Update: 5 March 2009

UNIT TWO-LESSON SEVEN: DRAMA

LESSON SEVEN:  Assignment List.  Recommended time to complete Lesson Seven: 8 hours. You may be interested in these video clips from YouTube on set design and costume/makeup design.

WEBLECTURE  #7
All the World's a Stage
The function of the cinema is to reveal,
to bring to light certain details that the stage would have left untreated.   --André Bazin

Art Direction and Set Design | Costume Design | Looking for Richard |
Make-up Design  | Rashomon | Theatre and Film

THEATER AND FILM (STAGE AND SCREEN).

Giannetti’s Chapter provides a clear and interesting comparison between theater and movies—including why nudity is more acceptable and therefore more prevalent in films than it is in live plays. It’s a comparison worth studying to bring to conscious level what is most probably intuitive in your experience.

Think about the basic unit of construction in both art forms: the shot (for film) and the scene (for live theater). Consider how short the average shot in a film is (10-15 seconds according to Giannetti), and compare that to the average scene length for live performances of plays (normally at least 10-15 minutes).

In live staged productions, time is experienced as real time, for both audience and performers occupy the same space—and the same time. For two or three hours, spectators at a live performance of, say, Romeo and Juliet, are breathing the same air as the actors; the performance is three-dimensional with all the bumps and wrinkles and thrills and sensations that the living human presence brings to experience. Replace those living actors and real objects in three dimensions with images on a two-dimensional screen, and you have a recorded and mediated performance transformed into flickering light and shadow—flattened and yet full of cinematic magic. Though we might occupy the same seat in the same darkened theater, our experience of Romeo and Juliet is mightily changed! Both stage and screen  experiences are charged, and both are worthy of attention. Giannetti’s take on all of this is most instructive, and I won’t elaborate further because he’s already done it so well.

rich3.jpg (5209 bytes)Al Pacino's Looking for Richard (U.S., 1996), is a non-fiction film about the making of a live (and a filmed) performance of Shakespeare's bio-play, the history King Richard III.  By gathering many well-known non-Shakespearean actors (such as Alec Baldwin,  Kevin Spacey, Aiden Quinn, and Winona Ryder); by  staging several important scenes in the play; and by including discussions of the meanings of scenes and motivations of characters (with Shakespearean actors and filmmakers like Kevin Kline,  Derek Jacobi, John Gielgud, Vanessa Redgrave, Peter Brook, and Kenneth Branagh), the film expresses the delightful interface between stage and screen.  Looking for Richard won an Eddie for Documentary Film from the American Cinema Editors, and won the Directors Guild of America award for outstanding directorial achievement in documentary.   Pacino's film captures the marvel and magic of theater, and if you watch with awareness, there'll be a point in the film where you are moved from the documentary about making the play to the very play itself, and you will not know where the one became the other, they move so seamlessly into one another. 

rich3p.jpg (13304 bytes)As Roger Ebert, who calls the film a "delightful inspiration," says this about it in his Chicago Sun-Times review of the film:

Looking for Richard is not a film version of the play about Shakespeare's hunchbacked villain.  (For that, you can consult Laurence Olivier's 1955 version, or Ian McKellen's 1995 film that transposed the action to a new-Nazi 1930s England.)  If you add up all the line readings and scene snippets and occasional extended sequences, Pacino and his fellow actors do succeed in performing perhaps a fourth of the play, but their acting is mostly for the purposes of discussion and demonstration: This is a film about how to act and produce Shakespeare.  It is also, not incidentally, a documentary about some days in the life of an actor who loves his craft and brims with curiosity and good humor. . . .  Pacino conducts the film like a magician or impresario. . . .  The point is that the appreciation of Shakespeare is an ongoing project for any literate person.  We pick up history and familiarity as we go along, and if we are lucky we eventually see the majesty, the humor, the sadness, the insight and the wisdom.  Looking for Richard is the portrait of a man and his friends doing just that.  Having chosen to be actors, they know they cannot respect their craft without embracing its greatest writer.  Having chosen to be readers and viewers, we cannot do less, and this film is a delightful inspiration.  

