Diegetic perspective or “gaze” is expressed in terms of how the audience is being asked to look at the content or subjects on screen by the director e.g. what is being emphasised through the use of close-up. A good example of a film which uses this technique is Bladerunner(1982, Scott).

In the snapshot above there is the opening scene of the film, it’s a clear example of the Director trying to create and reinforce the idea of the dystopian world featured in the film, done well this can invest the viewer much more since the world is appealing as more realistic to them now.

The intra-diegetic gaze is when the audience are put in the place of a character and being asked to see things from their viewpoint e.g. through the use of subjective camerawork in films like Jurassic Park(1993, Steven Spielberg). In Jurassic Park there’s a certain scene where a T-rex is attacking a car, that car being where a woman is hiding. The cinematographer/Director used an intra-diegetic gaze to portray both the perspective of the T-rex and the woman.

The extra diegetic gaze is when someone on screen addresses the audience directly by looking directly down the lens of a camera- sometimes known as “breaking the 4th wall” . A film which uses this well to emphasise the protagonists awareness, and to add to the comedy aspect, is Deadpool(2016, Tim Miller). Deadpool is an Action/adventure/dark humour feature film within the marvel cinematic universe. In both the original and the sequel the protagonist, Deadpool, is always breaking the 4th wall to break the tension in sometimes tense situations, breaking the tension with a sense of comedy doesn’t lose the viewers attention or interest as using an extra diegetic gaze has a risk of doing.

In the snapshot featured above, Deadpool is listening to music while drawing a picture of the main antagonist of the movie, this gives the movie an element of context, and also gives an insight to the personality of the protagonist. Later on he speaks to the audience through an extra diegetic gaze and then literally jumps off into the first action/fight scene of the movie.

Cinematography is the camera work in film, this could be angles, shot types and the movements the camera may do. The purpose of this is to convey a meaning in a different way to other elements of film. For example a slanted shot type could imply that something about the character/situation is wrong or something is off. And a a close-ep shot type could imply that the situation is tense in the scene. Camera movements may be used when introducing a character to possibly inform the viewer of the characters personality/behaviour without any dialogue/monologue.

A cinematographer is the person operating the camera, this person is the one who is controlling the use of cinematography. The Director and Cinematographer may converse and discuss about the different ways they can make this scene and the best way to do it. Cinematographers also oversee the technical aspect of camera, focus, lens types, focal lengths, measuring focal distance between object and observer, even though the director is also control of this and can decide how they want to do the shot to convey the intended meaning in the best possible way but the cinematographer carries out what the director wants for the scene

Blade Runner (1982, Scott)

Film	Preference (/10)	Memorable Scene	Film Element Focus
Bladerunner (1982, Scott)	6.5/10	Tears In Rain Scene.	Mise-En-Scene

What does Monaco mean by the term “The spectrum of the arts”?

In the book “How to read a film” By Monaco, through pages 22-28 he mentions the concept of “the nature of art” and “the spectrum of arts”. By mentioning “the nature of art” Monaco introduces the concept of a scientific and mathematical past to art through the context of the history of the arts and how they’ve developed.

He first mentions the Greeks and Romans approach, specifically to the rubric of poetry and the three approaches the Greeks and Romans had, these three being: Lyric, Dramatic and Epic. “By the late seventeenth century, the range of the word had begun to narrow once again. It was increasingly applied to activities that had never before been included—painting, sculpture, drawing, architecture—what we now call the “Fine Arts.” The rise of the concept of modem science as separate from and contradictory to the arts meant that Astronomy and Geometry were no longer regarded in the same light as Poetry or Music.” (quote pulled from “how to read a film” By James Monaco.) In the quote Monaco depicts the image that the word art sort evolved, from a sort of atavistic version of the word now, to a definition society is now more familiar with. Furthermore the chosen text also explains how the words once closely related scientific aspect was more disregarded and more and more unrelated from the new, narrowed, definition of the word.

After establishing the context of the word and concept of “art’ and informing the reader of the words past, Monaco introduces the idea of the “Spectrum of the Arts”. He does so by displaying the introduction of Film to the art realm and ‘recording media’ and ‘representative media’. After establishing the concepts of recording media and representative media he then moves onto Film, this is where he mentions the “Spectrum Of The Arts”, by explaining how Film doesn’t completely eliminate the intervention of a third party between the subject and the observer but does significantly reduce the distortion that the presence of an artist inevitably introduces Monaco can swiftly introduce the spectrum of arts:

• the perfomance arts, which happen in real time;
• the representational arts, which depend on the established codes and conventions of language (both pictorial and literary) to convey information about the subject to the observer;
• the recording arts, which provide a more direct path between subject and observer: media not without their own codes but qualitatively more direct than the media of the representational arts.

