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Animal «Actors»

For scenes in which animals must perform, specially trained animal «actors» appear. These animals obey commands from their trainer while being filmed. In many cases, multiple animals appear in the same part, because of long hours of filming or because the animal grows or changes in appearance or in some other way during a filming schedule. Animals that act in films range from ducks to elephants. Memorable roles played by animals include the dog Lassie (in «Lassie Come Home», 1943), the dog Benji (in «Benji», 1974), and the pig Babe (in «Babe», 1995).

Director of Photography

The director of photography (DP), also known as the cinematographer, works closely with the director and interprets the action of the story in terms of light, shade, composition, and camera movement. Other responsibilities include selecting the type of lens to be used for a shot, which influences the appearance of the image, and determining the camera’s position and angle. The DP rarely operates the camera directly; this function usually falls to a camera operator.

Cameraman

The cameraman is the most important person among film technicians. Film-making being a collective effort people of many professions take part in creating the picture. Among them are film artists and technicians. And the chief cameraman, or as he is sometimes called, the director of photography must be both.

The aim of the collective effort of screen-writers, directors, artdirectors, actors, cameramen and others is getting a photographic image on a strip of transparent film fit for being projected on to the screen. This aim can't be achieved without the participation of the cameraman. On the other hand, it is only the cameraman, who can do this without any other film worker. He can produce a film all by himself, acting as director, photographer, and editor all in one. So, very much depends on the skill of the cameraman in getting to the screen the mood decided upon by the director of the film. The cameraman can do this by lighting the scenes in the proper key and using special photographic effects. He can vary the depth of the field or the size of the image by correct camera placement or by changing the lenses. He can speed up or slow down

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the action. He can shoot an action from different angles – from below or above, from the back, the front or the side. He can use double or multiple exposures. He can fix the attention of the audience on any subject he wishes. But all this camera technique has been developed only by experimenting and has been perfected with time.

Designers

The production designer, sometimes called the art director, is responsible for the set designs and the overall look of the film. In some films, creating sets involves a great deal of work. For example, a realistic Western may call for the construction of the façade of an entire main street, along with the interiors of a saloon, hotel, and other buildings. The clothing that the actors wear also contributes to the look of a film, so the costume designer is a key member of the production team. He or she designs appropriate costumes or searches out vintage clothing in stores or costume houses. Additional designers deal with lighting, makeup, and other visual aspects of the production.

Assistant Directors

Most motion pictures have at least one assistant director (AD). The ADs assist the director in almost every task. The highest-ranking AD, called the first AD, has several duties. He or she creates the overall shooting schedule, which lists the days for filming each scene, and manages many of the day-to- day problems that arise on the set. Each day the first AD also submits the following day’s call sheet (schedule for cast and crew) to the UPM and the director for approval. And the first AD works with the director during shooting, assisting in the preparation for each shot. The second AD assists the first AD by getting the cast and crew to the right places at the right times, looking after extras (people who appear in the background to lend reality to the film), and taking care of many of the details involved in preparing for the next day’s filming.

Film and Sound Editors

Motion pictures are filmed in hundreds of brief shots, which must be arranged into a final product that fulfills the vision of the director and producer. This responsibility falls to the editor. The editor first screens each day’s film footage (called dailies or rushes) for the director and key members of the crew. Preparation of the dailies continues throughout the production period,

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meaning that the film is being edited at the same time that it is being shot. Screening the dailies enables the director and producer to choose the best shots and to decide if they need to reshoot any scenes for technical or artistic reasons. After the principal filming is done, the editor finishes the editing of the film and supervises optical effects (such as freeze-frames) and titles that are to be inserted into the motion picture.

The director, producer, or editor also may decide that parts of the film have inferior sound quality. A sound editor then re-records the actors’ voices in these scenes. The actors speak the lines in the studio while viewing the scene on-screen, in a process called automatic dialogue replacement (ADR). Sound editors also add recorded sound effects to complete an environment for the film. For example, if a scene takes place on a city street, the editors may add honking horns and other appropriate background traffic noises. One of the final steps in the editing process is the preparation and mixing of the separate sound tracks so that all the tracks – dialogue, music, and sound effects – are blended together to create a seamless unified sound experience for the audience.

