An optical effect that causes a scene to emerge gradually on the screen from complete blackness (fade in), or a bright image to dim gradually into blackness (fade out). The fade is a transitional device that usually signifies a distinct break in a film's continuity, indicating a change in time, location, or subject matter. Most films begin with a fade-in and end with a fade-out. The use of a fade-in/fade-out between sequences within a film is similar to the function of the beginning or end of a chapter in a book or of an act in a play. The length of the fade should be in keeping with the film's tempo and mood. Technically, a fade-in is achieved by a gradual increase of exposure for each frame until the image reaches full brightness; a fade-out is obtained by a gradual decrease of exposure for each frame with the last frame completely black. Normally, fades are made by the optical printer, but they can also be satisfactorily achieved by some cameras. Amateurs often use a fading solution to obtain fades chemically. The gradual increase or decrease in the level of sound in a film is similarly known as a fade-in or fade-out. Thus, typically, a motion picture script would start with the instruction "fade in" on the picture side and "fade in music" (or sound effects) on the sound side.
film noir
A term coined by French critics to describe a type of film that is characterized by its dark, somber tone and cynical, pessimistic mood. Literally meaning "dark (or "black") film," the term is derived from roman noir, "black novel," which was used by French critics of the 18th and 19th centuries to describe the British Gothic novel. Specifically, film noir was coined to describe those Hollywood films of the '40s and early 50s which portrayed the dark and gloomy underworld of crime and corruption, films whose heroes as well as villains are cynical, disillusioned, and often insecure loners, inextricably bound to the past and unsure or apathetic about the future.
In terms of style and technique, the film noir characteristically abounds with night scenes, both interior and exterior, with sets that suggest dingy realism, and with lighting that emphasizes deep shadows and accents the mood of fatalism. The dark tones and the tense nervousness are further enhanced by the oblique choreography of the action and the doom-laden compositions and camera angles.
The film noir trend, which had been influenced by a combination of factors, including an influx of immigrant directors from central Europe and the sobering effects of WWII and its aftermath, had all but run itself out by the mid-50s. But isolated films in the style continued to be made in Hollywood for some years.
The term film noir was also applied to certain French films of WWII and the postwar years and later to films of the New Wave which were influenced by the Hollywood crime movies. In its broader sense, the term has been used retroactively to describe expressionist German films of the '20s and Hollywood's gangster picture cycle of the '30s.
fish-eye lens
A wide-angle lens that distorts the image to great effect, by showing a view of 180 degrees. This effect is often seen in dream sequences or when someone is looking through a peephole.
flash pan
An extremely fast pan shot that produces the effect of a near blur. It is used in shooting to make sudden transitions, often with the intent of creating a shock impact.
flashback
A scene or sequence of scenes that takes place prior to the film's present-tense narrative. Occasionally, entire films take place within a flashback, with only a few scenes dedicated to the present.
A scene in a motion picture representing an earlier event than the one currently being depicted. The flashback is a useful narrative device that allows a screenwriter a degree of flexibility in the temporal structure of his plot. It may relate an event that occurred before the main story began or retrogress in time to depict a portion of the main story not previously shown. Flashbacks may be used to clarify an element of the plot (for example, to reconstruct the scene of a crime in a mystery film), to provide background information essential to the understanding of the current plot, or to supply keys to the understanding of characters or clues to their motivations (as in DEATH OF A SALESMAN). Flashback inserts may be of any duration, from several frames representing a memory fragment being flashed briefly on the screen (as in HIROSHIMA, MON AMOUR) to the length of nearly an entire film (as in CITIZEN KANE and RASHOMON).
A flashback may be employed to relate the past story of a character or characters (as in DEAD RECKONING, in which the entire plot unfolds as a Humphrey Bogart confession to a priest) or to enable several characters to tell their own versions of the same events (as in CITIZEN KANE and RASHOMON), straining the objectivity of the camera with their subjective viewpoints. The ultimate in flashbacks is the flashback within a flashback. In THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA, for example, Bogart, while attending Ava Gardner's funeral (the present), reminisces about the rainy night during which she visited his hotel room (flashback) to tell him about her wedding night (flashback within a flashback). Although generally a useful device in advancing a complicated plot, the multiple flashback can be absurdly confusing, as demonstrated by John Brahm's THE LOCKET (1946), in which a flashback four layers deep (flashback within a flashback within a flashback within a flashback) makes Sheridan Gibney's muddled script hopelessly difficult to follow. See also flash-forward.
flash-forward
The opposite of flashback. A scene in a motion picture representing an event that is expected, projected, or imagined to occur later than the one currently depicted. This narrative device has been employed less frequently than the flashback but can be quite useful in the futuristic structure of science-fiction stories or in depicting the hopes and dreams of a character.
foley artist
Because such routine sounds as footsteps, moving furniture, and clinking silverware are not always recorded during the principal photography of a feature film, these sounds are recorded (or re-created with higher fidelity sound) during post-production and added to the final mixing of the complete sound track. The technicians responsible for creating these incidental sounds are known as Foley artists (named in honor of Ed Foley, a pioneering sound technician at Universal Pictures). They work on a Foley stage, where a variety of props and surfaces (rough, smooth, sandy, rocky, etc.) are used to make and record sounds that match the footsteps and other actions of the actors on-screen. (A particularly amusing demonstration of Foley artistry can be found in Albert Brooks' 1981 comedy MODERN ROMANCE.)
With its origins in the creation of sound effects for vintage radio broadcasts (including the classic use of celery sticks to simulate snapping bones), the work of a Foley artist requires a highly refined sense of creativity, coordination and timing, and is not strictly limited to the reproduction of mundane incidental sounds. From the simple rhythm of footsteps to the metallic clashing of swords in an action-packed duel, Foley artists contribute a crucial element of sonic realism to the highly artificial process of assembling a motion picture.
footage
In the broadest sense, any length of film—a shot, a scene, a sequence. More precisely, the length of film in terms of feet. film length is commonly measured in feet in the US, England, and many other members of the Commonwealth. But in most other countries it is measured in meters; hence the French equivalent of footage is métrage. Sixteen frames make up a foot of 35 mm. At 24-frames-per-second normal sound speed, one and a half feet of film (or one foot and eight frames) take up one second of screen time. In one minute, 90 feet are shown; in 60 minutes 5,400 feet, etc. In 16 mm, where one foot equals 40 frames, the calculation is less simple. At 24-feet-per- second normal sound speed, 24 frames are shown in a one-second screen duration, 36 feet in a minute, and 2,160 feet in an hour. Of course, when film footage is obtained at camera speeds other than 24 frames per second, the above calculation guides do not apply.
forelengthening
To distort or exaggerate the perception of depth, as through the use of a wide-angle lens.
foreshortening
The shortening or compression of depth, as through the use of a telephoto lens.
One of the successive individual images that comprise a motion picture, or the space such an image occupies. Each frame is separated from the others by a horizontal border called a "frame line." The frame is the smallest coherent unit of a film. Like a still photograph, it may contain all the elements of a shot as far as composition is concerned, but it cannot convey motion unless it is shown in conjunction with preceding and following frames at a determined rate of frames per second (24 f.p.s. for 35 mm sound film). An average-length 90-minute feature film is made up of 129,600 separate frames.
freeze frame
The effect of repeatedly printing a single frame so that the action seems to freeze on the screen into still-like motionlessness. The process can be used to lengthen a scene, to highlight a point, or for sheer dramatic effect. It was used very effectively in the final scene of THE FOUR HUNDRED BLOWS, which ends in a "frozen" close-up of the young hero.
front projection
A technique used to allow more controlled and convenient filming, combining images of actors with still or moving backgrounds shot separately elsewhere, through the projection of a previously photographed background combined with footage of actors filmed on a sound stage. The background image is projected onto a highly reflective screen by way of a semi-reflecting mirror, through which the camera shoots the foreground action (e.g. the actors). Both camera and front-projection images are optically aligned so that foreground characters are shadowless when seen against the bright projected image.
For the "Dawn of Man" sequence that opens 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968), director Stanley Kubrick used highly advanced, large-format front-projection techniques to combine the "ape" actors on a properly lighted sound stage with previously photographed images of African landscapes. More recently, the need for front-projection has been nearly eliminated by advances in computer-generated techniques of image combination.