The performance arts are art forms such as: dance, music, opera, theatre and musical theatre, magic, illusion, mime, spoken word, puppetry, circus arts, performance art. There is also a specialized form of fine art, in which the artists perform their work live to an audience. This is called performance art. When art is classed as ‘performance arts’ the art therefore must be being displayed in real time and/or live, no repeats, retries and such, this obviously complicates things for the performers/actors since if they make a mistake they will most likely lose the viewer’s/audience’s attention and/or respect.

Representational art or figurative art represents objects or events in the real world, usually looking easily recognizable. For example, a painting of a cat looks very much like a cat– it’s quite obvious what the artist is depicting. So the obvious example for representational art is a portrait painting like the famous painting “Mona Lisa” it’s very vivid that it is displaying a portrait of a woman. But going more in depth and modern, comics and such are examples of representational arts too as it’s made very clear that the creator is depicting a person with powers saving the day.

The recording arts are more direct forms of art, also being under the concept of media, the recording arts records the art whether that be recording audio or visual and sometimes not recording but just displaying audio and/or visual art. The examples I am referring to are as followed: Music and Music Business. Within the entertainment industry, most people associate the recording arts with music and the music business. This example directly correlates to the audio recording aspect, Television and Film. This example directly correlates to using both audio and visuals to form art and lastly Video Games are the example which I was relating to when explaining that some recording arts don’t have to record the art just display the audio and visuals.

Mise-en-scene is one of the 4 micro elements which can be used to analyze/read film.

Mise-En-Scene is the stage design and arrangement of actors, props and costume designs in scenes for a theatre or film production, both in visual arts through storyboarding, visual theme, and cinematography, and in narrative storytelling through direction. It can be used to convey messages about characters and/or places are/behave without dialogue/monologue mentioning it.

(some information sourced from Wikipedia)

Is there a pattern to the top performing films in box office, what do they have in common that appeals to the masses.

The top ten most well-performing films in box office from 2018 are as followed: Avatar, Avengers: Endgame, Titanic, Star wars, Avengers…. As you can start to tell most of the top ten films are either a fantasy, Sci-fi, an adaptation or part of a franchise. These films appeal to the masses so well because the fantasy and sci-fi films are always interesting and have a great concept and the adaptations and franchises are lines of films that people come to trust and the target audience start to know what they’re going to get. Franchises also gather a fandom overtime, especially a franchise like Marvel since it has been going since 2008 it has had a long time to gather a fandom and since the target audience is so broad it turns out to be huge. some of the films have gained such a good box office because they’ve stood their test against time and still manage to gain a larger viewing years later so if its a franchise it will always grow each year.

The IB learner profile is a list of 10 characteristics which are key to being a successful IB student.

Being Knowledgeable is useful in IB Film Because being a good film maker means you have to know about all the elements about film and how to incorporate them into your own films in a way which is meaningful and can carry a message and/or meaning.

Being a Risk Taker is key in IB and especially Film because as a Film Maker You should always be taking risks with your art and be experimental. If a certain idea doesn’t work out, for example let’s say you make a sort of abstract film or a genre that doesn’t receive well with the viewers then you would’ve learned something out of that and overall become a better and knowledgeable Film Maker

Being a good communicator is vital for Film since when you’re working on a crew you will have to communicate ideas and instructions all the time to get scenes shot efficiently and to the best ability. Especially if you’re a Director working on a film you will have to communicate your ideas and instructions to almost the entire crew but especially the Actors and Cameramen on how he wants this scene to be done.

When taking Film you must be Open-minded. Open-minded in the sense that you appreciate other cultures, opinions and traditions of individuals and communities. When you’re studying film you must be open-minded to other genres and different types of film to what you prefer or mainly focus on.

Being an inquirer connects to Ib film because you should always be watching films independently and trying to learn and read them to better your knowledge on the subject in order for you to know how successful film makers use techniques in their film to convey different messages.

Being a thinker can easily correlate with IB film since students should always use critical and creative thinking skills to analyse films. And when making their own films they should definitely exercise in initiative in making reasoned, ethical decisions.

Being principled is an obvious key characteristic that a student should have when taking film, because in film you should always give credit where credit is due. So lets say you use a film as an example in your work you should always say what year the film was made and who directed it. This shows that you can act with integrity and honesty, with a strong sense of fairness, justice and respect for the dignity of people.