INTERROGATING TRUTH

You'll have the option to study Looking for Richard on your own as part of your Assignment for this lesson. What I’d like to do here in the rest of this lecture is to supplement Giannetti’s chapter by first exploring Akira Kurosawa’s great film, Rashomon, an excellent example of how the film medium can do what is difficult or impossible in live theater: express the shifting nature of truth.  Because the camera can take the spectator in close and out far from the set or performers and because editing can reinforce the varying and shifting perspectives provided by angles, shots, lenses, stock, and movement of the camera--film is a particularly effective medium for interrogating notions of truth, certainty, and memory. In the second part of the lecture, I’ll supplement Giannetti's discussion by identifying the various jobs entailed in what we might call the "theatrical" elements of cinematic expression: art direction, set design and supervision, and production design; in costume design and supervision; and in make-up and hairstyling design and supervision.  Finally, I'll recommend some films that provide you opportunities to learn more about sets and costumes.

RASHOMON :
A  Mosaic of Multiple Perspectives
 (Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1950)  B/W, Fiction, 83-88 minutes
The Cast
Tojomaru, the bandit Toshiro Mifune
Takehiro, the samurai Masayuki Mori
Masago, his wife Machiko Kyo
The woodcutter Takashi Shimura
The priest Minoru Chiaki
The commoner Kichijiro Ueda
The police agent Daisuke Kato
The medium Fumiko Homma

Director of Photography: Kazuo Miyagawa

HISTORICAL CONTEXT:  Kurosawa's film was conceived and made during the hardships in Japan of the 1940s, most particularly the destruction, defeat, and occupation of Japan.  In August 1945, the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, to end World War II). With the devastation brought by war and with the occupation by a foreign nation came a full realization of horror, loss of control, loss of heroic virtues and traditions.   Kurosawa's film shows that despite a crisis of faith in the reconstruction of inglorious past, despite the losses in Japan--there is in the 20th century (as there was during the time of the story of the horrors discussed under the ruined Rashomon Gate to Kyoto in the 12th century)--definite hope for renewal of life and a sense of responsibility to nurture a bright future.

SCENARIO: Kurosawa's scenario for Rashomon (co-written with Shinobu Hashimoto) is based on two stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927): "Rashomon" and "In a Grove: The Testimony of a Woodcutter Questioned by High Police Commissioner." Akutagawa’s stories are set in the 12th century, at the end of which the aristocratic rule of the Heian (Kyoto) regime gave way to the military rule of the Samurai (who would move the seat of government to Kamakura).

rashmn.jpg (91038 bytes)PLOT SUMMARY. In Rashomon, six people testify at an inquest concerning a rape and homicide (or possible suicide). The characters, representing a microcosm of Japanese society, have varying degrees of involvement with the crime, and various perspectives on it; all testimonies but those of the woodcutter and the priest are presented to us second-hand. The 6 witnesses are:

the woodcutter, who claims that on the way to chop some wood he found certain objects (hats belonging to a woman and a man, a piece of rope, an amulet), and then came upon a dead man, killed by a sword.

a Buddhist priest, who observes only that the husband and wife were travelling with their horse on the Sekeyama-Yamashina road;

a police agent, who has captured the accused two days previous and who claims that the bandit was thrown from the horse he stole;

the accused, a bandit named Tajomaru, who claims first that he was not thrown, but was rather sickened by some poisoned water, and second, that the woman fought bravely but then succumbed and enjoyed her rape; Tajomaru asserts that he himself fought bravely and killed her samurai husband in a fierce but honorable sword combat ("we crossed swords 23 times!");

the woman raped, wife of the dead man, who claims she fought fiercely against her attacker but that afterwards her husband looked so coldly and with such hatred at her that she wished to kill herself with her dagger--but that she fainted, then woke up to see the dagger penetrating her dead husband's chest; and finally

the dead man himself, a samurai, who (through a medium) claims that his wife asked the bandit to "Kill him!" but when the bandit ignored her, she ran away; then the bandit went off after her; thus humiliated and deserted, the dead man claims he killed himself with his wife's dagger. His last memory is of someone drawing the dagger out.

At the Rashomon Gate the next day, the woodcutter gives a different version of his story to the priest and commoner; from beginning to end this time, there is a noticeable absence of music (the only sounds heard are natural noises coming from the woods). Only at the end of the film does the woodcutter suggest that he himself stole the dagger.

