Title:

 Frame,  Window  and  Mirror  

 
Target:   Advanced   students   of   film-­‐aesthetics   who   are   willing   to   move  
beyond  the  communication-­‐design-­‐entertainment  paradigm.  
 
Overview:    
The  three  metaphors  of  Frame,  Window  and  Mirror  underlie  the  central  
discourses  of  modern  film  theory  and  practice.    
 
The   metaphor   of   a   Frame   comes   from   modern   painting   and   is   central   to  
formalist  theories  that  are  concerned  with  signification.  
Epistemology:   Eisenstein   (Dialectics,   Cubism),   Balaz   (Formalism),   Mitry    
(Semiotics).  
Technique:  Constructivism,  Montage,  Mise-­‐en-­‐shot.    
 
The  metaphor  of  Window  underlies  realist  film  theories,  which  stresses  
the   act   of   perception   in   conceptualizing   the   cinema   screen   as   a  
transparent  window  onto  the  world.  
Epistemology:   Bazin   (Mythic   Realism),   Kracauer   (Physical   Realism),  
Zavattini(Neo  Realism).  
Technique:  Mise-­‐en-­‐scene,  Plan  Sequence,  Deep-­‐  Focus  
 
The   metaphor   of   a   Mirror   is   central   to   psychoanalytic   film   theory   that  
designates  the  projected  texts  as  specular.    
Epistemology:  Lacan  (Mirror  Stage),  Metz  (Imaginary  Signifier),  Schrader  
(Transcendental  Realism).  
Technique:     Mise-­‐en-­‐abyme,   Picaresque-­‐Hyperlinking,   Eclecticism.   (123  
words)  
 
Objectives:  
•  Elucidation   of   the   epistemologies   of   the   central   formal   polemics   of  
cinema.  
•  Harnessing   of   the   associated   formal   possibilities   and   their  
techniques   like   Montage   Constructions,   Mise-­‐en-­‐scene,   Plan-­‐
Sequence/Long  Take,  Mise-­‐en-­‐abyme  etc.  
•  In   the   process,   appreciating   the   inseparability   of   Theory   and  
Practice  in  cinema.  
•  Envisaging  the  future  potentials  of  the  medium.  
   
Methodology:  
To   remain   true   to   the   tactile   nature   of   the   media   the   workshop   will  
follow   the   Methodology   of   PRAXIS   around   certain   pivotal   techno-­‐
aesthetic  aspects  like  cinematography,  audiography,  editing  etc.  through  
 
• Classroom  lecture-­‐demonstrations  
• Screening  and  analysis  of  selected  portions  and  whole  film  
• Hands-­‐on  technical  lessons  
• Making  of  film  texts  and  sequences