'Total realism'? On depth of focus and field in cinematography, mise-en-scène, and sound design

Short documentary on the work of cinematographer Gregg Toland, one of the greatest Directors of Photography of all time. Also, read his article for the September 1941 issue of Theater Arts magazine The Motion Picture Cameraman.

Film Studies For Free was so inspired by Jim Emerson's excellent essay 'Avatar, the French New Wave and the morality of deep-focus (in 3-D)' at his blog Scanners, that it decided to speed up production and publication of its long-in-preparation list of links to openly-accessible scholarly material of note on cinematographic depth of field, focus, and related matters of sound design and staging. Thanks Jim!

Readers might also like to (re)visit FSFF's posts on 3D Studies, phenomenological film studies, film music and sound, Orson Welles  and Avatar.

• Richard Abel, 'Collapsing Columns: Mise-en-scene in Boudu', from Jump Cut, no. 5, 1975, pp. 20-22

• Michael J. Anderson, 'The Mortal Storm: 1940 and After', Senses of Cinema, Issue 52, 2009

• Fran Apprich, 'Born into Sound', quest, Issue 2, Autumn 2006

• Terri Meyer Boake, 'Architecture And Film: Experiential Realities And Dystopic Futures', Architecture and Film, University of Waterloo

• David Bordwell, 'Do filmmakers deserve the last word?', Observations on Film Art, October 10, 2007

• David Bordwell, 'Widescreen Aesthetics and Mise-en-Scène Criticism', The Velvet Light Trap no. 21 (Summer 1985):118–25

• David Bordwell, 'La Nouvelle Mission de Feuillade; or, What Was Mise-en-Scène?', The Velvet Light Trap no. 37 (Spring 1996): 10–29

• Stephen Boyd Davis, 'Interacting with pictures: film, narrative and interaction', Digital Creativity 2002, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 71–82

• Carlos Calderon, Karl Nyman and Nicholas Worley, 'The Architectural Cinematographer: creating architectural experiences in 3D real-time environments', International Journal of Architectural Computing, 2006

• Ian Conrich and Estella Tincknell, 'Film Purity, the Neo-Bazinian Ideal, and Humanism in Dogma 95', P:O.V. No.10, 2005

• Sarah Cooper, 'Montage, Militancy, Metaphysics: Chris Marker and André Bazin', Image [&] Narrative, 2010

• Clementine Douglas Cummer, 'Seeing Things, Making Sense of Life', BFA Thesis, Fibers, Massachusetts College of Arts, 1999

• Jessica Durgan, 'Framing Heritage: The Role of Cinematography in Pride & Prejudice', Persuasions On-Line, V.27, No.2 (Summer 2007)

• Jim Emerson, 'Avatar, the French New Wave and the morality of deep-focus (in 3-D)', Scanners, February 10, 2010

• Kevin L. Ferguson, 'Covering the Cinema: On Wallpaper in Some Films', Bright Lights Film Journal, Issue 58, November 2007

• Rosalind Galt, “It’s so cold in Alaska”: Evoking Exploration Between Bazin and The Forbidden Quest', Discourse, 28.1, (Winter, 2006), pp. 53–71

• Peder Grøngaard , 'Hitchcock's cinematic style: a study of Marion Crane's metaphorical journey into darkness', P:O.V. No.4, 1997

• Lennard Højbjerg, 'Some Aspects of Style and Space', P:O.V. No.4, 1997

• Bruce Isaacs, 'The Cinematic Real: Aesthetics and Spectacle', Sydney Studies in English, 2007

• Bruce Isaacs, 'Film Cool: Towards a New Film Aesthetic', PhD Thesis, University of Sydney, 2006

• Søren Kolstrup, 'Camera Movement and Narration: The camera as narrator in the documentaries of Lars Engels', P:O.V. No.4, 1997

• Mark Le Fanu, 'Metaphysics of the "long take": some post-Bazinian reflections', P:O.V. No.4 - On camera movement and filmic space, 1997

• Julia Lesage, 'Blue collar filmography' from Jump Cut, no. 2, 1974, pp. 15-17

• Daniel T. Levin, 'Perceiving Stability in a Changing World: Combining Shots and Integrating Views in Motion Pictures and the Real World', Media Psychology, 2, 2000

• Jonathan McAlmont, 'Cinematic Vocabulary – Opening Scene of Touch of Evil (1958)',Ruthless Culture, March 9, 2009

• Lars Morell, 'Installations in Space and Architectonic Scenery', P:O.V. No.4, 1997

• Tim Palmer, 'Style and Sensation in the Contemporary French Cinema of the Body', Journal of Film and Video 58.3 / Fall 2006

• Stephen Prince, 'The Emergence of Filmic Artifacts: Cinema and Cinematography in the Digital Era', Film Quarterly, Vol. no. 57, Issue no. 3, pages 24-33

• Richard Raskin, 'Camera Movement in Wings of Desire', P:O.V. No.4, 1997

• Michael C. Riedlinger, 'Orson Welles – Painter', Senses of Cinema, Issue 53, 2009

• Jacques Rivette, 'On abjection', Order of the Exile/Jacques-Rivette.com, Originally appeared in Cahiers du cinema 120 (June 1961): p. 54-55. Translated by David Phelps with the assistance of Jeremi Szaniawski