Music Composer

The composer works with the director and editor to create a musical score that provides transitions between scenes and an emotional point of view for scenes and the film as a whole. Music is often used to enhance the dramatic content. For example, music can identify a person as suspicious when there is nothing visible on the screen to suggest such a characteristic.

Other Positions

In addition to the positions listed above, many other people take part in movie production. Foley artists help create background or peripheral noises, such as footsteps. A gaffer supervises electrical work and is assisted by the best boy. The key grip supervises the grips, who set up and adjust production equipment on the set. The production sound mixer supervises the sound recording during a shoot, and the sound mixer puts together all the sound for the final track by adjusting volume, fading noises in and out, and creating any other necessary audio effects. Depending on a movie’s genre and budget, it can require many other professionals, including assistants, carpenters, drivers, etiquette coaches, historical consultants, housing coordinators, medics, and so on.

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Notes:

1.to be on hand – иметься, быть налицо;

2.to do either under his supervision or with his close cooperation –

выполнять под его руководством или в тесном сотрудничестве;

3.to be marked by somebody – быть отмеченным кем-то;

4.to rely on somebody – полагаться, рассчитывать на кого-либо;

5.to depend on something – зависеть от чего-либо;

6.multiple animals – разнообразные животные;

7. foley artist – (назван в честь изобретателя данного метода) – это специалист, который добавляет звуковые эффекты (например, захлопывание двери, шум дождя) во время завершающего этапа процесса звукозаписи.

THE ART OF TELEVISION

At first television as a medium was considered to be little different from film. But, although television was a hungry user of film, it needed film in forms that differed from those required by the theatres.

The difference between film and television as art forms stemmed from the physical and financial conditions governing production, distribution, and exhibition. The relationships between the media and their publics were also different. The initial difference lies in the cameras and their function in production. The film camera supplies a record on celluloid in the form of a twodimensional image, which, suitably edited, can be subsequently projected onto a screen. The television camera accepts and makes available for immediate transmission a two-dimensional image that remains unrecorded and passes with the event, like the image in a mirror (though this image can be recorded on film or videotape by using additional equipment). The film camera is associated with a lengthy effort of photographing, cutting, editing, and dubbing – an elaborate process of selection and assembly that may involve months of work. Although television images may also be stored and edited through videotape, the essential television form is the immediate transmission to the public of events occurring at the moment – political and social events, news summaries, commentary, and discussion.

The basic art of television is the control of this immediate flow of images. They can be preselected insofar as the cameras may be set up at chosen

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vantage points; after that, however, the director must select among the images they give him. The director-editor uses his skill to secure an immediately effective flow of images from the multiple viewpoints his cameras and their lenses collectively represent. In the film the same end is achieved by the quite different process of fragmenting and recording the action piecemeal, thus creating a succession of images that can be subsequently put together by editing and dubbing.

Those who first struggled with the practical aesthetics of television attempted to see the medium on the one hand as a kind of visual radio and on the other as a form of «diluted cinema,» a rather poor cousin of the theatrical film. This was in part because they came either from radio or from filmmaking and saw the medium in relation to their previous occupations. Writers, directors, and performers from radio tended at first to reduce the television image to a «talking head,» with the addition of occasional still pictures, film clips, or cut-ins from other broadcasting stations. This was especially the case in countries in which television initially lacked adequate financing and directors could not afford costly pictorialization. On the other hand, personnel coming from filmmaking were appalled at the speed with which they were required to prepare and mount their television programs.

Television differs most from film in its relationship to the audience. The film is an event designed for a theatre with an audience specially assembled for the performance. Television, on the other hand, resembles a private performance in the home. The attitude of a person sitting perhaps alone and often for hours on end before a comparatively small picture screened in the familiar surroundings of his living room is quite different from that of a person who has gone out to share the special audience experience of a theatre. Whereas one is absorbed by a good film in a theatre to the exclusion of all else, one merely «watches» television. Television is like a talking picture magazine, going on daily and nightly, asking little, giving out along with its entertainment a quantity of easily assimilated information ranging from formal news coverage to informal, gossipy discussions of the lighter affairs of the day.

