Vis 177 1/22/06

RESEARCHING THE SCRIPT:

	•	When you work in film you need to build and prepare. When things go to shit you can see how far off track they've gone. That's why script is crucial. So it gives you the basic guidelines you need.
	•	You write action, describe the gestures that define or embody what you want to deliever. 
	•	Remember and organize the circumstances of the events of your life. The environment is what becomes dramatic.
	•	Continually decompose what you want to express in a series of elements.
	•	Ask which element is going to go where. Where to construct temporality and meaning. Basic rule for setting up scene.
	•	Tracing something is to constantly reevaluate it.
	•	Define a strategy that enables you to expose elements of the film.
	•	Difference between fiction and Documentary in regards to research : Fiction you create all the elements of the story. Documentary you are analyzing the preexisting elements. In Doc. you are immediately looking at an existing situation.
	•	Have to know how long the first element of film is. 
	•	If you have a reduced amount of time, use elements judiciously. 
	•	You can only work in moments, omit parts of story, ellipse.
	•	Have to figure out what's important in the scene. Always figure out what strategies to use.

WHAT IS DIALOGUE:

	•	Dialogue is just another layer of sound.  It is tone in relation to characters. 
	•	Dialogue should be expressive of a character that is happy or sad or angry. It shouldn't be a tool for exposition of characters, etc.

ACTORS VS. UNTRAINED ACTORS:

	•	Untrained actors can't refine their action time over time like trained actors.
	•	Trained actors can tweak mannerisms and pitch, and make constant little changes to their performances that untrained actors can't.
	•	Going to have to map your intentions through actions and other means, can't expect to put the weight of the film on untrained actors.
	•	You have to fake it in such a way so that actors aren't shitty.

TEMPORALITY:

	•	Film determines film as temporality.
	•	Access to temporality = Space. Space is motion, movement over time.
	•	Space on the screen is a constant variation.
	•	What are elements that propose the situation? Constant decomposition of elements. 
	•	Constituted by moments, one moment to the next a blank space in between.
	•	Ellipse- gaps, separated by time by space. Looking at moment of process mosaic of moments that constitutes film.
	•	Scene at that moment has Eq. of forces. Dealing with things that aren't there. For example, some scenes are there and some scenes 
	•	Moments don't function at the same span or time. ie a kiss might not take as long as a shit in scenes, or it might take longer.
	•	Scenes don't have relation to each other in terms of length. Some scenes are longer or shorter than others.
	•	Continuity made of fragments not connected to length of what proceeds or follows. 
	•	Need to know how long and how much time to dedicate to moment.
	•	Need to use elliptical order to distill a film and figure what elements are essential. 

EDITING:

	•	differences are not in shots, it is in structures.
	•	You never see the actual edit point.

QUESTIONS:

1. How do you use elliptical order to distill a film to its elements and figure what is essential?