TRUCAGE AND THE FILM

1. THE CONCEPT OF IMAGE TRACK

Image track = visual portion - not images alone but also written statements and
dialogues (title, production credits, intertitles, subtitles, "Twenty Years Later") & optical
effects obtained through manipulations – wipe/fade are not photographic material, i.e.
not images

Process-effects defined by divergence from "photographicity”

Mise en scène = cinematic quality contrasted to montage; all plastic elements of image,
both still (costumes, sets, lighting, etc.) and moving (blocking, composition)

Bela Balaizs: optical effects = direct intervention of the film maker into the narrative

First possible division inside “process effects”: some optical effects are obtained
during shooting = CAMERA MANIPULATION; some are produced in the laboratory =
CELLULOID MANIPULATION

2. TRUCAGES AND SYNTACTIC SIGNALS

Next distinction:

1. syntactic markings = “punctuation marks”;

2. trucages = backwards motion, accelerated motion, slow motion, split screen

Trucage =/= Special Effects: special effects are a technical, corporate concept, not
theoretical

3. TAXEMES AND EXPONENTS

(Semiological terms)
Remember: what defines all process-effects is divergence from
"photographicity”

TAXEME e.g. fade-out

optical effect that monopolizes the screen for an instant,
indivisible segment in the sequence > offers no photograph for
viewing
very noticeably outside the diegesis
fade-out = void on the screen, in a filmic universe normally so
full & dense > indicates strong separation b/w before and after

EXPONENT e.g. superimposition

spectator doesn’t see the optical effect only, but instead images
affected by a special effect; process is not a taxeme, but
exponent of one or more taxemes
 More examples: iris, wipe, special lenses, blurred focus,
backwards motion, accelerated or slow motion, freeze
 frame, dissolves, superimposition, overexposure, split screen

QUASI e.g. iris (irising in or out)

TAXEMES Exponential: part of the image which remains visible to the end;
exponent = black halo which closes on that which we continue to
see
Taxeme: the invading black, in itself soliciting attention; related to
the fade-out
Transition itself is an autonomous segment by virtue of the
extradiegetic material used (e.g. wipe, white strip sweeps across
the screen – other wipes are purely exponential)

4. PROFILMIC TRUCAGES & CINEMATOGRAPHIC TRUCAGES

Remember: Profilmic = everything placed in front of the camera for the

camera to "take."

PRO-FILMIC something has been “tricked” before shooting

TRUCAGE e.g. stunt men, "disappearing trick" (interrupting the shooting
while actor leaves the set)
(in contrast to older, “theatrical” machinations: trapdoor,
reflections in mirror played by doubles)

CINEMATOGRAPHIC belong to the filming, not the filmed

TRUCAGE produced during or after shooting, never before
 During shooting: camera trucages
 After shooting: track trucages produced in laboratory
e.g. "blurred focus”;
optical effects with “syntactic value” – NEVER PROFILMIC:
totally black screen, dissolve, irising, wipes, swish pan, etc. –
all cinematographic processes that entail camera work or
treatment of the celluloid*

* Syntactic markings = enunciation markings which belong to the narrative, not the
story; the telling process, not the told. And yet they are brought into play, at least in part,
for the benefit of the diegesis.

Distinction between profilmic & cinematographic trucage belongs to the making of the
film, as opposed to

5. IMPERCEPTIBLE TRUCAGES, INVISIBLE TRUCAGES, VISIBLE TRUCAGES

This distinction has to do with film "reading."

IMPERCEPTIB not meant to be noticed by spectator

LE
e.g. use of a stunt man, actor wearing special shoes to seem taller,
multiple horses portraying just one

INVISIBLE convincing trucages, impossible to localize, but perceptible:

 their existence is beyond doubt
we do not see it, but we “sense”/perceive it
e.g. invisible man

VISIBLE meant to be discernible (accelerated motion, slow motion, etc.).

e.g. punctuation marks

6. TRUCAGE AS AVOWED MACHINATION

Trucage is a MACHINATION

Trucage is ALWAYS AVOWED (= declared, acknowledged, admitted):

 Invisible trucage is perceptible

 Imperceptible trucage is declared in the periphery of the film, in its publicity
(commentaries that emphasize the technical skill)

Duplicity of trucages: something hidden inside it (trucage bc it takes spectator by

surprise), but also flaunts itself 2 credit astonishing of the senses

º Visible trucage, invisible trucage, imperceptible trucage = 3 levels of balance

between this contradiction

7. TRUCAGE AS DIEGETIZATION PROCESS

Syntactic markings are NOT trucages because they are not machinations: they are
instead rhetorical instruments, clauses of speech.

BUT: Distinction between syntactic markings & trucages ISN’T ALWAYS CLEAR.

While the contrast is also often distinct, it isn’t always.

 “Special effects” usually refer to trucages and exclude rhetorical signals, even
though they fit the definition: they’re particular and localized, don’t merge with
the normal movement of the photograms, and are visual but not photographic
effects.

 E.g. “Ripple effect” could be seen as a syntactic signal of separation between

“before” and “after,” BUT also as trucage aimed at creating a dreamlike
atmosphere.

 Certain trucages only stopped being trucages through force of habit & progressive
stabilization of the codes (e.g. dissolve)

 Optical effects often hover between trucage & clause because they are not
photographs > they are never "realistic." > The entire visual material has not
been mistaken for the photographic, the diegetization has not been total >
Trucage then exists only when there is deceit.

8. TRUCAGE AND RHETORICAL MARKINGS (RETURN): THE FLUIDITY OF

BOUNDARIES
It is the absence of machination which defines, in the face of trucage, the pure signal of
transition. But it is rare for a signal of transition to be pure, without it involving a
beginning (or an end) of trucage.

The most captivating of fantasy films, the most amusing of burlesque films, offer us
trucages which always remain more or less perceived as instruments of discourse, for
that is in fact of what those genres are comprised.

9. THE DENIAL OF PERCEPTION AT THE CINEMA

The person viewing the film is in Freudian terms not only the conscious I, but the entire
person.

Logical thought constantly “de-diegetisizes” optical processes: it knows that the girl
in The Ballad of a Soldier is not on the train; but at the same time another thought,
more closely connected to primary processes & the pleasure principle, is not informed
of what the I knows > it constantly diegetisizes that which the clear consciousness
grammaticizes at the same time

10. FROM CINEMA TRUCAGE TO CINEMA AS TRUCAGE