SETTINGS. There are three settings in Rashomon:

All three settings are outdoors, even the inquest--perhaps suggesting that the law of nature is at work here, that all our pretensions of civilization are much less powerful than the forces of nature, over which we have little control. The scenes differ in lighting, sound, and camera work:

rashomon.jpeg (8641 bytes)STYLE AND THEME: In style and theme, Kurosawa explores the phenomenon of multiple perspectives and the relation between memory, experience, and truth. By his manipulation of point of view, Kurosawa shows that there can be as many versions of an event as there are participants or witnesses, and "truth" resides in recognizing this multiplicity rather than by choosing a singular version as superior. The story we see in this film takes place three days after a crime has occurred, and one day after the inquest of the accused bandit. Most of the film is told in flashback--a method calling attention to the operation of memory. When the priest and the woodcutter remember the inquest as they seek shelter from the rain at the Rashomon Gate, and begin to narrate the testimony as they remember it--the scene shifts to the actual court yard. Here a witness squats (Japanese-style, of course) to testify, squarely faces the camera (in one scene, with the medium, there is some variation in this pattern), and begins to speak to answer questions of an unseen, unheard magistrate. Then the scene shifts once more, further back in time, to the fatal day, the fatal spot--in the grove. In the "courtroom," in contrast to other settings, there is very little action, very little camera or actor movement (again with the exception of the scene with the medium). The witnesses deliver successive versions of the action on that day, each witness reconstructing the event from his or her own memory. Even the dead man "remembers" via his medium. Each story is told with conviction--and as spectators, we (the audience of the film) are led to believe each story as it is told.

But, as the commoner says, it is difficult to understand which story is accurate: "The more I listen, the more mixed up I get."

In this film, Kurosawa is saying that each person has a unique perspective on the world, that every person's memory reconstructs past events by filtering them through that unique perspective. Hence, memories of the same event may differ substantially. Kurosawa is also saying that humans desire to maintain their integrity and dignity (even the bandit has his code), and that each person's memory is shaped by that desire. Additionally, human frailty and deceit (especially in the wake of the chaos wrought upon moral values by physical and sexual violence) cause deliberate distortions of truth even among people who value honor. Much of the dialogue at the Rashomon Gate concerns truth, lying, honesty, responsibility, and faith in a world fraught with violence and misery. And the whole film is a demonstration of how people deconstruct and then reconstruct their past not so much to discover any objective truth as to preserve their own identity and integrity; consciousness and memory are tools in this endeavor.

Like Picasso, Kurosawa reveals multiple aspects of a single reality--in literal storytelling and in symbols clarified by camera work. The camera "sees" the SAME episode various times, via different physical and psychological angles. Kurosawa's camera constantly shifts perspective and thus helps us to understand the multifaceted, subjective nature of truth, and the relation between illusion (perceptions, reactions) and reality (facts). As Gerald Mast puts it (A Short History of the Movies, 1981): "The single concrete fact is that a man lies dead in the forest. But human beings need to assign a cause, to see a reason for a catastrophic fact, and the film becomes a search for this reason." As Parker Tyler puts it ("Rashomon as Modern Art"): "The woman claims to have killed her husband in an irresponsible fit of horror after the rape took place; her husband claims to have committed hara-kiri out of grief and humiliation; the bandit claims to have killed him in honorable combat; and the woodcutter confirms the bandit's story while picturing the conduct of all participants quite differently from the ways they respectively describe it."

Only the spectator (we in the film audience) can judge the reliability, objectivity, and integrity of all the witnesses; but because each seems believable and because no one cancels another out completely, we finally understand that judgment is irrelevant. No one is lying because all are telling their own truth. Each interpretation is different because each person is unique and cannot help being impelled to maintain a certain view of their own character. The samurai must maintain his sense of honor in the face of his wife's rape and his own humiliation; he sees himself as steadfast (his stillness and fixed stare figure in more than one version), precise, acutely sensitive, capable, and a fully responsible man of action. His wife--having been savaged, wounded, defiled, and stripped of her sense of purity, dignity, and control--is likely to anticipate and to fear her husband's rejection. She sees herself as a "poor helpless woman," terribly wronged, and doubly humiliated--first by Tajomaru the bandit (whom she portrays as a grotesque savage) and then by the husband she perceives as scorning her; and she avoids references to the sexual act itself. The priest, to reassure himself that his prayers have not been wasted, holds on to the belief that at least some people are good. Tajomaru, the bandit, hopes to preserve a sense of his own virility and manliness by remembering himself as a seducer rather than a rapist, a dueler rather than a murderer; his sense of pride is expressed in passion and movement--he does not see himself as cruel, callous, or savage. The woodcutter, to cover his own deception and to provide some defense against the poverty of his life, is inclined to see flaws in those of both higher class (the samurai and his wife) and lower class (the bandit); he depicts them all as weaker, sillier, and more cowardly and sniveling (or hysterical) than they depict themselves. The police agent is programmed to look for criminal acts and to think of himself as a hero, and his testimony is full of arrogance and pride. Even the commoner filters what he learns at the Gate, turning a cynical ear on everything he hears, perhaps to compensate for the disappointments of his own life. Each of the characters aims at retaining some vestige of self-respect. Each of the characters aims for some kind of redemption after the trauma of violence.