Television also differs from film with respect to its visual impact. In the movie theatre a highly magnified image fills the central part of the field of vi-

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sion in an otherwise darkened hall, exciting curiosity and response to a degree far beyond that obtained by a standard-size television screen in a relatively undarkened, and much smaller, living room. Skilled viewers in the movie theatre perceive and appreciate an astonishing amount of detail. In comparing television, however, one has only to watch a film produced for big-screen theatre to realize the limitations of the small television screen, in which the actors, speakers, or commentators must occupy most of the visual field.

Notes:

1.an elaborate process of selection and assembly – тщательное проду-

манный процесс выбора и монтажа;

2.the essential television form – важнейшая функция телевидения;

3.visual impact – визуальное воздействие;

4.easily assimilated information – легко усваиваемая информация;

5.to stem from something – быть результатом чего-либо.

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III. SHOOTING A MOTION PICTURE

GENERAL FILMING PROCESS

A development stage precedes production. In this stage, the screenwriter writes the script and the producer hires the director and key actors, prepares a budget and shooting schedule, and raises the necessary funds to pay for the production.

The next stage, preproduction, involves the remaining preparatory work before production begins. During preproduction, the producer approves the final version of the script, the rest of the cast and crew members are hired, and shooting locations are finalized. The director, assistant director, unit production manager, and producer plan the sequence for shooting the individual scenes. If possible, the actors hold rehearsals. The producer, director, and designers work together to outline the visual look of the film – how the scenes will be staged, set construction and decoration, costumes, makeup and hair design, and lighting.

When preproduction is completed, production can begin. A movie is filmed scene by scene, and a scene is filmed shot by shot. These scenes and shots are not usually filmed in the order that they appear in the film. This is because filming depends on factors such as weather conditions, actors' availability, and the set-construction schedule. Scenes that involve large, complicated sets often are filmed near the end of the shooting schedule, because these sets take longer to be completed. Sets can be elaborate. In «Titanic», for example, the filmmakers built major interior rooms such as the grand staircase and dining saloon over a 19 million liter (5 million gallon) tank of water. The sets were supported by hydraulic systems that lowered them into the water to simulate the sinking of the ship.

Preparing for a film shot involves five main operations: The art department and property master prepare the set furnishings and the props the actors will use; the actors run through their lines and movements; the director of photography selects and arranges the lights; the camera operator rehearses the various camera angles and movements to be used in the shot; and the sound crew determines the volume level and placement of microphones. The director oversees and coordinates all these activities.

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Each filmed shot is called a take. For complicated shots such as battlefield sequences, the director may use multiple cameras to minimize the number of takes. Even with multiple cameras, however, the director may require many takes before he or she is satisfied. After each take the director confers with the camera operator and production sound mixer. If the director is pleased by the performances and if the camera and sound work are good, the director instructs that the take be printed. If it is not good, it is not printed.

In high-budget productions that involve complicated scenes, it is customary to film an entire sequence in one long master shot, which includes all the major action. Cover shots are brief shots that, edited into the master shot, give the scene proper dramatic emphasis and meaningful detail from moment to moment. Cover shots include close-ups, medium shots, long shots, tracking shots (shots in which the camera is moving while filming), and panning shots (shots in which the camera swivels while filming). Shooting this array of shots is called shooting coverage. Each cover shot, however minor, necessitates a new camera setup and a new placement of lights, microphones, and actors. Action from shot to shot must always match when edited into the film. For example, if the heroine has set down a glass with her left hand in the master shot, she must not set it down with her right hand in a close-up.

At the end of the day, the shots that the director likes are printed. The following day, the director, producer, cinematographer, and editor look at these dailies. During these screenings the director and editor begin to assemble shots into scenes and the scenes into a sequence. Early versions of sequences, or early cuts, often contain alternative takes for certain shots. As the director and editor make final decisions during the editing process, they eliminate the extra takes, so that the structure of the final picture emerges in the form of a rough cut. Then, as scenes are polished and transitions smoothed, the rough cut gradually becomes the first cut.

