Short Film (Story Elements)

Character- talented female painter, doesn’t give up, works hard

Setting- Painting room

Obstacle- her mother doesn’t support her, discouraging her

Relationship- mother daughter

Time- present, flashbacks

Backstory- her mother used to be a painter but she wasn’t successful, resents art and now believes is a waste of time

Unknown- why her mother doesn’t support her

Discovery- daughter discovers her mother’s past

Goal- get her mother to support her

Mood- frustrated, depressed, but inspired

Scene	Dramatic Intent
1) she’s painting in her room and when her mother enters and sees her painting, she gets upset and tells her to do something productive. Throws the artwork to the garbage and leaves.	To show that her mother is against her painting and believes it’s a waste of time
2)the daughter takes her artwork out of the garbage can and looks at it. It seems wrinkled, then puts it under her bed and we see she has many more wrinkled artworks under the bed.	To demonstrate that this is not the first time she has to rescue her artwork from the garbage. But also to portray the character as passive and calm.
3) At Dinning table, they don’t talk, the sound only comes from the dishes. They don’t look in the eye.	show their relationship
4)The daughter finds an article about her mother where it says how at an art gallery exhibition no showed up, it was empty	Reveal why her mother doesn’t like her painting.
5) We go back to that moment (flashback). We live the moment.	To connect with the audience and male them care for these characters.
6) Shot of the mother when she was young and she was adjusting the latest details before her exhibition. Her face shows happiness, excitement. Hours go by and almost no one shows up. Her face now shows disappointment. She starts to rip off her paints and desperately cries.	Show the pain her mother went through and understand her position.
7) We go back to actual time period. Her mother sees her with the article. She confronts her and they talk about that event. The daughter tries to convince her to accept her art, but the mother just rips off the article indicating that she will never accept it.	Realize that some events hurt too much to let them go and move on. Not every story has a happy ending.

Soviet Montage and Realism

Both the Man with a Movie Camera and the Bicycle Thief are an example of Tradition of Formalism, however, they different in the techniques used. The Man with a Moving Camera is an example of Pudovkin and Eisenstein's idea of Constructive editing in formalism. They believed that the meaning was created by the juxtaposition rather than the shots. In their perspective the artistry lies not on the materials, but in the way they are taken apart and put back together. For example from 1:23 to 1:56 the empty chairs is one concept and the people coming into the theater is another. 

By contrasting the two a new meaning is created. It emphasizes that the people like going to the theater because all the chairs are being used, one by one, but eventually the theater is full.

 This scene also shows how the chairs and people are not what create the meaning, but the edit is. By putting together these shots you are creating something beyond the images; you are putting meaning to the scene.  In addition, the close-up shots obligate the audience to look at a specific shot provoking a particular emotion. For instance, 3:42 to 4:19 you see young kids sleeping on the street and later the contrast shot of the houses tell a story, provoking sadness in the audience. It shows how even though there are many houses innocent young kids have no where to sleep, which is an example of reality.







However,  Andre Bazin disapproved of constructive cutting because he believed it destroyed the effectiveness of the scene. He thought reality in film was accomplished through long shots, wide screen, lengthy takes, and deep focus, instead of individual shots. For example, (0:00 to 0:15) shows the man walking with his son, there are no cuts, the camera follows them creating a sense of realism.

Another lengthy take (1:02-1:21) shows the indecision going through the man's head; he doesn't know if he should go for the bicycle or not and decides to sit for a moment. The audience understands the confusion without any cutting or use of different angles. In addition, when he's sitting down the audience has the power to choose who to focus on; the man or the boy. This concept of allowing the audience to chose who to look at relates more to realism because that's what people do when they're on the street.
The wide shot is not forcing an emotion, on the contrary it gives freedom to feel different emotions. Although in most of the film there almost no individual shots, the few individual shots like in 6:18 to 6:40 are so powerful. Bazin says it's okay to use individual shots only if you need to portray an emotion of isolation, sadness. In this case the shot of the father shows his shame and sorrow and then the shot of the kid demonstrates his emotions, mostly sadness. But the moment the kids grabs his father's hand it creates a strong meaning. It implies that he's not alone; he supports his father no matter what. And then it goes back to a full shot to close the scene.

Realism/Classicism/Formalism Paradigm

Matrix Reloaded (click title to watch clip)
Formalism- This clip is a clear example of formalism because it manipulates time and space several times during this scene. For instance, at 1:10; when he jumps on the hood of the car. Everything slows down, it seems unreal but it’s purpose it to highlight the impact of the jump. Then everything suddenly speed up and that's putting back what was taken away previously which is speed. Furthermore, after he jumps to the car we see a reaction shot of a passenger indicating how scare he is. This is called constructive cutting because the meaning is creating through juxtaposition. Continuing with the scene, next we see the first car he jumped crashed in slow motion, in an unrealistic time period and space.

Spider Man (click title to watch clip)
Classicism- this concept is about cutting to continuity (type of editing that tries to show fluidity of an event without literary showing it. For this scene, when spider-man tells the girl to get out of there because the monster is coming, several shots from different angles are shown. These shots combined form a bigger picture and show what is really happening without using an extreme long shot to show it. It's cut and put it together to explain the scene.There is also classical cutting, which is cutting for dramatically intensity and emotional emphasis rather than just physical reasons. The shots of the girl hidden in the closest and the shots of the monster outside the closest emphasize the panic she feels. It's not just cutting to change angle, but it's purpose it to portray emotion. 

God Loves Admiration (click title to watch clip)
Realism- is a continues shot. It's all about sequence edit meaning there are no edits or cuts at all. The purpose of this is to create a sense of reality. In this video the two women are having a conversation while walking around. The camera just follows them and provides on single perspective, which is the only perspective anyone in real life can have. This shots is long and slow which fits the tone of the conversion.