The commoner suggests that human beings tell lies because they are human: "They can't tell the truth, even to themselves." Each witness must salvage his or her own sense of reality in order to preserve honor and humanity. Still, we (the film audience) are not expected to render a formal verdict, even though we cinematically sit in the position of the unseen, unheard judge or magistrate at the inquest. Rather, Kurosawa asks us simply to wonder at the mystery of being in its most profound psychological and aesthetic sense, to value human consciousness (essence) and the enigma of existence itself, to explore the nature of "truth," and to care about life.

rashmn.gif (12130 bytes)QUESTIONS ON RASHOMON. When David Richie once asked Akira Kurosawa what the meaning of a scene was, Kurosawa said, "If I could have said it in words, I wouldn't have gone to the trouble and expense of making a film." Kurosawa might look with some amusement at our attempts to translate his film's meaning into words; a film in this respect is like a poem--it can never be translated into someone else's language. I agree, but I think Kurosawa would approve of our giving some thought to what he has done in this great film. Toshiro Mifune, who played major roles in Kurosawa's films (including the bandit in Rashomon), died December 1997.  LA Times film critic Kevin Thomas said in his obituary essay, "Mifune's characters were typically strong and highly disciplined, leading some  fans to brand him the Japanese John Wayne. . . .  Mifune was also 'always aware that he was representing Japan to the world,' especially in the years after World War II."  Akira Kurosawa died September 6, 1998; obituaries around the world lauded him with accolades.  Steven Spielberg called Kurosawa "the pictorial Shakespeare of our time," and Martin Scorsese said that "his influence on filmmakers throughout the entire world is so profound as to be almost incomparable. . . .  His passing is a unique loss--there is no one else like him."  (cited in E! Online News, site no longer navailable -- see the BFI site below for another obituary).  35,000 fans mourned Kurosawa at his memorial.

For a good print source, see Donald Richie. "Kurosawa's Camera and Style" in The Films of Akira Kurosawa (UC, 1965).

THEATRICAL ELEMENTS IN FILMS:
SETS, COSTUMES, MAKE-UP

The Production. Many elements go into film production. The Production Supervisor (AKA Production Coordinator, Production Manager, PM) is the one responsible for practical matters such as ordering equipment, getting near-location accommodations for the cast and crew, etc. Of particular interest to the PM is the production schedule, a detailed plan of the timing of activities associated with the making of a movie. A daily report of actual progress (including dope sheets, continuity reports, and call sheets, as well as extensive notes regarding on-set happenings, activities of the cast and crew, and explanations of unexpected events) helps the filmmaker make adjustments to stay on reasonable schedule and, if all goes well, on budget.

ART DIRECTION AND SET DESIGN. The Art Department is that section of a production's crew concerned with visual artistry and objects in the scene used by an actor, like phones, guns, cutlery, etc. (these objects are called "props"). A set (the environment used for filming) typically is not a complete or accurate replica of the environment as defined by the script, but is carefully constructed to make filming easier but still appear natural when viewed from the camera angle.  When used in contrast to location, "set" refers to an artificially constructed environment for filming.

The Production Designer is the artist responsible for designing the overall visual appearance of a movie. The Art Director, who reports to the Production Designer, oversees the artists and craftspeople who build the sets. The Production Designer and Art Director work in close collaboration with the film's Director, Cinematographer, and Costume Designer. The Set Director is the Art Director’s assistant in designing and constructing sets. Set decoration is the art of translating a production designer's vision of the movie's environment into a set which can be used for filming.

Individual positions within in the Art Department include the following:

Background Artist: This person is responsible for designing or constructing the art placed at the rear of a set.

Construction Coordinator (AKA Construction Foreman, Construction Manager): Through drawings, this person is directed artistically by the Production Designer and Art Director to produce their "vision" in three dimensions. Financial responsibilities of the Construction Coordinator include budgeting, tracking costs, generating reports, etc. The Construction Coordinator is also responsible for the physical integrity of the structures built by the construction department.

Draftsman: This person creates the plans for set construction.