• Henry M. Taylor, 'Frames, Cons, and Double-Crosses The Theatrical Cinema of David Mamet', Cinetext, July 2009

• Peter Thomas, 'Anywhere But the Home: The Promiscuous Afterlife of Super 8', M/C Journal, Vol. 12, No. 3 (2009)

• Ben Turner, 'Acoustic Ambience in Cinematography: An Exploration of the Descriptive and Emotive Impact of the Aural Environment', Dissertaton for Masters of Music in Composition, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, September 2005

• Billy Budd Vermillion, 'The "Wondrous Truth" of Microcosmos', 16:9, Vol. 5, No. 21, 2007

• Daniel Yacavone, 'Jean-Luc Godard and Roy Lichtenstein: Originality, Reflexivity, and the Re-Presented Image', Forum, Issue 1, Autumn 2005

Follow-Friday Links Round Up

Image from Frederick Wiseman’s La danse - Le ballet de l'Opéra de Paris (2009)

For those of you not (yet) following Film Studies For Free on Twitter here's a meaty round up of FSFF's (aka @filmstudiesff) recent top tweeted recommendations of online and openly accessible film and media studies resources of note. They are listed mainly in reverse chronological order, so there are as many must-read recommendations at the foot of the list as there are at the top.

For Twitter aficionados, FSFF's 'Follow-Friday' recommendations are given in (@) brackets throughout:

• Two excellent and must-read items from David Bordwell:
  
  
  • 'Another Shaw Production: Anamorphic Adventures in Hong Kong'
  • The hilarious and informative blogpost on bedposts and cinematic phalluses...
    

• Scorsese, Schoonmaker, and Toback talk to Aaron Hillis at GreenCineDaily about THE RED SHOES restoration (@GreenCineDaily) 
  

• At Film International, read Robert Leeming on Joseph Losey:  (thanks to @theauteursdaily)
  

• Must-read: Hito Steyerl on the 'Poor Image' (and 'swarm circulation, digital dispersion, fractured and flexible temporalities') (thanks to @theauteursdaily)
  

• Compelling essay by Aaron Bady (@zunguzungu) at The Valve: 'Tarantino is an Inglourious Basterd'

• Excellent Guardian article by Peter Bradshaw (@guardianfilm and @peterbradshaw1) on 'What Michael Haneke owes to Kafka' 

• Fabulous piece on the essay film's jostling of cinematic pieties by Andrew Tracy for Moving Image Source (thanks to @theauteursdaily)
  

• Dan North (@drnorth) on the decline and fall of Tarzan  

• At Indian Auteur, a really good interview with Atsushi Funahashi (Deep in the Valley)  (Thanks to @niteshrohit) 
  

• Luke McKernan at The Bioscope on recovering obscure histories, e.g., that of British silent era screenwriter Mary Murillo (thanks to @theauteursdaily)

• Check out Ron Reed's fascinating post on the Coens' A Serious Man: 'Questions For Further Study' @ Filmwell  (@filmwell)

• The Open Culture blog had a good round of websites where you can watch Free Movies Online

• See Ryland Walker Knight's wonderful work transforming Michael Bay's images: "Bay Area: A Flare for "Transformers"
  

• See Matthew Flanagan's great review of "La danse - Le ballet de l'Opéra de Paris" (Frederick Wiseman)  (thanks to @theauteurs) 

• A must-read: Henry Jenkins on' Strange Overtures: Vodaphone, Tchaikovsky, Ernie Kovacs and the "Wowness" of New Media  (thanks to @henryjenkins)  
  

• A last post (sob) Mystery Man on Film's old blog: [HIS] 101 BEST ARTICLES! - Lots of great educational stuff, especially on screenwriting. (thanks to @MMonFilm)
  

• Great post at The Bourne Cinema Conspiracy on 'The Best Korean and Japanese Films of the 2000s' 
  

• Excellent essay by Ernest Mathijs, 'Threat or Treat: Film, Television, and the Ritual of Halloween' at Flow TV (thanks to @flowTV)

• Truly great stuff, as always, from Michael J Anderson: "Being Above/Being Within: A Taxonomy of the 360° Panorama" (thanks to @theauteursdaily 

• The ever excellent Michael Guillén at The Evening Class on LOS SANTOS SUCIOS/THE DIRTY SAINTS (2009) - great Q&A with Luis Ortega (@MichaelGuillen)

• David Cairns (@dcairns)  is brilliant on THE HAUNTING 'Halloween Film Club: Sick Building Syndrome' at his Shadowplay blog 

• Chris Cagle's done it again - a great overview, this time, of film history textbooks (thanks to @theauteursdaily). It's a companion piece to his extremely useful review-overview of introductory textbooks.
  

•  'Kuxa Kanema: Mozambican film … and Godard' from Damon Smith's brilliant The Hands of Bresson blog
  

• Jonathan Rosenbaum compellingly asks the big Bazinian question 'What is cinema?' in his essay 'Goodbye Cinema, Hello Cinephilia'

• A Must-read: Srikanth Srinivasan (@justanotheruser) brilliantly posted about Roman Polanski's second feature REPULSION (1965) 
  

• And last but certainly not least, read Film Editor Jo Ann Kaplan on 8 "magic" cuts (with clips) at the great website APEngine (@APEngine)