Being caring while taking film is essential because film makers should always make films to make a positive difference in the lives of others or at least not make a negative impact.

IB Film students should be Balanced to not only understand the importance of intellectual, physical and emotional balance to achieve personal wellbeing but to also recognise their interdependence with other people and with the world in which we live in. Being balanced will help the student while making films.

You need to be reflective in film in order to improve your film making ability. Furthermore, lets say you make a film, you should be able to reflect on that film and modestly find what didn’t work so well and what did work well in order to better your film making ability.

Ib learner profile from Victoria Walters

What makes a film good?

The question ‘What makes a film good?’ is usually answered with ‘The story’, ‘The Director’ and  ‘The Actors’ and while that is true and it can just come down to the viewer’s opinion and/or preference once a film is analysed it becomes clear that there’s more that goes into it; such as the two levels of film, the micro and macro elements, are what make a film ‘good’. if a film has got superb Micro and Macro elements it is sure to be a superb film.

The Micro Elements of film are: the Editing, how the film’s scenes are arranged and cut in the final product. The Mise-En-Scene, the stage design and arrangement of actors in scenes for a film. The Sound, sound in a movie includes music, dialogue, sound effects, ambient noise, and/or background noise and soundtracks. Some sort of sound is always used to enhance the movie experience. And finally the Cinematography, cinematography involves such techniques as the general composition of a scene; the lighting of the set or location; the choice of cameras, lenses, filters, and film stock; the camera angle and movements; and the integration of any special effects. These four aspects of film are usually the easiest to look for and know if they’re bad or not. 

I would like to mention an example of a good film with good Micro and Macro Elements, this film being ‘Spider-Man Into The Spider-Verse’ (2018, Directed by Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman and Bob Persichetti) Just for the Micro Elements this film in this film you can tell it is fully deserving of its Oscar for best-animated film. The editing is obviously and clearly thought out well and when watching the viewer can tell that the crew behind the movie spent a long time on the storyboard and deciding what scenes to cut out from that storyboard because you don’t lose the story anywhere throughout the film, it keeps you captivated and focused. The Mise-En-Scene in this movie is another clear win, since this movie has a very unique style, an impressive comic art style that is heavily influenced by the original comics, and keeping in mind how time-consuming that art style must’ve been it would be quite rational to think that the Mise-En-Scene is therefore well thought out and well planned and that is exactly right the majority of the scenes in this movie are stunning. As for the sound in this film, the Musical score is said to be great and I can say I agree with that. The movie uses a mix of composed music made specifically for the movie and popular music at the time of the movie’s release, some of which mentioned spider man in the lyrics. One of these audios named ‘The Prowlers theme’ is an intense and well thought out audio used for whenever the second antagonist, The Prowler, is on screen. This audio is first used as a first impression to the audience to make sure that an otherwise fairly forgettable character stays in the viewers head throughout the movie which implies that he is significant to the story(which he is). The Prowler end up being the protagonist’s uncle, the person who he respected the most throughout the movie ended up being the person trying to kill him the entire movie. When their identities were revealed to each other his uncle was shot and that was the turning point for the main character and leads us to the next element which is The Cinematography in this film. After the death of his uncle, the protagonist decided to do a leap of faith off a building and hopefully swing away and this scene is where a macro element called ‘the messages and values’ shows. As the protagonist is preparing for the jump the camera is slanted which implies something is off or the character is feeling intense emotions(an example of great cinematography), the camera slants so the colossal buildings of NYC almost surround him like a jungle. And as he leaps off, the camera goes upside down to make it seem like he’s levitating up to the city, in this scene the city could be symbolising his new responsibilities(which he has been trying to run away from) and how he is now willing to accept it and face it(this shown by him going towards what’s being symbolised as his responsibilities by what looks like willingly thanks to good cinematography) 

Now back to the Macro Element of Messages and Values, I believe that in this movie the message and value is resilience and the process of adapting to adversity, the ability to bounce back after difficult experiences throughout life fits perfectly and describes the implied message and values of the film.

In conclusion, what makes a film ‘good’ is its ability to spark an interest in the viewer and send the intended message to the viewer, films use different elements in different ways to do this and whether or not those aspects are done well is mostly up to the viewer’s opinion and/or preference. Furthermore, a film may have good editing, cinematography, sound et cetera but if it doesn’t interest the audience or doesn’t send a message that viewer can relate or agree with then although it may be good technically it won’t be seen as ‘good’ by the viewer.