Film Language 3

Display Schedule

Code	Completion	Credits	Range	Language Instruction	Semester
311FLG3	Z	2	2T	English	summer

Subject guarantor

Václav KADRNKA

Name of lecturer(s)

Václav KADRNKA

Learning outcomes of the course unit

The class is about competence and knowledge of basic film language and grammar, through analysis of material and screenings (also of students material.)

Mode of study

seminar

Prerequisites and co-requisites

Course contents

In my seminar I will focus solely on the context of contemporary auteur film (from the 1990s to the present) in relation to the director’s concept. I will often further develop the theme of the seminar in cooperation with the Cinergy Education Platform, where I led a masterclass in film personalities, whose works I presented at the seminar (Claire Denis, Tomasz Wasilewski, Agnes Godard and others).

My objective is to reveal to our students more practical and modern methods of conceiving the mise-en-scene, and thereby contribute to the development of their own director’s vision.

Not just what is it about but HOW is it about?

– the process of visualisation

– acting style – guiding actors in relation to composition and camera movement, the rhythm of dialogues in relation to the size of the shot, to camera movement, and to editing. Determining the style of acting.

Determining the acting style. Natural v. stylised. Rhythm, composition, verisimilitude, the here and now.

In my film it is not the actor but the actor’s image that performs. What is authentic screen acting? Should the actor play for the camera, or should the camera “simply” record the actor’s performance. Must my actors know the psychological portraits of their characters? Isn’t there a risk that they will present their assumptions of what the result should be? How authentic should the actor be in front of the camera? How can I assist my actors as director?

– sound concept – the director’s concept of the sound components should already be thought out at the literary script stage (sound style, sync sound versus post-sync; dialogues and sound effects, their interaction and rhythm; determining the foreground and middle ground)

Is it possible for me to replace the image with the sound element? Would this not be a way to involve the viewer’s imagination more? I first show my characters listening and only then do I show what they are listening to (Hou Hsiao Hsien, N.B. Ceylan, Kornél Mundruczo, Ivan Bunin).

shape and colour – determining the film’s basic colour scheme and shapes. Maintaining the totality.

Protecting the director’s vision from post-distribution subject-matter (director’s vision, pitching, materials about the film, logline, commentary, presskit)

role of the director/auteur in the present context of European production – developing a project, pitching, works in progress, script labs, presentation at film markets and forums, films festivals.

Assessment methods and criteria

Based on participation and results.

Note

Václav Kadrnka

Professional filmography

Full-length feature films

2011 Eighty Letters (premiere Berlinale 2011) – Director, co-screenwriter, producer

2017 Little Crusader (premiere International Film Festival Karlovy Vary 2017) – Director, co-screenwriter, producer

Projects in course of development:

2017 Saving One Who Was Dead (project supported by SFK, Springboard Finále Plzeň 2017, MIA Market Rome 2017, HAF Asia Financing Forum – Best International Project Award) - Director, story, screenwriter, producer

2017 All Calm in the Treetops – Director, story, co-screenwriter, producer.

Select awards

Eighty Letters

2011 Berlinale, world premiere in the Forum section

2011 The Golden Kingfisher Award, Finale Film Festival, Plzeň

2011 Silver Alexander, Special Jury Award, Thessaloniki IFF

2011 International FIPRESCI. prize, Thessaloniki IFF

2012 Czech Film Critics’ Prize

The Little Crusader

2013 New Cinema Network Prize, Rome

2017 Karlovy Vary IFF, main prize Crystal Globe

2018 Czech Film Critics’ Prize, Best Direction

2014 – Teacher at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague

Schedule for winter semester 2018/2019:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

	06:00–08:0008:00–10:0010:00–12:0012:00–14:0014:00–16:0016:00–18:0018:00–20:0020:00–22:0022:00–24:00
Mon
Tue
Wed	room 233 Room No. 4 (Lažanský palác) KADRNKA V. 09:50–12:15 (lecture parallel1)
Thu
Fri

Date	Day	Time	Tutor	Location	Notes	No. of paralel
	Wed	09:50–12:15	Václav KADRNKA	Room No. 4 Lažanský palác		lecture parallel1

The subject is a part of the following study plans

Cinema and Digital Media - Directing-1819 (optional subject)