it is
  the filmmaker is attempting to accomplish by
  deliberately manipulating the distance between
  the viewer and the subject matter

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• Visual structure of a film is based on the design
  of a series of aesthetic distances
• Different types of shots / compositions have very
  different meanings for an audience

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FORM GIVES MEANING TO CONTENT!

• The MEANING of WHAT YOU SHOW is determined by HOW
  YOU SHOW IT!

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• Form and Content are equally valid to structure
  of a film
• Form is harder to understand, however, because it
  is usually used AGAINST you as a viewer
• The viewer gets caught up in the emotional
  connotations of the forms and forgets that what
  they are experiencing is not real, which is the
  basis for

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WILLING SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF!