1-Shot
2-Credits
3-Beat
4-Scene
5-Sequence
6-Act
7-Turning points
8-Plot
9-Diegetic Time (Quantitative)
10-Diegetic Time (Qualitative)
11-Discursive Time: Linear
12-Discursive Time: Simultaneous
13-Discursive Time: Analeptic
14-Discursive Time: Proleptic
15-Shot Transition: Spatial
16-Shot Transition: Temporal
17-Shot Transition: Spatial-Temporal
18-Scene Transition: Spatial
19-Scene Transition: Temporal
20-Scene Transition: Spatial-Temporal
200-Space
300-Characters
1-Shot
A series of frames that run for an uninterrupted period of time.
2-Credits
This should be fairly straightforward, unless the credits are rhythmically presented in some complicating fashion that requires you to make a choice about how to mark.
21-Opening credits begin/start
22-Opening credits end/stop
23-Closing credits begin/start
24-Closing credits end/stop
3-Beat
A beat is a notable punctuation mark significant to the unfolding of the film, most typically the story of the film. It is largely an element you feel. Even though various screenwriting manuals define it in differently—as every action that generates a reaction, as coterminous with a scene, as a significant pause in the dialogue—we will define a beat as a punctuation mark in three distinct ways:
31=A moment in which an emotionnotably punctuates the unfolding of the film.
32=A moment in which an action—information is revealed, a discovery occurs, a decision is made— notably punctuates the unfolding of the film.
33=A moment in which an event—someone dies, a car explodes, an important object is obtained—notably punctuates the unfolding of the film.
Note that not every car explosion, death, revelation, and so on is a beat. It has to have the quality of a beat, a quality we are trying to mark and to a limited degree quantify.
4-Scene
Often organized around an event of some scale from small to large, a scene constitutes a contiguous action in space and time. Complicating elements here might entail, say, cross-cutting between two spaces, which may imply a larger spatial contiguity (a telephone conversation, for example), or may suggest the scene is either split into two scenes—or dissolves the scene as a unit of narrative meaning altogether—or possesses a complicated relationship to space and even time.
5-Sequence
A series of scenes that hold together as a unit of narrative meaning beyond the individual scene, but not as large scale as an act.
6-Act
A series of scenes and sequences that typically culminates in some significant shift in the plot and/or tone (depending on the mode of the film), turning the narrative and/or affect in new direction. In much cinema, especially out of Hollywood, that direction is often causally determined, moving from set up to complicating action to development to climax, but some of the films we are watching may not adhere to this causal notion of acts. Moreover, some films may have some sort of prologue, epilogue, or interlude that is not itself an act. Markers are listed for the above below. Should yours deviate in their definitions, please take note of that.
61-Act 1 (set up) begins
62-Act 1 (set up) ends
63-Act 2 (complicating action) begins
64-Act 2 (complicating action) ends
65-Act 3 (development) begins
66-Act 3 (development) ends
67-Act 4 (climax) begins
68-Act 4 (climax) ends
69-Prologue
611-Epilogue
612-Interlude
7-Turning points
Significant or notable turn occurs in the story of the film, or perhaps in the film on some other level that you note down and define. We are not looking for every micro development, but when significant or notable turning points. Take some notes on this matter so you can say how you thought about this.
8-Plot
Define major and minor plots within the film, using the following numbering system:
81, 82, 83, 84, 85, and so on, tracking which number corresponds to which plot, and whether it is major or minor plot(or something else). You will need to take note of your definition of a plot separately, that is, not in Jublr but in your notes.
9-Diegetic Time (Quantitative)
Note any references to/indications of diegetic time that are exact (or quantitative) a clock, a year, a date, and so on. 9A = references to dates, so, for example, 9A-00/00/1975 or 9A-09/11/2001. 9B = references to times of day, so, for example, 9B-10:32AM
10-Diegetic Time (Qualitative)
Note any indications of/references to diegetic time that are inexact (or qualitative). We will supply a list of qualitative time markers separately for you to use, but, for example, it might be 10-past-winter
Markers 11-12 refer to discourse time, that is, to the chronological and/or anachronic progression of time in the film. Some of this will require you to take notes to save, so you can explain how you thought about it. You should be marking these in shots and scenes primarily. Shots will tend to describe a single moment in time, so what we will be looking for at the level of the shot, unless we determine otherwise as a group, is whether anachronic time interrupts the linear (and to a degree simultaneous) norm. So from shot to shot, within a scene, there might be an analepsis or a prolepsis, or a mode of simultaneity (as in cross-cutting).
11-Discursive Time: Linear
Many films unfold with a linear relationship to time. Event 1 leads to Event 2, which are chronologically interrelated. This will probably be the most common form of temporal movement.
12-Discursive Time: Simultaneous
Simultaneous time is also very common, engendering a sense of “meanwhile time” (as Benedict Anderson calls it). So two scenes may effectively unfold at the same time rather than in linear sequence, or within a scene, cross-cutting between two spaces may assert simultaneity.
13-Discursive Time: Analeptic
An analepsis is a movement backwards in time from the linear unfolding of time in the film. Memento, for example, mixes linear and analeptic time, while The Godfather Part II contains two linear timelines, one of which, however, is an analepsis in relation to the other, this it would be marked as both linear and analeptic.Back to the Future is another possible example: is it purely linear, or is it bluntly analeptic and linear, with little playing with time within the acts themselves?
14-Discursive Time: Proleptic
A prolepsis is a movement forwards in time that jumps ahead of the linear progression of time. Thus when Marty goes “back to the future” at the end of that film, we might see this as a prolepsis.
15-Shot Transition: Spatial
Take note if when a shot changes, there is a notable change of space. Keep notes on how you are tracking this.
16-Shot Transition: Temporal
Take note if when a shot changes, there is a notable change of time. Keep notes on how you are tracking this.
17-Shot Transition: Spatial-Temporal
Take note if when a shot changes, there is a notable change of time and space. Keep notes on how you are tracking this.
The scene transition marking follows a logic that cleaves quite closely to the shot transition marking above.
18-Scene Transition: Spatial
19-Scene Transition: Temporal
20-Scene Transition: Spatial-Temporal
200-Space (to be discussed in class)
300-Characters (to be discussed in class)