During the postproduction work, the director and editor solve problems. For example, if a shot went out of focus for a moment in a close-up, they may cover the lapse by cutting to a medium shot if they do not have another satisfactory take of the close-up. While editing the first cut, the director weighs the editor’s recommendations but keeps the overall plan of the picture in mind. The producer also contributes, especially when the director and editor are considering reshooting scenes; this may cause the picture to go over budget. When all the scenes are shot and the first cut finished, the producer may ap-

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prove it or work with the editor and/or the director to make further refinements. The finished product is the final cut. The film is then ready for sound editing, finalizing of the musical score, and mixing.

Notes:

1.array of shots – набор кадров;

2.actors’ availability – возможности актеров;

3.to assemble shots – монтировать кадры;

4.to solve problems – решать проблемы;

5.to outline the visual look of the film – наметить в общих чертах зри-

тельный образ (наглядность) фильма.

SCRIPT

Although conventions vary from one country to another, the script usually develops over a number of distinct stages, from a synopsis of the original idea, through a «treatment» that contains an outline and considerably more detail, to a shooting script. Although the terms are used ambiguously, script or screenplay usually refers to the dialogue and the annotations necessary to understand the action; a script reads much like other printed forms of dramatic literature, while a «shooting script» or «scenario« more often includes not only all of the dialogue but also extensive technical details regarding the setting, the camera work, and other factors such as the exact length of each shot, giving every word of dialogue, and describing all sound effects and the music to be used in each scene. Moreover, a shooting script may have the scenes arranged in the order in which they will be shot, a radically different arrangement from that of the film itself, since, for economy, all the scenes involving the same actors and sets are ordinarily shot at the same time. That’s why a detailed scenario is rarely used any more.

Generally, more elaborate productions require more elaborate shooting scripts, while more personal films may be made without any form of written script. The script's importance can also vary greatly depending on the director. Griffith and other early directors, for example, often worked virtually without a script, while directors such as Hitchcock planned the script thoroughly and designed pictorial outlines, or storyboards, depicting specific scenes or shots before shooting any film.

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Some scripts are subsequently modified into novels and distributed in book form, such as the U. S. best-seller «The English Patient» (1996) by Michael Ondaatje, and, in the instance of Dylan Thomas's «The Doctor and the Devils» (1953), a script became a literary work without ever having been made into a motion picture.

Notes:

1.synopsis – краткое содержание кинофильма;

2.pictorial – живописный;

3.detailed scenario – подробный киносценарий;

4.depicting specific scenes – рисуя (изображая) особые сцены.

SETTINGS

A salient feature of the cinema is its ability to reproduce natural scenery. From the earliest years filmmakers have mixed outdoor footage with scenes shot inside the studio to give audiences the impression that the carefully calculated dramas they are witnessing are faithful records of events that occurred spontaneously in the real world. Just after World War I the Swedish directors stunned audiences with their films featuring simple folktales set in the mountains. The seasons of the year, the weather, and the Swedish streams, lakes, and waterfalls were active participants in these tales. After the success of documentary features such as those by Robert Flaherty («Nanook of the North»), even Hollywood made room for films in which the natural setting was clearly the main protagonist, with the fictional drama used as a way to convey the audience around the landscape. More often the landscape provides an alternative attraction, allowing viewers to see favourite stars in exotic locations, as in «Under the Tuscan Sun» (2003). Another trend has been the use of familiar surroundings as the sets for futuristic dramas. Jean-Luc Godard's «Alphaville» (1965) turned Paris into an oppressive metropolis on another planet, and «Blade Runner» made in 1982 created a compelling portrait of Los Angeles in the year 2019.

With the invention of lighter, more portable equipment, filming on location – that is, in an actual setting like the one in which the story takes place rather than in a studio set – has become less difficult and less expensive and is used more often. As a result, many earlier motion pictures now look artificial, since no studio set can equal the authenticity of a real location. Nonetheless,

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