Art and Film

After our first meeting, we started discussing about what Art is and what criteria are considered for a certain creation to be considered Art.

Basically, at first, Ms. Jewel Castro told us that an Art expresses emotion and is unique / original.

And then we were informed of the four universal criteria:

1. universal substance
2. significant history
3. original
4. form

These things influenced me on how to see or evaluate Art. Before, I thought that as long as it is unique and fancy / colorful, it can be already considered Art.

So to sum it up, basically, an “Art” can only be considered as one when it has form and meaning. So when you present a straight line written on a clean sheet of paper, how will you consider that an art?

In the introduction of film, Ms. Jewel Castro showed us series of comic frames presented in different creative ways but share the same thought and story. I was honestly amazed by how the creator manipulated that certain frame and made interesting variants of it. This implies that a certain art medium can be twisted and manipulated to make it interesting, and that we can all view or look at things in different ways.

Ms. Jewel Castro started discussing to us film. She told us that the instrument in film is the camera. During the early days of film creation, they filmed only with a stationary camera. They did not have the idea of moving the camera or filming with different camera angles.

When they learned of filming on different angles, they basically used three shots. One is the long shot which from its name, is characterized by capturing something as a whole. It shows the subject in relation to its environment. The second one is medium shot. This shot shows or focuses on the upper body of the subject. When you see a certain scene shot using this, it means that you have to watch them move or interact. The third one is the close-up shot. This is used when one wants to emphasize the emotions of the subject. It can also show the subject’s importance.