Greensman: This crew member procures, places, and maintains plant life on a set.

Leadman: This supervisor of swing gangs reports to the Set Director.

Matte Artist: This person creates painting or other artwork (usually on glass, for the background of a shot) which is included in the movie either via a matte shot or optical printing.

Production Illustrator (AKA Storyboard Artist, Illustrator): The Production Illustrator is responsible for drawing the storyboards and anything else that needs to be drawn during the production of the movie.

Property Assistant (AKA Prop Assistant): This person is responsible for the placement and maintenance of props on a set.

Property Master (AKA Prop Master, Props, Property, Assistant Property Master): This person is responsible for buying and/or acquiring any props needed for a production and seeing that they are ready when shooting begins.

Set Dresser: Reporting to the Set Decorator, this person has total charge of decorating the set and placing elements such as furnishings, drapery, interior plants, and anything seen on indoor sets or on the walls.

Special Effects Supervisor: This person works in a variety of capacities, but in relation to the Art Department, coordinates special effects with the other visual elements to achieve a particular "look" for the filmmaker

Standby Painter: This is the scenic artist available during filming for last minute changes

Swing Gang: This is a name used for the "carpenters," the people who construct and take down a set.

Title Designer: This person creates the look of the titles sequence of the film—in consort with the Production Designer—to produce the "look" of the film from the very first images onscreen. Title design is considered an art form, and Saul Bass is considered a master title designer.

Achievement in Art Direction
(Click here for a selected list of films winning awards for art direction and set design.)

COSTUME DESIGN

The Wardrobe Department is that section of a production's crew concerned with costumes. The Costume Designer designs and selects what the movie performers will wear. Those responsible for making, altering, and handling the costumes worn by actors are given job titles such as Costume Maker, Seamstress, Wardrobe Supervisor, Assistant Wardrobe, Wardrobe Assistant. 

Costumes have been an integral part of theater for thousands of years. Both the principles of selection and the modes of acquisition and production of clothing for performers are time-tested. Because film allows more costume changes and because the camera permits costuming tricks that would be dangerous in the live setting, more options and more complexity are afforded the Costume Designer. Historical dramas and musicals or science-fiction films often require especially elaborate costumes, and usually vie for awards because of this complexity.  Since 1948, Academy Awards have been given for achievement in costume design.

Achievement in Costume Design
(Click here for a selected list of films winning awards for costume design.)

MAKEUP

The Make-up Designer makes sure that the performers’ face, hair, and skin "look" (in consort with their costumes) is right for the shots to be taken. Make-up is chosen according to the needs of the character and screenplay and according to the way the shot will be illuminated. The Make-up Artist places decorations or substances directly on the skin or hair of an actor for cosmetic or artistic effect; this includes attending to the performers’ hair and makeup so it does not change from shot to shot. (The Hair Stylist is sometimes given separate credit.) Some terms used in the Make-up Department follow:

body make-up: decorations and substances applied below the neck or above the wrists.

prosthetics make-up: requires gluing additions (prosthetic appliances) made of a material such as latex or gelatin to an actor’s skin. The one responsible for creating foam latex prosthetic appliances from a sculpture created by a make-up artist is sometimes called the Foam Technician (Foam Runner).

special make-up effects: artificial effects produced on the set (as opposed to special visual effects created in post-production), are used to create illusions in movies. The artist who has expertise in combining make-up with special effects is called the SFX, Special Effects Assistant, or Special Effects Technician.

squibs: specific special make-up effects using small explosive devices to simulate (when detonated) the effect of a bullet or puncture wound or small explosion. When worn by actors, they typically include a container of blood which bursts upon detonation.

Since the early 1980’s, make-up designers have regularly been recognized in credits and awards ceremonies, particularly for their work in horror and science-fiction films.

Achievement in Makeup
(Click here for a selected list of films winning awards for makeup design.)


Frida Kahlo
(Click here for more information about the artist, Frida Kahlo.  The image above comes from the last shot in the film.)

UNIT TWO:   Lesson 4: Editing |  Lesson 5: Sound |  Lesson 6: Acting | Lesson 7: Drama |
Video Locator | IMDb |

Created 18 October 1998.   Revised 5 March 2009.
Gloria Floren, Letters Department, MiraCosta College, One Barnard Drive, Oceanside, California 92056.
Contents Copyright 1998-2009 Gloria L. Floren. All rights reserved. U.S.A.
| MiraCosta College | CyberCosta Contact Page | Floren Home | Online Film Webhome |