Film Class IST 100 004 - SHOT-BY-SHOT BREAKDOWN

WHEN: Due on Monday, February 2 2015

WHERE: The assignment must be submitted to your tutorial leader before the start of lecture on Monday

WHAT: This assignment is a shot-by-shot breakdown of the SECOND HALF of Death’s Marathon (D.W. Griffith, 1913)

HOW: You can gain access to the film in the following ways:

YouTube link:

This link

[url removed, login to view]

allows you to watch the portion of the film that you need for the shot-by-shot analysis. It is silent. The clip beings with an intertitle that reads, “To find his friend before he loses all.”

This link

[url removed, login to view]

allows you to watch the film in its entirety, which you should do at least once to provide context for the film’s narrative. However, remember that your shot-by-shot breakdown is based only on the excerpt, which you can find on the other YouTube link.

Visual Resources Centre:

In the library, there is a copy of a Griffith DVD (D.W. Griffith’s Biograph Shorts: Special Edition) which contains Death’s Marathon. This DVD is for in-library use ONLY. The Visual Resources Centre is located at Room 206, 6333 Memorial Road, V6T 1Z2.

Shot-by-shot format: Only BASIC information should be included in a shot-by-shot breakdown. For example:

Shot 1 (long shot, slightly low angle): Establishing shot of a large building with a tree in the foreground (5 seconds). Cut to

Shot 2 (medium close-up, straight-on): Shot of a sign that reads, “Film Studies.” (3 seconds) Dissolve to

Shot 3 (medium shot, straight-on): Interior of a room, with a desk in the centre. The desk is bare except for a large book. A man in a white suit enters from left, looks around the room, and then sits at the desk. His movement and his light-coloured suit cue us to look at him. Something catches his attention and he looks to the left (15 seconds). Cut to

Shot 4 (close-up): The door knob turns. (3 seconds). Cut to... etc.

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Adopting a clear and consistent form is essential to this exercise. You should include the following relevant information: camera distance, angle, and movement (the final only when applicable); important elements or changes in the mise-en-scene, such as significant figure movement and direction; pertinent narrative information; the nature of shot transitions; shot length/duration; and how the eye is guided to look in the intended place.

Advice:

- you can use short forms for shot scales (i.e., “LS” for long shot, “CU” for close-up - the first letter of each word in the shot scale constitutes its abbreviated form).

- if a shot appears to be a repeat of an earlier shot, you can record it as follows: “Shot 8: as Shot 3; a woman enters the room from the right.” Include any pertinent changes in your description if there are any. Make your reference to the most recent version of the repeated shot within the sequence.

- when title cards/intertitles appear, you must signal their existence, but you don’t need to copy out exactly what they say. Noting them (by writing ‘INTERTITLE’ on a separate line, for instance) is fine. Intertitles DO NOT count as shots.

- refer to characters by whatever generic labels help to distinguish them (the wife, the suitor, the father, etc).

The shot-by-shot should help you to notice such formal properties as repetition and variation, similarity and difference, as well as how your attention as a viewer is guided by the film's style. The main purpose of this exercise is to help you to train yourself to discern various elements of film style, but you should also be learning how the deployment of style can help to render a narrative understandable. Remember that Death’s Marathon was made in 1913, when filmmakers were developing methods to make more complex stories intelligible to their audiences; style was an essential component within the storytelling process.



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